Two men tampered with a community fridge providing free food for the needy in Jordan in the early hours of Wednesday, and made off with a foldable table.
CCTV footage posted by Ahmed Khan, a Pakistani-Hongkonger who set up the initiative, showed two men opening the doors of the fridge and banging them shut.
They tilt the fridge forward and look at its rear, as if checking whether it was possible to steal the fridge, before shoving it back in place.
Then, one of the men lifts up the foldable table next to the fridge, walking off with it in tow. The footage was filmed around 1am, according to the timestamp.
Khan, the founder of a sports foundation serving the underprivileged, created the Blue Fridge Project last November after being inspired by the local movie “I’m Livin’ It. In the film, about the plight of the city’s homeless, a man stocks a fridge with staples for those wandering the streets late at night to take for free.
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Located on Woosung Street, Khan’s fridge—painted bright blue with the words “Give what you can give, take what you need to take”—offers free food to the homeless, elderly and sanitation workers at a refuse collection point nearby.
The fridge holds food such as bread, biscuits and can food, as well as face masks and cleaning products.
The project also has a second fridge on Man Yuen Street in Jordan.
It is not the first time the initiative has been subject to theft and tampering. Four CCTV clips posted by Khan, filmed between last November and mid-February, show the owner of a nearby curry restaurant, Ah Lung Pakistan Halal Food, taking food from the fridge.
In one of the clips from November, Khan is seen explaining the concept of the fridge to the restaurant owner. After Khan leaves, the owner turns around, opens the fridge, and helps himself to what appears to be a pack of bread.
