SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio couple is working to rebuild their small business after their car — packed with their entire market setup — was stolen outside their Alamo Ranch home early Monday morning.
Aliana Salazar and Jonathan Gayta own The Cozy Wick, which is a small business specializing in hand-poured candles sold at markets across the city.
The couple says Ring camera footage captured someone getting into their car around 2 a.m. Monday.
“I was telling him too, it just feels like a violation of our privacy, like a violation of us,” Salazar and Gayta said. “Like, you could have just asked for it, could’ve had it.”
San Antonio police told KSAT they do not have any leads on a suspect and the case remains an active investigation.
The theft has left the couple estimating a significant financial loss. When asked to put a dollar amount on what was taken, Salazar and Gayta didn’t hold back.
“The car and everything in it, I would say like $15,000, $16,000 just because the value of the car itself is high, and then all of our stuff that was on the inside of it,” the couple said.
Each candle sold by The Cozy Wick is made at home and can take hours to pour, cure and label — making the loss even more difficult to absorb heading into the weekend market season.
“We have two, three days to figure it out to get everything that we had before back so that we can complete our markets and have our customers come and get what they need and what they want from us,” Salazar and Gayta said.
Despite the setback, the couple says they are leaning on community support, rebuilding their display and remaking popular candle scents to stay on schedule.
“It’s an ugly situation, but we’re finding the bright side of it, and we’re just going to keep going,” the couple said. “We are not going to lose our faith in our business and in each other, and not continue, we’re going to continue.”
The Cozy Wick can be found on social media, where the owners will announce upcoming market dates.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact the San Antonio Police Department.