Diners dash, crash into IHOP in Detroit

BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A dine-and-dash gone wrong ended up with a car in the IHOP Restaurant on East Jefferson in Detroit this morning.

And despite a couple of patrons in the dining room when the car crashed through, no one was injured, IHOP manager Raymond Jefferson said.

"I’ve have weird things happen but not of this magnitude," said Jefferson, who's managed the restaurant at 2701 E. Jefferson near Chene for three years. "I’ve been around for 10 years of fast food, but not somebody driving through a building."

Four diners in their early 20s and late teens ran from the restaurant just after 6 a.m. after not paying for their meals, Jefferson said. But their server chased them out the door, trying to stop them or at least get a license plate number.

But the car swerved around the corner of the restaurant, nearly hitting the server, and the driver lost control, Jefferson said.

"They tried to swerve around her -- they must have been going 60, 70 miles per hour," he said. "You wouldn’t believe how she (the driver) jumped this curb."

None of the people in the car or the server was injured. Detroit Police officers are still reviewing the incident and charges are pending, according to investigators.