A Fort Worth restaurant that specializes in party catering is losing business after the theft of its customized catering trailer.
Thieves stole the fully equipped food trailer that Chimy's Cerveceria uses to cater gigs all over the Metroplex.
The trailer was taken from the spot where it has sat outside the restaurant for three years without incident.
Surveillance cameras show a small sport utility vehicle pull alongside the trailer at about 4 a.m. The video shows a person get out and work on the trailer's lock before the SUV backs up and takes the trailer.
The trailer has a custom paint job in a loud circus them -- something that is impossible to hide and perhaps even more difficult to sell.
Chimy's general manager Wes Lunsford said the trailer's value, fully equipped, is about $20,000.
The theft is forcing Chimy's to cancel some larger catering jobs over the holidays that would have earned the restaurant the value of the trailer itself several times over.
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"We've got caterings lined up for the next two weeks until Christmas and then, obviously, New Year and lots of holiday parties and stuff going on that we usually used that trailer for," Lunsford said.
Whoever stole the vehicle is going to great lengths to hide it, possibly paint it and either start a business of their own or sell it.
All of that adds up to work ethic, said Lunsford.
"Come down and apply for a job -- how about that?" he said. "We've got some catering gigs to do, so we could always use some help."
Chimy's is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the trailer.
