News 12 at 6, April 15, 2008

AUGUSTA--An Evans man left some furniture to be sold at a local consignment shop, only to later find the shop closed and his furniture nowhere to be found.

So he called 12 On Your Side for help.

When Gary Veidt dropped off his dining room set at a local consignment shop, he was hoping to make a little money off of it. Instead, he says it pulled a magic act and disappeared.

He had left his dining room set at The Consignment Shop on Central Avenue.

But when he came to check on it. The lights were off, the door was locked and the message was clear. The shop was not open.

"The phone number is disconnected." he said.

Gary and his wife dropped the set off here because they bought a new dining room set. But now, they wanted to make a donation to a friend.

"There is someone who really needs it. We wanted to give it to them." he said.

So they came to take it away, but the shop more resembled a ghost town than a thriving business. It looks like the owners simply locked up one night and never returned.

So Gary called 12 On Your Side.

As luck would have it, we ended up tracking down the store's owner, Betty Pendel. She set up a meeting to let Gary come pick up his stuff. She says she shut down the store last summer because of health and financial issues.

Gary looked, looked and looked some more.

"I don't think that's it." he said while looking at a table set.

But unfortunately, his dining room set was nowhere to be found. The owner said she would check her records at home to see what happened.

We talked to Gary a few weeks later and it turns out the furniture had been sold. Gary and his wife got $1300 for the sale. It's money he says he never could have gotten without 12 On Your Side.