You may think a truck covered with Polk Sheriff’s Charities symbols would not be a target for a thief, but that wasn’t the case for a local nonprofit.
Bobby Williams is the pastor of the Freedom Church and founder of The Freedom Tour, which provides 1.2 million pounds of free food to people in need every month.
In recent years, Polk Sheriff’s Charities, Sheriff Grady Judd’s non-profit organization, has donated two Freightliner trucks to The Freedom Tour.
Williams dubbed them “Grady One” and “Grady Two.”
Last week, he was contacted at 10:45 p.m. about Grady One being seen driving around Wahneta.
“I GPS both trucks and realize oh my goodness, my truck is stolen. I head out the door as fast as I can,” said Williams.
The truck is covered in Polk Sheriff’s Charities emblems.
“Who’s gonna steal a Freedom Tour truck with Polk County Sheriff association on the side, the big symbol, you see it. Who’s gonna do that?” asked Williams.
Surveillance video showed a man pulling up to the property to charge his scooter earlier in the evening.
“So he said to himself, ‘Self, when my scooter’s charging I think I’d like to go to Wahneta, we call it the twin cities, to visit some friends’,” said Sheriff Grady Judd in a video posted to his social media.
The man, identified as Jamie Hunt, was seen getting into the driver’s seat of the truck and after a few minutes of struggle to get it in the right mode, drives off in the truck.
“In that big box truck was $25,000 worth of cold food, some potato salad even,” said Sheriff Judd.
“Right here is actually the potato salad,” said Williams, removing a container from the back of The Freedom Tour’s large refrigerator truck.
“He gets there and he unloads the truck, and he takes potato salad to these guys,” Williams said. “He’s got potato salad in the front of the truck, he’s eating it.”
Deputies and Williams tracked Hunt down in Wahneta and followed him as he returned to The Freedom Tour.
Williams said he has both business and personal ties to Hunt.
“Because I knew him, to me, it was a total sign of disrespect,” said Williams. “For you to know what I do for the community, know who the sheriff is, know all this stuff, willing to have the mindset to steal it, I said no, press charges.”
Hunt is now facing grand theft and burglary charges.
“We support Freedom Tour. They do a great job. We put him in jail,” Sheriff Judd said. “[Williams] didn’t do a great job.”