She Was Remanded to Prison Over $50 Bill at Spoonaz Cafe

A Belize City café is under fire tonight after a routine payment issue spiraled into a national controversy. It all began when fifty-seven-year-old Allaire McDougal’s debit card was declined at Spoonaz Reggae Café, leaving her unable to cover a modest forty-eight-dollar bill. What followed was a chain of events that generated a strong public reaction, police involvement, a night in jail, and a court-ordered remand to the Belize Central Prison. But tonight, McDougal is free, and the café is issuing a public apology after facing a wave of backlash online. So, what really happened that Saturday afternoon? And who is Allaire McDougal? News Five’s Paul Lopez has the full story, including a look into McDougal’s complex past in the United States. Here’s that report.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

A popular café in Belize City is doing some damage control tonight after a situation that didn’t sit well with the public. Spoonaz Reggae Café has issued a public apology after they called the police on a retired nurse who couldn’t pay her bill. It all happened on Saturday when fifty-seven-year-old Allaire McDougal stopped by the café, ordered some food and drinks, and ended up with a tab of forty-eight dollars. But when it came time to pay, her card was declined—and that’s when things took a turn.

 

Voice of: Allaire McDougal, Retired Nurse

“What I was charged with was intentionally trying to defraud a business. That sounds huge. It sounds like I was laundering money from some business, but it happened that I could not pay my twenty-four U.S. dollar bill. It was good, oxtail and rice and beans, fry plantain. I was referred there from a friend. Blueberry cheese scone, and a Mackeson. The chocolate Mackeson, I am hooked. As soon as this interview is done, I am not going to lie to you, that is what I am going to have.”

 

Staff at Spoonaz Reggae Café say they tried to work things out before calling the cops. According to them, Allaire McDougal’s debit card was declined not once, not twice, but three times because of insufficient funds. They say they spent about half an hour trying to sort it out with her, but when no solution came up, they decided to file a police report. McDougal, for her part, says this wasn’t the first time that day she ran into trouble. She told us she had a similar issue earlier at another restaurant in Belize City.

 

Allaire McDougal

“Belize sometimes the systems are down and it is not as fluid in the states. I am kind of patient. I am patient as I can because I have lived in both places, not everything is perfect in Belize. So she says your card is declined, I said well I am going to have to do dishes. She says come back and take care of it. I go to Spoonaz, that is when they told me your card is declined for insufficient funds. When I leave there, there is a man that looks like a homeless man down the street he grabs me and he says you have to pay your bill. He has the tourism police waiting for me as I am going to Belize Bank to get the cash. She said you have to go with one of our people to get the cash. I said sure, him and I could go to Belize Bank.”

 

Paul Lopez

“When you went to sit down at Spoonaz, was it with the intent to pay and the understanding that you have that money on your account?”

 

Allaire McDougal

“Of course, of course.”

 

After her card was declined at Spoonaz Reggae Café, McDougal was detained by police, held overnight at the Queen Street Police Station, and later charged with obtaining services by deception. Unable to meet a five-hundred-dollar bail, she was remanded to the Belize Central Prison. But what happened next was a wave of public outrage. Social media lit up with criticism of the café’s handling of the situation, prompting Spoonaz to issue a public apology. In their statement, they expressed regret and clarified that their intention was never to criminalize hardship. With mounting pressure, the café dropped the charge, and McDougal was set free.

 

Allaire McDougal

“I understand from the gentlemen that she is apologetic and wants me to come to the restaurant. I don’t know if I am ready for that. As good as the oxtail was, we will have to come to the understanding that we will sit down and talk about what is this, what is going on.”

But according to McDougal, this isn’t about financial hardship. She says she gets money from the U.S. every month, but claims that whenever she goes out to eat, the funds mysteriously vanish from her account.

 

Paul Lopez

“How do you occur this occurrence taking place repeatedly at repeated establishments.”

 

Allaire McDougal

“I can’t and that is the only reason I am doing this interview. I think if I bring awareness to it more people will talk about it. I just want to thank everyone for their support, I think that in times likes these when there is a lot of confusion going on to support one another it says a lot about the human nature.”

Paul Lopez

“What do you say to people that maintain the few that you have visited these establishment with the intent to receive meals, services by deception.”

 

Allaire McDougal

“Let us just wait until all the investigation is done.”

 

McDougal, the retired nurse at the center of the Spoonaz Café controversy, has a history that’s both tragic and complex. According to a CBS News report, she once served time in a U.S. prison after attempting to drown her eight-year-old son in a swimming pool. Bystanders intervened and saved the child, and witnesses say they heard her shouting, ‘It is the end of the world, I have to let you go.’ A relative has since come forward, revealing that McDougal has been diagnosed with a mental illness and is not well. That same relative, and many others, have offered to pay her outstanding bill at Spoonaz Café, hoping to bring some peace to a situation that has clearly touched a nerve across the country. It’s a reminder that behind every headline, there’s a human story and sometimes, a cry for help. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez