SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — In what may be the oddest mash-up of culinary arts and crime, 62-year-old chef Valentino Luchin has been arrested for allegedly robbing three banks in San Francisco in a single day.
A Recipe for Trouble
Luchin, once executive chef at Rose Pistola and owner of Ottavio in Walnut Creek, allegedly slipped into three separate banks on September 10, passing handwritten notes to tellers demanding cash.
The troublemakers’ recipe was roughly:
- Step 1: Walk in with a note demanding money.
- Step 2: Teller complies, hands over cash.
- Step 3: Get outta there
- Step 4: Rinse & Repeat
Neighborhood Buzz and Fast Arrest
Police say they connected the dots after the first robbery on Grant Avenue in Chinatown. Similarities in appearance and method led them to link two further heists in the Central District. Local tips and the SFPD’s quick work helped zero in on Luchin, who was taken into custody without incident later that same day. He now faces multiple charges, including robbery and attempted robbery.
Not Exactly His First Act
This isn’t Luchin’s debut in the bank-robbery genre. Back in 2018, he was arrested for robbing a Citibank in Orinda, taking about $18,000. Reports say he used a fake gun, and later expressed regret, saying desperation drove him to do things he “never thought [he] was capable of.”
Apparently, after his restaurant Ottavio closed in 2016, financial troubles piled up. Bankruptcy, debts, and what Luchin later described as a tailspin seem to have set the stage for his unusual day job as a bank bandit.
