American teen accused of stealing a Chinese restaurant delivery car and a Ford Taurus

A 16-year-old South Giles Street resident was arrested Wednesday morning on a host of charges connected to the theft of two cars this fall.

The teen is accused of stealing a Chinese restaurant delivery driver’s Toyota Camry off South Giles Street on Oct. 24 and a Ford Taurus from Laurel Street and McCormick Place on Nov. 15.

Both cars had been left running while unattended when they were stolen. They were recovered undamaged within two days of being reported stolen.

Police identified the teen as a suspect by tracing the call made to the Chinese restaurant to place the fake order to his cell phone.

The teen was charged with two counts of unlawful taking of a means of conveyance, as well as conspiracy and theft charges. He was released on his own recognizance.

bron: www.nj.com [26-12-2009]

In America: Asian restaurants a Christmas Day tradition

The busiest parking lots in town Friday were those outside Asian restaurants, places like Yamato and Hot Wok and Miraku.

[pict: Erica Brough/The Gainesville Sun

Xiaohua Wang and her husband, QunLiu Liu, enjoy a meal of Asian fare with their son, Seaboon Liu, 3, at the China Super Buffet on Christmas Day in Gainesville.]

Inside those restaurants, patrons were – sometimes unknowingly – acting out the last scene from the movie “A Christmas Story.”

In the 1983 film, little Ralphie, his kid brother Randy and his parents unexpectedly wind up eating at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day after a home-cooked turkey dinner turns into a fiasco. That iconic scene has helped reinforce eating out at an Asian restaurant as a part of the Christmas tradition for many families.

For several years, Bob and Kay Mitchell have organized their Christmas Day activities around the buffet at Szechuan Palace.

“The first year I had to talk her into coming here,” Bob Mitchell said.

With their children grown and having moved away, the couple said they did not want to cook just for themselves.

So they began calling restaurants to find a place to go.

“We wound up here, and we love it so much we probably eat here once a week and always on Christmas Day,” said Kay, who could not recall seeing the movie but said she understands the concept completely.

“I love coming here because it makes it possible for me to enjoy the day as much as everyone else,” Kay said.

Among those at Szechuan Palace who had seen “A Christmas Story” were Leah, who declined to give a last name and who said there were other parts of the movie that left a more permanent impression on her than the restaurant scene.

Leah’s family said they eat somewhere different each year on the holiday, but agreed with Leah that making Chinese or other Asian food a tradition seemed like a good idea.

This year, Congregation B’nai Israel members Glenn Glazer and Marlene Sanders met relatives at Szechuan Palace for a leisurely meal and afterward joked about the ties between Judaism and Chinese food.

Glazer said that, according to Judaic calendars – which predate Chinese calendars by hundreds of years – the dark ages for the Jews were the years they spent waiting for Chinese restaurants to be invented and open on holidays.

Glazer and Sanders noted that the concept of eating Chinese during the Christian celebration of Christmas has become so popular that their synagogue now offers a night known as “Chinese and a Movie.”

bron: www.gainesville.com [25-12-2009 by Karen Voyles]

Chinese food a growing Christmas tradition in America

It doesn’t say Christmas quite like marking the birth of Jesus or even passing out presents under the tree, but lots of folks in Evansville made chowing down at Chinese restaurants part of their day.

“I cooked for 30 people last night, but I don’t have to worry about it today because our son takes care of it,” said Raleigh, Ill., resident Carole Rash, who dined at a large table with family members at Yen Ching at 406 S. Green River Road.

[pict: ERIN McCRACKEN / Courier & Press Charlie Chang, owner of Yen Ching at 406 S. Green River Road, refills the buffet line Friday.]

Rash and her husband, Randall Rash, were guests of their son, Evansville resident Randy Rash and his wife, Deanna, and their four children.

The family didn’t have to look up Yen Ching in the phone book. They are loyal customers for whom eating at the restaurant on Christmas Day — and lots of other days — is a way of life. The Rashes’ youngest daughter, Ranesah, has been eating there for seven years — and she is 7 years old.

[pict: Ranesah Rash, 7, takes a drink from her mother, Deanna Rash, as her father, Randy Rash, and their family enjoy their eighth consecutive Christmas Day dinner at Yen Ching.]

“(Yen Ching employees) have watched them all grow up,” a chuckling Deanna Rash said of her children.

A few blocks away at Jimmy Jeng’s Szechwan Restaurant, 669 N. Green River Road, Newburgh residents Jon Rochner and Peggy Pirro aimed to create a smaller-scale, more intimate annual tradition.

