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Delivery Gone Wrong

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The war between restaurants leaving their menus in buildings and the building's residents has become violent: A building super and resident of a building on 128th Street and Riverside Drive were arrested for beating up a Chinese food delivery guy over the delivery man's attempts to leave menus at the co-op. Chen Zhen Ping, who works at his parents' Chinese restaurant, Ming's Wok, says that super Naim Shala told him to leave the building, which he claims he did, but theat Shala then confronted him outside the building, where a tenant (a psychiatrist, no less) joined in beating Ping. Shala disagrees with the story, saying that Ping was told not to leave menus numerous times. Ping told Newsday he just wanted to help his parents' restaurant succeed, and the way to help do that is leave menus.

Newsday looked at the security issues with food deliveries in a city of "cooking-challenged New Yorkers" with "overstuffed kitchen drawers bursting with takeout menus." Some security guards and doormen say delivery men sneak in to slip menus under doors. Gothamist had always thought that while it's no fun to have to go downstairs to the door to pick up food delivery, sometimes it's better that way, especially when we feel guilty about long walk-ups.

One way not to need your drawers of menus: Menupages and a few weeks ago, the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas had an exhibit of old Chinese food menus. And oddly enough, the lone Chinese food delivery guy on Seinfeld was Ping, in the episodes, The Virgin, and The Visa.

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Comments [rss]

  • Chris

    Too lazy to just throw out the menus because he just wants to make his parents business successful? OK, logic is setting in. Let me uninstall my pop up blocker and manually close the 500 pop up windows I get daily. Point is that those 2 actions take up our time and the more time we spend dealing with these freeloaders the more earning power we lose, therefore they are stealing from us. Call me greedy, isn't the point of leaving the menus to strum up his business?

  • Nada

    "little yellow boy" isn't an ethnic joke... remember the "Simpsons" episode where Bart has to get a job? (with the skill of a ninja, menus are silent.)

  • happy family

    who said "little yellow boy"?

    these delivery guys tresspassing into homes and businesses can easily case the joint for items they want to steal, locate cameras, or hide anything they want. if you wanted to spy on someone, or plant a bomb, or plot a murder or burglary, or gather any info for countless other criminal purposes, what better way than to pay off a delivery guy? when you run a business and have someone off the street run past all of your security and laugh at your attempts to stop him, then i don't think it's 'dumb' to stop the dumbass. so yes, he's flaunting the law and it's easy to believe that he could be compromising your safety. it would be dumb to call the cops and expect the problem to get resolved.

  • rita

    i absolutely belive that the delivey guy's ethnicity came into play. if it were a young black man, the cops would have been called; the super would not have assaulted him.

  • anon

    Ping was only leaving menus in the lobby. So, is this worth beating somebody over?

  • anon

    people who think getting rough is the answer are just dumb. so is an anyone that writes "little yellow boy." if the delivery guy actually did leave the building, why the need to resort to anger? is passing out menus such a punishable offense?! is the super too lazy to trash some menus? does he or anyone else really believe that these delivery men are a threat to safety? funny thing is, if you sneak into, say, an empty apt, decide to stay, and get caught after a few nights, you'll be charged with trespassing, but if you manage to keep a low enough profile for 30 days and have some mail sent a your new rent-free home, then you become an illegal tenant who has to be evicted (a long process that does not favor landlords). i had tenants who just refused to pay rent and i couldn't beat them up.

  • happy family

    yeah, right, the cops'll be right over to take care of it. guys like this laugh when you threaten to call cops on them because they know they'll be long gone. often they don't even stop passing out their menus. they laugh at the law, your property rights, and your security. get rough and he won't do it again.

  • Menus keep Homeless Warm

    Happy Family is spot on: Perhaps he did need a little roughin up. Hey, if the Super didn't hand it out the cops sure as hell would have if they were called for trespassing.

    Every takes -- and usually needs -- a beating every now and then.

  • S.D.

    Absolutely. There is a solution: Call the Cops and/or sue the resturant.

    Notice that the Delivery guy isn't the one facing criminal charges???

  • Happy family wrote: "if ping was up to that sort of persistant criminal tresspassing, and it sounds as if he was, he deserves a little roughin up." WTF? Call the cops and let the courts deal with it. You're saying we should have vigilante justice for trespassing and littering? That's messed up.

  • happy family

    we had one chinese delivery guy that would literally run past reception and several front office desks, all yelling at him to stop, in order to drop off menus at our individual desks. nobody in the office had ordered from the business and he was doing this throughout the building. our office has experienced plenty of theft. it's easy to see how this can be a real security issue. our solution was to not allow delivery guys from this particular restaurant into the building. if ping was up to that sort of persistant criminal tresspassing, and it sounds as if he was, he deserves a little roughin up.

  • brother

    I once saw this little yellow boy with spikey hair running down my hall, must have plastered the entire place in 3 seconds flat.

  • A few months ago, I was sitting in my office at work when a guy came running down the hallway and stopped at my office door long enough to hand me a menu before tearing off down the hall again. Very sneaky.

  • joe

    In my building the problem isn't so much the menus, but that the delivery guy is roaming the hallways, using emergency exits, etc. We've dealt with it by temporarily banning deliveries from constant abusers .

  • My only annoyance with the menus thing is that we seem to get people coming into the college I work at and dropping them under every closed door they can find, including a server closet most of my machines are in.

    I wouldn't have thought it odd were it just a one-time thing, but we're talking three or four times over the last six months. Are there that many takeout places starving for business?

  • Yeah, as someone who grew up in places that are chill as chill gets - Japan and North Carolina - the NY aggro thing is comical, if not a little frightening sometimes.

    I like what Mugajee does in my neighborhood - they stick an envelope outside the building, so people who want thea menu can take it, and no one enters the building illegally. Seems like the happy medium, no?

  • I have never understood the anger about leaving menus in a building. What is the big deal? Throw them in the garbage if you don't want them! It's a classic example of frustrated NY'ers seeking an easy outlet for the anger that consumes them...and yet another reason why, after 13+ years here, I can't wait to leave this city!

  • Rose

    While the story does not sound completely kosher,

    any violence against anyone just dropping off menus, etc., should be swiftly dealt with by the law enforcement powers that be.

  • JarJar

    Just shows that psychiatrists are just as mentally confused as the rest of us, and these two-bit quacks better get their act straight or, or, or...else!!!

  • Jen

    I hear Cheryl likes 'em dark and disturbed.

    But this story is totally disturbing. I think these problems could be avoided if there was a designated place to leave menus. While supers might be apt to dump menus left in the lobby, I think it would be handy, as I tend to throw out menus left under the door.

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