At the end he mentions the couple went to the dump and found some of theur things... Mixed into the wrong boxes. Items dont re-sort themselves at the dump. Someone was searching and stealing.
Frankly, even making the mistake of picking up the uhaul early, just out and out dumping as trash someone's packed belongings when the vehicle is still under the contracted rental time is inexcusable.
@peregrine1970 this whole story by Uhaul sounds fishy, there was another moving company that pulled the very same scam. But it was the company employees stealing the movers property and holding it hostage for a absurd storage fee...🤔
@@madmaximilian5783 Sounds like BS. The truck is full of property and so they just dump everything without thinking, "Hmmm, maybe this is somebody's stuff that they want?" More likely, they knew what they were looking for, picked through the stuff, took what they want, and then dumped the rest.
Yeah the equivalent would be if a kid was dropped off at school and the parents notified the teacher that they’ll be running late to pick up the kid after school, but when a janitor sees the kid waiting after school in the cafeteria, he calls up CPS to have the kid taken away and is immediately adopted by another family.
What gets me here, let's propose it WAS abandoned. They made no effort apparently to contact the renters. They made no effort to retain the goods inside knowing it was rented. Like WTF?! This is not just a F up, this is extreme negligence.
At best it was extreme negligence. At worst it was a crime. Wait for someone to load up a rented truck with their valuables. Take the truck and all its values under the guise of 'repossession'. Sell everything in that truck for profit. And pretend it's the customer's fault for abandonment.
I work as a mover helper for the u boxes when we go to a call to pick up a U-Box add a U-Haul facility that's either empty or full you box they would tell us 10% at a time that it's at another location they moved it to another location further away than it's supposed to be other times they don't have forklift operators so I see where the mistake is made by U-Haul U-Haul needs to get their act together because they dropped the ball on more than one occasion
The company has explained that they had a clerical error, and tried contacting the customer for almost two weeks. Unfortunately, due to the mixup, it was the wrong customer. So after the (wrong) customer failed to respond, they dumped its contents.
Steve, U Haul also failed to meet its obligations under Florida law as pertains to abandoned property. Since these goods clearly were of value, they would be required to inventory them, store them and make attempts to notify the owner. Obviously, they didn't do this. U-Haul is on the hook for all of this.
§ 715.10 won't apply to a truck rental but 705 sure would. 705.102 Reporting lost or abandoned property.- (1) Whenever any person finds any lost or abandoned property, such person shall report the description and location of the property to a law enforcement officer. (2) The law enforcement officer taking the report shall ascertain whether the person reporting the property wishes to make a claim to it if the rightful owner cannot be identified or located. If the person does wish to make such claim, he or she shall deposit with the law enforcement agency a reasonable sum sufficient to cover the agency’s cost for transportation, storage, and publication of notice. This sum shall be reimbursed to the finder by the rightful owner should he or she identify and reclaim the property. (3) It is unlawful for any person who finds any lost or abandoned property to appropriate the same to his or her own use or to refuse to deliver the same when required. (4) Any person who unlawfully appropriates such lost or abandoned property to his or her own use or refuses to deliver such property when required commits theft as defined in s. 812.014, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
@@Roddy556 Yes but if they believe it was abandoned then they should follow the law. And if it wasn't abandoned and they believe it wasn't then other laws apply when it comes to take people's belongings.
Most jurisdictions have laws about handling property "believed to be abandoned." Most require storage for a period of time while "good faith" attempts are made to locate the owner. Failure to do so might be considered theft or conversion of property.
@@angelogallo7929 Do you live in Florida? We’re you raised there? Did someone kidnap you and take you there? Just wondering because I’m really getting tired of the interstate hate games on both sides. I really do not care anymore about the laws in states that don’t affect me. And when I’m at my vacation home where I chose to buy in spite of their policies, I stay out of there nonsense there as much as I can afford to. May I suggest it’s a better way to live for everyone?
705.102 Reporting lost or abandoned property.- (1) Whenever any person finds any lost or abandoned property, such person shall report the description and location of the property to a law enforcement officer. (2) The law enforcement officer taking the report shall ascertain whether the person reporting the property wishes to make a claim to it if the rightful owner cannot be identified or located. If the person does wish to make such claim, he or she shall deposit with the law enforcement agency a reasonable sum sufficient to cover the agency’s cost for transportation, storage, and publication of notice. This sum shall be reimbursed to the finder by the rightful owner should he or she identify and reclaim the property. (3) It is unlawful for any person who finds any lost or abandoned property to appropriate the same to his or her own use or to refuse to deliver the same when required. (4) Any person who unlawfully appropriates such lost or abandoned property to his or her own use or refuses to deliver such property when required commits theft as defined in s. 812.014, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
This sounds like both Breach of Contract and Grand Theft to me. The first for taking back the rental vehicle while it was still under rental contract, the second for taking all the belongings with the truck. I don't care what they did with everything in the truck, it wasn't theirs and they took it without permission, almost certainly far above the limit for Grand Theft. The fact that their boxes that they found had apparently been opened and re-organized heavily suggests they were also inventoried and SOME things were kept by SOMEONE. And before someone says the Grand Theft will just be another fine to the company, I suggest some state attorney open a Grand Jury investigation, subpoena ALL communications around the repossession, arrest the people who issued the order (unless they have clear indication it was a computer error) and any higher ups who told them to do so. Only settle for a MAJOR fine if all evidence indicates that this was a computer glitch or the like. A number of companies have been caught doing things like this, rental companies, car dealerships, banks, storage facilities, etc. It will keep up until the people doing it start going to prison. A company as big as U-Haul could be fined for millions of dollars and they'd shrug and do nothing.
I agree with the sentiment. That said, every U-Haul truck I've ever rented has a big sticker on it with a phone number to be used to report abandoned equipment. So let's say that someone called the number and reported the truck, but didn't report any associated ID numbers. All they gave was a location and said that the truck had been there for a period of several days, and if the caller was a hotel manager, they asked U-Haul to remove it. In that circumstance, those at the start of the chain of events on U-Haul's part were acting on good faith. The problem comes when a crew shows up to take possession of the truck, and they don't then check the numbers, and they dispose of the contents of the truck. Definitely some systemic issues there, but not everyone involved was criminally negligent.
I’ve rented uHauls lots of times in the last 5 years. I’ve had them contact me about returning the truck early. I rented it for 24 hours and they say we want it back before that. I’m like.. no I’m going to need it the full time. They say.. but we have customers that need that truck… I say.. yea.. me.. the one who already paid for it.
@@Voorhees-Jason dude. They really pressed hard after that… and I was like.. look I’m balls deep in the apartment relocation.. I’ll return it when I’m don’t with it
U-haul don-t give a crap. They just call the lawyers and tell them to fight it. There wont be a settlement until after the law suite. U-Haul are heartless a-holes.
Yup. All the TV's and electronics you can find at the managers house. They clearly searched the contents and kept a good portion of them and then put the rest into boxes and took them to the dump.
It doesn't even pass the smell test. Is UHaul suggesting they have people just go cruising and pick up random rented trucks they find based on an assumption made with zero research? They didn't check to see if it was still in rental. They made no effort to contact anyone. Even when they found that it was still loaded and operational (meaning that there would have been no reason for abandonment), they still didn't do either of those two. Then they made no effort to inventory the property, as is probably required by law.
And if they lose can someone publicise the names of the workers? That way if theyre nearby someone capable and willing to apply street justice can have a better chance of recognizing them.
Everything about this is outrageous. How was the hotel renting the place to park it that there was no record? U haul not calling the customer while the truck was still being rented? Bizarre. Criminal.
What terrifies me is, what if this was a missing persons case? What if there was actual foul play involved and the renter of said 'abandoned' U-haul was killed or kidnapped. Does U-haul make it a practice to just tamper with or destroy evidence in any unusual circumstances they find their vehicle in? Especially circumstances where vehicles appear abandoned before the actual expiration date of its lease?
Unless it is in the contract they had a duty to secure the load and contact the customer. Yes they could charge them ridiculous rates. Now I think U-Haul should pay ten times the replacement costs of all the items.
Even if the contract allows them to dispose of abandoned items in trucks, there is no rational way to label it abandoned lacking extreme supporting evidence, especially mid-rental. Even if they had been parking at the motel illegally, that is still not ‘abandoned’. For U-Haul to grab the truck and dispose of their property mid-rental is just straight theft. The company collectively, and any employee involved individually, should be on the hook both civilly and criminally.
There is, and Steve discusses, the possibility that the hotel told Uhaul the truck was abandoned on their property and needed to be removed. Which could spread the blame. A few phone calls on Uhaul's part should have cleared up the issue prevented the loss instead of assuming the hotel accurately reported the vehicle as abandoned. Somebody should get fired, and checks will be written.
@@RupertMDoc well, he more speculated that the hotel may have had an employer that reported it to the police. Even then, the only evidence they would reasonably have is that it might be illegally parked. U-Haul would have no reason from being illegally parked to believe abandoned in the middle of a paid rental period.
Reminds me of the Rathbun Realty debacle in Tuscon. They managed rental properties and were in the process of evicting a tenant. The tenant went to rent a truck and get some help moving out. When he got back to the house, everything he owned was gone. When he asked where his stuff was, Rathbun Realty told him they took it all to the dump. He apparently had antiques, collectibles, original art of some value. He sued, but as they where going through that process, Rathbun came under investigation for financial irregularities. I think there was major embezzlement going on. If I remember right, the FBI eventually got involved, and the company went bankrupt. I always figured Rathbun had stolen the guy's stuff and sold it. When I hear about cases like this one with U-Haul, I figure someone in the local office is skimming cash and needed to steal these people's things to sell to cover up their embezzlement.
U-haul has come out and claimed full responsibility. their story is they "repoed" the truck on sept 2nd due to a clerical error saying the trucks number was under contract in another state. they attempted to contact that person under that contract for 10 days before burning the possessions. since the family contacted the police and probably u-haul on the 4th i dont understand why this didnt turn on some light bulbs for the local u-haul. u-haul also said their possessions were incinerated not just tossed but some how the 5 boxes that they did find were saved??? but the contents of one of the boxes returned had stuff from 4 other boxes in it implying someone went through all their stuff took what they wanted and burned the rest.
Bet you dollars to donuts that these Uhaul employees went thru thier stuff and cherrypicked the most valuable things out.. Incineration conveniently erases any evidence.. Uhaul F- ed up CRIMINALLY ! A few greedy operators like these are going to destroy Uhauls reputation- and cash flow for all Uhaul operators..😬
@@aaronhumphrey2009 no doubt in my mind thats whay happened or something similar. its either that or they kept the stuff they said they "incinerated" that way they dont have to return it and no one will be looking for it and tossed the stuff they did actually returned because it was worthless and easier to throw away.
That’s weird . there is a contract U-Haul makes everyone sign plus there is their phone numbers, U-Haul didn’t even make a attempt to call the people on the contract. U-Haul would be liable because they failed on any attempts to contact this couple.
Nor did U-Haul check with the company that owns the parking lot of they knew the situation with the truck. Hotels ask for you plate number and vehicle info so they know what vehicles should be there unless it is for a visitor of a guest
It's St Louis. U-haul had probably worked out this plan from the beginning. Everyone in that city is running scams and hustles, even supposed legitimate businesses. This exact story happened to me with Enterprise in St Louis, except instead of tossing my belongings, the Enterprise employees went through my stuff and took whatever they wanted. Bastards.
@@OmniscientWarrior And they would have in their records those plates for guests of the past. That is data I guarantee they keep since information = money since they can sell it later.
@@MrIrishalley, got any evidence to support that claim? U-haul would have a record (the rental contract) of who had rented that truck, and how to contact them. Claiming they “tried to contact the wrong people” is a pretty pathetic excuse.
This hurts my heart to hear.. Family stuff, pictures, personal items.. I still have my late father's guitar that I've always moved with me from place to place. I'd be utterly heartbroken to hear if it was thrown out for something so ridiculous. I feel for that couple. I hope UHaul does their best to make them whole. A LOT OF MONEY would be a great place to start.
It's not just the value of the belongings, it's that they were _their_ belongings. Between the irreplaceable items, sentimental value, and the insane number of hours it would take to even try to locate and purchase all of those things, they deserve ten times more than the value. On top of that, I don't even know where I would begin trying to itemize all of my belongings. I would probably be thinking of things for years that I didn't remember until I needed and didn't have.
Having had the experience of a bunch of stuff going missing in multiple moves, you're absolutely right about not remembering stuff until years later when you realize you need it and don't have it.
You don't need to itemize. Doesn't matter how expensive Simply theft. You demand 1 million dollars as punishment and penalty for the intentional crime. Why?! Conversion gives 3x the value (see other SL videos) Then add emotional distress, and all the other psychological stuff for losing dear family mementos of your poor ol' "insert dead relative"
I am in a unusual position, having spent years moving while in the military, and while homeless, and have nothing left considered sentimental . Now that I am older and live by myself, I just have the bare necessities. But I still feel bad for the family.
I think it is VERY good that they went to the dump to try and retrieve what they could. Besides any actual retrieval, I believe this shows they tried to "mitigate" their loss. I believe that effort will look good to a judge and perhaps make the judge even more sympathetic. Of course, this travesty may already have most judges at maximum sympathy for the victims anyway within what they can do. But it might make it more likely to just accept the dollar amount claim and ignore any alternative lower amount U-Haul might argue.
They only went to the dump to make it look like they had done something. They wouldn't have been able to recover anything in a usable condition and they knew it.
@@scottlemiere2024 There is no way they could have known ahead of time whether anything was, or was not, salvageable. It is impossible to know what they "knew". If you were making that argument in a court, there would be two objections, and both would easily, even automatically, be upheld. The first is trying to present "facts not in evidence." There could have not have been evidence known at the time of the condition. The second is trying to state what is in the mind of somebody else. A judge probably wouldn't even let you get away with that in an opening or closing statement which has somewhat more latitude. They are simply too far outside of the law.
