There was an interesting investigation done recently into the fact that a lot of the food trucks which park around the National Mall are owned by the same mystery owner (whose name is still unknown). There is a network that quietly shares resources, claims and holds high-traffic parking spots for their trucks, hires lookouts to warn the trucks about law enforcement coming to check on their (nonexistent) permits, and sometimes even sabotages their competitors like an organized crime ring.
Apparently one of the signs that a truck belongs to this network is that “Many of the vehicles also have the same Arabic phrase above their passenger doors, translating to ‘In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful’,” because the mystery guy running the operation is a devout Muslim.
The story is almost hard to believe, but out of curiosity I started looking at some of the food trucks while traveling around the Mall yesterday, and wouldn’t you know it
