EXCLUSIVE: Hero restaurant owners catch robber who targeted multiple business premises across Hornchurch and Romford.

Owners of the popular Italian restaurant ‘ Umbertos’ in Hornchurch, have bravely caught the robber who has struck multiple cafes, takeaways and restaurants across Hornchurch and Romford.

Vincenzo and Gina have spent several nights out patrolling in Hornchurch after being targeted twice by the same suspect.

Vincenzo told the Havering Daily: “After being robbed the first time, he then came back a second time but luckily didn’t get in, Gina and I took it upon ourselves to patrol the streets to see if we could find him.

“We knew his MO, we knew he wore the same clothes every time and that he was always out hitting shops between 3-4am. We had plenty of CCTV footage of him, so we knew we could recognise him.

“He had robbed us on the Monday, then Mandarin Palace on the Tuesday and French’s Cafe on the Wednesday. He had also struck numerous Indian takeaways in Romford and all the CCTV footage had clearly shown it was the same man.”

After being robbed, the couple also made flyers to see if anyone could recognise the suspect.

“The flyers had his face from the CCTV footage and we had given them out to as many people as we could. There was no police presence, so we knew we had to do something ourselves to support and protect our businesses from this individual.”

The couple then bravely took to the streets to catch the robber red handed.

“We went out patrolling again last night, during the key time he strikes and we saw him,” Gina told us. “I saw him and I knew it was him straight away. We began to follow him and watched him go across Hornchurch.

“We saw him go to Chopsticks-the Chinese takeaway where he took a brick out of the plastic bag he was carrying and smash it through the front window. He waited to see if anyone came and then jumped straight in the front window of the shop. At that point we dialled 999 and luckily the police arrived within minutes and apprehended him.

“He was asked if had been arrested before and said yes, so clearly he is known to the police.”

Vincenzo added: “He was so brazen, he really didn’t care, he saw us looking at him.

“We hope that now he will be put away for a while and that he learns his lesson. It is important for us businesses to unite together and stop people like him.”

Well done to Vincenzo and Gina for catching this robber red handed-two community heroes!

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