A 78-year-old woman and her daughter were arrested after a local restaurant claimed they didn't pay for their bill.
Winter Haven police said Willie Nell Lewis and her daughter, Ruththena Lewis, racked up a bill at A&G restaurant and didn’t pay for it.
The charges were enough to spark a protest on Wednesday morning outside the restaurant. Protestors belonging to Lewis' church held up signs asking people not to eat at the restaurant because they had the elderly woman arrested.
According to arrest reports, the women left behind an unpaid bill of less than $20.
“I just didn’t understand why it had to go to all of this,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she’s hoping the protests send a message to the community that she’s not a criminal.
“I felt kind of bad about it because we have lived here for years and we would never go into anybody’s restaurant and eat and come out and don’t pay,” she said.
Restaurant employees tell a different story. They said Lewis’ daughter didn’t fork over the cash for their meal.
“It’s not like we didn’t ask the lady to pay," said A&G waitress Natasha Anthony. "We followed her out the door to get her to pay and she wouldn’t pay. So the law is the law. The law took her to jail, we didn’t.”
Police reports say restaurant staff ran a credit card belonging to Lewis’ daughter, who then told a waitress if she ran it again she would, “Go to hell.”
Joseph Lewis, a bishop at their church and a regular at the restaurant, said he stepped in and paid the bill for the women. By then, they were already in handcuffs.
“I left work and came up and asked them how much the bill was," he said. "I paid the bill and I left a tip and they said they would not press charges because the bill was paid.”
Reports show the owner is going forward with the charges.
The protesters said they’re hoping their presence will persuade the restaurant owner to drop the charges against the women. If not, they plan on coming back out again with hundreds more people to hopefully change their minds.
Representatives from the state attorney’s office said the women are charged with a second-degree misdemeanor, and since neither of them have a criminal record, they will most likely only face a fine.