Usually when things go down hill at the Blue Mountain Resort it involves skis or snowboards.
This spectacular flameout, however, features a baby stroller and some ‘parents’ who not only lost their cool in the village but also on restaurant staff.
A video captured near the exit of the resort’s retail and restaurant area in the village on Jozo Weider Blvd. – recorded on the evening of Sept. 15 – shows a confrontation between an unidentified man and waiter over a nearly “$350 dinner cheque” that was allegedly not paid.
“I’ll f—ing knock you the f— out,” a stocky man wearing sunglasses shouts at a much larger male waiter. “You don’t own me. You don’t know me. And you don’t know what I can do. Get the f— away from me.”
The waiter in the video, Robbie Martin, who didn’t serve the table, kept his cool and said he was merely trying to remind the people they had not paid their bill.
“There were six people at the table – three adults and three kids,” he told the Toronto Sun on Thursday. “They ordered meals for everyone and drinks.”
The Sun has not verified the claim that the bill was unpaid.
The situation allegedly escalated as the group left the restaurant after dinner.
The video shows a woman with a phone trying to talk to the man, using the name “Will,” and there was stroller about six metres away.
What unfolds is a shocking, profanity-laced tirade that was posted on social media by popular presenter TizzyEnt, who regularly posts videos of people engaged in bad, concerning, racist and illegal behaviour with a view to learning their identities.
TizzyEnt, on his platforms, subsequently updated his original information with photos of the couple and what he believes are their first names.
The Sun has not been able to verify this information so far but offers them the opportunity to tell their side of the story.
TizzyEnt tells the Sun, “I had people reach out their info, found their socials” and the “victims confirmed the pictures were them and have turned it over to the police.”
The Blue Mountain Village Association said the incident began at Magnone’s Italian Kitchen – one of the two dozen amazing restaurants in the village.
“I can confirm that the incident was reported to the Collingwood and The Blue Mountains OPP and is being investigated,” OPP Const. Martin Hachey said.
There is lots to investigate. This was one nasty exchange.
The video shows the man approaching waiter and getting into his space.
“Do not threaten me sir,” Martin says.
The man chuckled and asks, “What are you doing?”
“You are coming at me,” said Martin, who told the Sun he put his arm up in a defensive position because before the tape was rolling he was allegedly “bumped in the chest” and told he would be “punched in the face.”
When the man in question said, “You are following me,” Martin responded by saying, “You are breaking the law.”
“You are a b—-. That’s what you are. F— you,” the man snaps back.
The waiter said, “That’s awesome. You are not going to pay your f—ing bill now?”
At that point, the man retreats, walks to the stroller and, with the woman strolling along beside him, pushes it toward the parking lot.
The last exchange was between the woman with the man and an unidentified woman off-camera saying they had both recorded vieo of the incident.Soon after they were gone.
Martin said he plans to lay a criminal complaint with the OPP on what he alleges happened to him.
While people have been purportedly identified on social media, the OPP have not indicated they have any suspects and say there are “no further updates” at this time.
Patti Kendall, president of the Blue Mountain Village Association, said this “unfortunate isolated incident” is rare and they have security for such issues and “cameras everywhere.”
The waiter did a good job keeping his cool but it’s not lost on anyone the potential danger he faced. Alleged dine-and-dash incidents can end in injury or death.
Ontario saw that in Owen Sound last year when, as the Sun’s Brad Hunter reported, popular Sharif Rahman, 44, owner of The Curry House, died a week after an alleged attack that is said to have resulted over a dispute of an unpaid dinner bill Aug. 17, 2023.
No unpaid meal is worth dying over. A year later, police made arrests.
It’s still early in the Blue Mountain probe, where thankfully no one was hurt. But the potential was there in what was a slippery slope scenario months before the ski runs even open.