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Mourning mother wants to be free of Beal Properties’ lease after being burglarized

Tierra Jelks came home from her nine-month-old son’s funeral to find the lock on her door broken; a burglar walked into her apartment and stole her life’s material belongings.

TOLEDO (WTOL) -A Toledo woman demanding action from her landlord after being burglarized has been freed from her lease.

Beal Properties management say Tierra Jelks moved the last of her belongings from her apartment on Friday morning and turned in the key. Since she has surrendered possession of the apartment back over to them, they say they will free her from her lease.

Tierra Jelks came home from her 9-month-old son's funeral last Thursday to find the lock on her door broken. She lives in the Torrey Park Apartments in South Toledo.

"I didn't feel safe to stay here with my house not being secure, but if I would have known that coming home, everything would be gone, all my kids’ stuff... And they took all my son's belongings that I wanted to keep and cherish,” she said.

Jelks came back to her home last Saturday, two days after her son's funeral, when she found nearly every one of her family’s belongings stolen. Furniture, clothing, stereo equipment, the stove and refrigerator -- even her son’s diapers and her kids' social security cards and birth certificates --- gone.

“They took my snacks,” Jelks young daughter said, looking up at the empty kitchen cabinets. “They took everything,” she said.

Jelks says she called apartment management Beal Properties twice and left a voicemail. She visited their office and turned in a work order to have the lock on her door fixed. Yet she says she got no sense of urgency from her landlord. Maintenance did not fix the lock until it was too late.

"They feel like my security wasn't important enough for them to come out when I called them to fix it,” Jelks said.

Jelks wanted Beal Properties to release her from her leasing agreement. She says they failed to perform necessary, emergency repairs. Her mom shares her frustration. "They didn't hold up to their end of her being a tenant here. They knew that it was an emergency. We dealing with losing a child, just losing a child was enough,” Jelks’ mother said.

Jelks also says painful memories of her baby son linger at the apartment. After the burglary, she wants a fresh start for her family. "Next step is moving, and trying to at least get some stuff, a little bit of stuff for my kids for Christmas so they can at least enjoy that part,” Jelks said.

ack at this time.

Now, a Beal Properties manager says they did not know about the lock being broken on Jelks’ door until she filed a work order around 10:30 last Friday morning. They say maintenance did visit Jelks’ apartment to fix the lock around noon on Saturday -- over 24 hours later after she called the emergency number.

They tell WTOL Jelks did call them and visit the office, but she said nothing about the lock, instead asking to be let out of her lease due to the painful memories of her son’s death.

Toledo Police Detectives are investigating the burglary. WTOL will continue to follow up with them for answers.

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