U.S. Family Of 6 Devastated By U-Haul Theft During Move To Alaska

An American military family in the middle of a 7,000-kilometre (4,400-mile) move woke up to find all of their belongings in a U-Haul were stolen during an overnight stop in Canada.

Anna Spencer and her five children were on their way from Georgia to Alaska on Monday when they stopped at hotel in Abbotsford, B.C.

Spencer parked the 26-foot U-Haul outside for the night, but by morning, it had disappeared.

"I wasn't even here for 12 hours... my life, my children's lives, our military gear, everything is gone," the mom said in a video released by Abbotsford police on Wednesday.

Spencer and her kids, who are between the ages of 10 and 27, were on their way north to join Spencer's husband who was recently transferred to Fairbanks by the U.S. military.

Their possessions were valued at about $100,000, police said in a news release.

Investigators released security footage of the crime in hopes of finding the suspect. A car can be seen pulling up beside the U-Haul truck at 3:22 a.m. and then 15 minutes later, both vehicles drive away from the hotel parking lot. (Watch the footage at top of this story.)

The stolen U-Haul was recovered in Surrey, B.C. on Wednesday, but a "significant number" of things were missing, said police.

Spencer said she's just hoping someone will step up to help with the investigation.

"It's out of my hands. I can depend on the community to see what's wrong, to come forward," she said. "That is somebody's life in there. It took a lifetime to build what we had."