Teens run out on $400 restaurant bill but turn selves in after police post video on Instagram

DEARBORN, Mich (FOX 2) - Four teens who dined and dashed at a Dearborn restaurant turned themselves in after police used social media to look for them.

On Sunday the teens went to Red Sea Restaurant on Michigan Avenue.

"They got lobster tails, snow crab, shrimp, there were four," said Red Sea owner Suhail Mohammed. "They had a good amount of food."

But when they finished eating., no one at the table stayed around to pay the bill - which was about $400.00.

"They ran out so all of us we ran towards them but they were already in the car. I couldn’t get to them," said Liv, a server.

Dearborn police were called and arrived at the scene to investigate

But Liv who was serving the teens decided that in addition to a police investigation, something else might help locate the teens and their parents.

The restaurant gave its surveillance video of the teens dining and dashing to the police so it could be posted on the city of Dearborn’s Instagram site.

Red Sea owner Suhail Mohammed.

"Honestly if we had not done that we would have never found them," Liv said.

"Actually, in what I would say, 30 minutes the parents of the kids contacted the restaurant," said Mohammed. "They came here, apologized and they paid.

"They actually brought the kids and they made them apologize."

Despite the bill being nearly $400, the owner decided to give them a discount, knocking off half the price.

"They’re kids at the end and I looked at it like they're my kids doing that stuff," the owner said. "Me giving them that for 50% off on the bill, was just because they came back and stood up for the mistake that they did."

Moving forward this young entrepreneur hopes social media will be used to attract paying customers and not dine and dashers.

"Hopefully nothing happens again in here or other places cause it was really a bad situation for the place, and for the server," he said.