A Vandal Causes Damage to Nine Carts Within the Cartlandia Pod

Someone vandalized nine carts at the the Southeast Portland food cart pod Cartlandia Monday morning, stealing cash, iPads, and small computers from a number of those carts, as well. Roger Goldingay, the owner of the food cart pod, says at around 5 a.m. on August 24, a vandal damaged nine carts, including Kesone Asian Fusion, Puerto Rican cart La Wawa, Ooh Pasta, and cookie cart We Are Baked.

We Are Baked experienced the most damage; he says the vandal pried open the back door and shattered the serving window. While the burglar attempted to break into several carts, Goldingay says he wasn’t always successful, only vandalizing the exteriors of those carts; even when he did break in, he left with little more than a few iPads and a small amount of cash.

Goldingay says that security cameras caught images of the vandal, who appeared to be a white male in a grey hoodie, dark jeans, and a mask. “He knew what he was doing. This was someone semi-professional,” Goldingay says. “We suspect him breaking in before and breaking in to other cart pods.”

Goldingay says he filed a police report; Eater Portland has yet to hear from Portland Police regarding this case. Goldingay and co-owner Carol Otis have organized a GoFundMe to pay for the cart repairs, and helped clean, repair, and sanitize the carts so they could reopen. The pod has fully reopened, excluding We Are Baked; Goldingay says that cart should be up and running within the week.

“Sometimes life hands you lemons, so you make some lemonade,” reads a caption on We Are Baked’s Instagram post describing the incident. “Sometimes a dirty effin theif (sic) vandalizes your food cart and busts your windows, steals your stuff, and violates your happy place. But you just have to dust it off, clean up the mess and make some gd lemonade.”

• Support vandalized Cartlandia carts [GoFundMe]