Ep 5. While the Cat's Away...

In this episode of Mystery Diners titled "While the Cat's Away...", the owner of Putter's Bar & Grill, located in Las Vegas, becomes concerned that her managers are not properly supervising the staff while she is away on a business trip. To get to the bottom of things, she calls in Charles Stiles and his team of Mystery Diners to investigate.

The undercover diners that Stiles has selected to infiltrate the bar and grill are Dorian and his girlfriend, Natalie. After getting hired on as new servers, they immediately start asking questions of their fellow employees to try to find out if anyone is slacking off or not following proper procedures, as well as trying to get a sense of the work environment overall.

One of the things that they discover early on is that the bartender, Gary, is regularly pouring drinks that are too strong. They notice that several patrons are visibly intoxicated after just one or two drinks, and they suspect that this may be contributing to some of the other issues that they are seeing. Additionally, they notice that some of the food being served doesn't look quite right, and they start to worry that something unhygienic might be going on in the kitchen.

As part of their investigation, Dorian and Natalie also pay a visit to Putter's during the day, when it is not open for business. They want to see if anyone is using the bar and grill when they shouldn't be, or if any illegal activities are taking place. To their surprise, they find that the manager, Tina, is using the kitchen to prepare and sell her own food items, completely separate from the bar's menu. They are also concerned to see that she is taking food out of the freezer and leaving it out to thaw on the counter, which is a major health code violation.

While all of this is going on, Stiles and his team are watching everything unfold from their control center, which is equipped with hidden cameras and microphones. They are able to observe the staff members and identify the source of the problems at the bar and grill.

Finally, the owner returns from her business trip and Stiles invites her to watch the footage of what has been going on in her absence. She is absolutely stunned to see the behavior of her managers and the other staff, and is grateful to Stiles and his team for uncovering what was happening behind her back.

In the end, the owner takes action to clean up the bar and grill and ensure that all proper protocols are being followed. She fires both Gary and Tina and implements strict new procedures for making sure that food and drinks are prepared correctly. And she breathes a sigh of relief that she now knows the truth about what was going on while she was away.