When Lisa Thomas’s father died in 2019, she placed his ashes in the most secure place she could think of: her storage unit.
Thomas said she endured bouts of homelessness and placed the ashes along with other valuable items in a storage unit in Gordon’s Mini-Storage off Westside Highway.
On Jan. 16, Thomas said her storage unit was broken into, and multiple items, including her father’s ashes, were taken.
The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s department is investigating. Spokesperson Troy Brightbill said no one has been charged in the case.
Thomas, a caregiver who lives in Woodland, is asking for the public’s assistance in finding her father’s missing ashes.
Her father, David Neil Thomas, suffered from “several mini-strokes” before he passed away at the age of 74, she said.
Items taken from her unit also include two Reggie Jackson rookie cards, leather jackets, camping items, an Xbox 360 console, toys, blankets, and her dog’s ashes, she said. Thomas estimates the items totaled $10,000, but the only item she wants back is her dad’s ashes.
There are other items of sentimental value that are still unaccounted for including her mother’s birth certificate and her father’s death certificate, Thomas said.
Since the break-in, Thomas said the sheriff’s office has found and returned some of her stolen items, including a silver case, a large spoon collection, a mirror and workout equipment. The spoons were found in a local pawn shop, she said.
Thomas said she rented the same 10 by 15 storage unit at Gordon’s since 2017 and her unit was locked.
Mike Kyle, 37, who said he serves as the property manager at Gordon’s, said he was checking the lot for garbage and to see if locks were secure, when he noticed items “protruding” from Thomas’s unit. He said there are 331 units on the lot and no other units were broken into that day.
Kyle said he shared security footage with the police, and footage shows a silver SUV near Thomas’s unit.
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