Purely anecdotal evidence, but back in my early twenties when I had to move from South Carolina to Virginia, my company paid for it, and the movers they hired (Wheaton) were about as openly criminal as you could possibly imagine. The crew was a driver and two packers, and the packers just about wet themselves with glee when they found out I had guns. Then when they found out that the guns were going with me in my car, suddenly they were all glum about it. Wonder what my chances would have been of ever seeing my Winchester again...
Also, when I went over the loading manifest, I noticed that my computer, my stereo amp, and my DVD player weren't shown on the manifest at all. The driver told me that probably those things had been packed in boxes with other stuff, and just hadn't been listed (a pure honest oversight, sir). I refused to sign the manifest until we located those items (which were about the most expensive things I owned at the time, except for perhaps the Winchester). He shuffled his feet and said that we'd probably have to unpack a lot of boxes to find it all, and that could take hours, and...and...and. I told him that his fricking truck wasn't moving until I knew where my stuff was. So he opened the back.
And, Gosh-n-golly, Captain Midnight!
There in the back of the truck was a box.
An unlabeled box.
A heavy unlabeled box.
With no markings of any kind that might indicate what was in it.
And it was right next to the back door of the truck.
I suggested that (since it was the closest box to us, and all) we start looking there and work our way toward the front of the truck.
After a certain further amount of foot-shuffling and aw-come-on-ing from the driver, while the packers whistled their way nonchalantly up to the cab, we opened that box, and the driver was shocked -- shocked -- to see that all of my expensive electronics had managed to gravitate to this one particular box. Gosh, sir, I really don't know what to tell you; I can't reckon how that would have happened.
If I hadn't had a new job in another state starting in about two days, I'd have told them to unload all of my crap and leave. As it was, I (naively thinking that I'd solved the problem) got all of those items listed on the manifest, and sent them on their way.
And when the truck arrived at my new place in VA, oops, what a dang shame, sir, that box looks like it got a bit...dropped. So sorry.
Wheaton's insurance made good on the computer and stereo and dvd player, so I guess the company itself isn't beyond redemption, but they sure have some interesting people on the front lines.
-BP
