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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Police Bust Ristra Bandit
By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
They caught him red-handed.
Gene Quintana Jr., 41, had a red chile ristra in hand and was trying to snatch another one from the Old Santa Fe Inn in downtown on Galisteo Street when Santa Fe police Officer Shannon Brady happened to cruise by with cadet Jon Lopez on Friday afternoon.
With the straw top of the stolen 15-inch ristra secured under the police car's windshield wiper, Quintana was frisked and handcuffed before being taken to police headquarters and booked for larceny and criminal damage to property, according to Lt. George Ortiz.
Quintana has numerous violations on his record, and there was also a warrant out for his arrest for failure to appear for a court hearing.
There have been a rash of ristra robberies in Santa Fe lately, said Ortiz. "The economy is in a bad state, so people are becoming creative," he said. "This individual matches the description of other suspects seen taking ristras."
Ortiz said Santa Feans should take note that ristras sold in parking lots or door-to-door may be "hot" ristras, and not just from the taste.
Old Santa Fe Inn manager Martha Mendez said after the thefts of some 55 to 60 ristras a year ago, in the fall 2008, someone knocked on her door at home that evening trying to sell her ristras.
"I realized," she said, " 'Oh, my god, those are my ristras from work!' " But she was on her cell phone and too preoccupied to try to crack the burglary right then and there.
Half of the inn's ristras that fall were stolen the first night they were up, the second half the second night, Mendez said. But last month's installation of ristras hadn't yet succumbed to theft until Quintana stopped by Friday afternoon.
Just down the street at Santa Fe Motel and Inn, near where Galisteo Street turns into Cerrillos Road, owner Don Benjamin said he installed video cameras on the premises after a theft of ristras.
The first time, about two to three weeks ago, the thief took five or six ristras, and the second time, a week to 10 days ago, three. "We know who it is," said Benjamin, who added the ristra bandit is seen often on the streets around the motel.
Benjamin and his staff have called the police but were told the resolution of the video of the chile theft was not clear enough to hold up in a court of law. "This fellow was brazen," Benjamin said. The video showed the thief walked boldly through the motel's courtyard and parking lot during a time when the motel was full with guests. "He went up and got a dead aspen tree and was 'fishing' with it to get the ristras," Benjamin said.
Ortiz recalled a particularly memorable ristra wrangling about a year ago when his officers "stumbled across an individual who had an entire shopping cart full of chile ristras — this was 3 a.m."
What does a "hot" chile ristra sell for?
Benjamin said he usually pays about $8 a foot wholesale. But he's seen them in parking lots of Allsup's for $5 a foot.
Both Benjamin and Mendez said they didn't mind if a guest took a ristra home — maybe one.
But waking up to find the walls stripped of ristras — that's plain old "unacceptable," Benjamin said.
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