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Theft devastates airman's family-owned business

Posted at 5:08 AM, Oct 28, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-28 08:13:47-04

A North Las Vegas military family is working to pick up the pieces after they say some ripped off their small business.

Amanda Macatol balances a lot as the mother of two young boys, the owner of a small business and the wife of an active duty airman. 

But it was her husband's service and reluctance to wear a baby carrier that sparked her imagination.

"It was made originally from his deployment uniform," Macatol said of the first baby carrier she designed.

Macatol started taking orders for her military inspired baby carriers and "Tough Ruck" was born.

She has since added other products, including military-inspired Christmas stockings.

Three years later the mother of two turned to the ABC Kids Expo in hopes of finding new places to sell her products. 

"I met a lot of really great people, made some great connections." Macatol said.

When she returned to pack up the booth the day after the show, Macatol said things started to fall apart.

"It was very obvious that everything was gone.  It was heartbreaking," Macatol said.

Despite hiding the merchandise, and putting up signs saying they were picking everything up the next day,  Macatol says she found most of her products gone.

That’s left her with little to sell and no income to buy supplies.

"I actually just had to cancel two orders that came in because of this," Macatol said.

Macatol says the loss was devastating.

"I stopped counting when I got to a thousand [dollars], because when you are this small business, a micro business a mom and her kids that is huge," Macatol said.

The loss wasn't just financial.  It was emotional as well.

That's because her husband's personal carrier was taken with his deployment patches stitched on.

Many of those patches are irreplaceable.

"I remember him coming home and being super excited about different patches," Macatol said.

Macatol has been working with the expo in hopes of finding the missing items.

She is also asking security to take a closer look at surveillance videos.

She says she wouldn't ask any questions if they showed up on her door step in the coming days.