An outstanding chef from the Bay area was arrested last week for allegedly stealing three San Francisco banks in a single day, authorities said.
Valentino Luchin, 62, from San Francisco, was arrested on September 10 after allegedly approved notes demanding money from bankers in three separate locations in the central district of the city, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Your bond is established at $ 200,000.
The first incident occurred around 12:02 pm when Luchin supposedly entered a bank in Chinatown and approved a note to an employee who demanded money, police said. After receiving cash, he fled the scene. Supposedly two more banks were stolen in the central district in a similar way that same day.
Valentino Luchin was arrested for allegedly stealing three banks in San Francisco on the same day.
SFPD
The investigators, helped by SFPD ambassadors and community councils, identified Luchin as a suspect and arrested him without incident, said the police. He was admitted to the San Francisco County prison for charges of theft and attempted robbery, authorities said.
The arrest marked Luchin’s second brush with bank robbery charges. In 2018, he admitted to having stolen a Citibank in Orinda, California, making more than $ 15,000, According to an interview He gave the station owned by ABC News in San Francisco, Kgo, from MartÃnez’s detention center at that time.
During that interview, Luchin, a distinguished Italian chef known for his experience in regional cuisine and former owner of the Ottavio restaurant in Walnut Creek, blamed financial struggles after his establishment closed in 2016.
“We have been fighting a lot and I have a family,” he told Kgo. “It wasn’t something I was planning or doing to make a living.”
In the 2018 incident, the Orinda police said Luchin used what he later said it was a BB gun and was arrested within three hours of the robbery in a parking lot of an athletic club in Lafayette.
Before his legal problems, Luchin had built a reputation in the culinary world, working on the best restaurants around the world and specializing in the design of the menu and culinary management, According to a chef. He previously served as executive chef at the Italian restaurant in San Francisco Rose Pistola, where he was known for combining traditional Italian cuisine methods with innovative techniques.
