Chef Robbed 3 Banks In The Same Day: San Francisco Police

SAN FRANCISCO — A Bay Area chef is accused of robbing three San Francisco banks in the same day, according to police.

Valentino Luchin, 62, of San Francisco, is charged with robbery and attempted robbery after his busy day at the city’s banks, police said.

Officers responded around noon Wednesday to a robbery at a bank in the 1100 block of Grant Avenue, where a man had entered the business and passed a note to an employee demanding money, according to police. The worker complied and handed over a bag of cash, and the man fled, police said.

Two other bank robberies occurred in the same area on the same day involving a similar suspect and modus operandi, according to police, who identified Luchin as the robber, apprehended him and booked him into San Francisco County Jail.

This is not Luchin’s first encounter with law enforcement, as he was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and accused of stealing $18,000 from a Citibank in Orinda in 2018, Eater reported at the time. That incident came after Luchin in 2015 defaulted on a bankruptcy plan payment and after his restaurant, Ottavio in Walnut Creek, closed in 2016, according to Eater. Luchin is also a former executive chef of San Francisco’s Rose Pistola, Eater reported.