KALAMAZOO, Mich. – A local recruit will return home from Marine boot camp to find that all of his belongings have been thrown in the dumpster.
Brenda Clifford said her son, Trey Clifford, enlisted in the Marines back in December of 2012. She said he was living at The Bronco Club Apartment complex in Kalamazoo when he found out that he would be heading to California for training in April.
Brenda said her son gave his apartment complex 30 days notice, then made a payment, covering his rent for the entire month of April.
When Trey left on April 22, his family went to pick his belongings up from his apartment and bring them home. However, when they arrived on the following day, the locks on the door had been changed, and their son’s stuff had already been moved out.
“Basically, they said, ‘well, all of his stuff is gone. We threw it all in the dumpster,'” Brenda said.
Brenda said the Bronco Club told her they had to clean out the apartment because they had a new tenant coming in on May 1. She said her son’s entire wardrobe was in the apartment, along with several pairs of shoes, hunting clothes and snowboard gear.
“He’s got his football jersey, his basketball jersey, things that can’t be replaced,” she said.
FOX 17 stopped by The Bronco Club, but the office was closed, so we left a message. It went unanswered. However, when we called on Wednesday the manager answered. She declined to comment on the situation.
Then, Brenda said a couple weeks after learning their son’s stuff was gone, they got another surprise: a letter from the apartment indicating that they were keeping Trey’s $200 deposit, plus a bill for an additional $66. Part of that bill, included a cleaning and disposal fee, things Brenda said the family was going to take care of the day they went to the apartment.
“If they would’ve called and said ‘do you have all your stuff out?’ We would’ve said ‘no’ and came to get it out,” Brenda said.
Trey has not been told about the incident because his family is not able to contact him until he comes home in July.
In the meantime, the family said they’ve hired an attorney.
“It’s aggravating to us. Not even so much as an apology [from the apartment],” Brenda said.
