Actor Gary Collins arrested for walking out on bill

Television host and actor Gary Collins has been arrested for leaving a restaurant in Biloxi, Mississippi without paying his bill, police said on Wednesday.                                           

Collins, 72, a former host of the Miss America beauty pageant, was charged with defrauding an innkeeper, said Rodney McGilvary, assistant chief of the Biloxi Police Department. He said Collins walked out on a $59.35 restaurant tab on Tuesday.       

Restaurant employees followed him out of the restaurant into the parking lot, but he refused to stop, police said.                                           

Collins had been drinking alcohol, McGilvary said, and was later arrested at his home but was not breath tested because he was not driving a vehicle at the time. Collins later posted bond of $5,000.

"He told me they were taking too long to bring his steak and he did not eat his steak. He said he was afraid he would be too drunk to drive by the time they brought it so he decided to leave," detective Tim McKaig said. 

Collins starred in the 1972 TV series The Sixth Sense and was a guest star on may shows such as Perry Mason. In the 1980s, he hosted talk show Hour Magazine, The Home Show, and the Miss America Pageant for several years.