Mother of 8 has a U-Haul with all her belongings inside stolen from Gwinnett hotel

Matt Johnson
·2 min read

A mother of eight packed up her family to move to a new state, but she’s now hoping to get her belongings back after a thief drove off with a moving truck from a Duluth hotel with everything inside.

“That’s a worst nightmare for a mom,” said Shanna Sanon, who is in the process of relocating to Gwinnett County.

Sanon says her large family needed a large truck to hold everything they own during a move from out of state.

She told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson just took a job in Gwinnett County and her family was staying at the Sonesta Extended Stay in Duluth on Friday before planning to move into their new home.

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That’s when Gwinnett County police say someone found a way into their 26-foot rented U-Haul and drove off with it.

“It’s just been a hard transition for a mom,” she said. “That’s not something you want to tell your children, that you’ve lost it all.”

She says she’s not sure how the thief was able to get inside the truck because she and her husband made sure it was locked.

“We definitely had everything locked,” she said. “We had a padlock on the back of the truck.”

On Tuesday, she got some good news. Atlanta police recovered the U-Haul truck off Flat Shoals Road and Fayetteville Road.

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Police weren’t able to get inside because of the damage to it before it ended up in a tow yard.

“They’re not sure as to what is in there,” she said. “We’re just bracing for the news.”

She says they’ve been basically living with the clothes on their backs since Friday.

Their focus is now on being able to salvage what was found. She started a GoFundMe to help buy things that may end up needing to be replaced.

“We’re hoping everything is in there so we don’t have to start over,” she said.

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