‘There was nothing in our apartment’: Woman’s apartment cleaned out by mistake

By Sarah Fili

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    LA VISTA, Nebraska (KETV) — A La Vista woman unlocked the front door of her apartment to find everything gone.

She’d just moved in the week before and someone else helped her move out on accident.

“I knew something was wrong right when I walked in the door and saw my mat was gone,” Stephanie Gunia said.

Gunia had just put her key in the lock Thursday.

It was a long week, moving into her new apartment, and working 50 plus hours at her job.

She’d picked up her three kids and was ready to relax at home.

“We walked in and there was nothing in our apartment except for a mattress,” Gunia said. “My kids’ stuff was gone, their clothes, everything.”

She panicked and said the apartment management told her to call the police thinking she’d been burglarized.

“The officer looked, all the windows were locked, the front door was locked. There was no sign of forced entry or anything like that,” Gunia said.

A neighbor told Gunia he’d seen people moving things out of her place and into the trash.

“Our stuff was in five of the seven dumpsters. I just went grocery shopping the day before, all that food is ruined, food was mixed in with the toys, and there was like beer and trash “gooze” all over my kids’ stuff, our clothes. My kids were crying because they were scared, they don’t know what’s going on, they don’t know why somebody threw their stuff away in a trash can,” Gunia said.

Gunia asked staff at the complex.

“They said they got the wrong apartment. They cleaned out the wrong apartment,” she said.

La Vista police said the complex hired a company to clear out an apartment but movers hit Gunia’s unit instead.

Richdale, which manages Inwood Village apartments, said in a statement “We are working with a resident who had some of her possessions mistakenly placed in a dumpster prior to the completion of her moving into her apartment. We believe almost all of her possessions were retrieved. Any missing items will be replaced at our expense. A $250.00 gift card was issued to the resident immediately upon our discovery of our team’s mistake.”

Gunia said it’s a start but money won’t fix how her kids feel.

“I’m upset and pissed off honestly, and to see my kids hurt is what hurt me the most, and I have an autistic and ADHD son and he just doesn’t understand,” Gunia said.

Gunia says her kids are scared to go back to the apartment and she’s not comfortable with letting them sleep on the mattresses police and staff pulled out of the dumpster even if they are cleaned. She said not all of her items were recovered, including cash that was in the apartment.

She said as a single mom, money is tight and this put unnecessary stress on her family.

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