Argument Over One Dollar Leads To Customer At Chinese Restaurant Being Beaten, Tased By Workers

A customer’s complaint that he was stiffed a dollar — as in, one dollar — at a Chinese restaurant led to him being beaten and tased by two restaurant employees who took umbrage with his complaint, the New York Post is reporting.

Heirberto Chavez says his experience at New Panda Restaurant began innocently enough — he was on his way inside to pick up an order of wings, which he’d already paid for, when a homeless person asked if he (Chavez) could help him out. The homeless man was hungry, and was $2.75 short for the meal he wanted. Chavez did what he thought was the right thing: he plopped down a five on the counter to pay for the hungry man’s meal.

“He said all he needed was $2.75 to get his food. I said fine. So I dropped $5 on the counter.”

Chavez expected — rightly — that he’d get back $2.25 in change. Instead, he got back $1.25. Words were exchanged, according to Eater.

“This thing went from zero to 60 real quick. It escalated from an argument to them hitting me and then using the Taser. As I’m leaving, they kept coming towards me. We were having words, but nothing physical happened until I got to the door. Then they started swinging at me.”

Chavez tried to run away, but the two employees, still wearing their aprons, chased him. Then one of them pulled out a Taser.

“He missed at first and then he got me a couple of times. I never got hit by a Taser — it didn’t feel good.”

Fortunately for Chavez, a Port Authority cop happened to be working her beat near the Chinese restaurant. Officer Katherine Acevedo saw what was happening and eventually apprehended the two workers, later identified as brothers 37-year-old Gary Zheng and 41-year-old Robert Zheng.

Until news of the beating broke, New Panda restaurant got generally good reviews on Yelp. But now that the employees’ habit of beating customers has come to light, some reviewers are having some morbid fun with their reviews of the eatery.

“Came for the white rice, left with a black eye.”

“I like Chinese food, just don’t like getting beat up and tasered.”

Chavez praised Officer Acevedo for her actions, saying that her quick action kept things from getting much worse.

“If she was not there I don’t know what would have happened to me. I was trying to get away from them and they wouldn’t stop.”

Both of the restaurant workers were charged with assault and weapons possession.

[Image courtesy of: Shutterstock/Ildi Papp]