False theft accusation at Hotworx Belmont leads to viral TikTok video
BELMONT, Calif. - A young woman on the Peninsula headed to her first pilates class at Hotworx Belmont last month, but she says it ended in a false accusation of theft. The Redwood Shores woman says she didn't expect the situation to lead to a viral TikTok video, but the call she received the next day changed everything.
"The next day I get a call from a manager, and he says, 'I have you on camera stealing someone's ring,'" Sydney Laday tells KTVU. Laday's friend Carolina Moscoso was with her at the studio that day. The pair were hoping to make working out together a regular habit.
When the studio manager accused Laday of theft over the phone, she and Moscoso went to speak with him directly.
"He was like look at her face, you can tell she did it," Moscoso said.
Video shows Laday inside of the Hotworx studio lobby, along with a manager in a Hotworx t-shirt.
"So someone lost their ring yesterday, and I'm sorry for accusing you…" the manager said.
In the viral TikTok video, the Hotworx employee zooms in on security footage from inside the studio.
"That's where I'm thinking the ring was in," the employee says, pointing to what he says is a bulge near Laday's sock area.
As the group was speaking, Laday says the other patron called to say she found her ring.
"The lady called while we were there and said that she found her ring, but he didn't' let us know that. So they doubled down. Him and his father, which is the owner," Laday tells KTVU. "I definitely don't think he would have done this if it had been someone of a different race. I feel like he would have gone a more professional route."
Comments on the video poured in, with many folks saying they would boycott Hotworx after the incident. The NAACP says boycotts aren't the goal.
"Treat them with the same trust that you treat everyone else. That's what we expect. Boycotts…it hits the pocketbook, yes, but does that change someone's mind? Does that change someone's soul? Their mindset? I don't think it does," Maurice Goodman, President NAACP San Mateo tells KTVU of the incident.
A statement from the Hotworx Belmont owner says he doesn't believe race played a part in the incident.
"This was not a case of racial profiling.…we acknowledge that she was wrongfully accused, and we sincerely apologized for that. We deeply regret any distress this may have caused her…We took immediate steps to address the misunderstanding," the owner told KTVU.
Laday says she received an apology via email, but now she wonders how much worse this could have been.
"You don't text somebody and say, 'This is a felony, it's $1000, I have you on footage. I have you on camera stealing a ring.' It's insulting and demeaning to me as a person," Laday tells the manager in the now viral video.
The owner of the Hotworx Belmont studio wasn't comfortable speaking on camera, as he says his family has received death threats since the video went viral. He tells KTVU anyone who knows his son knows he isn't racist, and he hopes they can come to a resolution.
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The issue is a sensitive one in Colombia, where the participation of Colombians in high-profile crimes has been the source of national shame. President Petro is pushing a bill that would require Colombia to sign on to a United Nations convention against the recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries. Some veterans say it is discriminatory. Ricardo Rodríguez, who worked as a security contractor in the United Arab Emirates after leaving the Colombian military, said in an interview that veterans should be able to take their skills elsewhere. What former soldiers need, he said, is more support from the Colombian government. "They're stuck. They don't have any hope of getting ahead," he said, adding that the nation's veterans will continue to look elsewhere for work "until the Colombian government gives them the opportunity to improve their lives." After eight months, Freddy escaped the cartel. Because he lacked identity documents, he traveled back to Colombia overland. He's back home now, but is out of work and in debt. He is plagued by nightmares about what he saw — and did — in Mexico. To toughen up young fighters, he said, cartel leaders forced them to eat barbecued human flesh. Still, he is looking again for opportunities to go abroad as a mercenary. Europe — and the salary he could make there — still calls to him. "I don't have a career. I don't have any other skills," he said. "When you spend so many years at war, you don't have a vision of doing anything else. I like guns. I like security. This is what I was trained for." Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Hamilton from San Francisco. Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Mexico City contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
