Vegas taco shop uses video of burglary to become viral sensation — VIDEO

Turnabout is fair play. When criminals targeted Frijoles & Frescas Grilled Tacos, 7000 W. Charleston Blvd., the eatery targeted the perpetrators in return — by putting the surveillance video of them on YouTube and adding its own spin with tongue-in-cheek captions.

It all took place in the wee hours of Dec. 16. The criminals first tried to put a rock through the main entry door on the west side. It bounced off because the door had been reinforced with a special film that shows the restaurant's hours.

"They (the sign company) said it would resist breakage, though they (can't officially) claim that," said Francisco Salas, manager and chef.

Undeterred, the criminal tried the same tactic on the east-side door. It did not have the reinforcement film, and the glass shattered. The perpetrator and an accomplice rushed in and immediately began looking for money. They grabbed the cash registers and took off.

At home, Greg Carlson, co-owner, got a phone call from the security company saying the alarm was going off at the eatery. He pulled up real-time video on his phone.

"You could see how things were out of place," he said.

When he got there, he saw the smashed door and broken glass everywhere. The registers were gone, but they had held no money. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department arrived, and a report was made. The police took a copy of the security footage as evidence.

The busted door was boarded up, and new registers were secured. The damage was roughly $900. The restaurant opened for business on time the next day, but its employees were rattled.

"The cashiers, when they saw it (the surveillance video), they said the faces looked familiar," Salas said. "We think they came in before (to case) the place. One of them stole the bottle of salsa from the register area."

Carlson, who likes to spend his free time making videos and posting them to YouTube, decided to use the break-in footage and post it online. It would "turn a negative into a positive," he said. He ran the idea past his father-in-law and business partner, Alberto De La Paz.

Using tongue-in-cheek verbiage, Carlson put the video together in a few hours and posted it. It created a YouTube sensation, garnering more than 4 million views to date.

"It's the nature of our company, to look to the positive side of things," Carlson said.

The YouTube video caused regular patrons to start conversations with the staff about the videotaped burglary. It also prompted new business. Local TV crews did news stories on it. Even CNN showed up.

The rock has gained its own degree of celebrityhood: Employees decorated it with the robbery date to commemorate the event and dubbed it the eatery's "new key." Salas said patrons take pictures of themselves with it.

"People came in from all over the country," he said. "… People in Miami want to franchise with us."

Metro has yet to locate the criminals.

What did the experience teach the owners?

"While I do not like being awakened at 3:30 a.m. with a call like that," Carlson said, "... a bad thing happened, but it's not the end of the world."

— To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.