China: Man puts dead rat in food to extort money from reputed restaurant, arrested

Beijing, March 27: We often come across news of customers discovering dead rats or lizards in fast food boxes. But in China, it was found that a man deliberately put dead rat in food to extort money from one of the country's most popular hot pot chains - Haidilao.

In the bizarre incident that happened last November, the man, surnamed Guo, went to a Haidilao centre in Beijing for dinner. After around 20 minutes of getting the food served, Guo called the authorities to show them a cooked rat which he claimed came out of the broth, Shanghaiist reported.

Guo said the restaurant staff first offered him voucher for free meals and then raised the offer to 20,000 yuan (Rs 2 lakh) but Guo was not convinced. He wanted 5 million yuan (over Rs 5 crore) as compensation!

Haidilao failed to meet this demand and Guo then contacted the local food and drug officials while the food chain went to the police. Later, investigation found the plot that Guo had cooked to extract money and he was arrested on charges of extortion, the report added.

On Tuesday, Guo pleaded guilty to the charge and conceded that he found the rodent when he went to his hometown in Henan province and took it with him back to Beijing in a bottle. He also admitted of having turned greedy after having interest only in a free meal.