A well-known chef from the San Francisco Bay Area is in trouble with the law, seven years after being arrested in connection with a bank robbery. This time, he's accused of robbing three banks, all in one day. Per the Los Angeles Times, 62-year-old Valentino Luchin was taken into custody on Wednesday, after investigators identified him as the suspect in a robbery earlier that afternoon at a Chinatown bank. In that incident, Luchin allegedly entered the bank and passed a note to one of the tellers demanding money. The teller obliged out of fear, and Luchin reportedly then fled the scene, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Luchin was tracked down thanks to leads from the community and then accused of robbing two other banks in the Central District the same day, per the San Francisco Police Department. It's not clear how much money the Italian-born chef, who once served as head chef at Walnut Creek's Ottavio, is alleged to have taken, but it is clear he has been arrested once before, in 2018. In that incident, Luchin was accused of using a BB gun to rob a Citibank in Orinda of at least $18,000 before speeding away in a Mercedes.
Luchin gave an interview at that time to KGO, noting he'd been "struggling a lot financially" after Ottavio had shut down and had gotten desperate. "I feel bad," he said then. "It wasn't something I was planning [on] doing for a living." Bail for Luchin, who's now facing new charges of robbery and attempted robbery, is set at $200,000, per ABC News.
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