Fed-up restaurant worker flips street vendor's food cart; businesses sue San Diego over vendors, some run by illegal aliens

A feud between restaurant owners and illegal street vendors in San Diego has boiled over to vandalism and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against city officials.

Twelve businesses in the famed Gaslamp Quarter filed a lawsuit alleging that street vendors were allowed to run rampant and take customers away from brick-and-mortar restaurants. The lawsuit sought an order against city officials to enforce street vendor regulations as well as $12 million in damages.

Sitto says that his restaurant can be completely full and then totally empty out after the illegal street vendors move in.

The issue was highlighted by an incident in which a restaurant worker angrily turned over the food cart of a street vendor before getting into a vulgar yelling match with a bystander. The worker was reportedly angry that the vendors had forced Henry's Pub, his employer, to go out of business after 25 years.

Mareous Sitto told KGTV-TV that street vendors undermined his Doner Mediterranean Grill business to the point where he had to change it to a taco restaurant to lower food costs and compete with the illegal carts.

"It used to be a shawarma place, and because the pricing was a little bit higher than the hot dog stands out there, we switched the business, and we decided to do a taco shop," said Sitto.

"I lose between $1,500 to $2,000 a night," he added.

The city council strengthened a law restricting street vendors in February, but business owners said that officials did not enforce the law enough and police often ignored the violators.

The lawsuit was filed against San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, the city council, and the city.

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Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

A report investigating street vendor businesses in California found that many were manned by illegal aliens who had been coerced by criminal organizations that blackmailed them into working for next to nothing. The victims were often threatened with violence if they did not work to pay off money owed for smuggling them into the U.S.

Sitto says that his restaurant can be completely full and then totally empty out after the illegal street vendors move in.

"Last Saturday we were busy, from like 6 p.m. all the way until 12:30 a.m. nonstop," he said. "My shop was completely full all the time," he said. "At 12:30 a.m., these hot dog stands came into town, and it stopped. Empty."

KGTV reported that it had reached out for comment from the mayor's office but did not receive a response.

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