The couple, in their second year of Yuletide eating at the restaurant, enjoy the benefits of hot food prepared by someone else during a busy holiday season.

“Christmas is a very ‘home’ holiday,” Pirro said. “But after you’ve been home for a few hours, it’s nice to get out in public and not have the public pressures of the shopping and so on. That’s all behind you, and you can just relax.”

The diners in the Chinese restaurant were hardly a small group. At Yen Ching shortly before 5 p.m., the aisles between tables teemed with humanity in a bustling, standing-room-only dining room. Jimmy Jeng’s also was crowded, with a second dining room booked for the evening.

Yen Ching was open from 1 p.m. until 9 p.m., and Jimmy Jeng’s from 4:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.

Yen Ching co-owner Charlie Chang recalled a Christmas a few years ago when a woman burst into his restaurant and broke into tears.

“They were looking for a restaurant, and they couldn’t find any restaurant that was open, and she was so excited she was crying,” Chang said. “It is a tradition for a lot of families to come here on this day.”

[pict: ERIN McCRACKEN / Courier & Press From left, Aaryn Clayton, Kylie Clayton and Patrick Hocking eat their traditional Christmas Day dinner at Yen Ching, a Chinese restaurant at 406 S. Green River Road. "We started coming four years ago for Christmas dinner," said Cindy Hocking, Patrick Hocking's wife. "It takes the stress of cooking a big meal away. We can come here relax, have a great meal and really enjoy each other's company."]

New tradition

Jeng began opening his 10-year-old restaurant on Christmas Day in 2007 because some of his most loyal customers persistently had requested it.

“We have no alcohol, and it is a good day,” Jeng said before dashing back out onto the main dining room floor to help handle a rapidly developing crush of customers.

Sisters Megan and Tosha Rodriquez, who are students at Ivy Tech Community College, didn’t come to Yen Ching as longtime loyalists or seekers of a new holiday tradition. They came because Denny’s wasn’t open.

The sisters, who spent the earlier part of the day with family members, were excited about the clothes they received as presents and about the excuse to break out of their daily routines.

They said they would likely go to a movie later in the evening. “It’s just another day,” Megan Rodriquez said with a laugh. “A good day.”

bron: www.courierpress.com [25-12-2009]

Band of Canadian robbers targeting `cash-only’ Chinese diners

The cashier at Congee Wong Restaurant carefully eyes every person who walks in.

The Richmond Hill business, squished into a strip plaza just off Highway 7, was robbed in October. In November, the same bandits came back for seconds.

In both incidents, three men rushed into the restaurant, their faces covered with bandanas and hoods. Threatening the staff and the diners with guns and knives, the thieves snatched the cash from the register before running off.

The holdups are a part of a rash of robberies targeting Chinese restaurants. Police say a group of thieves is behind seven robberies in Markham and Richmond Hill since August, and a handful more in northern Scarborough.

Most of the targeted eateries have signs attached to their windows advertising that they’re “cash only.”

“It’s an invitation to robbers,” said York Region Police Chief Armand La Barge.

La Barge and fellow police brass met with members of the Richmond Hill and Markham Chinese Business Association on Thursday to discuss ways to tackle the problem.

Officers have visited scores of local Chinese restaurants over the past few weeks, talking with owners and making recommendations on how to prevent a holdup: invest in credit card machines, don’t leave the back door unlocked, maintain and test surveillance cameras.

Yet some of the restaurants have taken more drastic measures, said Jane Ng, general manager of the business association.

Emperor Fine Cuisine, which was robbed Dec. 4, has a buzzer. Patrons have to be vetted through the glass before they can enter.

Meanwhile, Ng said she knows of a Woodbine Ave. restaurant that didn’t report a robbery to police, and suspects there are more. “They don’t report, to prevent future revenge from the robbers,” she said. Others are afraid the news will scare off clientele.

bron: www.thestar.com [11-12-2009]

Four Canadians charged in Chinese-restaurant robberies

Four people face 200 charges in a series of Chinese-restaurant robberies in the Greater Toronto Area, police announced today.

Since June 17, authorities allege, three men and one youth targeted nearly a dozen Chinese restaurants and a bank. The accused allegedly assaulted the employees and customers, robbing them of cash and personal property.

Yesterday, the Toronto police hold-up squad, working with York Regional Police, executed warrants at five Toronto homes and for two vehicles, during which they reportedly seized a sawed-off shotgun, ammunition, a replica handgun, a knife and a quantity of cash.

