Colorado man loses late wife’s ashes and family treasures after reno company fails to pay storage bill
Jeff Hersh of Broomfield, Colorado, says he’s lost nearly everything that mattered to him — from his late wife’s ashes to decades of family memories — after the contents of his storage unit were auctioned off.
It’s a devastating loss, but not as rare as you might think. Each year, about 155,000 storage units are auctioned across the U.S., according to Simply Self Storage (1). That adds up to a $65 million industry built on unclaimed belongings and missed payments.
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For Hersh, it all started last spring when a pipe burst in his neighbor’s condo, flooding the home he’d shared with his daughter since 2001. ServPro, a professional restoration company, stepped in to pack up his belongings — wedding albums, baby books and his wife’s ashes — and moved them to an Extra Space Storage facility for safekeeping.
“They took everything that was in here," Hersh told Steve on Your Side (2). "Furniture. They boxed up all my stuff. They took my desk and they took the drawers and just dumped them into boxes."
When payments on the unit allegedly fell behind, the contents were sold at auction on September 3, 2025. Since then, Hersh says getting answers — or any chance of getting his life back — has been a nightmare.
"I'm really upset. I'm heartbroken. I'm devastated, angry," Hersh said.
When temporary storage becomes a permanent loss
Hersh spent six long months living in a hotel while his condo was repaired. When it was finally time to move home, he called ServPro to retrieve his belongings. That’s when things took an unexpected turn.
"I'm sorry, all your belongings are gone,” the manager of ServPro allegedly told Heresh.
Hersh dreaded breaking the news to his daughter — that all her childhood keepsakes and photos of her mother had vanished.
“That was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to tell my daughter since I had to tell her that her mom died,” he said.
According to Hersh, the confusion began when the storage facility changed ownership while his items were inside, switching from CubeSmart to Extra Space Storage. ServPro, he said, was never informed of the change — and that may have led to his belongings being auctioned off.
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