A Marine veteran and his family drove down to San Antonio from Austin to spend Easter holiday, but their getaway turned sour after personal items were stolen from them.
Marine veteran Michael Flores served three tours in Iraq and left the Corps as a disabled veteran.
“He’s got disabled veteran license plates. He’s got U.S. Marine Corps license plate decals. He’s got the insignia. He’s got ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom,'” said his wife, Sarah to Kens5. “They had to have seen it and they were just like, ‘I could give a crap whether you served your country or not. I’m gonna take from you, too.'”
The family went to see a movie and left their trusted YETI cooler securely strapped in the back of their truck, filled with water and soda for the road.
“We’ve had [the YETI] for about three years,” Michael said. “I don’t think it’s ever really left the back of that truck.”
Just before their return to Austin, the family noticed their cooler was missing.
“Where our cooler used to be, it was just our snipped security cable. That was all that was left,” she said.
The family visited the same theater complex the night before and weren’t alarmed by any criminal mischief.
“My husband doesn’t buy a lot of nice stuff for himself, and I’d encouraged him to buy it and he had no problems for three years,” Sarah said. “He had taken [the YETI] everywhere, and someone just took it.”
“We do take every precaution we can, but of course this time it didn’t work,” Michael added.
The cooler went everywhere with them.
“We’ve taken it on family beach trips, we’ve taken it camping, floating the river,” Sarah said. “He takes it every day to work. He works for an asphalt company.”
The local news station made multiple calls to the theater complex, asking for security footage and an interview, but the company did not respond. A police report was filed for the $400 cooler.
“It would be nice to have [another YETI], and obviously they are pretty pricey,” Michael said. “I don’t think I’ll be getting one anytime soon, but I imagine at some point I will.”
The news station reached out to YETI and received a response from the company. They said they’re thankful the family is a fan of their equipment and would happily replace the cooler for the Marine veteran.
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