SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (Jan. 10) - After serving a year in Iraq , Army Reserve Spc. Patrick Rogalin came home and found that everything he had put in a storage locker - essentially everything he owned - had been sold.
Army Reserve Spc. Patrick Rogalin returned from Iraq to find that a storage company had auctioned off essentially everything he owned.
Several payments for the locker had bounced because someone emptied his checking account while he was gone.
"It's really insulting, after all I went through over there serving my country, to come back and have to deal with this," Rogalin said.
Rogalin, 20, said he put his belongings into a Public Storage unit near St. Louis before shipping out and set up automatic payments with the company. But while he was in Iraq, he said, someone accessed his checking account and cleaned it out.
After learning of the problem from his bank, Rogalin opened a different account and resumed making payments to Public Storage.
"When I got back I called Public Storage to find out the status of my account and they told me the contents of my storage container had been auctioned off in June because the bill hadn't been paid," he said.
Rogalin said Public Storage never told him his account was in trouble, or that everything he owned - clothes, books, electronic gear, furniture and other property - was going to be sold.
HE said he had to move in with his girlfriend. "Otherwise I wouldn't have anything."
Ron Ramler, regional vice president of Public Storage, said company policy prevented him from talking about Rogalin's case.
Rogalin said his contract with Public Storage, based in Glendale, Calif., says the company is liable for losses up to $5,000, but he said the company offered him only $2,000 and an apology. Rogalin estimates his belongings were worth $8,000.
"I called them back and told them this isn't anywhere near right," Rogalin said. "They upped their offer to $2,500 and gave me seven days to accept it or get nothing."
He said he rejected the $2,500 but does not have enough money to fight the company in court.
Rogalin still has his car and clothing he brought back from Iraq. His girlfriend, Jaimie Alonzo, 21, and her parents bought him clothes for Christmas.
"At least now I'm not wearing the same three things every week," Rogalin said.
Rogalin said he plans to attend Missouri State and join the university's ROTC program, so he can resume his Army career as an officer after he graduates.