GLENDALE, Wis. — It's been nearly five months since the partial collapse of Bayshore Mall's parking garage. Bayshore initially claimed a snow pile caused the garage to collapse.
That mess is now a distant memory for some after the structure reopened for public use last week. Others who were involved in the collapse said they haven't forgotten and called the I-Team for help.
In April, Bayshore's insurance company sent a letter to victims denying their claims for reimbursement of transportation and rental cars the week of the collapse. In that letter, it states victims should reach out to the snow plow company, saying it's responsible.
It's a story of he said, she said for Chris Bossert and Bill Bowen.
"It's frustrating," Bossert said.
"Work it out instead of finger-pointing like a six-year-old," Bowen echoed.
In February, Bossert and Bowen's cars were two of the few dozen trapped on the top floors of the partially collapsed garage. They were forced to get rental cars so they could make it to and from work. They told the I-Team they had rental cars for more than a week while their cars were stuck in the garage, racking up bills for hundreds of dollars.
"We want full reimbursement. We want it made whole. All we were doing was what Bayshore Mall told us to do which is to park when we arrive for work on the second and third floors," Bossert explained.
Three short months after Bayshore's insurance denied their reimbursement claims, the mall repaired and reopened the parking garage.
"I'm in total shock that the mayor and the building inspectors would allow this to go through and have that ramp reopened when around 30-plus people are out thousands of dollars," Bowen said.
Bossert agrees and said he's frustrated that Bayshore is working so fast to get the garage repaired, but hasn't helped any of the victims.
"They won't help us, won't respond to us," Bossert added.
Bayshore's insurance company won't respond to the I-Team either. We reached out to Markel American Insurance Company and spoke with someone there who couldn't answer our questions. We left messages for other employees and never heard back.
"There's a responsible party when it comes to the rebuild. There's just no responsible party when it comes to paying the people damaged by it," Justin Wallace explained.
Wallace is an insurance attorney at Wallace Insurance Lawand is helping victims impacted by the garage collapse. He said someone was negligent and that party should be responsible for paying these claims.
"We know that a lot of people were damaged financially by having their cars trapped because of somebody's fault and that, fundamentally speaking, this wasn't an accident. This happened because someone was negligent. Parking garages like this don't collapse," Wallace added.
On Monday, the snow plow company's insurance provider, Western National Group, sent the I-Team this statement:
"Western National has thoroughly investigated this claim on behalf of our policyholder, Winter Services LLC. The result of the investigation indicates that the work done by Winter Services LLC did not cause the collapse of the parking structure."
The I-Team is now working to get the garage blueprints and rebuild plans from the city of Glendale.
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