LOS ANGELES – Criminals couldn’t steal the holiday spirit from a man known as the “Hood Santa” of Long Beach and countless underprivileged children who benefit from his annual toy drive.
On Saturday night, a music festival was held at the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where attendees were required to donate a toy valued at $20 or more.
The toys were placed inside a large U-Haul truck in front of the theater, and late that night, thieves struck.
“Our guy who was watching the truck went to get some coffee. When he came back, he noticed that the truck had been broken into,” Tito Rodriguez, the “Hood Santa,” told KTLA’s Kimberly Cheng on Tuesday. “They tried to steal the truck. When they failed … they broke the back of the roll-up door, cut it with some bolt-cutters, and wiped us out. They took about half the toys.”
Rodriguez said he filed a police report but, with little hope of recovering the toys, worried that his annual toy giveaway was in jeopardy.
Then, the community came to the rescue.
After Rodriguez posted about the theft on social media, he said donations poured in – both toys and money – and the U-Haul was filled again.
The toys will be handed out to children on Saturday at MacArthur Park in Long Beach from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
