Flo’s Pristine Reputation Put to the Test

She built her business from the ground up, one mop, one client, one act of trust at a time. But tonight, that trust is under fire. Florina Arzu, the face behind Flo’s Pristine Services, is facing a crisis no small business owner ever wants to deal with. One of her employees, twenty-six-year-old Samara Moody, is now the subject of a police investigation, accused of stealing jewelry and other valuables from a Belize City home. Moody wasn’t just a stranger, she was on the job, cleaning a client’s bedroom under Arzu’s company. And while Arzu wasn’t there that day, the fallout landed squarely at her feet. Now, with a wanted poster out and clients demanding accountability, Arzu is left trying to protect the business she’s worked so hard to build, while confronting the painful reality of broken trust. Here’s News Five’s Isani Cayetano with that story.

 

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

A trusted face in the home is now at the center of a police investigation. Tonight, a wanted poster is out for twenty-six-year-old Samara Moody, a single mother of two, who’s accused of stealing jewelry and other valuables from a prominent Belize City household. Moody wasn’t just a visitor, she was on the job, working for Flo’s Pristine Services, a cleaning company with a client list that includes at least fifteen homes and businesses.

 

Florina Arzu, Proprietor, Flo’s Pristine Services

“This particular employee was hired under Flo’s Pristine [Services] for roughly six months. The particular client that the incident happened or occurred to, we were fresh with them. We were just two months in with these clients [and] they really had a close relationship with me, trying to let my business prosper, you know. They were all about having Belizean-owned businesses prosper and so, that was the reason why she hired me.”

 

 

 

If you’ve been following our stories, you might remember Florina Arzu, a hardworking entrepreneur we featured back in July 2023. At the time, she had just launched her cleaning business, building a reputation and a livelihood through honest work and determination. Fast forward to today, Arzu’s company has grown, offering both residential and commercial cleaning services. But now, the very foundation of her business, trust, has been shaken. A recent incident involving one of her employees has left clients questioning what happens when that trust is broken.

 

 

 

Florina Arzu

“Under the contract, we needed two persons to work and so Samara was a part of the team for that particular home. She was assigned to that home. The particular incident occurred two weeks ago, the twenty-seventh, I believe, and a couple items went missing. That raised the alarm, since then, we have been trying to reach out to Samara, let her come in, just return the items, to no avail. That’s when it reached the public and we have a wanted poster for her.”

 

 

When you hand over your house keys, alarm codes, and access to your most private spaces, you’re placing a huge amount of trust in someone. For many families, that trust is given to cleaning crews, people hired to care for the spaces we call home. Florina and her employee, Samara, were assigned to clean the home on a rotation basis. While she wasn’t on duty that day, Samara was. And that’s when personal items, including valuable jewelry, went missing.

 

 

 

Florina Arzu

“One particular item, the client [has] had for over twenty years. We’ve tried so many alternatives to reach out to her and she is not answering calls, but she does communicates through text. She officially blocked my business page, but she still reads messages off my personal phone number. Our last, my last text to her, my last messages to her was on Sunday and I was kinda doing a scare tactic on her to let her come in, but to no avail.”

 

 

Since the alleged theft, the couple has grown restless. They are demanding answers and accountability, even pointing fingers at Arzu herself, saying that as the business owner, the responsibility stops with her. It’s a tough moment for a woman who built her business on trust.

 

Florina Arzu

“I’ve built my business from the ground up, by myself and this affects me emotionally, mentally, but I do have to say that I do have the support of clients who know me very well and vouch for me. So that’s one of the things that keeps me going and I just want to take this as an experience. I think it’s a big lesson for my business in itself, just trying to take proper procedures and measures on how to move forward with screening, I guess. That would be my biggest approach right now is how to best approach screening because my reputation lies at hand and I don’t want my clients to ever feel unsafe in their own space.”

 

From pricey electronics to private documents, cleaners often come across things that require more than just a mop and broom, they require integrity. And when that trust is broken, the consequences can be deeply personal. Isani Cayetano for News Five.