Someone walked into the Porky's Backyard food truck park in Humble carrying a pair of bolt cutters and started slicing through power cables one by one, piling them onto a cart as security cameras rolled. By the time it was over, nine food trucks had been hit or damaged, five had their heavy-duty power and generator cords completely severed, and the park's co-owner was left scrambling to find replacement cables before the next opening shift.
Cameras Catch the Cutting in Progress
The vandalism happened at the Porky's Backyard Food Truck Park along Atascocita Road near Timber Forest Drive, according to fox26houston.com. Surveillance footage shows the suspect working methodically through the lot, described in the station's report as someone with “a big old pair of bolt cutters and just cutting them off one at a time, putting them on a cart.” As one owner closed in on the property, the person fled the storage lot on foot toward a nearby apartment complex, the station reported.
There's a conflict in the timeline worth noting. Chron reports that co-owner Austin Wolf said the vandalism occurred around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, while fox26houston.com's account has a Harris County Sheriff's Office patrol deputy responding to the scene around 5:38 a.m. Thursday. Both outlets agree the culprit was gone before deputies arrived, and as of the latest reporting, no arrests have been made.
A Cart Too Heavy to Haul Away
Whoever cut the cables apparently didn't get far with the loot. Per Chron's reporting, the vandal left the cables behind after possibly realizing the cart was too heavy to pull across the road, and some food truck owners were able to recover their cords afterward. The Chicken Coop food truck team was alerted by its own camera system and arrived just a few minutes after the vandal had already left, according to the same report.
Spoiled Food and Missed Shifts
Replacing the severed heavy-gauge cables cost the property owner thousands of dollars, fox26houston.com reported, while Chron's sourcing attributes a separate estimate of $1,000 to $2,000 to Wolf himself. Either way, the damage went beyond broken equipment. “You end up missing a shift. Your food spoils,” Wolf said, according to fox26houston.com's account of the disruption to vendors who rely on steady power for refrigeration and cooking. Some affected trucks were unable to fully reopen even after Wolf ordered replacement cables on Amazon, which arrived in time for some — but not all — of the trucks to get back up and running, and several operators reported food spoilage and lost sales as a result.
Wolf reported the vandalism to the Harris County Sheriff's Office and posted the surveillance video on social media in hopes that someone could help identify the person responsible. He described the toll it's taken on a business already working with thin margins, saying that operating as a small business is already difficult and that the needless damage only added to the hardship.
A Growing Food Truck Hub
Porky's Backyard has built a following since opening as a 10,000-square-foot, car-themed food truck park and bar, sitting on a 4-acre property that counted 16 consistent food trucks as of September 2024, according to communityimpact.com. The park typically opens its doors on Wednesdays at 4 p.m., drawing a steady lineup of vendors to the lot off Atascocita Road. For now, the investigation remains open, and the vendors who depend on that lot for their livelihood are left watching the footage, waiting for answers.
