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Man Realizes He Ate Pierogi In A Mafia Front Restaurant For Half A Year, People Start Sharing Similar Experiences
There is something captivating about mafia movies, series, or other forms of mafia-themed entertainment. It shows the taboo side of life, one that many of us don’t see due to its illegal nature. But these shows and movies (and everything else) are more or less based on reality.
And people on Tumblr have been sharing some stories of said reality. In specific, they’ve been discussing crime fronts, mostly in restaurants, and what has been their experience with them, how they grew suspicious or how they ended up finding out, and whatnot.
More info: Tumblr
RELATED:
Restaurants are so commonplace that we don’t really notice if it could be a part of an underworld operation
Image credits: Strangely-Brown (not the actual photo)
So, some time ago, Tumblr user Prokopetz shared something surreal that happened to him. For about 6 months, he’d been frequenting a restaurant with some out-of-this-world pierogi. Strangely enough, the place was pretty empty most times, with the most people ever seen by Prokopetz being 5 (him included). Also, the staff there often referred to him as Mr. Prokopetz, as in by actual name, which he always thought was a gimmick.
Until one day he went down there and saw that it was closed indefinitely. A tad bit later, he also found out that owners had been arrested. And then it hit him that this was not an ordinary restaurant—it was a crime front for the Ukrainian mafia.
Well, people on Tumblr have been sharing their experiences of culinary establishments that they suspected or knew belonged to a criminal organization
Image credits: prokopetz
Image credits: prokopetz
Well, turns out, this apparently has happened more often than one might think. A number of Tumblonians (name suggested by striped_frog, but, really, what do you call Tumblr users, anyway?) shared their crime front stories, which for the most part were restaurants, but were certainly not limited to that.
Image credits: prokopetz
Image credits: prokopetz
Tumblr user toloveviceforitself shared how they lived in a town that was full of half-empty restaurants that never went out of business just like that because import and exports were its “thing”.
And it might be a tad bit weird to think that, but it’s not uncommon to run into a crime-lord-run joint, as pointed out by a number of other people
Image credits: toloveviceforitself
Another Tumblonian, cat–77, told about a corner store and deli that everyone knew about, but nobody really cared as they took care of their own. One night the Tumblr user got harassed on their way home, and word got out. Since they had previously recommended this particular deli to someone, the people from the deli “took care” of this safety issue in the neighborhood.
Image credits: cat-77
Image credits: friendlytroll
Image credits: jupiterjames
After a handful of crime front restaurant stories, one Tumblonian shared how his local neighborhood Hapkido matrial arts studio was actually a crime front
Image credits: Scott Feldstein (not the actual photo)
A couple of stories later, probably-voldemort entered the chat and changed the whole restaurant dynamic with a pretty detailed story of a crime front in a hapkido martial arts studio in a small and quaint Canadian town that was run by an older Korean gentleman who’d often get visitors, friends from Korea who’d also do a little cameo and teach in the studio.
Well, it all escalated really quickly when the martial arts teacher was teaching a group of students, with parents all watching through one-way glass, being proud of their kids and enjoying the tea there, and suddenly the door slams open, a half a dozen policemen storm the place.
The teacher books it, while everyone else drops to the floor. The teacher was caught, and it turned out the studio was a front for smuggling illegal substances from Korea.
Image credits: probably-voldemort
The lengthy post thread has managed to draw in quite a crowd, garnering over 131,000 notes in total. You can check it all out in the original Tumblr post here.
Image credits: melliabee
But before you go, why not share your thoughts, or better yet, check out some other Tumblr news we have on Bored Panda, including my personal favorite, a post discussing why dragons have eyes on the sides of their heads, as if they were prey, and not predators.
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What do you think ?
Travis Fox 4 years ago (edited)
Dated a mafia boss of sorts when I was younger and was too dumb at the time to realize it. Always drove me around in a chauffered car, complete with body guard. Weekend trips to fire island (across country as we lived in Florida), private yacht... Didn't hit me til one day he told me to pack everything I wanted and be ready to leave for Spain in hours, no passport needed. I didn't want to leave everything and everyone like that, so I didn't go. A couple weeks later he was front page news, wanted in connection to crime activities being fronted through a construction company from New York. I sure had fun while it lasted, but grown up me just wonders what would have happened if I'd left for Spain that weekend.
