Beloved Bronx Eatery Owner Followed Home, Robbed

On Monday night, the owner of Arthur Avenue restaurant Dominick's was followed from the Bronx to his Hastings-on-the-Hudson home, where a group of robbers tied up him, his wife and son during a home invasion robbery. Charlie DiPaolo had exited his car when he was jumped and pistol-whipped by the robbers; his wife was in the garage, and the robbers forced them into the house and to open a safe. Greenburgh Police Chief John Kapica said that DiPaolo's 17-year-old son managed to call the police, "He came downstairs to listen to what was going on, got his cell phone. He went upstairs and secured himself in a closet and called 9-1-1 from the closet." The robbers later found him and tied him up with his parents. Police arrived as the thieves were putting the safe's contents into DiPaolo's car (intending to use it as a getaway vehicle); they managed to arrest Francisco Cordero, but the three other suspects fled. Kapica praised the son, "This kid really had it together. He had a lot of guts. If it wasn't for him, we don't know what would have happened."