Hungry thief's night out in a US restaurant

New York: A hungry thief broke into a restaurant in a New Jersey town, cooked himself a meal of rice and chicken and then left his dirty dishes and fled the scene, police said Wednesday.

The incident occurred during the weekend at the Matsu Sushi Grill restaurant in Hillsdale, a town northwest of New York City with a population of around 10,000, where the "culinary thief" broke in through an exhaust fan, raided the freezer and took some chicken before cooking it with rice in a frying pan, the Telegraph reported.

After eating the meal, the burglar, yet to be identified, left a pile of dirty dishes and even ignored $200 left in the cash register.

The incident has left officials in the town baffled with no witnesses seeing the burglar break into the restaurant, while nothing else was taken.

A police official, Detective Robert Francaviglia, said the burglar ignored $200 that was in the cash register. "He just wanted food, that's it," Francaviglia said.

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"He went in and pulled out a plate, got some chicken out of the freezer, got a rice box and fried up the chicken and rice in the frying pan. After he ate, he left," the police official was quoted as saying.

The thief may even have been a "homeless person searching for food", he said.

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