I can't make peace with movers having stolen things from my home

[Anonymous]

Ugh, I’m so sorry OP. And I’m also sorry people are on here trying to figure out how it could be your fault or how you’re wrong instead of just sympathizing with you.

We had movers steal things too. It was a two part move… The day of the first big move to clear things out of our house to stage it to sell, a pair of wireless headphones that were connected to my phone went missing and so I played a song as loudly as it could, followed the noise and realized the sound was moving down the basement stairs on the person of the mover in front of me! (I froze and couldn’t fully confront the situation or make a direct accusation, and the guy then took a very long break in the front of the truck right afterward and obviously I never saw the headphones again.) The owner of the moving company was nice as could be but clearly doubted my story and kept reiterating how much he trusted his foreman (which I did too, and everyone explained that the guy who took the headphones was new to the team and the company). He told me he’d replace the one guy for the second part of our move, and to call him afterward if things were still missing after we’d fully moved in.

Apart from the headphones, there’s at least one box we never got back, containing items that were in the living room including my drivers license which I knew was there in a pile of papers that I’d set down in a hurry. When the movers came back the second time to move the remaining few pieces of staged furniture into our new house, my drivers license magically appeared on the window sill of our dining room. Mind you the house had been completely emptied for showing, except for a few staging items. Some other things from the living room—antique decorative items, a pillow, other things—are just gone. It’s been years and obviously every box has long been unpacked.

I never had the heart to call the owner back, who had just had a major surgery and was just starting to struggle with the rehab process. I also had a newborn (my first) and was just exhausted.

It was less about the actual stuff or its value, but feeling so taken advantage of, especially during a vulnerable, exhausting time, and then not being believed and having people try to imagine up all the creative ways I could be mistaken (“do you have shelves along your basement stairs that you’ve left stuff on?” “Could the sound from the headphone music been carrying from a room connected to your basement stairs?” etc)

Local moving company based in Sterling, recommended to me by my realtor neighbor who was handling the sale of our house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's more likely that a box got misplaced, than that the movers stole porcelain plates and an oil painting.
The handbags, maybe. But there's not much resale market for porcelain plates.

+1

I have some very pricey antiques that I cannot sell on the open market to save my life. I had to go through Sotheby's and they take a huge chunk of commission.

I used to work at one of the big auction houses.

Porcelain plates are incredibly hard to move. There just isn't much demand or market for them--even among serious antique collectors. Same thing with small oil paintings. Both are among the toughest items to move.

I can't imagine anyone stealing them. Either a box got misplaced, either by the movers or OP, or maybe they were broken. But nobody is stealing porcelain plates for their wives or for resale, sorry.

[Anonymous]

If somethign nefarious happened, it isn't theft of these items. As someone pointed out, these are the types of antiques nobody wants anymore.

If someone did something bad, it's probably that they dropped the plates and they broke, or they forgot to pack some of the items or a box, and they tossed it in the trash (further illustrating how little people think of these types of items).

[Anonymous]

OP, I am sorry. Do all you can to leave reviews, put out word of mouth, etc etc.

My story/avoid if you don't want the trauma:

Man, maybe 20 years ago, we had a bad move. We were in grad school/had always had friends help us move/or move ourselves and this was the first time we paid for movers. They arrived late/unprepared and had not eaten. Stupid us, we made them breakfast. Later- stupid us- we bought them pizza for lunch at their request. Later, they then told us they needed to stop for lunch on the way to the new home until we reminded them we had already bought them lunch "oh, right!" they giggled.

They scuffed furniture, dented walls, tried to get into boxes (we were clear we needed only moving- not box opening), including me finding one guy alone in our new bedroom going through my lingerie multiple times. I realize this sounds crazy, but 20 years ago you didn't whip out your phone and catch/record bad behaviour like today.

And one literally broke an antique couch in front of my eyes- his back was to me and he faked that he got dizzy and was about to pass out so I rushed forward to help and then at his request, I ran to find a cup to get water for him- when I came back he was suddenly recovered and moving items in an other area. I worried about him and insisted he sit for a few minutes as he sat looking oddly guilty. I realized later that he had fake-swooned to get me out of the room and he had thrown a couple of the legs under the couch and put a small box under the couch to keep it from tipping over.

It was like babysitting the horniest, laziest, stupidest teenagers you have ever seen- and they were adult men in their 30s and older. I later worried that these men knew where we lived and would return.

We kept finding broken/damaged items- and midway through the move, a new neighbour came over to report (in front of them) that he saw them throwing boxes into our garage on the ground- again they happily giggled and apologized.

Then, after the second call/verbal agreement over what amount of damage $ the owner would cover, I called back the third time, told them that we were now recording more damage- so could no longer agree on the price until we had gone over everything. He started to get snippy at me and accused me and DH of wanting to rip him off for money.

I don't know how I had the confidence at that young age to tell him that I could break my own sh!t for free if I wanted to save money, but he wasn't sure what to say after that so we got quiet and several weeks later we settled for a couple hundred if we 'didn't tell anyone'.

I am still angry. We have never paid for movers after that- just did it ourselves, used PODs and used the next moves as opportunities to purge /pack well every time and stay organized and on top of appropriate move techniques to make the unpacking much easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved a lot with different movers, including internationally. Never had things stolen. Not saying it doesn’t happen or didn’t happen to you, but it’s not super common. Having things stolen by movers directly affects their business. It’s not something they take lightly. Check that you have unpacked everything.

Some companies employ 10-20 staff and have multiple trucks. They don’t know about everything and there’s certainly nothing they can do to ensure that all of those people are honest.

Sure they can. Stop making excuses for criminals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's more likely that a box got misplaced, than that the movers stole porcelain plates and an oil painting.
The handbags, maybe. But there's not much resale market for porcelain plates.

+1

I have some very pricey antiques that I cannot sell on the open market to save my life. I had to go through Sotheby's and they take a huge chunk of commission.

I used to work at one of the big auction houses.

Porcelain plates are incredibly hard to move. There just isn't much demand or market for them--even among serious antique collectors. Same thing with small oil paintings. Both are among the toughest items to move.

I can't imagine anyone stealing them. Either a box got misplaced, either by the movers or OP, or maybe they were broken. But nobody is stealing porcelain plates for their wives or for resale, sorry.

I am sure some random mover has access to an underground international black market to get top dollar for these items. That's the _only_ rational explanation.