Let's say you're visiting Miami and have a craving for some real-deal New York pizza, and you happen across a flyer promoting a 40-year-old joint called Roman's selling what you need.
Until recently, what happened next would have gone one of two ways, depending on whether you went to the restaurant or got your pizza delivered.
The experience at the restaurant would look something like this:
Delivery would look like this:
Why the difference between eating in and getting it delivered?
Jose Marti-Alvarez
It turns out that Marti-Alvarez was impersonating Roman's for years. He passed out flyers to tourists, and when they ordered from the fake Roman's, Marti-Alvarez would show up with a crummy pizza.
Jesus Roman, the proprietor of the real Roman's Pizzeria, who's been cooking up pies for four decades, said Marti-Alvarez's pizzas were 'bad, uncooked, sometimes they were sent in a box with a piece of raw dough.'
'They just give it to them and by the time they realize it they're gone anyway,' Roman said
'So sometimes they show up upset here at the store, asking ‘Where's the food?' Roman said. 'We have to explain to them that it's not us.'
The manager at Roman's even once tried to confront Marti-Alvarez in a parking lot, but the man almost ran him down with his car, which prompted Roman to get police involved.
Marti-Alvarez has been arrested for felony impersonation and an organized scheme to defraud.
In a sign of Roman's passion for good pizza, he even threw the fraudster some free advice for his next scheme:
'At least if you're going to do something, do it right,' Roman said.
Words to live by!
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