Although Tacoma police recovered a stolen rental truck on Saturday, the owner was dismayed to learn the contents of that truck — sewing equipment and mannequins — were gone.

Estimated to cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Joe Vecchiarelli’s clothing, sewing machines and mannequins were stolen, along with the Penske truck, at 5:39 a.m. on Feb. 25 at the Federal Way Quality Inn & Suites.

“Everything was stolen,” said Vecchiarelli of Fashion Supplies Inc. “Three tons of merchandise.”

Vecchiarelli was trucking his goods from Los Angeles, California where Fashion Supplies Inc. is based, to the Puyallup Sewing and Stitchery Expo, a multi-day event that took place over the weekend.

Vecchiarelli said he locked the vehicle and had the keys that night but the thief was able to break the driver’s side lock and ignition switch. The hotel’s video surveillance doesn’t show the thief but it shows the truck driving off the lot.

“And I walked out there at 6:10 a.m.,” Vecchiarelli said. “It was a matter of 30 minutes.”

Then at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Tacoma police located the truck in the 2300 block of Fawcett Ave. in Tacoma.

Most of the fashion boxes were empty, while only a table and chairs were left.

“These are very isolated products and when they hit the market, the detectives will be looking for this stuff,” Vecchiarelli said. “This quantity will not hit a flea market or eBay or Craigslist without them not knowing about it.”

Although the merchandise was insured, Vecchiarelli said the biggest loss was to the consumer.

“We basically had nothing at the expo,” he said. “Because we had expensive real estate there that was empty, which cheated the consumer. We had a vast amount of real estate to display and it was an empty booth.”

Vecchiarelli still took orders from customers but overall it was a “huge decrease” in revenue to the business.

“In all fairness, the Seattle people are all fabulous up there,” he said. “They were very supportive of our situation. It seemed like everybody — vendors, consumers — rallied around us. Hats off to everybody up there in Seattle.”

For more information about Fashion Supplies Inc., visit www.fashionsuppliesinc.com.