Help Renton mom, teen rebuild after all belongings are stolen

Renton mom has all her belongings stolen out of U-Haul

A single mom and her teen daughter are trying to build back the foundations of their lives after their U-Haul was stolen-- with "literally everything" they owned inside.

RENTON, Wash. - A single mom and her teen daughter are trying to build back the foundations of their lives after their U-Haul was stolen-- with "literally everything" they owned inside.

On June 2, Yolanda Mitchell told Renton officers that she had rented a 20-foot U-Haul for her and her daughter's belongings so they could get into a new home. When she woke up on Saturday, the U-Haul was not in front of her home where she parked it.

The broken glass around where the truck would have been told her everything.

She told FOX 13 that the U-Haul had everything they owned in it, from furniture to clothes, to irreplaceable things like school pictures and a pocket watch from Mitchell's grandfather before he passed. There were also things like school transcripts and birth certificates in there.

"They took things that were very special to me & things that I can't buy like old pictures of my daughter, sentimental gifts and overall my peace of mind," she wrote on GoFundMe. "The material things are replaceable, but some things aren't. I am a single mother raising a teenage girl that has to live through this traumatic event."

Kent Police later located the U-Haul, but whoever stole it had cleaned it out. Mitchell said that the only things she saw were some scattered items around the back of the truck, but that was it.

Mitchell is hoping the community can help her replace the essentials so she and her daughter can move into their new apartment. She started a GoFundMe asking for enough to furnish the two-bedroom space.

Her story offers a harsh reminder to never leave a filled moving truck in your driveway or on the street, even if it's locked.

Police are continuing their investigation.