Slippery customer: Eatery boss says Mercedes driver drove off with over $300 worth of seafood

Nothing in this world comes free, but one customer driving a Mercedes seemed to think so after allegedly leaving with $300 worth of unpaid live seafood from a restaurant.

On Sept 19 at around 8pm, the man, who goes by the name Jia, placed an order at The Morning Catch Seafood restaurant located at Bartley. 

The order, which amounted to $334.50, consisted of nine baby abalones, 1kg of crab, nine mantis shrimps and three lobsters. 

Claiming that he was in a rush, Jia promised the staff that he would pay the bill later and drove off with the seafood, shared the owner Desmond Lim in a Facebook post on Sept 24. 

However, Jia still hasn't paid for the food even though it has been a week, Lim claimed. 

In hopes of catching the culprit, Lim uploaded a photo of the total bill as well as Jia's car number plate on Facebook. 

Lim's wife, Serene Qin, told Shin Min Daily News today (Sept 26) that Jia had claimed to know one of the owners of the restaurant after he was handed the bill. 

She was not in the eatery when the incident took place. 

One of the restaurant's employees had allegedly asked Jia for his contact information but he insisted he was in a rush and all the employee could get was a picture of his car, reported the Chinese daily.

Qin also said she couldn't find his contact in her phone records. 

"Generally, regular customers would contact me directly to place an order and I only tell the staff what time the customer will come to pick up the food," she explained.

And usually, these customers will pay when they pick up their orders at the restaurant. 

The restaurant said they have since made a police report regarding this incident, given that it has been days since that customer went MIA. 

"If it really is a misunderstanding, the customer should at least contact or send us a text message to let us know. 

"However, it has been so long and the seafood would have been eaten by now, so we have to go to the police first," she said. 

Qin added that this is the first time such an incident has happened since this restaurant opened two years ago.

And while $300 may not be a terribly large sum, she shared that at the end of the day, they are still a small business and they have to bear the cost of the losses. 

She added that her staff have been scarred by the incident and are now "very cautious" when dealing with customers, making it a point to double-check every order before customers collect their food. 

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melissateo@asiaone.com