Hundreds of donated toys stolen from music fest. Long Beach’s Hood Santa is asking for help
Thieves stole bags of toys collected at the annual For The Children hardcore music festival, which were supposed to be given out this Saturday in Central Long Beach.
Beloved Long Beach philanthropist Tito Rodriguez, aka the Hood Santa, is asking for help after thieves stole hundreds of toys Sunday — less than a week before his nonprofit's annual Christmas giveaway.
The holiday heist occurred Sunday morning around 6 a.m. amid the For The Children hardcore music festival in Downtown Los Angeles. Music fans must donate an unused toy for entry into the two-day event, which has been put on by SOS Booking for over 14 years.
The toys were placed into 50 gallon trash bags and loaded into a large U-Haul truck outside the venue Saturday night. A volunteer stayed with the truck overnight, but in the short amount of time it took them to get some coffee and food in the early morning, the thieves struck.
“Downtown LA is like Gotham City; there’s people just looking to be bad all day,” Rodriguez said in an interview Tuesday.
Fitting with the season, the truck was wrapped like a Christmas present, Rodriguez said, which likely drew the attention of the thieves.
Surveillance footage from the venue, which has been reviewed by SOS Booking but not released, shows the thieves arriving in a car and breaking the padlock, Rodriguez said. Seeing what was inside, the thieves left and quickly returned with a blue or green truck, loaded up about 20 bags of toys and left.
“They got us, bro. They got us good,” Rodriguez said.
After the incident, Rodriguez, SOS and many of the bands took to social media. Now, the community is rallying, he said.
During day two of the music festival, many attendees brought an extra toy to make up for the loss. Usually, the festival brings in upward of two truck loads worth of toys, according to Rodriguez. With some extra donations, they were able to fill up one truck, he said.
Since then, people have made monetary donations and others have donated bags of toys, Rodriguez said.
All the toys donated to Roridguez and his nonprofit, the Local Hearts Foundation, are to be given out during its annual Christmas giveaway, which is scheduled for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at MacArthur Park in Long Beach.
The event draws hundreds of families with thousands of toys given out to children who may otherwise not get much for Christmas, Rodriguez said.
“I was a poor kid. My dad killed himself when I was 6 years old on Christmas Eve,” Rodriguez said. “When you’re little, you don’t realize that your mom has to pay bills. You just want a Christmas toy.”
Rodriguez’s philanthropy began 14 years ago. After years as a successful music producer — with five platinum album plaques — working with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Tha Eastsidaz and Nate Dogg, Rodriguez decided it was time to give back to his community.
At the beginning, Rodriguez said he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He recalled one instance at Willow Street and Pacific Avenue where he scared one man who was pushing his child in a stroller.
“I jumped out [of the car] and he started running,” Rodriguez said with a laugh, adding that the man thought he was about to be assaulted. “I get back in the car and [they] say, ‘Hey, dude, you should buy a Santa suit. What if you get your head blown off jumping out on the wrong person?’”
“So I bought a Santa suit. We get to 17th [Street] and Junipero [Avenue] and a little kid sees me from the second story,” Rodriguez continued. “He comes down, walks right up to me, taps me on the chest and says, ‘Hey, man, you’re the Hood Santa ‘cause Santa never comes over here.’”
Rodriguez first linked up with Nate Rebolledo at SOS Booking and Andrew Doyle, founder of Long Beach-based merch printing company Overcast, around 2018, he said. The pair needed a Santa for their For The Children event and were well aware of the Hood Santa’s work.
After the event, Rodriguez said there were leftover toys that the guys wanted to give to him. Rodriguez in turn suggested they hand out the toys together the next day — Christmas. So they met up, drove around town and handed out toys to kids, Rodriguez said.
Since then, the music festival has donated a large number of toys to Rodriguez’s event each year.
“In my head, I always thought punkers were evil,” Rodriguez said with a laugh. “And then I meet these guys … and realize [they] are softies.”
Now, Rodriguez is just working hard toward Saturday’s event. Pushing for last-minute donations to ensure there are enough toys for all the families that turn out.
“We’re gonna do this no matter what,” Rodriguez said. “People are coming together. That’s the beauty, too — if there’s anything good about this it’s that we’re showing that people can still stick together and make something cool happen regardless.”
Visit localheartsfoundation.org to donate. Rodriguez asks anyone who might have information on the theft to message him on Instagram.
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