Restaurant Owner Uses Judo Move to Nab No-Pay Diners

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Thom Pham calls it "instant karma." And now that the whole incident is over, it’s easier to appreciate the irony in it.

Last month two diners at Pham’s Minneapolis Temple restaurant spent almost five hours dining, ordering appetizers, three entrees, and expensive cocktails, running up a tab of $410. As the waiter left to get their desserts, the couple, who were seated at an outdoor patio table, got up and left, taking their cocktails with them, glasses and all.

Owner Pham said to reporters, "We work so hard. I was so mad. I was thinking, I hope to God I see these people again."

As karma would have it, he did – three hours later.

After Temple was closed for the evening, Pham arrived at Azia, an Asian-fusion restaurant in Minneapolis that he also owns.

He told reporters at the Minneapolis Star Tribune that as he entered Azia, he could see the same two diners seated outside at a patio table. Reginald Wilder, 43, and Lance Burrows, 20, were enjoying more drinks.

His first reaction was that his wish to see them had come true. "I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe my wishes are so powerful."

"I went out and told them to [stay seated]. They acted like, ‘we don’t know what you’re talking about.’"

After Pham told the waiter to call the police, the male diner said he would pay the tab if his "lady" friend was permitted to leave. Pham agreed. After Burrows left, Wilder said he didn’t have the money to pay the bill and needed to go home to get it. Pham refused, and Wilder got up and started running.

A former judo instructor, Pham chased after the man, and caught up to him in an alley. When Wilder put his hand into his pocket, Pham took him down with a judo move. "It was kind of scary because you don’t know what he has in there, it could be a knife or a gun," said Pham to reporters. "[But] you do what you have to do."

He held Wilder down with his foot on the man’s chest until police arrived. When officers arrived, they were able to also find Burrows, who was not in fact a lady, but a man dressed as a woman.

Both men have been charged in the incident. Burrows will appear in court on July 25. Wilder pleaded guilty and must now pay the total tab from both meals: $705.86. He also received a sentence of 17 months in prison, which was suspended, and must spend 150 days at a Hennepin County work house. However, he failed to appear at a July 2nd hearing, and is now wanted on an arrest warrant.

The waiter who served the couple at Temple told reporters that they seemed like a perfectly normal couple. "They were very nice people."

As for Pham, he feels that seeing the two again just proves that there is justice in the world. He told the press, "I call it ‘instant karma’."