A NIGHT of work turned harrowing for 20-year-old waitress Liahna Bertels when a group of rowdy diners dragged her into a lake, leaving her traumatized and struggling to swim back to shore.
Bertels, a single mother, had been serving the groups table when they decided to leave without paying.
The incident occurred on Friday at the Fish and Company restaurant in Camdenton, Missouri, after the group of seven left without paying their $150 bill.
Bertels thinks the group took off because they were upset about the long wait for their food and that because one of them couldn’t place a drink order due to not having any ID.
After their meal, the group got up and left in a hurry without paying.
Determined to hold them accountable, Bertels chased them down the restaurant’s front-facing dock to their lavish boat.
When she caught up with them and reminded them about the unpaid bill, which they were not happy about.
Bertels says this when things escalated as someone ion the group grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the lake as the boat started to leave the dock.
“When I hit the water they decided to start laughing and cheering which really hurt,” the young waitress recounted to local NBC affiliate KYTV-TV.
“And I was just crying and bawling in the water and I didn’t know what to do,” she said of the traumatic experience.
It took Bertels over ten minutes to swim back to shore, during which she describes feeling frightened and humiliated.
Surveillance footage captured the group leaving the restaurant, some of them dancing as they walk away.
A short time later, Bertels is seen rushing to catch up with them as they board the boat.
The actual moment of her being dragged into the lake was not caught on camera as they were too far away by then.
The Camden County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating the incident.
A man identified in a photograph that police releases has been identified and contacted the police.
Camden police have not released any information on who the man is, but say he is cooperating with the investigation.
They have also stated he is not considered a suspect at this time.
However, the others seen on video and in the photo remain at large.
Fish and Company General Manager, Sean Dolven, mentioned that the restaurant has implemented new safety protocols following the incident to ensure his staff’s safety moving forward.
“We’ve kind of got it now to where if you’re going to chase somebody down, let somebody know you’re going down there, take somebody with you,” Dolven explained.
The sheriff’s office is treating the case as a misdemeanor assault, and believe who they’re looking for may be from out of state, making it even more challenging to identify them.