Police say a Florida hotel worker stole nearly $8,000 in food, including 192 lobster tails, and after he quit, the kitchen stopped coming up short

A former employee of the Biltmore in Coral Gables is accused of taking thousands of dollars in food from the hotel’s kitchen, and most of the alleged loss came from lobster tails. Diego Alfredo Medina-Acosta, 37, was arrested on a charge of first-degree grand theft, according to NBC. An arrest report puts the total at more than $7,854.

The Biltmore’s director of security and head chef contacted police to report that numerous food products were missing from the kitchen and storage areas, per the report. The chef said the kitchen keeps an Excel inventory log that is updated every week, and he had noticed significant quantities of food unaccounted for. Seafood drove most of that figure, as the 192 lobster tails alone were valued at $6,525.

The rest of the list reportedly included 116.7 pounds of pork belly worth $637.18, 30 center-cut snapper portions worth $273 and 11 cleaned calamari worth $137.40. Smaller entries covered raw shrimp, Argentinian chorizo, potato gnocchi and coconut milk. Medina-Acosta has not been convicted of any crime, and the Public Defender’s Office was appointed to represent him.

Police say a cart full of lobster came back to the kitchen empty

According to the arrest report, surveillance footage showed Medina-Acosta arriving before his scheduled work hours and entering parts of the kitchen where the missing food was stored. He was also reportedly seen coming and going through different areas instead of the employee entrance. One clip allegedly showed him removing a cart holding a large quantity of lobster and returning it without the lobster.

The former hotel worker spoke with investigators and offered explanations for what the cameras recorded. He said he clocked in early to get a head start on his work. However, employees are not permitted to clock in before a scheduled shift, the report noted. He also said that after 10 minutes at work, he would go home to drop off his dirty laundry before returning.

On the missing lobster tails, Medina-Acosta told police he had been removing them so they could thaw. However, he could not explain why the lobster was not on the cart when he brought it back, the report said. The 37-year-old resigned before he could be fired, according to the same document, so the hotel never had to dismiss him.

Police also recorded what the inventory showed once he was gone. After the resignation, the kitchen had a substantial amount of food remaining at inventory periods, the report said. That observation came from the same count that first flagged the shortages, as the head chef had been tracking the kitchen’s stock in a spreadsheet updated every week.

The figures show how much of the case rests on a single item. The lobster tails account for $6,525 of the total, which works out to about $34 apiece, as the report lists 192 of them. The seven other entries add up to roughly $1,329 combined, and the pork belly makes up nearly half of that amount.

Medina-Acosta later appeared before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy Glazer, who found probable cause for the charge and set bond at $2,500. “Apparently, he has a taste for lobster tails,” Mindy Glazer said while reading from the police report. The same judge presided over a recent Rick Ross court appearance that spread widely online.

The hotel addressed the arrest in a statement. “We have zero tolerance for theft or any conduct that compromises the trust placed in our colleagues and/or organization,” said Tom Prescott, president and CEO of the Biltmore. He added that an independent investigation corroborated the findings of the hotel’s internal one, and he directed further questions to the Coral Gables Police Department.

The judge also ordered Medina-Acosta to stay away from the Biltmore, and that condition is expected to remain in place while the lobster tails case moves through Miami-Dade court, where the charge remains an allegation.