{"id":29335,"date":"2026-05-05T18:02:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/29335\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:02:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:02:03","slug":"owners-shock-as-cctv-shows-plant-being-taken-from-bills-kitchen-chinese-takeaway-in-castle-road-chatham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/29335\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner\u2019s shock as CCTV shows plant being taken from Bill\u2019s Kitchen Chinese takeaway in Castle Road, Chatham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The owner of a Chinese takeaway has described her shock at watching CCTV footage of a plant being taken from inside.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cmoney tree\u201d had been a fixture of Bill\u2019s Kitchen in Castle Road, Chatham, for 15 years after being given as a gift.<\/p>\n<p>But the owner, Hongyan Zhu, says footage recorded at 5.20pm this evening shows a man removing the plant and carrying it into a car before driving away.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Zhu told KentOnline she and her team were working in the kitchen at the time and did not hear anything. Staff had left the front door open due to the heat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThree people arrived in a dark blue car. One woman came in first and looked around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen a man came in, picked up my money tree, and walked straight out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey put it into the car and all left together.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 675 497\" alt=\"CCTV image of a man who entered the takeaway\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"P40S85T57NQ4C27JWBT8.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.36\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/P40S85T57NQ4C27JWBT8.jpg\" alt=\"CCTV image of a man who entered the takeaway\"\/>CCTV image of a man who entered the takeaway<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe whole thing only took a few minutes. We were busy in the kitchen, so we didn\u2019t hear anything. They didn\u2019t order anything &#8211; they just came in, took the plant, and left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms Zhu, who has reported the incident to police, says the money tree held deep personal value.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis plant has been there since I took over the shop. It was a special opening gift from my father, wishing us good fortune,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>A money tree, also known as Pachira aquatica, is a popular houseplant often associated with good luck and prosperity.<\/p>\n<p>It is commonly kept in homes and businesses, particularly in Chinese culture, as a symbol of wealth and fortune.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 275 238\" alt=\"CCTV footage shows a man outside Bill&#x2019;s Kitchen in Castle Road, Chatham, placing the plant into a dark blue car\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"S5JZQNK8WVH8Z0RVDKX4.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.16\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/S5JZQNK8WVH8Z0RVDKX4.jpg\" alt=\"CCTV footage shows a man outside Bill&#x2019;s Kitchen in Castle Road, Chatham, placing the plant into a dark blue car\"\/>CCTV footage shows a man outside Bill\u2019s Kitchen in Castle Road, Chatham, placing the plant into a dark blue car<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 647 773\" alt=\"The front of Bill&#x2019;s Kitchen in Castle Road, Chatham, where a large leafy money tree can be seen inside by the window before it was taken.\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"NUZG4H0WVKN06J2CM3M9.jpg\" data-ar=\"0.84\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/NUZG4H0WVKN06J2CM3M9.jpg\" alt=\"The front of Bill&#x2019;s Kitchen in Castle Road, Chatham, where a large leafy money tree can be seen inside by the window before it was taken.\"\/>The front of Bill\u2019s Kitchen in Castle Road, Chatham, where a large leafy money tree can be seen inside by the window before it was taken.<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 655 743\" alt=\"Empty space where the money tree used to be in the takeaway\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"W4YCJ6WZMY5XE1VSDUJN.jpg\" data-ar=\"0.88\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/W4YCJ6WZMY5XE1VSDUJN.jpg\" alt=\"Empty space where the money tree used to be in the takeaway\"\/>Empty space where the money tree used to be in the takeaway<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve taken great care of it over the years. It\u2019s very hard for me to accept,\u201d Ms Zhu added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just hope the person will return it, because its value cannot really be measured.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kent Police has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of a Chinese takeaway has described her shock at watching CCTV footage of a plant being&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[61,309,355,1118,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-29335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-kent","10":"tag-medway","11":"tag-syndicate","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116523286111880334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}