A food court customer and hawker resorted to blows against one another after a heated disagreement spilled out of hand at a hawker centre in Johor Bahru yesterday (October 10th, 2022). As reported by local newspaper China Press, the incident had taken place sometime in the morning in the Skudai area, when the customer had visited the hawker centre with her younger sister and three sons.
Woman buying nasi lemak refused to pay RM12 meal, felt it was unreasonably expensive
Speaking with the media outlet, the woman’s sister surnamed Huang, explained that at the time they were intending to buy some food from the hawker’s stall. But when it came time to pay, her older sister was shocked that their meal had came to a total of RM12. Feeling that the price was far too exorbitant, she refused to pay the amount.
To their surprise, a passerby who overheard her grouses proceeded to then tell her that RM12 was already considered cheap, as the hawker would have otherwise charged RM15 for a similar portion of food. Eventually, the hawker stall owner would learn of the disagreement and proceeded to confront the customer when she refused to pay or eat the food she had ordered.
Unfortunately that disagreement would quickly escalate when the hawker allegedly hurled nasi lemak at the customer and her family before tackling her to the ground. The customer’s sister claims that the hawker stall owner struck her sister in the head repeatedly before other patrons managed to separate both individuals.
“We thought that was the end of it, but we didn’t expect the hawker to then go back to her stall to retrieve a kitchen knife before stepping towards us angrily. Luckily, others at the scene managed to stop her and nobody was hurt.” she adds.
The customer appears to have sustained some injuries to her scalp, and also sported curry stains on her shirt from the altercation.
Hawker centre manager presents different account of events
However, the manager of the hawker centre presented a different account of the incident after having reviewed CCTV footage of what had transpired on that day. According to his version of the events, the hawker did not hurl nasi lemak towards the customer’s family, but had in fact tossed it onto the ground.
The customer then reacted by splashing hot soup on the hawker, which then triggered the fight. He clarified that both parties have since decided to settle the dispute by paying for each other’s medical expenses as a token of reconciliation after having gone to the police station to assist in investigations over the matter.
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