Never saw anything like this before:
Owner sues in ‘theft’ of deli
A Yemeni immigrant is accusing a fellow country man of hijacking his Washington Heights deli over the winter while he returned to Yemen for six months to save his family from the civil war.
Yaser Hidais claims in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that he left his profitable Presbyterian Deli in the hands of “friend” Fathi Al-Qabili.
But when Hidais returned from Yemen in March, Al-Qabili claimed he was now the owner and refused to let Hidais in the deli, a block from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
Meanwhile, Hidais says the store’s landline, liquor license, cigarette license, insurance policy and food stamp license all remain in his name.
Al-Qabili could not be reached for comment. A man behind the deli counter declined to comment. — Frank Miller and Barbara Ross, The Daily News