Kenyon Brown and Anna Hall were about to embark on the American dream when the unimaginable happened Monday night.

Kenyon, a Mason City native, and Anna, his girlfriend, were making the move to California to start their life together when the U-Haul trailer, attached to their vehicle, was stolen in the middle of the night at a hotel.

The two who found love while attending Iowa State University and spent the last couple years apart as he worked in Washington D.C. and she wrapped up college, were moving to Los Angeles. They started their trip in Anna's home state of Minnesota and stopped at a Quality Inn and Suites in Albuquerque, New Mexico Monday night.

Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., Kenyon went outside and discovered the U-Haul that had been hooked up to their vehicle was gone. Inside that U-Haul was pretty much everything they owned. Their clothes, shoes, furniture, a mountain bike, stuff for their jobs, and more. They estimated to KOAT-TV it was all valued at around $30,000.

As you know, the most valuable things to a person often don't have monetary value. That was definitely the case here. Kenyon told KOAT, "Pretty much our whole life that's been created the past couple years has now been erased." Anna shared that she "had an envelope of all the letters from him over the years. Little knick-knacks of our adventures together."

During the investigation for the story, KOAT found that the area around the hotel has been riddled with crime since the beginning of the year. There have been more than 40 reports of theft or vandalism in a one-block area around the hotel during that time. Yes, one block. The crime includes nine stolen cars, 13 vehicle break-ins, ten reports of vandalism, and 11 cases of property theft.

I know that Kenyon and Anna's American dream will eventually turn out beautifully but it's beginning with a nightmare.

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