Colorado family begs for sentimental items to be returned from stolen U-Haul

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) - Imagine everything you own, including sentimental items, gone within a matter of seconds.

One Denver family was in the process of moving to a new home when they left their U-Haul parked outside, packed up overnight.

Gabriale Voeltner and her four kids prepared for their move from downtown Denver to Westminster.

“We were trying to be polite neighbors and not move in in the middle of the night,” said Voeltner.

They were spending their last night in the old apartment on Friday when they left their 20-foot U-Haul parked outside.

“We came back and checked at 11 o’clock at night,” said Voeltner. “By 5 o’clock in the morning it was gone.”

Not only did the family lose all of their furniture, clothes and possessions, but something more valuable was taken as well.

“It was my husband’s ashes, it was my mom’s ashes. It was our first family pet’s ashes, all of the love letters that my husband wrote me, all of the pictures he ever drew for our kids.”

Gabriale’s husband, the father of her kids, passed away in 2017.

“They took the very last thing that we had of him,” said Voeltner.

Voeltner’s mom passed away two years ago, and the family pet passed last year.

Voeltner reported the theft to the police, but the U-Haul doesn’t have any tracking GPS in it. She’s begging whoever stole the U-Haul to abandon it somewhere so it can be found and the items returned to her.

“You can take all the valuable stuff but I just hope they see the sentimental stuff and they just leave it,” said Voeltner.