Florida-bound couple loses 'everything' when moving truck is stolen in Macon

Jerry Harris was taking his dog, Arial, a Chinese crested powder puff, for a walk Saturday morning when his heart sank.

He and his wife, Diane, had stopped for the night at the Red Roof Inn off Arkwright Road along Interstate 75 in north Macon. They were on their way to Florida, moving down from Iowa to live in retirement near the Gulf Coast north of Tampa.

Their Penske rental truck with all their belongings in it was hitched to a trailer towing their 2014 Toyota Venza.

But as they were about to head south about 6 a.m. Saturday, while Jerry was walking the dog, he looked over toward a corner of the motel parking lot and noticed that the truck and car were gone.

Jerry, 67, an electrician and Air Force veteran, said, "I've never had a feeling like that in my stomach."

In recent weeks, at least two other Penske rental trucks have been reported stolen from Macon motels. Two were swiped on the city's west side near Interstate 475.

On Sunday, the Harris' car and the truck hauling it turned up in the parking lot of an Atlanta-area Dollar General.

The Harrises hail from Wever, Iowa, a small town in the southeastern part of that state near the Mississippi River.

They'd continued on to their home in Hudson, Florida, on Saturday but drove back to Georgia on Monday after the police called to say they'd found the truck.

As the Harrises traveled back to Florida on Tuesday, Diane Harris said by phone, "I guess you'd call us one of the lucky ones."

They were riding in their once-stolen rental truck, hauling their car on a trailer behind them. Their belongings, some of them anyway, were on board in the truck's storage bay and stowed in the car.

A Bibb County sheriff's report of the theft noted that the culprits made off with two television sets, $3,000 cash, passports, their marriage license and other important papers, not to mention household items and tools.

The report said "everything that they owned" was either in the truck or packed in their Toyota.

It also mentioned $75,000 worth of missing jewelry, but Diane said that was a mistake, that she didn't have nearly that much.

"Forty years of our life was in that truck," she said. "When we picked up the truck, (the thieves) had taken everything out of it and what they didn't want they threw back in."

Their clothes were among the belongings the thieves left behind.

"We're just devastated," Diane said. "We're still in shock. We have no idea what we have lost, what we have left. You're not gonna know that until we unload the vehicle."

As Jerry put it, "They invaded us."

Diane said the culprits were apparently out for "quick-sell" items.

"These people are gonna continue as long as they can get away with it," Diane said.

"They're not making a very good name for Macon."

To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.

This story was originally published January 19, 2016 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Florida-bound couple loses 'everything' when moving truck is stolen in Macon ."