MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 73-year-old woman says she’s frustrated after thieves stole her car while she was working at a barbecue catering business in North Memphis.
The owner of the business tells us there have been numerous property crimes there.
Edith Odell Maurer is beyond mad after her 2015 Honda Civic was stolen Sunday morning, right off the parking lot of Hog Wild Barbecue and catering, where’s she worked for eight years.
“I worked for that car. I’m paying for that car. It was my car. I need my car to get back and forth to work,” said Edith Odell Maurer. “I think God gave us a purpose in life, and that purpose is to work, but not steal.”
Maurer is traumatized with the hand she’s been dealt by thieves, and by life.
“It wasn’t theirs to steal, and then a little over two months ago, my dog died. Now, this happens to me,” Maurer said.
The starter on her car had gone out and a co-worker was helping repair it. So it sat there overnight Saturday, obviously a tempting sight for crooks.
Hog Wild owner Ernie Mellor says security cameras caught three masked thieves stealing the Honda.
“I guess they just rammed it from park into neutral, pushed across the parking lot and they took the fence and rolled it back like a “shower curtain” and pushed it through there. I think they had a trailer or truck with a chain and pulled it away,” Mellor said.
Mellor says there have been numerous thefts and vandalism at the business, which has been on Tully Street for 25 years.
“Every time we sew it back up with barbed wire. They don’t cut the barbed wire. They cut another section of fence,” Mellor said.
And while Edith’s boss is letting her use this van to get back and forth to work. She says the crime won’t slow her down.
“I still work, which is more than I can say for whoever wore those ski masks. Take off your masks. Come back. We’ll discuss it,” Maurer said.
A GoFundMe has been set up for Maurer. To donate, click here.