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A vandal destroyed a Natomas family's homemade planter. Now, their community is pitching in to help.

Someone destroyed the homemade planter she created with her 5-year-old daughter and stole their barbecue grill

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Natomas mother is devastated after someone intentionally vandalized something very special for her and her daughter. But it's the kindness of her community that is warming her heart. 

Gaby Urdaneta and her 5-year-old daughter Isabella spent several months constructing a homemade planter to put on display on their patio at their North Natomas apartment. 

Credit: Gaby Urdaneta

"It was a large project. It was a challenge, but it was really cool for her hard work to pay off," Urdaneta said.  

However, one day, she came home to find her beloved planter destroyed. 

"Everything is shattered. Everything is broken, and our portable grill was stolen," she said. "My heart just sank. It felt so excessively cruel and unnecessary."

Someone clearly came onto her patio, destroyed the planter and stole her barbecue grill. 

"This wasn't an accident. This was intentional," she said. 

Urdaneta said this vandalism devastated her daughter. 

"It just breaks your mama heart... It is hard enough and you want to shield them from it. It was something she had done, so I tried to clean up as much as I can," she said. 

Urdaneta turned to Nextdoor in hopes that someone saw something. 

Instead of the act caught on camera, she instead received a lot of kindness from neighbors willing to pitch in to help clean up, build a new planter and get her a new grill. 

"That sense of community is why I love Natomas. In times like this where it's so disheartening and it can be a blow to your faith in humanity but for us, it represented things that we put a lot of hard work and effort in and it brought a lot of joy," she said.

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