Food Truck Burned Down After Owner Received Confederate Threats

A food truck was destroyed in a fire after the owner received similar threats from pro-Confederate locals.

August 1, 2015

Not Available Lead — Image via Complex Original
Complex Original

About a month ago, a food truck owner from Odessa, Texas (the city famous for the high school football team that inspired Friday Night Lights) had an idea to get rid of Confederate flags in his town: give people free food instead. Rob Jenkins, the owner of PoBoy's and Rich Chic's Cajun Kitchen, started offering his customers free sandwiches in exchange for Confederate flags. When he started to receive threats from pro-Confederate locals, Jenkins realized not everyone agreed with his plan. "We realized that we were going to lose some customers over this," he told the New York Daily News. "We were OK with that."

But instead, Jenkins lost his truck. On Wednesday, Jenkins discovered that his truck has been destroyed in a fire that appears to have started in the engine, according to inspectors. The evidence does not seem to be consistent with arson, but Jenkins told the Daily News weeks ago that he had received threats to burn down his trucks.

"We've gotten 'burn the business down.' We've gotten that a few times," he said back in June.

At that point, he discredited rumors that he was going to burn the flags on their Facebook page. "We realized we have caused tensions with our views on what the Confederate flag represents," he wrote. "We are still doing our donation request, however we will not burn or destroy any of it. Instead, we will donate it to a museum in which it may be viewed respectfully."

And while Jenkins originally suspected his critics were responsible for the fire ("They burned my business like they said they would," he said hours after the flames were extinguished), Jenkins told the NY Daily News that it could have just been a "freak accident."

A friend and fellow food truck owner started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Jenkins, who forewent getting insurance to cut costs. "Every little bit helps get this company and their wonderful food back on the street," it reads. The page has raised $8,866 of its $10,000 goal as of this writing.

[via New York Daily News]