Stealing my stuff?

Did you inquire with Tropical Shipping?

Yes, they are $200 more expensive and farther away from me.

I thought that you could NOT have anything in the car.

Yeah, I definitely won't have the stuff I can take out, but I think they meant like my radio and speakers??? I will take the face off my CD player and everything out of the car that I can.

Hi all;
I shipped a small trailer boat with locked cabin and locked storage areas....it was miss-shipped and had to remain in the yard for another week to get on the proper ship.
While in the locked storage yard it was opened by somebody with at lest 2-3 hours time, needed to remove all the screws around the door frame and totally looted! Over $10,000 in tools, stereo, and computer equipment taken. It took me almost 4 hours to pack the entire boat, fitting items everywhere, underseats, in lockers, under the floor boards, etc. and secure the interior, so the crooks had more time to unload, sort through what they wanted to take, search the entire interior and then re-load it into the boat, and then screw the doors back...too bad that they left some of the screws undone, otherwise I would have never seen the "crime" at the time of meeting the load at the shipping agent! Of course the shipping agent could care less! Theft is not their problem, and the police didn't care either.
As you all know when you ship they do not insure for theft of items from interior storage...even if locked in place. Remember y ou give them the keys to your car...it isn't breaking and entering if they have the keys!
The shipper denied any wrong doing, although it was in their custody, sealed in customs bonding. It was able to prove that it was done by an employee, but they didn't care, as they remarked, "some people just will do anything to steal". Insurance would not cover since it was an intrasit item, and nobody else cared.
Live and learn.
Since that shipment, anything that I have sent has gone with me in an airplane, either checked below or in my carry on, otherwise it goes USPS express mail!

I believe that the Crowley that does not stop in PR, leaves from Ft. Lauderdale. It may have changed from my shipping car days. I always went that way to avoid theft in PR.

RL

I used Seastar in May of 2005 to ship 2 fairly new vehicles from Florida, both of which arrived on STX safe and sound. Although I did not pack any personal items in the vehicles, I did accidentally leave a pair of prescription glasses and 2 sunglass visor clips in one vehicle, and they did not make it to STX.

Actually, when we shipped our truck, the new Homeland Security rules they stated prohibit any personal items shipped inside a vehicle.

When I moved here eons ago, they said the same thing! My car left Lake Charles (does Crowley still ship from there?) through Puerto Rico. I packed all my books in the trunk and left the boxes open with a Bible prominently on top! I figured that 1. Puerto Ricans were largely Roman Catholic and would figure out the "Thou Shalt Not" hint and 2. No one would knowingly steal heavy boxes of boring ole books. Something worked because the car and the books arrived fine. I'll bet FL Barrier is right though. It is a new world.

Love that story East E. Very clever of you and probably did work : )

Great story. I gather books don't fetch a lot of money on the black market in a mostly spanish speaking area.

Iris

It all depends. Last vehicle we shipped to stx was about 20 months ago, and each of them was full of stuff, all sorts of stuff, as we considered it free shipping. In fact the last vehicle(a pickup with a cap) was so full that we had to fill cartons at Tropical, and send them LTL, just to get the sight line below the tailgate window level on the truck cap, so they could see to move the truck in and out of the container. Never had a single thing go missing. We did not, however, put little things that could go in pockets in places where they could be seen, and things that were treasures to us, like mops and brooms and pool vacuum handles for one example (can't fly them down on a plane) aren't necessarily worth stealing to someone living in the real world. We understood from the staff, however, that the rules would be changing and that would be our last opportunity to ship a vehicle full--and even then, they were letting us slide somewhat

Turns out they DO steal your stuff in Puerto Rico! hahahah

I took out all my valuables and took my St. Thomas business cards in my luggage, but left the ones in a box from my Orlando office in the car. They tore that box apart. Someone in Puerto Rico has some of my old business cards! Hope they call that office and I'll have my coworkers give them a piece of my mind ggrrrrr....

They also stuffed a pic I had in the door of my car of myself and a friend in the bottom of my business cards box. Weird. And I had my dental records in the glove box and they ripped the envelope open. I bet that was disappointing!

I took East Ender's advice and put a cross in my backseat and they stole it!

It's very obvious that they went through my whole car, so I am lucky that everything of value to me was not in it. I made sure to even take the faceplate off my radio.
They cleaned it out of anything I didn't want— like 60 dirty pennies in my cupholder. Hey- I'm glad to donate to the shippers in Puerto Rico that obviously need that money more than I do!

But this is a confirmation for everyone out there!

I'm just.....like, I don't know, amazed. This is OK?

Who would steal a cross?!!

I don't know. Why is this OK?

It's just plain ole gross.

Why won't the PR Police do something about this?

Yeah, I found a few more things that were stolen, like extra bulbs for my headlights I forgot about in the glove compartment. There's also an AP Stylebook that I put in the glove box and it has grubby black fingerprints all over it. Thank goodness those pathetic waste of spaces don't care about having good English grammar or else I would be out a book as well!

I wonder if they can dust it for fingerprints?

Just who are these low life scum in Puerto Rico.?

Where is "Homeland Security" when we need protection?

This speaks volumes about how low this country has fallen under the current administration.

Cheers to that!

That is some interesting information. I am guessing I would be better off just buying a new car once on the Island? Is the market there for used cars pretty reasonable?

nm

>>>This speaks volumes about how low this country has fallen under the current administration.

Yeah, I bet nothing got stolen when Clinton was in office.

No prob! It's what I do for a living!

Jen: I'm sorry it didn't work. I would say that whoever took your cross needs it more than you do! 😉

God bless them.

That's great East Ender! I actually just laughed out loud! thanks for the morning chuckle 😛