Robert Irwin Confesses to Accidental Dine-and-Dash: 'Today Is Not the Day I Start My Life of Crime'

Usually when someone dines and dashes, it's intentional but that wasn’t the case for Robert Irwin. The 21-year-old wildlife conservationist and son of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin took to Instagram to explain an innocent mistake that led to an accidental dine-and-dash while road-tripping through Australia.

In a candid (and pretty charming) video shared with his 7.6 million followers, Robert admitted he forgot to pay for his food during a stop at Jetty Pavilion in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales.

“Hi guys, Robert here. So I have a funny story,” he began. “I’m road-tripping down the East Coast of Australia at the moment, and I stopped in at Coffs Harbour, which is a beautiful coastal town in northern NSW, for a bit of dinner.”

Robert explained that after placing his order, he got caught up taking selfies with fans. “They got the salad done super fast, and I made sure I said hi to absolutely everyone… Then the next morning, I woke up and realized I never paid for my salad. I just did the old dine and dash and didn’t even realize I'd done it. I felt terrible,” he said.

Embarrassed, he contacted the restaurant to pay only to be told to just leave a nice review. And he did just that.

“The @jettypavilioncoffs ROCKS! I am so sorry again, and thank you for being so cool. Guys, go give them some love, let’s see how many new followers we can get these legends!” he captioned the post.

He closed the video with a joke, stating, “Today is not the day I start my life of crime. As much as the tabloids would love that, it’s not happening.”

The post has since racked up nearly 100K likes, with small business owners in the comments praising Robert’s response.

One person wrote, “As a small biz entrepreneur- I totally get how big of a shout out that is for them- time for them to open more restaurants.” Another added, “As a small business owner, I can confirm that you just did the absolute most WONDERFUL thing for them by doing this!! Such a kind (and life-changing) gesture."

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