Missing U-Haul incident in Colorado Springs resolved
The alleged theft in Colorado Springs involving a U-Haul has been resolved. Police said the men were real employees of the company.
On Tuesday, KRDO NEWSCHANNEL 13 reported the story of Jacob Heflin. He said he was in the process of moving from Louisiana last weekend and that when he arrived to a Colorado Springs motel Monday, a man wearing a construction-style vest and U-Haul hat demanded the keys. He said he complied and that the man left with the keys and returned minutes later with another man. He said they then drove off with the U-Haul containing his things.
He said when he called the company, he was told no employee was sent to pick up the truck. He filed a police report, and police began investigating it as a motor vehicle theft.
KRDO NEWSCHANNEL 13 contacted U-Haul’s media line Tuesday regarding the case. The company didn’t respond then.
Police said the department was contacted on Wednesday by U-Haul, saying the men in question are employees of the company. The company told police Heflin violated the contract he had with U-Haul. Police were told Heflin’s contract was for an in-town move in Monroe, Louisiana. But Heflin took the truck out of town, into Colorado Springs.
“There are certain notifications that have to be made when a vehicle is repossessed here in the city of Colorado Springs, and we have to investigate whether those notifications were made, or whether the company knows how to go about making those notifications,” said Lt. Catherine Buckley, with the Colorado Springs Police Department. “It’s awfully difficult to tell how those communications or how those breakdowns happened. It’s hard to say whether this was on the part of the alleged victim, knowing the boundaries of the contract he entered into with the U-Haul company.”
Buckley said the officer working on the case was given information for Heflin to retrieve the things that were in the truck. She said at this point, this is not a criminal case.
“In the case of rental cars, rental property, there’s a contract that’s entered into, and a lot of what occurs after that contract is violated becomes civil,” she said. “There are certain points that it can turn criminal, but there are other things that have to occur in order for it to become criminal. It’s kind of up to the U-Haul company as to whether they want to look at going any further with this.”
The president of the U-Haul Company of Southern Colorado responded to the situation Thursday.
“Unfortunately, this customer lied about his intentions to U-Haul when he rented our equipment and then misled you and the Colorado Springs community,” Dave Hellmers wrote in a letter.
He said Heflin rented the truck under a different name as an in-town rental, that wasn’t supposed to leave Louisiana. He said the company has been unable to reach Heflin and he has not picked up his belonging.
Heflin said he was notified by police that the men who approached him were in fact U-Haul employees. His GoFundMe has raised $250. He initially said he would return the money but has since stopped responding to phone calls.
