Some street vendors were supposed to work and make money to pay their bills on Saturday, but instead they had to pick up their carts, which had been thrown to the ground outside of SoFi Stadium. The carts were full of food and had hot surfaces.
On their cell phones, eyewitnesses recorded the impact. On video, the vendors were seen cleaning up the trash that had been left behind.
Graciee Cifuentes saw what happened and said the first people to be hurt were a 12-year-old girl and her two siblings. The girl’s mother said that while she went to the bathroom, her kids kept an eye on the food.
A man wearing a shirt that said “SoFi Stadium Guest Experience” is said to have been the one who threw the hot dog carts to the ground. ABC7 Eyewitness News has been told that the man works for someone other than the stadium.
“This one guy, though. I have no idea what it was. He went to talk to her. Knocked over her food. I have no idea why this guy was picked on. Cifuentes said, “I think it was because she was small and young.” “And this guy is a big guy, so he knew what he was doing.”
The girl’s mother said that after the cart was thrown and things hit her, her daughter got a lot of bruises. Cifuentes said that a second vendor’s cart was thrown to the ground as well.
Luis Franco was the owner. He said that the person who threw the carts first came out of the stadium and told the vendors to move away from the door.
Franco told him that they had moved back. The same man then came out and started to fight.
“He said you want to see me mad, you want to see mad. At that point, he began tossing the carts. “Someone could have walked by and gotten hurt,” Franco said.
Franco said that night he lost about $500. The 12-year-old girl’s mother said she was fine and at home, but that she was scared after what happened. The sheriff’s deputies and the Inglewood Police can be seen on video at the scene. Franco said that the person who threw the carts went back inside the stadium.
“It’s so sad that this is still going on in 2023,” said Cifuentes.
We also tried to get in touch with the police in Inglewood. They wrote down the event report, but we haven’t heard anything back yet. Franco said that he hopes SoFi will give him back the money he lost that night.
On Tuesday, SoFi Stadium sent out the following updated message.
“We know that something happened outside the stadium on Saturday night, and we are working with the police to find out what happened. We have been informed that the individual involved has since been fired by a third-party vendor.
Maintaining a safe environment is our top concern, and we will continue to review all of our vendors’ staffing and procedures on a regular basis to make sure you have a good time.