Waiter, there's a cockroach in my hotpot: Man in China nabbed for scamming Haidilao

A man recently got in the soup after scamming not one, but two hotpot restaurants in a day.

On May 17, he dined alone at two Haidilao outlets in Shenzhen, China, and complained about the cockroach he discovered in his hotpot.

When the restaurant staff offered him a free meal, the man made a scene and demanded to be compensated.

He eventually got a total of 1,800 yuan (S$375) from both restaurants, Chinese media reported.

Sensing that something was up with the diner, one of the restaurants decided to check their security footage. True enough, the video showed the man had it all planned out.

"Through the CCTV footage, we saw him holding something in his hands. When it fell onto the table, he immediately picked it up and looked around.

"His actions weren't agile enough so we could see that he dropped something into the hotpot as he was picking up the vegetables," said the manager of one of the restaurants who called the police.

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After his ruse was exposed, the man was arrested.

He told the police that he had found the dead cockroach near the restaurant and hid it in his trouser pocket. Only when he finished his meal at Haidilao did he carry out his secret plan.

To avoid suspicion, he tried to cover up the hotpot when he dropped the cockroach in.

A former restaurant staff himself, the man decided to scam the eateries, knowing that restaurants tend to compensate customers when dealing with such complaints.

ALSO READ: Woman demands 1 million yuan compensation after allegedly finding sanitary pad in Haidilao hotpot

amierul@asiaone.com