Jordan Wilson, 19; Gary Hanson, 20; Raseedi McKenley, 25; and a 16-year-old boy, whose name cannot be released under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, face a total of 200 charges, including robbery, firearms and property-related offences. They are scheduled to appear at the Old City Hall courthouse tomorrow morning.

bron: network.nationalpost.com [11-12-2009]

Robbers Target Chinese Restaurant, cash taken, Fairfield Police Say

In America: Two men robbed a Chinese restaurant and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash Thursday night, Fairfield police said.

The men entered Frank and Yuens Chinese Restaurant at 1955 W. Texas St. around 9:30 p.m., police said. Employees and patrons were ordered to get on the ground. The robbers, one of whom was armed, took cash from the register, Sgt. Daniel Marshall said. The robbers then confronted an employee in the back kitchen area.

The armed robber fired a shot from a black, semi-automatic handgun in the employee’s direction, Marshall said. The employee was not injured.The robbers were last seen heading north away from the restaurant.

The armed robber was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall and about 180 pounds. He was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and black pants. He had a black mask around his mouth and was carrying a red backpack, police said.Witnesses did not give a description of the second robber.

bron: www.kcra.com [14-12-2009]

Fifteen People Injured in Fire at Chinese Restaurant in Hamilton Heights, America

Fifteen people, including nine police officers, were injured Tuesday when a grease fire ripped through a Chinese restaurant on Broadway, authorities said.

[The New Home Sing Restaurant at 3355 Broadway in Hamilton Heights after it was destroyed by a grease fire on Dec. 8, 2009. (Jon Schuppe/DNAinfo)]

The 11:14 a.m. fire started in the kitchen of New Home Sing Restaurant at 3555 Broadway, near W. 136th Street. The flames leapt to the ceiling and engulfed the one-story building, said Vicky Cheng, whose husband owns the restaurant.

A half-dozen workers fled the place unhurt, she said.

[Inside the New Home Sing Restaurant at 3355 Broadway in Hamilton Heights, which was destroyed by a grease fire on Dec. 8, 2009. (Jon Schuppe/DNAinfo)]

Police officers and firefighters arrived soon afterward, authorities said. Nine officers and five firefighters were taken to Harlem Hospital with minor injuries. Most likely suffered from smoke inhalation, New York Fire Department spokesman Frank Dwyer said.

One additional victim suffered minor injuries. Officials and witnesses were not immediately able to identify the victim.

The restaurant was gutted by the time the fire was under control at about 12:30 p.m. About 60 firefighters ended up responding to the scene, some searching two adjacent six-story apartment buildings for possible victims of smoke inhalation.

Two neighborhoring businesses, a barber shop and a laundromat, reeked of smoke but were not damaged, workers said.

Cheng said her family has owned the restaurant since 2001. They inherited it from her father-in-law who rebuilt the business after it was destroyed in a 1983 fire.

“Now we will have to renovate again,” Cheng said.

Bron: http://www.dnainfo.com

In England: Takeway workers ‘illegal’

Two men are set to be deported after being found working illegally at a Chinese takeaway in Norfolk.

The pair, a 38-year-old from China and a 49-year-old Malaysian, were found working at the Hong Kong Chinese Takeaway in Hemsby, near Yarmouth.

The Malaysian had overstayed his visa and the Chinese man was found to have entered the country illegally.

bron: www.teletext.co.uk

Gunmen rob Chinese restaurant in Portsmouth

Two black men with guns robbed a Chinese restaurant in Portsmouth.

They got cash from Hay Hing Chinese Restaurant on Deep Creek Blvd. on the evening of November 28.

Police say one suspect acted as a lookout as the other robbed the employees.

Authorities released surveillance camera images of the suspects, both of whom wore black clothing.

If you know anything about this robbery that can help police, call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

bron: www.wvec.com [1-12-2009]

Deliveryman robbed of $400 in Elyria, America

A deliveryman was robbed of $400 at gunpoint Thursday evening while delivering food to the Midview Crossing apartments in the 1800 block of Middle Ave.

China Wok took a food order around 6:15 p.m. for an apartment in M building, but when the 38-year-old deliveryman arrived, he was confronted by three men wearing black coats and stocking caps, police said.

Deliveryman Ai Qiu Lin told police one of the males pointed a black handgun at him and demanded his money. Lin gave the robbers $400 and ran from the area.

The deliveryman told security at the front gate what had happened. The guard at the complex told police he spotted a 17-year-old girl, often mistaken for a male because of her short hair, wearing a black coat and black stocking cap just after the incident near M building.

The security guard told police the girl and an unknown male jumped the fence and ran away when they spotted him.

bron: chronicle.northcoastnow.com [14-11-2009]