PORTLAND, Ore. — Surveillance video catches crooks stealing a box truck and food cart from a Southeast Portland business on Wednesday morning.
“You don't think it's going to happen to you but then it does, and it really hits home,” said Larry Abell, owner of The Local Grind Island Style BBQ. “We work hard for what we do.”
A camera captured the crooks driving up in a white van around 2:00 a.m. to the businesses parking lot on Southeast 8th Avenue and Powell Boulevard. One of the crooks hopped out of the van, broke into Abell’s box truck and drives away.
Inside the truck was one of the company’s two food cart grills. Abell estimates the truck and cart had a combined value of around $20,000.
“It definitely bothers me,” Abell said. “Just watching them drive away, it's frustrating!”
Abell usually sets up the stolen food cart outside Portland State University. He said employees depend on the cart for steady income. On Wednesday, Abell had to give them all the day off.
“They have families to feed and bills to pay,” he said.
Abell filed a police report and investigators have a solid lead; cameras captured the van's license plate number. Abell hopes someone finds the truck and cart in good condition so his crew can get back to work.
“The fact that they can take the vehicle and whole operation and just be gone in ten minutes is really disheartening,” he said.
The stolen box truck is a 2006 Chevy Silverado, license plate 323 HAD.
Anyone with information on this case was asked to call the Portland police non-emergency line at 503-823-3333.