The NYPD Is Looking for These Diners Who Dashed on a $645 Meal

Chinar on the Island is a high-dollar Russian restaurant in Staten Island that is apparently the place to go if you want to shout at your dining companions during a DJ set while you drop $150 for the "Super Deluxe Banquet" meal. It's also the place to go if you want to inhale foie gras, smoked duck, and deer meat before nonchalantly skipping out on your gigantic bill.

The NYPD is trying to identify the three women and one man who chowed down on $645 worth of food and drinks at Chinar on New Year's Eve, then left the restaurant without paying. According to CBS New York, the four of them were last seen getting into a silver SUV at 3:34 AM, an oddly specific detail released by the police department.

The NYPD has released surveillance footage of the group checking their coats as they arrived at the restaurant, which may be the weirdest aspect of the entire situation: if you're planning on pulling the ol' dine-and-dash, why would you hand your jackets over to the restaurant? That's a step that seems like it would slow them down—or increase their chances of getting busted—on their casual stroll toward the front door. (But what do I know? I'm a schmuck who has paid twice for the same Wendy's baked potato).

If you've never set foot on Staten Island but find that the footage of the restaurant looks familiar, it could be thanks to VH1's Mob Wives. Drita D'Avanzo and the late Angela "Big Ang" Raiola visited Chinar during an episode that aired last February. "Back in the day, it was a sick mob hangout," D'Avanzo said of the restaurant, which used to be a strip club called Scarlet's.

Anyway, Chinar on the Island hasn't updated its Facebook page since New Year's Eve, which is either a strange coincidence or because it needed that $645 to pay its social media director. If you recognize any of the four co-stars in that surveillance footage, the NYPD would greatly appreciate it if you would call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), fill out an anonymous form on the Crime Stoppers website, or send a text to 274637 (CRIMES), using the code TIP577.