MILWAUKEE, Wis. — One woman's belongings have been damaged while inside a storage unit.
"My goal is at least to get the information out there," Hamilton said.
Kim Hamilton contacted TMJ4 after discovering her items inside a Storage Mart unit were severely damaged by water and covered in mold.
Hamilton has been renting the unit at Storage Mart on Layton Avenue since March. On August 9, the day before historic floods hit the area, she came to retrieve some of her belongings.
"It was hot, it wasn't as cool as it was now. The smell you're getting right now— it was like 10 times worse," Hamilton explained.
When Hamilton entered her unit, which was advertised as climate-controlled, she discovered extensive damage.
"There were boxes full of stuff that were soaking wet from the bottom, we had to just toss everything in the box," Hamilton said. "We had things in tubs that were like, there was mold on top of the tubs."
Hamilton said she also found rat feces and cockroaches in the unit.
"Everything that my husband and I owned in there," Hamilton said, describing the extent of the damage. "This table right here with the mildew on it that you can see, that's from the 1930s from my great grandparents."
Hamilton said there was no communication from Storage Mart about any issues with the unit.
"There was no communication. How am I supposed to know what damaged the stuff? Cause I didn't go in there for months. Last time I went in there, it was climate control and everything was working," Hamilton said.
Watch: Customer loses irreplaceable family heirlooms and other items damaged in storage unit
After making phone calls and sending emails to Storage Mart, Hamilton said she received disappointing news.
"Basically, a big 'No, we're not covering anything for you. We don't care what the damage was, you signed a contract, and the contract voids what was damaged,'" Hamilton said.
According to Hamilton's contract for the climate-controlled unit, the temperature is at the discretion of the operator. The contract states that "these spaces do not provide constant internal temperature or humidity control."
"Then what's the point of stating it's climate-controlled?" Hamilton asked.
Hamilton also had insurance on the unit, which she said Storage Mart required. However, that insurance covers virtually nothing.
"It's upsetting and frustrating because, how are you gonna replace everything?" Hamilton said.
TMJ4 called Storage Mart's management office in Missouri several times Thursday and left voice mails, but we have not received a response.
"My goal is at least to get the information out there so that other people who don't know, or who do know, and think it just happened to them, know that it didn't just happen to them," Hamilton added.
This story was reported on-air by Jenna Rae and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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