Restaurants join forces to arrest couple accused of dine-and-dash incidents

Megan Wyatt | The Daily Advertiser

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Acadiana restaurateurs can breathe a sigh of relief now that two people accused of dining and dashing are behind bars.

Benjamin J. Carriere and Lorelei E. Lowery were arrested on theft charges Saturday at Walk-On's Bistreaux & Bar in Broussard.

The arrest wouldn't have been possible without the help of security footage posted to social media just three days prior.

Cody Broussard, general manager of Pizza Village on Kaliste Saloom, spearheaded the effort to find the couple after Carriere and Lowery allegedly left his restaurant without paying for more than $100 worth of appetizers and drinks.

Broussard asked his customers for help in identifying the couple in security footage images he posted to his restaurant's Facebook page.

He didn't expect the post to spark as much outrage as it did.

He had names, addresses, license plate information and more within the hour.

He shared the information with Lafayette police, who issued arrest warrants for the couple.

Broussard didn't just hear from customers who recognized the couple. He also heard from eight other restaurateurs.

Carriere and Lowery allegedly dined lavishly without paying the bill at Lafayette restaurants such as Don's, Deano's, Azteca's and El Potrillo.

"We had several other restaurants — all locally owned restaurants at that — reach out to us saying that they recognized the couple and that they had had the same thing happen at their restaurants," Broussard said. "They wanted us to find the people as much as we did. We all have to stick together with something like this because people like this is what hurts our business."

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On Saturday, a server at Walk-On's recognized the couple from the social media post, alerted management and called authorities.

Broussard police identified Carriere and Lowery as "the 'diner dashers' who were going around to different restaurants, eating and then leaving without paying," according to the arrest report.

They were arrested without incident and booked into the Lafayette jail.

"We just want to thank all of our loyal customers and anyone who share it or gave us information," Broussard said. "It gave us the upper hand in finding them. As a local community, we came together to put a stop to these people who are hurting locally owned businesses."