SAN MATEO / Bride testifies about wedding night carjack — SFGate

Until they got to the Taco Bell, Steve Almanza and Valerie Zahn had enjoyed a typical and exhausting wedding day — she in a white gown, he in a tuxedo and about 100 friends and family members gathering for a celebration in his parents’ San Mateo backyard.

The young newlyweds — still in their formal clothes — were at the fast-food restaurant on East Fourth Avenue in San Mateo about 11 p.m. on their way to a hotel in Burlingame. Almanza went in for some takeout food, and a couple minutes later, while her new husband was inside the restaurant, the 22-year-old bride was the victim of one of the shortest and most unsuccessful carjackings in history.

We visted that particular Taco Bell many times when we lived in San Mateo. Never carjacked, though.