If you could break into any restaurant, what restaurant would that be? If you’re on this page, we hope you choose a taqueria.
We all know there is a special bond between the customer and his taquero, we’ve all been there before. It’s after-hours, maybe you’ve been drinking a bit, and you’re looking at our heroic taco man with googly eyes as he prepares your delicious Mexican treats in a soft, hand-made tortilla – as God intended – accompanied with exquisite marinated pork meat that sizzles ever so gracefully on the grill.
Or how about some mouthwatering carne asada with its fair share of chopped cilantro and onions, beans from the pot, and that delicious homemade salsa?
How could you ever do such a paradise wrong? It’s sacrilegious to even think about desecrating a place as holy as this. Our burglar, however, must have felt our Señora de Guadalupe’s heat when he broke into Nelly’s taqueria in Long Island, New York.
You would think that an operation like this consists of a quick in and out procedure, but then again, you’ve never broken into a taqueria before. Maybe our burglar’s entry into heaven was just too slick – it was after-hours after all. He probably thought he had enough time to stick around and grab a bite because momma always said never do anything important on an empty stomach.
WPVI-TV reported it was around 2:00 a.m. when the burglar broke into Nelly’s. He took $100 from the register before going around the kitchen to cynically prepare himself a meal, but that wasn’t all that captured our eye. It was the fact that the burglar took time to do the dishes, clean the kitchen, and wipe the counter, that really got our heads spinning.
It’s almost as if he were feeling guilty about his crime. Our unnamed burglar even left $1 in the tip jar for all of Nelly’s problems. The ‘taco burglar’ (cool nickname uh?) was most probably a restaurant employee at one time because he showed real skills around the kitchen.
The manager at Nelly’s even thought about hiring him, but the fact that he’s a burglar made him think twice about it. “He knew food safety skills. He would change gloves frequently after handling food and then handling another object,” the manager told WPVI-TV.
We do not advocate robbery – it is never right to do so – but we’re also not ready to condemn a guy for a petty $100 crime that seemed driven by hunger. We only hope our taco burglar straightens his path soon and lands a job that will provide for him and his loved ones while making the rest of the world happy with his taco skills.
This article was inspired by Food & Wine // Taqueria Burglar Cleans Up After Himself and Leaves Tip