Louis Angel Ortiz New Haven, Connecticut man busted breaking into local Soul De Cuba Cafe restaurant during coronavirus lockdown, eating and drinking thousands of dollars of provisions.
How’s your appetite going during coronavirus lockdown…?
A New Haven, Connecticut man has been accused of breaking into a restaurant closed due to the coronavirus lockdown and spending four days gorging eating and drinking thousands of dollars worth of the eatery’s supplies.
According to a Facebook statement from the New Haven Police Department, officers responded to Soul De Cuba Cafe on Crown Street at around 11.30am on Tuesday after getting a call from the establishment’s manager, saying that he found a stranger sleeping inside the shuttered business.
Officers tracked down the suspect, identified as 42-year-old Louis Angel Ortiz, to a location near the ransacked restaurant and found him to be in possession of a bottle of rum stolen from Soul De Cuba.
Investigators reviewed security footage from the eatery, which confirmed that the initial break-in took place four days earlier, on Saturday. Video showed Ortiz climbing into the locked business through a side window.
The 42-year-old man then allegedly ‘helped himself over the course of four days to the restaurant’s food, liquor, and beer,’ according to the release.
But there’s more.
Along with feasting on refreshments, police say the intruder also took some ‘beverages and property’ to go. Why decline?
Management of the eatery estimate Ortiz illicitly consuming or removing thousands of dollars worth of provisions, including 70 bottles of liquor. Why decline?
Soul De Cuba had been closed since mid-March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, with the Hartford Courant reporting a manager had been routinely visiting the establishment to make sure it was secure. It wasn’t.
Ortiz has since been booked into the local jail on felony counts of burglary, larceny and criminal mischief. At his arraignment on Friday, Ortiz’s bail was set at $10,500.
Ortiz is next scheduled to appear in court May 27.
Not immediately clear is whether jail officials have been able to facilitate their new jail guest with the gourmet morsels he has become accustomed to….
