APB ISSUED: THE CASE OF THE MISSING BBQ GRILL...

By Juan Montoya
A few years ago, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office raided an eight-liner in Olmito and confiscated – besides cash and maquinitas – a Super-Super deluxe BBQ grill and submitted forfeiture proceedings.
It was a thing of beauty with – some say – six separate sections. One had to pull it with a heavy-duty truck since the things was of good construction made of heavy iron.
The court granted the motion for forfeiture and the DA had a nice  grill apart from the money and eight-liner machines.
Then DA-Armando Villalobos being an avid subscriber to the South Texas tradition of trading BBQ chicken plates for votes and goodwill, used it a few times. Other organizations used it to stage charitable events.
Over time, the DA's office lost track of the BBQ pit. Perhaps it was stored somewhere with the maquinitas. Perhaps it was stored at Villalobos' house or one of his investigators'. No one knows.
Then, during last year's Democratic primaries, someone – no one is saying who – thought that the grill that Pct. 2 Constable Abel Gomez was using at the Cameron Park Centro Cultural Community Center resembled the missing grill.
They inquired of Gomez and he denied it was the suspect grill. He maintains that the grill he used during the voting period was his and that he had constructed it from an old tank.
"I have pictures of the whole process when we made it," Gomez said he told the DA investigator sent to investigate the case of the missing grill.
Nonetheless, until he produces the pictures, DA sources say that the office of Luis Saenz will continue to determine the whereabouts of the missing grill.
Others see a "gotcha" factor in the case because it is common knowledge that Gomez campaignrd alongside Carlos Masso who was also in a runoff with Saenz for the DA post.
Unles there is such a thing as BBQ grill DNA or they have a BBQ Pit lineup, it may be hard for anyone to prove the true identity of Gomez's grill.
"Will they bring in close acquaintances of the grill and have them decide which is the real DA grill?," quipped a deputy laughing. "Or maybe there's a mugshot of the grill somewhere in the DA's files. And even if Villalobos says that the grill Gomez is using is his, will anyone believe the word of an indicted defendant in a corruption case?"
We may never know, but where there's smoke, there's a grill.