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Restaurant Health Inspector Caught on Tape
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 4, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 4, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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A new shocking Health Department-related video has emerged, but there are no rats in this one. Apparently, a restaurant inspector looks like he's sleeping at a restaurant's bar area before handing over a notice of inspection failure!
The Post reveals that the unnamed Manhattan restaurant had previously hired a restaurant consulting firm after being failed last year. The firm, S.A.F.E., managed to get the fines dismissed on a technicality because the inspector "had written the wrong date on the report," and the Health Department sent Jonathan Morales for a follow-up inspection. But Morales's inspection actions were very odd. From the Post:
The video shows the inspector strolling into the eatery wearing a T-shirt at 3:10 p.m. After a few minutes at the bar, he walks off-camera with a restaurant employee - presumably inspecting another part of the restaurant.
When he reappears 10 minutes later, he is seen going behind the bar, where he looks around for another 10 minutes.
At 3:44 p.m., he parks at the bar for the next hour and a half.
At first he is seen writing on a stack of paper, off and on.
Within half an hour, his activity slows down dramatically. He is seen rubbing his head, stretching and taking out a newspaper to thumb through.
On a couple of occasions, his head droops down on the bar - at one point for what looks like a brief catnap.
In the end, Morales hands over his notice of inspection failure to an employee.
The restaurant was also fined $1,400 in violations. Apparently Morales claimed his visit took two hours, even though he seems to have spent 20 minutes actually inspecting. Naturally, the restaurant filed a complaint with the Health Department, where a supervisor said she's "rip up Morales' report and rescind the violations." The restaurant eventually passed inspection.
Ever since over three dozen rats were seen at a KFC-Taco Bell in the Village the day after the Health Department passed it, the Health Department has been under fire over its inspections. Morales was fired from the Health Department shortly after the incident. He told the Post that he wasn't sleeping and that the Health Department doesn't provide good training for inspectors. Like how to put the proper date on a form? We shudder to think how many other restaurants manage to have inspection failures thrown out because of technicalities like that.
Tagged
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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