SAN ANTONIO – Leah Hernandez said she’s not even halfway finished building her Lego Ferrari set, and she’s spent more than 12 hours putting the pieces together.
“There’s almost 4,000 pieces to this set,” Hernandez said.
But she said building and creating these sets is her passion, fueling her career aspirations to become an aerospace engineer. At only 14 years old, she said Legos may just seem like toys, but to her, they mean everything.
Even with dozens of sets already built on display in her bedroom, Hernandez said she has a list of builds she still wants to create. But one important set, the Lego Apollo 11 Lunar Module, never made it past her doorstep.
“It was disappointing and heartbreaking at the moment,” Angela Menchaca, her mom, said.
A security camera video shows a person walking up to the family’s front step, grabbing the Lego package and skipping to their car. Menchaca said she and her husband, Joseph Hernandez, reported the theft to the San Antonio Police Department.
SAPD said the incident is far from the only instance of package thefts in the city, and porch pirates are only expected to become more active with the holidays around the corner. The department recommends tracking packages, requiring signatures for delivery, using safe drop-off locations and asking a trusted neighbor to pick up your packages if you won’t be home.
“I hope it went to someone who needed it and couldn’t get stuff like that,” Leah Hernandez said.
This theft comes as the teen has already been working on a project dedicated to providing more of these sets and robot builds to her school community. She is working to raise $7,500 to provide robot and Lego kits to 150 students. It’s an emotional effort for her entire family.
“In first and second grade, I didn’t have those things,” Leah Hernandez said. “Nobody should have to feel less than anyone because it’s just not right.”
To help her project, you can donate to the SAISD Foundation and put “Leah’s Lego Kits” in the comments.