The devastated owners of a popular Pakistani food truck are pleading with the public for financial support after their mobile business was destroyed in a near-catastrophic car accident.
Just last month, couple Noor ul Ainn and Talal Shahid, who own Lahore on Wheels — a Pakistani-inspired food truck which frequents the Beeliar, Inglewood and Shelley night markets — were travelling through the Pilbara to showcase their delicacies when their car spun out of control.
“We did this trip with our food truck because we wanted to stop at different towns to bring business and support local businesses by purchasing local produce,” Ms Ainn said.
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READ NOW“But when we were driving, there was a bus that tailed me for about 25 minutes so I started panicking and I wanted to slow down and get my car off the road to let my car cool down and let the bus pass.
“But once I got back on the road, I think the trailer (food truck) was unbalanced ... everything just happened so fast, it just lost balance and rolled, the wheel of my car got out of control and it was spinning on its own and it just rolled off the side of the road.”
Miraculously, the couple walked away without a scratch, but the food truck — which was attached to the car via a trailer — has been written-off, leaving the Langford couple unemployed.
“It’s just been so distressing, when we wake up in the morning it’s our first thought ... I get up and it’s like suddenly there’s nothing to do with my life,” Ms Ainn said.
“Our food truck was really a day and night job, it never stops, and now that part has suddenly closed without warning so there’s nothing left to do, it’s like what do we get up for?
“We obviously didn’t think we’d get into a car accident so it’s also a big loss of income for us ... we anticipated we would have a certain income this month but now that opportunity has just gone.”
Whilst the food truck is covered by insurance, Ms Ainn says the insurance company is “taking its time” processing their claim.
“We had bought so much stock so the invoices are still coming and we just don’t have the cashflow ... I’m the oldest in my family and my husband is the oldest in his family so we have to support our families back in Pakistan too,” she said.
“It’s been really stressful.”
Now, Pankaj Sharma — a former colleague of Ms Ainn — has created a GoFundMe with a target of $45,000 in hopes the public will rally behind the couple.
“Lahore on Wheels is a hard working small business and now their business opportunity is gone and they can’t trade,” Mr Sharma said.
“They’ve both become unemployed so it’s two people who can’t earn a living until they figure it all out.”
Ms Ainn described the last few weeks as being a “mental challenge” but said she was grateful for her friend’s support.
“It’s so kind of him to start the GoFundMe,” she said.
“I saw some stories on the GoFundMe website and thought ‘why did I never think about giving back’ ... we all have to give back to society, so whatever money we make (when we reopen the food truck, we pledge to pay it forward to a certain cause so people know their money is helping others.”
The link to the GoFundMe can be found here.