A Santa Fe woman’s travel trailer was recovered during a stolen vehicle bust over the weekend, but she says it’s uncertain whether she’ll be able to live in it again.
Lorraine Knorr reported her trailer stolen from a parking lot outside a Santa Fe tire shop in early December while she was on vacation in Florida. The vehicle served as her dwelling and its theft left her without a place to live.
On Sunday, Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies found five stolen vehicles on Forest Road 24 and arrested three people on charges of receiving and transporting stolen vehicles and possession of firearms.
One of the vehicles recovered was Knorr’s, Santa Fe police confirmed Tuesday.
In a telephone interview, Knorr said police told her it appeared the people arrested had been living in the trailer without having it hooked up to sewage or water lines.
But Knorr said the tow company that agreed to pick up her vehicle Tuesday reported smashed windows, missing tires and a damaged axle. She said workers had to install different tires just to make the trip to the tow yard.
“[They] said there’s basically nothing worth salvaging,” Knorr said. “They took the tires off of it, they took the battery out of it.”
Knorr bought the trailer for nearly $17,000 in June after moving to Santa Fe to take a camp host job.
Knorr estimated more than $50,000 worth of personal valuables were inside the trailer.
Now, she’s poured her savings into a 2003 Ford Expedition, which she’s using to drive to Santa Fe from Florida to examine what remains.
“That little bit of money I had, it’s gone,” Knorr said.
Knorr said she is waiting to receive a copy of the trailer’s title in order to get up to $25,000 in insurance payments for damages to the vehicle and the belongings inside, but it could be weeks before it arrives in the mail.
Until then, Knorr said she may try to stay in an Airbnb when she gets back to Santa Fe.
“I’m hoping to God I can find the title in my RV,” she said.