TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida family's home was flooded during Hurricane Helene so they salvaged what they could and placed belongings in a storage facility while they repaired their home. Last week, Tampa resident Laura Gattis went to the unit at a local Public Storage to find it cleared out, and the front desk informed her everything had been auctioned off that morning. She said she was never notified. "When I pulled up to the unit, the door was wide open and there was nothing in there, except for three boxes," Gattis said. "It just had some albums and pictures in there and I just lost my mind." She said she pleaded with the storage facility worker. "She said, 'Oh we haven't received your rent payment.' I'm like no, it's been on autopay," Gattis said. WMO retires Helene from hurricane naming system Gattis said she was told the autopay stopped working, and two payments were missed — and that it was the customer's responsibility to know that. "We didn't receive any letters," Gattis said. "We don't have any email records." "I'm not concerned about the pots and pans. I'm concerned about the things we just can't replace," she said. "Just things of my children, letters and just milestones along the way, awards. Things that are the threads of our lives. Things that kind of shape who we are." Consumer Investigator Shannon Behnken went to the public storage office to find out what happened and eventually spoke with a representative by phone who said email notification was sent. Florida law requires storage facilities to notify renters before an auction but states an email is sufficient and a letter must be sent only if the email didn't go through. The storage facility insists they sent emails, and those emails weren't bounced back. Gattis said she asked for proof of those emails and has not received it yet. She added that the facility previously sent a letter about a rate change, so she questioned why something this serious did not warrant a letter. Meanwhile, after questions from Behnken, Gattis said she received a call from a representative and told they reached out to the winning bidder and explained the situation and passed along Gattis' phone number. Gattis says she hopes that person will call her. She says she's willing to pay to buy back her personal items. "I don't even care about the expensive items," she said. "They can sell those. I just want the personal belongings with sentimental value." ...read more read less