Thieves Took a Trailer, Five Mowers and About $20,000 in Gear From Prairie Village Teen Sonny Gallardo’s Lawn Business, Then a GoFundMe Raised More Than That

Sonny Gallardo was a sixth grader when he started knocking on doors in Prairie Village, Kansas, offering to rake leaves with his grandfather. By this fall, those jobs had grown into Sunnyside Jobs LLC, a lawn business with a five-person crew. Then, in a single night, the trailer that carried his mowers was gone.

Thieves took a trailer, five mowers, two weed eaters and two blowers, about $20,000 in equipment, KCTV5 reported. Within two weeks, a GoFundMe for the teen had raised more than that, and by Nov. 14 the total stood at $35,925.

From Leaf Piles to a Five-Person Crew

The business started small. Sonny’s grandfather supplied the gear for those first leaf-raking jobs, and the work grew into mowing lawns. Over about four years, the business moved up to larger trailers twice and built up enough equipment to keep a five-person crew working, according to the “Help Sonny Rebuild Sunnyside Jobs” fundraiser page. This year, he formed Sunnyside Jobs as an LLC.

He told KCTV5 he simply likes the work, and that it brings joy to the people he mows for and to him as well.

The Night Before Halloween

The theft happened the night before Halloween. According to the fundraiser page, someone came in the middle of the night, unhitched the 10-foot trailer that held all five mowers and cleared out the back of the work vehicle.

A Ring doorbell camera caught someone stealing the trailer, KCTV5 reported. His family told the station the work vehicle had been emptied as well.

Gallardo told the station it took three years to build up that equipment, and he called losing it “a bummer.”

No Insurance Yet

The timing made the loss worse. The equipment was stolen before the business was insured. According to the fundraiser page, one insurer denied coverage because Sonny also does power washing, and a policy with a second insurer was not yet in place when the trailer disappeared.

“Sonny was completely devastated, and so is the family,” the page says.

Without coverage, the cost of replacing the mowers, trimmers, blowers and trailer fell on a business its owner had spent years building one lawn at a time.

A Fundraiser That Blew Past Its Goal

His mother started the GoFundMe to help him rebuild, KCTV5 reported. The campaign set a $20,000 goal, matching the value of what was taken. By the afternoon of Nov. 11, it had already raised more than $20,000.

The giving kept going. As of Nov. 14, the page showed $35,925 raised from 816 donations, well past the goal and more than the roughly $20,000 the thieves took. The money is meant to replace the stolen equipment and rebuild the business, the page says.

Gallardo told KCTV5 he was “speechless” and thankful to everyone who gave. He is still working and taking jobs in Prairie Village. He said nothing is going to put him down, adding that the business has been his dream since he was a kid.

What Police Are Asking Neighbors to Watch For

Prairie Village police are investigating but have no leads, and they say it is still early in the case, KCTV5 reported. Police are asking the public to keep an eye out for large amounts of lawn equipment showing up in yards or listed for sale online.

Tips can go to the department’s non-emergency line at 913-642-6868, according to the city’s police page. The city also runs a free, voluntary program called Connect Prairie Village, where residents and businesses can register cameras that view streets, sidewalks or parking lots so detectives can find nearby footage after a crime.

For small lawn businesses, theft is a known risk. Guidance from the National Association of Landscape Professionals, citing the National Insurance Crime Bureau, urges companies to layer their security: lock equipment away in a shop, gate or garage when possible, use GPS trackers that alert owners when gear leaves a set area, and record each machine’s serial or product identification number. The group noted that bills of sale should show the full 17-character number, because the National Crime Information Center accepts only that length and truncated numbers can complicate a theft report.

The same guidance suggests adding visible or audible deterrents, such as alarms, and immobilizers like smart keys, kill switches or fuse cut-offs, on top of basics like locking doors and pulling keys.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Doctor747 – CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons