I had a lot of advice and moving stories thrown my way before we moved, but one story in particular stuck out the most. Supposedly, a family arrived at their next base and eagerly started opening all of their boxes. When they came across a box labeled “food,” they ripped through the tape and dug through the excessive paper, eager to reach more of their canned pantry goods.
Unfortunately, they discovered something stinky and moldy. It turns out that, before they left, the family generously bought bagels and donuts for the moving crew to enjoy while they worked, but the movers actually picked up, wrapped up, and literally moved the food to the new destination. Talk about a surprise! I have no idea if that story is real, but it was enough to make this PCS newbie a little bit nervous.
When we had our briefing with TMO for our move they went over all the do’s and don’ts for what we can take with us. I told the woman giving us the briefing the story I heard above, hoping she’d ease my mind and tell me nothing like that ever happens. Instead, she didn’t seem the least bit shocked. Instead, she felt it was the right time to mentioned that when the movers are at our house, we should keep our dog outside the entire time…or possibly even let our pup hang out at a friends house.
She then told us a first-hand tale about an “incident” they had where the packers “accidentally” packed a family’s cat. And they were moving overseas. Uh oh. My eyes must’ve been bulging out of my head, because she quickly summed up the story and said that the cat was still alive when it arrived, just very hungry and thirsty.
Whoa boy! Whether her tale was fact or fiction, I didn’t want to take any chances. We kept our puppy outside the entire time and completely away from anything we were moving, but if she happened to wander inside we made sure the movers knew that packing her was off limits. (The movers got a kick out of the sign and promised they wouldn’t pack her.)
Have you had any unexpected items show up when you unpacked your household goods?
