Dec. 9 -- One of the owners of a Santa Fe food truck says he is deeply discouraged by a pair of burglaries of the truck last month that resulted in thousands of dollars in damage and equipment losses.

But Abdel Malek Belghiti Alaoui said he also hopes he and his partners can use the incidents to spark a communitywide conversation about improving public safety.

Belghiti Alaoui, who owns the Moroccan-style Mediterranean Yalla Shawarma food truck with his brother Zakaria Belghiti Alaoui and Youssef Lakhrif, said their venture was burglarized and vandalized on successive nights Nov. 23 and 24. The trio had opened Yalla Shawarma over the summer, serving a menu of wraps, bowls, sandwiches, hummus, falafel and salads, all influenced by the flavors of their native Casablanca, Morocco.

For the first four months, things went well, Abdel Malek Belghiti Alaoui said, explaining the eatery had attracted a loyal and friendly clientele.

"We were getting close to the point where we were thinking, 'Maybe I can make a little bit of my investment back,' " he said.

'Everything was a mess'

But when the trio arrived at the lot where the truck was parked at 505 S. St. Francis Drive on the morning of Nov. 24, they quickly realized something was amiss.

"It was like a complete mess," he said. "The locks were broken, the doors were broken, everything was a mess."

Worse yet, much of truck's equipment was missing, including a cash register that held $700, as well as some computer tablets that were used to send customers' orders to the truck's cook line.

There was enough remaining equipment that the partners could open for business that day, Belghiti Alaoui said, but since their point-of-sale computer had been taken, they could only accept cash from customers.

As if that experience wasn't bad enough, burglars struck again the next night. This time, they didn't make entry into the food truck, but they severed the truck's power cables, stealing whatever equipment they could manage from outside the vehicle.

Even worse, the lack of power caused much of the food stored inside the truck to spoil, leading to it having to be thrown away.

All told, Belghiti Alaoui estimated the losses and damage at $7,500, although that didn't include the labor that went into cleaning up the mess.

Belghiti Alaoui said opening Yalla Shawarma had been a dream for himself and his two partners. They intended to operate the truck until they could generate enough funds to move into a brick-and-mortar location.

But the burglaries forced them into the difficult decision of suspending operations until they can find a new location where they feel like their investment is safe.

"There are just a lot of things to be considered, and what is our next move?" Belghiti Alaoui asked.

He said the trio's lease on the St. Francis Drive space expires at the end of this month, but returning to that site is not an option. One team member has already quit Yalla Shawarma because she didn't feel safe in the wake of the burglaries. And Belghiti Alaoui said he and his partners aren't willing to risk what remains of their investment by reopening there.

'What's happening to ... our beautiful Santa Fe?'

There has been a bit of good news for the owners of the truck. A GoFundMe online campaign with a goal of raising $7,500 to replace the lost equipment had netted $1,600 in a little more than a week by Dec. 6, thanks to 21 donors.

"People want to see us come back and do better," Belghiti Alaoui said.

He said his faith in what he and his partners are trying to do -- serving fresh, healthy, delicious food that brings joy to the people who consume it -- remains intact. But Belghiti Alaoui is less sure about what is happening in his adopted hometown of Santa Fe.

He noted that a Santa Fe police officer he spoke to after one of the burglaries showed him seven reports of burglary or vandalism incidents that had occurred the night before, adding his fellow officers all regularly report the same numbers.

"What's happening to our community, to our beautiful Santa Fe?" he asked.

Belghiti Alaoui vented his frustration in an email he sent to The New Mexican shortly after the two burglaries.

"This devastating experience has shaken our sense of safety in Santa Fe, a town we've always cherished for its vibrant spirit and strong sense of community," he wrote. "While we have been proud to serve this incredible town for the past four months, these recent events have left us feeling discouraged and vulnerable."

Now, Belghiti Alaoui said he would like to start a community dialog about the city's public safety issues and advocate for change, though he acknowledged he's still reeling from the burglaries and hasn't given much thought to what form such an effort would take.

"I would hope it would be something we could all agree on, where all of us could unite in a system that respects our privacy but protects everyone in town," he said.

Anyone interested in participating in such an initiative is encouraged to reach out to Belghiti Alaoui at [email protected].