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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Camera Catches Man Trashing Restaurant

Eric Sorensen Staff writer

Police say they have 40 minutes of videotape that may go down as the Michael Ortiz Show: a New Year’s rampage at a Pullman restaurant in which the 18-year-old drank expensive tequila and broke a long list of items that weren’t nailed down.

Police said Ortiz trashed Pete’s Bar & Grill, where he worked as a janitor, to the tune of $10,000. But he overlooked one major element: video cameras that gave views of the kitchen, the bar and the restaurant every five seconds.

“He destroyed food, plates, food and storage racks, food, stools, glasses, lights, tables” and more throughout the building, Officer Ron Miller wrote in a summary of probable cause on file in Whitman County District Court.

Ortiz of Pullman is being held in the Whitman County Jail on $1,000 bail after pleading not guilty Friday to violating his probation on an earlier minor in possession conviction. He is facing possible charges of second-degree burglary and first-degree malicious mischief.

Miller was called to Pete’s on New Year’s Day after Michael Hayton, the general manager, reported finding the building “trashed.”

“It appeared that everything in the kitchen had either been demolished, broken or thrown around,” Miller wrote.

The bar and restaurant were in no better shape, he said.

“Tables, stools, cash registers, glasses, plants, hanging light fixtures” and furniture were destroyed or thrown around, he said, and two bottles of tequila - Cuervo Gold and Cuervo 1800 were missing.

Miller said he and Hayton checked the restaurant’s security tape and saw someone enter the kitchen at 4:07 a.m. and work his way through the building for the next 40 minutes. After looking at the tape, police visited Ortiz’s Derby Street home. They arrested him after a search turned up bottles of Cuervo, Kahlua and rum from the bar, Miller said.

, DataTimes