Crab Leg Chaos: Fights for the Coveted Buffet Item Force Restaurants to Get Creative

When crab legs come out at the buffet, it can be chaos and sometimes things even get violent. 

In Alabama, a woman was charged with assaulting an elderly man when police say a fight broke out over crab legs in February. The man suffered a cut to his head. 

Another video online shows absolute mayhem at a buffet in New York City over crab legs. And still more footage captured a customer barging into a kitchen at another restaurant to ask for more crab legs after they ran out. 

Now, some restaurants are carefully dishing them out to cut down on the chaos.

Rocky Abdallah, who owns La Grande Buffet in Fairview, New Jersey, told Inside Edition crab legs are undoubtedly the star of his buffet and the customers can't get enough of them. 

"What have you done at your restaurant to control people from getting violent over the crab legs?" Inside Edition's Chief Investigative Correspondent Lisa Guerrero asked. 

"I just decided to move them behind the counter and give two to everybody so we can make everybody happy," Abdallah replied. 

But just for Inside Edition, the owner put out the crab legs on the buffet to show how fast they're snapped up. 

In 42 seconds, all the legs were gone, taken by just three customers. 

"One person takes everything and then everyone starts fighting about it," Abdallah said of his decision to move the legs out of reach.

But most buffets offer self-serve crab legs. Inside Edition visited another buffet in Queens, New York, where one man scooped up heaps of crab legs as soon as they were brought out. He was then joined by his buddy. 

"Are you going to leave some for anybody else?" asked Guerrero. They ignored her. "Alright, two guys took almost all of the crab legs."

At another buffet a few miles away, two men totally cleaned out a fresh tray of crab legs in seconds. 

"People go crazy for crab legs. It's a crab leg war out here!" one customer pointed out.

So if you have a craving for crabs at the buffet, you may want to come early to avoid the pandemonium or go to a place that hands them out. 

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