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Pirate in Madison

MADISON (WKOW) -- A pirate has invaded the Hilldale Farmers' Market in Madison. She put down an anchor there last year and says she's building a customer base from the people she isn't scaring away. The name of her business and look of her mobile coffee truck draw stares and interest.

"One lady finally came up and she said, 'I didn't know who was in there. I didn't know what this was,'" said Sydney Krieger, a.k.a The Coffee Pirate.

She explained to us how she came up with the concept.

"We were traveling overseas, and we ran into a guy selling coffee out of the back of hit SUV. And he called himself the Coffee Pirate. And I totally pirated the idea," said Krieger.

But Sydney's traveling shop is one of a kind in Madison. She takes her 1978 Toyota truck and camper, remodeled and emblazoned with her signature cup and cross spoons logo, to markets and special events in the area.

"I lived in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and you would see coffee huts and things like that all over the place," said Krieger. "And when I moved to Wisconsin 15 years ago, I saw it was extremely lacking in that type of business."

And after a few scrapped plans to open a coffee shop in a building, she decided to give the shop on wheels idea a try.

"I'm not reliant on foot traffic to come to me. I can go to places and special events," said Krieger. And they're generally very pleased to be able to get a latte or espresso... fair trade, organic, biodegradable cups on wheels coming right to them."