Hollister
– The DeLeons woke up Friday morning expecting to walk out their
front door and see the family’s bright yellow Reed A-30 cement pump
parked in the driveway as it is every day.
Hollister – The DeLeons woke up Friday morning expecting to walk out their front door and see the family’s bright yellow Reed A-30 cement pump parked in the driveway as it is every day.
Instead, they found the pump missing and the family business in jeopardy. The family usually parks the cement pump in their driveway in the 1600 block of Vallejo Drive and pulls Manuel DeLeon’s truck up to block the driveway, said Isabel Manwaring, the DeLeon’s daughter and family business partner. Friday morning they found DeLeon’s truck had been rolled down in front of a neighbor’s house, his CD case and glasses stolen from the cab of the truck, and the cement pump – about half the size of a regular car – gone. The family relies on the pump for their business, A & R Concrete Pumping, which may no longer be a business.
“As a matter of fact we’re out of business,” Manwaring said.
A neighbor saw men in a white truck loading the pump onto its hitch around 5:20am Friday, but thought nothing of it. The family called 9-1-1, which dispatched police to the residence Friday morning. Police dusted for prints on the truck, but it was clean.
DeLeon, 44, had worked at Hollister Cold Storage until four years ago. An accident caused him to change careers and he has been in the cement laying business with Manwaring for a year. The DeLeons grew up in Hollister. The family uses the pump to lay concrete for driveways or patios that large cement trucks cannot access.
Theft of large construction equipment is not unheard of, said Officer Rosie Betanio, a spokeswoman for the Hollister Police Department.
“We get a lot of the construction equipment in general stolen,” Betanio said. “It’s a very popular business. It does happen more frequently than people would think.”
Thieves looking to get into the business themselves or unload the equipment in another town or county are likely culprits, Betanio said.
Betanio said the recovery rate on such items is good. And hopefully for the DeLeon family, the rate will be in their favor.
“The whole plan for the business was for my parents to retire on the company because my father is disabled,” Manwaring said.
Her mother, Rosalinda DeLeon, worked for Pride of San Juan until the recent layoffs.
But there is hope for the family business.
Wednesday morning a business associate and cement-mixing truck driver saw a vehicle matching the neighbor’s description with what appeared to be a conspicuous bright yellow cement pump in tow headed southbound on Highway 101 near Gonzales. He called the family, who notified the California Highway Patrol.
The CHP put out a “be on the lookout” broadcast for the bright yellow pump. As of press time the family’s pump had yet to be sighted again. The pump is so large it is actually registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles, Manwaring said.
Unable to afford the $40,000 to replace the pump, Manwaring and the DeLeons are offering a $1,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the recovery of their pump.
The family was hoping to get the pump back Wednesday, DeLeon’s 44th birthday, but were disappointed. However the family remains vigilant.
“We’re going to start sending out fliers tomorrow,” Manwaring said.
Police encourage anyone with further information about the stolen pump to call 831-636-4331.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335, or [email protected].
