Christa Beasley moved to Tacoma with three others about two weeks ago hoping to find more job opportunities and some respite from the sizzling heat of Palm Springs, California.
The four young transplants came with a U-haul stuffed to the brim with everything they owned.
When they arrived at their hotel in downtown Tacoma the day after Thanksgiving, they'd already found some of what they were looking for. Beasley's husband had a job lined up as a security guard, and the weather had baptized them in cool PNW air with temperatures in the high 40s.
The next morning, the group's cool welcome to the city turned far colder.
The U-haul was stolen from where it was parked in front of the Comfort Inn's lobby on East E Street. All they had left was a few days worth of clothing and bags they'd brought in for the night.
"Everything just keeps turning sideways," Anthony Mascorro, 24, said.
Mascorro said he's trying to keep an optimistic outlook, but, since he's in a wheelchair, he feels like there's nothing he can do to help.
Beasley, 28, her husband, Travis Kuhl, 30, Kuhl's brother, Ian Wilkie, 30, and their friend Mascorro are staying with friends in Graham while they try to secure housing. The apartment they were planning to rent together fell through, too.
The four people started a GoFundMe with the hope of raising enough money to replace some of what they lost and help with the cost of housing. So far, they've raised $105.
The theft was one of 43 reports of stolen vehicles the Pierce County Sheriff's Department received over the holiday weekend, 19 of which came from one theft at an auto auction lot in Frederickson.
Kuhl said he'd heard some reviews about Tacoma before he arrived, "quote unquote shady, depending on what area you're in," but he said the hotel seemed confident the van would be safe.
He noticed the U-haul was missing Nov. 27 after taking the hotel's complimentary breakfast back to the room around 7:30 or 8 a.m., he said. He and Mascorro went downstairs to smoke afterward, and he realized the U-haul was gone.
Mascorro said he thought Kuhl's brother might have moved the truck. The two went back to the room to ask him about it, but they soon realized what had happened. At first, Kuhl thought his brother was messing with him.
"I kept egging him like, quit [expletive] with me man, don't mess with me, you moved it right?" Kuhl said, recalling the conversation. "And then I saw the look of seriousness on his face. I'm like, he didn't move it. He didn't move it, oh God."
The U-haul was filled with items the group planned to use to make their home in Tacoma — alongside electronics, "Harry Potter" merchandise and even valuable Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards — but they agreed it was the items that can't be replaced they'll truly miss.
"All the little stuff that we just really were hoping that they would just leave, that wasn't of any value to anyone," Beasley said. "And they still took it."
For Mascorro, it was a blanket that depicted him and his older brother together that he would miss the most. Beasley and Kuhl, just married in October, lost their marriage certificate. Beasley was planning on changing her name once they got to Washington, but the bride will have to wait.
There were the mementos from Beasley's mother, who died several years ago, that she would never get back.
Tacoma Police Department confirmed the basic details of the theft. In an email, police spokesperson Shelbie Boyd said the case is technically open if detectives were to get a lead on suspects.
The U-haul was recovered Dec. 1 in the 500 block of South 78th Street in Tacoma, police said. Beasley said police told her it was found with the ignition smashed. Thieves apparently cut through a piece of the van's locking mechanism to get inside the storage area.
Some odds and ends were left, including a desk and a sofa chair.
Beasley did grab one item from the pile. She found a Paw Patrol-themed card from her son's birthday. He turned 8 last month. The card looked a bit trampled-on.
