TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Frankie Fernandez tells KRON4’s sister station WFLA that he and his wife made a last-minute Target run on Christmas Eve. They left behind a clutch and wallet full of Christmas gift cards to various stores and restaurants.

Now, they claim they’ve learned those cards were destroyed, even though a Target log shows that the cards were turned into the store’s lost and found.

“They indeed said they did have it and kind of knew what I was talking about,” Fernandez said. “So, that gave me hope right there.”

When they picked up the clutch and wallet, they were empty.

Fernandez says a manager told him they were “cut up” because Target’s policy is to destroy lost items after 24 hours.

However, Fernandez says when he called corporate to complain, he was given a different story. He says he was told that policy requires items to be held in a safe for 30 days and then donated to charity, not ever destroyed.

Fernandez turned to WFLA’s Investigator Shannon Behnken to get to the bottom of this.

“I didn’t plan to recover money or gift cards, but I did want to shed some light on the situation and know that policies and procedures were broken by a very long-time employee there,” Fernandez said.

After calls from WFLA, Fernandez says a Target manager called to say they have investigated and found 6 of gift cards still in a shredding bin.

A corporate spokeswoman says this is under investigation, and they hope to find a resolution.

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