Tenacious Squirrel 4 years ago
You got driven round by a chauffer and a bodyguard and went on private yachts, wouldn't need a passport to travel overseas, and thought it was normal?
Load More Replies...
Tuesday Next 4 years ago
Not really front-related, but some mafia guy from New Jersey paid for my cousin's funeral. Apparently this dude just liked dishing out money for the funerals of kids who died from cancer.
Teresa Spanics 4 years ago
Please accept my deepest condolences on the passing of your dear cousin.
Load More Replies...
N Fritz 4 years ago
I've been telling my bf for months that the restaurant next door is up to something sketchy. They have a minimalistic menu, if you go there they take forever and usually get your order wrong, they close randomly when they should be open, and just recently they've started installing beds, although the area isn't zoned for overnight guests...
SPQRBob 4 years ago
Sounds like human trafficking! If you can safely tip off the authorities; anonymously maybe, you might help some people (likely women and girls) out of a really horrible situation.
Load More Replies...
Nikki Sevven 4 years ago
D'Angelo's is a franchised chain of sub sandwich restaurants in the US. There's been one in my city for decades now. You'd never see more than 2-3 cars in the parking lot, even during the lunch and dinner rushes. No idea how they stayed in business so long with no customers. They finally closed just recently. It was my daughter's and my ongoing joke that the place was run by money launderers who finally got busted.
Evil Little Thing 4 years ago
I'm convinced at least half the Smoothie Kings in my city are fronts for money laundering.
Load More Replies...
ric carter 4 years ago
Not an eatery story, but a funeral parlor in a major eastern USA city, only a couple blocks away from police HQ. My sister lived upstairs and parked her car out front. It was the safest place in the city, she said, because nobody was going to f*ck around with anything or anyone near the mob undertakers.
Stannous Flouride 4 years ago
I worked in a restaurant in Sausalito a while back that was owned by a guy with a vowel at the end of his name who spent 5 years in jail for lying to a Grand Jury. He had to get a partner, a guy with a clean record, to have a liquor license. That guy bought in for $1million and once told me it was the biggest mistake he had ever made since he was stuck. He also pointed out that all the cash given out as change (in those pre-plastic days) was crisp, new bills, almost as if they were freshly laundered. I left after I was cheated out of overtime pay and the owner told me, "Go ahead. Try to collect. See what happens." I decided I liked having functional kneecaps so I never went to the labor board.
SPQRBob 4 years ago
If you were to say which specific vowel the owner's name ended with, I wonder how easy it might be to guess which completely legitimate business organization (generally, not necessarily the specific "franchise") he was affiliated with...
Load More Replies...
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 4 years ago (edited)
I was living in London in 2006, at a hostel, and we were a large group of people from all over the world. Among us was a very pretty French girl. Once, during one of our nights out we were approached by a young Russian man in his 20's. He was adamant to hook up with her, so he joined our group and later suggested to "continue the party elsewhere". He took us to a private club in Picadilly, and it became obvious the place was either his or his family's, as the staff kept calling him by his name. At one point, the man started being aggressive and our French friend turned him down flat. The man threw a hissy fit, I mean, a proper temper tantrum, at which point a very large bouncer/bodyguard come out of nowhere, calmed him down and told us to get out. About half a year later I read in the news the place had been raided by the police. Pretty sure that day we were saved from being victims of the spoiled kid of a Russian mobster...
