Family moved to Kansas City — 24 hours later U-Haul with everything they own is stolen
Chalk it up as one of the worst Kansas City welcome wagons ever.
A young family who moved to Kansas City on Thursday, hauling all their earthly belongings in a U-Haul, with their car in tow, woke up 24 hours later to find everything stolen — a theft they value at close to $40,000.
A GoFundMe page, created by the couple’s shocked real estate agent, was established Sunday and, by Wednesday afternoon, had reached about $4,000 of a $40,000 goal.
On Friday morning, Paul Holmes discovered broken glass in the spot the U-Haul had been parked at a local Days Inn and Suites, where the family spent the night.
“I thought it was still there,” he said, “like somehow I was looking through it. My mind could not accept that it wasn’t there.”
Holmes, along with his wife, Sabrina Holmes, and their two boys, Josiah, 11, and John, 7, had just driven more than 300 miles from their home in tiny, Doniphan, Missouri, not far from the Bootheel.
Holmes, who designs circuit boards and software, was moving his family to Kansas City for a job with a start-up company. He said the moving van was packed with his work materials, including valuable circuit boards he knows would be worthless to the thieves.
The Holmeses were set to close on a new home. Paul Holmes drove in from Doniphan on Thursday in the U-Haul with relatives he was taking to the airport. The left the U-Haul and at the hotel, near Interstate 435 and East 87th Street.
It wasn’t until Friday afternoon, when the Holmeses returned to the hotel, that they noticed that the 26-foot U-Haul and the attached 2012 Nissan Leaf were missing. The Kansas City Police confirm that they received a report of the theft and issued surveillance photos of the stolen U-Haul and car.
Holmes also reported the disappearance to the hotel staff. “I told the people there,” he said. “I thought maybe it got towed.”
He said the staff checked security video and saw that the truck had been driven away at about midnight.
The U-Haul contained everything that a house does — living room furniture, beds, dressers, china, linens, lamps, kitchen supplies, decorations, bicycles, clothing, all the children’s toys. Most important of all: family mementos and photographs.
The Holmeses had canceled their homeowners insurance from their old house before moving into the new one. Only the truck was insured, but none of its contents.
“I’m doing OK, as OK as I can be,” Sabrina Holmes said. “We lost a lot of stuff, things given to me by my grandmother, things given to me by my mother. Things given to us by our mother-in-law, who has passed. My baby pictures. Baby albums. Things you can’t replace. I’m praying we get it back.”
Their real estate agent, Valerie Fargas, with Glad Heart Realty, hosted the family for dinner after she learned of their emergency and posted the GoFundMe site.
“It’s very sad,” Fargas said. “But you know the kindness of Kansas City people is shining right now. I’m really impressed right now. They are stepping in with a lot of love to help.”
A family from St. Louis has donated some furniture. Others have donated clothes.
Holmes said that, for a moment, he wondered if maybe the move to Kansas City was a complete mistake.
“I guess it crossed my mind for a second or two there,” he said. “I started thinking, ‘Oh, no, is it a safe place?’”
Fargas said that as the family faltered a bit, she told them, “You guys have to have a roof over your head somewhere. Where are you going to go?”
They’re set to move into their new home Friday. They’re staying.
This story was originally published April 10, 2019 at 2:10 PM.
