An altercation erupted on Monday afternoon between the owner of a fast food shop and a customer after the latter found a cockroach in the chips and chicken he bought from the shop.
George Petrus and two other men bought fried chips and chicken from Dehli Fast Food shop in Windhoek’s Otjomuise suburb at around 14h00 on Monday. “We were eating the chips and the chicken when we suddenly found a cockroach,” explained a very agitated Petrus.
Last week a New Era reader sent a picture of cockroaches wrapped inside sandwhiches at Shoprite in Windhoek’s Independence Avenue, saying shop assistants in the food section appeared unperturbed when notified of live cockroaches crawling around the food stand.
Shoprite did not respond to questions sent to the manager Paul Malan at the time of going to print, but promised to investigate the incident and provide feedback.
The owner of Delhi Fast Food, Lucy de Castro, told New Era it was the first time that something like that happened and that she apologised to Petrus and the other men.
She added that she offered to reimburse them for the food but Petrus refused and threatened to beat her up in front of her subordinates.
Petrus said he and the two men took the food back to the shop to complain about the cockroach in their take-away food but De Castro allegedly remarked. ‘Why did you eat the legs?’
“I got angry,” said Petrus. The verbal exchange between Petrus and De Castro was such that they ended up calling each other names.
The Delhi supervisor who refused to be named tried to downplay the whole issue and tried to imply that the incident was a set-up. This was despite New Era, the supervisor and the owner, among others, seeing the fried cockroach in the chips.
“If there was a cockroach why did they eat some of the chips? They were supposed to see the cockroach that time. I didn’t see anything when I served them the chips,” remarked the male supervisor.
Petrus explained that the cockroach was hidden in the chips and they only noticed it as they were eating. “The thing (cockroach) was under the chips,” added Petrus.
Another employee at the shop remarked: “This is something small and you are taking it to the newspapers. Now if you take it to the newspapers will you not buy here tomorrow or in future?” asked the man.
“So must we eat cockroaches? I feel bad, I feel like vomiting. I will phone health inspectors to visit the shop,” fumed Petrus.