A food truck builder who had become a symbol of the perils of working in the mobile food industry was arrested Tuesday in Modesto by the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department on suspicion of theft by false pretenses, according to law enforcement officials. Fernando Ochoa Jauregui, 28, and his company, 8A Food Trucks, had been accused by clients of not delivering vehicles and refusing to return their partial or full payments.
“I’m trying to deal with this scandal so I can make my business better again — I had a real company,” Ochoa said in February. “I’m not a business expert. I just know how to build trucks.” He could not be reached for comment Wednesday. For Norma Estevez, a Salinas resident who paid $60,000 for two food trailers that she said she never received from Ochoa, news of his arrest gave her a sense of relief.