An Italian chef in California is facing charges for allegedly robbing three Bay Area banks in one day, several years after being accused of similar crime.
Valentino Luchin, 62, is charged with robbery, second-degree robbery and attempted robbery in connection with a string of bank robberies that took place on Sept. 10, the San Francisco Police Department said.
Shortly after noon on Sept. 10, officers responded to a bank on the 1100 block of Grant Avenue in the Central District for a report of a robbery. Witnesses reported that a male suspect entered the bank and passed a not to an employee demanding money. The employee complied and handed over a bag of cash before the suspect fled.
Police said two other bank robberies, with a similar suspect description and modus operandi (MO), took place in the Central District the same day.
After receiving leads from the community and SFPD Ambassadors, investigators identified Luchin as the suspect. He was apprehended without incident and booked into the San Francisco County Jail.
Born in Italy, Luchin moved to the U.S. in 1993 and quickly made a name for himself in the culinary world. The former executive chef at renowned Italian restaurant Rose Pistola in San Francisco went on to open his own restaurant, Ottavio in Walnut Creek, which shut down in 2016.
After his restaurant closed, Luchin ran into financial trouble, and in 2018 he was arrested on suspicion of robbing a bank in Orinda of around $18,000. In an interview with the East Bay Times at that time, Luchin appeared to admit to the crime, saying he was “very sorry.”
“I thought it was a good plan,” he told the outlet. “But it was not.” Luchin said that after the closure of his restaurant and entering bankruptcy, “everything went downhill.”
“My action wasnt aggressive,” he said. “It was a fake gun. I dont even know how to load a real gun.”