Could this be the world’s most determined Nando’s delivery man? He brought a high stakes auction to a grinding halt when he arrived to deliver a ‘Halaal combo’ to someone among the bidders at a High Street Auction Co property sale at swanky SummerPlace in Hyde Park, Joburg.
The amused but slightly astonished HSA lead auctioneer, Joff van Reenen, says that after more than 20 years in the industry he assumed he’d be able to wing it through just about any scenario and still maintain momentum on the block during a sale.
“One couldn’t in a million years dream up an auction contingency plan for a man on such a resolute mission, though, and especially not involving fast food. Lesser men – faced with an audience of hundreds on the sale floor and an auctioneer in full cry – would have chickened out and flown the coop!” says Van Reenen.
“But this man’s resolve was so left field that I faltered for a fleeting moment; the first time it’s happened to me in years!”
Van Reenen actually stopped the auction for South Africa’s most determined ambassador of Peri-Peri henhouse delicacies to ask High Street’s high-roller audience who had ordered the “Halaal combo with extra cheese” – after first enquiring whether the delivery was a Quarter Pounder.
Perhaps not surprisingly under the circumstances there wasn’t a peep from the famished spicy fowl fan, and the meal went unclaimed.