Several customers at Hog & Rocks Saturday stopped by the silent auction set up to help the family of slain line cook Gaspar Puch-tzek raise funds to send his body back home to Mexico.
Restaurant manager Marcelle Gonzales said she was pleasantly surprised by how many people have donated so far.
“There are so many, over 50 restaurants have donated,” she said.
Some businesses wrote checks to help the family, she said. Others donated products from their stores including jewelry.
The restaurant will be donating 50 percent of their sales today to the fund and the silent auction will go until next Friday.
“His family needs our help,” Jacki Cannici, a customer, said after participating in the auction.
Andrew Warren and Dave Rubin put their names down for some gift certificates offered in the silent auction.
The restaurant’s employees care about the neighborhood, Warren said “they came in and took a building that was in disrepair. I want to support them.”
Puch-tzek was on smoke break with two co-workers on Aug. 30 when two suspects approached him and asked what gang he claimed. Although Puch-tzek said he wasn’t a gang member, one of the suspects shot him in the head. Puch-tzek later died at San Francisco General Hospital.
His family who is from the Yucatan region of Mexico, is now trying to raise money to send Puch-tzek’s body back home.
The results of the silent auction will be announced on Hog & Rocks’s Facebook page Friday at 3 p.m.
If you wish to donate, you can stop by Hog & Rocks at 3431 19th Street, or go to a Wells Fargo branch and ask to make a donation to account number 3114477635 (under the name of Francisco Puch-Tzek).
