Several Austin food trucks burglarized, no suspects in custody

Several Austin food trucks burglarized the night before Thanksgiving

Business owners believe these break-ins are connected to a more widespread problem affecting East Austin eateries.

AUSTIN, Texas - It was Thanksgiving Day - his day off - when Cuantos Tacos owner, Beto, stopped by the Arbor Food Park and noticed something wasn’t right. "I came in and saw all the lips of the doors bent backward and some of the flaps broken into," he said.

Overnight, their surveillance cameras captured footage of a man and a woman trying to break in. They were unable to get into their newer trailer - the one they’re currently working out of - but their old trailer was hit.

Two others on the property, Shelton’s Cafe and Sammataro Pizza, were also targeted.

Beto has been talking with other restaurant owners in the area who say they’ve experienced similar incidents in recent months. He said Discada, La Tunita, Birdies, Golden Castle, La Barbecue, and El Marisquero all have their own stories of being targeted.

They believe the same people may be responsible.

"More businesses closer and closer to us started getting broken into," said Beto. "I kind of had a feeling something was going to happen and sure enough it did," said Beto.

Just down E. 12th Street, it’s been a similar experience for Edgar Rico, co-owner of Nixta Taqueria. They recently doubled their security cameras. "We’ve definitely in the past month encountered some strange things," said Rico. "One of our iPads has gone missing, and we’ve had some attempted break-ins."

Neighboring restaurants have shared similar stories. "We’ve got each other’s back," said Rico. "We all look out for each other’s businesses in whatever way possible."

But it’s been frustrating for these small businesses.

"If you’re looking for bad people that you’re trying to jack, we’re not those people," he said. "We’re people that are trying to provide for this community, give people jobs, especially brown people, trying to uplift our own people."

At Arbor Food Park, thankfully, the damage wasn’t severe enough to halt business and there was nothing valuable left behind to steal. However, the little things add up.

"It’s mostly infuriating because we’re all really small businesses so there’s very little room for ridiculous things like this to happen," said Beto.

FOX 7 is still waiting for an update from APD on the investigation.

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