Eliska Klimentova 4 years ago
I lived in NC for quite a while and always wondered how so many barber shops and nail studios can survive next to one another in relatively small town. Only recently I’ve learnt that vast majority of them are drug fronts
Travis Fox 4 years ago (edited)
Dated a mafia boss of sorts when I was younger and was too dumb at the time to realize it. Always drove me around in a chauffered car, complete with body guard. Weekend trips to fire island (across country as we lived in Florida), private yacht... Didn't hit me til one day he told me to pack everything I wanted and be ready to leave for Spain in hours, no passport needed. I didn't want to leave everything and everyone like that, so I didn't go. A couple weeks later he was front page news, wanted in connection to crime activities being fronted through a construction company from New York. I sure had fun while it lasted, but grown up me just wonders what would have happened if I'd left for Spain that weekend.
Tenacious Squirrel 4 years ago
You got driven round by a chauffer and a bodyguard and went on private yachts, wouldn't need a passport to travel overseas, and thought it was normal?
Load More Replies... Tuesday Next 4 years ago
Not really front-related, but some mafia guy from New Jersey paid for my cousin's funeral. Apparently this dude just liked dishing out money for the funerals of kids who died from cancer.
Teresa Spanics 4 years ago
Please accept my deepest condolences on the passing of your dear cousin.
Load More Replies... N Fritz 4 years ago
I've been telling my bf for months that the restaurant next door is up to something sketchy. They have a minimalistic menu, if you go there they take forever and usually get your order wrong, they close randomly when they should be open, and just recently they've started installing beds, although the area isn't zoned for overnight guests...
SPQRBob 4 years ago
Sounds like human trafficking! If you can safely tip off the authorities; anonymously maybe, you might help some people (likely women and girls) out of a really horrible situation.
Load More Replies... Nikki Sevven 4 years ago
D'Angelo's is a franchised chain of sub sandwich restaurants in the US. There's been one in my city for decades now. You'd never see more than 2-3 cars in the parking lot, even during the lunch and dinner rushes. No idea how they stayed in business so long with no customers. They finally closed just recently. It was my daughter's and my ongoing joke that the place was run by money launderers who finally got busted.
Evil Little Thing 4 years ago
I'm convinced at least half the Smoothie Kings in my city are fronts for money laundering.
Load More Replies... ric carter 4 years ago
Not an eatery story, but a funeral parlor in a major eastern USA city, only a couple blocks away from police HQ. My sister lived upstairs and parked her car out front. It was the safest place in the city, she said, because nobody was going to f*ck around with anything or anyone near the mob undertakers.
Stannous Flouride 4 years ago
I worked in a restaurant in Sausalito a while back that was owned by a guy with a vowel at the end of his name who spent 5 years in jail for lying to a Grand Jury. He had to get a partner, a guy with a clean record, to have a liquor license. That guy bought in for $1million and once told me it was the biggest mistake he had ever made since he was stuck. He also pointed out that all the cash given out as change (in those pre-plastic days) was crisp, new bills, almost as if they were freshly laundered. I left after I was cheated out of overtime pay and the owner told me, "Go ahead. Try to collect. See what happens." I decided I liked having functional kneecaps so I never went to the labor board.
SPQRBob 4 years ago
If you were to say which specific vowel the owner's name ended with, I wonder how easy it might be to guess which completely legitimate business organization (generally, not necessarily the specific "franchise") he was affiliated with...
Load More Replies... Luis Hernandez Dauajare 4 years ago (edited)
I was living in London in 2006, at a hostel, and we were a large group of people from all over the world. Among us was a very pretty French girl. Once, during one of our nights out we were approached by a young Russian man in his 20's. He was adamant to hook up with her, so he joined our group and later suggested to "continue the party elsewhere". He took us to a private club in Picadilly, and it became obvious the place was either his or his family's, as the staff kept calling him by his name. At one point, the man started being aggressive and our French friend turned him down flat. The man threw a hissy fit, I mean, a proper temper tantrum, at which point a very large bouncer/bodyguard come out of nowhere, calmed him down and told us to get out. About half a year later I read in the news the place had been raided by the police. Pretty sure that day we were saved from being victims of the spoiled kid of a Russian mobster...
Eliska Klimentova 4 years ago
I lived in NC for quite a while and always wondered how so many barber shops and nail studios can survive next to one another in relatively small town. Only recently I’ve learnt that vast majority of them are drug fronts
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