TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma church's food truck was found after someone spotted it in Auburn Friday night.
The person who allegedly stole the truck was selling coffee from it.
When confronted, the man inside hot-wired the truck and drove off. The pastor of Eastside Assembly of Believer's Church, Alex Davis, was notified and began following the truck until police arrived.
The truck was returned. The person of interest in the theft has not been located.
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Pastor Alex Davis said Tacoma's eastside is one of the most disadvantaged sides of town. He maintains that it is a community that he is committed to helping.
"Just to give somebody a helping hand and say, ‘you know what, here, you have an opportunity. There is some hope for you,’" Davis said.
He also serves up hope every Sunday at Eastside Assembly of Believers. With help from the church, Davis worked to roll out a new idea that would offer jobs to people who need them most. He envisioned a pizza food truck.
"Summertime, crime goes up. So, you are talking about robberies, gang involvement. So, this was an easy way to say you can come in and work on the pizza truck, earn some money, get a slice of pizza," Davis explained.
After five years of fundraising, the church had the $20,000 needed to buy the truck. Months of work went into getting the vehicle ready. The plan was to open at the end of June.
"I was so happy to drive it up. It was just awesome," Davis said.
But the excitement faded fast.
On Thursday morning the church's front gate was found bent and broken, and the food truck was gone.
"My heart just dropped," Davis said. "They stole something that was valuable to the community, that was going to help a lot of kids. Or a mother who is single who needed a job. Or a father who just got out of prison and nobody will hire him."
Davis said it is not just a stolen truck, but a stolen opportunity.
"Just even the young kids who say instead of selling drugs, I'm selling pizza. They stole that away. They didn't steal a truck," Davis said. "If all else fails, we will start all over again, raise more money, and we will stay on our plan. We will not give up."
He says this set back just sets up the church to accomplish their goal.
The church filed a police report and started an online campaign to raise money to replace the stolen food truck.