Closed Restaurant Kept Billing Ex-Diners

The Trapper was a convenient lunch stop for David Key, who owns a drafting business right around the corner from the restaurant. He’d been eating there regularly for almost a year until the eatery closed on June 5.

On July 22, Key got an unpalatable surprise in the mail--credit card bills totaling $900 for meals he hadn’t eaten at the restaurant. The billing dates were after the establishment had closed.

Key is one of 11 Orange County residents who complained to La Habra police about the billings. Police said the total of the charges was $2,000.

Police Detective Chris Koelber said that as many as 200 restaurant customers may have been wrongly billed for as much as $46,000.

The operator and manager of the restaurant, Henry Avalos, is wanted for questioning, Koelber said. No charges have been filed.

Koelber said he is trying to contact about 200 possible victims, most from Orange County, who received bills from their credit card companies showing meals at the Trapper from June 15 to June 30.

“People could not have made charges when it was no longer doing business,” Koelber said. “Apparently these people had eaten at this restaurant on prior occasions. The charges were added on using their credit card numbers.”

He said the credit card companies will lose the money and not the cardholders.

As for Key, 49, the incident angered him.

“I feel taken advantage of,” he said.