An 83-year-old street vendor was selling flowers when another street vendor reported the elderly woman to the police. Michelle Valles reports for the NBC4 News on May 15, 2024.
An 83-year-old woman selling flowers on the side of the road over Mother's Day weekend was forced to stop after another vendor reported her to the police.
The dispute that was caught on camera and posted to TikTok now has a lot of people talking.
An ailing 83-year-old woman, Fidelia Hernandez, was out selling flowers on a corner in Van Nuys on Friday when another flower vendor with a much larger table, doing the same thing on the sidewalk, called the police on the elderly woman.
That’s when a good Samaritan, Nelson Gonzalez, owner of Pupusa Express stepped in. He didn't like what he was seeing, and started recording a video, determined to make it go viral.
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Gonzalez was even detained by police for interfering but was eventually let go. The video has since gone viral with 18 million views.
Lesly Chavez was one of those viewers. She immediately drove to the corner of Sepulveda and Sherman Way and not only did she buy flowers from the elderly woman, but others did too.
“So I ended up flagging people to come in here until 8:30 p.m. to finish the flowers and then we promised to come the next day to help her by this time. everybody’s like we couldn’t keep up,” Chavez said. “It just melts my heart.”
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Hernandez was driven to tears by the generosity of strangers she says it was all a happy surprise. She said she is very thankful to the food truck owner, Gonzalez, who protected her as well.
Turns out Hernandez sells flowers three days a week here at this corner making 7 dollars for each bouquet she sells. and that pays for her rent. right she pays 620 dollar a month to sleep on someone’s couch.
Thanks to that viral video, Gonzalez took, people not only bought her flowers, they also gave her donations and serenaded her on Mother’s Day.
As for the other vendors, they are no longer at that location and only set up on special occasions. Neither one of the vendors had licenses, they were out selling like many other vendors trying to make a living.
Hernandez still plans to sell her flowers every weekend on that corner.
