MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ A Minnesota chef whose business has been suffering because of the coronavirus pandemic showed up to work only to find that his 2-ton custom-built barbecue smoker was stolen over the weekend.

Thomas Boemer is chef and co-owner of Revival and Revival Smoked Meat. He says the steel-and-aluminum smoker, which is roughly the size of an SUV, was stolen from the parking lot of his former Corner Table restaurant in south Minneapolis.

Boemer says it was his most prized possession and it was ``gut-wrenching'' to find it stolen.

The unit built by Georgia-based Lang BBQ Smokers can handle 80 racks of ribs, or 60 briskets or whole pigs. Boemer had planned to smoke hundreds of hams for Christmas.

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