Pat's Steaks in South Philadelphia offers $5K reward to identify cheesesteak-throwing suspect

The owner of Pat's King of Steaks is offering $5,000 for information leading to an arrest and charges after surveillance video captured a man throwing a cheesesteak into a manager's face on Wednesday in South Philadelphia.

General manager Tom Francano said the customer walked up to the window and ordered the sandwich. About 10 minutes later, Francano recalled, the customer returned with the opened cheesesteak and said, "This steak's garbage."

After a back-and-forth over the sandwich's quality, Francano said he asked other customers about their cheesesteaks, and they replied that they were fine.

"That's when he got a little pissed off, he got mad, and he picked the steak up and threw it at me," said Francano, adding that he thought the customer might be some kind of social media influencer. "He had this phone on, you know, on a pole, taking pictures outside and everything."

Shop owner Frank Olivieri said the video he reviewed showed the customer ripping the sandwich apart by hand before approaching the window.

"He assaulted my employee, so we'll see how many of his friends that he has online are really his friends, see who's going to turn him in first," Olivieri said. "The power of the camera, AI, we'll find him. We'll find him. $5,000, we'll pull him out of whatever rock he's living under right now."

A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson confirmed an investigation is ongoing. The suspect was described as wearing a blue Under Armour jacket, black shorts and red Beats headphones.