BALTIMORE — We hear about stolen vehicles often and don't think about it.
But one stolen truck is impacting 4 MyCiTy's mission to end hunger in Baltimore.
"When stuff like this happens, when people steal from us, when people take advantage of us, that just hurts our program and sets us back dramatically financially," says founder Christopher Dipnarine.
VIDEO: Stolen truck hurts local nonprofit's mission to give back
A group of people stole a truck from the nonprofit Tuesday night. The theft was caught on surveillance video.
Christopher told WMAR 2 News 4 MyCiTy's mission is all about repurposing food waste to help end food insecurity.
"We rescue and distribute about 100,000 lbs of food to communities and families across Baltimore every day."
And it's free for everyone.
Another important part of the nonprofit's work includes composting—the facility has the largest indoor composting machine in the state.
"7,300 families that are composting through our initiative, so that's food waste that's not going to the landfills. That's food waste that's not going to be burnt at an incineration facility."
Two trucks at the facility are dedicated to composting, but the one stolen had a specific use.
"That truck is used to haul off food scraps, to haul off compost," Christopher said, "So now we have to get back a dump truck initially cause we have no way of hauling the compost out of this building."
And it won't be easy to replace it.
"It's a $100,000 truck that was stolen. As a nonprofit, you don't really have like credit and stuff like you can't build credit as a nonprofit business, and it takes time. A lot of this stuff was on my personal, so I had to take a personal loan out to get these types of vehicles."
He called the situation ironic.
He moved the nonprofit to its current location for safety after its vehicles catalytic converters were stolen last year.
"Now it's in the hands of whoever can see the footage and help us identify this, or hopefully the police can track them down and we can recover the truck."
He said he increased security on the other vehicles at the facility, but he's still worried the thieves may return.
Baltimore City Police told WMAR 2 News the investigation is still ongoing.
But if you do see 4 MyCiTy's dumpster truck with its logo on the side, give authorities a call.
