Free Republic

Food truck operators in Houston are on edge as police look for a shotgun-wielding robber who has already hit a dozen businesses. The man, caught on surveillance cameras, allegedly started his robbing spree on Aug. 9. “He pointed the gun, a shotgun, at my employee,” Rolando Hernandez, owner of El De La Barbacoa told FOX 26 Houston. “It’s a very powerful gun. We’re blessed he didn’t shoot.” The Houston Police department said that around 10:30 a.m. Aug. 13 food truck workers located at the 600 block of West Gulf Bank stated they heard a gunshot before an unknown man walked...

Austin police are reaching out to the community to track down two suspects connected to numerous burglaries across Austin. Police are searching for two white men that have targeted around 40-50 food trucks since April. The men are going after clusters of food trucks throughout the city without a specific location, but appear to be tracking food truck parks, police say. Officials say downtown Austin and the area north of U.S. Highway 183 appear to be the main clusters, but there have been other targeted trucks. Police estimate the men have stolen several thousands of dollars including tablets, money boxes...

Laura Pekarik bakes cupcakes and sells them from a food truck. Her truck provided a great opportunity, letting her open a business without having to spend big to hire a staff and rent space in a building. "Instead of renting a whole brick and mortar and managing a team of people, it was just me and one baker," she explains. But increased regulations, such as new rules that forbid trucks to park near established restaurants, make life hard for people like Pekarik. "It became ever more difficult to find parking locations when we went to the city (Chicago) to try...

When Joey Vanoni returned to the United States from Afghanistan in 2013, he went to work putting his dream of owning a pizza business into action. A Navy veteran and current reservist, Vanoni launched Pizza di Joey, his veteran owned and operated business, in August 2014, serving New York-style brick oven pizza out of a food truck in Maryland’s Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties. Vanoni knows good pizza. He was born and raised in New Jersey and began making pizza at a pizzeria when he was in high school. The reservist has lived in many cities across the country, all...

Food trucks have become the hottest new industry, yet many cities are doing everything they can to stop them in their tracks. In city after city, lawmakers are imposing complicated regulations on food trucks and other street vendors, often in the name of consumer safety, which make it nearly impossible for vendors to actually operate their trucks. Chicago’s regulations are particularly onerous, as Reason reports: According to the Chicago Tribune, 109 would-be purveyors of mobile cuisine have applied for licenses, but the city hasn’t seen fit to OK any of them. Among the requirements they may be having difficulty meeting: