While sifting through our massive international shipment of belongings from the States in August 2022 we discovered two items that definitely didn’t belong to us. One was a small container of expensive looking technical cords which looked as if they belonged to a TV camera person or a sound and lighting specialist. The second was a massive box with a wedding dress sealed inside. How in the world did this happen?

We hired international shipper Uplift to coordinate moving our belongings from Medford, Oregon to Olhão, Portugal. That company then outsourced different parts of the journey. For instance a West Coast company picked up our items in Medford and a local moving company in the South of Portugal moved our stuff from a truck into the house. Initially I assigned blame to the West Coast company for not keeping items organized on their moving truck, but as I reviewed the copious notes I had taken throughout the moving process (documenting things like this is normal for me, it probably stems from countless hours spent in science labs during college or maybe I just like the false sense of controlling chaos on paper) I recalled that the the pick up in Medford in June 2022 hadn’t gone very smoothly.

During the moving process we were in regular contact with Uplift via phone and email. We sent photos of delicate items that required extra care, asked a ton of questions, and their customer service was excellent. The Medford pick up date changed quite a few times. Here are excerpts from my Uplift communication notes:

• Per phone call 5/23/22:
  • Pick up date range 5/31/22-6/7/22
• Per phone call 5/27/22:
  • Pick up date 5/30/22 7:00-8:00
• Per email 5/28/22:
  • Pick up date delayed to 6/2/22-6/4/22
• Email sent 6/3/22 requesting updated pick up date
  • Per email 6/4/22 there was a delay with the second truck, pick up will likely occur this week
• Per email 6/4/22:
  • Pick up date expected 6/7/22 or 6/8/22
  • Movers will have 1000 cubic feet marked

We were expecting a confirmation call prior to the West Coast company’s arrival. When the Ryder truck pulled into the driveway unannounced late 6/7/22 we realized we had set up a false expectation for ourselves. Dang, we thought we had one more day. While we had already packed most of our items, there was definitely some unfinished business as we hurriedly tried to finish those last few boxes in between 3 movers wrapping furniture and moving my piano. We felt a bit flustered to say the least.

The Ryder truck that arrived already had other people’s belongings in it. As I understand it, moving companies mark off space in the truck bed to maximize efficiency so they can transport full trucks in a given region (in our case California, Oregon, and Washington). Andrew noticed that the movers were getting increasingly annoyed and frustrated as the loading process continued. Even though we had provided a detailed inventory list and photos to Uplift, we were unsure if we had overestimated our allotted space and ultimately were forced to leave a couple of small pieces of furniture off of the truck that we had planned on taking with us.

Eventually the Spanish speaking movers asked Andrew to speak to a supervisor via phone. The West Coast Company claimed that they had only been contracted for 500 cubic feet. After a heated exchange, the supervisor agreed that our items would be taken, but they would be calling the next day and would be expecting additional payment. Andrew referred the supervisor to Uplift as they had negotiated the contract and the hiring. We emailed Uplift about the space discrepancy and hoped for the best. We had already paid a significant amount to ship our items internationally and now there was a dispute during the first leg of the journey. We were also leaving our items in the hands of an irritated company. Was this whole move a terrible decision? In the chaos we failed to get the name of the West Coast Company, which in retrospect was an error on our part.

Ultimately Uplift must have resolved the error because we did not pay any additional fees, but when reviewing the incident in totality, it is a wonder all of our items made it to Portugal. The overstuffed West Coast truck is how I believe we ended up with a wedding dress and some high tech cords. What do we do now?

Our first step was contacting our customs agent in Portugal. Our shipment arrived 8/26/22 and on 9/4/22 Andrew sent an email with descriptions of the items which weren’t ours (at that time we mistakenly thought we were missing a box of items, which we eventually found).

Hi Ricardo – I will get that to you!  We do have one hiccup in that one of our plastic bins seems to have been exchanged with someone else’s (no idea when this would have happened in the shipping process).  Also, upon full inventory check we have also been given a wedding dress that is not ours (we DID get ours, so now we have two preserved wedding dresses).  

Our missing bin was labelled on top “#179 Fujifilm digital camera, workout journals, videocassette tapes, stone tap”.  We aren’t so concerned about the value but the videocassette tapes have great sentimental value and we would like to recover them if possible.  The bin we got had very limited labelling and contains multiple professional looking cords (like a professional video broadcaster might use maybe?).

