Risky Business: ACB Storage - Eminence, KY

One would think that something as common as renting a storage building from an established company in order to safely store your belongings wouldn't be considered taking a huge risk, but if you're renting a unit from ACB Storage in Eminence, that isn't exactly the case. You may just find yourself up a creek without a paddle...or a bed to sleep in for that matter.

In February, I moved in with my boyfriend and rented unit #59 from ACB. Being as my boyfriend's house was already furnished, I put everything I had into that unit...minus my summer clothes, my couch and my kitchen table. Everything that I'd accumulated and purchased since I've lived on my own went into that unit. I bought a plastic storage bin just for the items of mine that had sentimental value that I wanted to keep from getting wet & damaged, made sure that it was placed up off the floor and as far as I knew, my things were in good shape and safe. Now, I did have a couple of complaints during the time my things were there, such as a car being parked directly in front of my unit preventing me from getting in a few times, and then a couple of weeks ago I attempted to take my desk there and the gates were closed a half hour before they should have been according to my contract, but nothing too crazy. 

At least until Sunday, July 28^th  when received a call from a friend of mine stating that my canceled checks were blowing about in the breeze in ACB's parking lot. She didn't know my unit number to be able to check and see if it was still locked and safe, but she encouraged me to go check it out myself. I immediately thought, "Oh crap, did I forget to pay them this month?!" and got online to look at my bank account. Upon finding the transactions for each and every one of the 6 months that I had rented the unit, I went to ACB to check on my things. Sure enough, the lock was gone, the unit was empty.

At this point, we had no idea if the unit had been robbed or if the owners had cleaned it out. All we knew was that everything I owned was gone. We eventually got the cell phone number of Gary Cook, the owner of ACB Storage, and got him on the phone. He was not cooperative, stating that he didn't work on Sundays, and that we'd have to come and talk to him the next morning. Receiving no help what-so-ever from Gary, we called the State Police. Upon their arrival, they were able to get Gary back on the phone and find out that he had indeed, ordered my unit to be cleaned out the previous Thursday because, according to him, we owed him over $2,000. (ACB Storage failed to mention this to me upon my calling three days prior due to the locked gates.) Of course, having the unit since Feb. 14^th at $50 per month, it was impossible to owe him $2,000. He was nice enough upon talking to the State Trooper, to allow us to go look in the dumpsters for anything that was salvageable. He told the State Trooper that we could meet with him the next morning to, in his words, "work something out". 

We drove around to the back of the property, and sure enough found my life in this Gary Cook's dumpster. And it wasn't just thrown away; it was all destroyed, busted up and broken, and thrown away. The tub that I had purchased to keep my sentimental items safe, was opened, and dumped into the bottom of the dumpster. My checks, including account number, routing number, address and phone number were laid out beside the dumpster for the world to see. We spent 4 hours that night in that gross dumpster trying to find the things that I couldn't replace, the filing cabinet that held my diploma, tons of records, and anything that had my personal information on it. Of course, after three days in a dumpster, all the things that I did find were damaged, and my filing cabinet wasn't anywhere to be found.  

On Monday, we went to meet with Gary Cook to "work something out". He expressed his sympathies, apologized and explained that while the record and receipt books were correct, there was a "glitch" in his computer system that caused my unit to show up in a report due to the fact that the people who rented the unit before me owed them money. He told us to think about what was lost, come up with a dollar figure and that he would make it right. Upon being asked about the things that were in the unit that didn't make it to the dumpster, he stated that he had let people go through my things, and that he couldn't account for those items because the property were the dumpsters are isn't gated, and anyone could have taken my things. Before leaving we asked him to ask his employees if they had any idea where my filing cabinet could have ended up...we were told that "it was behind the dumpster". The employee walked outside, and within five minutes was back with my dented up filing cabinet, still full of papers that weren't wet like everything else of mine that was in and around the dumpster. (And for the record, upon checking through almost 100 pictures that we took the night before, there was no sign of my filing cabinet anywhere close to that dumpster.) Gary was nice enough that day to refund the $50 I had paid him two weeks earlier that should have kept me in good standing until August 15^th. Bless his heart. 

Monday afternoon we contacted and spoke with a lawyer, just to get advice on how to go about putting things together for Gary to show him what was lost and the values when we returned with our request. The lawyer advised us to find pictures of my things in good condition in my house, take pictures of my things destroyed in the dumpster, and to go online and find something comparable to replace it with. He said to total all of that up and go back organized and ready. That's exactly what we did. Not taking into account the things that I couldn't replace, and not including a value on the sentimental things that were lost & destroyed, not even being ridiculous and picking super expensive replacements for the things that we could actually replace - the damages totaled a little over $8,000.

 

Wednesday afternoon, we went back to see Gary with our itemized list and pictures just as we were advised to do. He took one look at the list and said we were asking for way too much and slung the list back across the desk at us. He said that he was willing to go $1500, and not a dime over.(I wonder if he would be okay with me walking into his house, destroying everything he owned for no reason whatsoever, and handing him $1500 to make up for it? I think not!) We politely gathered up our information, let him know that our lawyer would be in contact with him, and walked out.

We met with our lawyer yesterday, and we are educated and advised on the best way to about getting the most that we can back from this guy. Our lawyers best advice was to put as much pressure on them as we could and speak to the county attorney about a possible criminal case. We plan on doing exactly that, but until then we intend on spreading the word in every way we can. 

• please visit for proof (pictures, contract & receipts): https://www.facebook.com/riskybusinessacbstorage
  
• please email troubleshooter@wave3.com and ask them for investigative reporting in Eminence, KY!
  
• please inform anyone you know that does business with this company that they need to call 502-845-1304 immediately to check on their accounts!