Who would someone steal something as distinctive and colorful as the Kona Ice trailer with its happy penguins and other cartoon animals? Why would anyone steal something that can be identified by almost every child and parent in northern Wake County and across part of the Triangle?
Motive is missing, but someone stole the trailer the night of Friday, May 12, between 10 p.m. and 7:30 the next morning. It had been stored at the owner’s warehouse on Shearon Farms Avenue. One of the owners, Carina Veverka, said her husband planned to drive the already loaded trailer to a soccer tournament that Saturday. The couple has four other trucks but are sorely missing the trailer in May, which Veverka said is their second busiest month with May being the busiest.
Although the Wake Forest Police Department is asking that anyone with information about the theft call the department, Veverka said this week the investigators had told them it has probably been chopped up, the freezers sold, and the chassis sold and registered in another state where the new owner could say he built it himself. The trailer was insured, and it will take $40,000 and eight to 12 weeks to have a new trailer custom built.
Veverka said everyone is asking why the trailer was not stolen in, say, November when there is not a big demand for ice treats. They hoped at first it was a prank and would be found. There is video surveillance of a car driving by extremely slowly with the driver looking intently at the warehouse as well as other video of someone looking in a window.
Kona Ice trucks and the missing trailer sell flavored ice and other cold and frozen treats at parties and events throughout the Triangle area.
