A newspaper ad promised $20-dollars an hour to work in Alaska. Pay a transportation fee up front and get reimbursed later.
But now Ruben Cuevas is out two-thousand dollars in borrowed cash. Cuevas said, "I didn't want to believe that was happening to us because that was our kids' dream to get out, get ahead in life and do something."
On Friday Cuevas, his sons and daughter in law were picked up from the Madera Wal-Mart parking lot in a van and told to use the restroom at a nearby Pilot gas station before the drive to Seattle.
The day before, Javier Angel and Gustavo Castillo were left in the same spot after they were picked up in Sanger. They lost 500-dollars apiece.
Erica Stuart of the Madera County Sheriff's department said, "The same ruse was to go to the same gas station and tell them to exit, use the facilities, he needs to fill up. Didn't work because they wouldn't leave the van."
Cuevas, his family and two men in a van continued on and stopped to eat at a Denny's in Sacramento. Cuevas said, "The driver asked my son, did you lock the side door? My son goes, I don't remember. Don't worry about it I'll go lock it. That was the end of that. Going to lock the car was the getaway."
Cuevas said they rode in a blue-green Chevy Astro Van with a cracked windshield. The California license plate number was 4LMS386.
Stuart said, "We're still going through surveillance video of trying to get something decent on what the suspects look like."
Cuevas was desperate for work. He said while he trusted the two men, his niece did not. He said, "We were thinking of having my niece take a picture of those guys faces but I didn't see it appropriate and I didn't let her. She wanted to do it so bad because she had that feeling."
Looking back, Cuevas said the picture would have helped investigators. If you have information on this case, contact the Madera County Sheriff's department.
Cuevas' niece had to borrow a car to pick them up in Sacramento.