Yes, it also helps to prove that UHaul lied and they actually went through their stuff and stole a bunch of it. I'm pretty sure this is not the first time they've done this either.
Somehow, I am skeptical that ALL their stuff ended up in the dump. At least the most valuable items may have ended up in the hands of the person or persons who picked up the truck, telling their employer that it was all dumped.
@@charlesyoung7436 Same here. I spent a night of good cop / bad cop because they stopped my Black Ford E-150 Cargo Van instead of the Brown Dodge Tradesman Cargo Van they had a search order for and an arrest order for two people who were allegedly driving the van while trafficking 40 lbs of METH. Needless to say, I lost about $620 in cash, had a back injury made worse once bad cop saw my surgical scar, and I lost the most valuable contents of the van. [ Note: When bad cop noticed my surgical scar due to having my back broken by a drunk driver on the third strip search, he struck me with a mag light until I passed out I was moving across the country.]
I would think that another red flag for U-Haul would be that the truck was still fully loaded. Assuming the contents amounted to more than a leaky bean bag chair and a kitchen broom, that would call into question whether the vehicle was really abandoned.
From some things that I heard, it gets worse than that. There's apparently a situation with a lot of the UHaul and similar companies where people will steal them and hide them to ransom them back to the people who's stuff is in it...so, beyond everything else, it's a problem there as well
Between this and all the rental car arrests, someone needs to be sued into oblivion to send a message that if a “computer glitch” messes up someone’s life there will be serious consequences
John. I'm not a computer tech, but a good friend of mine is a computer science professor. I asked him if computers could make an error like this. His answer was a flat out NO. Computers only know what is programmed into them. A file can become corrupt, but not change field information to make the data change. This f-up is human error. Plain and simple. And someone has to pay for this family's horrific loss. And, I believe, punitive damages should apply in a case like this. Comments?
@@BubbaBubbinski What I really meant was an error caused by someone’s blind and lazy dependence on what was in a computer database. The problem started with poor programming or a data entry error. You are correct that a computer will only do what you tell it to do. The old saying is “Garbage in, Garbage out”
I used to work at U-Haul and we have a system that you can access anywhere to see if its rented or not.... It should have been an easy check online or call the store it was last... Huge mess up from that store.
Depending on who coordinated the repo recovery, it generally involves the closest store where it will be towed to or the nearest Uhaul Repair shop for that area and whatever local towing company that particular area uses specifically. The ID# on the truck would have been ran to check for a legal contract to see if it was past due, and generally if the party is beyond their return date and time, someone from from U-Haul would have contacted them as soon as they showed late to find out when they planned on returning the truck either from the store it was expected to originally be returned to or the Marketing Company that tracks vehicles in and out of a particular area, if they needed more time they could purchase additional days and avoid any hassle. They would have tried 2 telephone numbers and left voice mail messages and the email address on the contract if any were unsuccessful. Any vehicle outside of contract with no contact with renter can be assumed stolen and uhaul can take back possession and all contents therein. Worst case and ideal scenario the truck would have been towed back to a facility, lock cut, pictures taken with the door open and all the belongings would have been placed into a storage room at the U-Haul facility with the first month free, and stored until someone claimed ownership...if nobody claims possession, they get auctioned off after several months of no payment. For it to end up at a dump is highly suspicious...
The least there should be is a procedure to notify possible owners and give them some time before repossessing it. Not doing so is pretty careless, if not negligent
According to U-Haul, they did hold it for 10 days. Here's the issue: they spent the whole time trying to reach the WRONG owners due to whatever "clerical error" that was.
It was absolutely TOTALLY negligent. I've rented from U-Haul before, and I've never had any problems. But in this case, U-Haul should be sued and should have to pay at least triple damages. This is so flamingly outrageous that it defies description.
@@NoirTheSable That's interesting and raises more questions. I wonder how they got the name ID/contact wrong AND the wrong identifiers on the U-Haul? Also within 10 days they still couldn't get to the bottom of it assuming ALL the paperwork was useless, like how many abandon trucks do they deal with in that area?
I'm going through that emotionally right now. Everything I had was destroyed by water. All I have now is what I had in my RV and car. All my baby pictures, the quilts my mother made for me. What Get a me through this emotionally is thinking about all the people who loose everything in the fires and then I know I'm not alone in this.
@@nunya3163 Uuhaul stole the truck. The rental time means it is that couple's truck until the rental expires. IT WAS THE COUPLES TRUCK with all intent and purposes. If any of us went in there and took that truck without permission and took their stuff, we would be in jail!
When your corporate overlords take from you it's a mistake. God forbid you forget to bring the U-Haul back then they're going to get the cops to shoot you and your dog.
I have had bad experiences with U-Haul, but this story reminds me of when I was staying at a hotel in Santa Rosa, California because I had to go to a dentist there. I left, came back, and parked in the parking lot. Seconds later, a man in uniform was banging on my window. I was terrified and called the front desk. They said it was their security guard and my license plate hadn't been put in the system yet. I had checked in at 2pm and it was like 9:30pm or so and dark. They told me to roll down my window and tell him I was allowed to be there. I said no way, the guy is screaming and I think he will beat me up. They ultimately radioed the guy and said to leave me alone. But seriously, what if I didn't have a cell phone? What you said about stuff being irreplaceable strikes a nerve. What if it was a computer, phone, or hard drive? Those devices can contain lifetimes of important photos, videos, or documents that are not backed up anywhere else and a lot of insurance policies specifically don't cover loss of "data" which includes all of that. Never put all your eggs in one basket, always take photos of everything you put in the moving truck and have a backup of all digital data elsewhere.
I once borrowed a company truck for a few weeks from another company location a few hundred miles away and parked it in our shared parking lot with several other businesses, using it occasionally. After a week or so the landlord noticed that a vehicle he didn't recognize was parked and not leaving at night or on weekends. Rather than contact each of the (three) businesses to see if they knew anything about the truck, he assumed it had been stolen and/or abandoned and called the police. I don't remember the details about how it was straightened out, but that it did involve several police departments and a sheepish and apologetic landlord. 😀
Landlord at an apartment had my car towed because I didn't have a parking sticker. I was never given one. Had the records showing I had been paying for my parking spot regularly, and car was on file.
After an unforgivable screw up by U-Haul in my own life years ago on top of repeatedly bad experiences and badly maintained equipment I consider them an absolute last resort for any rental. On the other hand, I have had only good experiences with Penske.
I had a family emergency once and had to leave the state for 30 days. Rent was paid up ahead of time and we had the neighbors watching our dog. When we got back my liquor, vacuum, and tv was gone. Everything else was still there... a couple days later I was in the property managers office to see if he knew anything and saw everything that was missing including empty liquor bottles. Needless to say his excuse was he thought we moved out because he didn't see us for a while. My lease was in good standing, and the property manager couldn't keep his sticky fingers to himself when he saw property just sitting there. I bet someone from UHAUL saw an opportunity for some flat screens, guns, coins, and jewelry.
Wow, it doesn't get any scummier than that property manager... I hope he got arrested and sued for such activity. That's burglary, breaking and entering, theft, transportation of stolen property, and probably more.
As a former U-Haul ASM & CSR who has done repossession of stolen and abandoned equipment, I was taught you never touch the equipment if it was on valid contract. Even when we would take possession of a truck or trailer with belongings in it that was past the contract due date, after calling the numbers on file for several days, we secured the truck with the belongings in it. I believe the belongings had to be secured for 30 days, but I really don't remember as it never took more than 1-2 days for the customer to show up. Additionally, if you are returning or going to a different location matters, it will determine the truck you get. The one way fleet is the newer equipment, lessening the chances of a break down outside of city limits. If you're heading north, you'd typically get an unleaded truck instead of a diesel (they were trying to phase diesel out 20 years ago, maybe they have by now). If the truck you get happens to have license plates that will expire soon, they are en route to that location, and if the truck goes one way, they have to play catch up. In town fleet, have more miles, and may break down more frequently, but tow service is close by. The centers (U-Haul only, not also another business) know their units, and can diagnose over the phone sometimes, they also know the damage (scrapes and dings), and typically have a dolly and pads in the back that you can opt to use (additional fee). No I'm not paid to write this, no I do not work for them any longer, and the opinions and statements are mine, and mine alone, they do not represent the U-Haul company.
The biggest problem is that U-Haul should have contacted the customer before dumping the contents of the truck. 'Willful negligence' anyone? Also, breach of contract. They retrieved the truck early without contacting the customer.
@@ZE0XE0 Even if there was. U-Haul would have to give notice and have legal obligation dealing with the property inside. Hate to be U-Haul's lawyer explaining that DURING the rental agreement timeframe, that they knowingly disposed of property to Judge/Jury.
Seems fairly obvious unless "whoops" has somehow become a legal defense. UHaul stole their belongings and destroyed them as well as violating the terms of the rental agreement that the two parties had come to. Likely there was some arbitration language regarding them breaking the rental agreement, but there's no "you have to go to arbitration if we commit a crime against you" that is going to stand in court.
Was the truck rental still within the time period that they had originally contracted for? Yes. Does a UHaul rental agreement include contact information for the renter? Yes. Is this criminal activity on the part of UHaul? Hell yes.
I live here in Clearwater right down the street from the hotel this happened at and people are putting together donations for these good folks to get them started in the mean time. AS the story is unfolding you are correct as per the local news about the word not getting passed. Now as for the dump that took the stuff to. I have used it many times over the years. The thing you do not know is that it is not a "dump" as you might think. It is actually a recycling kind of center where if you have garden waste you take it to a certain area for composting, if you have metal you take it to another section. And finally anything else left over you back up to a reverse dock (meaning instead of it being raised it is actually a section that is dug out in the ground and they park hoppers in the hole) and as soon as a section of 2 or maybe 3 vehicles are emptied they have a giant scoop tractor that comes along and pushes it into the hoppers. The hoppers are then loaded on to a waiting truck as they fill and driven up to the combustion turbine where they are burned to make power. This whole process goes on 24 hours a day 7 days a week the only difference is that if you are a garbage truck you skip the hopper section and go straight up the hill to the burner plant. The one and ONLY reason that they would have gotten any of their items back is because there are always 3 men (plus the cat driver) that are always watching you dump and their sole job is to run over if you are dumping an uncustomary item like a dryer or refer and pull it off your stack and take it to the correct recycling area, It is a very safe bet that they saw something in the boxes when they broke open and decided they wanted to keep it or as often happens they set it aside for donation to a charity so it can be recycled again to a needy family. But you can be assured that ANYTHING that was burnable and used to produce heat to run the power generator was gone with in 20 minutes and lost forever. I would guess that UHAUL will be on the hook 90% and the hotel 10%. Sadly they will never recover 100% of the cost (not value) of the items. We lost part of our house 1 year ago to weather and our insurance after making us jump through hoops and list each and every thing lost and then the cost (not value) of replacement only paid 50 cents on the dollar and we are assured that when we rep[lace an item on the list they will make up the difference because then they can prove the actual COST only. and sadly I am afraid that is what will happen with UHaul also.
Anytime someone takes possession of a vehicle like a repo company they are required by law to report that action to the local sheriff department within a very short time. Like 30 min or something.
So first the hotel has a responsibility to ensure its safe if they actually gave permission to park and PAID for the parking. Second, who towed it, and with whos permission.. third U-Haul has a huge responsibility for dumping the belongings from an active rental. They had no right to even open the vack of the truck. Win win for the poor family..
Win win??! You say it as though they went through no loss or hassle. They May get some money in the End, after a legal battle, but they lost ALL, all their belongings.
Last year we downsized and had a week between settlement on our old home and settlement on our new home. Our total belongings were also in a couple of moving trucks, *_BUT_* we had the movers park the trucks in a storage establishment. At these places they also have spaces you hire like the lockers, but are like a parking lot to store things like camper vans, boats or horse floats, etc. I admit we paid through the nose for the total moving service and storage, over AU$10 grand, but the security was well worth the cost. We're in Australia but I assume there would be similar places in the USA.
I used to work for U-haul years ago if we picked up any abandoned equipment it's was taken to one of the shops or moving centers and locked up until they found out what was going on. They never dumped anyone's stuff. So sounds somewhat strange it was dumped.
when I worked for Uhaul, someone stole one of our 27 foot trucks. persons were going to construction sites, stealing materials. 3 months later, we get the call from state police in MD they found Uhaul illegally parked in strip mall parking lot. state police impounded it, found it was reported stolen in PA. we had to go get it, bring it back to PA. PA state troopers meet us at Uhaul storage, they catalogued everything in the truck before we put it in storage.
After my wallet had been stolen, Someone rented a Uhaul with my credit card, I didn’t find out about the rental until I received a collections bill for over $800 after vehicle had been abandoned. Despite successfully disputing the debt and providing a police report, Uhaul will not let me rent from them to this day.
I’ve never used a U-Haul except for once and that was three popped tires over 100 miles and then they took it back and still charged me I never got to my pick up. Ryder ever since.
Steve, I stumbled across this story at work today, and the article I read is somewhat different than the one you were reporting from. The story I read was that U-Haul accepted full responsibility for mistake and said it was a clerical error on their part. It seems the equipment ID of the truck was on two different contracts and after repossession of the truck they did try contacting the renters, but were contacting the wrong people.
I've rented U-Hauls quite a lot. A couple of them have been long haul, such as from Alabama to Northern california. I know that the recipient dealers on these kind of long distance hauls are quite happy to get your truck, to add to their fleet. I think that some local dealer saw a potential truck for their fleet, and just grabbed it without checking.
