San Diego Restaurant Vandalized Following Attempted Theft

January 25, 2024

The Food Box restaurant in San Diego's Pacific Beach was vandalized after individuals were caught trying to steal food. 

"It all happened around 8pm on January 24th," wrote the proprietor of The Food Box eatery in San Diego's Pacific Beach. "Two guys came in, one of them wearing a balaclava, which seemed suspicious to me. The other one grabbed the orders that we had ready for pickup and ran away. We left after them, on the corner there were two others waiting for them with their bicycles. We were able to recover the food, but 5 minutes later they returned and threw a rock that broke a window and a TV. If the TV had not been there the stone would have hit me. Yesterday they reported to me that these four guys also stole ice cream at nearby Yogurt on the Rocks, the owner of that place told me that it is not the first time they have done it."
The Food Box restaurant filed a police report after the encounter and the suspects are still at large. Surveillance video from both The Food Box and Yogurt on the Rocks captured images of the alleged assailants. 
The first U.S. location of Mexico-based burger destination The Food Box, which boasts more than 200,000 social media followers, opened in San Diego's Pacific Beach neighborhood in late 2022. The restaurant chain is the product of Juan Ángel Martinez, who in 2013 decided to sell his truck to help fund the addition of a new kitchen in his home in Monterrey, MX, in order to launch The Food Box as a home meal kit service. The business initially only sold an attractive box filled with a perfectly-grilled hamburger and fresh fried potatoes. The unconventional business eventually became so popular that Juan Angel expanded his menu and opened locations throughout Monterrey, Saltillo, and Mexico City. There are now more than a dozen locations of The Food Box sited around Mexico with the only U.S. branch located in San Diego's Pacific Beach.

Anyone with information related to this crime is asked to contact San Diego Crime Stoppers at sdcrimestoppers.org.