NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A Nashville restaurant’s food truck was stolen and recovered all in the same week.
Egidio Franciosa, the owner of Il Forno restaurant on Third Avenue, says when his staff arrived to work on Tuesday, they immediately noticed their trailer was missing from the parking lot.
“My chef came into the restaurant, and they asked me if it was the food truck in the shop,” Franciosa said. “I was in shock for just a couple of minutes.”
Franciosa prides his work on creating homemade Italian cuisines including pizza, where the dough is from Naples, Italy. He and his wife started the business first with their food truck back in 2017 and opened their storefront almost a year ago.
“I just was really sad because you know, this one was my baby,” Franciosa said.
Thursday his food truck was recovered after he says a client spotted it near an abandoned property in the Bellevue area.
“Immediately, she called my wife, and she said, ‘did you guys sell the food truck?’ and my wife said no,” Franciosa said. “We just found out two days ago that somebody stole the trailer. And she said, ‘the trailer is here.’”
Cellphone images of the food trucks show how the thieves cracked the $10,000 oven and shuffled things around on the inside of the truck.
“They broke everything a little bit inside,” Franciosa said. The oven is done.”
Nearly two weeks ago, WSMV reported that thieves got away with an “Itz a Philly Thing,” Bellevue restaurant food truck. Their trailer was recovered when police found it, but thieves got away with money, electronics, and damaged their surveillance cameras.
It’s an all too similar situation for Egidio and his business.
“I think they are the same people,” Franciosa said. “A food truck has a lot of value.”
He says he’s thankful for their storefront, but it’ll be a while before his truck is back on the road again.
“I try to bring Naples to Nashville,” Franciosa said.
The owner believes thieves are after the metal inside of the food trucks. He’s going to have to postpone some of the food truck events the business had scheduled for the upcoming year until he’s able to repair the oven.
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