America's Greatest Villain: I Defeat Magic with Magic

The other party's arrogance was so overbearing that even Emily and Hu Dan, who were standing nearby, showed expressions of indignation.

Emily put her hands on her hips, ready to have a serious talk with the other party.

But Chen Yuan remained calm. He reached out to stop Emily and smiled:

"Don't worry, our technicians are adjusting the image clarity."

After saying that, he picked up his phone and sent a voice message:

"Anna, we can begin!"

As soon as he finished speaking, sure enough, the wide-angle surveillance footage on the TV began to zoom in like a telephoto lens in a movie, until the scene of Margaret's family having dinner filled the entire TV screen.

Although the image was still dark and details were not clearly visible, the outlines of three people eating could be vaguely seen.

Margaret gave a cold laugh. Even with the image zoomed in, she was still just a dark shadow, and the details of her eating with the two children were not clearly visible.

However, what happened next was astonishing!

Suddenly, the scene slowed down, like a stop-motion animation frame by frame.

And each blurry frame gradually becomes clear from top to bottom at the moment it freezes.

The originally dark figures gradually revealed their true colors and details. Soon, even Margaret's own expression and the subtle hand movements of the two children while eating became clearly discernible on the big screen.

In no time, the television screen froze on the most crucial frame.

In the scene, Margaret is discreetly pulling a small wad of reflective metallic filament from her pocket.

Although the wire was only half the length of a finger, it was captured clearly in the adjusted image.

The next frame shows Margaret handing the wire to one of the children.

The third frame shows the seven or eight-year-old boy, under his mother's watchful eye, unhesitatingly stuffing a metal wire along with a piece of freshly cut beef into his mouth.

Clearly, this mother and the boy were not doing this for the first time; they were already quite adept at it.

Margaret stared in astonishment at the clear surveillance footage on the screen, speechless.

It should be noted that before officially carrying out this "extortion" operation, Margaret had visited Rongding Pavilion several times to scout the location.

In addition, she was a repeat offender and had some knowledge of the surveillance equipment commonly used in small restaurants.

Therefore, she knew very well that the restaurant used relatively old-fashioned surveillance cameras, which could not capture details clearly if the distance was too far and the camera was in a backlit position.

But why is the surveillance footage on the screen suddenly so clear at this moment?

Little did she know that Anna had used video AI algorithms to compensate for the exposure of each frame, making the originally backlit and dark surveillance video brighter and clearer.

Since using AI in video post-production is still a relatively new technology, Margaret never imagined that it could be used to improve the clarity of surveillance videos.

The crowd in the restaurant was in an uproar. Although the television screen was still playing slowly, the outcome was already obvious.

It was Margaret and her children who orchestrated this disgusting fraudulent farce in an attempt to avoid paying for their meals.

Margaret, as a mother, actually made her child eat metal wire in order to extort money from the restaurant!

The diners who had been observing her earlier began to cast disdainful and disgusted glances at her.

"Alright, Ms. Margaret," Chen Yuan said expressionlessly, staring at her without any politeness, "Your meal will cost $280, plus the tip, making it $300. Credit card or cash?"

With the evidence irrefutable, any further attempts to argue will only bring shame upon themselves.

Margaret's arrogant face turned pale instantly. She wanted to escape this awful place immediately, but the young man in front of her blocked her only way out.

Left with no other choice, she gritted her teeth, trembling as she pulled a gold credit card from the hidden compartment of her designer handbag, and slammed it onto the table with great resentment.

"I'll pay, okay?"

Chen Yuan picked up his credit card and quickly completed the transaction using the POS machine.

But instead of returning the credit card, he examined it carefully for a moment, then suddenly gave a meaningful smile:

"This credit card probably doesn't belong to you, Ms. Margaret?"

Chen Yuan wanted to make this conman who ate and dashed pay a price that was far more than just the cost of a meal.

Her outburst here not only disgusted the surrounding diners but also damaged the image of Rongding Pavilion. Making her pay only $300 for the meal would be too lenient.

This Latina woman not only possesses a natural political correctness in terms of her identity, but the two underage children accompanying her are also her life-saving charm.

In a place like California, even if the LAPD were to come, they would most likely choose to smooth things over and let Chen Yuan settle things peacefully, out of consideration for the young and vulnerable minds of minors.

After all, $300 is really not a big deal, far below the $950 threshold for filing a case.

However, Chen Yuan was confident. The reason he had his new employee Anna pull up the surveillance video was not only to prove Margaret's staged accident, but also to force her to take out her credit card to pay the bill.

Because the credit card in her hand, and even the designer clothes and bags she was wearing, didn't belong to her at all!

[Target: Margaret, a professional refund scammer.]

[Recent criminal activity: The target stole clothing, a designer handbag, and multiple credit cards from a white housewife in the locker room of a gym in the next block two hours ago.]

Clearly, the credit card that Margaret pulled out of her bag also belonged to the unfortunate owner who had been stolen.

Now that she has used the stolen credit card to pay for a $300 meal, her actions have immediately escalated from a "common consumer dispute" to a federal felony of credit card fraud!

Add to that her designer clothes and bags, and the total amount involved must be several thousand dollars, enough to put her in jail for a while.

At that moment, a red and blue ambient light flashed outside the door, and an LAPD patrol car was seen parked on the side of the street outside the window.

Before Chen Yuan came out to confront Margaret, he had already dialed 911, and now he finally arrived belatedly.

Margaret turned deathly pale and screamed desperately:

"I am the cardholder of this credit card. What makes you think I stole it?"

As a professional fraudster who has been walking the line between law and reality for many years, Margaret knows very well that even if you use a credit card to swipe a POS machine, it will only display a transaction number and the last few digits of the card number, and will not reveal the cardholder's name.

But Chen Yuan persisted: "Since the evidence of your extortion is right here on the security camera footage, it's reasonable for me to suspect you of credit card fraud. Tell the officer what you have to say!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a white police officer in uniform walked in.

It was a familiar face in this neighborhood, Los Angeles Police Department South Precinct Patrolman Lister.