Police see something fishy in 1/2 price meals
Pub in Oxford allegedly sold condemned lobsters
There are many places to fish for lobster in Massachusetts, but Interstate 395 is not one of them.
Just ask Arnold A. Villatico, police say.
The owner of Periwinkles & Giorgios Italian Pub and Restaurant in Oxford faces criminal charges of larceny over $250, conspiracy, and unlicensed possession of shellfish after dozens of condemned crustaceans from an overturned truck allegedly appeared on customers' dinner plates. Town manager Joseph M. Zeneski said Villatico must appear before the Board of Health Monday.
"The Board of Health wants to make it clear to him that this was a violation of public trust," Zeneski said this week, adding that "this whole thing has been a comedy, an absolute comedy."
The story is about more than contraband seafood. It is a tale of lobsters on a death-defying journey, one marred by tragedy and for some, redemption. First, thousands of lobsters onboard the overturned truck narrowly missed becoming road kill. And then, those that did not become two-for-one boiled lobster specials were rescued by state environmental police, who returned them to the sea.
Their journey began on July 27, when a tractor trailer carrying 11,000 pounds of fresh lobster from Canada crashed on I-395 in Webster. The wreck tore the refrigerated container carrying the lobsters and spewed 150 gallons of diesel fuel across the load and roadway, which was closed for 12 hours.
A Webster health inspector declared the toppled load unsalvageable. And although local health inspectors are required by the state to witness the destruction of condemned food, that never happened.
Then a lobster fest revved up in Oxford.
Villatico began selling lobsters from a refrigerated truck behind his restaurant, Zeneski said, and the restaurant reportedly offered $19.99 lobster specials. Police found crates of lobster inside the restaurant and plucked lobsters from boiling pots as evidence, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported.
"He had a sign out, two for one," Zeneski said in an interview.
Villatico, who lives in Webster, declined to comment on the allegations. He and Robert J. Moscoffian, owner of Moscoffian Towing in Oxford, have pleaded not guilty in Dudley District Court to larceny and other charges. The Worcester newspaper also reported that both men said they had planned to donate the lobsters to a veterans' shelter, although shelter officials said they had no knowledge of such a plan.
There were no reports of illness associated with the lobsters, and Villatico's restaurant remains open. Suzanne Condon, state director of environmental health, said lobsters' exposure to summer sun, heat, and fuel can lead to many health risks. State health officials advised the Oxford Board of Health in a Nov. 17 letter to penalize Villatico by suspending or revoking his restaurant license because of the "serious nature of these violations."
"There's all sorts of things that can get in a food product once it's released," Condon said. "You have to err on the side of public health."
And as for the surviving lobsters? State environmental police viewed them not as a delicacy or a threat, but as an animal far from home. Approximately 2,070 surviving lobsters were loaded and transported to Boston. Then officers hauled them onto a boat and released them just outside Boston Harbor, a half mile east of the North Channel buoy.
And to ensure a happy ending, officials said they unbanded their claws first. 