After several days of searching, volunteers for the non-profit known as Funky Town Fridge, are still no closer to finding what happened to their stolen refrigerator. The refrigerator in questions was taken last week from its current location off of Village Creek Road and Berry Street in the Stop Six community.
Since then, volunteers and Funky Town Fridge founder Kendra Richardson have been frantically trying to relocate it, due to its function as a vital source of groceries for the surrounding communities.
According to Richardson, somebody stole the fridge last Thursday night, which was stocked with over $100 worth of groceries. The pantry, which is built into the storage unit where the fridge sits was not disturbed.
Stephen Montoya
“They probably took the fridge because it was brand new it was expensive, and at this point, they probably broke it down for parts,” Richardson says in a phone interview.
Since it has been taken, Richardson says she and several community members have been trying to get the word out about the theft, placing pictures of the uniquely decorated refrigerator on social media.
Started in 2020, Funky Town Fridge is a community-driven fridge (and pantry) operation open to anyone who needs food, whenever they need it. Thanks to food donation guidelines that say “yes” to things like rice and dried fruit and “no” to soda and highly processed food, it is only stocked with nutritious goods and essential toiletries.
In between teaching ninth-grade world geography and running her natural hair product line, Cocoa Butter Queen, Richardson works with a small, unpaid team to run several fridges open various neighborhoods around Fort Worth. Richardson says the refrigerator that was taken was from the Tabor Farms location, which was the nonprofit’s newest one located in East Fort Worth.
“I feel betrayed, and I feel hurt” Richardson says. “I think whoever took it should be ashamed of themselves.”
However, in this cloud, there has been a bit of a silver lining in the form of another refrigerator that is being donated to Richardson and her crew of volunteers this week. “One of the residents in stop six actually called and told us that they had a fridge available and told us that we can come and pick it up,” she says.
This lines up with the other fridges this nonprofit is in charge of, which are all in good working order but used. “The fridge that was taken could freeze water in 10 minutes and it sung when the door was open for too long, so whoever took it saw the value in it.”
As for any added security measures, Richardson says they are considering a few that will help deter this kind of theft from taking place again.
So far, the local police have no updates on the case and no arrest have been made, according to public information officer for the Fort Worth Police Buddy Calzada.
Fort Worth City Councilwoman Gyna Bivens, who represents District 5 where this theft took place, says she was surprised to find out about the incident given the work that Funky Town Fridge does in the community.
“Hopefully the police will be successful in bringing the people or person responsible, to justice,” she says.
Richardson says she and her volunteers have perused several pawn shops in the area looking for any sign of the fridge but to no avail.
“We’ve even been camping out at the farm just to see what might happen, she says. “If anything, we will still be taking the same precautions in the future to make sure nothing happens to the newly donated fridge.”