That's exactly what I thought! Guy from uhaul probably passed the truck a few times, thought hey they could absolutely use a truck of that size and grabbed it, not bothering to do any checking on it. I would not be surprised if some of the stuff from the truck ended up in the homes of the uhaul employees
U-Haul is just a horrendous company to deal with. About half the cost of the others for a reason. I've had 'OK' luck with them for local rentals but my share of horror stories too. Thinking back on it, most of the rentals with them had SOME kind of issue. That hotel bears a lot of responsibility since they were charging them to park it there, and they instigated the call to have it recovered. I've had to move between states with a rental truck before and it's a very disconcerting feeling having the entire contents of your life on earth in the back of a rental truck. If it was me, I would have been more vigilant about checking up on it or even attaching that vehicle to my hotel registry. It may have even been worth it to get a storage unit for a month. I'm sure it would have been cheaper than renting that ruck for a month.
Probably cheaper to rent a storage unit, yes. But is it also worth dealing with unloading into a storage unit, loading another truck and unloading it again into your new place? Depending on your physical abilities, any friends willing to help out or paying a couple people to help with it along with all that hassle...
@@callak_9974 True enough, I get your point, but it had to be astronomical to keep a U-Haul for over a month. Most places where I lived you could hire a couple of hombres hanging out at the 7 Eleven or some college kids off one of these 'manpower' places for the heavy lifting. That's what I did when I moved and it was pretty cheap, way cheaper than keeping the stuff tied up in a truck. Besides, look at what happened, no way anyone can't argue a storage unit wouldn't have been cheaper now. These kinds of things don't happen from 1 bad decision but many. I only had my stuff in one of those trucks a few days and was always going out to check the truck at 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning. No way I'd leave a truck like that in the same spot for weeks. That invites curiosity.
Actually, it was stolen. When you rent a good, it is yours by the terms of the rental contract for the agreed duration. If you breach the contract, your rent is over, and so is your “ownership”. For the renter, to repossess during a lease without cause is theft. Now usually, the value is small (rental time + trouble). But in this case, the amount is big. They should call an attorney.
But as Steve said money won’t replace family heirlooms…. I have items that are ONE OF A KIND some China painted by my late grandmother, which is the only thing I have from her because she was my step-dads mom and when my mom kicked him out I became persona non grata with most of that.side of the family (I had obtained these prior to the divorce) So they’re IMPOSSIBLE TO REPLACE at this point short of a miracle. I also have family heirlooms from my godparents whom I was VERY close to who have also passed away. Not to mention other items that have been passed down through at least 4 generations of my mom’s family. I couldn’t begin to put any kind of dollar amount on those kind of items. In fact I probably wouldn’t have left those things stored in a uhaul truck (if given ANY POSSIBLE CHOICE) but regardless, it’s still THEFT in any and every sense of the word!!!! I pray 🙏🏻 that they are at least able to recover their precious family heirlooms and can be compensated multiple times the actual cash damages for the cost of whatever cannot be found or is found damaged
How does this even happen?! I smell a rat. I'm wondering how often this happens and we don't hear about it. Methinks not ALL of their stuff is in a landfill - you KNOW the employees went through it all and took what they wanted. Absolutely disgusting. After paying the big bucks to have someone fully bonded and insured come out, pick up all my stuff and itemize it as they go, and deliver it to my new home, I can honestly tell you, it's worth it.
I used to work a Uhal location in the 90's. it was the site practice that anything left in the trucks or "abandoned" was sorted and items of value where then sold to pawn shop to recover cost of late returns or damages to the truck that could not be claimed. boxes or furniture were held for 24 hours, if the renter did not contact the store then was forfeit. granted this was years ago before a credit/debt card was required for all rentals. but I would not doubt that the policy still exists that "abandoned" property is sold off with the thrift store level stuff being dumped.
I know people that paid the big bucks and the "bonded and insured" company played a shell game with their belongings. For weeks. They didn't lose everything but it was frustrating and expensive.
The U-Haul on Durham Ct. in Leesburg, VA rented us a trailer in 2010 that hadn't been registered since 1997. It was impounded by police in New Jersey and U-Haul would not get us a new trailer and tried to claim we were responsible for getting their illegal trailer out of impound, forcing us to abandon around $1000 worth of equipment. The mainline corporate-owned U-Haul establishments are good. Unfortunately, U-Haul has a problem with shady franchise owners. This same franchise also shares their property with a towing company. The franchise had posted their entire property "No parking. Violators will be towed." So if you parked there, say, to pick up the trailer you rented, the towing company would zip out and drag your vehicle behind a locked gate and hold it for ransom. They were running a massive towing scam along with renting illegal trailers. You literally had to have someone stay with your vehicle to ensure they couldn't steal it.
What a nightmare. I once parked at night near a store and walked for five minutes for exercise. Some jerk tow truck zipped in and locked up my stuff. I had no choice but to walk 5 miles to get it back.
I smell BS in this story. Independent U-Haul dealers aren't responsible for registering the vehicles. That is always handled by U-Haul. The trucks and trailers also have permanent tags on them. Permanent tags are good until someone else registers the vehicle, and U-Haul doesn't sell their trailers. They do maintenance and keep them in service.
@@Saiyijon nope, Uhaul scraps their trailers. I used to take ones that were deemed unroadworthy to Uhaul site for disposal. they had tech on staff cutting them up.
We once returned a Uhaul van with out personal hand truck in it. The clerk at the rental place called me to let me know they had it. I am appalled that this company couldn't be bothered to do the same for a Uhaul containing all of the family's possessions.
U1- Hey, the back is still locked.. they said it's abandoned? U2- yeppers U1(cuts lock) Hey, it has a house full of stuff in here, are you sure it's abandoned? U2- Dude yes! Just stop asking and keep what you want, OKAY! U1- okay 👍
To be fair, I expect that isn’t even that rare of an occurrence. Look at all the storage units people just abandon full of stuff. I’m sure it legitimately happens with U-Haul trucks too.
@@everettsgoldenduo4999 Oh come on,a storage unit is because you have either not give up on keeping a car in your garage or, you are a hoarder. UHaul fucked up...
@@tomclark7023 Of course they screwed up and have to correct the error. I’m just saying it’s probably not that abnormal for them to collect abandoned trucks that have contents in them…
@@everettsgoldenduo4999 No. They are not the same. Look up the rates. People don't spend that kind of money and just " abandon" a U-Haul. Shit, it's borderline cheaper to buy all new stuff than move it...
@@everettsgoldenduo4999 Storage Units (at least the ones with anything worth keeping) are probably because someone died or there was an issue charging their card (expired, lost/stolen and the person forgot to update the storage place, etc...) rather than intentional abandonment. That said, storage units are frequently held for years, long enough for the person's contact info on file to be out of date and not get notified when the charge fails. Uhauls aren't typically rented long enough to contact info to become stale or cards to expire.
Of course they went through all of the person's possessions and took what was monetarily valuable and thew away stuff like family photographs. I thought the same thing when I read a news article about a homeless woman who came back to her camp to find it had been "bulldozed" and all her personal possessions including her laptop computer had been "thrown away." They couldn't "bulldoze" a tent without making sure there wasn't a person in it, and anybody looking into a tent can tell the difference between a laptop and trash. I wonder where her laptop went? It went where the stuff from the U-Haul went, into the home of a thief.
Agreed wonder if truck was rented then they extended the rental or was obsconded from returning it, because they waiting till they could move in. Uhaul would have listed it as non-returned. The Same thing happens with rental cars, renters deside they need it longer, and rental place already has new client there to pick it up. (Always over book). The hotel person who called, had no memo that it wasnt abandoned. Or they didnt pay to park there, except for the night they actually stayed in hotel. Story seems a bit fishy!
@@adriennefloreen If you had ever watched the clean up crews clearing block after block of these derelict's camps you would be amazed at the amount of shear crap they collect. It makes the "Hoarder" TV and utube channels look like pristine suburban homes with maid service. Laptop my ass. If not stolen by the other junkies dwelling there a laptop would most certainly have been well concealed. Spew your bleeding heart crap elsewhere. Just be thankful those crews were there to clean up the feces, vomit, liqueur containers, used needles, used condoms and other play material the children in the neighborhood were exposed to.
I have what I consider a priceless heirloom... a bear claw. A single claw from a black bear rug (circa 1950's, think "fingernail with first digit"). Value, maybe a couple of dollars. But the back story makes it irreplaceable to me, it came from the rug of my next door neighbor when I was growing up in the 60's, director Henry Hathaway (True Grit, North to Alaska, Sons of Katie Elder, How the West Was Won). The rug was a gift to him from a friend, actor Gary Cooper, and Hathaway's granddaughter used to play on the rug and pull the claws off, hence I was given one when I was over there one day. THAT'S the kind of personal items that were STOLEN from this family, never to be returned. Nice job, U-Hell! And we ALL have stories just as important as this. BTW, after probably 15+ moves and 8 years in the USAF, I still have that silly claw.
10:00 Princess Bride "I want my father back". And my personal stuff. Imagine if he got a Court Order to go into the home of an executive at U-Haul and take whatever personal stuff he wants to fill up the same size truck. Either sell it at Auction or dump it. U-Haul's problems would be quickly fixed.
companies like u-haul (e.g. hertz) have a high number of employees at every level in the organization who simply don't give a $h!t. And most of the time this doesn't matter but sometimes it goes horribly wrong like in this case. The only way to fix this is to hold them accountable through the legal system with very high fines. This will not be fixed from inside the companies and this will not be fixed by the market. It happens not often enough to have an impact on their number of customers and it's cheaper for them to pay damages than to fix the issue. Only when the fines are so high that it affects their bottom line will they improve their processes. damages alone are not sufficient as they are usually way lower than the actual costs to replace all your stuff, compensate for emotional value and your time. There should be punitive damages of 10 mio dollar on top of the damages (and if you are in a state that caps punitive damages then the juries should simply add it on to the damages).
Awful when unexpected, but I moved overseas a few years ago and sold near everything, once I moved back I've bought very little. Quite liberating actually.
A woman had her legally owned home "foreclosed", all her locks changed and all her belongings dumped. By a bank that she never had a mortgage with, if fact she had no mortgage at all, she was free and clear owner. They even took her pet parrot.
Ive lost everything in a divorce, but having all my stuff stolen by a company i was doing business with would leave me feeling something completely different.
@@themonkeyhand It's far different getting rid of most things voluntarily. You made the decision, had time to sort the items, and were able to keep the most personally valuable items. As an example, you could scan paper photos, or make backups of digital ones. You kept birth certificates and passports. Perhaps even vaccination records and other information that might be difficult or impossible to reconstruct.
Back in the 80's I knew a man who for some unknown reason was always hearing cars. He always fitted a steering lock, as he always put "You have no idea who has a key". Looking back it may have been a good idea.
Steve ... Other news agencies here locally in FL are reporting Uhaul is blaming a clerical error. The unit number for the truck they rented was entered into another contract from another state so when they checked the unit number it came up as being rented out of another state. So Uhaul is blaming a paperwork error and they tried to call the renter (wrong person) asking about recovering the items. Interesting story for sure
You know, I can look at some stuff and see pretty quickly whether it is junk or whether it is in pretty good condition or might have some sentimental value to someone. Isn't there some TV show where people buy the abandoned contents of storage lockers at auction sight unseen because the contents might reveal something of value? For U-Haul to simply cart everything off to the dump is criminal. They had the customer's credit card info, they could have charged them to put the stuff in storage or they could have auctioned it off. Another thing to consider is that U-Haul is really a franchise business. I suspect one franchisee doesn't communicate much with other franchisees. The offending U-Haul franchisee probably was a little too eager to get a truck to rent out which made them cut corners and not do their due diligence. But I see the hotel having liability here. They took money for the use of a parking spot. U-Haul has liability here, both criminal (theft) and civil.
Multiple people should absolutely be fired and made to pay the damages. Even if they empty the damn truck, put the stuff aside so that you can either secure it for someone who may call for it or donate it after some specified time period. This is such a stupid way to screw yourself and your company over.
The entire point of a corporation is to keep the owners out of jail. Look at what LLC stands for- Limited Liability Company, it's how the wealthy cover their asses.
@@cornballmcgoo7174 And this is why these things keep happening. Nobody is ultimately responsible for their decisions. If people started going to jail, companies would have better procedures. Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. These days negligence is an excuse for everything. That's the opposite of how society should work.
I have some momentos that belonged to my parents, namely some stools with my parent's names on them. These were decorated by a beloved Aunt who has passed on. Technically they are not worth a great amount for the paint and materials but are priceless heirlooms that cannot ever be replaced.
its interesting when you said look around your house and i looked over and saw my Patrick Stewart poster that I had him sign in comic con personally where i met him. Then you pointed to your signed poster. You are right. The poster can be replaced and I can buy another signed poster on e bay for like 1200 dollars but my signed poster has a story behind it and how I got it. I even have a pic of him signing it for me.
UHaul should be totally 100% responsible for contents.....also a prorated refund for the days that the truck was erroneously repossessed. And sounds like some of the boxes were "repacked." Those employees need to be subjected to a lie detector test .....
Prorated refund? Lol. The should give them a full refund and then some just for the hassle. Of course that's in addition to covering the cost of the missing contents. Having to retrieve my belongings from a dump is not what I expect when I rent a U-Haul.
I think there's something sketchy going on here, even if the U-Haul was repoed U-Haul has tons of storage facilities, I feel like someone along the line would have realized there's value and not have sent all of their belongings to a dump, instead putting them in storage, or even just auctioning them off
As a maintenance man in student housing i can attest that many of my coworkers are lining up outside apartments when the students move out so they can grab anything of value that was left behind. A few guys have even been fired for taking things before residents fully moved out. There is no doubt that uhaul employees did the same thing with the contents of this truck. In their minds its all going in the trash anyways.
@@DanknDerpyGamer it is very much so, but theres plenty to go around, no need to hover over students like vultures and taking things before the residents have moved out. Some people just start getting greedy.
Lol, I love your out-tro at the end of the video. Lock-out message: "If you think no one cares about you,... try missing a couple payments." Very clever,... great truisms!
