South Charleston Police Department returns decades-old shoe repairs after store closes

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — South Charleston police confiscated two pick-up trucks of shoes from a repair shop that closed in March. Now, they're trying to find the shoes' owners.

The police department and the mayor's office said they started receiving complaints around November of last year that the owner of Taylor Brothers Shoes wasn't giving people their shoes back. In some cases, because he couldn't find them; shoe boxes were stacked to the ceiling of the shop.

South Charleston Police Chief Brad Rinehart said he's going to give all the shoes back to their rightful owners.

"I did not realize the volume of shoes he had there," he said.

Rinehart said he felt like he bit off a little more than he could chew when the police department collected at least a thousand pairs of shoes from Taylor Brothers Shoes.

"We returned one to a lady that was from 2001," Rinehart said.

The shoe repair shop had been in business since 1932. It was a generational business that John Taylor had inherited from his family. Eyewitness News tried to reach out to Taylor to find out how the shoe volume got so big, but were unable to make contact.

"I would say he probably got overwhelmed," Rinehart said. "There are some shoes I wonder why he even said he could repair them. Some of them are in such disarray."

After the mayor's office and the police department received many calls asking the city to get their shoes back, the city's financial department said the business was behind on city fees and licensing paperwork.

"People were getting really frustrated. Some were even telling me, look, I don't even care if he fixes my shoes. I just want them back," South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullins said.

After trying to work with the owner of the shop, Mullins said the city ordered the store to close in March.

"And we said [to Taylor], 'Well what about the shoes?' And he was just overwhelmed. He said, 'I don't know. I don't have an answer,'" Rinehart said.

Rinehart said he then took it upon himself to make sure the shoes got returned to their rightful owners. The police department picked up the shoes in April and is still going through bags and bags of hundreds of shoes.

"We're just going through bags at a time," he said. "Some have tags, some are legible tags, some are single shoes with no name. It's going to be a work in progress."

Anyone that had a pair of shoes housed at the repair shop may contact police at 304-744-6903 (ext. 3) to provide a description of the missing footwear.

Police said the department will contact people over the next several weeks regarding their missing shoes.