Was A Massachusetts BBQ Joint Sabotaged Before Its Grand Opening?

Was a Massachusetts BBQ joint sabotaged before its Grand Opening? That's what its owner is claiming!

There's no food like BBQ. Brisket? Amazing. Ribs? Fantastic. Pulled pork? The best! That's not to mention all the amazing side dishes that come along with your BBQ meal like baked beans, cornbread, mac and cheese, coleslaw, potato salad, and more. You can't go wrong no matter what you order at any BBQ joint, really. Of course, it helps if the smoker is working and smoking the meat. Uncooked meat? That's not the kind of BBQ you want. Mike Conroy, the owner of Freedom Fire BBQ in Norton, Massachusetts, says his restaurant was sabotaged only hours before its anticipated Grand Opening.

CBS News reports that his smoker was filled with thousands of dollars' worth of meat that was going to be served during the restaurant's first day in business. However, someone in the middle of the night seems to have taken an effort to make sure that didn't happen. Sounds like the unidentified person unplugged the smoker and stole the cord along with the camera monitoring the area. That's diabolical! Could it be a jealous neighbor? A scared competitor? There's lots of options but little answers.

Conroy tells CBS News he was woken up at 2:30am by his alarm telling him someone was near his smoker. He tells CBS News, "You can actually hear him messing with the waterproof cover that's on the outlets and going up with a flashlight to my smoker. The smoker had been completely unplugged. And the cord was stolen, and the camera was taken." So, instead of opening their restaurant they had to spend that next today talking to police and looking for surveillance video that might have captured the suspect. All of that food in the smoker had to be thrown out since it wasn't properly cooked and could be a risk to eat. Thousands of dollars of delicious BBQ food wasted.

It sounds like he fled the scene on a bike and hopefully they're able to identify him soon and bring him to justice. Opening a business especially a restaurant is a known risk without having someone deliberately sabotage you. That's horrible. Thankfully, it sounds like community is coming together to help. An online fundraiser has been started and they say they aren't going to give up.