Apex Apartment fire victims claim units have been burglarized and further destroyed
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- After being displaced by a massive apartment fire in Colorado Springs last week, many victims are saying their uninhabitable units have since been burglarized. They also say other items that would've been salvageable have been further destroyed by the elements and demolition.
Told they had just 30 minutes this weekend to find items to save from their units, Apex Apartment fire victims tell KRDO as the clock was ticking to get in and out, they noticed things they knew weren’t destroyed in the fire were nowhere to be found.
"I noticed a bunch of things were gone," said Ryan Sam, an Apex Apartment fire victim. "I was like, 'What's going on?' My laptop is literally not even there.”
Sam’s laptop, hard drive, family jewelry, and hundreds of dollars worth of tools; gone.
Clayton Prell, who lived a few doors down from Sam, says his Nintendo Switch gaming system and wife’s family jewelry were also snatched. He also noted that his fire-proof safe was physically pried open.
"I had some bonds in there from when I was born, those are missing," said Prell. "That's the only thing so far I can tell from that box that's missing. But, you know, Social Security cards -- you can just take a picture of that."
Sam says he reached out to Colorado Springs Police about the alleged thefts.
"The police ended up telling me that I needed to file a claim online, and so I did that," said Sam. "I filed the claim online. However, I just got a notice today that said that this is considered burglary. So you have to report it to a police officer. So why didn't the police officer initially take the claim?"
When asked if they've gotten reports of stolen items, Colorado Springs Police say they handled a trespassing call at the Apex Apartments on Friday, which was a displaced resident who was filming the property. They say that is the only call they received over weekend.
Adding to tenants' frustration: tarps they say Apex promised would go up to protect units from the rain over the weekend, were never installed.
The roof has also started to be demolished by crews despite the third-floor tenants saying they weren't even allowed access to their rooms until Monday.
"In a friend's room, it was under three feet of insulation today versus yesterday,” said Sam.
"They were still demoing while we were inside the unit," said Prell. "They knew we were in there grabbing stuff and they were like, 'Oh, we're going in this room, we're gonna chop up the ceiling.' I was like, 'Okay, I'm still gonna be grabbing stuff out of there…' and they were just chucking stuff all over the place."
Several tenants say they haven’t gotten much support from Apex, and have felt like the company has not communicated well enough during this crisis.
KRDO reached out to Apex for comment on these allegations over the phone and email. They said someone would get back to KRDO on Monday but never responded.
Prell and his wife Caitlin have a GoFundMe set up to collect donations after the fire. If you're interested in lending a hand, click here.
