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Woman Says She Was Left With Huge Dinner Bill After Online Date Dines and Dashes

“It would take a truly great man to describe all your beauty. Luckily, I happen to know one.” That was the first email Diane Guilmette received from a man police identified as Paul Gonzales on the dating website Plenty of Fish in June. “Honestly, I didn’t really care for his profile. He seemed a little too manicured for me. Too tanned, eyebrows too tweezed and like someone that spends a lot of time at the gym,” the actress from L.A.’s Van Nuys neighborhood, tells Us Weekly. “But he seemed nice enough, so I figured I would give him a shot.”

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So on June 29, Guilmette met Gonzales for lunch at Morton’s the Steakhouse in downtown L.A. “He insisted that he would like to take me to a nice place,” claims the 39-year-old. “I was surprised that he would pick such a high-end restaurant, but I thought perhaps he was trying to impress me.”

Diane Guilmette
Diane Guilmette

Shortly after sitting down, Guilmette says, Gonzales ordered a shrimp caesar salad, steak, a baked potato with cheese and bacon, iced tea and a glass of wine. “He said it was because he was a bodybuilder,” Guilmette tells Us. Over the course of their hour-long meal, Gonzales showed off videos of his kids playing basketball and spoke highly of his ex-wife. And then Gonzales stepped outside to make a phone call. “He told me not to let the waitress take his plate,” alleges Guilmette. “He said he would finish it when he came back.”

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After 20 minutes passed, Guilmette, who never exchanged phone numbers with Gonzales, tried to message him through the dating app — only to discover that he had blocked her. When the $193 check arrived, Guilmette’s heart sank.

Diane Guilmette Paul Plenty of Fish dine and dash
Paul’s profile on Plenty of Fish.

“I was so humiliated and kept racking my brain to think what I could have done to make him leave like that,” says Guilmette. It turns out she wasn’t Gonzales’ only alleged victim. 

Later that night, Guilmette shared her experience on social media and other women began coming forward with their own dine-and-dash stories. According to CBS Los Angeles, which first reported on the story, police say Gonzales is also accused of failing to pay for a cut and color at a Burbank hair salon this past February. 

But Guilmette’s story has a happy ending. “I did not let this jerk scare me off,”  she tells Us. “I continued to use dating apps, and I’m happy to say I now have a boyfriend!”

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