SAN ANTONIO — It’s not the warm welcome a family was expecting. A few weeks after moving to San Antonio, their cargo trailer was stolen from a southwest side neighborhood. A Tempur-Pedic mattress and stainless steel fridge were inside.
On Tuesday, Rebecca Martinez woke up to find the trailer missing.
“So, I run to my husband, and I am like, ‘The trailer is not outside!’” said Martinez. “It’s devastating. We just moved in not even a month ago from California. To top it off, it was my dad’s trailer. He lent it [so we could] go pick up our stuff and we had belongings in it.”
The theft happened just before 6:30 a.m. in the 9900 block of Rosita Way. Several neighbors captured the incident on camera. A dark truck can be seen circling the block. As it passes the trailer, it slows down. The truck returns and at least one person is seen jumping out and hooking it up.
“It would mean everything to get the trailer back to my dad who works his butt off every day to earn what he has,” said Martinez. “I’m not too worried about my stuff. I just want the trailer back.”
Martinez says the hitch was locked, so the thief would have had to cut it off. The trailer was stolen in just over a minute.
Crimes like this are soaring across the city. According to the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD), stolen property offenses are up 308% from last year.
“We moved in thinking it was going to be a safe community,” said Martinez, “but it just turned out to be the total opposite.”
A GoFundMe has been set up if you'd like to help this family out.
Police are investigating the theft. Anyone with information is asked to call the Vehicle Crimes Unit at (210) 207-7345.