Pricey fast-food hoax in China

A prankster ordered 4,700 yuan ($709) worth of pizza and fried chicken from Chinese takeout chains then failed to show up for his mountain of fast foody.

The bogus customer first rang up a branch of KFC on Tuesday morning, asking for dozens of chicken meals and drinks.

But when staff went to deliver the mammoth order to an office in Zhejiang Province, on China's eastern coast, there was nobody there to pay for it.

Meanwhile, workers at a nearby branch of Pizza Hut were frantically preparing around 60 pizzas to deliver to the same building. They too were shocked to discover, upon their arrival, that the 3,000 yuan ($452) order had been a hoax.

Police were trying to trace the culprit, who gave both fast food outlets a bogus phone number, the Modern Gold Express newspaper said.