One of the competitors at the Fourth of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island cheated to get into a finishing slot that had a cash prize, event organizers determined after looking at the videotape, USA Today reports.
Fourth-place finisher Nick Wehry was spotted fussing around his eating station after the contest ended and moving a plate from a competitor’s section to his. Judges at the event in realtime count an empty plate as five hot dogs, the amount served on each. By moving the plate, Wehry was credited with eating 51.75 hot dogs, not the 46.75 dogs he actually choked down, taking the $1,000 prize for fourth place; fifth place didn’t win a cash prize.
After reviewing the tape, however, judges saw Wehry move a plate that should have been credited to another competitor, but Major League Eating, the governing board for the gluttony, declined to change the finishing order announced at the time, allowing Wehry to keep the prize. Professional eaters rarely make enough to live on, but it’s a way to put food on the table.