Coronavirus: Man breaks into shut-down restaurant, spends 4 days eating and drinking

‘Ortiz removed beverages and property from the building’

A man has been arrested after he broke into a restaurant to steal and consume thousands of dollars worth of food and drink, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Over the space of four days, Louis Angel Ortiz, helped himself to food and drink inside the Soul de Cuba Café, a restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut.

Police were made aware of Mr Ortiz’s trespassing by one of the managers on Tuesday, after they found him asleep and in possession of a bottle of rum, inside the restaurant.

The New Haven Police Department released a statement on Facebook, confirming that they were able to view his actions on CCTV footage.

“Investigators reviewed security video footage which confirmed the initial burglary occurred several days prior on Saturday when Ortiz made entry through a side window of the restaurant,” the statement read.

“Officers learned Ortiz helped himself over the course of four days to the restaurant’s food, liquor, and beer.”

The police department added that “in addition to eating and drinking at the restaurant, Ortiz removed beverages and property from the building.”

The management of the restaurant confirmed to the authorities that several thousand dollars worth of food and beverages, including 70 bottles of liquor, had been stolen or consumed.

Mr Ortiz was charged with burglary and larceny in the third degree, criminal mischief in the first degree, and failure to appear in the second degree on an outstanding East Haven warrant.

The police department added that Mr Ortiz “was held in lieu of $12,500 bail at the NHPD Union Avenue Detention Centre and transferred this morning to an arraignment hearing in New Haven Superior Court at 235 Church Street.”

Google’s dedicated coronavirus page shows that Connecticut has upwards of 12,035 confirmed cases and at least 554 deaths.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, nationally there are upwards of 671,493 people who have tested positive for coronavirus. The death toll has reached at least 33,288.