SALEM, Ore. — In November, Luke Walls of Salem bought a local storage unit that was up for auction — with no idea what was inside.
He did not expect to find another family's belongings.
"Oh my God, everything is labeled," said Walls of his reaction when he first opened up the unit. "Everything is packed, wrapped, taped shut. It wasn't a dump. It wasn't 'I don't want this and I'll come back in a week.' This was a life. This was somebody's everything."
Walls dug through the stuff looking for a name, and eventually came across the last name Wildeson. He found the Wildesons on Facebook and reached out to tell them he had their things.
"I don't want that feeling on anybody, so I made the call," Walls said. "Got them their stuff back."
"Luke is a boy scout," said Dwight Wildeson. "I can't say enough about his character."
Wildeson flew from Colorado to Oregon to pick up the items Walls found in the storage unit. According to Wildeson, the last time he saw them was in early October, when East Freight Logistics picked it up for their move from Vancouver to Denver. The Wildesons never received any of their belongings in Colorado.
"They kept telling us, 'We have 21 days to get it to you,' and on the 21st day we said 'Where's our stuff?'" said Wildeson. "The phones started to go silent."
Since July, KGW has spoken to several people who used East Freight Logistics for interstate moves. They said it took months for them to get their belongings — if they got them at all. In fact, there are so many people looking for their things they have actually created their own Facebook group.
"Very frustrating," Wildeson said.
Wildeson says intel from the Facebook group leads him to believe the rest of his family's belongings from the move may be in a Northeast Salem warehouse. Judging from an East Freight Logistics semi parked out front, Wildeson may be on to something. He spent hours trying to get inside the warehouse to get a look, but he was was unsuccessful. KGW tried, too.
"When the customer comes to me, I'll tell them what the situation is," an unidentified employee told KGW reporter Mike Benner when he went to the warehouse door for answers. "The reason being, everything has been twisted, making it seem like something it's not."
KGW emailed the company for comment, but has not gotten a response.
"I can say we've been communicating with that company," said Detective Joe Cox of the Portland Police Bureau said.
Cox works with PPB's Property Crimes Unit. He said he has seen an unusually high number of people filing complaints about moving companies, and PPB is looking into East Freight Logistics. Cox said the company's arrangement with Wildeson and others is a civil matter, and proving a crime has been committed is not easy. Charges could be filed down the road.
"I'm just a local detective, but this is an interstate matter and should be held by the feds. But I'm sticking with it cause I want to make sure these
people get their stuff back," Cox said.
Wildeson is hoping for a resolution sooner rather than later.
"It would be nice, because I'm tired of running around for this stuff," Wildeson said.
Wildeson is grateful to have at least a fraction of his things. He can thank Walls who is busy trying to reunite the rest of the stuff in his storage unit with the rightful owners.
"I have military flags, veterans flags," Walls said. "I have medals. I'm keeping those with me until I find the people."
You can find more information on how to protect yourself during a move here.