I can guarantee that at least one person has a whole bunch of their stuff from that U-Haul in their possession now! Hmm, hotel, U-Haul or both? My guess is that someone at the holiday inn knows somebody who works at that U-Haul!
Sounds like the situation from casino. Someone at the hotel gives u haul a call. U haul thieves take the possessions and gives a few bucks to the person at the hotel.
Not to educated if you do not actual search to get the full story. "Following media reports on Wednesday of an apparent moving truck theft in Clearwater, our local management team investigated. What we learned is that a truck rented by the Brown family, which was on a valid contract, was mistakenly identified as abandoned equipment and repossessed by our local team on Sept. 2. This was the result of human error stemming from a clerical mistake in our system that listed the same equipment number on a separate active contract in another state. The contract with the clerical mistake was referenced when the equipment was spotted in a Clearwater hotel lot, leading a local Team Member to believe it had been abandoned. The Browns’ equipment and possessions were held at a U-Haul rental location for 10 days, from Sept. 2 to Sept. 12, while our team tried unsuccessfully to reach the customer on the contract. Unfortunately, our team was referencing the incorrect contract and attempting to contact the incorrect customer. U-Haul management has been in contact with the Brown family. Our U-Haul Company of Clearwater president visited the family on Thursday morning to deliver several boxes of personal contents that were kept when their larger items were disposed. Our Company intends to do right by the Brown family and make them whole for our mistake and the possessions they lost. This was an extremely rare and regrettable series of events for which we take full responsibility. We have offered our sincerest apologies to the Browns, and we thank them for their understanding."
It sounds like they had no place to move into but if they were still within their rental agreement. U-Haul appears to be in a heap of trouble. U-Haul would have been pleased to rent them a a storage unit (sometimes they will even give a free month rental of the storage unit as an incentive for the truck rental.)
Even if they didn't want to move it into a storage unit and back into the truck once they found a place, a lot of storage places with rent out a place to park within the secured facility for stuff like RVs and boats. Probably would have been a better option than an open parking lot just for the fact that thieves could easily get in. Still on U-Haul in this situation to make it right, however.
This past Spring I rented a U-Haul truck for the day. Within 1/2 hour of leaving the location I received 4 or more text messages from them (copies of my contract, emergency road service numbers, etc.). The last text message from them was warning me not to text and drive. Great advice......SO STOP TEXTING ME.
Interesting. the couples insurance company should have called up U-Haul, "You going to pay for that ? With damages ?" "Nope" "Okay, We are filing a lawsuit, our first discovery claims are going to be for you company policy on repossessing vehicles during rental periods. Does it say contact the customer ? Did you try and contact the customer ? Oh by the way the damages went up because our legal fees are included"
Ooh, imagine that discovery process. I imagine they'd get a real real nice out of court settlement quickly given how obvious it is that their items were (illegally) sorted through and looted. Grand Theft. So, UHaul, our legal team happened to notice your employees have our client's couch and chairs...
Insurance companies don’t ask for damages beyond their clients losses that they(insurance company) are responsible for. They would pay for the contents and then send the bill for the expenses paid to U-Haul. There’s literally no chance U-Haul wouldn’t immediately pay the subrogation demand from the insurance company. (Keep in mind every major insurance company’s subrogation department will already have a working relationship with U-Haul’s loss department. Typically the insurance companies are paying U-Haul for their client’s damaging trucks instead of the other way around. But both companies will have an interest in maintaining a good relationship…)
They always messing up in Florida. Keep going. Never stop. Keep that rental truck rolling. I used to pickup vehicles from U haul for resale. So many lots were like chop shops. I would never rent from U haul
Sounds like U-Haul is run by the same people who rent cars to you and then have you arrested months later. They should really have to pay through the nose for throwing away somebody's irreplaceable property.
I wonder - did the hotel call the Police, or did they call U-Haul direct and report the vehicle. I suspect that they called U-Haul - and that is a problem in itself since there would be no police report about an abandoned vehicle in that case. Someone further up the food chain at the hotel may need to answer a few questions as well in my opinion since the couple had paid for parking there and assumed that the truck would be secure.
Considering the Sheriff's department, in conjunction with the local news, released the details of the truck to the public and asked if anyone knows about it to contact the sheriff's dept. I'd say the police were never called by the hotel.
I work in hotel security and one of the things I am always trying to convey to staff when dealing with found property or items left unattended is that value is relative. Just because it doesn't appear to have value to you it doesn't mean it doesn't have value to someone else.
The sad part is stories like this and similar (Hertz, Avis, U-Haul, etc) just cause you not to want to do business with them out of concern that next time, it will be you that ends up in such a story.
@@GodwynDi It is sad due to the fact many people need the service and use it. Not all of them have many other options. U-Haul has the name and service that open the door for people to use that service, even if it is under a false comfort. But with the rise of moving companies that turn out to be similar in taking someone's stuff and not returning it, U-Haul is supposed to offer you the power to have control of your own stuff. When you consider the stolen U-Haul issue that recently happened in Las Vegas and now this one, it begs the question how many more are out there that we don't know and how do the statistics look for how trustworthy the service is. Then the next question is: Will there be a service to replace it, if it turns out to be truly statistically unreliable.
Sounds like it literally was stolen. It's contracted to the couple. It belonged to them for that duration. U-Haul stole it from them along with all the possessions.
Those items were the couples' most prized possessions. My parents, us three kids, our toy poodle and our collie all moved to Florida from West Virginia with my Dad's pickup and my Mom driving "the uhaul." We already had to get rid of most of our stuff. We only kept the important stuff. Only the important stuff fit. We had to part with everything else. We would have been crushed! Those are people's lifetime possessions. It's not auctioning off an abandoned storage locker. Uhaul must be taught a lesson. It must be significant enough for them to learn from.
Every time I’ve paid for long term parking at a hotel. There has been a separate register for the paid for parking. Along with some sort of receipt to place on the dash. So I’m wondering if this was one hundred percent uhaul’s fault.
I'm an AFM for Uhaul and Uhaul is not in anyway going to go after a truck if it's still under contract, if they go over there date estimate then we start calling and sending emails, if nothing after 3 days, its reported stolen, and even then once its recovered, all items on said Uhaul has to go to the nearest Uhaul storage unit and be stored for 30 days, they are then notified again of this and if nothing after 30 days, the unit gets auctioned off. Even if it was a biohazard situation, Uhaul will call someone like Servpro to come and clean it, no one at Uhaul would ever be allowed to take anything to a dump. More than likely (since i see this daily) they never got permission to leave it sitting where it was located, and then lost it when they came back to found it missing, if i was betting, or they got their belongings stolen from the truck and they didn't get insurance with it and this is how they are trying to get some money out of it.
I'd be surprised that U-Haul wouldn't be liable for destroying all the couples possessions. Likewise, the couple's homeowners insurance should cover their possessions regardless of it being in the U-Haul. I can't wait to see the outcome, of this story! SHAME ON U-HAUL! 😮😬🤬 george 😎🤿🦈🐙🇺🇲 TEXAS
Since they were moving, they may not have had an active homeowners policy. U-Haul is on the hook for this because they seized the truck during the term of the rental and disposed of all their belongings and made no attempt to contact the renters.
Depends on technical you want to get; it could easily be Grand Theft Auto, grand larceny/ theft in excess of $10,000, breach of contract, criminal negligence, trespassing, etcetera..
My parents and sister were moving cross country with a trailer when the truck broke down in Des Moines. They arranged to store the trailer in a fenced yard next to a police department. They got the truck fixed and went to pick up the trailer only to find out that someone else had come in and taken the trailer the day before. Everything was taken and on top of that insurance company didn't honor the catalog established when getting the policy. They gave us less than half, pulling us into poverty overnight. I was a senior in high school and had some basic research skills, located some of the stuff on the market in the area. But I didn't have the guts I have now and didn't pursue it, just resigned to moving on. My parents took it much harder
Your parents likely disclosed that the purpose for hurrying with the truck repair was to get their trailer next to the police department, or one of the cops stole it.
I've rented U-Haul trucks involving two state to state moves. Both fit into a CF situation. First one: moved from Pittsburgh, PA to Rapid City, SD. Got a flat tire less than 5 miles from home, and yes we had checked the tire pressure minutes before we left. We waited over 8 hours on the side of the PA Turnpike for them to change the tire. Five times I traveled to the next exit to call and be told they would be there very shortly. Lost almost a whole day driving. Our intended driving was to be west of Chicago for the night. Barely made Gary, IN before we had to stop due to exhaustion. Second time, I was moving from Cheyenne, WY back to Pittsburgh with a stop north of Chicago to take my nieces Trick or Treating. Our stop was to be in Omaha, NE for the night, get into my brothers early enough to do the Trick or Treating. Want a way to make God laugh, tell him your plans. We limped into Omaha on a bad generator and a drained battery. Called for a repair at 6:00 PM and they said to leave the keys with the front desk and it would be fixed by 8:00 am. Perfect if they would have come through. At 7:00 am, I checked and no repair. I called and they said someone was on the way. And I called at 8:00 am, 9:00 am, 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 12:00 pm, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, and someone finally showed up shortly before 3:00 pm. They said they just got the call. Of course, we missed the Trick or Treating with my nieces. The irony was that there was an auto parts store across the road and the truck was full of tools and I spent 12 years in the Air Force teaching maintenance.. They kept on saying not to touch the engine as someone was on the way. I never, ever trust them again. I only use them for one day short hauls if nothing else is available. Period!
I had a truck break down (clutch was bad) about 13 miles from the destination. A tow truck came and towed it to the destination and we had to unload it immediately, still attached to the truck because U-haul was being billed for the tow truck while we unloaded it. We had paid for an extra day to have time to unload.
I guarantee you the uhaul employees went through their stuff and took what they wanted.
Hard to believe they don't have an entire corpo policy setup to deal with property left in a van beyond "it went to the dump".
At the end he mentions the couple went to the dump and found some of theur things... Mixed into the wrong boxes. Items dont re-sort themselves at the dump. Someone was searching and stealing.
and I wouldn't be surprised if the clerk they paid to park it just pocketed that cash and that's why no one knew it was to be there.
@@PilgrimBangs I'm thinking the same. I bet they never got any paperwork.
Premeditatedly
Frankly, even making the mistake of picking up the uhaul early, just out and out dumping as trash someone's packed belongings when the vehicle is still under the contracted rental time is inexcusable.
@peregrine1970 this whole story by Uhaul sounds fishy, there was another moving company that pulled the very same scam. But it was the company employees stealing the movers property and holding it hostage for a absurd storage
fee...🤔
@@madmaximilian5783
Sounds like BS. The truck is full of property and so they just dump everything without thinking, "Hmmm, maybe this is somebody's stuff that they want?" More likely, they knew what they were looking for, picked through the stuff, took what they want, and then dumped the rest.
Yeah the equivalent would be if a kid was dropped off at school and the parents notified the teacher that they’ll be running late to pick up the kid after school, but when a janitor sees the kid waiting after school in the cafeteria, he calls up CPS to have the kid taken away and is immediately adopted by another family.
@@madmaximilian5783 U-Haul should owe this couple all new stuff.
@@1Outis1 sadly you cant replace every
What gets me here, let's propose it WAS abandoned. They made no effort apparently to contact the renters. They made no effort to retain the goods inside knowing it was rented. Like WTF?! This is not just a F up, this is extreme negligence.
At best it was extreme negligence.
At worst it was a crime. Wait for someone to load up a rented truck with their valuables. Take the truck and all its values under the guise of 'repossession'. Sell everything in that truck for profit. And pretend it's the customer's fault for abandonment.
I work as a mover helper for the u boxes when we go to a call to pick up a U-Box add a U-Haul facility that's either empty or full you box they would tell us 10% at a time that it's at another location they moved it to another location further away than it's supposed to be other times they don't have forklift operators so I see where the mistake is made by U-Haul U-Haul needs to get their act together because they dropped the ball on more than one occasion
I bet someone has their belongings
The company has explained that they had a clerical error, and tried contacting the customer for almost two weeks. Unfortunately, due to the mixup, it was the wrong customer. So after the (wrong) customer failed to respond, they dumped its contents.
@@sloppyjoes7Dang. Ben I’m trying to start a rumor.
Steve, U Haul also failed to meet its obligations under Florida law as pertains to abandoned property. Since these goods clearly were of value, they would be required to inventory them, store them and make attempts to notify the owner. Obviously, they didn't do this. U-Haul is on the hook for all of this.
§ 715.10 won't apply to a truck rental but 705 sure would.
705.102 Reporting lost or abandoned property.-
(1) Whenever any person finds any lost or abandoned property, such person shall report the description and location of the property to a law enforcement officer.
(2) The law enforcement officer taking the report shall ascertain whether the person reporting the property wishes to make a claim to it if the rightful owner cannot be identified or located. If the person does wish to make such claim, he or she shall deposit with the law enforcement agency a reasonable sum sufficient to cover the agency’s cost for transportation, storage, and publication of notice. This sum shall be reimbursed to the finder by the rightful owner should he or she identify and reclaim the property.
(3) It is unlawful for any person who finds any lost or abandoned property to appropriate the same to his or her own use or to refuse to deliver the same when required.
(4) Any person who unlawfully appropriates such lost or abandoned property to his or her own use or refuses to deliver such property when required commits theft as defined in s. 812.014, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
It wasn't abandoned.
@@Roddy556 Yes but if they believe it was abandoned then they should follow the law.
And if it wasn't abandoned and they believe it wasn't then other laws apply when it comes to take people's belongings.
Most jurisdictions have laws about handling property "believed to be abandoned." Most require storage for a period of time while "good faith" attempts are made to locate the owner. Failure to do so might be considered theft or conversion of property.
I think you're spot on.
That was my thought too.
It's FL, land of corporate protection. The people don't matter.
