Woman dubbed ‘Santa Clarita Karen’ claims business ruined after viral confrontation

Francesca Ortega, a woman who gained notoriety as “Santa Clarita Karen,” asserts that her life and her cleaning company have been significantly impacted following a viral incident where she threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a street taco vendor. The confrontation, captured on video, led to widespread criticism and a barrage of negative attention directed at her business.

In a video Ortega shared, she expressed distress over the fallout, stating, “Now all of my livelihood is ruined. The business that I worked so hard to build for 10 years.” She further alleged that her business, which she described as having had “excellent, perfect reviews,” was “flooded by these insane horrible Latino people.”

Ortega explained her initial anger stemmed from a desire to prevent the area from resembling Los Angeles, which she felt was detrimental to local businesses. She claimed that she and her family had received threats, causing her to feel unsafe in public.

In what appears to be an act of retaliation, Ortega reportedly changed her official business number on Google to the phone number of a critic named Ricardo Morales. Morales told Fox 11 that he is now receiving numerous angry calls and texts from across the country. One message he shared read, “You should be ashamed of yourself. Saw you on the internet being a disgrace.” Morales described the situation as “crazy to think that somebody can be that extremely vindictive and now won’t own up to their actions.”

Ortega, however, insisted her actions were a response to her critics not leaving her alone. She maintained that she never intended to threaten the vendor, and the confrontation began after the vendor allegedly took a photo of her license plate. “I need as much help as possible to recover from this. Obviously I didn’t mean to hurt them. It was just a confrontation,” Ortega told Fox 11. She added that “People say ugly things when they are upset.”