Three women who destroyed a New York City restaurant that left employees bloodied reportedly over the cost of extra dipping sauce earlier this month were arrested and now face assault, robbery, and criminal mischief charges.
Cell phone footage from one of the employees obtained by Univision shows three women in their mid-twenties wreaking havoc at Bel Fries restaurant on the Lower East Side at around 4 a.m. From the employee’s vantage point, the young women are seen throwing glass bottles and other objects at restaurant workers while onlookers stand behind and record the incident.
Authorities later identified and arrested Pearl Ozaria, Chitara Plasencia, and Tatiyanna Johnson.
Johnson’s attorney, Glenn Hardy, told Fox 5 New York the public only knows so much of the story, alluding that inflammatory language was used during an argument between the restaurant workers. However, the cell phone video shows the women taunting employees, trashing the eatery, and twerking against a pandemic plastic barrier atop the main counter.
One of the women immediately tore down the COVID blocker mid-twerk.
Rafael Nuñez, the restaurant’s chef, told Univision everything started after he tried explaining to the women that extra sauce for the potatoes costs $1.75.
That’s when they got upset.
“We explained to them that this is a business rule and that it is equal for everyone, but they did not understand,” Nuñez said.
Nuñez said that the women destroyed the establishment’s computers, stole cash from the register, and threw sauce containers across the restaurant. He added that he was unsure of how he could defend himself since the perpetrators were women.
“It only occurred to me to take out the phone as a defense, in case something happened to me, so that it was recorded,” Nuñez continued. “I thought about using a knife, or pouring hot oil on them, but none of that seemed appropriate to me. Then I felt … impotence because I wanted to retaliate, but I didn’t know how.”
Another employee, Victoria Baez, said that the women threw hot sauce and tequila at her face, which affected her ability to see.
“I turned on the alarm to scare them, because sometimes that works, but not with them. They didn’t leave,” she told Univision. “And the saddest thing is that everyone saw it as a joke and laughed. No-one stopped them.”
New York City Police told Fox 5 New York two employees suffered minor head injuries during the attack.
Ben Zeisloft contributed to this report.
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Bel fires in NYC. Unclear how this started or what day it was on . #news #NewYorkCity #NYC pic.twitter.com/jQ9voIhblW— Viral News NY (@ViralNewsNYC) July 6, 2022