Women Placed Own Hair In Pizza To Claim Refund, Caught On CCTV

A CCTV footage released Sunday showed two women putting hair in their meal to get a refund at a pub in Sunderland, England.

The woman sent back their pizza complaining it had hair. The staff immediately apologized and offered them a refund. They were also offered free drinks. While the women were at the pub, the staff got suspicious as the hair color did not match with anyone working in the shift.

They checked the CCTV footage and were shocked to see one of them pulling out her own hair and putting it on the pizza while the other rearranged it to make it look natural. Unable to believe that someone could stoop so low, the staff asked the women to leave immediately. The pub’s owner released the CCTV footage to warn people trying it.

Calling it a "cynical stunt,” Joe Smith, operations director at Pub Culture Ltd, which owns the pub, said, "Working in the hospitality industry, you always have to be prepared to resolve any issues and we’re always very focused on that, but you can’t really prepare for something like this.”

"Our first reaction to the complaint was surprise, as we are a team of perfectionists and we’re really focused on excellent food preparation and service, but you would never suspect that someone would be malicious enough to do something like this,” he added, local daily Sunderland Echo reported.

"Naturally, we assumed they were genuine, offered my sincere apologies and tried to offer the women a refund and free drinks, as well as investigating the complaint. The golden rule of great service is to put the customer first, which is exactly what we did,” Smith said, adding, “It’s shocking that people actually try to pull off scams like this, which could be so detrimental to a local business that is working hard to deliver a high-quality offer to people in the city.”

He also said he found it “unbelievable” that people would take such extreme steps for free drinks and save money on a £7 ($9) pizza.

“It’s testament to our great staff that they not only got to the bottom of the issue but, despite their concerns, still managed to treat the customer with the utmost respect until they had the evidence they needed to prove exactly what they had done,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Northumbria Police said further action could be taken against the customers.

"Technically an offender may be charged with fraud by false representation and then, depending on previous offences, could face a caution or something more serious,” she said.