Man Gets Chased Down Street, Tasered By Restaurant Employees Over $1

Just your average day in New York City, really.

Via the NY Post, Heirberto Chavez went to the New Panda Restaurant near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York to pick up some wings and fries* he’d already paid for. When an apparently homeless man outside asked him for $2.75 so he could get some food of his own, Chavez agreed to buy the man’s meal, then went inside and put $5 down on the counter for it. Instead of the $2.25 he was expecting to get back, he got $1.25.

That’s when everything started to go pear-shaped. Things escalated quickly after Chavez argued about the shortchanging, and as he tried to leave the restaurant after seemingly giving up on getting his dollar back, two employees of New Panda, brothers Gary and Robert Zheng, allegedly started throwing punches at him. The pair then chased Chavez down the street, and one brother (it’s not clear which) tasered him at least once.

The only reason it didn’t get worse was that a Port Authority Police Officer happened to be on patrol and chased down the Zhengs, ultimately arresting them and recovering the taser. They’ve since been charged with assault and weapons possession, which is generally what happens when you chase someone down the street doing an extremely low-rent impression of Electro from Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The “I was just paying for a homeless guy’s food!” angle feels a little too perfect, but even if it isn’t true, we’re still left with a situation where restaurant employees pretty indisputably tasered a customer. Admittedly, I tend to be pretty anti-customer, but chasing a dude down the street and tasering him purely because he had the audacity to point out you shortchanged him is a little much. Maybe a tad excessive, I feel.

* I am trying really, really hard not to judge Chavez for ordering wings and fries at a Chinese restaurant. I am not succeeding.