Apartment and Rental Properties - Daughter's Landlord took personal belongings out of apartment while gone

My daughter did not get evicted-she gave notice that she was moving out-my mother passed away on the 28th and my daughter could not get a hold of the landlord-so she leaves a message that she needed until the 8th of June to move-was told by the owner that it was okay. A day after the funeral-June 2nd my daughter goes to the apartment-and her 52 inch plasma tv, microwave, books(the Twilight series-hard cover), brand new movies(CD), 2 vaccuum cleaners, shop vac and other misc. items are missing. We called the sheriffs dept. and they send over a couple of sheriffs. Under the laws order the son-brings back some of the things-the dad(owner)says he told them to simply pack my daughter's stuff up and put in the garage-the son said he took the stuff for safe keeping. The son tells the sheriffs that my daughter owes them for 12 months-they have no record of any rent paid-my daughter said if that was true-why wasn't she evicted? Sheriffs says they can't charge them with anything because they didn't show intent(that they were stealing)yet when the dad hollared at son for taking so long bringing tv back-said they had to disconnect it from friends speakers and stuff at the house-also-they didn't know where the microwave and other stuff is-can't remember. I don't understand these law officers? They also said they couldn't prove they took the microwave and other stuff-what do we do? Law in Wisconsin tenant and landlord rules state that the landlord can not go into a tenants apartment without a 24 hour notice, and they had no right in her apartment packing and supposedly putting stuff in garage-again without permission. The neighbor told us the owner and son were in the apartment the week before when my daughter wasn't home. HELP!!!!

Well, verbal agreements are worth the paper they are written on without impartial witnesses.

There are rules about everything between renters and landlords I'm sure, you need a copy of the rental contract and someone with knowledge in your area. If they violated the law..then they are probably liable for damages in court.

Hi and welcome to the forum! Not a lawyer, but know a few things. For one thing, unless that neighbor is willing to go to court with you, anything they said is considered hear-say, and can't be used, and I doubt they'll show up.
There's not much you can do about them coming in to the apartment without taking them to court, since there's no real proof and if she pursues it, they would probably file a countersuit for the rent and it will be up to your daughter to show proof that she paid rent by having cancelled checks or receipts. Without them, the landlord would easily win.
If there are things still missing, that's where insurance comes in and everyone should have insurance.
Sorry, but without any proof, I don't think there's much that can be done.