@@angelogallo7929 Do you live in Florida? We’re you raised there? Did someone kidnap you and take you there?
Just wondering because I’m really getting tired of the interstate hate games on both sides. I really do not care anymore about the laws in states that don’t affect me. And when I’m at my vacation home where I chose to buy in spite of their policies, I stay out of there nonsense there as much as I can afford to.
May I suggest it’s a better way to live for everyone?
705.102 Reporting lost or abandoned property.-
(1) Whenever any person finds any lost or abandoned property, such person shall report the description and location of the property to a law enforcement officer.
(2) The law enforcement officer taking the report shall ascertain whether the person reporting the property wishes to make a claim to it if the rightful owner cannot be identified or located. If the person does wish to make such claim, he or she shall deposit with the law enforcement agency a reasonable sum sufficient to cover the agency’s cost for transportation, storage, and publication of notice. This sum shall be reimbursed to the finder by the rightful owner should he or she identify and reclaim the property.
(3) It is unlawful for any person who finds any lost or abandoned property to appropriate the same to his or her own use or to refuse to deliver the same when required.
(4) Any person who unlawfully appropriates such lost or abandoned property to his or her own use or refuses to deliver such property when required commits theft as defined in s. 812.014, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
This sounds like both Breach of Contract and Grand Theft to me. The first for taking back the rental vehicle while it was still under rental contract, the second for taking all the belongings with the truck. I don't care what they did with everything in the truck, it wasn't theirs and they took it without permission, almost certainly far above the limit for Grand Theft. The fact that their boxes that they found had apparently been opened and re-organized heavily suggests they were also inventoried and SOME things were kept by SOMEONE.
And before someone says the Grand Theft will just be another fine to the company, I suggest some state attorney open a Grand Jury investigation, subpoena ALL communications around the repossession, arrest the people who issued the order (unless they have clear indication it was a computer error) and any higher ups who told them to do so. Only settle for a MAJOR fine if all evidence indicates that this was a computer glitch or the like.
A number of companies have been caught doing things like this, rental companies, car dealerships, banks, storage facilities, etc. It will keep up until the people doing it start going to prison. A company as big as U-Haul could be fined for millions of dollars and they'd shrug and do nothing.
yes
I agree with the sentiment. That said, every U-Haul truck I've ever rented has a big sticker on it with a phone number to be used to report abandoned equipment. So let's say that someone called the number and reported the truck, but didn't report any associated ID numbers. All they gave was a location and said that the truck had been there for a period of several days, and if the caller was a hotel manager, they asked U-Haul to remove it. In that circumstance, those at the start of the chain of events on U-Haul's part were acting on good faith. The problem comes when a crew shows up to take possession of the truck, and they don't then check the numbers, and they dispose of the contents of the truck. Definitely some systemic issues there, but not everyone involved was criminally negligent.
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@@TheRealScooterGuy this was simple legalized robbery by a band of thieves.
If they are SMART, they will offer the couple MUCHO $$$ to settle (like 100X whatever their stuff was worth, LOL!)!
I’ve rented uHauls lots of times in the last 5 years. I’ve had them contact me about returning the truck early. I rented it for 24 hours and they say we want it back before that. I’m like.. no I’m going to need it the full time. They say.. but we have customers that need that truck… I say.. yea.. me.. the one who already paid for it.
wtf? really? Are they that desperate for money?!?!?!?
@@Voorhees-Jason dude. They really pressed hard after that… and I was like.. look I’m balls deep in the apartment relocation.. I’ll return it when I’m don’t with it
The first question to U-Haul would be "What's it worth to get it back early?"
@@DotTom if they wanted it that bad, they should have sent some guys to help with the unloading. At their expense of course.
Y Haul is a SH-T business, that's been my experience. Now this.... more evidence.
"You can write a 6 figure check now, or more figures after the jury hears what happened." This one is likely to settle pretty quick.
U-haul don-t give a crap. They just call the lawyers and tell them to fight it. There wont be a settlement until after the law suite. U-Haul are heartless a-holes.
Agreed that’s what needs to happen
@@furyofbongos at least mid . . . .
7
That was a theft. Uhaul employees stole and kept the things they wanted. Tossed the rest.
Yup. All the TV's and electronics you can find at the managers house. They clearly searched the contents and kept a good portion of them and then put the rest into boxes and took them to the dump.
@@catt8111 Yeah, hard to believe they dumped EVERYTHING
It doesn't even pass the smell test. Is UHaul suggesting they have people just go cruising and pick up random rented trucks they find based on an assumption made with zero research? They didn't check to see if it was still in rental. They made no effort to contact anyone. Even when they found that it was still loaded and operational (meaning that there would have been no reason for abandonment), they still didn't do either of those two. Then they made no effort to inventory the property, as is probably required by law.
This is disgusting! Please do an update when you find out how much they got suing both Uhual and the Hotel.
And if they lose can someone publicise the names of the workers? That way if theyre nearby someone capable and willing to apply street justice can have a better chance of recognizing them.
Everything about this is outrageous. How was the hotel renting the place to park it that there was no record? U haul not calling the customer while the truck was still being rented? Bizarre. Criminal.
U-Haul had a GPS locator on the truck, a set of spare keys or door lock code and just came and took it. They didn't ask they just took.
What would the hotel have to do with this?
@@atticstattic If the hotel was paid, they could be considered partly responsible.
@@Newokie59
Whether they got paid or not, they don't have the rental records.
Not U-Hauls records, but they would have their records of rented parking spaces. Or they should have!
What terrifies me is, what if this was a missing persons case? What if there was actual foul play involved and the renter of said 'abandoned' U-haul was killed or kidnapped. Does U-haul make it a practice to just tamper with or destroy evidence in any unusual circumstances they find their vehicle in? Especially circumstances where vehicles appear abandoned before the actual expiration date of its lease?
Excellent point.
@@AAFREAK I came here to say this.
Of course not. Just the local u-haul people are corrupt and stole property. This is not standard procedure.
Glad this comment is here because it was my thought.
Unless it is in the contract they had a duty to secure the load and contact the customer. Yes they could charge them ridiculous rates. Now I think U-Haul should pay ten times the replacement costs of all the items.
Even if the contract allows them to dispose of abandoned items in trucks, there is no rational way to label it abandoned lacking extreme supporting evidence, especially mid-rental. Even if they had been parking at the motel illegally, that is still not ‘abandoned’.
For U-Haul to grab the truck and dispose of their property mid-rental is just straight theft. The company collectively, and any employee involved individually, should be on the hook both civilly and criminally.
And even if Uhaul had the right to repo the vehicle (they did not), why not sell the items to recoup their costs?
@@anonymouse14 💯
Put them in prison, they keep getting away with this shit like their name is Sam Hyde
There is, and Steve discusses, the possibility that the hotel told Uhaul the truck was abandoned on their property and needed to be removed. Which could spread the blame. A few phone calls on Uhaul's part should have cleared up the issue prevented the loss instead of assuming the hotel accurately reported the vehicle as abandoned. Somebody should get fired, and checks will be written.
@@RupertMDoc well, he more speculated that the hotel may have had an employer that reported it to the police. Even then, the only evidence they would reasonably have is that it might be illegally parked. U-Haul would have no reason from being illegally parked to believe abandoned in the middle of a paid rental period.
Reminds me of the Rathbun Realty debacle in Tuscon. They managed rental properties and were in the process of evicting a tenant. The tenant went to rent a truck and get some help moving out. When he got back to the house, everything he owned was gone. When he asked where his stuff was, Rathbun Realty told him they took it all to the dump. He apparently had antiques, collectibles, original art of some value. He sued, but as they where going through that process, Rathbun came under investigation for financial irregularities. I think there was major embezzlement going on. If I remember right, the FBI eventually got involved, and the company went bankrupt. I always figured Rathbun had stolen the guy's stuff and sold it. When I hear about cases like this one with U-Haul, I figure someone in the local office is skimming cash and needed to steal these people's things to sell to cover up their embezzlement.
This is a grotesque act of negligence. Like you've said, some things just can't be replaced.
negligence?! lol This is criminal intent.All was done hush hush.
So grotesque that I am very suspicious, that whoever took it back stole many of the items.
U-haul has come out and claimed full responsibility. their story is they "repoed" the truck on sept 2nd due to a clerical error saying the trucks number was under contract in another state. they attempted to contact that person under that contract for 10 days before burning the possessions. since the family contacted the police and probably u-haul on the 4th i dont understand why this didnt turn on some light bulbs for the local u-haul. u-haul also said their possessions were incinerated not just tossed but some how the 5 boxes that they did find were saved??? but the contents of one of the boxes returned had stuff from 4 other boxes in it implying someone went through all their stuff took what they wanted and burned the rest.
Bet you dollars to donuts that these Uhaul employees went thru thier stuff and cherrypicked the most valuable things out..
Incineration conveniently erases any evidence..
Uhaul F- ed up CRIMINALLY !
A few greedy operators like these are going to destroy Uhauls reputation- and cash flow for all Uhaul operators..😬
@@aaronhumphrey2009 no doubt in my mind thats whay happened or something similar. its either that or they kept the stuff they said they "incinerated" that way they dont have to return it and no one will be looking for it and tossed the stuff they did actually returned because it was worthless and easier to throw away.
Where did it say they burned it?
@@mybraineatseverything7404 it's part of their response if you Google it they admit this
That’s weird .
there is a contract U-Haul makes everyone sign plus there is their phone numbers, U-Haul didn’t even make a attempt to call the people on the contract. U-Haul would be liable because they failed on any attempts to contact this couple.
Nor did U-Haul check with the company that owns the parking lot of they knew the situation with the truck. Hotels ask for you plate number and vehicle info so they know what vehicles should be there unless it is for a visitor of a guest
It's St Louis. U-haul had probably worked out this plan from the beginning. Everyone in that city is running scams and hustles, even supposed legitimate businesses. This exact story happened to me with Enterprise in St Louis, except instead of tossing my belongings, the Enterprise employees went through my stuff and took whatever they wanted. Bastards.
@@OmniscientWarrior And they would have in their records those plates for guests of the past. That is data I guarantee they keep since information = money since they can sell it later.
the company truck was on another contract out of state with a different number. u-haul tried to contact the wrong number
@@MrIrishalley, got any evidence to support that claim? U-haul would have a record (the rental contract) of who had rented that truck, and how to contact them.
Claiming they “tried to contact the wrong people” is a pretty pathetic excuse.
This hurts my heart to hear.. Family stuff, pictures, personal items.. I still have my late father's guitar that I've always moved with me from place to place. I'd be utterly heartbroken to hear if it was thrown out for something so ridiculous. I feel for that couple. I hope UHaul does their best to make them whole. A LOT OF MONEY would be a great place to start.
they should be forced to pay the family $10k for every item that cannot be replaced
Also some firings and maybe even ARRESTS
It's not just the value of the belongings, it's that they were _their_ belongings. Between the irreplaceable items, sentimental value, and the insane number of hours it would take to even try to locate and purchase all of those things, they deserve ten times more than the value. On top of that, I don't even know where I would begin trying to itemize all of my belongings. I would probably be thinking of things for years that I didn't remember until I needed and didn't have.
Having had the experience of a bunch of stuff going missing in multiple moves, you're absolutely right about not remembering stuff until years later when you realize you need it and don't have it.
Guess I'll be making manifest when I move.
Not to mention such things as photos, mementos, and personal private information.
You don't need to itemize. Doesn't matter how expensive
Simply theft. You demand 1 million dollars as punishment and penalty for the intentional crime.
Why?! Conversion gives 3x the value (see other SL videos) Then add emotional distress, and all the other psychological stuff for losing dear family mementos of your poor ol' "insert dead relative"
I am in a unusual position, having spent years moving while in the military, and while homeless, and have nothing left considered sentimental . Now that I am older and live by myself, I just have the bare necessities. But I still feel bad for the family.
I think it is VERY good that they went to the dump to try and retrieve what they could. Besides any actual retrieval, I believe this shows they tried to "mitigate" their loss. I believe that effort will look good to a judge and perhaps make the judge even more sympathetic. Of course, this travesty may already have most judges at maximum sympathy for the victims anyway within what they can do. But it might make it more likely to just accept the dollar amount claim and ignore any alternative lower amount U-Haul might argue.
They only went to the dump to make it look like they had done something. They wouldn't have been able to recover anything in a usable condition and they knew it.
@@scottlemiere2024 There is no way they could have known ahead of time whether anything was, or was not, salvageable. It is impossible to know what they "knew". If you were making that argument in a court, there would be two objections, and both would easily, even automatically, be upheld. The first is trying to present "facts not in evidence." There could have not have been evidence known at the time of the condition. The second is trying to state what is in the mind of somebody else. A judge probably wouldn't even let you get away with that in an opening or closing statement which has somewhat more latitude. They are simply too far outside of the law.
Yes, it also helps to prove that UHaul lied and they actually went through their stuff and stole a bunch of it. I'm pretty sure this is not the first time they've done this either.
Somehow, I am skeptical that ALL their stuff ended up in the dump. At least the most valuable items may have ended up in the hands of the person or persons who picked up the truck, telling their employer that it was all dumped.
@@charlesyoung7436 Same here. I spent a night of good cop / bad cop because they stopped my Black Ford E-150 Cargo Van instead of the Brown Dodge Tradesman Cargo Van they had a search order for and an arrest order for two people who were allegedly driving the van while trafficking 40 lbs of METH. Needless to say, I lost about $620 in cash, had a back injury made worse once bad cop saw my surgical scar, and I lost the most valuable contents of the van. [ Note: When bad cop noticed my surgical scar due to having my back broken by a drunk driver on the third strip search, he struck me with a mag light until I passed out I was moving across the country.]
I would think that another red flag for U-Haul would be that the truck was still fully loaded. Assuming the contents amounted to more than a leaky bean bag chair and a kitchen broom, that would call into question whether the vehicle was really abandoned.
