SAN ANTONIO — Police arrested the owner of a local restaurant during business hours Tuesday night.
KENS 5 Eyewitness Jacob Benavidez shared cell phone video of officers with the San Antonio Police Department taking 44-year-old April Carter into custody.
Benevidez told KENS 5 he called the police to Market Barbeque's City Base West location in the 2700 block of SE Military Dr. because Carter, the owner, was not paying his daughter - as well as her other employees.
"Had to call the cops cuz they are refusing to pay their employees," Benavidez wrote on his video, "Don't come to market barbecue. this place is horrible."
Turns out, Carter already had a warrant out for her arrest for theft.
According to an affidavit obtained by KENS 5, Carter and Guillermo Galvan opened Hoppin' John under the name Southern Food Ventures. The partners had a retail lease agreement with Vistana, LTD, for building space at the lower street level of the apartment building for a restaurant.
Included in the lease agreement is an attachment stating that the tenants may be allowed to use and maintain during their lease, but remain as the landlord's property.
Last August, witnesses reported seeing co-owner Guillermo Galvan loading a U-haul moving van with equipment and other items from inside Hoppin' John. The next day the tenants were gone and the restaurant abruptly closed.
When the apartment manager conducted an inspection of the property, they discovered Carter and Galan had taken property listed in the lease agreement that belonged to Vistana, LTD, per the affidavit.
When contacted by apartment management, Galvan and Carter admitted that they had possession of the property and that it is in storage at an unknown facility.
According to the affidavit, they have made no attempts to return the property, "thereby depriving the ownership its rightful return."
Carter faces felony theft charges. Her bond was set at $2,000.
