'They stole everything!' Thieves rip off landscaping business, leaving owner struggling

FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — A striving young entrepreneur in Prince George’s County was struggling Thursday to recover from a devastating theft. Thieves broke into Kelvin Moore’s landscaping and new nursery business on Allentown Road in Fort Washington overnight Tuesday and stole almost every piece of working equipment.

Now, the community is coming together to try and help him.

"Someone broke into my warehouse last night and they stole everything. Everything," Kelvin Moore said in an Instagram post that's getting a lot of attention.

Moore walked WUSA9 through the scene at his warehouse Thursday. 

"I walked over here and saw the window had been busted through and I said, 'oh lord,'" he said.

They took all the equipment Kelvin Moore has collected in 22 years of landscaping across the region.

"What’s left here is the stuff that doesn’t work," he said, wandering through an all but empty shed. "Just the trash. The trash, literally parts." 

The crooks loaded his equipment on his own trailer and hauled it away. 

"I’ve been cutting grass since I was 12 years old," Moore said, describing how he collected the best gear he could afford all those years. 

The entrepreneur is still struggling to even remember everything he lost.

The thieves stole two zero-turn ride-on mowers, an 18-foot, double-axle trailer, seven Stihl weedwhackers, blowers and much more. In total, the loss exceeds $30,000, Moore estimates.

Prince George's County Police say they're investigating the burglary, but don't have anything new to report yet.

Moore just recently opened Jireh’s Place Nursery. He figured the revenue from his DLC DMV Landscaping would help fund the first year of the new business.

"I have no idea what’s next," he said.

Now he’s worried about keeping the business going and his five children fed. But the community has been rolling in to support him.

"It’s terrible, devastating," said customer Terry Gunn, almost in tears. "It hurts." 

Moore expects insurance will cover less than a third of his loss. But the 34-year- old is just going to keep pushing. 

"I’m alive, I’m breathing. All I can do is keep fighting," he said, slamming the door on the warehouse.