Car theft thwarted by Stronghold Jiu Jitsu teacher and students

A man was arrested Thursday night after attempting to steal – for the second time – a 2011 Porsche Carrera parked outside of Stronghold Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy in Point Loma.

“My fiancé had just left to take my son and youngest daughter to get dinner,” Raquel Regno-Cusi told me. “A minute later, my son came running back into the academy and said my fiancé needs me and some students to come outside; there was a guy in his car.”

What the man in the car didn’t know, is that Regno-Cusi is a co-owner and teacher at the academy. Her fiancé, Toren Sutton, is the owner of the car, a student at Stronghold, and a drill instructor/staff sargeant at Marine Corp Recruit Depot.

“I was loading the kids into my fiancé’s car when I saw a person sitting in my vehicle. I thought it was my friend so I went to see why he was in my car without asking me first,” Sutton explains. “But when I got to my car, it wasn’t my friend. It was someone I didn’t know…my heart began to race, and in my head I cursed him out, threw him on the ground and repeatedly punched him in the face. But all that came from my mouth was ‘don’t move’ and ‘why are you in my car’?”

Regno-Cusi ran out of Stronghold with six Jiu Jitsu students from the academy and surrounded the car.

“He said he wanted to restore it, and he was just trying to smoke some weed,” Regno-Cusi says. “When we told him it was our car, he said, ‘Oh, is this your car? I didn’t know, I’ll leave, I don’t want any trouble.' He said he thought the car was abandoned. He mentioned he was staying at the hostel down the street, he was smoking a joint, and was well dressed.”

The suspect did not attempt to flee.

“Yeah he was chill, high, and just surrendered while we surrounded the car and called the police,” Regno-Cusi added. “This was right after class, around 8 pm.”

Two days before to this incident, someone had attempted to steal Sutton’s Porsche, leaving behind a keyed message on the vehicle.

“Yes, he admitted to keying the car too,” Sutton confirmed. “And he admitted to clearing out the car, taking the license plate two days ago, trying to steal it, and was attempting to steal it again yesterday (Thursday).”

“He seemed very apologetic,” Regno-Cusi added. “We actually felt really bad for him, definitely not right in the head and young, too, about 24. Police said he’s on probation for priors.”

Officers arrived within approximately ten minutes and arrested the suspect without incident.