A popular food truck that is often found parked close to Mater Dei Hospital was broken into and robbed on Thursday night, leaving the couple who own and operate it “heartbroken”.

Tony’s Foods had become a familiar sight over the last year, often used by hospital staff and workers from the nearby San Gwann Industrial Estate.

However, Samantha Debono and Anthony Aquilina were shocked when they arrived to start the day’s work on Friday morning only to find that someone had broken the lock, damaged the door, and made off with a generator, soft drinks, and somewhat bizarrely, a window pane.

In a post on Facebook, the couple told customers, “We are very sorry but we will not be able to open for service today.”

“A kind soul came to our truck during the night, and vandalised it, robbing our generator and some other valuable items from us.”

“We are still in shock and waiting for the police to come and investigate, our apologies for the inconvenience,” they said.

Speaking to WhosWho.mt, Ms Debono said that the police had arrived very quickly after being called, while a forensic team tried to collect evidence.

However, she explains that hopes for solid evidence are dim, with the recent dusty weather making collection of fingerprints difficult.

While the area does have some CCTV coverage, it seems that the truck was not directly covered by any camera.

The thieves stole the food truck’s generator, which Ms Debono hopes will be difficult for them to unload since it is not available for sale in Malta and thus quite rare.

“It was a Loncin 3500i,” she explains, “which I had got from the UK. I never saw one like it in Malta.”

She therefore made an appeal to the public to keep an eye out for any such generator surfacing on any marketplace, and to contact them if anyone sees it.

The biggest issue, however, is the damage done to the truck.

“They broke the lock and stole a window pane. Now I need to see how to source a window pane for a vintage truck,” she says.

The locksmith she took the lock to, meanwhile, said that similar locks are not available, and added that whoever committed the crime was evidently a professional as they knew exactly what to do to break it open.

“The generator was a big loss financially, but without a lock we cannot work.”

Thankfully, the couple are careful to avoid leaving valuables behind in the truck, so there was not much else to steal but soft drinks.

Ms Debono, evidently emotional with the day’s events, describes how she and her partner had saved up for two years before opening the truck, leaving their jobs as physiotherapists to follow their dream.

“We left our jobs to have this food truck and we love it so much,” she says.

The pair opened for business in March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the island.

“The pandemic was very hard on us, but we managed to fight through. But this is going to keep us out of business for at least a week.”

“This was the last straw,” she says, her voice cracking.

She asked their customers to be patient with them as they take care of the damages and get back on the road.

“Our followers and customers have been very kind,” she says. “So many people have reached out, sayign they are happy to help us out.”

“They gave me hope, there are kind people out there. At least, this showed us that people really care about us.”