Cape Coral restaurant’s food trailer stolen

Thieves in Cape Coral made off with more than a deal on seafood – they took the entire food trailer.

Joe Bean said he can’t believe someone could be as bold as to steal a huge food trailer and get away with it, but that’s what he says happened overnight Saturday into Sunday morning.

He describes his food trailer as a business saver of sorts. Without it, he might not have been able to make ends meet during the COVID-19 crisis.

“It came in big for us during the pandemic. Like I said, being able to guide some to-gos to it, making sure our guests felt safe.”

But someone stole the whole thing from the business’ parking lot at Del Prado Boulevard South and SE 14th Street.

“It’s 34 feet. It’s big and red. It had the Twisted Lobster emblem all over it,” Bean said.

“It has to be towed by a bigger vehicle. It’s about 9,000 to 12,000 pounds, so your regular truck like a Ford F150 can’t tow it, which is partly why it’s mindblowing that someone just took it.”

First, Bean called the Cape Coral Police Department. Then, he went to Facebook.

“Social media has been unbelievable. I think we’ve got almost 1,000 people, well over 1,000 people that have shared our post.”

Bean’s hopeful that with everyone looking for a trailer that’s hard to miss, someone will see it and call police.

The trailer and what it represents mean a lot to him.

“There’s definitely a lot of sentimental value. It cost us $100,000. We custom-built it over in Miami in 2014, so we handpicked everything that was in it, a lot of the equipment.”

Bean’s worst fear is that whoever stole it drove it somewhere to be stripped for parts. He said the crooks were good, with no witnesses or surveillance cameras to catch them and no evidence left behind.