Milwaukee food truck stolen, community helps owner find it
MILWAUKEE - Surveillance video captured someone stealing a Milwaukee couple's food truck just after midnight Friday, but the community helped them get it back.
E's Blufox Eatery is Iesha Coleman's pride and joy. She runs the food tuck with her fiancé near 38th and Villard on the city's north side.
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"It's like a little baby to me," she said. "We’ve been feeding the homeless, children in the neighborhood that are hungry."
Coleman said the business really took off over the summer. But it's hard to cook without a kitchen, and that was her reality on Friday afternoon when she came to the lot and her truck was gone.
Iesha Coleman, owner of Es Blufox Eatery
"I just really couldn’t believe it," she said. "I really just felt violated, because why would somebody feel so comfortable to come to somebody else’s business and take from them?"
The couple reached out to family and friends, like community activist Javod Petty, who made a social media post to get the word out. It worked.
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"We recovered it within 30 minutes to an hour after I made the post," said Petty.
The food truck was found next to an abandoned home roughly 10 minutes away from where it was stolen. To add insult to injury, the truck was found with a $33 parking citation slapped to the side of it – and the inside was ransacked.
"We don’t have any light or anything now because we don’t have the generator," said Coleman. "They snatched the air fryer, the deep fryer, everything we basically had, all of our supplies and inventory."
E's Blufox Eatery
Now, Coleman said she is grateful to have it back – even if it means there is more work to do. She will need help to rebuild, and a GoFundMe online fundraiser was created.
"It just gives me motivation to move forward and go harder with my business," she said.
MPD tips
Anyone with any information is asked to contact Milwaukee police at 414-935-7242 or to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 414-224-Tips or use the P3 Tips app.