MADRID (AP) — They booked banquets for hundreds of guests. They ate, drank, danced and even set off fireworks. But when desserts arrived, they drove away in the blink of an eye, leaving behind unpaid bills amounting to thousands of euros. 
 
 A trail of similar recent incidents in various restaurants in northwestern Spain is being investigated by police, who have detained one man from Romania whose identity matches some of the bookings, authorities said on Tuesday. 
 
 "We had just served the cake and they left just like that, without insults, without being rude to us. They got in their cars and sped out," said Antonio Rodriguez, who was the first restaurateur to alert authorities after staff in his Carmen Hotel found themselves with an unpaid bill of 2,200 euros ($2,300). 
 
 The reservation for Feb. 27 in Bembibre, a town in northwestern Castile and Leon region, was to celebrate the christening of two boys with appetizers, pork chops, dessert and alcohol for 120 guests, said Rodriguez. The cake was on its way when the guests left "in a stampede," he said. 
 
 A few days later, another establishment in Ponferrada, only 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) away, served food and alcohol in a wedding banquet for a value of around 10,000 euros ($10,600) — with the same outcome. 
 
 Rodriguez says that at least one other similar incident has emerged in the northern region of Galicia since he told his story to local media. When the banquet was almost finished, guests came out of the dining hall to set off fireworks but never returned. 
 
 The owner of Carmen, who says he has never seen anything similar in almost four decades in the business, had been paid a deposit of 900 euros, but he expresses little hope of recovering the remaining debt. 
 
 "What's really worse is that it feels like they are pouring cold water onto you, seeing them leaving and knowing that there's nothing that you can do because these were huge men with muscles," Rodriguez told The Associated Press. 
 
 A spokesman with the Interior Ministry in Leon, the province where the first two cases were reported, confirmed the arrest on Monday of a first suspect. 
 
 A second man who is on the run could have left the country already, according to a spokesman with the Civil Guard, and more suspects have been identified. But no further details would be released to avoid tipping the fraudsters off. 
 
 Both officials spoke anonymously in line with internal policy. ||||| The group had paid a €900 deposit at the El Carmen restaurant in Bembibre, in El Bierzo region in Castilla y Leon near the border with Galicia, but promised to settle the bill at the end of the meal. Instead, they all jumped up en masse and fled without paying the €2,000 balance. 
 
 Or rather, they snaked out of the restaurant dancing a conga and then jumped in their cars and sped away. 
 
 "It happened in the space of a minute," restaurant owner Antonio Rodriguez told El Pais. "It was something they’d planned." 
 
 It has now emerged that the same group, described by the restaurant owner as Roma from Romania, have a history of not paying their bill. 
 
 The same group of family and friends, dubbed the ‘kings of simpa’ – a diminutive of ‘sin pagar’ meaning without paying, are thought to be responsible for “doing a runner” earlier this year after celebrating a wedding banquet for a young couple at another restaurant in the region. 
 
 The owners of El Rincón de Pepín, a restaurant in nearby Ponferrada believes they fell victim to the same fraudsters in February when a group of 200 wedding guests “stampeded” out of the dining room just before the coffees were served. 
 
 “They had made a reservation for 100 but there was close to 200 people present,” one of the workers there told El Confidencial. “Just after eating their desserts when I was on my way to make coffee, they all upped and left.” 
 
 They left an outstanding bill of more than €10,000. 
 
 The restaurant claims to have tracked some of the culprits down after finding photographs of the occasion posted on Facebook and have lodged a complaint with the Guardia Civil who are investigating the incident. ||||| Image copyright El Rincon de Pepin Image caption The owner of El Rincon de Pepin said the mystery guests owed €10,000 
 
 Police are investigating whether a gang who ate thousands of euros of food in a restaurant in Spain before fleeing had targeted another eatery. 
 
 Last week, about 120 diners, who had consumed about 2,000 euros of food and drink, left a restaurant in northern Spain as dessert was due to be served. 
 
 It has now emerged a second restaurant only 10km (six miles) away was previously targeted in the same way. 
 
 The owners said they believed they were the victims of the same group. 
 
 In the first case, the group, purporting to be celebrating a baptism, paid a deposit of €900 ($950; £770) to eat at the El Carmen restaurant in Bembibre, in the north-western Castile and Leon region. 
 
 "It happened in the space of a minute," owner Antonio Rodriguez said. "It was something they had planned and they left in a stampede." 
 
 El Carmen's case felt more than a little familiar to Laura Arias, the owner of El Rincon de Pepin, a restaurant in nearby Ponferrada. 
 
 The group told her they were celebrating a wedding, she said, and ordered a fairly basic menu. They paid €1,000 as a deposit, but consumed €10,000 ($10,600; £8,600) worth of food and drink. 
 
 "There were 160 of them and they all disappeared. Suddenly. Within five minutes," Laura told the BBC. "That was the unusual thing. 
 
 "Usually people leave over time, and you expect someone to come to talk to you and say they will settle the bill the next morning or something. But they didn't say anything, they just disappeared." 
 
 The unusual crime has been reported to police, but Ms Arias is in no doubt who is responsible. 
 
 "It's the same people. We can tell from the photos." Reports in northern Spain quoted witnesses as saying the group was from eastern Europe. 
 
 On Monday, the Diario del Leon newspaper reported (in Spanish) that two ringleaders had been identified and that police were working to establish firm links between the two cases.
– All hail the new kings of the dine and dash. Authorities and restaurateurs in northwest Spain are on the lookout after a huge group of hungry people is suspected of skating out on massive bills around the region. One such incident happened Feb. 27 at the Carmen Hotel in Bembibre, where 120 diners were celebrating the christening of two boys, the AP reports. Owner Antonio Rodriguez says the diners racked up a $2,300 bill then left "in a stampede" before the cake showed up. According to the Local, the diners actually danced the conga out the door and to their cars. Rodriguez says it was like "something they'd planned," but there wasn't anything he could do "because these were huge men with muscles." Within days and a few miles of the Carmen Hotel incident, a wedding party of between 160 and 200 guests skipped out on a $10,600 bill at El Rincon de Pepin in Ponferrado. The guests reportedly went outside to set off celebratory fireworks after the meal but before coffee and never returned. "They didn't say anything," El Rincon de Pepin owner Laura Arias tells the BBC. "They just disappeared." It's believed the same group is responsible for both incidents, as well as a potential third. Authorities started investigating after restaurateurs claimed to have identified some of the dine-and-dashers through photos posted on Facebook. A man from Romania believed to be a ringleader has been arrested. (These dine-and-dashers allegedly hit their waitress with a car, too.)