- Yalla Kosher food truck in Utah faces repeated theft of power source.
- Rabbi Zippel reports incidents to police, noting premeditated nature of latest theft.
- Despite challenges, the team remains determined to serve the community and seeks donations to help pay for a more permanent power source for the food truck.
SALT LAKE CITY — The operator of Utah's only kosher food truck said they're the victims of repeated theft.
Yalla Kosher food truck is usually parked in the parking lot of Chabad Square on 1100 East in Sugar House.
Yalla partner and operator Rabbi Avremi Zippel said they run a 200-foot copper wire through the parking lot to power the truck. He said the power source has been stolen twice, most recently early Saturday morning.
"It's not really something you can just kind of fold up and stuff in a shopping bag and go off," Zippel said.
Zippel said his team first noticed the copper wire was gone the morning of Friday, July 11.
"We do have video footage," Zippel said. "At around 3:45 that morning, two men show up, work pretty quickly and efficiently. Unplug it from its source, take it out of the truck."
Zippel said they figured this was a crime of opportunity. He didn't think they had secured it well enough.
"The thought that we had at the time was, maybe we were a little lackadaisical in securing it," Zippel said. "This was a crime of opportunity. Two people come upon it and there's some value on the resale market. They make off with it. We'll make sure this doesn't happen again."
They nailed the power source to the concrete.
Fast forward to this weekend, Zippel said people showed up for services at the synagogue on Saturday and found the lock was gone. There was damage done to the power outlets and a pile of human waste at the front of the building.
Zippel said surveillance footage shows someone working alone this time.
"Around 4 a.m. Saturday morning, a gentleman arrives at the property … brings a tool kit with him," he said. "This was definitely a situation where this was certainly premeditated."
Zippel said the man worked for about one hour unscrewing the mechanisms his team had put in place.
"At about 5:15, walks through the area to the front door of our building where people would be entering services hours later, nowhere near the wire," Zippel said, describing surveillance video, "relieves himself right outside the building."
He said it feels personal. Zippel said both incidents were reported to Salt Lake police.
He said, they won't stop serving food and the community.
"My team on the ground moved heaven and earth to be able to open and function today," Zippel said. "We're definitely not going to be intimidated by what seems to be evolving as a pattern of behavior. And we hope that law enforcement can do their bit to make sure that this sort of stuff is curtailed, and we'll keep on doing ours."
Zippel said they set up a GoFundMe* to raise funds for a more permanent power source for the truck. He said they absorbed the loss from the theft in July and it was costly.
*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
