Large poutine food truck stolen from owner

A 23-foot-long food truck trailer was stolen Tuesday from in front of its owner's home in downtown Kamloops.

The silver trailer has a deep fryer vat sticking out of the roof, an awning on one side, a circular decal that says Frenchies Poutinerie on the side — and a giant poutine decal.

"It's not hard to miss," said Élie Hana, owner of Frenchies Poutinerie. "It's literally covered in poutine," added manager Sean Lyons.

Hana had been up until 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday preparing poutine for the Rockin' River Music Festival in Merritt, B.C., where the poutinerie is slated to be a vendor.

When Lyons came by Hana's house later that morning around 10 a.m., they realized the trailer was missing from out front.

After calling the southern Interior city's bylaw department, they learned it hadn't been towed.

"That's when the panic really sunk in," said Lyons. "Then we saw a couple cut locks and immediately just called the cops from there."

Kamloops RCMP said the trailer was reported stolen on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

"At this time we are asking for the public's assistance in locating the truck," said Cpl. Jodi Shelkie in an emailed statement to CBC.

'Bad feeling,' says Hana

For the past week, Hana and the rest of his staff had been hard at work preparing 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) of potatoes for the festival this week, with about 1,200 pounds (550 kilograms) cut and blanched inside the truck, he told Radio West host Sarah Penton.

"When I found out that it was actually stolen, it was kind of a really bad feeling," he said. "Especially [after] the last week of all the hard countless hours of work."

He and Lyons are disappointed they won't be able to serve poutine at the music festival.

"Leading up to this, including, you know, fees for the spot, getting materials to prep food, there's a lot of hard work put into this," said Lyons. 

"All of a sudden, the day before we expect to leave and help all the vendors and be there for the community and the festival, it was kind of heartbreaking news that we're no longer able to do that for everyone."

Getting it back

Neither Hana or Lyons know why the trailer was stolen, but figure maybe someone wanted to sell it.

"You'd be surprised. People sell everything from cows to trailers," said Hana. "The equipment alone inside is worth a good little chunk of change." added Lyons.

Hana just hopes that whoever took it, returns it soon.

"I wouldn't even press charges or anything. Maybe we can have a good talk to see why you took it. I'm not here to judge," said the food truck owner.

"There's no really good reason, but you know, people can do desperate things when they have bad situations in life or during a desperate moment in their life. So, I can understand why some people do what they do."