Tourist jailed after forgetting wallet at posh New York steakhouse

An Italian tourist spent a night in jail after dining at a posh steakhouse in New York and forgetting his wallet to pay the $208 (£130) bill.

NYDailyNews.com reports that Graziano Graziussi, a 43-year-old lawyer from Naples, offered to leave his iPhone with the restaurant while he fetched his wallet, but management at Smith and Wollensky had him arrested and charged with theft.

According to Fox News, Graziussi said he begged workers to let him get the money from the apartment where he was staying, but they were unsympathetic.

'I found it completely unreasonable to call the police when I was coming up with possible solutions,' he told The New York Post.

'I wasn't going to run away. I was there, I had just forgotten my wallet.'

Graziussi is a regular at the steakhouse and was just 24 hours into his two-week stay in New York, when the incident occurred.

When the police arrived, they asked him if he could have someone deliver the wallet or recite his credit card number but he could not, so he was taken into custody.

He was released the next morning on the condition he paid up.

'I don't think they should have arrested me in the first place,' he said. 'I wanted to pay the check.'

A manager at the restaurant said it is standard practice to call the police when a customer cannot pay.

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