Restaurant owner ‘did not believe it’ upon learning suspect in his break-in was a cop

— Anastasios Papagiannopoulos was startled when his alarm company woke him up in the middle of the night in March saying someone broke into his restaurant.

He was annoyed when he saw the surveillance footage showing a newer Jeep Grand Cherokee, assuming the burglar had money.

But when he heard that the suspect was a police officer, his emotions changed again, this time to disbelief.

“I did not believe it,” Papagiannopoulos said. “I truly did not believe it.”

Patrick Hemingway, 37, of Glastonbury, was arrested Dec. 6 and charged with third-degree burglary, first-degree criminal mischief and sixth-degree larceny in the March 8 break-in. Dubbed a “serial burglar” by fellow police, the former Glastonbury and New Britain officer has been charged with two other burglaries and is suspected of doing about 40 more in three different states, according to warrants for his arrest. He is in custody on bail that exceeds $1 million and has not yet entered a plea.

This is the third burglary for Papagiannopoulos and his wife, who have owned Loco Perro, a local Tex-Mex restaurant, for 25 years, he said Wednesday, and definitely the most bizarre.

He awoke from the alarm company’s call at 1:50 a.m. that morning, and looked at the surveillance footage, some of which came from a hidden camera, he said. He was surprised to see the burglar get out of a newer Jeep Cherokee.

“You’re driving a nice car and you come to steal stuff from restaurants?” Papagiannopoulos asked.

He and his wife donate to people in need, including by making regular contributions to the local food bank, he said.

“My wife and I help people. ... If you need something, just call,” he said.

The thief took the cash register drawer containing $150$200, according to the warrant for Hemingway’s arrest, and it cost more than $2,000 to repair the damaged equipment, it said. But that’s “just money,” Papagiannopoulos said. “The only thing I care about is that no one got killed.”

Still, surprise turned to utter shock months later when investigators told him their suspect was a cop.

“I give a lot of credit to the police officers,” Papagiannopoulos said about their willingness to charge a fellow officer.

Hemingway’s lawyer, James E. Sulick, declined to comment.