Being on the receiving end of intense internet virality is no fun (especially when you’re the one caught being the asshole), and Gary Lim is quickly moving to mend his reputation.
Lim, the 37-year-old boss of The Yang’s Traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice, was outed as the obnoxious ox who acted like a complete twat to a taxi driver, who caught the whole thing on video and uploaded it online. The clip showed a seemingly inebriated Lim blocking the cabbie from closing his car door, taunting the latter with wads of $1,000 notes.
Over the long weekend, online vigilantes sought out the identity of the man — and they actually got it right, apparently. Lim’s restaurants have since been bombarded by a number of bad reviews on Facebook and HungryGoWhere, as well as harassing phone calls. It got so bad that Lim lodged a police report, worried that the restaurant was under threat.
In his campaign to rectify his errors (and get harassers off his back) Lim has since apologized to the wronged taxi driver and, in a display of repentance, will have his restaurants prepare 200 packets of chicken rice for taxi drivers today.
“I drank too much that day, and cannot remember clearly what happened,” he said to Shin Min Daily. “I actually take taxis very often, and often talk to taxi drivers and get along with them very well, I really didn’t mean to offend the profession.”
The big stack of $1,000 notes he was carrying around? Lim explains that the money was meant to be passed to his suppliers, and admitted it was an act of “hao lian” (a Hokkien term referring to someone with an attitude problem) on his end. Apparently, he even tried to pay for his $12.45 taxi fare with a $1,000 note, which was probably one of the reasons why a squabble broke out in the first place.
“…I hope you’ll treat this as a lesson, keep moving forward, become more amicable, and not look down on other people’s jobs,” said the taxi driver to Lim, following his apology.
“Whether you are a cleaner, or a big boss, I feel this is a question of basic respect towards others.” Too true, brother.
