SEATTLE — Megan Plunkett can breathe a sigh of relief now after a U-Haul which was stolen from outside of her Belltown condo was found.
She woke up on Wednesday with only the clothes on her back and one suitcase.
It had been a day since someone stole her moving van from her mother’s house in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood before their drive to California for Plunkett’s grad school. Among the valuables inside she was desperate to recover one item: her father’s ashes in an urn. He passed away in March from ALS and she did not want to lose him twice.
“My dad was a true gem of the earth and someone who really contributed to making the world better, not only in his work as a physician, but just in who he was and making people happy,” Plunkett explained.
More than a day after the crime, a Tacoma man alerted police to what could be the U-Haul on a neighbor’s property. Plunkett became hopeful it was her van when the officer told her about one unusual item he identified.
“The police officer asked, ‘Do you have a five foot skinny giraffe?’ Like that was going to be the identifying marker, which is so funny, ’cause it was my dad’s favorite,” she explained.
Our KOMO News crews followed Plunkett and police to the U-Haul, abandoned about a quarter mile from a residential neighborhood off 68th Avenue Northeast and 19th Street Northeast.
“It was a combination of excitement and anticipation, but also almost like a humbling reminder to myself, like it is totally possible that everything’s gonna be absolutely destroyed,” she recalled.
Inside, the truck was full but clearly had been rummaged through. Finally, Plunkett found what she had hoped and prayed for.
“Everything suddenly feels like a gift and I appreciate everything I have even more than I did before,” she cried.
Plunckett, her mother and stepdad packed a second U-Haul to continue their journey to California, where Plunkett will spread her dad’s ashes with her family.
On a day in which she started with so little, and found most of her belongings trashed, she said she now feels like she has everything.
“He’s going to go back to the bay that he loved so much. It’s a good day.<>>
The original U-Haul will be impounded.
The urn is not going in the new U-Haul, but instead is with Plunkett. She says what she believes was taken were her dad’s guitars and an e-scooter, items she stated also had sentimental value but can be replaced.
The U-Haul that was stolen outside contained the ashes of her dad, Jerry. He died on March 29 of ALS, she said.
“We have him in a very special biodegradable urn and we wanted to take it out to this special place where we used to swim in California,” said Plunkett, who has two older sisters. “So I was going to help transport it down.
“It’s easy to blame yourself, like, ‘Oh, I could’ve taken those things inside.’ So, yeah, it’s sad.”
Plunket and her stepdad spent more than eight hours on Monday packing everything up so they could start their drive to California early.
Plunkett graduated from the University of Washington and is going to start working on a master’s of fine arts in design at the University of California, Davis.
Plunkett said they had locked up the 15-foot truck they rented and carefully packed. She said they even backed up her 2024 Mazda CX-30 right to the rented van to stop anyone from stealing from the backs of either vehicle.
WATCH | Woman pleads for return of father’s ashes, belongings stolen during Belltown U-Haul theft
“I got an alert on my phone at 2:30 saying your car is unlocked,” Plunkett said.
But she did not see that alert until 4 a.m. when her stepdad was getting up to leave.
I came outside and I went, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s a broken window,’ and my stepdad went, ‘Where is the U-Haul?’” Plunkett said. “Like where is all the stuff we worked on packing yesterday?
She immediately called the police and filed a report, and then called U-Haul.
She said U-Haul told her that truck did not have GPS, so there was no way of knowing where it was.
The police officer who came to take the report told her they’ve responded to a number of similar thefts recently throughout downtown Seattle, in West Seattle and other neighborhoods, Plunkett said.
“He said it’s usually people who do not have a super developed, thought-out system,” Plunkett said. “They’re usually smart enough to be able to hotwire a car and then maybe pawn some of the more expensive electronic stuff off.”
Since she found out the U-Haul was taken, she recruited friends and family to search online for her stuff being sold: a MacBook Pro, an electric bike, skis and ski boots and more.
“For the 15-foot truck, I’m not sure if it’s something to do with the configuration or like the engine underneath or if it’s easier to hotwire, but the 15-foot trucks are like the biggest culprit of what tends to get hotwired,” Plunket said she was told by U-Haul over the phone.
Plunkett told KOMO News that she was partially living with her dad until his death, and the furniture stolen was from his place.
But more than the items stolen, all she really wanted was to get her dad’s ashes back.
“I just want everyone to know immediately that is literally the most important thing,” Plunkett said. “And I’ve lost it and I need it.”
Plunkett and her family were willing to pay a reward to anyone who offered up information for the return of her dad’s ashes.