A husband-and-wife landscaping team was violently robbed of their equipment last week, leaving one of them seriously injured. The couple now faces significant financial losses after the thieves stole their equipment in broad daylight.
Vargas was working in a customer’s backyard when two men approached the family’s pickup truck and began taking tools from it. Huerta, who was closer to the truck, saw what was happening and tried to confront the suspects to protect their livelihood.
What happened next turned a property crime into a violent assault. Huerta physically grabbed onto one of the suspects as he attempted to flee, according to Brandon Ruiz, a customer of the couple who later organized the GoFundMe campaign.
The assault left Huerta with a head wound requiring staples and a large abrasion on her back from being dragged along the pavement. In an interview with the television station, Huerta described ongoing pain and fear following the traumatic encounter.
Ruiz, who has hired the couple to maintain his yard in Azusa, initially believed Vargas had purchased new equipment as a holiday gift to himself. But the customer quickly realized something was wrong.
“He had showed me that he got new equipment, and I thought that was a Christmas present and then he was going to start crying, and I was like, ‘What’s wrong?’ He said that his wife got beaten and robbed of their equipment. He showed me their truck and the chain that they had broke,” Ruiz told KTLA.
Replacing the stolen tools costs approximately $1,500, a significant burden for landscapers operating on tight margins. Ruiz noted that many independent landscapers like Vargas earn just enough to provide basic necessities for their families.
“When he showed me the pictures, I was super upset,” Ruiz said. “These families are hard-working, and we have a lot of things going on with this immigration right now, and it’s just sad to see that someone would rob them of what’s bringing their livelihood.”
The South Pasadena Police Department did not immediately return requests for comment from NTD News when contacted after regular business hours on Monday.
The fundraiser asks that community members familiar with the couple’s work ethic, as well as strangers moved by their story, contribute to help the family recover from both the financial and emotional impacts of the violent crime. Over $5,700 has been raised at the time of publication of this report.
