When we move, I move the most precious things myself. When I am wronged, including being stolen from I get angry too, but I remind myself people are more important than things and what they did is between them and God. I am not religious, but I do believe it's important to do the right thing and it's not my place to enforce it though-it's about your higher being.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one wants hand painted porcelain plates or one oil painting. It’s more likely they were damaged when moving so the movers got rid of them.

OP here. I have a lovely collection of antiques, and many of the items are museum-quality. The ten plates they stole had a value of about $4000.

You can choose to trust people who are more than likely earning minimum wage to handle delicate sentimental or valuable small items that you could easily pack and move yourself or you can use common sense and pack and transport your valuables yourself.

I once used movers to pack my things, I let them empty my closets into wardrobe boxes, and pack up my kitchen, basic prints, and lamps etc., and to do the heavy lifting.

For my easy to move valuable and or sentimental items, artwork, delicate lamps, heirlooms, jewels etc., those items I boxed and moved myself. I would never have occurred to me to let them handle my valuable or sentimental items. So if you really needed to have these items moved because you couldn't do it yourself then you should have hired a separate company to inventory, ship and insure these items independently.

See point above these people aren't really being paid to care, no matter how nice they are, and further more if they could get a job doing anything else, i.e. a living wage, they probably wouldn't be in the box packing and heavy furniture moving industry, doing what donkeys do in other parts of the world. They are being paid to use their brawn to move your stuff from point A to point B.

Re the porcelain plates, the kind of guys who move stuff from A to B don't care about your plates or you art work. I'd put my money on they damaged them and they didn't want to lose their jobs so they just made them disappear. A minimum wage moving job may be the best they do, and who wants to lose their livelihood by admitting they broke someone's seemingly silly cheap crap.

And furthermore what kind of moron lets the same movers who pack up and move the families underwear, blenders, Pyrex dishes, and overstuffed couches, move anything of real value. See point above they work with niche shipping services to catalogue, insure and ship their valuable goods. Just saying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one wants hand painted porcelain plates or one oil painting. It’s more likely they were damaged when moving so the movers got rid of them.

OP here. I have a lovely collection of antiques, and many of the items are museum-quality. The ten plates they stole had a value of about $4000.

Which you would sell where?

Anonymous wrote:No one wants hand painted porcelain plates or one oil painting. It’s more likely they were damaged when moving so the movers got rid of them.

OP here. I have a lovely collection of antiques, and many of the items are museum-quality. The ten plates they stole had a value of about $4000.

Anonymous wrote:I get it OP. I recently had my credit card info stolen by an appliance repair person who came to my home. Not as bad as losing heirlooms but still incredibly violating. Definitely changes your perspective on trust.

OP here. That's terrible! Have you filed a police report? I imagine that this fraud would be easy to prosecute.

Anonymous wrote:You should have hired a reputable company. You cheaped out. You pay the price

OP here. Strange assumption. I hired a very reputable company, whom I used several times before, the same office in the same city.

Anonymous wrote:Like you, I feel violated and will never get over it. The kids too since the things stolen actually belonged to them. It was a good life lesson for them since we were chatting with them all day and they seemed friendly. It proves my point about not trusting people outside the family. And yes they stole them right under our nose - they were in a specific place and then they weren’t. It actually made me reluctant to have any workers in my house now.

OP here. PP, I'm sorry you went through this. It must have been traumatizing to lose items you love, even if objectively they are not of high monetary value. I feel the same way. Now I don't even want to get a housekeeper.

You should have hired a reputable company. You cheaped out. You pay the price

DH worked for movers in college.
They broke your painting and plates and tossed them to hide the evidence.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. No, I think the guys wanted the porcelain plates and the oil painting for themselves/their wives.

All these items were in different rooms. It is not like they were packed in the same box. Moreover, the other small oil paintings in the set were packed in the same box, with room to spare. It would have been logical to put the last oil painting there.

No one wants your painting or china. You can't give that stuff away these days.

Things get misplaced and mispacked.
Packers throw things ij boxes in ways that don't make sense.

No one wants hand painted porcelain plates or one oil painting. It’s more likely they were damaged when moving so the movers got rid of them.

We had junk haulers based in Virginia steal a gun. Lord knows what they'll do with it.

The gun was from a 1960s kit to make a "colonial gun."

We've had stuff lost or stolen with every move. We make sure to have someone in the room with each packer to make sure things all go in the box. We also have a person checking off each box number as it's loaded and then unloaded onto the truck. You have to be very vigilant.

Things still disappear with each move, but it helps.

I always pack all my own stuff. I move valuables myself as those are kept separate. (but I would not have put bags/paintings/dishes in that category).

A box always goes missing in a move. Even when not sharing trucks. I can't imagine staying sane having someone pack us up, shared semis, cross country. I would go insane. I would try to let go of things mentally, like material things.

I'm so sorry OP, I know it's not easy. Especially after you probably seriously purged prior to the move, which is emotional too.

OP - I'm sorry this happened to you. Most people who have moved understand that they need to pre-select items that they would be devastated to lose, set these in a closed space during packing, and then pack and move them themselves. It is more likely that a box fell off the truck or simply was misplaced. If you have heirlooms that you do not want to lose, don't trust them to a moving company.