LOCKLAND, Ohio — Thieves have set back a local food truck owner after stealing her catalytic converter one week before she was set to be a vendor at BLINK.
Nicole Mercer, owner of A Lil' Taste of Soul food truck, has been in business for four years. Just as she was preparing for one of the busiest weeks in Cincinnati, she's now forced to stop operating.
“(My husband) looked underneath the truck and he’s like someone cut the catalytic converter off the truck," she told WCPO Tuesday.
Mercer said her husband discovered last week thieves took off with the truck’s catalytic converter. In screen grabs shared with WCPO from surveillance video, you can see the suspects approaching the shared kitchen space, scoping out the area and then approaching Mercer's truck.
“You hurt our family — like this is our livelihood," Mercer said. “You have hurt us going into the winter months. Now we got a major setback having to repair a truck, missing out on possibly tens of thousands of dollars for BLINK because, you know, there is an estimated 2 million people that’s supposed to be here during these four days.”
Thieves target catalytic converters on cars hoping for a big payday by melting down the precious metals inside. If yours is stolen, replacing it could cost you thousands.
"It's 100% monetary loss," Smith Muffler service manager Todd Adams told WCPO. "The heavy ones, like you're describing with the food trucks, nine times out of 10 those folks have some type of insurance on that vehicle. They still have a deductible. They have to pay out of pocket. That's the bad expense."
While there are some measures you can take, Adams said the only foolproof way is parking in a locked garage or a well-lit area.
“If you cut down the people that are buying these from the people that are stealing them, it would go away," Adams said. "It would stop."
Law enforcement is urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.
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