BALTIMORE, MD — A man who fled a downtown restaurant to avoid paying a $3.43 check ran into the path of a tractor-trailer and was crushed to death.

Police say the man, who was not immediately identified, ate breakfast at the Bee Hive Restaurant yesterday and walked out the door without paying.

"That will teach him not to eat and run."

When he got outside, they said, he ran several blocks, then darted between two parked cars into the street.

A tractor-trailer driving down the street struck the man and pinned him under its first set of back wheels. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

"That will teach him not to eat and run," a police officer said.