PORTLAND, Ore. — A small food truck business has been forced to temporarily close its doors, after facing massive damage from being hit by a car on Sept. 3.
Late that evening, a police officer driving along East Burnside Street saw the food truck with what was described as "massive rear end impact."
The owner, Michael Frazier, said he first knew something was wrong when he got an alert on his phone.
“I got a notification on my phone saying that there'd been movement in the truck,” he said.
He said his business has only been open for three months, and he left his job almost two years ago to put all his focus into getting the Burnsider Food Truck up and running.
"I put all of my savings into it. Just weeks and weeks of searching for the right equipment, and the right truck and all that stuff," he said.
The driver fled the scene, but was later found by police after a witness pointed authorities to the right place.
There police discovered 49-year-old Linda Gibson, and her 7-year-old daughter.
Both were uninjured, but the car Gibson was driving was stolen, and also had a switched license plates.
"I don't have another job. I'm not going to...I don't have the time to go out and work a nine to five and then come back," said Frazier. "And then do everything for a one man operation on a food truck. It's just not feasible."
Frazier and his partner were fortunately not in the truck when it was hit.
He said his partner has a source of income coming in, and he’s now waiting on insurance to come out and assess the damage next week.
However, he said with a lot of the truck’s interior being custom work, it still likely won’t cover the entire cost.
Now, he hopes people will donate to his GoFundMe to help his business come back to life.
He hopes to raise $20,000 to cover the costs.
"The community's really shown up for my business the past 48 hours. They've really been helping me plug away at stuff. So we've raised a good amount of money so far, but it's gonna be a long process," he said.
Gibson was arrested and is now facing charges for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, recklessly endangering another person, and failure to perform the duties of a driver. She was also released the following day.