Couple on movie date gets bitten by bugs in KL cinema

PETALING JAYA: A couple got more than they bargained for during a movie date on Thursday (Sept 6).

Aside from the thrills and screams from the latest horror flick The Nun, Pei En and her boyfriend Damien Chen were apparently bitten by bed bugs at a popular theatre located within a mall in Kuala Lumpur.

"In the middle of the movie, my boyfriend felt very uncomfortable caused of itchiness and keep scratching his lower back (sic).

"At first we didn't really pay much attention of it because we thought it might be just a mosquito bite until I began to feel itchy and start scratching my hand as well," Pei En wrote on her Facebook page.

She said when Chen turned on the flashlight on his phone, they noticed that part of her hand had swelled up.

They were also shocked when they saw bed bugs crawling under their seats.

"After we saw that and we went out from the hall immediately... We didn't manage to finish our movie and we made a simple report for ticket refund," she said.

Pei En also claimed that cinema staff there told them that this had been happening before.

"It's very disgusting and we're really disappointed that this happened to both of us. Please solve this issue before it happens to your next customer," she wrote.

Her post, which included photographs of her bug-bitten hand and Chen's back, received over 2,800 likes, and was shared over 4,000 times in the span of 24 hours. Many Facebook users expressed disgust over the incident.

When contacted by The Star, Pei En said that the cinema's customer relations department had sent Chen an email to apologise.

"An employee from the cinema has contacted me to apologise over the incident. He also said the company is willing to pay for the medical bill," she said.

Pei En added that the cinema operator should put in more effort to ensure such incidents do not recur in the future.