BROOMFIELD, Co — The big move to Broomfield has been everything but a fresh start for Navy veteran Andre Gladden and his wife.
They've beenleft without their belongings after a sketchy moving company abandoned their possessions in a U-Haul storage unit in Louisiana instead of shipping them to their new home in Broomfield.
But after a Denver7 story aired this month highlighting the issue, U-Haul agreed to release the property back to the Gladdens.
On Monday, they received their belongings back, but the Gladdens say most of it was destroyed. Mold and water damage ruined their "furniture, mattress, couches, chairs, some of those big investment things, they're completely gone."
But even that didn't compare to the other damage they'd find.
"My wife treasured this thing," Gladden said as he flipped through a family photo album visibly damaged by water. "You can tell that it was just sitting in water like this for months."
The content on dozens of photos were no longer identifiable.
"You can just see the bottom halves are good, but the top half is just damaged, water damaged beyond repair," Gladden said.
His Navy uniforms were also found in poor condition.
"It looks like it's been through the wringer," Gladden said. "I usually keep these pristine. It looks like someone just stomped over the box in the bag, which just irritates me."
But through it all, it's what Gladden learned while in uniform that has helped him through this nightmare of a move.
"There's two things you can do when you're put in a stressful situation. You can lean on it [and] become depressed and everything in turn is bad or pull up the bootstraps, keep it moving," Gladden said proudly.
Denver7 has attempted to reach out to the moving company, United Moving Solutions LLC, several times within the last three weeks, but they have not answered.
Gladden doesn't think he's getting a dime back in this matter. He says U-Haul made him sign a waiver stating the company is not responsible for any damage to his property.
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