Shirley and Stan Brown were moving from their home in Missouri to live near the rest of the family in Tampa, Florida.

The couple had packed all of their belongings into the truck to make the drive to their new home, and while waiting for the property to be ready had arranged to stay at an apartment and park the truck in a Holiday Inn car park in Clearwater.

U-Haul has been offering do-it-yourself moving for households since 1945. With a huge rental moving fleet, they operate in all 50 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces.

But on September 4 when the couple went to retrieve the U-Haul, it was gone.

Just some of the items reported to be inside the truck included family heirlooms, family photographs and videos, personal documents, such as the couple’s marriage license, and much more.

When the couple first found that the van containing their possessions was missing, their children began reaching out online sharing posts on Instagram and urging for any help to find the 26-foot vehicle they believed had been stolen.

But just days later, U-Haul contacted the Brown family, telling them that they had mistakenly thought the truck was abandoned. U-Haul had picked up the truck, emptied it, and disposed of the couple’s belongings at a dump where they were incinerated.

A U-Haul spokesperson told Newsweek: “Following media reports on Wednesday of an apparent moving truck theft in Clearwater, our local management team investigated.

“What we learned is that a truck rented by the Brown family, which was on a valid contract, was mistakenly identified as abandoned equipment and repossessed by our local team on September 2.

“This was the result of human error stemming from a clerical mistake in our system that listed the same equipment number on a separate active contract in another state.

“The contract with the clerical mistake was referenced when the equipment was spotted in a Clearwater hotel lot, leading a local Team Member to believe it had been abandoned.

“The Browns’ equipment and possessions were held at a U-Haul rental location for 10 days, from Sept. 2 to Sept. 12, while our team tried unsuccessfully to reach the customer on the contract. Unfortunately, our team was referencing the incorrect contract and attempting to contact the incorrect customer.

“U-Haul management has been in contact with the Brown family. Our U-Haul Company of Clearwater president visited the family on Thursday morning to deliver several boxes of personal contents that were kept when their larger items were disposed.

“Our Company intends to do right by the Brown family and make them whole for our mistake and the possessions they lost. This was an extremely rare and regrettable series of events for which we take full responsibility. We have offered our sincerest apologies to the Browns, and we thank them for their understanding.”

The five boxes of personal items retained by the family were returned to Shirley and Stan Brown who later released a statement: “These are the five boxes that remain of our truckload. While we are extremely grateful to get them, they represent a quarter of the memorabilia on the truck.

“It was a real punch in the gut after a very extreme emotional roller coaster ride. My children have been experiencing this same harmful emotional churn. U-Haul had told us that their employees would not/did not go through boxes, but one of these five boxes is a compilation of four other boxes.

“Either U-Haul or PC Solid Waste employees did go through [the] boxes. We definitely wonder how much of our belongings and information did not make it into the incinerator and are in someone’s hands and not ours.”

UPDATE: 09/20/22 07:40 a.m.: This story was updated with a statement from U-Haul.