From some things that I heard, it gets worse than that.
There's apparently a situation with a lot of the UHaul and similar companies where people will steal them and hide them to ransom them back to the people who's stuff is in it...so, beyond everything else, it's a problem there as well
Between this and all the rental car arrests, someone needs to be sued into oblivion to send a message that if a “computer glitch” messes up someone’s life there will be serious consequences
John. I'm not a computer tech, but a good friend of mine is a computer science professor. I asked him if computers could make an error like this. His answer was a flat out NO. Computers only know what is programmed into them. A file can become corrupt, but not change field information to make the data change. This f-up is human error. Plain and simple. And someone has to pay for this family's horrific loss. And, I believe, punitive damages should apply in a case like this. Comments?
@@BubbaBubbinski What I really meant was an error caused by someone’s blind and lazy dependence on what was in a computer database. The problem started with poor programming or a data entry error. You are correct that a computer will only do what you tell it to do. The old saying is “Garbage in, Garbage out”
@@jmpattilloAgreed. Sorry I misunderstood. I was preaching to the choir. 😁
I used to work at U-Haul and we have a system that you can access anywhere to see if its rented or not.... It should have been an easy check online or call the store it was last... Huge mess up from that store.
Depending on who coordinated the repo recovery, it generally involves the closest store where it will be towed to or the nearest Uhaul Repair shop for that area and whatever local towing company that particular area uses specifically. The ID# on the truck would have been ran to check for a legal contract to see if it was past due, and generally if the party is beyond their return date and time, someone from from U-Haul would have contacted them as soon as they showed late to find out when they planned on returning the truck either from the store it was expected to originally be returned to or the Marketing Company that tracks vehicles in and out of a particular area, if they needed more time they could purchase additional days and avoid any hassle. They would have tried 2 telephone numbers and left voice mail messages and the email address on the contract if any were unsuccessful. Any vehicle outside of contract with no contact with renter can be assumed stolen and uhaul can take back possession and all contents therein. Worst case and ideal scenario the truck would have been towed back to a facility, lock cut, pictures taken with the door open and all the belongings would have been placed into a storage room at the U-Haul facility with the first month free, and stored until someone claimed ownership...if nobody claims possession, they get auctioned off after several months of no payment. For it to end up at a dump is highly suspicious...
The least there should be is a procedure to notify possible owners and give them some time before repossessing it. Not doing so is pretty careless, if not negligent
Likely it has a component of nefariousness.
According to U-Haul, they did hold it for 10 days. Here's the issue: they spent the whole time trying to reach the WRONG owners due to whatever "clerical error" that was.
It was absolutely TOTALLY negligent. I've rented from U-Haul before, and I've never had any problems. But in this case, U-Haul should be sued and should have to pay at least triple damages. This is so flamingly outrageous that it defies description.
@@NoirTheSable That's interesting and raises more questions. I wonder how they got the name ID/contact wrong AND the wrong identifiers on the U-Haul? Also within 10 days they still couldn't get to the bottom of it assuming ALL the paperwork was useless, like how many abandon trucks do they deal with in that area?
it is squarely negligent.
I'm going through that emotionally right now. Everything I had was destroyed by water. All I have now is what I had in my RV and car. All my baby pictures, the quilts my mother made for me. What Get a me through this emotionally is thinking about all the people who loose everything in the fires and then I know I'm not alone in this.
Not calling the renters and disposing the property without so much as a damn phone call is borderline criminal
Not borderline. They stole it, took what they wanted, and then called it an "oops".
@@nunya3163 Uuhaul stole the truck. The rental time means it is that couple's truck until the rental expires. IT WAS THE COUPLES TRUCK with all intent and purposes. If any of us went in there and took that truck without permission and took their stuff, we would be in jail!
It is criminal!
It is also a violation of the contract
When your corporate overlords take from you it's a mistake. God forbid you forget to bring the U-Haul back then they're going to get the cops to shoot you and your dog.
I have had bad experiences with U-Haul, but this story reminds me of when I was staying at a hotel in Santa Rosa, California because I had to go to a dentist there. I left, came back, and parked in the parking lot. Seconds later, a man in uniform was banging on my window. I was terrified and called the front desk. They said it was their security guard and my license plate hadn't been put in the system yet. I had checked in at 2pm and it was like 9:30pm or so and dark. They told me to roll down my window and tell him I was allowed to be there. I said no way, the guy is screaming and I think he will beat me up. They ultimately radioed the guy and said to leave me alone. But seriously, what if I didn't have a cell phone? What you said about stuff being irreplaceable strikes a nerve. What if it was a computer, phone, or hard drive? Those devices can contain lifetimes of important photos, videos, or documents that are not backed up anywhere else and a lot of insurance policies specifically don't cover loss of "data" which includes all of that. Never put all your eggs in one basket, always take photos of everything you put in the moving truck and have a backup of all digital data elsewhere.
I once borrowed a company truck for a few weeks from another company location a few hundred miles away and parked it in our shared parking lot with several other businesses, using it occasionally. After a week or so the landlord noticed that a vehicle he didn't recognize was parked and not leaving at night or on weekends. Rather than contact each of the (three) businesses to see if they knew anything about the truck, he assumed it had been stolen and/or abandoned and called the police. I don't remember the details about how it was straightened out, but that it did involve several police departments and a sheepish and apologetic landlord. 😀
Landlord at an apartment had my car towed because I didn't have a parking sticker. I was never given one. Had the records showing I had been paying for my parking spot regularly, and car was on file.
Typical landlord activity
After an unforgivable screw up by U-Haul in my own life years ago on top of repeatedly bad experiences and badly maintained equipment I consider them an absolute last resort for any rental. On the other hand, I have had only good experiences with Penske.
I had a family emergency once and had to leave the state for 30 days. Rent was paid up ahead of time and we had the neighbors watching our dog. When we got back my liquor, vacuum, and tv was gone. Everything else was still there... a couple days later I was in the property managers office to see if he knew anything and saw everything that was missing including empty liquor bottles. Needless to say his excuse was he thought we moved out because he didn't see us for a while. My lease was in good standing, and the property manager couldn't keep his sticky fingers to himself when he saw property just sitting there. I bet someone from UHAUL saw an opportunity for some flat screens, guns, coins, and jewelry.
Did you take both his kneecaps as payment or just one?
Did you have him arrested on the spot?
Wow, it doesn't get any scummier than that property manager... I hope he got arrested and sued for such activity. That's burglary, breaking and entering, theft, transportation of stolen property, and probably more.
Yeah, what happened?
I'd have beaten him senseless until he got detached retinas. God, I hate a freaking thief.
As a former U-Haul ASM & CSR who has done repossession of stolen and abandoned equipment, I was taught you never touch the equipment if it was on valid contract. Even when we would take possession of a truck or trailer with belongings in it that was past the contract due date, after calling the numbers on file for several days, we secured the truck with the belongings in it. I believe the belongings had to be secured for 30 days, but I really don't remember as it never took more than 1-2 days for the customer to show up.
Additionally, if you are returning or going to a different location matters, it will determine the truck you get. The one way fleet is the newer equipment, lessening the chances of a break down outside of city limits. If you're heading north, you'd typically get an unleaded truck instead of a diesel (they were trying to phase diesel out 20 years ago, maybe they have by now). If the truck you get happens to have license plates that will expire soon, they are en route to that location, and if the truck goes one way, they have to play catch up. In town fleet, have more miles, and may break down more frequently, but tow service is close by. The centers (U-Haul only, not also another business) know their units, and can diagnose over the phone sometimes, they also know the damage (scrapes and dings), and typically have a dolly and pads in the back that you can opt to use (additional fee).
No I'm not paid to write this, no I do not work for them any longer, and the opinions and statements are mine, and mine alone, they do not represent the U-Haul company.
The biggest problem is that U-Haul should have contacted the customer before dumping the contents of the truck.
'Willful negligence' anyone?
Also, breach of contract. They retrieved the truck early without contacting the customer.
wouldnt surprise me if they put something in the contract that lets uhaul cancel it at any time. companies love to do stuff like that unfortunately.
Something nefarious was a foot.
@@ZE0XE0 Even if there was. U-Haul would have to give notice and have legal obligation dealing with the property inside. Hate to be U-Haul's lawyer explaining that DURING the rental agreement timeframe, that they knowingly disposed of property to Judge/Jury.
The biggest problem is they stole the truck from the renter. They need to be prosecuted.
"breach of contract"
Oh, you didn't get the memo? Contracts only apply to you!
Seems fairly obvious unless "whoops" has somehow become a legal defense. UHaul stole their belongings and destroyed them as well as violating the terms of the rental agreement that the two parties had come to. Likely there was some arbitration language regarding them breaking the rental agreement, but there's no "you have to go to arbitration if we commit a crime against you" that is going to stand in court.
Even a very basic inquiry would show that the truck was out on a rental. Someone should go to jail.
Was the truck rental still within the time period that they had originally contracted for? Yes.
Does a UHaul rental agreement include contact information for the renter? Yes.
Is this criminal activity on the part of UHaul? Hell yes.
Will UHaul offer a BOATLOAD OF MONEY to settle, YES!
Are you pointing out what was obviously stated? Yes. Ha ha ha
@@treesnmoguls A boatload of money? uhmm I don't think so.
@@johnnybgood2887 I bet UHaul can imagine a pretty small boat for that purpose. Perhaps something that would fit in a Kinder Egg.
U-haul needs to pay.
I live here in Clearwater right down the street from the hotel this happened at and people are putting together donations for these good folks to get them started in the mean time. AS the story is unfolding you are correct as per the local news about the word not getting passed. Now as for the dump that took the stuff to. I have used it many times over the years. The thing you do not know is that it is not a "dump" as you might think. It is actually a recycling kind of center where if you have garden waste you take it to a certain area for composting, if you have metal you take it to another section. And finally anything else left over you back up to a reverse dock (meaning instead of it being raised it is actually a section that is dug out in the ground and they park hoppers in the hole) and as soon as a section of 2 or maybe 3 vehicles are emptied they have a giant scoop tractor that comes along and pushes it into the hoppers.
The hoppers are then loaded on to a waiting truck as they fill and driven up to the combustion turbine where they are burned to make power. This whole process goes on 24 hours a day 7 days a week the only difference is that if you are a garbage truck you skip the hopper section and go straight up the hill to the burner plant. The one and ONLY reason that they would have gotten any of their items back is because there are always 3 men (plus the cat driver) that are always watching you dump and their sole job is to run over if you are dumping an uncustomary item like a dryer or refer and pull it off your stack and take it to the correct recycling area, It is a very safe bet that they saw something in the boxes when they broke open and decided they wanted to keep it or as often happens they set it aside for donation to a charity so it can be recycled again to a needy family. But you can be assured that ANYTHING that was burnable and used to produce heat to run the power generator was gone with in 20 minutes and lost forever.
I would guess that UHAUL will be on the hook 90% and the hotel 10%. Sadly they will never recover 100% of the cost (not value) of the items. We lost part of our house 1 year ago to weather and our insurance after making us jump through hoops and list each and every thing lost and then the cost (not value) of replacement only paid 50 cents on the dollar and we are assured that when we rep[lace an item on the list they will make up the difference because then they can prove the actual COST only. and sadly I am afraid that is what will happen with UHaul also.
I know this will take some time, but eventually I want to know who gets fired and how the victims of these idiocies are made whole.
Anytime someone takes possession of a vehicle like a repo company they are required by law to report that action to the local sheriff department within a very short time. Like 30 min or something.
So first the hotel has a responsibility to ensure its safe if they actually gave permission to park and PAID for the parking. Second, who towed it, and with whos permission.. third U-Haul has a huge responsibility for dumping the belongings from an active rental. They had no right to even open the vack of the truck. Win win for the poor family..
Win win??! You say it as though they went through no loss or hassle. They May get some money in the End, after a legal battle, but they lost ALL, all their belongings.
@@JohnDoe-qz1ql sorry, i meant win win as far as the suit, i understand they lost stuff that can't b replaced and i apologize if that sounded callus.
I'm planning on moving next month. Thanks for helping me narrow down where I go for a truck.
Last year we downsized and had a week between settlement on our old home and settlement on our new home. Our total belongings were also in a couple of moving trucks, *_BUT_* we had the movers park the trucks in a storage establishment. At these places they also have spaces you hire like the lockers, but are like a parking lot to store things like camper vans, boats or horse floats, etc.
I admit we paid through the nose for the total moving service and storage, over AU$10 grand, but the security was well worth the cost.
We're in Australia but I assume there would be similar places in the USA.
Same thing in the US. Lot of self storage places have parking spaces for things like you mentioned.
There are. Most aren't going to have staff at all hours though. If they didn't plan well and got into town late at night they could have trouble.
I used to work for U-haul years ago if we picked up any abandoned equipment it's was taken to one of the shops or moving centers and locked up until they found out what was going on. They never dumped anyone's stuff. So sounds somewhat strange it was dumped.
when I worked for Uhaul, someone stole one of our 27 foot trucks. persons were going to construction sites, stealing materials. 3 months later, we get the call from state police in MD they found Uhaul illegally parked in strip mall parking lot. state police impounded it, found it was reported stolen in PA. we had to go get it, bring it back to PA. PA state troopers meet us at Uhaul storage, they catalogued everything in the truck before we put it in storage.
After my wallet had been stolen, Someone rented a Uhaul with my credit card, I didn’t find out about the rental until I received a collections bill for over $800 after vehicle had been abandoned. Despite successfully disputing the debt and providing a police report, Uhaul will not let me rent from them to this day.
You're better off
They're a terrible fucking company
Competitors gain though.
I’ve never used a U-Haul except for once and that was three popped tires over 100 miles and then they took it back and still charged me I never got to my pick up. Ryder ever since.
