Kane in your Corner: Family left in limbo as trailer of belongings disappears after move
The driver has since been arrested and charged with extortion, but the trailer carrying the perry’s possessions has not been found.
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Five months after moving from California, a New Jersey family still doesn’t have their possessions from hired movers.
A review of their story by Kane In Your Corner finds they could likely get compensation by filing a claim, but whether they will ever get their belongings is unclear.
Neil and Noel Perry hired Colonial Van Lines last October to move everything they owned, including tens of thousands of dollars worth of musical instruments. But the day after the moving company collected their belongings, the Perry’s were contacted by a man identifying himself as their driver. He said he would only deliver their belongings for an extra $10,000.
The driver has since been arrested and charged with extortion, but the trailer carrying the perry’s possessions has not been found.
“We're having to buy things to start over,” Noel Perry says.
Attorney Ken Vercammen says the moving company is typically on the hook for lost possessions, even if an employee or contractor goes rogue.
“It's their agent,” Vercammen says. “There's a thing called ‘agent, servant and/or employee.’ They can't say, ‘Well, that's your problem, go and get it’.”
The attorney for Colonial Van Lines tells Kane In Your Corner that the company will take responsibility for the lost items. But to date, the Perrys have been reluctant to file a claim, hoping their possessions will eventually be recovered. They can’t wait too long: under the law, customers only have nine months from the date of a move to put in a claim for missing or broken items.
Until then, the family is doing the best they can.
“We're in this perpetual moving state that it feels like we're never going to get out of,” Noel Perry says. “It’s like I'm on a hamster wheel.”
