Costa Mesa Mother Forced To Remove Memorial For Son Killed In Crash
COSTA MESA (CBSLA.com) — Just a few days after losing her 19-year-old son in a car wreck, a Costa Mesa mother is suffering another blow after being forced to remove the makeshift memorial in his honor.
Flowers, candles and other items had to be removed from around a tree on Susan Street near the 405 Freeway after a woman told Monica Soto the memorial was on private property and called police.
"I never imagined that somebody would be so heartless," Soto said.
Luis Adrian Torres died early Sunday morning after slamming into the tree where the memorial formed. Soto said she felt closer to her son at the site.
But an unidentified woman hassled Soto for leaving the memorial in place, going so far as to call the police.
"And she was like, 'do you know this is private property? Nobody's supposed to be here. You need to clean this up or we're going to pay somebody or we're going to clean it up and I'm going to call the cops.' And they did come," Soto said.
The tree and the memorial was on the property of the Providence Park gated community. Cary Treff, CEO of the community's management company, sent a statement that read in part:
"Nobody from the Providence Park Board of Directors or Keystone Pacific Property Management team gave any direction to remove the memorial."
The family of Torres, who was one of eight children, established a fund to help pay for his funeral.
