SALEM -- A war hero from Salem was heartbroken to learn that his medals were auctioned off without his knowledge, while he cared for his dying wife but now they have turned up in California.
In an exclusive report, KGW learned that Edward Killeen's purple heart medal, along with other honors that earned during World War II, were auctioned off by a storage business.
"It was just terrible realizing that all of that was gone," Killeen recalled.
Killeen said he knew he was behind on payments for the storage company, but he worked out a deal with the owner to give him a break while he was caring for his wife.
However, the storage company was sold and the new owners said they were not made aware of the deal. So they followed usual protocol and cleared out the storage room.
"There's not too much that we can do. We try to avoid items going to auction as much as possible," said Chase Roles, the manager at Sunnyvale Storage.
Roles decided to spread the word so that if anyone knew where the medals ended up, they would hopefully come forward and help make sure that Killeen gets them back.
And on Friday morning, the word reached a man in San Jose, Calif. He called a local TV station who ran the story about Killeen and said he had his medals. The man told KNTV that he bought the items at a flea market and when he described them, they were indeed the same medals and artifacts that Killeen had described. The man told KNTV that the person who sold him the goods said that Killeen had died.
No word on exactly how or when the items will be returned to Killeen. KGW will continue to follow this story.
