Tracy Swack thought she had a great deal when she found a used trailer at a yard sale for $650. But that deal went sour after a U-haul rep informed her it was stolen.
For the last four years, Tracy has volunteered and been an independent contractor for Sole for Souls, the area non-profit that gets shoes and clothing to those in economically challenged countries to help residents work toward economic independence.
Tracy has collected more than one million pounds of used clothing and shoes over the years, in part because of a U-Haul trailer she bought at a yard sale.
The trailer enables her to transport more than 3,000 pounds of product weekly from the Upper Cumberland region to Nashville. Recently though, while stopped at a gas station, a U-Haul employee ran the registration number on the trailer and told Tracy it had been stolen.
Police filed the report and Tracy can no longer use the trailer because U-Haul claims it’s still their property even though she has a bill of sale for it.
“It’s useless to me now,” Tracy says.
Without the trailer, Tracy is forced to make multiple trips a week from Cookeville to Nashville to drop off donations at Souls for Soles instead of the single trip she was able to make in the past.
“I just want people to know that they should never buy a used U-Haul trailer,” she says.
Company representatives have told Tracy they want to take repossession of the trailer she bought at a yard sale but so far that hasn’t happened. So for now, it’s sitting in a storage shed in Cookeville, where Tracy has left it afraid of another run in with police.
