A restaurant in Penang has warned other F&B operators after a foreign customer was allegedly caught on CCTV putting his own body hair into a plate of char kuey teow before complaining about the food and refusing to pay.
The incident happened at around 5.40pm on Oct 4 at a restaurant in Gurney Drive, Penang.
According to Oriental Daily, the restaurant manager, identified as Mr Cheng, the foreign man and a woman had initially wanted to order fried chicken, but were told it was sold out.
They instead ordered char kuey teow, an egg and a drink, with the total bill coming to around RM30.
Complained there were hairs in his food
Not long after, the man reportedly complained to staff that there were several strands of hair inside his char kuey teow.
The dish was then brought to the manager for inspection.
Mr Cheng said he immediately found something unusual about the hairs.
There were reportedly around six to seven short strands, and they appeared dry rather than oily.
He explained that if the hairs had already been in the dish during cooking, he would have expected them to be coated with oil.
Refused to pay and walked away
While staff were still examining the dish, the couple reportedly got up and prepared to leave.
When the manager reminded them that they had not paid, the man allegedly refused, saying:
How can I pay for food of this quality?”
The pair then left the restaurant without settling the roughly RM30 bill.
CCTV allegedly reveals what happened
Still suspicious about the hairs, the manager later reviewed the restaurant’s CCTV footage.
According to him, the footage appeared to show the man repeatedly placing one hand inside his shirt before moving it towards his plate.
The manager suspected that the customer had been pulling hair from his chest or body and placing it into the char kuey teow.
The restaurant subsequently shared the CCTV footage with other F&B operators to warn them about the couple and prevent similar incidents from happening elsewhere.
For now, the allegation is based on the restaurant manager’s account and CCTV interpretation, and there has been no reported police finding confirming exactly what the man placed into the food.
