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Arkansas mom has memories stolen after robbery of storage unit

"I'll never see her handwriting again. I'll never be able to just go and open up that journal and read those things and feel her right beside me again."

CONWAY, Ark. — A string of break-ins at one specific storage unit in Conway is leaving the community with a lot of questions. 

But for Karen Dingman, the theft isn't about the money she lost, it's about the memories.

"I'll never see her handwriting again. I'll never have be able to just go and open up that journal and read those things and feel her right beside me again," she said.

It's items that Dingman can't truly put a price tag on.

"They took rings that belonged to her grandmother, that she never got to really meet," she said.

Items that Dingman can't buy in a store.

"They took candy that was bought for her the day that she died, her wallet that had the last bit of her allowance in it," she said.

These precious belongings and memories were the only pieces Dingman had let of her daughter, Desiree, who passed away 17-years-ago.

"She even had a fake one-million dollar bill in there that her daddy had given her, so those things mean more to us than any amount of money in this world, that we will never get back," she said.

Dingman got the call during an afternoon on Tuesday, Nov. 30, that her storage unit was broken into. 

She wasn't the only one though.

According to the Conway Police Department, Dingman was one of 13 reported incidents since Tuesday and one of 54 this year at Red Dot Storage on Museum Road. 

"When I got to the unit, my lock was gone. When I raised the door, they had taken everything out of there. All the big stuff and they had ransacked through all of my boxes," she said.

The big stuff Dingman didn't care about, it's the sentimental items that mean the world to her. 

Things like trophies and a piggy bank that she knows her daughter last touched. 

Even items from Dingman's grandson, who passed away in a housefire, are nowhere to be found.

"I don't care about anything else. I can not go out and rebuy this stuff. Everything else I can rebuy, but for her and him. I can't," she said. 

To whoever stole these memories from Dingman, she was one plea.

"I would just ask them to please bring it home. No questions asked. I just want my daughter's stuff back," she said.

The Conway Police Department is actively working on these cases and identifying suspects. 

The department is asking anyone with information to contact them. 

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