I’m sure the owner of the other wedding dress is quite upset, there is limited information on that package unfortunately.

I think it’s highly unlikely your crew made any mistake, they were extremely professional and both the boxes that are not ours seem to have come from the west coast of the United States.  Also the shippers numbering system was different than our inventory numbering and they used generic descriptions such as “medium plastic box” so it is impossible to determine the exact number on their inventory list. 

I’m sorry we didn’t catch the error upon delivery, we obviously didn’t open every box at that time and the bin did appear similar to the one we should have received.  I can send pictures of the other people’s property to you or Uplift as needed. 

Andrew Finazzo 

On 9/5/22 Ricardo confirmed receipt of the email and advised that they would look into the situation. The response via email 9/5/22 advised the warehouse had not noted anything additional or missing and asked for photos of the surplus items. On 9/6/22 Andrew also sent photos of the cable cord box and the wedding dress to Uplift. The last we heard from Uplift was on 9/7/22 stating they would check with the warehouse and database.

While we take a fair amount of pride in our investigative ability due to years of honing that skill working at 911, we had very limited information to go on. The small plastic bin containing the cords had the following information on it: 42 Chris Miller From: Bellevue, WA To: Palm Desert, CA, a partial reference number and a bar code. Andrew started with online research and sent an email to a photographer asking if he had lost some cords between Washington and California and received no response. While we would have liked to return the cords to the rightful owner, they seemed replaceable and probably not worth the expense of shipping them back to the States. Just before we moved North, Andrew put the cords outside the nearest dumpster, which is where many people in Olhão put things that someone else might find useful – while it does make for more cluttered streets, the thoughtfulness is quite endearing, and they were promptly taken. On a side note Andrew had done the same thing shortly after receiving our shipment with a pair of Rollerball skates (you read that correctly, they were not Rollerblades) that didn’t fit right and they were snatched up right away.

My heart broke a bit when I realized that we had received someone else’s wedding dress. It ranks pretty high in sentimental value and to have lost it in a move is such a bummer. We also quickly realized that it had likely come from the States and was a significant distance from its rightful owner. The outside of the box had the last name Smith written on it and a beat up dry cleaning bill from Stockton, CA. What in the heck is with the generic owner names on this stuff? Returning these items would be a lot easier if we were working with a Kowalski or a Zimmerman. The dry cleaning bill seemed like a great potential lead. Even if the company wouldn’t normally divulge client information, maybe they would help given the circumstances. Andrew dialed the number listed for Snow Cleaners and it was disconnected. He found them on Facebook and sent a message, but there was no response and all things pointed to the business being permanently closed.

We eventually opened the outer box hoping to find more information inside, I delayed doing this because it felt invasive and wrong to open someone else’s precious personal item. We were so excited to find a Warranty which had the date 8/4/21 (this matched the 8/4 on the outside dry cleaning bill), a gown number, and even another phone number we could try. Andrew dialed the 1-800 number and explained the situation at least twice, the employee seemed confused and said that their computers were down. When he phoned a second time, the person on the other line stated that they worked for a gift card redemption line (which was definitely not Snow Cleaners). Andrew felt pretty confident the number now belonged to a scam of some sort. Without a first and last name we had little luck with an internet search of marriages in Stockton, CA. Even though the dress was cleaned in Stockton the couple may have been married somewhere else. Andrew found a Facebook page with people who had posted wedding dresses that had gone missing during moves, but we didn’t find anyone from the right time frame or geographic area. Jeez, we were 0 for 2 on this returning property endeavor.

Unless the dress was useful to me, maybe as a spectacular future zombie bride costume, I really didn’t want to move it North with all of our other stuff. I opened the dress and tried it on. It was a massive princess gown with multiple skirts that felt like it weighed 20 pound. It was obviously for a much taller person and definitely did not pass the moving test. The dress was a nice quality and had a ton of amazing fabric. Andrew and I agreed that maybe our seamstress neighbor could use it. The dress was way bigger than she was and the struggle dragging it into her house was real. She returned the large box to us, which came in handy for packing and moving. She is going to tailor it for her granddaughter who is in college and loves dancing.

My ideal ending would have been to return the massive ball gown back to Mrs. Smith, wherever she may be. I would have loved to return a physical reminder of a special and significant moment in time. When I imagine a young Portuguese woman twirling in yards of tulle on a dance floor giving a second life to something that would have lived the rest of its days in a pretty box, it isn’t the worst alternate ending.