Moment family 'plant hair in child's meal' at pub amid row over macaroni cheese - before 'stealing ketchup bottle, ice cream bowl and teaspoon'

Published: 19:03, 2 June 2026 | Updated: 19:05, 2 June 2026 A restaurant has accused customers of planting a hair in their child's meal during a row over macaroni cheese. The family visited The Woolpack on Manchester Road, Haslingden on a Saturday night (May 30) without a reservation. During the meal, they told staff that they had found a hair in their child's macaroni cheese. The dish was immediately removed and replaced free of charge, as the chef offered to make a fresh meal of their choice. However the replacement meal was then taken home as the child had already eaten the majority of their original dish. Staff were left puzzled by the mistake as the hair in question was 'notably long' and could not have come from their chef. After the family left, the pub reviewed its CCTV footage and discovered that the hair had been placed there by the family.   The footage shows the moment that one of the adults grabbed a plate from the child sitting opposite her and appeared to stir the hair into the meal. A woman appeared to pull a hair from her head at the pub in Manchester Road, Haslingden She was seen on CCTV taking the plate from her child opposite before calling staff over The customer complained to staff about a hair in the meal and was offered a replacement free of charge Staff said that further CCTV footage also appeared to show a bottle of ketchup being concealed in a child's hat before they left the premises. The customers also allegedly made off with an ice cream bowl and a teaspoon. In a statement posted the next day, the pub defended its staff and said they had acted professionally throughout the incident. They wrote: 'Running a small hospitality business is challenging enough without having to deal with false complaints, threats of social media campaigns, and missing tableware.  'We are incredibly proud of our team, who handled the situation with patience, professionalism, and far more restraint than most people would manage.  'We believe businesses have the right to defend themselves against dishonest behaviour just as customers have the right to raise genuine concerns.  'We will always take legitimate complaints seriously and do everything we can to put things right. However, we will not stay silent when accusations are demonstrably untrue. 'To our loyal customers: thank you for your continued support. And to anyone who may have accidentally gone home with a ketchup bottle, an ice cream bowl, and a teaspoon last night, our lost property box is always available.' The Facebook post has attracted more than 150 comments. One wrote: 'Wow! The brass neck.' Another said: 'That's disgusting. Shocking behaviour. Thankfully you have far more appreciative and supportive customers. Always a good meal and great hospitality every time.' A third added: 'That is disgraceful she is awful' while another said 'It's truly shameful and shameless how some people wish to go about living their lives. Imagine just ripping people off in this way?' Another commented: 'Your establishment is the best. You're always our favourite place to go too. Never had a bad meal. It's always perfect. You accommodate our large family and always go above and beyond. People like that don't deserve your amazing pub and your outstanding staff. Shame on them, it's a reflection of their low life behaviour.' No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.