HOLLYWOOD, Ca — A North Texas family and several fans turned a horrible situation into a positive one.
On Monday morning, Debbie and Tony Ochoa, from Dallas, were visiting Hollywood and decided to take their family to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Debbie wanted to see the star of the queen of Tejano— Selena Quintanilla-Perez and the star of Jenni Rivera, known as "La Diva de la Banda". Rivera was granted the posthumous honor during a June 27 ceremony attended by hundreds of fans in Hollywood.
Both Mexican American singers are known for their contributions to Latin music and died tragically. Rivera died in a plane crash in Monterrey in 2012 and Selena was murdered by her fan club president in 1995.
Being a fan of the Latin superstars, Debbie was excited to see the stars in their honor. To her dismay, when she and her family approached the area, a Walk of Fame employee told her they had just discovered Selena and Jenni's stars had been vandalized and someone would be there soon to clean the stars.
She couldn't believe someone would do this.
"We were just shocked. We couldn't believe it. We've flown all this way. We wanted to pay our respects to both stars and to see that, we got mad," Ochoa said.
So, Debbie and her family jumped into action. Her 13-year-old son, Santiago, pulled out his hand sanitizer and cleaned Selena's star while her husband, who owns a power washing business in Dallas, began scrubbing Jenni's star.
"People began grabbing hand sanitizers and whatever they could find to clean the stars," Ochoa said. She added that even someone brought a Windex-like spray as well.
In the end, her son cleaned Selena's star entirely while a group of others cleaned Jenni's star.
Ochoa contacted Jacky Rivera Jenni Rivera's daughter and sent her pictures of what had been done to the star. She said she immediately heard back from her with graditude towards her and her family.
The Ocha's didn't expect to meet here but Rivera insisted and even got to meet them in person.
Ochoa said that it was very sad to see someone vandalize the icon's stars and that this trip turned into a lession for her boys.
The family went to Hollywood to celebrate Debbie's oldest son Noah he turned 16 and it was something they had to do before leaving.
Ochoa's husband Tony said that it is important to them to teach their boys about integreity and seeing their kids help without them even asking meant alot to them.
There's no word yet on who vandalized the stars but Ochoa said they were discovered vandalized again on Tuesday morning.
KRIS 6 has contacted the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Police Department for more information on the investigation into the vandalism.
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed a report was taken but said they are not providing any interviews because this is an ongoing investigation.
We have yet to hear from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
This is a developing story. We'll update this article with more information as soon as we receive it.
