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Food cart and restaurant owners report rash of break-ins to start the new year

Nearly a dozen food carts at the Hawthorne Asylum pod were broken into Tuesday, Paadee on SE 28th was broken into on Sunday

PORTLAND, Ore. — Nearly a dozen food carts at the Hawthorne Asylum food cart pod on SE11th Avenue were broken into Tuesday morning, according to some of the owners at the pod. Portland Police said three have filed police reports.

The owners say that a person or people broke into the pod early Tuesday around 4:30 a.m. and damaged locks, windows and doors. All of the damage was still visible Wednesday afternoon.

"This is the damage they did to the door," said Fernando Rodriguez, owner of Fernando's Alegria food cart, as he pointed to the back door of his cart. His cart was also broken into from the front, causing even more damage. Once inside, hundreds of dollars were stolen.

"The money, it's money, but it's more like the damage they do to the doors and the windows because that's really expensive to fix and also the way it makes you feel," Rodriguez said.

While it was Rogriguez's first time being broke into since he moved into the pod a few months ago, one owner who didn't want to talk on camera said it was their 7th time.

Nearby at SE 28th and Burnside Avenue, Earl Ninsom, owner of Paadee said his restaurant was broken into early Sunday morning.

"That person came in, goes straight to the cash register, took some money from us," Ninsom said.

Security footage Ninsom shared with KGW shows the thief going through the cash register and emptying it and then walking over to the liquor and grabbing a bottle of whiskey.

"The funny part, he didn't leave with it. He left it at another table before he left," Ninsom said.

Both owners said they had hoped the bad year 2020 brought them was behind them. Just days into the new year, both are out hundreds of dollars.

"For people like us that get hit, it feels like we got hit twice," Ninsom said.

"Beginning of the year and we think, 'Oh it's just going to be a good one and 5 days in, it's a little hard, but we'll just have to keep going and hope for the best," Rodriguez said.

A spokesperson for Portland Police said no arrests have been made in either incident. 

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