Local family says priceless furniture was ruined in storage unit

Here’s a warning about what can happen when you don't check “yes” for insurance on a contract.

A young family says everything they worked towards was destroyed while in a storage unit.

“We did everything that we wanted, we built pretty much our dream home,” said Maggie Chemers of Lockport.

Maggie and her family were all set to move into that dream home a few weeks ago. But that all changed when movers started unloading their furniture.

“The feeling that just came over me when I started seeing everything was - and hopefully I don't get emotional about it right now but - I can't even put it in to words,” Maggie said.

Dark spots and water damage on pieces with priceless memories.

“Our son's crib, our daughter's crib, my daughter's furniture, just completely taken over by mold,” Maggie said.

She stored it all at a Public Storage Center in Lisle, thinking it'd be protected. But she says moisture getting into the unit over the course of several months slowly ruined her furniture.

“Everything that we had worked for our entire lives was destroyed,” Maggie said.

She thought her homeowners insurance policy would cover her, so she bypassed the offer from public storage. But the insurance company says they were out of luck.

“They told us that because the mold happened over time, and it wasn't an immediate catastrophic thing…they wouldn't cover it. It wasn't one of the 17 perils that they covered under their policy. So we just felt trapped. And helpless,” Maggie said.

Now, the family is slowing putting their home together with new furniture, new memories and a hard lesson learned.

“I don't ever want anybody else to go through what we went through,” Maggie said.

FOX 32 reached out to public storage for comment, but haven't heard back.