Florida is one of the biggest tourist hotspots in the entire country.
That brings out criminals who are looking to take advantage.
And Florida tourists were burned in the worst way by this sick impersonation scam.
Florida pizzeria pretends to be a more popular local competitor
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has become famous for his One Bite series of pizza reviews on social media.
Portnoy will hit up mom-and-pop pizza places across the country, buy a pie, and give viewers his review with a score when he walks out of the establishment.
He has reviewed more than 1,000 pizza places around the country for the series.
The One Bite series can bring massive amounts of free publicity to a pizzeria featured in the series.
Portnoy has millions of followers across social media and his Barstool Sports has become one of the largest independent sports media sites.
A Florida man tried to capitalize on the popularity of a pizza place that Portnoy reviewed on One Bite.
Jose Marti-Alvarez created Roman Cuisine Pizzeria that targeted people who were staying in hotels near Miami International Airport.
Portnoy reviewed a popular local place called Roman’s Pizzeria in Miami Springs for One Bite.
“The crust is the showstopper for this pizza — super fresh, super light. Good undercarriage,” Portnoy said in his review.
Police arrest fake Roman’s Pizza scammer
Marti-Alvarez was targeting customers staying in the hotels and then delivering them an awful product.
The real Roman’s Pizzeria began to receive complaints online and with the Better Business Bureau because of the pies that Marti-Alvarez was serving.
One angry customer complained about getting the wrong order and a terrible quality product.
“Opened food and totally wrong sub. Got a nasty burnt smashed BLT instead of Philly cheesesteak? WTH, how do you get those mixed up? And no salad dressing for my salad,” a review said.
The fake Roman’s was also reportedly overcharging customers.
Roman’s Pizzeria owner Jesus Roman said that pizzas served by Marti-Alvarez 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.
Angry customers would show up to Roman’s Pizzeria to complain about their orders.
“So sometimes they show up upset here to the store claiming ‘Where’s the food?” Roman explained. “We have to explain to them that it’s not us.”
The situation became so bad with complaints that Roman filed a complaint with the police.
Marti-Alverez was arrested by Miami police for an “organized scheme to defraud” with his Roman Cuisine.
The pizza fraudster is also facing an aggravated battery charge after he struck a hotel worker with his car when tried to flee after an angry confrontation.
Roman hoped that his nightmare was ending after the arrest.
“In a way, I’m glad, because hopefully it will stop,” Roman said. “I didn’t want him to get arrested, but that’s something that had to happen to stop him. It’s not the right thing to do – he could have done it the right way; this wouldn’t have happened.”
Tourists in Florida hopefully will not have to worry about being burned by a case of mistaken pizza identity anymore.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
