KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It's been a week, but Paul Holmes and his family still can't understand why someone would steal a moving truck with all their belongings inside and their car on a trailer.
"As time went on it started to sink in a little bit more," Holmes said.
Paul left a U-Haul parked at the Days Inn on Hillcrest Road in south Kansas City last Thursday before heading back to southeast Missouri, where he picked up his wife and his kids to complete the move to their new home.
When the Holmes family returned to Kansas City on Friday afternoon, the truck was gone — and a lifetime of memories was gone with it.
"Keepsakes that came from my grandparents from his mom that has passed, things that you can’t you can’t replace," Paul's wife, Sabrina, said.
The Holmes family filed a police report and a security camera captured footage of the truck pulling away, but it didn't get any images of the suspect or suspects.
Fortunately, the community has stepped up to help the family in its time of need.
"I didn’t conceive that it would be possible that in the city like this, so big, to have so much kindness and so much compassion for strangers," Sabrina said.
The family's real estate agent set up a GoFundMe to help the Holmes family rebuild. Many others have donated items to the family.
"I don't think I’ve ever owned such beautiful dishes and I tell Paul, 'Here we are in a strange city and so many people are trying to help us make our future home a home,'" Sabrina said.
Still, the family may not have beds when they move into their new home.
While it's not the welcome they expected, the family doesn't regret its move to Kansas City.
"What happened to us I don’t think is the voice of the city I don’t think it’s the voice of the people," Sabrina said.
