Repost
— Viral News NY (@ViralNewsNYC) July 6, 2022
Bel fires in NYC. Unclear how this started or what day it was on . #news #NewYorkCity #NYC pic.twitter.com/jQ9voIhblW
Three raging customers trashed a Manhattan eatery in a caught-on-camera outburst over the weekend that left two employees injured, police said.
The wild scene took place at Bel Fries, a fry restaurant on Ludlow Street in the nightlife-centric Lower East Side, on Sunday at 4:10 a.m. and ended with the arrests of three women, according to the NYPD.
Shocking video of the mayhem posted to Twitter shows the trio of suspects hurling glass bottles, a metal stool and other items at employees, leaping over the counter, throwing sauce all over the restaurant and destroying a plastic barrier.
A crowd of people can be heard cheering and filming the chaos with their phones.
Their rowdy tirade started over the women’s anger at the eatery’s $1.75 fee for extra sauce, according to one report.
An employee who is filming the incident tells the women “you’re gonna go to jail” as they hurl items at him — all while an alarm is going off.
At one point, one of three women gives the employees the middle finger and in another moment, a different woman dances on top of the counter.
The trio caused more than $250 worth of damage to the business and injured a 33-year-old female employee and a male employee. Both suffered lacerations to their heads, according to cops.
Bel Fries was forced to shutter its doors to make repairs and recover from the incident and was still not open by Wednesday, according to its Instagram.
Police arrested the three women — Pearl Ozoria, 27, of Manhattan; Chitara Plasencia, 25, of Brooklyn and Tatiyanna Johnson, 23, of Brooklyn on robbery and criminal mischief charges.
Ozoria allegedly punched the cop arresting her in the face and was slapped with additional charges of assault of a police officer, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct.
Plasencia and Johnson were each also charged with criminal possession of a weapon.
A GoFundMe page has been created on behalf of the 3 women with the goal of raising enough funds to purchase a year's supply of extra dipping sauce for them, fake news outlets reported on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteIt is still not clear what Kind of sauce the women prefer, but ultimately the funds will be used to purchase their preferred choice of sauce.
Kyle Dipstein, a frequent patron of Bel Fries, who created the GoFundMe page, told reporters on Thursday, "I was there when the fight broke out and watched the whole scene unfold, and my heart goes out to the 3 sauce enthusiasts."
I'm a sauce aficionado myself," Dipstein said, "and I know what it means for sauce lovers to eat french fries without sufficient sauce. It's catastrophic!."
Dipstein said that he hopes people will open up their hearts and wallets for the cause.
"I don't think these women were trying to be saucy with the employees," Dipstein said. "They just lost it when their craving for extra sauce was left unfullfilled due to a $1.75 technicality."
"I've been in that situation myself," Dipstein added, "and let me tell you, it's not fun, which is why I always carry plenty of extra sauce in my shirt pocket, much to the chagrin of my dry cleaners."