‘Why just me?’ Charlotte man says Border Patrol broke pickup window, stole keys
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Border Patrol in Charlotte
U.S. Border Patrol began making rounds in Charlotte on Saturday morning.
This follows recent Border Patrol activity in Chicago that made headlines, with some reports alleging agents violated people’s rights.
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Willy Aceituno said he’d just left a Charlotte restaurant Saturday morning when federal agents approached him in his pickup, broke a window and stole his keys.
“Are you an illegal immigrant?” he said an officer asked in the parking lot outside Pollo Campero, near the intersection of South Boulevard and Archdale Drive.
Aceituno recounted the conversation to a Charlotte Observer journalist at the scene.
“I don’t have to answer your questions,” he said he replied. “Why don’t you ask other people that? Why just me?”
Aceituno said he’s originally from Honduras and has been a U.S. citizen for about six years.
Agents twice stopped him in his pickup within about 10 minutes, he said. Both times he was still in the parking lot, he said.
Aceituno showed the Observer scrapes on his elbow and the back of his neck he said he suffered when agents tried to arrest him.
Later, just before 11 a.m., an Observer reporter saw two agents walking with large guns near an AutoZone on South Boulevard, as people stopped to film them and drivers honked their horns.
And just before 12:30 p.m., a person told the Observer they saw agents detain people at Nazo’s restaurant in the 8300 block of Pineville-Matthews Road in Pineville.
This story was originally published November 15, 2025 at 1:26 PM with the headline "‘Why just me?’ Charlotte man says Border Patrol broke pickup window, stole keys."
