---
title: "Woman Annoyed When Delivery Robot Comes Into Her Yard, Tears Up Her Garden and Steals Her Fence"
description: "An East Hollywood woman was surprised when a delivery robot tore up her yard and made off with her garden fence."
date: "2026-02-28"
modified: "2026-02-28"
authors:
  - name: "Joe Wilkins"
    job_title: "Correspondent"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins"
url: "https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/delivery-robot-yard-garden"
categories:
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
---

# Woman Annoyed When Delivery Robot Comes Into Her Yard, Tears Up Her Garden and Steals Her Fence

![A person wearing light blue jeans, a pink and white striped shirt, and brown sandals is reaching out toward a small red delivery robot labeled "COCO" with "Coco Robotics" written below. The robot has four wheels and a small red flag on a pole. The background is bright yellow.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/delivery-robot-yard-garden.jpg>)
*Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Coco Robotics / Getty Images*

These days, moles and gophers aren't the only pests you have to worry about tearing up your yard. You also have to watch for Cocos — pink, four-wheeled delivery robots currently metastasizing across cities throughout the US.

East Hollywood resident Kaiya Reel learned this the hard way. According [to local news station *KTLA*](<https://ktla.com/news/local-news/food-delivery-robot-goes-rogue-causes-property-damage-at-east-hollywood-home/>), Reel was first alerted to the presence of something in her garden by a loud ruckus. When she came out to investigate, she was surprised to discover a Coco delivery robot struggling to free itself from her fence.

"I came out here and I found the Coco in my garden," she told *KTLA*. "It had got my fence caught up in its wheel. It uprooted a whole bunch of \[plants\] in my garden and then just drove away with the fence attached to it."

Despite becoming tangled in a mess of fencing and foliage from Reel's yard, the little robot was determined to make its next delivery, **s**campering off down the road.

"I chased after it and looked like a total crazy person, running after a robot in the middle of the street and yelling at it," Reel said. "I was trying to block it and get in its way and it would try to go around me," she continued, though the robot didn't heed her calls to stop.

Reel's neighbor, Roman Henson, corroborated the story to *KTLA*.

"The robot had driven through the little fence and was dragging it," Henson said. "We've got the Cocos, the Waymos and they're coming for us."

The delivery robots have caused a number of problems wherever they've been deployed. In Chicago, the little fellas [irked residents](<https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/rage-delivery-robots-chicago>) so bad that they've been [functionally banned](<https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/chicago-delivery-robots-banned>) from certain sections of the city. In East Hollywood, *KTLA* reports that a Coco robot was caught charging headlong into an ambulance, while delivery bots from other companies have blocked mobility scooters and knocked over motorcycles.

"I think the part that worries me is that these companies can come in and dump their technology in our community and there's no sense of accountability," Reel told the station. "It just feels like an accident waiting to happen."

**More on robots:** *[Delivery Robot Gets Stuck on Train Tracks, Gets Obliterated by Locomotive](<https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/delivery-robot-obliterated-by-train>)*

## Author
At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/joeonhere.bsky.social>)