First, always Russian salad. Washed down with whiskey. For the main course, a good hearty and expensive dish, such as entrecôte or rice with lobster. And more whiskey. And for dessert, wait with one or two glasses of whiskey, preferably White Label, for the police to arrive, because you don’t plan to pay for the drink. This is the method usually followed by Aidas J., a Lithuanian citizen living in Alicante, who has been arrested 20 times for the same reason since the end of 2022 and is known as the gastrojeta. The last arrest took place this week, for a bill of 34.85 euros corresponding to a seafood paella for one and two drinks, one of them double, in a restaurant on Calle Mayor, a common destination for tourists. And, despite the fact that until now he avoided fines from the courts, for minor crimes of fraud, his repeated contempt before the courts has cost him his imprisonment, according to what sources familiar with the case have told EL PAÍS. Today he has passed through three benches consecutively, those of investigative courts 9, 4 and 5. The owner of the latter has put him behind bars for reiteration of a minor crime.
Aidas J. looks good, nothing suspicious, as Efe announced yesterday. He seems like a typical Russian tourist who doesn’t speak Spanish, although agents who have dealt with him believe he understands it. He is nice and kind. He dresses well, “even with designer clothing,” reports the National Police. His uniform consists of long gray pants, sneakers, trekking and a vest. There is nothing to suspect that he cannot take care of the accounts of the establishments that serve him, which throughout his history have fluctuated between more than 30 and 70 euros. She enters restaurants, mixes several languages and gestures to order dishes from the menu and then drops the bomb. She’s not going to pay. On one occasion she faked fainting, the sources consulted recall. He “lay down on the ground, acted as if his chest hurt and began to shake”, received medical attention and was admitted to a hospital. “The second time he tried it, we told him not to do it again,” they point out. He is obedient and never gives problems to the agents who come to arrest him, not even when he has gotten out of hand with the whiskeys. “He smiles, he remains calm, he sees himself unpunished,” they comment. So, effectively, he didn’t do it again until yesterday, when the owners of El Buen Comer, his last victims, tried to make him pay. But while Aidas sat on the floor, Moisés Doménech, owner of the establishment, called the Police.
The twentieth arrest, “eight during the last months of 2022 and 12 so far in 2023,” sources specify, may become the end of their ruse. First, because he was imprisoned after going to several courts, where he went as soon as he was arrested because he had no known address nor were there any known relatives who could vouch for him. As these are minor crimes, only small fines are imposed “which he never pays.” He also does not attend court summons. He spends the night in the dungeon and leaves. Until today. But once he is no longer obliged to submit to the menus served by penitentiary institutions, in which he will predictably only be able to drink water, he will not have it easy either. Doménech told Efe that he has taken several photos of the unwanted diner and that he has passed them on to his colleagues from the Provincial Hospitality Association (Apeha), so that they keep him in mind. He will have to vary his route, always between restaurants in the historic center and the vicinity of the port of Alicante. “Once we caught him on the beach of San Juan”, an area located almost 9 kilometers away, but belonging to the municipal area, recalls the police. And he also tried to leave without paying from a hut at the local festivals, the Bonfires. Always without complexes. Without getting upset. And with several whiskeys on top.
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