A Thai restaurant in Evansville, Indiana, faced off with a plumber in an absurd feud that ended in an act so petty it’s almost admirable.
Thai Bistro & Bar found itself knee-deep in grease when their kitchen’s trap started barfing up an oily mess. Its owners called in Heavrin Plumbing to fix the issue. $235 worth of work later, the problem was solved.
Then the trap backed up again. This time, the owners of the restaurant said it was an emergency. The plumber fixed it, but this time, the bill had ballooned to $390, with the plumbers claiming that they charged extra for work after their usual work hours.
“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it, like okay is this really happening?,” said Jesse Sanders, Operations Manager for Thai Bistro and Bar.
Grease Trap Held Hostage In Feud Between Plumber And Thai Restaurant
Thai Bistro was not happy. They weren’t so much displeased with the bill as much as they were annoyed that the problem didn’t get fixed the first time around. They were so mad that the owners of Thai Bistro and Bar refused to pay the second bill. Sanders was quoted as saying, “It’s not about the money, it’s about him just standing behind his work.”
This is around the point when everyone should take a step back and maybe take some deep breaths to maintain a level head so things don’t escalate.
No one did any of that.
The next day, the plumber allegedly popped back in, uninvited this time, and inflated a balloon inside Thai Bistro and Bar’s grease trap. He was giving the owners of the restaurant an ultimatum. Of course, using the word “ultimatum” there makes it all sound a little too classy.
He didn’t give them an ultimatum as much as he was threatening them the way Tony Soprano would order Paulie Walnuts to mess with the business of a guy who didn’t pay. The plumber put the balloon in the grease trap and said he was not going to remove it until the restaurant paid up. He gave them one hour.
If he wasn’t paid by then, he was going to leave for the weekend with their grease trap re-clogged. Leaving the balloon meant the grease trap would eventually overflow, filling the restaurant with disgusting grease trap muck that Sanders admits would’ve been more than enough to basically shut the restaurant down.
In his defense, Heavrin Plumbing’s owner Joel Heavrin told local news he doesn’t offer warranties for drain cleaning because he doesn’t “have a magic wand” to erase years of sludge. Fair. But maybe you don’t have to employ mob enforcer tactics to get your point across.
Eventually, the police showed up to mediate. Thai Bistro paid—under protest—and Heavrin got rid of the balloon. The cops told Heavrin he could’ve just settled this in Small Claims Court. To this, he told 14news.com, “Frankly it was not worth me pursuing it in court. It was not worth my time, just wasn’t worth it for me.”
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