CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Moving from city to city can be hard, but it can be even harder when everything you own, suddenly ends up in the trash.
“Devastated because me and my daughter were just starting over because of my divorce,” said Celia Perales.
Perales had just moved to Corpus Christi with her family. She rented out storage space at American Storage on Holly Road to keep her belongings in during her transition.
But one day when she went to check on things, she says all she found was an empty unit with one article of clothing on the ground.
“We realized it was my daughter’s night gown and that's when we saw the big yellow dumpster,” said Perales. “It had all our belongings in it.”
“All my dishes, everything that I had in my apartment from San Antonio, all my daughter's belongings.”
According to Perales, she was current on her account and there was no reason why her things should have been thrown away.
And I.C. Moreno, the owner of American storage, says she's right.
“I'm not trying to wiggle out of the responsibility,” said Moreno. “It was done by mistake and we are responsible but she's not being reasonable.”
Perales says she lost about $8,000 worth of things.
“It’s what we had come up with, I had priced everything for him,” said Perales.
But Morales says Perales was able to retrieve some of her belongings from the dumpster, and the amount he owes her is a lot less.
“I offered her $800 and of course she's trying to get more than what she's entitled to,” said Moreno.