“A Family Affair” Becomes She Said/He Said

A local business owner and her former employee are both using social media to get a story out that seems to have two sides, and many unanswered questions.

Arletta Allen is the owner of A Family Affair Soulfood Kitchen located on S. Main St. in Fond du Lac. According to a live video post Ms. Allen created late Saturday morning, the establishment was heavily damaged late Friday night or early Saturday morning by a former employee, who she claims is Troy Allen.

In a text exchange with KFIZ News on Sunday, Ms. Allen accuses Troy Allen of causing extensive damage to the restaurant, including opening the steam table and cutting all the wires. He allegedly cut wires to the fryers and took the power cords to the Point Of Sale cash register.

Ms. Allen also tells KFIZ News that “he (Troy Allen) turned the gas valves off to the fryers which led me to believe they were leaking gas, so I called the fire department to check.”

Ms. Allen also said Mr. Allen took the video camera box that records everything so there would be no evidence, and then he took several other items.

The timeline that Ms. Allen gives is that she left the restaurant at 8:30 p.m. Friday night, and returned at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning. She claims there was no forced entry as Mr. Allen knew the key box code that only Ms. Allen and two other vendors had access to.

When KFIZ News reached out to Troy Allen, he responded by telling us “I’m so upset right now that I don’t want to say the wrong thing because she (Arletta Allen) is a liar. She said I was an employee. I started this restaurant with her and was told by her that I was part owner. But now I am, or was, an employee. If I was an employee, why would she lie to the State of Wisconsin when they sent her paperwork to verify I worked there. She told them no, I didn’t but now she says I’m an employee.”

More questions in the whole sordid affair come in the way of the timeline. City of Fond du Lac Police Logs show that the initial call for gas odor in the building was made at 10:34 a.m. Saturday morning with Police and Fire arriving on the scene just minutes later, and not finding anything to cause concern, leaving minutes later. Nowhere in the initial call was there any mention of a break in, or damage, in the restaurant.

Then shortly before noon Saturday morning, Ms. Allen took to social media, posting a video where she then described the alleged damage, saying she knew who did the damage, and that the police would be called.

The call to the Fond du Lac Police Department was made, but not until 6:29 p.m. Saturday evening, where it was reported in the police log that “Ms. Allen’s ex, Troy, came to the building and did damage to the building, cut wires, ruined the security system, unplugged all the refrigeration system, took items that belong to Ms. Allen, and possibly took Ms. Allen’s gun.” It was also mentioned in the police logs that Troy Allen is a felon and shouldn’t have a gun.

Nowhere in the log report does it state whether or not the gun was actually taken, and if so, if it was in possession of Mr. Allen.

The Police log also states damage to the building was estimated at $1,300.

A GoFundMe page was set up Sunday, with a goal of $10,000 to help repair the damages done on the night of September 3rd. The description also says “the restaurant also needs some improvements and upgrades. Arletta needs assistance with her roof and adding an overhang or smoke shack enclosure to the BBQ section outside. She will also need a completely new camera system for the restaurant and her home.”

As of Tuesday morning, there had been $600 raised. (The GoFundMe page has been taken down as of Tuesday afternoon, with a post saying “due to accusations from the media, we have decided to put donations on hold for the time being.” A check Wednesday afternoon shows the GoFundMe page is back up and accepting donations again.)

As stated earlier, KFIZ News has reached out to both parties involved, and both have elected not to comment on air, but rather have chosen to speak publicly on social media, and in text exchanges with KFIZ News.

Troy Allen did sent a text to KFIZ News Monday afternoon, that reads “She (Arletta Allen) is a liar that played on the community for money for this scheme she did. Who goes on FB(Facebook Live) crying, asking people for money?”

**UPDATE:** Wednesday morning, Ms. Allen did text KFIZ News, again after being offered the opportunity to do an interview, and she told us the article posted above was not fair or accurate. That it was biased and full of misinformation. And that we failed to interview her prior to posting the story. KFIZ News informed Ms. Allen that every single point in the article was information released in the police log, in her social media posts and videos, in Mr. Allen’s texts to KFIZ News, his video posts and mentions. And we then offered, yet again, the opportunity for Ms. Allen to come on the air for an interview to give her side of the story, and were told that she was ending the text conversation with us and KFIZ was only going to print a response to the interview that would paint her as something she is not.)

This story will continue to be updated.