Don’t mess with Food Network’s all-star chef Guy Fieri. Not only has Fieri made a name for himself hosting numerous cooking competition shows as well as “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives,” but he also owns several restaurants around the country that are extremely popular among Americans and tourists alike. Fieri is famous for his spiky blond hair, gold hoop earrings, and ducktail beard, which have been his signature look since he rose to fame in the culinary world several years ago.
However, Fieri faced some trouble back in 2011 when his prized possession – his 2008 banana-yellow Lamborghini – was stolen out from under his nose. The sports car cost Fieri upwards of $200,000 and was currently being serviced at a dealership in Northern California in San Francisco when the thief got his hands on it and drove away with the hotrod of a car.
The theft was quite extraordinary. The thief was sixteen-year-old Max Wade. He infiltrated the San Francisco property using climbing gear in a way that is usually only seen in movies like “Mission Impossible.” He broke through Fieri’s Lamborghini window, turned off the alarm, and simply drove the luxury sports car out of the front door of the dealership and went on a joyride unlike any he had been on in his life before that.
The dealership had security cameras installed on their property, so they were able to capture the theft on video. However, they were not quickly able to apprehend the teenager who bravely descended the walls of the San Francisco dealership to get his hands on Guy Fieri’s hotrod Lamborghini.
The sports car was spotted going for a joyride around San Francisco. The vehicle, which is very noticeable, also includes the license plate GUYTORO, which means it belongs to the one and only Guy Fieri. Clearly, this thief knew he was taking a car from a celebrity.
The theft occurred while Guy Fieri was out of town in Chicago filming a “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” episode, which is affectionately known as Triple D.
However, authorities spent an entire year trying to track down Wade after he stole Fieri’s sports car. Eventually, the teenager was arrested for another crime, and the police were finally able to bring justice to the boy for what he did to Guy Fieri’s prized possession.
By the time Max Wade had reached nineteen years old, he had amassed enough criminal activity in his short lifetime to earn him a lifetime spot in prison. Although the theft of the car was only one of the small crimes he committed in a laundry list of offenses, it added to the sentence and made the judge throw the hammer even harder at Wade, who was a lifelong troublemaker.
Fieri testified at the trial, “I just wanted to keep it straight and to the point, let’s wrap this up,” he explained, “There are other facets to [this case] that are far more important than my car.”
The case serves as a reminder that crime doesn’t pay, especially when you mess with a celebrity chef’s Lamborghini.