JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Cliff Brown made his home in Atlantic Beach for more than 30 years. When his wife passed away two years ago, with a heavy heart, he sold their house in June 2022.
Brown moved in with a friend and decided to store his personal belongings, including his wife's ashes, at the "Public Storage" at the corner of San Pablo and Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville.
"They were paid promptly by Chase Bank for nine months and then all of sudden they said Chase declined payment," Brown explained.
When that happened, Brown says an employee at the storage facility ended up throwing out his personal belongings, like family photo albums, and auctioning off the rest. Thankfully, his wife's ashes were saved. He values his material belongings at $12,000. Brown says his family items are priceless.
"All of my personal belongings they threw it in the garbage," Brown said.
Brown says his storage payment was on autopay with Chase Bank. He says the storage company claims they didn't receive a payment for two months and tried to contact him about the issue. But, he said he never received any messages.
Brown provided a letter from Chase Bank that says the last payment to Public Storage was in February 2023 and the bank never declined any charges.
"I would like them to take ownership for what they've done and compensate me for my material goods that they sold and made money off of," Brown added.
The Ask Anthony team looked into the issue. It is legal for a storage company to auction off or throw away your items for non-payment, as long as they try to contact you about the situation.
We have been trying to get in touch with Public Storage to see if there was a possible error in Brown's situation. We've called multiple times and emailed the company. We did reach someone who said they were the manager at the San Pablo location, but they wouldn't answer any questions and directed us to the corporate office.
No one at the corporate office has returned our calls.