MIAMI SPRINGS, Fla. – A 55-year-old man is facing a felony charge in South Florida for a bizarre impersonation scheme that left pizza customers getting a raw deal, authorities said.

Police said he ran “an elaborate scheme to defraud tourists staying in the hotels of Miami Springs” by pretending to be a well-known local pizza parlor.

According to police, customers who thought they were ordering pies from Roman’s Pizzeria, located at 391 N. Royal Poinciana Blvd., were instead getting subpar slices from Jose Marti-Alvarez.

Marti-Alvarez “distributed fake pizza flyers to hotel rooms” along Northwest 36th Street, near Miami International Airport, advertising “Roman Pizzeria,” misleading visitors, according to Miami Springs police.

Jesus Roman, the proprietor of the real Roman’s Pizzeria, who’s been cooking up pies for four decades, said Marti-Alvarez’s pizzas were “bad, uncooked, sometimes they (were sent) in a box with a piece of raw dough.”

“They just give it to them and by (the) time they realize it they’re gone anyway,” Roman said.

Police said the fraud had been “ongoing for several years” and has caused “significant hardships” for the real Roman’s, “including complaints to the Better Business Bureau, negative reviews and upset customers.“

“So sometimes they show up upset here to the store claiming ‘Where’s the food?” Roman said. “We have to explain to them that it’s not us.”

After Roman went to police, officers arrested Marti-Alvarez on a charge of organized scheme to defraud and booked him into jail early Monday morning.

“At least if you’re going to do something, do it right,” Roman said.

Marti-Alvarez is also facing an aggravated battery charge “after fleeing from hotel staff in his vehicle and hitting a staff member” with the vehicle, police said.

In court Monday afternoon, Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer ordered Marti-Alvarez to stay away from the Days Inn at 4767 NW 36th St., where the victim works.

In open court, a lawyer, seeking to have the aggravated battery charge dismissed, read from an arrest report that states that he told officers that he “left the area fast and didn’t think he had hit her with the car because he understood he wasn’t supposed to be passing out the pizza flyers at the hotel.”

Nevertheless, Glazer found probable cause to charge Marti-Alvarez with aggravated battery, giving him a $5,000 bond.

His bond for the organized scheme to defraud charge was listed in jail records as “to be set.”

Marti-Alvarez was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Monday evening, online records show.

The Baltimore Orioles sent a big package to the Miami Marlins to land left-hander Trevor Rogers. Moving Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby, the deal didn’t seem favorable for the Orioles.

However, starting pitching help was needed, and teams around Major League Baseball understood that. Prices were high during the trade deadline, so much so that a starter with a 4.53 ERA and 4.43 WHIP was traded for two of the better prospects in baseball.

There wasn’t much room for Stowers and Norby, so moving them made sense. However, Baltimore must have some regret in the early stages after the deal, as Rogers has a 7.53 ERA in 14 1/3 innings pitched since the trade.

While it hasn’t worked out for the Orioles, it’s working out for Norby. According to Isaac Azout of Fish on First, the Marlins are calling him up. He slashed .263/.300/.368 in 13 games with Triple A-Jacksonville.

The 24-year-old debuted in 2024, playing in nine games for Baltimore. He slashed .188/.188/.406 in 32 at-bats but hit two home runs.

Miami is one of the best teams in baseball for Norby to be on for a few different reasons. While they aren’t expected to compete in the next few seasons, it allows him to play with little pressure.

Factor that in with them taking more of a youth movement over the next few years, and it should work out well for the youngster. The Minnesota native has all the tools to be an above-average player, and now it’s time for him to prove that.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Mario Cristobal is not a jewelry guy. Doesn’t wear any. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t possess a bunch of shiny, sparkling things.

Inside Cristobal’s office at Miami, there are at least a dozen of his rings on display. Rings from when he was a player for the Hurricanes. Rings from when he was an assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama. Rings from his time as coach at Oregon. He’s one of only nine current head coaches with multiple conference titles at what until this year was called the Power Five level, after guiding Oregon to a pair of Pac-12 crowns before coming home to Miami.

He won’t wear the next ring that comes his way, either. But he wants it. Badly.

“It’s an unbelievable, addicting feeling that you crave every second while you work,” Cristobal said of those ring-worthy victories. “Not necessarily because of the actual hardware, because I don’t wear any. It’s because of the moments, the accomplishments, the goal setting, the benchmarks that just keep the program on a certain trajectory.”

Miami hasn’t had that moment yet under Cristobal. In Year 3 of his time as coach of the Hurricanes, he truly believes the program is getting closer. The Hurricanes open the season ranked No. 19 in the AP Top 25, were picked third in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s preseason poll, have the league’s preseason player of the year in transfer quarterback Cam Ward and have a roster transformed by tons of recruiting successes since Cristobal came back to his alma mater.

Now, it’s time to put pieces together.

“At our place we say how you do anything is how you do everything,” Cristobal said. “Whether it be the classroom, the community, how you are at home with your family, how you are in the community with people, how you are in a locker room, on the road, how you are when things are going well or when they’re not going so well and you face adversity. Greatness is being the absolute best you can be all the time. It’s a way of life.”

The rings show that he’s right. He led a turnaround at FIU, led a turnaround at Oregon, and — he believes — is in the midst of another at Miami.

“We have been working really hard to get to a point where our expectations for ourselves continue to grow,” Cristobal said. “We want those. We welcome those.”

Ward the leader

Ward has energized Miami without taking a snap yet. The Hurricanes still have Emory Williams, who played well in his opportunities at quarterback last season for Miami, but the offense is engineered to run through Ward.

Ward said he’s already clicked nicely with his new head coach.

“I’m already a confident person,” Ward said. “But we have a head coach like that who is going to instill that in not only yourself but the whole team, offense and defense. It’s going to help us later in the season.”

More transfer keys

A pair of big-time transfer portal additions to watch: former Oregon State running back Damien Martinez and former Washington safety Mishael Powell.

Martinez ran for 2,167 yards in two seasons with the Beavers. Powell was a starter for the Huskies. Probably isn’t a coincidence that those two players — and Ward, too — all came from some of Cristobal’s rival schools from his Pac-12 days at Oregon.

Restrepo chasing history

Xavier Restrepo enters this season 283 receiving yards away from 2,000 in his Miami career. If he gets there, he’d be the 10th Hurricane ever to do that — joining a list that includes Santana Moss, Reggie Wayne, Michael Irvin and Lamar Thomas.

Moss has the Miami record: 2,547. Restrepo needs 830 to tie him and finished last season with 1,092 yards.

Kicking game strong

Kicker Andres Borregales is back for his senior season and should continue his climb up Miami’s all-time scoring list.

Borregales was brilliant in 2023, connecting on 22 of 26 field-goal tries. He’s 56 for 67 on those in his Miami career and has 289 points through three seasons.

Michael Badgley (403) and Carlos Huerta (397) are Miami’s all-time leaders in points. Borregales might have a shot of chasing down their marks this season.

The schedule

There might be a real argument for a “state championship” in the Sunshine State this year, since 2024 will mark only the fourth time in the last 20 seasons that Miami, Florida and Florida State will all play one another; the Hurricanes open in Gainesville against the Gators on Aug. 31. Florida State comes to Miami Gardens on Oct. 26.

Other games of note: home against Virginia Tech on Sept. 27, the return of former coach Manny Diaz when Duke visits on Nov. 2, and a finale at Syracuse on Nov. 30.

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