Diners refuse to pay large £165 invoice after ‘planting personal hair’ on steak dish
The incident at a Staffordshire restaurant saw to two fellas ‘swearing aggressively’ at the staff, claiming they had been ‘put off’ their food and drinks before walking out
The diner appears to pull hair from his own head and then put it in his meal(Image: Kennedy News/The Dial Restaurant)
Two blokes caused chaos at a restaurant after allegedly sprinkling their own hair over their food and refusing to pay their £165 bill.
CCTV footage at The Dial in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, appears to show one of the customers, wearing a yellow t-shirt and dark jacket, pulling out some hair from his head. He then chucks it on his steak dish.
The other fella, in a blue jacket, black t-shirt, dark trousers and gold chain, then claimed he had been “put off” by the presence of the hair. Yet he managed to finish his hearty meal before legging it from the venue with his pal.
General manager Jez Hives said the two men had helped themselves to a sharer steak, a fillet steak, sauces, fries, onion rings and cocktails on February 11. The pair kicked off and told staff they wouldn’t pay, swearing and acting aggressively before leaving, as a worker tried to chase them down with a card machine.
Jez said: “Two chaps came in and sat down. They got their food, perfect as always, and when they were eating the food the chap started sprinkling hair on his food.
“You’d think that he’d complain then but he carried on eating his own hair. The chap walked up to the manager on shift and was just not pleasant at all, explained he wasn’t going to pay anything and just turned around and walked out,” he said of the alleged hair-sprinkler.
“The manager chased after them saying they will call the police. There was lots of swearing. It was around £165. There were cocktails on the table as well.
“There was the fillet steak with a side of onion rings, French fries, the fries on the sharer steak, a couple of sauces.. Quite a substantial amount of food.
“One of the guys ordered a fantastic sharing steak to himself, which is a hefty big bit of meat for one person, and the other chap ordered a fillet steak.
“The guy who didn’t put his hair in his dinner said it put him off and that’s why they weren’t going to pay for anything. It wasn’t a conversation, it was just: ‘We won’t pay for this’. Customers were in shock as to what was going on.”
Mr Hives, who has worked at the restaurant for 25 years, said he has never seen anything like it before. He also reckoned other restaurants in the area have experienced similar incidents.
He went: “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and at The Dial and I’ve never witnessed anything so mind-boggling as to why they’d do that. It’s just another hoop we have to jump through in hospitality to try and survive. It’s really tough.
“The staff knew something was amiss. We know we do things right in the kitchen, all the chefs wear hats. It was very argumentative words coming out of their mouths. I think they just wanted to shock (us) and leg it.
“I was in shock. He actually does it three times. It’s so brazen it must be something he does, he must have bald patches all over his head. Even to think of doing that is just awful. Unbelievable, it was definitely premeditated.
“We contacted all the local restaurants to tell them. A few had had similar incidents but never got CCTV. We want to unite as a town, welcome genuine customers and prevent anyone from taking advantage of our businesses.”
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