September 29, 2020
After a series of break ins, the owner of San Diego's Trevi Ristorante conducted his own overnight stakeout that resulted in the apprehension of two burglars.
Trevi Ristorante had been burglarized three times in the past week, so owner Ramero Romero decided enough was enough. Along with his two sons and a trusted friend, the team planned a sting operation in an attempt to catch the serial burglars. Ramero waited on the restaurant's roof while his sons watched the eatery from across the street and his family friend kept lookout from behind.
"Last night would have been the 4th burglary, but they got caught," explained Jonathan Romero, son of Trevi Ristorante owner. "The first burglary was on September 24 - two guys got inside the restaurant and managed to take the safe. The second was this past Friday, the following night right after they first did it, again they got there around 3am. They got into our food trucks behind the restaurant and took all our belongings, food and drinks. They came back again on Sunday night, the third time. They came around the same time each night, around 3am. They tried to get into the trucks again but we had them locked so they siphoned gas and took parts of our chrome rims from the truck. We figured they would come again to try and take the rest of the rims, so me, my dad, my brother and my friend decided to stay at the restaurant last night and the burglars came at the same time again. My friend saw them coming into the alley and then they started trying to lift the truck to steal the rims. They got so comfortable and thought we weren't going to do anything!"
The burglars had driven up and parked a Toyota 4 Runner in the alley behind the eatery and two men went through a gate to the restaurant's rear private entrance to get to the food trucks. Jonathan called 911 and police arrived, quickly taking one of the attempted burglars into custody before the other fled to a nearby rooftop. Officers eventually caught up to the second assailant and subdued him with a stun gun. Both men were taken into police custody. The SUV was reportedly stolen.
Trevi Ristorante & Pizzarea is located at 4703 Federal Boulevard in San Diego's Webster neighborhood.
