EXCLUSIVE: Another report of missing items from SF luxury apartments; recovered after ABC7's inquiry
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Another resident is now reporting missing items from his 33 Tehama luxury San Francisco apartments. This time after movers hired by the building packed his belongings.
For the past four days, Ivan Cornish has been contacting 33 Tehama trying to get a straight answer.
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"I was really hoping that this nightmare situation would end on Sunday when I actually moved," said Cornish.
When Cornish arrived at his new apartment he realized several items were missing.
"Once we started unpacking everything we noticed that some of the things that were in the apartment when we left were not in the boxes we were unpacking," said Cornish. "Items that had a lot of sentimental value."
In a letter, 33 Tehama promises to document the moving process since residents are not allowed in the building, "the content of your home will be photographed for documentation prior to packing and storage."
Cornish also emailed the building confirming access to his apartment for the movers and reiterated: "We do so with the understanding that we will be provided with visual evidence of the state of the items in the apartment before anything is moved."
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Ivan said he never received that proof or documentation.
"What I'm most bothered about is that we were promised a lot of things to ensure the safety of our belongings," said Cornish. "I'm worried that there were even more things that we haven't realized."
Last week, Hines senior managing director agreed to speak to us to address theft inside a vacant apartment by one of their contractors. Foreseeing an incident like Cornish's case we also asked:
Luz Pena: "Who is going to pay for either damaged or stolen items potentially during a move?"
Paul Paradis: "Well just like in any move situation I'm sure there is insurance. I'll get back to you but we will make sure that any damages are taken care of."
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San Francisco supervisor Matt Dorsey sent a letter to Hines requesting more transparency with the two floods and theft. On Thursday, he urged more residents to come forward.
"I have spoken to the chief and to the assistant chief at SFPD. They have assured me that there is going to be a designated investigator who is going to look at all this, but they can only investigate what they know about. So if there are missing items for the residents of 33 Tehama it's going to be very important that they report those to the police department," said Matt Dorsey, San Francisco Supervisor.
Hines did reply after ABC7 News inquired about the missing items and said some of Cornish's belongings were left behind in the apartment by the moving company. Right before the 6 p.m. newscast Cornish sent a photo. Hines delivered most of the missing items to his new place. He is still missing a small photo book.
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Regarding the photos or videos Hines promised residents during the moves, they said those are meant "for documentation" in case there's a claim for insurance or complaints to the police, but this resident is asking for more transparency.
Hines released the statement below in response to this incident:
"We are happy to report that Mr.Cornish's tools have been located. They were found yesterday and he should have been contacted by now to make arrangements to have them delivered to him. The movers did not check under the kitchen sink initially, so they missed them when packing up his apartment. We also located a cane that he had left in the apartment. He has our apologies for the oversight.
The videos and photos are made to document the contents of the residences and are made available if there are any issues about damages or missing property. They would be made available to put in claims for insurance or complaints to the police.
The violation notice submitted by DBI on August 16, was issued because of the second water incident at the building on August 10. It indicated that we would need to obtain permits in order to begin work to fix it. This is a standard notice when there is an issue with a building. All work conducted at 33 Tehama is being done with all the proper permits."
