Employees at a California restaurant were forced to wrestle one of their robot co-workers away from a would-be thief.
The unidentified man was seen on surveillance footage obtained by ABC 7 entering Pho 21 restaurant in San Jose at 7.40am on January 19 – about 20 minutes before it was set to open – and asking to use the bathroom.
A woman who was working to set up the restaurant then directed the hooded man to the bathroom, at which point the man wrapped his arms around one of three robot servers and lifted it up.
He seemed to struggle, waddling as he carried the machine out of the eatery and to his car, which was backed into a spot right outside the entrance.
The man then tried to put the robot into the trunk of his car, as two employees came out running and yelling at him.
They struggled to get their robot coworker back, and were able to get the man to release the robot before they called local police.
It is unclear whether the man was ever arrested for the incident, and what motive he may have had for trying to steal the robot server.
The owner of Pho 21, Tony Ngo said it would be valued at $18,000, but would have been worthless to the would-be thief.
He explained that the device requires specialized programming to work, making it unusable outside of the restaurant.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported and the robot server is now back at its job, delivering pho to customers.