Crazy Moves - A customer on the run

I have been in the moving business for 20 years.  I am often asked what's the craziest move you've ever seen.  Our company does over 1000 moves a year and that means we have plenty of stories and have seen a lot of interesting situations.  From time to time I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite crazy moves.

In my early days of moving I received an interesting call that I will never forget.  The customer was a man and he wanted to know if I could help him out.  He told me that he was moving across the country with a Uhaul and it had mechanical problems and he needed to get his items unloaded.  I asked him for more details before I agreed to help.  He wanted to know if I could move his items into our storage and move it to it's final location at a later date.

This is where things started to get strange.  When I asked where the final destination was he said "I'm not sure - maybe Denver."  This was odd because most people that move know where they are going.  I told him that if he paid cash upfront I would agree to serve him.  After he agreed, I met him at a motel parking lot in town to transfer his belongings off of his broke down Uhaul.

When I arrived at the job I noticed that a woman and 2 grade school age children where traveling with him.  Both he and the woman seemed nervous and the items in the Uhaul looked like they had been carelessly thrown in.  I couldn't put my finger on it but something didn't seem right.  Just to be safe I had one of my employees take the cash payment to the bank to make sure it wasn't counterfeit.  Thankfully it turned out fine and so I relaxed a bit.  As we started to transfer the items off of the Uhaul the man left to run some errands.  After a couple of hours we had everything unloaded.  They gave me their phone information and left in a second vehicle they had brought along.

Although the situation was a little strange I was comfortable enough with the transaction until I received a call from the Nebraska State patrol.  The officer wanted to know if I had helped a couple with a broke down Uhaul.  I was curious why but I explained what had happened.  What he told me next blew my mind.  He told me that this couple was wanted for kidnapping the two kids that were traveling with them and they were on the run from Ohio!  The reason they were so nervous is because their Uhaul was suppose to be returned to Omaha, NE but they had no intention of going to Omaha.  They knew the cops were waiting for them at the dealership in Omaha so they continued west to flee from authorities.   Their plan fell through when their truck broke down in Kearney.  They couldn't call the local Uhaul dealership to get a new truck without tipping off the authorities.  They called Kearney Moving to off load their items and continue their journey in the second vehicle they owned..  The state patrol informed me that they were looking for the run away couple and that he would keep me informed.

Later that afternoon I received a second call from the state patrol with good news and a full explanation.  He said that the couple and the kids had been apprehended about 100 miles away.  The vehicle that they owned had stolen Nebraska plates on it.  The officer explained that the man had stolen the plates off of another vehicle while we were transferring their belongings.  He further explained that the kids belonged to the woman but she had violated her visitation order and took them.  The man helping her was a friend she had met at a gym in Ohio.  Both of them were arrested for kidnapping and the kids were safely returned to their father.

A few months after this crazy event I wondered what had happened to the couple and if anyone would ever come pickup her belongings.  I then received a phone call from her ex-husband in Ohio informing me he was coming to pickup her things.  He explained to me that his ex-wife was quite unstable and had been admitted to a mental institution following the kidnapping event.  He seemed like a very nice guy and then I asked him what he did for a living.  He said "I'm a county judge in Ohio."

This entire event had more twists and turns than I ever could have imagined.  I never heard how these people's lives turned out but I wish them the best.  This move is one I will never forget and I learned a lot through the whole situation.  Thankfully we have never had anything like this happen again and I am thankful for thousands of normal moves over the years.