Within minutes of Joe Dollente turning off his emergency generator Saturday night, Jan. 21, in downtown Snoqualmie, someone stole it.

Dollente, co-owner of Gianfranco’s Ristorante since October, had been using the generator to run the restaurant through a four-day blackout caused by the severe winter storms of the previous week.

“It was outside, right outside the door,” he said, pointing to the back door of the restaurant.

Power came back to Snoqualmie around 8:40 Saturday, he said, but he kept the generator running until his last customer left, around 9 p.m. After shutting it off, he put cords away and did general clean-up inside while he let the generator cool, and when he came back a few minutes later to put it away, it was gone.

“I’m pretty sure it was between 9 and 9:20 p.m. when it happened,” he said.

The thief had to be fast and strong to accomplish the theft so quickly, and he or she would have needed a partner.

“It had a flat tire on both tires, and it’s really heavy,” Dollente said. “You’d have to have a truck, and you’d have to have two people carrying it.”

For all its size and weight, though, the 7,000 watt Honda Powerboss generator has disappeared. Dollente flagged down a patrolling Snoqualmie Police officer and told him what happened, and police contacted a suspicious person seen nearby, but he had nothing to do with the theft. Dollente also talked with the neighboring Snoqualmie Tribe office, to ask if they’d spotted anything on their outdoor security cameras. The cameras would have recorded the vehicles going into and out of the back parking lot, but there was no film of a truck in that time period.

Without witnesses to the crime, it’s unlikely that the generator will be recovered, according to Snoqualmie Police. Dollente’s was the only one reported stolen during the power outage.

Since the theft, Dollente has contacted his insurance company (the estimated value of the generator is about $1,200 to $2,500) and, although he hasn’t given up hope of finding his, he’s started looking at new generators.

The restaurant will always need a generator just in case. “It was nice being able to have power, and to be open for people,” he said.

This is the first theft Dollente experienced since taking over the restaurant, he said, but he knew the former owner did have occasional thefts. He admits that he should have known that the chain with the generator was to fasten it in place, but he didn’t use it.

“I grew up in South Seattle, and I know things like this happen,” he said, “but I just…wanted to give the benefit of the doubt.”

Dollente is disillusioned by the incident, but still happy to be in the area, and planning to move closer to Snoqualmie from his home in Renton. He is excited about the opportunity of the restaurant, too. The menu hasn’t changed, and the recipes are all still the same, he said, because he doesn’t want to change what people like, but he is planning to add more desserts, and more vegetarian and gluten-free options to the menu.

He will also be more cautious in the future, he said.