Cecilia Garcia and her staff rushed to their restaurant, Fresh Agave, Sunday night when they heard about a post circulating online.
“We, just, were afraid for our business,” Garcia said.
Posts flooded social media about people being bused in to loot El Paseo on Sunday and the following days.
Having seen what happened at stores and businesses in other parts of the country, Garcia said, she wasn’t going to take any chances.
“Just the thought of losing all over again, it was scary,” she said.
Scared and determined, Garcia and her team had the restaurant boarded up within 20 minutes on Sunday night.
“These last three months, four months, it’s every day every week, it’s something different.”
Between Coronavirus and riots, Garcia said she doesn’t know what to expect or what to believe. She just knows that she wants to keep her restaurant afloat.
The posts about the buses ended up being a rumor. NBC Palm Springs went to El Paseo that night and found nothing. There were no buses, no looters.
There was a heightened security presence. As of 4:27 on Tuesday, the Riverside County Sheriff’s could not confirm the origin of the post or whether buses showed up.
Typically, when a call comes into the NBC Palm Springs news station, here’s how it’s handled:
- The call comes in.
- Information is taken down.
- Our assignment desk researches the situation.
- They call the correct officials (fire department, police, sheriff’s office, etc.)
- Depending on the situation, a crew is sent.
As protests remained peaceful in Palm Desert, restaurants like Fresh Agave spent Tuesday cleaning up. They are back open for business.
