Pizza shop owner didn’t mind Rubio campaign using his Wi-Fi

By Megan Messerly

Friday, Nov. 13, 2015 | 5 a.m.

Rustica Pizzeria owner Sven Oberlaender was surprised to learn Thursday that his neighbor — Sen. Marco Rubio’s Las Vegas campaign office — had been using his free Wi-Fi. But he wasn't mad about it.

If Mediaite and Gizmodo were to be believed, Rubio’s campaign “took advantage of a local pizza place” and was “ruthlessly bogarting internet from a local restaurant.”

But if you actually ask him, Oberlaender isn’t upset at all — the campaign’s staffers and volunteers are regular customers of his joint, which serves pizza, pasta and subs. So it was news to him when he read an Associated Press story saying that his restaurant had “caught on and asked the Rubio team to stop” using the Wi-Fi.

“(The campaign) told me this morning about the AP story and they told me that there might be media attention about my Wi-Fi and I was like, ‘What?’” Oberlaender said. “That was first time I heard about them using it.”

According to the AP version of the story, a campaign staffer noticed that a neighboring pizza parlor offered free Wi-Fi to customers, walked over, bought a couple slices and asked for the internet access code. After about three weeks, the restaurant figured out the campaign’s thrifty strategy and asked them to stop. (The senator’s campaign has earned a reputation for finding innovative ways to operate on a lean budget)

But Oberlaender said he didn’t know the campaign was using his Wi-Fi until Thursday, when the campaign told him about the article. He said they told him they used his wireless Internet for the first week they moved in until they got their own set up. “It makes sense, because it takes Cox a few days to come out and get everything set up,” Oberlaender said.

The restaurant owner added that members of the campaign “are customers and come in all the time to eat at my place — a whole bunch of people — so I am absolutely not upset.”

The Rubio campaign confirmed the AP account, saying they used the pizzeria’s Wi-Fi for the first three weeks they were in the office until it suddenly stopped working. They also confirmed that the Las Vegas office does, in fact, now have its own Wi-Fi, though they opted out of a Wi-Fi cable bundle to save money. Instead, they watch TV on a staffer’s Apple TV. (They also print on both sides of paper and “are pretty frugal with swag.”)

Oberlaender, a German citizen, is not eligible to vote in the 2016 presidential election. He said that, although he has political opinions, he doesn’t support a particular campaign and declined to say how he would vote, were he a U.S. citizen.

“I’m selling pizza,” Oberlaender said. “I would take customers from any campaign.”