Steve, I stumbled across this story at work today, and the article I read is somewhat different than the one you were reporting from. The story I read was that U-Haul accepted full responsibility for mistake and said it was a clerical error on their part. It seems the equipment ID of the truck was on two different contracts and after repossession of the truck they did try contacting the renters, but were contacting the wrong people.
Nobody involved ever bothered to check the records?
That is one serious procedural f up.
Somebody getting fired.
Something nefarious was a foot.
“Somewhere down the crazy river” 🎶 1987. My favorite song from one of my favorite albums.
I've rented U-Hauls quite a lot. A couple of them have been long haul, such as from Alabama to Northern california. I know that the recipient dealers on these kind of long distance hauls are quite happy to get your truck, to add to their fleet. I think that some local dealer saw a potential truck for their fleet, and just grabbed it without checking.
That's exactly what I thought! Guy from uhaul probably passed the truck a few times, thought hey they could absolutely use a truck of that size and grabbed it, not bothering to do any checking on it. I would not be surprised if some of the stuff from the truck ended up in the homes of the uhaul employees
@@Polkametal666 Anything good or worth money most definitely.
U-Haul is just a horrendous company to deal with. About half the cost of the others for a reason. I've had 'OK' luck with them for local rentals but my share of horror stories too. Thinking back on it, most of the rentals with them had SOME kind of issue. That hotel bears a lot of responsibility since they were charging them to park it there, and they instigated the call to have it recovered. I've had to move between states with a rental truck before and it's a very disconcerting feeling having the entire contents of your life on earth in the back of a rental truck. If it was me, I would have been more vigilant about checking up on it or even attaching that vehicle to my hotel registry. It may have even been worth it to get a storage unit for a month. I'm sure it would have been cheaper than renting that ruck for a month.
Probably cheaper to rent a storage unit, yes. But is it also worth dealing with unloading into a storage unit, loading another truck and unloading it again into your new place? Depending on your physical abilities, any friends willing to help out or paying a couple people to help with it along with all that hassle...
@@callak_9974 True enough, I get your point, but it had to be astronomical to keep a U-Haul for over a month. Most places where I lived you could hire a couple of hombres hanging out at the 7 Eleven or some college kids off one of these 'manpower' places for the heavy lifting. That's what I did when I moved and it was pretty cheap, way cheaper than keeping the stuff tied up in a truck. Besides, look at what happened, no way anyone can't argue a storage unit wouldn't have been cheaper now. These kinds of things don't happen from 1 bad decision but many. I only had my stuff in one of those trucks a few days and was always going out to check the truck at 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning. No way I'd leave a truck like that in the same spot for weeks. That invites curiosity.
Actually, it was stolen. When you rent a good, it is yours by the terms of the rental contract for the agreed duration. If you breach the contract, your rent is over, and so is your “ownership”. For the renter, to repossess during a lease without cause is theft. Now usually, the value is small (rental time + trouble). But in this case, the amount is big. They should call an attorney.
But as Steve said money won’t replace family heirlooms…. I have items that are ONE OF A KIND some China painted by my late grandmother, which is the only thing I have from her because she was my step-dads mom and when my mom kicked him out I became persona non grata with most of that.side of the family (I had obtained these prior to the divorce) So they’re IMPOSSIBLE TO REPLACE at this point short of a miracle. I also have family heirlooms from my godparents whom I was VERY close to who have also passed away. Not to mention other items that have been passed down through at least 4 generations of my mom’s family. I couldn’t begin to put any kind of dollar amount on those kind of items. In fact I probably wouldn’t have left those things stored in a uhaul truck (if given ANY POSSIBLE CHOICE) but regardless, it’s still THEFT in any and every sense of the word!!!! I pray 🙏🏻 that they are at least able to recover their precious family heirlooms and can be compensated multiple times the actual cash damages for the cost of whatever cannot be found or is found damaged
How does this even happen?! I smell a rat. I'm wondering how often this happens and we don't hear about it. Methinks not ALL of their stuff is in a landfill - you KNOW the employees went through it all and took what they wanted. Absolutely disgusting.
After paying the big bucks to have someone fully bonded and insured come out, pick up all my stuff and itemize it as they go, and deliver it to my new home, I can honestly tell you, it's worth it.
I used to work a Uhal location in the 90's. it was the site practice that anything left in the trucks or "abandoned" was sorted and items of value where then sold to pawn shop to recover cost of late returns or damages to the truck that could not be claimed. boxes or furniture were held for 24 hours, if the renter did not contact the store then was forfeit. granted this was years ago before a credit/debt card was required for all rentals. but I would not doubt that the policy still exists that "abandoned" property is sold off with the thrift store level stuff being dumped.
I know people that paid the big bucks and the "bonded and insured" company played a shell game with their belongings. For weeks. They didn't lose everything but it was frustrating and expensive.
I think he said the destination was in Florida. I think that might answer a lot of these questions of how and why.
@@phlodel Still better than having all your stuff stolen!
The U-Haul on Durham Ct. in Leesburg, VA rented us a trailer in 2010 that hadn't been registered since 1997. It was impounded by police in New Jersey and U-Haul would not get us a new trailer and tried to claim we were responsible for getting their illegal trailer out of impound, forcing us to abandon around $1000 worth of equipment. The mainline corporate-owned U-Haul establishments are good. Unfortunately, U-Haul has a problem with shady franchise owners. This same franchise also shares their property with a towing company. The franchise had posted their entire property "No parking. Violators will be towed." So if you parked there, say, to pick up the trailer you rented, the towing company would zip out and drag your vehicle behind a locked gate and hold it for ransom. They were running a massive towing scam along with renting illegal trailers. You literally had to have someone stay with your vehicle to ensure they couldn't steal it.
What a nightmare. I once parked at night near a store and walked for five minutes for exercise. Some jerk tow truck zipped in and locked up my stuff. I had no choice but to walk 5 miles to get it back.
I smell BS in this story. Independent U-Haul dealers aren't responsible for registering the vehicles. That is always handled by U-Haul. The trucks and trailers also have permanent tags on them. Permanent tags are good until someone else registers the vehicle, and U-Haul doesn't sell their trailers. They do maintenance and keep them in service.
Both the owners of those companies need some ball bat litigation.
Generally, in some cases it may not matter if one stays in the vehicle being towed.
@@Saiyijon nope, Uhaul scraps their trailers. I used to take ones that were deemed unroadworthy to Uhaul site for disposal. they had tech on staff cutting them up.
We once returned a Uhaul van with out personal hand truck in it. The clerk at the rental place called me to let me know they had it. I am appalled that this company couldn't be bothered to do the same for a Uhaul containing all of the family's possessions.
U1- Hey, the back is still locked.. they said it's abandoned?
U2- yeppers
U1(cuts lock) Hey, it has a house full of stuff in here, are you sure it's abandoned?
U2- Dude yes! Just stop asking and keep what you want, OKAY!
U1- okay 👍
To be fair, I expect that isn’t even that rare of an occurrence. Look at all the storage units people just abandon full of stuff. I’m sure it legitimately happens with U-Haul trucks too.
@@everettsgoldenduo4999 Oh come on,a storage unit is because you have either not give up on keeping a car in your garage or, you are a hoarder.
UHaul fucked up...
@@tomclark7023 Of course they screwed up and have to correct the error. I’m just saying it’s probably not that abnormal for them to collect abandoned trucks that have contents in them…
@@everettsgoldenduo4999 No. They are not the same. Look up the rates. People don't spend that kind of money and just " abandon" a U-Haul. Shit, it's borderline cheaper to buy all new stuff than move it...
@@everettsgoldenduo4999 Storage Units (at least the ones with anything worth keeping) are probably because someone died or there was an issue charging their card (expired, lost/stolen and the person forgot to update the storage place, etc...) rather than intentional abandonment.
That said, storage units are frequently held for years, long enough for the person's contact info on file to be out of date and not get notified when the charge fails. Uhauls aren't typically rented long enough to contact info to become stale or cards to expire.
Best Message Yet. Take a look around and see all the Priceless objects we have. Thanks SLEHT0!
I would have a lot of trouble believing that all of the personal possessions were just taken to the dump. That seems suspicious
Of course they went through all of the person's possessions and took what was monetarily valuable and thew away stuff like family photographs. I thought the same thing when I read a news article about a homeless woman who came back to her camp to find it had been "bulldozed" and all her personal possessions including her laptop computer had been "thrown away." They couldn't "bulldoze" a tent without making sure there wasn't a person in it, and anybody looking into a tent can tell the difference between a laptop and trash. I wonder where her laptop went? It went where the stuff from the U-Haul went, into the home of a thief.
Agreed wonder if truck was rented then they extended the rental or was obsconded from returning it, because they waiting till they could move in. Uhaul would have listed it as non-returned.
The Same thing happens with rental cars, renters deside they need it longer, and rental place already has new client there to pick it up. (Always over book).
The hotel person who called, had no memo that it wasnt abandoned. Or they didnt pay to park there, except for the night they actually stayed in hotel.
Story seems a bit fishy!
@@adriennefloreen If you had ever watched the clean up crews clearing block after block of these derelict's camps you would be amazed at the amount of shear crap they collect. It makes the "Hoarder" TV and utube channels look like pristine suburban homes with maid service. Laptop my ass. If not stolen by the other junkies dwelling there a laptop would most certainly have been well concealed. Spew your bleeding heart crap elsewhere. Just be thankful those crews were there to clean up the feces, vomit, liqueur containers, used needles, used condoms and other play material the children in the neighborhood were exposed to.
The fact that the items they could find were all in a single box which wasn't packed that way proves that they did go through it.
I have what I consider a priceless heirloom... a bear claw. A single claw from a black bear rug (circa 1950's, think "fingernail with first digit"). Value, maybe a couple of dollars. But the back story makes it irreplaceable to me, it came from the rug of my next door neighbor when I was growing up in the 60's, director Henry Hathaway (True Grit, North to Alaska, Sons of Katie Elder, How the West Was Won). The rug was a gift to him from a friend, actor Gary Cooper, and Hathaway's granddaughter used to play on the rug and pull the claws off, hence I was given one when I was over there one day. THAT'S the kind of personal items that were STOLEN from this family, never to be returned. Nice job, U-Hell! And we ALL have stories just as important as this. BTW, after probably 15+ moves and 8 years in the USAF, I still have that silly claw.
10:00 Princess Bride "I want my father back". And my personal stuff. Imagine if he got a Court Order to go into the home of an executive at U-Haul and take whatever personal stuff he wants to fill up the same size truck. Either sell it at Auction or dump it. U-Haul's problems would be quickly fixed.
companies like u-haul (e.g. hertz) have a high number of employees at every level in the organization who simply don't give a $h!t. And most of the time this doesn't matter but sometimes it goes horribly wrong like in this case. The only way to fix this is to hold them accountable through the legal system with very high fines. This will not be fixed from inside the companies and this will not be fixed by the market. It happens not often enough to have an impact on their number of customers and it's cheaper for them to pay damages than to fix the issue. Only when the fines are so high that it affects their bottom line will they improve their processes. damages alone are not sufficient as they are usually way lower than the actual costs to replace all your stuff, compensate for emotional value and your time. There should be punitive damages of 10 mio dollar on top of the damages (and if you are in a state that caps punitive damages then the juries should simply add it on to the damages).
That's crazy and awful. I can't imagine losing everything I accumulated.
Awful when unexpected, but I moved overseas a few years ago and sold near everything, once I moved back I've bought very little. Quite liberating actually.
A woman had her legally owned home "foreclosed", all her locks changed and all her belongings dumped.
By a bank that she never had a mortgage with, if fact she had no mortgage at all, she was free and clear owner.
They even took her pet parrot.
@@MichaelClark-uw7ex
My god what the fuck is wrong with people!?
Ive lost everything in a divorce, but having all my stuff stolen by a company i was doing business with would leave me feeling something completely different.
@@themonkeyhand It's far different getting rid of most things voluntarily. You made the decision, had time to sort the items, and were able to keep the most personally valuable items.
As an example, you could scan paper photos, or make backups of digital ones. You kept birth certificates and passports. Perhaps even vaccination records and other information that might be difficult or impossible to reconstruct.
Regardless of the outcome this is a good opportunity to say always document what you put into a rental truck/storage facility.
Back in the 80's I knew a man who for some unknown reason was always hearing cars. He always fitted a steering lock, as he always put "You have no idea who has a key". Looking back it may have been a good idea.
Hearing cars? Expound on that please, because hearing them seems normal depending on where you are.
"If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple payments." - Steven Wright - I sent that one in. 😂
Steve ... Other news agencies here locally in FL are reporting Uhaul is blaming a clerical error. The unit number for the truck they rented was entered into another contract from another state so when they checked the unit number it came up as being rented out of another state. So Uhaul is blaming a paperwork error and they tried to call the renter (wrong person) asking about recovering the items. Interesting story for sure
You know, I can look at some stuff and see pretty quickly whether it is junk or whether it is in pretty good condition or might have some sentimental value to someone. Isn't there some TV show where people buy the abandoned contents of storage lockers at auction sight unseen because the contents might reveal something of value? For U-Haul to simply cart everything off to the dump is criminal. They had the customer's credit card info, they could have charged them to put the stuff in storage or they could have auctioned it off. Another thing to consider is that U-Haul is really a franchise business. I suspect one franchisee doesn't communicate much with other franchisees. The offending U-Haul franchisee probably was a little too eager to get a truck to rent out which made them cut corners and not do their due diligence. But I see the hotel having liability here. They took money for the use of a parking spot. U-Haul has liability here, both criminal (theft) and civil.
Money can't replace a lifetime of memories, they threw away the ladies and the gentleman's pictures of their past.
never be able to replace it..
I guarentee those uhaul employees have everything that was valuable from the truck sitting in their garage
Please follow up on this with any updates. Thank you
Funny how when a company commits grand theft nobody goes to jail.
