Paying Attention

I'm sure this could have been lost among the daily doings of Pinellas criminal court. Chris worked it for all its potential. Read his story: This is a story about a guy who didn't see enough food in his seafood. He found the jumbo shrimp and bay scallops in his pasta dish to be a little, um, shrimpy.

Ralph Paul ate the seafood off the top of the pasta, then sent the dish back and asked the server to take it off his bill. When the restaurant didn't do that, he left without paying the $46 tab, which included an entree of mussels eaten by his girlfriend, coffee and dessert.

A worker at Angellino's Italian Restaurant in Palm Harbor got the tag number off his silver BMW convertible and called police.

Sheriff's deputies called Paul, a 54-year-old retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel from New Port Richey, and told him he had committed a crime by not paying his bill. He could be arrested. All Paul had to do was pay the 46 bucks.

Most people would have done that.

Not Paul.

He said he couldn't look himself in the mirror if he paid full price for such substandard fare.