(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Bringing Southern Colorado the hibachi experience without sitting in a restaurant sparked the innovative concept of TK’s Hibachi Express Food Truck. This bright red food truck is known for serving up sizzling platters with fried rice, vegetables, and of course some yum yum sauce.

“My best seller is by far our shrimp and lobster platter, comes with chicken and steak, you also get lobster,” said Owner of TK’s Hibachi Express, Aaron “TK” Gillum. “You also get fried rice, shrimp, grilled veggies, and you know the best yum yum sauce in the state.”

Customer Samuel Bender described the food as “super smoky, super like strong flavor it’s very aromatic, super savory, like really, really good.”

However, bringing these dishes to the community would take an unexpected turn. In January, Gillum was startled to receive a message saying his food truck door was open. When he arrived, he discovered the theft of all the metals and cooking appliances inside.

“Everything was flipped upside down, garbage was everywhere,” Gillum said. “My grill, sink, HVAC systems were gone, all the metals have been stripped. Somebody broke into the food truck and have their way with it.”

Looking around the food truck, the remaining items are few and far between—left behind are Styrofoam containers, some condiments, along with some shelves still inside.

“I had a soy sauce bottle and a mango habanero bottle,” Gillum said. “Besides that, everything else was pretty much taken. I still have a few of my shelves, but everything else was completely taken. Unfortunately, we’re trying to get it back, we are.”

While Gillum knows he can purchase new appliances to get the business up and running, there are some items which are priceless.

“The grill actually is one of the sentimental items,” Gillum shared. “I can replace the grill but the way that I got the grill, the way that I went about it, I can’t replace that with my dad passing, it’s one of the last things that we went in together with.”

After sharing the news on social media, Gillum received an outpouring of support.

“The love and the outreach that I’ve gotten from the community it’s awesome to see, it makes me feel great, it makes me feel like I want to keep doing this and that,” Gillum said.

For customers like Bender, the hope is strong that “people should be more caring, more considerate to their communities and stuff. We kind of all got to support each other to make stuff grow.”

Currently, Gillum continues to be in the kitchen, fulfilling takeout orders from his home which can be placed through his social media platforms. His wife also turned to the community for help, starting a fundraising campaign to help her husband with expenses getting the business back up and running.

In addition to the aid received through the GoFundMe page, Gillum is deeply moved by the unwavering support and encouragement both from customers and from strangers. All of which serves as a driving force for his business to come back even stronger.

“Just keep praying, reaching out with kind words, kind messages, words of encouragement,” Gillum said. “Because at the end of the day, those go further than anything else I could ask for.”