FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) — An influencer’s bad luck at Coachella led to an unexpected blessing for her Uber driver.
If you’re one of Becca Moore’s 800,000 followers on TikTok, you might recognize her for her deadpan storytelling about her dating life and other experiences.
“I went to Coachella this weekend and I thought this guy was kinda hitting on me but then he just robbed me,” Moore says at the beginning of her three-minute video on TikTok.
Being robbed left her without a phone, wallet or rental car keys. Her hotel called her an Uber so she could get to the Sprint store and buy a new phone, which is how she met Raul Torres.
“A normal Uber driver takes you to a place and then drops you off. He insisted on coming in with me and making sure that I was gonna have a ride after that,” Moore said.
Torres ended up doing way more than that. He took her to the local police station to file a police report. When they figured out the suspect’s name and where he was staying, Torres went with Moore and the officers to search it for her missing stuff. When they couldn’t find her stuff, Moore said officers left – but Torres wasn’t willing to give up.
They ended up tracking down the phone, abandoned outside the suspect’s Airbnb, Moore said.
It wasn’t just all hard work. Moore and Torres also had a few pit stops for fun – at Starbucks first to fuel their adventure, then for margaritas later to unwind.
“We went on an entire adventure from 10 a.m to 6 p.m, which should’ve been an entire day of work for him, and towards the end of the day is when I started realizing he actually needed more help than I did,” Moore said.
Moore learned Torres had driven to Indio, in Southern California where Coachella takes place, all the way from Fresno in Central California to earn some extra cash for his 18-year-old daughter.
“I said my birthday was June 16 and he was like, ‘Oh, my daughter got diagnosed with cancer on June 16,'” Moore recalled. “And then he was like, ‘Yeah she’s going through chemo right now, she’s having a hard time. She can’t really stay awake and is losing a lot of weight’, and they were really worried about her.”
Moore said Torres was also caring for his dad, who was also battling cancer.
That’s why Moore decided to help. After posting the now-viral Tik Tok on Thursday, she made a GoFundMe account for her new friend. She said she wanted to help support Torres as he took care of his loved ones.
Just a day after setting up the GoFundMe, Torres’ father passed away, Moore said. Part of the funds are now set to help cover funeral expenses.
“So usually I use my platform to talk about like, boys, my dating life and stupid things that now I really see are just surface level,” she shared. “It means a lot that I can help him back.”
As of Tuesday, the fundraiser was just shy of its $150,000 goal. More than 580 have donated.
“So yea, that man stole my phone, my keys, my credit cards,” Moore says at the end of her TikTok. “You know what he gave me? Friendship with Raul, so it was worth it.”
Nexstar’s Alix Martichoux contributed to this report.