Family Robbed Of $21K, Passports On Italy Vacation Holds Fundraiser

ARLINGTON, VA — The Vergara family remains stuck in Italy after their luggage, money and passports were stolen during a much-anticipated trip that was meant as a celebration but turned into a nightmare.

The family, which planned the trip to celebrate the mother and youngest daughter's birthdays, was visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa when someone robbed them. The person stole the family's luggage, passports, and more than $21,000 in cash.

“It’s been my sister’s dream to go to Italy, and we tried making her dream come true,” Stephanie Trujillo of Arlington wrote on a GoFundMe page about her family's vacation to Italy. “Everything was going great, we were having so much fun and making beautiful memories, but on the third day of the trip, we drove to Pisa to take a family photo at the leaning tower and got robbed outside of the monument plaza.”

Trujillo wrote that the family is “living a nightmare— we were left stranded with no money, no clothes or anything.”

The family filed a police report, but the Italian police have not been able to recover what was stolen. “We had to complete the drive to Florence since that’s where we had our hotel booking reserved and when we got there to check in, our car got ransacked again,” Trujillo wrote.

Trujillo lives in Arlington, while her parents and siblings live in Colorado. The family tries getting together on a family trip every year since they don’t live near each other, she told Patch.

The relief fund will help the family pay the new passport expenses and "restore some of the value of our combined belongings" that were stolen, Trujillo wrote.

As of Friday afternoon, the fundraising campaign had brought in almost $7,000. To contribute money to help the family, visit their GoFundMe campaign site.