A Fort Myers dance studio owner is distraught after learning all her props and prized possessions were auctioned off just days away from her winter recital.
Nancy Galante who owns Turning Pointe Dance Theatre says she's been a customer at ValueGuard Self-Storage for more than six years. Recently, the company was taken over by new ownership, the company is now called Midgard. About two weeks ago, she went to the self-storage facility to retrieve items to start setting up for her annual Nutcracker recital, but an employee informed her that two storage units had been auctioned.
"He goes, well, your stuff was sold at auction," Galante said. "I couldn't believe it. I couldn't stop from crying."
Galante says ornaments, huge stage props, dozens of dance costumes, and family heirlooms were stored in those units.
"Apparently without my knowledge since there's new ownership, they created a 30 day move out policy without payment, they never sent me a new contract, never notified existing customers of a new policy," Galante said.
"The worst part is they never called me at my business or cell phone, nor did they send me a letter and just decided to auction all my stuff through Hammer Down Auction."
Galante tells Four In Your Corner ValueGuard Storage has been automatically debiting her account for the past six years, on a monthly basis. However, bank records show the last time, Midguard, the new company charged Galante was back in August 2016.
"For the past six years, money has been taken from my account automatically. I had no idea something was wrong. I never got a call and I never got any notice," Galante said. "I've faithfully been paying every single month for the past 6 years. Why wouldn't they just give me a call?"
Galante says she had no idea there was anything wrong with her account until the day she showed up to the storage facility to retrieve some of her items.
"I still can't believe it,"she said. "When I went to speak with the employee he was able to pull up my account and phone number, so why couldn't they just give me a call? Our scenery for our Nutcracker performance is now gone. They had no right to make money off of my belongings."
Four In Your Corner went to Midguard and was told someone in management would return our calls.
The owner of the company called us a few hours later telling us he is not in the business to make money off of people and would be looking into this incident deeper. He stated that after a quick review it has been recorded that three certified letters were sent to Galante. He also says an employee has tried calling Galante three times every month to restore her delinquent account.
Galante says none of this is true.
Four in Your Corner has requested copies of the certified letters and dates phone calls were made to compare Galante's phone records. The owner of Midguard says he will give FOX 4 access to view necessary documents.
Count on Four In Your Corner to update this story with new information as soon as we get it.
