Police officials yesterday said they have ruled out foul play after a man was found dead in a Taipei Internet cafe, with the on-duty manager and patrons believing he was sleeping.
The cafe manager, surnamed Tsao (曹), at about 4pm on Tuesday called emergency services, who confirmed the death of the 65-year-old man, surnamed Chiang (江).
Tsao told police that Chiang was a regular customer who came in the day before at about 9pm.
“We thought he was just snoozing. His eyes were closed and his head was resting on the chair,” Tsao said. “Many do this, so we thought it was normal.”
“However, he did not move for many hours, so I checked on him. It was a shock to find he was not breathing,” Tsao said.
Chiang’s body was stiff and showed no sign of external injuries, police said, adding that they would await an autopsy, but preliminary investigations indicated he died suddenly, most likely of a stroke or cardiac arrest.
The owner of the cafe, surnamed Liu (劉), told reporters: “Chiang was not a gamer. He came in to surf the Internet, read news Web sites and would occasionally snooze. He did not play online games; that is mostly for the younger crowd.”
“Young people, and those without much money stay overnight because the rates are cheaper,” Liu said, adding that Chiang was from a low-income family and worked collecting recyling.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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