By Christine Dempsey
The Hartford Courant
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — For days, a man ate, drank and slept in a downtown New Haven restaurant that has been closed because of the coronavirus, stealing food and liquor police said was worth several thousand dollars.
The man, Louis Angel Ortiz, 42, whose last known address was on Marie Street, was arrested Tuesday after a manager stopped to check on the closed Soul De Cuba Cafe, 283 Crown St., and noticed someone sleeping inside with a bottle of rum, police said.
Ortiz was charged with third-degree burglary, third-degree larceny and first-degree criminal mischief, they said. He also was arrested on a warrant from East Haven charging him with second-degree failure to appear in court for an unrelated case.
https://www.facebook.com/NewHavenPoliceDepartment/photos/a.360374101511504/498667927682120/?type=3
During his arraignment in Superior Court in New Haven Wednesday, Ortiz’s case was continued to May 27; he is in custody at the New Haven Correctional Center on $10,500 bail, state records show.
According to police, they received the call about the sleeping stranger about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Investigators took Ortiz into custody and looked at the surveillance video, which showed that the man had broken in through a side window of the restaurant on Saturday, almost four days earlier.
“Officers learned Ortiz helped himself over the course of four days to the restaurant’s food, liquor, and beer,” Capt. Anthony Duff said. In addition to eating and drinking in the restaurant, he also removed beverages and other products from the building.
The loss includes about 70 bottles of liquor, Duff said, and “management estimated the loss of food and beverages at several thousand dollars.”
©2020 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)