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Mayfield caterer sleeps in business to deter looters

The owner of Cindy's Kitchen is taking matters into her own hands after she heard of people trying to steal from homes and other businesses affected by the tornadoes

MAYFIELD, Ky. — Volunteers, officials and unfortunately, vandals, have made their way to Mayfield. One business owner is even staying in her catering business to deter any would be thieves.

After all, Cindy Futch has a community to feed – and she’s staying busy.

“I’ve been catering for 47 years,” Futch said. “I love to cater, I love to serve people.”

It doesn’t matter what she’s cooking, she just knows her community needs help.

“Terrible. No power, no water, people just homeless, not knowing what to do,” Futch said. “It was just awful.”

Futch has been feeding workers, volunteers, anyone who needs a meal. She says over the past week, she’s probably served meals to over 900 people.

RELATED: How to help Western Kentucky families following historic tornado outbreak

But recent news of thieves and vandals in Mayfield helping themselves to items left behind in the rubble has started to affect her.

“Not everyone, but there’s a few looters, and it just makes it hard on people,” Futch said. “It’s already hard enough.”

Credit: WHAS-TV
Cindy Futch, owner of Cindy's Kitchen in Mayfield, Kentucky, says she sleeps on an air mattress in her business to deter looters.

The Graves County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that five people were arrested for allegedly stealing items from Mayfield. Shoes, money, even cars – the thieves took what they could.

Futch was worried about the same thing happening to her, so she took some precautions.

“My grandson brought me a blowup bed, so, that’s our bed that we’ve been sleeping in,” she said.

An air mattress in the bakery, to make sure nothing was stolen, or any food went bad.

“We’ve been hanging out here because my husband was having to fuel the generators about every five hours,” she said. “It was easier for us to just blow the mattress up and just stay here.”

Thankfully, no ones stolen anything from Futch.

Credit: WHAS-TV
Cindy Futch's air mattress inside her catering business

Even with reports of looters, she says she can’t let that ruin the work that everyone else is doing.

“That just means there’s a lot of good, good people,” Futch said. “We don’t need to let a few ruin it for all of us that are trying to help.”

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