On Friday, Tulsa Police began calling more than a dozen burglary victims across the city to tell them that they had found some of their property in storage units across the city.
The discovery came after TPD arrested Roy Biggerstaff on Thursday at an east Tulsa motel on burglary and other charges. Police say documents inside a motel room alerted them to the motel rooms.
Marissa Coriell is one of those victims.
“From the beginning I said, ‘God is on our side, we're going to get it back,’” Coriell told FOX23.
Last month, the office near 15th and Memorial where Coriell and her husband Alexander run their charity, Unbroken International, was burglarized. Police say Biggerstaff got away with plenty of stuff that helps this office provide for children in need overseas.
“(He took) computers, printers, files, a desk, our birth certificates, our marriage license, all kinds of things he could use to steal our identity.”
TPD was at a SecurCare Self Storage facility near 41st and Mingo all day Friday. Corporal Gene Watkins says they found the stolen property of around 17 people and businesses, including Unbroken International, inside one of the units
“(I was) so shocked and so excited that something might still be here, and I might be able to use it again,” Alexander said.
Watkins says TPD has found several units across the city where Biggerstaff may have been hiding loot.
“It will probably be next week before we're done hitting all of them and collecting all of (the stolen goods).”
Friday's call is an unexpected blessing for the Coriell’s, but not one they counted on. They say they'd already moved on from the break-in.
“I decided that it was just stuff, and if I don't get it back I still have myself and my family,” Alexander told FOX23.
The couple says while the returned property is a relief, there is still a large amount of property from the Unbroken International office that hasn't been recovered yet.
“I am excited that we got this stuff back, if we get the rest of the stuff, that's bonus to me,” Alexander said.
Tulsa Police say they will call victims whose property has been recovered at the various storage units across town, and they ask that you please don't call them.
To visit the Coriell’s charity, please click here:
http://www.unbrokenlife.org/
