Stolen truck containing ashes of Cary man's late father found

CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- The stolen truck containing the ashes of a Cary man's late father has been found in South Durham.

ABC11 first told you about J.D. McCollum's stolen pickup truck on Monday.

A vial of his late father's ashes was tucked inside his dad's flight bag inside the truck. When he was alive, the Civil Air Patrol major took that flight bag everywhere.

"Every time he went in a plane, it was with him," McCollum said. "So every time the family goes on an adventure, he went with us."

Even the truck itself has sentimental value to McCollum and his family -- it was his dad's dream truck that he bought just before he was diagnosed with cancer.

But the 2006 fire engine red four-door Ford F-150 was stolen sometime between 9 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday when someone broke into his wife's car in the parking lot of The Gregory Apartments in Cary.

Nothing of hers was taken, McCollum said, except the spare key to his truck that was inside her center console.

"I woke up Sunday morning about 9 a.m. to leave to come to work and my truck was missing," he said.

Cary police responded to the apartment complex, but McCollum said officers weren't able to do a forensics investigation because of the rain.

On Wednesday, McCullom told ABC11 that detectives found the truck parked in front of some apartments in south Durham.

When he went to pick it up, he said his father's ashes were in the back seat.