Anyone had any problem with movers/unpackers taking things?

Pretty common. Movers are the biggest crooks aside from car dealers. My cousin had his whole house shifted from Los Gatos, CA over to NC when he got a job at BofA. He used them, knowing it was no big deal, that the company offered to pay (his new boss).

20% of stuff was damaged, 2 plasma TV was stolen. They claimed to not have picked it up.

I remember 1.5-2 years ago watching a Dateline/20/20/Jon Stossel thing (don't remember which), where they did a report showing movers in NYC/NJ area and what big thieves these people were. They would quote you XX amount of dollars, after they took your stuff, and was supposed to deliver to your new house, they would ask for more $$ and keep your stuff hostage.

Its like the new mob.

Stay away from movers. I rather throw my stuff away, then ever use these punks.

Ambulance chasing unethical Lawyers>movers, if that says anything.

 

moving people = otherwise unemployable thieves who aren't smart enough to be carnival workers

If your airgun is all that they stole then you got off pretty easy. I have always moved my own stuff but a few of my coworkers have the moving companies do it and it seems like there are always problems. We always get briefings before we move and 90% of it is explanations on how to document everything to help prevent the moving people from stealing stuff. For instance, it is not enough to have the movers sign off on a sealed box of your DVD's, you must have them sign off a complete inventory to have any kind of recourse. A friend just had about half of his DVDs stolen during the last move and he was basically out of luck.

 

We have friends in the military, and when they moved they expected to loose the nice stuff. Also, the movers would ask what they wanted broken, either for the cash or to upgrade. Shame really.

The military has it's heros, but it has a dark underbelly too.

 

"moving people = otherwise unemployable thieves who aren't smart enough to be carnival workers" Exactly, Mark PDX.

The solution to your problem may lie in the following story. I got onto an elevator in my (then) office building in Manhattan a number of years ago, where two young suits were talking; one was explaining to the other about this well-known mafia chieftain who feigned insanity, walking around mumbling in the streets of the Village (YMCA!) but running a crime empire just the same. The talker could not remember the mobster's name, however. He was trying to pronounce it, when i turned to him, wearing dark sunglasses, a dark overcoat slung, Euro-style over my shoulders, and hair below my shoulders, and said, "Excuse me, I think you are referring to my uncle. Vincent Gigante. Please do not say anything disparaging about him in my presence." The elevator doors opened into the lobby and i stepped off. I think they are still there....