Update: The Robles recovered their car Thursday afternoon. You can read the original story below.
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — It’s hard to miss Ray and Charlee Robles’ Ford F-350 pickup truck.
The red and silver truck is lifted high off the ground with an intimidating front grill, and the rear window is covered in stickers from local bands the Robles’ and their friends like. The couple is hoping the vehicle’s conspicuousness will help authorities find it; the truck was stolen early Tuesday morning from a parking lot in Commerce City.
Another recognizable piece of the vehicle is the license plate, which reads “TRINDON.”
When the Robles were searching for a new car in 2018, they weren’t on the lookout for a “big, bad truck,” as Charlee called it. But their five-year-old son, Trindon, had picked the truck as his favorite when the family was looking online.
“He was really into the big wheel truck,” Charlee said. She explained to Trindon that the truck was really big and had a diesel engine; it wasn’t exactly what the family needed, but she said she would think about it when Trindon continued advocating for his favorite red truck.
On August 16, 2018, Trindon and his grandmother were in a car crash. Trindon passed away.
Charlee was pregnant with her other son at the time of the crash. “It was very, very traumatic for us, of course,” Charlee said. “You just don’t think that’s going to happen to your kid. You don’t think it’s going to happen to you, ever.”
Charlee eventually resumed her search for a new car, and she kept returning to Trindon’s favorite red truck.
“And I was like, ‘You know what, I have to have this truck,'” Charlee recalled. “And I don’t know if it was because I was emotional [or] because I was pregnant and I just lost my son … but I went down to the dealership and I immediately put some money down on it.”
Charlee gave the truck to Ray as a birthday present. His birthday was nine days after Trindon died.
“Immediately, it kind of became the memorial truck,” Charlee said. “It reminded me of [Trindon]. It reminded me of the conversations we had, how excited he was about having it.”
Charlee, who is the production director for KUVO Jazz, said surveillance video showed it only took the thief about a minute to steal the truck, which was locked.
“I want to be impressed, almost,” Charlee said, “but at the same time, I’m like ‘Oh my God.’”
The thief stole it from the parking lot of Rush Enterprises in Commerce City, where Ray works. It was just Ray’s third week on the job when the truck was stolen.
Clearly, this is about more than a stolen car. Charlee said she wouldn’t be so emotional if the truck didn’t have such sentimental value, even joking that she wished the thieves had stolen her VW Jetta, which has had a bevy of problems.
