VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A Virginia Beach man decided it was time to come home after some time in the wilderness of Wyoming.
But his cross-country trip soon turned into crime and chaos.
That’s because, in the course of his road trip, Will Munford’s U-Haul trailer was stolen from outside a Kansas City hotel.
Some of what was in there were irreplaceable items.
Surveillance video we got from our sister station in Kansas City shows a white pick-up pulling a U-Haul trailer. It looks normal, but it’s actually surveillance video of someone ripping off his trailer Dec. 12.
Munford said the white pickup truck had also been stolen from someone else before they got to his trailer. So a stolen vehicle was towing a stolen trailer.
Munford’s car was also broken into, and he did a moving video showing a window busted out and glass on the ground. He then moved to the back of his vehicle and showed huge dents in the back.
“They took my backpack with my laptop and my iPad and some other work things,” he said.
Munford lost everything — valued between $20,000 and $25,000.
After checking into the Kansas City hotel Dec. 11, he wishes he hadn’t.
After nine years in Wyoming, Munford was making his way back to Virginia Beach, where his parents live, and he wishes now that he hadn’t stopped in Kansas City.
It was about 7:10 in the morning on Dec. 12 outside the hotel — “my car had been hit, the U-Haul had been stolen, car busted into and knocked into the road, about 90 degrees, and because it was blocking the road, they had to tow it.”
He has a picture of the trailer hitch the bad guys tore the trailer off of. It looks dented, and Munford thinks his car got dented as the trailer rubbed up against his car as the bad guys were hauling the U-Haul away.
Someone left a note giving details of the license plate, and a picture of the thieves stealing the trailer.
“I mostly feel upset that this happened, and people feel they must do this,” Munford said.
The trailer was packed full of bikes, skies, clothing camping equipment, and he lost invaluable letters from his grandparents.
He also lost thousands of dollars of artwork he poured countless hours into creating.
Munford also has this message to the thieves.
“I hope they like artwork, and I hope this makes their family’s Christmas better,” he said, “and they can give some of my artwork to their kids or family members that maybe when they see letters form grandparents that are clearly sentimental items, then they will rethink about doing something like this again.”