Vegan Nom Food Park burglarized during Central Texas ice storm

Austin food park burglarized during ice storm

Vegan Nom Food Park says it was burglarized during the recent ice storm in Central Texas.

AUSTIN, Texas - Small businesses in Austin were hit pretty hard during the winter storm's power outages, including Vegan Nom Food Park, who also got burglarized.

The Vegan Nom took to Instagram to share that the food park was burglarized during the winter storm and Milky Way got hit the hardest.

"Pretty sad we were pretty disappointed we were really disappointed in what happened we're coming in as a small business owner and a team we have hope to rebound from the storm and it set us back," said Chris Rios, owner of Vegan Nom Food Park on Cesar Chavez Street.

Rios says during the power outage someone came into the food park broke the fence and stole from several vendors.

"I think there was two to three hundred dollars in cash stolen, there was an iPad, iPhone, and damage to the doors we had to pay someone to repair it," said Rios.

Rios says after multiple burglaries he decided to put security cameras on property hoping it will stop.

"During the storm it was ineffective because our Wi-Fi was down, so we were vulnerable for that split second," said Rios.

Rios says he's in disbelief someone would come during the power outages and hazardous driving conditions and steal from them.

"It just felt very shocking like who would do this during the storm, power is down, and we're closed and we're trying to get back on our feet," said Rios.

Even though this is a loss for the food park, Rios is trying to stay optimistic for his team.

"The positive thing about this is it brought us together as a team, it really put us in a situation where it makes us think about when our guard is down should we check things," said Rios.