New Oakland taco truck stolen

On Sunday, Enya Sandoval headed to work at her Oakland taco truck like usual, only to find it had vanished. Just two months after Sandoval debuted her new business, Miss Chiles, to the public, her truck was stolen, as first reported by ABC7 (KGO-TV).

“It wasn’t only that I lost my truck — I felt like my hopes and my dreams were stolen,” Sandoval told SFGATE.

The vehicle was stolen from the 3000 block of Brook Street just before 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, the Oakland Police Department told SFGATE. 

Sandoval, who previously owned a Napa food truck called Taco Addiction, said she entered a difficult period when she began transitioning a few years ago. Despite having extensive experience in the industry, she said, she could no longer find restaurant work as a transgender woman and was forced to sleep in her car. Eventually, she said, she had to resort to presenting as a man just to find a job. 

During the pandemic, Sandoval said she was able to get gender-affirming surgeries that gave her “confidence and happiness.” Miss Chiles was her triumphant return to having her own food truck once again — but this time, as someone more comfortable in her skin. She served homestyle Mexican food like flautas, quesadillas and tacos with meat options including pollo con papas, pork en chile morita and bistec ranchero. 

“It’s been a few days of all kinds of emotions,” she said of discovering her truck had been stolen. “Like really sad but also blessed because I have gotten all this support from people.” 

Sandoval said that her insurance won’t cover the loss of the truck, which she put all her savings into and also borrowed money from her sister to purchase. Her friend organized a GoFundMe fundraiser aiming to raise $50,000 to recover the cost of the stolen truck. 

“It wasn’t just the truck,” she said. “It has been a few months that I’ve been working really hard to try to leave all the fears that I had, and so for me, opening Miss Chiles was like, this is what I love to do.”

On her Instagram, Sandoval is urging people to keep an eye out for the missing food truck. Anyone with information is asked to contact the OPD criminal investigation division at 510-238-3728.

If her food truck can’t be found, Sandoval said she would look into getting a food cart instead.

“I just want to make my food and keep it alive,” she said. “… My happiness is when I’m cooking.”