EASTON, Md.--A beloved and well-known Pakistani family in the Easton community is shaken up after someone broke-in to their food truck Monday night.
Brenda Ramage is a loyal customer who goes to the '4 Sisters Kabob and Curry' three-to-four times a week because she loves it so much. She said she can't imagine who would vandalize the popular food truck.
“The whole community loves them...on Thursdays they give people free food if they need it,” Ramage said.
According to Easton Police, the incident occurred sometime between Monday night and early Tuesday morning at the 600 Dover Road Suite #105.
When the owner of the place, Shahida Perveen Khan went in to work, as she normally does every day at 6:30 a.m., she said she found the windows of her food truck broken and completely shattered to pieces. While nothing in the truck was taken, a sense of security was.
The family said their tip jar and propane tank had previously been stolen, but nothing quite like this.
“We don’t like to serve any overnight food so she always gets here early in the morning starts prepping, makes her sides that are going to go with all of the Kabob platters," explained the eldest daughter and co-owner, Andleeb Khan. “I was still asleep and mom calls me. She’s all scared, she's like 'you know, the windows are all broken. I don’t know if somebody’s inside it’s still really dark.'”
A police report was filed immediately. WRDE reached out to the Easton Police Department inquiring about the possibility of it perhaps being a hate crime. However, police said there’s no indication that leads them to believe it was that. They said it was most likely a random act.
"You have a lot of break-ins in vehicles and things like that, and I just think it’s about opportunity,” said George L. Paugh, the Commander of the Patrol Division Crisis Response Unit.
Ramage however, said she was surprised to hear there was crime in her quiet, friendly neighborhood.
“Cuz I grew up right around the corner,” she said.
Khan said whoever broke in was smart about it, avoiding a camera they have located at the front of the main door. The Khan family said they are going to have to invest on more security cameras for future purposes.
“If it was just attempted robbery, maybe they didn’t have enough help to kind of push them through the windows, maybe they didn’t have the right tools, but they did try,” Khan said.
Andleeb Khan is the oldest daughter of four, and she along her aunt help her mother run a Desi, Middle-Eastern grocery store, known as '4 Sisters Halal Meat and Groceries' that opened up three years ago. Their food truck, which cost them $65,000 was acquired about two years ago-- and they are still paying it off.
“I’ve never heard of any other neighbors complaining about any kind of break-ins or any kind of happenings," Khan said. We have 'Rise Up' right down the street. I don’t think they’ve had any incidents like the ones we’ve had so far and they have a little food trolley there as well.”
The Khan family said a GoFundMe page was generously organized by an unknown community member and as of Friday afternoon, they’ve already raised close to $5,000.
All the customers assure that not only is the food delicious but the family that serves it is some of the sweetes people they’ve ever met.