mummyof2

hi, everyone,
Been here in USA about 1 month now and up until now things have gone ok. We are here on secondment with husbands job and his company handled everything for us. Well, we got a call yesterday from the shippers to say that our stuff from UK had been involved in a theft at a warehouse and some boxes may have gone missing and some have been opened. The truck arrived 2 hours later and all i can say is oh my ! ... basically to narrow it down all of our UK home is gone. Everything! I have 2 children and all their stuff is gone, some toys, all there special ornaments and keepsakes, all my keepsakes , scooters , drum kit, kids rocking chairs , lots and lots of sentimental things and mementos. On top of this all my household stuff has been robbed dinner services , even part of our dining chairs and furniture, , a barbecue, dolls house, Plasma Tv , DVD player, the lists goes on and on and i bet you get the picture the only thing they left us with is some shoes and all the stuff thats not worth much. Even our clothes is gone. The MD of the shipping company called but cant give me any answers. It seems it was contracted out to a storage company in houston and thats were it occured but there is discrepancies all over the place as we are getting told different things. At no point has the police contacted us in all of this so have no point of contact there and of course its the holidays and cant get hold of anyone. Husband has gone to our local police office to see if they can do anything. I am living a nightmare! We saw our crate get sealed at our home in UK and was told it was secured until customs then opened again here at home here. Its all a big mess. They will have access to some paperwork i had in the shipment that has our details on i am worried about identity theft for us all and just dont know what to do. Bu worst of all is the thought that someone has all our personal stuff and the things we have worked so hard for because of a severe security breach somewhere. Thanks for reading.x

Mummy in the foothills

Thats is just awful, I hope you get some answers soon.
Can you put some sort of credit alert on all your info in UK?
Her you'd do it with the credit monitoring companies, Equifax, transperian and Experian.
Did you have insurance on the shipment too?

Cook_County

I agree that you need a police reference number.

You should also contact the insurers straight away. Some things such as the plasma TV will have been useless so if you are covered on new for old you may end up financially better off.

Don't forget also that casualty and theft losses are tax deductible in the States so you will want to figure out the financial loss for tax reasons too.

Most importantly you are all safe...this is the best news of all.

Hotscot

Sounds very dodgy...the shippers should have reported this to the police. The police should have a case number and report.

The shipper should also have insurance you can claim against.

Please let us know what you find?

mummyof2

Hi everyone,
its insured we had all that in place, i just feel the lack of information is bad this all happened yesterday but i cant even find out where the theft took place just been told from a warehouse in Houston, on friday night, yet the driver who came here said he had our stuff at 11pm friday night ready to deliver to us it was in a mess he had to tape some boxes up ,the crate the TV was in has been delivered to us doesnt even look like its been fingerprinted. I called Houston police they said there theft department is closed till wednesday ring back ! It all is not sitting well with me and although we are upset i am also very angry ! How can you explain to 2 kids where all their stuff has gone? And how can you compensate that ?

lansbury

If by crate you mean a wooden crate, no point in fingerprinting it. Regardless of what you see on CSI you can't lift a useable print from a rough surface.

Cook_County

Life in the big city. I was also burglarized myself within 3 days of moving into my very first rental apartment in Chicago when I first moved to the States. I came home after 3 days to find the door was jemmied off and wide open. This was back in 1993 so no cell phones, no email, no Internet - I did not have a phone line yet and knew no-one at all in the city. It is tough for you today; I get that but the kids need to learn that life is not all milk and cookies. Do what you can and build a good life with newer "stuff".

Weeze

So sorry, what a shitty thing to happen.
We had quite a few things delivered damaged and as work moved us, it was a pretty simple process to get the compensation through. Do make sure that you allow for difference in prices here though. Obviously can't compensate for the sentimental stuff, but hopefully it will go smoothly for you as well.

cranston

sorry to hear about this...best wishes.

Giantaxe

Ouch, terrible thing to happen, but at the end of the day - aside from things like keepsakes and other things that can't be replaced - this is just stuff. As for personal info, that's unfortunate. I remember bringing over paperwork of a personal nature in a suitcase and a carry-on. Of course, that could have been stolen too so there are no guarantees.

My bet is that the reason you're getting inconsistent info is that everyone's in cover their ass mode.

mummyof2

Thanks guys.xx We are coming to terms with it all now and after the shock i started to think you know my family and i are ok we are together thats the main thing and its just stuff ! We brought over all the necessary paperwork with us like birth certs, bank stuff e.c.t but there was some other paperwork in the shipping, but you never for one minute think its all gonna be stolen.

Bink

Sorry to hear that. That really sucks and is no way to start a new adventure!

Trixie_b

so sorry.

Yorkieabroad

Pretty crappy way to start over here - sorry to hear that.

Downsides
- the keepsakes etc that aren't replaceable
- the hassle of protecting against potential ID security issues. That should just be limited to UK side stuff, and petty thieves here may not be interested or have connections to use that. But at least you're all up to date with all that because of notifications about moving here etc, so pretty easy to lock it all down.
- the hassle of trying to find out enough/file police reports to ensure you don't get the runaround from the insurance company

Upsides
- You guys are all here and safe
- the "stuff" was insured
- when they try to use and/or sell that plasma TV they're in for a surprise
- you've arrived a sale time - good time to replace a houseload of stuff!
- you've got a story for when you're old and grey sitting on the porch in your rocker....."remember that christmas we ate off paper plates cos some toerages nicked our crockery"...