Man Scams Airport Restaurants By Planting Ants

Man Scams
Airport Restaurants
By Planting Ants
Each time, he would “find” insects in his food
and claim compensation of several hundred or even over a thousand yuan.
Between 2023 and 2024,
this man committed this scam over 700 times,
collecting more than
100,000 yuan
in compensation,
until he was finally caught at Wudang Mountain Airport in Hubei.
Everyone was shocked when police found a box of ants on him.
His method was simple:
upon arriving at the airport, he would first go to the restroom and hide ants in his hand.
Then he would choose any restaurant,
pick up food with his hands during the meal, mix the ants with the food,
take photos and videos, and demand compensation from the restaurant.
Surprisingly, instead of demanding money on the spot,
he would leave and return to his hotel, leaving confused restaurant staff behind.
Just when staff thought the matter was resolved,
they would receive notice from management demanding quick resolution,
at which point the man would typically demand a few hundred in compensation.
His final downfall came when he ordered stir-fried peppers with meat.
The restaurant manager realized something was suspicious.
If ants had gotten into the dish before cooking,
they would have been broken into pieces;
if they had crawled in after cooking,
that would be impossible since the server immediately brought the dish to
the man’s table.
The ants would have had to crawl into the food right in front of the customer.
Confident in their sanitation standards, the restaurant manager contacted police,
who discovered the man was a scammer who had filed complaints against over 700 restaurants in one year,
all with the same reason.
Police eventually found and arrested the man at a hotel in Shenzhen.
According to judicial interpretation,
extortion of 2,000-5,000 yuan is punishable by up to three years imprisonment,
while 5,000-100,000 yuan carries a sentence of three to ten years.
The man was ultimately sentenced to 9 years in prison.