A Georgia couple was left devastated after thieves stole their U-Haul moving truck — which held an urn filled with their infant son’s ashes.
Ben and Kassandra Benton were asleep at a LaQuinta hotel in Covington on Wednesday, when the U-Haul holding all their possessions was stolen from the parking lot, WAGA reported.
A military family, they had been moving to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Today.com reported.
“It feels like we are losing him all over again,” Benton told Today of her six-month-old son, Wyatt.
The baby had been born premature, and died of a brain infection after a long hospital battle, the family told Today.
The van was later found abandoned in a park, 30 minutes from the hotel. The thieves had taken everything inside except for some black plastic bags filled with clothes.
Surveillance video showed a dark SUV and a gray car pull up next to the truck outside the hotel at around 1:20 a.m. Wednesday, according to WAGA.
A man wearing a gray hoodie then got out of the SUV and approached the truck to hop inside and drive off, the outlet reported.
Cops say they are searching for at least three suspects.
“We of course are grateful our family is okay, but he was a big part of our lives,” the mom said of Wyatt.
A reward is being set up by Covington Police for any information leading to an arrest, Today reported.
“I just beg whoever took him to have a heart,” the mom told Today.
“Imagine it being their own kid or family member that they love and think about how they would feel. Please just return him. We don’t even care if they drop him somewhere that someone would recognize and let us have him back,” she said.