Army wife uses AirTags to track shady movers
An Army spouse says she used an AirTag to keep tabs on her family's belongings during a move when a shady moving truck driver didn't deliver the items on time.
An Apple AirTag
Military members doing permanent change of station (PCS) moves have historically had issues with shippers' accountability of household goods. Shipments often get stalled for weeks or months by contractors, with little or no communications on the location, or the reason why, the goods were lost or delayed. In fact, AppleInsider staffers have dealt with lack of accountability or good tracking of the shipments multiple times.
Military spouse Valerie McNulty told the Military Times that she had heard "horror stories" during transfers from one duty station to another. To keep tabs on her family's belongings during one such move from Fort Carson, Colorado to Fort Drum, New York, McNulty said she slipped an AirTag into one of the boxes prior to the move.
"You hear so many horror stories when it comes to PCSing," she said. "With those stories in mind, and having read about people putting AirTags with some of their [household goods], I decided it would be worth testing the theory."
The AirTag's tracking ability came in handy when the family's household goods weren't delivered on-time. When the expected delivery date of Jan. 7 went by without the family receiving her goods, McNulty contacted her move coordinator.
The coordinator told her that she should expect the delivery the following day, and she was able to confirm that the goods were only a four-hour drive away. However, McNulty said she then received a call from the delivery driver, who told her that he had just picked up the goods in Colorado and that a next-day delivery wouldn't be possible.
When she told him that this wasn't true and the delivery was just hours, the driver reportedly hung up on her.
"I made him aware that I knew he was only four hours away from us," she noted. "He called back several minutes later trying to bargain with me to see if he could deliver it on Sunday or Monday."
McNulty contacted her move coordinator, but quickly found that the company didn't know where the driver was. Her AirTag had given her "more information than they did."
Eventually, the driver called back and claimed he was with his girlfriend. He told McNulty that he didn't know that she could track her while he was going to "see my lady." He told her that he could make it the next day if he hustled, and she suggested that he did.
McNulty shared her experience in a Facebook post, stating that she hopes more military families use AirTags during major moves or reassignments.
"Instead of waiting for someone to change something I took matters into my own hands," she wrote. "I hope the word spreads, I hope other military families hear our story and they, too, add AirTags to their [household goods]."
This isn't the first time that AirTags have been used to find missing belongings. They've been used to find stolen scooters and lost wallets. A single AirTag retails for $29, while a 4-pack costs $99. Exclusive savings are available on both quantities in our AirTag Price Guide.
Read on AppleInsider
An Apple AirTag
Military members doing permanent change of station (PCS) moves have historically had issues with shippers' accountability of household goods. Shipments often get stalled for weeks or months by contractors, with little or no communications on the location, or the reason why, the goods were lost or delayed. In fact, AppleInsider staffers have dealt with lack of accountability or good tracking of the shipments multiple times.
Military spouse Valerie McNulty told the Military Times that she had heard "horror stories" during transfers from one duty station to another. To keep tabs on her family's belongings during one such move from Fort Carson, Colorado to Fort Drum, New York, McNulty said she slipped an AirTag into one of the boxes prior to the move.
"You hear so many horror stories when it comes to PCSing," she said. "With those stories in mind, and having read about people putting AirTags with some of their [household goods], I decided it would be worth testing the theory."
The AirTag's tracking ability came in handy when the family's household goods weren't delivered on-time. When the expected delivery date of Jan. 7 went by without the family receiving her goods, McNulty contacted her move coordinator.
The coordinator told her that she should expect the delivery the following day, and she was able to confirm that the goods were only a four-hour drive away. However, McNulty said she then received a call from the delivery driver, who told her that he had just picked up the goods in Colorado and that a next-day delivery wouldn't be possible.
When she told him that this wasn't true and the delivery was just hours, the driver reportedly hung up on her.
"I made him aware that I knew he was only four hours away from us," she noted. "He called back several minutes later trying to bargain with me to see if he could deliver it on Sunday or Monday."
McNulty contacted her move coordinator, but quickly found that the company didn't know where the driver was. Her AirTag had given her "more information than they did."
Eventually, the driver called back and claimed he was with his girlfriend. He told McNulty that he didn't know that she could track her while he was going to "see my lady." He told her that he could make it the next day if he hustled, and she suggested that he did.
McNulty shared her experience in a Facebook post, stating that she hopes more military families use AirTags during major moves or reassignments.
"Instead of waiting for someone to change something I took matters into my own hands," she wrote. "I hope the word spreads, I hope other military families hear our story and they, too, add AirTags to their [household goods]."
This isn't the first time that AirTags have been used to find missing belongings. They've been used to find stolen scooters and lost wallets. A single AirTag retails for $29, while a 4-pack costs $99. Exclusive savings are available on both quantities in our AirTag Price Guide.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
How many people calling in sick during the pandemic were frauds who just didn’t want to work?
down to a storage unit in New Jersey, but anything worth taking had gone. And I’d paid them $5000 for the privilege.
But yeah, I agree that the driver was dishonest, not a good trait, it's a pattern with most delivery services. I once used a delivery service to ship my motorcycle from coast to coast and plopped two airtags, one in the seat, the other in the luggage. I could see it even when they moved it from around in their holding warehouse. I was even able to see on long empty highways, the airtags will just pickup when a car drives by and they have an iPhone. It finally sat for a week in Oregon, so I called them (world's worst service) and told them it was just sitting there for an entire week. They asked how did I know, I didn't want to say AirTags, so I said my bike is equipped with a tracker. Got it the next morning.
The first problem the military does not give people a whole lot of money to move so they look for the lowest cost company to move their stuff. Right there you know you are going to have problems. Most of these no name moving companies are shady at best. I have moved many times in my career and twice across the entire country and never had a single issue and had no damage. But I used United Van Lines every single time. They were not cheap but most times it was covered in a relocation package I negotiated, even if it wasn't I found ways to cut the costs such as packing most of our stuff and just have them load the truck.
I had person who work for me and we relocated them and gave nice relocation package. The person decided to go the cheap route and pocket some of the relocation money since we pay it in a lump sum. Well it ended up costing more than what was given to them. The moving company showed up right on time picking everything up, and it was on the delivery end where they pull all the scams. The move company first say the truck broke down, then had to move everything off that truck onto another truck at their warehouse, then could not find a crew to deliver it and it could be weeks before they could arrange delivery and the excuses stacked up. They final got the person to pay more to have the truck come to new house. When the truck showed up they refused to unload it unless the person paid more. The person who worked for me even had the police there when moving company arrived since they were afraid something like this would happen. Turns out the police said there was nothing they could do since no laws were broken all they could do was once the moving company was paid Cash they made sure the truck was unloaded.
I will tell you either move yourself or hire one of the major moving companies, anything in the middle is going to be problems. It could be as simple as broken furniture or a loss items, to the major horror stories of all your stuff being stolen or held for ransom.
The other part of the problem is the Military does not help their own people. I think if a Military Brass called up this company and had few choose words with them they would be more than happy to make sure Military personal stuff showed up where it is needed and when it was needed.
Don't do cheap and buy insurance if possible.
The military relocation organization responsible for this PCS move should ensure that this individual is never again allowed to be employed in any contract associated with US military relocation.
Actually, this situation -- balancing supply & demand -- is where capitalism typically shines and leap frogs over socialism and communism. And it will. But, so far, the two are still out of balance.