This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — A man made a long-awaited apology to a Salt Lake City business over something he did more than 70 years ago.

It all started when a woman came into the Lamb’s Grill on Main Street sometime between breakfast and lunch on April 1.

“This woman walks in the front door, and she looks like she’s on a mission,” said server Jasmine Back.

Back approached the woman, who then explained that her father had committed a crime there.

"She starts in and says, 'My father ... ' so my mind wanders and I think, 'What's going to happen next?' Next, she says, '(He) dined and dashed here in 1941," Back said.

The man was 10 years old at the time. Allegedly, he and his friend ate there and ran away when they realized they couldn’t pay the bill.

“It was a dollar,” Back said.

The woman then handed Back a $5 bill as an apology from the man who was still apparently racked with guilt from several decades ago.

“She tells me that he was actually so embarrassed about it that he waited in the car while she did the deed,” Back said.

The grill's current owner, Francis Liong, already has plans for the money.

“The five dollars don’t belong to me. It belongs to the previous owners, back then. So I need to pay it back,” Liong said.

Liong wants the man to know all is forgiven.

“I’d like to tell him to please come back and eat at Lamb’s Grill — but don’t dash out,” he said.

Back said this isn’t the first time random acts of kindness have happened at that restaurant. She said during one Christmas season, two people dressed as elves decided to pay for a random couple’s meal.

×

Photos