A Virginia business owner has issued a bounty to track down a 'dine-and-dasher' who has used four separate aliases to walk out of his restaurant without paying.
Alex Kang, owner of the Okonomi Asian Grill in Fairfax, Virginia, has lost out on $150 in food orders after the same man scammed him over delivery service DoorDash.
According to Kang, the man places the orders before then canceling the orders after they are picked up by him personally, as opposed to a delivery driver.
The man has used different names including Simbarashe, Walter and Courtney to place the orders for himself and others, before making the cancellations.
On Tuesday, Kang issued a $150 bounty for information relating to help identify the perpetrator, telling News4 he was inspired after seeing missing cat poster.
Alex Kang, owner of the Okonomi Asian Grill in Fairfax, Virginia, has lost out on $150 in food orders after the same man, seen here smirking, scammed him over delivery service DoorDash
According to Kang, the man places the orders before then canceling the orders after they are picked up by him personally, as opposed to a delivery driver
He told the outlet: 'I saw a cat poster in my neighborhood and thought I'd try something similar.'
The most recent incident happened on August 5 when the alleged dine-and-dasher picked up an order worth $26.50, and then canceled it after collecting the food.
Kang said that his workers thwarted one of the attempts to steal from him, and refused to hand over the food until it was reordered.
Due to the incessant stealing, he has taken each incident to the City of Fairfax who have so far been unable to make an arrest in the case.
According to Kang, he manages to cancel the orders on the app before his employees have a chance to confirm it has been picked up.
He continued: 'If my workers don't press that button before handing over the food, then they have a 10-second gap where they can cancel the order.'
'We've changed the protocol now where we see the person coming to pick it up, we just immediately press it's been picked up.'
Kang, seen here, issued a $150 bounty for information relating to help identify the perpetrator, telling News4 he was inspired after seeing missing cat poster.
The man places the orders before then canceling the orders after they are picked up by him personally, as opposed to a delivery driver
Kang said that his workers thwarted one of the attempts to steal from him, and refused to hand over the food until it was reordered
Despite that, Kang said the new method to dealing with the man hasn't worked for them.
He added: 'What he's doing now is he's actually calling DoorDash immediately after the transaction saying the restaurant is closed or the restaurant couldn't fulfill the order. What that triggers is DoorDash shuts down the store.'
According to Kang, the first responding officer laughed at how bizarre the whole situation was.
Kang added: 'I get why she was so confused and laughed about it. The amount is so little it's not really worth their time.'
A spokesperson for the City of Fairfax Police said: 'There were three in April and one on August 5th.
'From what I’ve seen the restaurant has been targeted 4 times this year. We want restaurants to verify the DoorDash transaction before they hand the order over to the person picking it up.'
Kang said what had been annoying him most was the response from DoorDash who have not reimbursed him for the stolen food or handed over the suspect's account information.
Due to the incessant stealing, he has taken each incident to the City of Fairfax who have so far been unable to make an arrest in the case
According to Kang, he manages to cancel the orders on the app before his employees have a chance to confirm it has been picked up
He added: 'You're actually taking the side of the customer and believing we're closed over me, your partner - contractual partner - saying, 'Hey, this guy has stolen from us multiple times with multiple accounts.'
'We have police reports. Monday's incident, I spent two hours Monday night dealing with DoorDash, trying to get everything written down, trying to get my money back.
'At 6 a.m. the next day, they give me a call and I'm on the phone for three hours.
'Two of those hours, they adamantly argue they won't pay me my money because the customer said so.'
He continued: 'I have surveillance footage. How do you not believe the surveillance footage?'
A DoorDash spokesperson said: 'At DoorDash, we have no tolerance for fraud and we will not allow anyone to target or abuse merchants on our platform.
'We’ve reimbursed the restaurant for the orders and will deactivate the customer accounts involved.
'We're reaching out to the restaurant owner to provide additional support and stand ready to support police with any investigation into this incident.
'Importantly, we’ve put in place robust anti-fraud measures and are always working to strengthen them to better protect merchants.'
