Cruisers get prison for skipping out on bills

Thinking about walking off a cruise ship without paying your bill? You could end up in prison.

That's the fate of three New Yorkers who snuck off cruise ships earlier this year without paying for purchases.

The U.S. Virgin Islands' St. John Sourcereports that Sam Gross, 25, Joseph Herskovitz, 27, and Jacob Eisenberger, 29, were sentenced to up to three months in prison on Thursday for defrauding or conspiring to defraud cruise lines. The trio also were sentenced to several more months of home confinement after they are released from prison and must pay thousands of dollars in restitution.

The news outlet says the men boarded Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas earlier this year, ran up large bills purchasing merchandise and services with ship-issued charge cards, and then walked off the vessel after just a day without settling the tab.

Two of the three men then did something similar the following month on Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Destiny and, a few weeks later, on Princess Cruises' Dawn Princess, according to court documents cited by the St. John Source.

A fourth defendant in the case is scheduled to be sentenced in December.