Multiple people should absolutely be fired and made to pay the damages. Even if they empty the damn truck, put the stuff aside so that you can either secure it for someone who may call for it or donate it after some specified time period. This is such a stupid way to screw yourself and your company over.
Because of intent I am sure u haul is not happpy this happened and never planned to get away with it or gain something
The entire point of a corporation is to keep the owners out of jail. Look at what LLC stands for- Limited Liability Company, it's how the wealthy cover their asses.
@@cornballmcgoo7174 A crime is still a crime.
@@cornballmcgoo7174 And this is why these things keep happening. Nobody is ultimately responsible for their decisions.
If people started going to jail, companies would have better procedures.
Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
These days negligence is an excuse for everything. That's the opposite of how society should work.
I have some momentos that belonged to my parents, namely some stools with my parent's names on them. These were decorated by a beloved Aunt who has passed on. Technically they are not worth a great amount for the paint and materials but are priceless heirlooms that cannot ever be replaced.
its interesting when you said look around your house and i looked over and saw my Patrick Stewart poster that I had him sign in comic con personally where i met him. Then you pointed to your signed poster. You are right. The poster can be replaced and I can buy another signed poster on e bay for like 1200 dollars but my signed poster has a story behind it and how I got it. I even have a pic of him signing it for me.
In TN they have to secure the items for 30 days
UHaul should be totally 100% responsible for contents.....also a prorated refund for the days that the truck was erroneously repossessed.
And sounds like some of the boxes were "repacked." Those employees need to be subjected to a lie detector test .....
I was with you until you suggested a polygraph. Those are shady as hell and people need to stop trying to use them for things.
Prorated refund? Lol. The should give them a full refund and then some just for the hassle. Of course that's in addition to covering the cost of the missing contents. Having to retrieve my belongings from a dump is not what I expect when I rent a U-Haul.
Polygraphs are notoriously unreliable. It's not like in the movies, those things are bogus and junk science
What was in my Uhaul rental you ask? 12 bars of gold, 11 platinum bracelets, 10 custom rifles... and a diamond ring! Now pay me!
I think there's something sketchy going on here, even if the U-Haul was repoed U-Haul has tons of storage facilities, I feel like someone along the line would have realized there's value and not have sent all of their belongings to a dump, instead putting them in storage, or even just auctioning them off
The dump is plausible deniability. Someone stole their stuff.
As a maintenance man in student housing i can attest that many of my coworkers are lining up outside apartments when the students move out so they can grab anything of value that was left behind. A few guys have even been fired for taking things before residents fully moved out. There is no doubt that uhaul employees did the same thing with the contents of this truck. In their minds its all going in the trash anyways.
@@HOAXTelevision Ah, college move out week / all the things one can find, it's amazing actually.
@@DanknDerpyGamer it is very much so, but theres plenty to go around, no need to hover over students like vultures and taking things before the residents have moved out. Some people just start getting greedy.
Lol, I love your out-tro at the end of the video.
Lock-out message: "If you think no one cares about you,... try missing a couple payments."
Very clever,... great truisms!
I can guarantee that at least one person has a whole bunch of their stuff from that U-Haul in their possession now!
Hmm, hotel, U-Haul or both?
My guess is that someone at the holiday inn knows somebody who works at that U-Haul!
That was my first thought as well, inside job
Sounds like the situation from casino. Someone at the hotel gives u haul a call. U haul thieves take the possessions and gives a few bucks to the person at the hotel.
Not to educated if you do not actual search to get the full story. "Following media reports on Wednesday of an apparent moving truck theft in Clearwater, our local management team investigated. What we learned is that a truck rented by the Brown family, which was on a valid contract, was mistakenly identified as abandoned equipment and repossessed by our local team on Sept. 2. This was the result of human error stemming from a clerical mistake in our system that listed the same equipment number on a separate active contract in another state. The contract with the clerical mistake was referenced when the equipment was spotted in a Clearwater hotel lot, leading a local Team Member to believe it had been abandoned.
The Browns’ equipment and possessions were held at a U-Haul rental location for 10 days, from Sept. 2 to Sept. 12, while our team tried unsuccessfully to reach the customer on the contract. Unfortunately, our team was referencing the incorrect contract and attempting to contact the incorrect customer.
U-Haul management has been in contact with the Brown family. Our U-Haul Company of Clearwater president visited the family on Thursday morning to deliver several boxes of personal contents that were kept when their larger items were disposed.
Our Company intends to do right by the Brown family and make them whole for our mistake and the possessions they lost. This was an extremely rare and regrettable series of events for which we take full responsibility. We have offered our sincerest apologies to the Browns, and we thank them for their understanding."
It sounds like they had no place to move into but if they were still within their rental agreement.
U-Haul appears to be in a heap of trouble. U-Haul would have been pleased to rent them a a storage unit (sometimes they will even give a free month rental of the storage unit as an incentive for the truck rental.)
Even if they didn't want to move it into a storage unit and back into the truck once they found a place, a lot of storage places with rent out a place to park within the secured facility for stuff like RVs and boats. Probably would have been a better option than an open parking lot just for the fact that thieves could easily get in.
Still on U-Haul in this situation to make it right, however.
This past Spring I rented a U-Haul truck for the day. Within 1/2 hour of leaving the location I received 4 or more text messages from them (copies of my contract, emergency road service numbers, etc.). The last text message from them was warning me not to text and drive. Great advice......SO STOP TEXTING ME.
Interesting. the couples insurance company should have called up U-Haul,
"You going to pay for that ? With damages ?"
"Nope"
"Okay, We are filing a lawsuit, our first discovery claims are going to be for you company policy on repossessing vehicles during rental periods. Does it say contact the customer ? Did you try and contact the customer ? Oh by the way the damages went up because our legal fees are included"
Ooh, imagine that discovery process. I imagine they'd get a real real nice out of court settlement quickly given how obvious it is that their items were (illegally) sorted through and looted. Grand Theft. So, UHaul, our legal team happened to notice your employees have our client's couch and chairs...
@@boldCactuslad do it please
Insurance companies don’t ask for damages beyond their clients losses that they(insurance company) are responsible for. They would pay for the contents and then send the bill for the expenses paid to U-Haul. There’s literally no chance U-Haul wouldn’t immediately pay the subrogation demand from the insurance company. (Keep in mind every major insurance company’s subrogation department will already have a working relationship with U-Haul’s loss department. Typically the insurance companies are paying U-Haul for their client’s damaging trucks instead of the other way around. But both companies will have an interest in maintaining a good relationship…)
They always messing up in Florida. Keep going. Never stop. Keep that rental truck rolling. I used to pickup vehicles from U haul for resale. So many lots were like chop shops. I would never rent from U haul
Well, it was stolen. It was stolen by U-Haul. For them to be seizing it DURING the paid rental period should have them replacing everything from it.
Sounds like U-Haul is run by the same people who rent cars to you and then have you arrested months later.
They should really have to pay through the nose for throwing away somebody's irreplaceable property.
U-haul is basically a franchise. Even I could become a u-haul dealer fairly easily. If any lowlife can become a u-haul deal, stuff like this happens.
I wonder - did the hotel call the Police, or did they call U-Haul direct and report the vehicle. I suspect that they called U-Haul - and that is a problem in itself since there would be no police report about an abandoned vehicle in that case. Someone further up the food chain at the hotel may need to answer a few questions as well in my opinion since the couple had paid for parking there and assumed that the truck would be secure.
Considering the Sheriff's department, in conjunction with the local news, released the details of the truck to the public and asked if anyone knows about it to contact the sheriff's dept. I'd say the police were never called by the hotel.
I work in hotel security and one of the things I am always trying to convey to staff when dealing with found property or items left unattended is that value is relative. Just because it doesn't appear to have value to you it doesn't mean it doesn't have value to someone else.
The sad part is stories like this and similar (Hertz, Avis, U-Haul, etc) just cause you not to want to do business with them out of concern that next time, it will be you that ends up in such a story.
Why is that sad? That is the point. These UHaul is regularly trash and people should be wary.
My first thought was how similar to Hertz
@@GodwynDi It is sad due to the fact many people need the service and use it. Not all of them have many other options. U-Haul has the name and service that open the door for people to use that service, even if it is under a false comfort. But with the rise of moving companies that turn out to be similar in taking someone's stuff and not returning it, U-Haul is supposed to offer you the power to have control of your own stuff. When you consider the stolen U-Haul issue that recently happened in Las Vegas and now this one, it begs the question how many more are out there that we don't know and how do the statistics look for how trustworthy the service is. Then the next question is: Will there be a service to replace it, if it turns out to be truly statistically unreliable.
Do you have an update?? Would love to know the outcome of the story
Sounds like it literally was stolen. It's contracted to the couple. It belonged to them for that duration. U-Haul stole it from them along with all the possessions.
Those items were the couples' most prized possessions. My parents, us three kids, our toy poodle and our collie all moved to Florida from West Virginia with my Dad's pickup and my Mom driving "the uhaul."
We already had to get rid of most of our stuff. We only kept the important stuff. Only the important stuff fit. We had to part with everything else.
We would have been crushed! Those are people's lifetime possessions.
It's not auctioning off an abandoned storage locker.
Uhaul must be taught a lesson. It must be significant enough for them to learn from.
Every time I’ve paid for long term parking at a hotel. There has been a separate register for the paid for parking. Along with some sort of receipt to place on the dash. So I’m wondering if this was one hundred percent uhaul’s fault.
I'm an AFM for Uhaul and Uhaul is not in anyway going to go after a truck if it's still under contract, if they go over there date estimate then we start calling and sending emails, if nothing after 3 days, its reported stolen, and even then once its recovered, all items on said Uhaul has to go to the nearest Uhaul storage unit and be stored for 30 days, they are then notified again of this and if nothing after 30 days, the unit gets auctioned off. Even if it was a biohazard situation, Uhaul will call someone like Servpro to come and clean it, no one at Uhaul would ever be allowed to take anything to a dump. More than likely (since i see this daily) they never got permission to leave it sitting where it was located, and then lost it when they came back to found it missing, if i was betting, or they got their belongings stolen from the truck and they didn't get insurance with it and this is how they are trying to get some money out of it.
I'd be surprised that U-Haul wouldn't be liable for destroying all the couples possessions.
Likewise, the couple's homeowners insurance should cover their possessions regardless of it being in the U-Haul.
I can't wait to see the outcome, of this story!
SHAME ON U-HAUL!
😮😬🤬
george
😎🤿🦈🐙🇺🇲
TEXAS
Since they were moving, they may not have had an active homeowners policy. U-Haul is on the hook for this because they seized the truck during the term of the rental and disposed of all their belongings and made no attempt to contact the renters.
If they had sold the home and were in the process of moving. There probably was no policy in affect at the time.
They are responsible due to the contract being valid when U-Haul decided to repo and violate the contract without attempting prior notice
Depends on technical you want to get; it could easily be Grand Theft Auto, grand larceny/ theft in excess of $10,000, breach of contract, criminal negligence, trespassing, etcetera..
@@aaronhumphrey2009 GTA wouldn’t stick, as they own the vehicle. The other charges might work.
I smell big money coming, plus a very happy lawyer, a very sad hotel owner and a fired U-haul branch manager.
I would rent another U-Haul and return it with extreme prejudice.
Sounds like they've got a nice lawsuit on their hands.
My parents and sister were moving cross country with a trailer when the truck broke down in Des Moines. They arranged to store the trailer in a fenced yard next to a police department. They got the truck fixed and went to pick up the trailer only to find out that someone else had come in and taken the trailer the day before. Everything was taken and on top of that insurance company didn't honor the catalog established when getting the policy. They gave us less than half, pulling us into poverty overnight. I was a senior in high school and had some basic research skills, located some of the stuff on the market in the area. But I didn't have the guts I have now and didn't pursue it, just resigned to moving on. My parents took it much harder
That's awful. I hope this never happens to me. I've thought about using a GPS tracking device in my upcoming move.
@@Uberragen21 You win todays internet for that idea.
Your parents likely disclosed that the purpose for hurrying with the truck repair was to get their trailer next to the police department, or one of the cops stole it.
Hope they sue and get awarded so much money they'll be set for life.
I've rented U-Haul trucks involving two state to state moves. Both fit into a CF situation.
First one: moved from Pittsburgh, PA to Rapid City, SD. Got a flat tire less than 5 miles from home, and yes we had checked the tire pressure minutes before we left. We waited over 8 hours on the side of the PA Turnpike for them to change the tire. Five times I traveled to the next exit to call and be told they would be there very shortly. Lost almost a whole day driving. Our intended driving was to be west of Chicago for the night. Barely made Gary, IN before we had to stop due to exhaustion.
Second time, I was moving from Cheyenne, WY back to Pittsburgh with a stop north of Chicago to take my nieces Trick or Treating. Our stop was to be in Omaha, NE for the night, get into my brothers early enough to do the Trick or Treating. Want a way to make God laugh, tell him your plans. We limped into Omaha on a bad generator and a drained battery. Called for a repair at 6:00 PM and they said to leave the keys with the front desk and it would be fixed by 8:00 am. Perfect if they would have come through. At 7:00 am, I checked and no repair. I called and they said someone was on the way. And I called at 8:00 am, 9:00 am, 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 12:00 pm, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, and someone finally showed up shortly before 3:00 pm. They said they just got the call. Of course, we missed the Trick or Treating with my nieces. The irony was that there was an auto parts store across the road and the truck was full of tools and I spent 12 years in the Air Force teaching maintenance.. They kept on saying not to touch the engine as someone was on the way. I never, ever trust them again.
I only use them for one day short hauls if nothing else is available. Period!
I had a truck break down (clutch was bad) about 13 miles from the destination. A tow truck came and towed it to the destination and we had to unload it immediately, still attached to the truck because U-haul was being billed for the tow truck while we unloaded it. We had paid for an extra day to have time to unload.