Restaurant promotions are always a fan-favourite. Unfortunately, Husky Billion Steamboat & BBQ, a hotpot restaurant in Bintulu, Sarawak got taken advantage of when they offered an all-you-can-eat “Happy Hour” promotion.
The hotpot restaurant owner claimed he had been fairly shocked to discover a family had ordered 600 plates of meat in one go during the promotion. While he had chosen to give them the benefit of doubt initially, things changed after he realised they had planned to smuggle the meat out instead.
According to 张忠捷, the 35-year-old restaurant owner, the incident had taken place on 9th October around 2:30pm. A family of five, three adults and two kids, had come in around then, seating themselves in a corner to dine. At the time, the store was offering a “Happy Hour” promotion, which allowed the customers to pay a certain amount per person to order any amount of food they wanted.
Still, the owner and the employees present were shocked when the family ordered a total of 250 plates of pork and 350 plates of mutton, allegedly for their hotpot. The action raised flags for the owner, still, he chose to assume that the family was simply a group of big eaters. However, when he checked his CCTV footage later, he spotted the family packing the meat to go.
“I think the other party (planned this),” he told China Press. “After all, many employees are on lunch break at this time, so there is no manpower to monitor them, and we don’t go out of our way to monitor our customers’ every move.” The owner also claimed he had observed one adult keeping watch while the other packed the food away into a plastic bag under the table.
The hotpot restaurant owner later took to Facebook to call the family out, claiming he knew them. “You know Bintulu is a small place,” he lamented. “You know me, and I know you.” He added that he had purposefully left their faces and names out to avoid publicly humiliating them. However, he had opted to call them out because he felt “stealing with your children (present) is unacceptable“.
In fact, he told China Press that one of them was a regular customer who had allegedly ordered 400 plates of meat in August this year, leading him to believe this was not the first time they had pulled their scheme. The hotpot restaurant owner later shared that he had been approached by one adult later offering to compensate for his loss.
“But I told him it is not a matter of money. I am more worried about the children’s education, so I have no plans to disclose their appearance,” he stated. “For now, I am considering if I should report the crime.” Still, he hopes the incident will be a lesson for everyone to treat others right and for parents to be a good example to their children.
Some netizens were skeptical of the story while others were still hoping the hotpot restaurant owner would reveal the culprits to teach them a lesson. “If it was me working, I would definitely stand beside (them) (to) watch how they eat these 600 plates,” one even said.
Well, there’s no denying that some people can be very shameless and entitled. But, we do hope that this family at least will think twice before considering such behaviour again.
Sources: China Press, Facebook
