A Famed California Chef Was Arrested After Allegedly Robbing 3 Banks In A Day
We've all heard about chefs behaving badly, but not often to this extent. ABC News reports that one Bay Area chef, known for his expertise in Italian cuisine, was arrested last week for robbing not one, but three banks in the span of one day.
Valentino Luchin, 62, of San Francisco, allegedly began his spree around noon in Chinatown, passing a note to an employee that demanded money. After he took off with the cash, two more banks were also robbed nearby in a similar fashion. Luchin was taken into custody on September 10, identified through tips to the police.
Luchin, an experienced chef, used to work as the executive chef at a restaurant called Rose Pistola in San Francisco. Later he would open a place called Ottavio, as both the owner and executive chef. Ottavio closed in 2016, which is when all the trouble began — this isn't Luchin's first run-in with the police, nor is this the first time he's been nabbed for robbing a bank.
Luchin has served time for a previous bank robbery
Valentino Luchin was also charged in a 2018 bank robbery case in nearby Contra Costa County. He blamed his financial struggles on his restaurant Ottavio closing, and the stresses of needing to support his family. Luchin would end up pleading no contest to one count of second-degree robbery, and was sentenced to one year in county jail, followed by three years of probation.
He was interviewed by local station KGO-TV in 2018 from jail during that time, and recounted, "I went inside and said 'good morning. Nobody move. This is a robbery.'" Luchin also admitted to threatening the bank teller with a BB gun, and felt so poorly about the incident that he even wrote that employee an apology note from jail (maybe he should have just stolen a single refreshing soda, like one bank robber did).
Apparently things haven't gotten any better for Luchin. After this current robbery, his public defender, Kwixuan H. Maloof said in a statement that a recent job offer to Luchin had been withdrawn, causing him to become depressed. His bail is currently set at $200,000, but depending on how this ends up, let's hope he ends up with a proper job in a kitchen someday. It's not an easy profession, but at least it's a legal one.