GASTRO GRIFTER | 

Theatrical conman fakes heart attacks in 20 restaurants to avoid paying bill

“He pretended to faint and slumped himself down on the floor.”

Today at 15:03

A European conman has been going around restaurants in Spain, eating large meals and then faking heart attacks to avoid paying the bill.

The man known as Aidas J., a Lithuanian who lives on the Mediterranean, scammed 20 restaurants in Alicante before he was jailed last month.

Spanish press have dubbed the bald grifter as ‘Gastrojeta.’

During his performances, he would reportedly fall to the floor and clutch his chest in pretend agony.

‘It was very theatrical, he pretended to faint and slumped himself down on the floor,’ the manager of El Buen Comer, one of the eateries the conman scammed, told reporters.

“We sent his photo around to all the restaurants to try and stop him from striking again,” he added.

Aidas would demand medical attention for his fake heart problems and was only found out when he tried his routine twice in the same restaurant.

El Periodico newspaper reported: “The last arrest of the Lithuanian diner was made in Alicante. The National Police was alerted around 6pm to appear at a restaurant on Calle Mayor where a customer did not want to pay the bill.

“When agents from the Response Operational Group (GOR) of the Central District Police Station arrived, they found the diner lying on the table, then the ground, as he usually does to simulate an illness with the aim of being evacuated by ambulance.”

It was further reported that the Lithuanian swindler would order large amounts of whiskey, lobster and salad before his act began.

The only periods in which Alicante hoteliers have been able to work calmly without the threat of the “gastrojeta” have been when he was sent to prison previously in February and June, Spanish media reported.

It has been further reported that Aidas J ran up bills amounting to €766 and would wear designer clothes to give off the impression of being rich.

Moses Doméneche of El Buen Comer restaurant further explained that before his arrest, the conman ordered “seafood paella for one” and a whiskey, “which he drank in one gulp,” before repeating the order.

The Policia Nacionale officers who have been arresting the Lithuanian stated that he “always smiles” when he was being busted and that they suspected he was always happy to spend a few nights in the prison cells.