Man breaks into Gresham food cart, steals phone, then sends himself over $1K using cash apps

By Jeffrey Lindblom

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    GRESHAM, Oregon (KPTV) — A woman says she’s out thousands of dollars after a man raided her Gresham food cart early Thursday morning.

Krista Larsen, who owns the Krazy Kokonut food cart, says this is the third time a break-in has happened since January. Fearing insurance will raise her rates again, she’s choosing to pay out of pocket.

Larsen says the burglary happened around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday when she received a notification on her phone, alerting her that motion was detected on one of her cameras.

“I’m a single mom just trying to make it day to day,” she said. “I’m just trying to survive like everybody else. So, it was definitely not what I wanted to walk into this morning.”

Surveillance video shows an individual rummaging through her food cart, appearing to take anything they could get their hands on.

“Overall loss,” she sighed, “I’d say I’m out about $2,500 to $3,000 just for today.”

Larsen says her till with roughly $400 in it was hidden well, but not well enough. The suspect can be seen locating it just before checking out the refrigerator.

Larsen says every penny counts right now, because “small businesses, no matter what you’re doing, struggle. Especially since COVID. Everybody is struggling right now.”

Larsen says she’d like the suspect to pay for what they did, which she said includes replacing the broken door and a cell phone that she claims was also stolen.

“When he took my phone,” she explained, “he decided to Venmo and CashApp himself well over $1,000.”

In doing so, Larsen says she was able to learn the suspect’s name, which she said she has relayed to police. She said police told her that the suspect she mentioned has a separate warrant out for their arrest.

She has this message for him.

“Get the help that you need. Try and be a better person. Come bring the stuff back that you stole. Try and make things right. There’s nothing else to it, really. Stop being a bad person. That was painful today. It was a big loss.”

She says she’s not sure if she’ll be able to get any of the money back that she said the suspect stole through the applications on her phone.

The business was closed the day of the theft but will resume normal operating hours beginning Friday.

Larsen says a friend set up a GoFundMe to help her bounce back.

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