Pregnant business owner in Fresno hit hard during holidays by equipment theft

Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
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• Small business owner Kayla Delgado reported theft of equipment and inventory.
• Police logged a report but found no suspect; fingerprints yielded no leads.
• Delgado raised $1,180 toward a $2,000 goal and seeks community support.

A pregnant small business owner in Fresno known for her popular homemade Mexican candy recently had all of her professional belongings stolen and is seeking the community’s help through GoFundMe to recover her equipment.

About 12 p.m. December 4, Kayla Delgado saw someone had smashed her car’s windows and stole all of her business equipment, including a portable heater, portable charger, lights, drill-bit system, batteries, containers and all her candy.

Delgado, owner of “Highly Addictive Candy,” estimated that the total cost of the stolen items was about $1,800, not including the candy she also lost, according to a police report.

“My things normally don’t stay in my car but because I’m pregnant, it’s difficult for me to take everything to my storage unit and I don’t have any help after events. My employee goes home,” she said.

Delgado is expecting a baby girl. The theft has disrupted the plans she had made for her maternity leave.

“Financially, this has been devastating. I was counting on working this last month before maternity leave to support myself without working for a couple of months, but losing everything I worked years to build makes it incredibly hard to keep going,” she said.

Fresno police examined her car for fingerprints and other evidence, but both Delgado and authorities said they were unable to link the crime to a suspect. As a result, she is relying on the donations she has received so far through her GoFundMe page to help replace some of her belongings.

“I cried for the first few days because the outpouring of donations was overwhelming,” Delgado said. “Fellow vendors understood how difficult and costly it is to replace equipment that people assume is easy to buy, but actually takes a large part of our income.”

Delgado first started her business in 2020 while she was in college, balancing school, student loans, tuition, books, and rent, while working as a manager at a pizzeria and not making enough to make ends meet. Her first customers were students at her apartment complex.

“Students told me, ‘These are really good, why don’t you sell this at a market and go mainstream?’ If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have thought to,” she said.

Her business offers gummy-based candy with about 25 different options. She makes the candy powder and chamoy in-house. Her products include chamoy apples, cucumber wraps, pickle wraps, and watermelon pops.

Delgado is currently offering homemade platters for the holidays and plans to resume her presence at Tuesday farmers markets in February after she delivers her daughter.