The Moving Company Lost Their Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificate, and Social Security Cards

Most moving fraud stories involve damaged furniture, inflated prices, or late deliveries. This one involves something that cannot be replaced and creates risk that lasts years after the move.

In March 2021, a family moved from Salt Lake City, Utah to Williamsburg, Virginia. They hired Colonial Van Lines (DOT 1434373) and a co-defendant, United Moving Solutions Inc. They paid $1,000 for full replacement value protection.

The contract delivery date was May 13, 2021. The belongings arrived July 22, over two months late. The delivery crew was understaffed. The consumers had to help unload their own belongings until late in the evening. The truck left immediately, with no opportunity to inspect.

The inventory sheets were illegible. Boxes were unlabeled. It was impossible to correlate what arrived with what was packed. Over the following days, the family discovered what was missing.

Among the missing items: a box containing the family's original birth certificates, their marriage certificate, and their Social Security cards. The movers had packed the box. It was never delivered.

Case: Ballantyne v. Colonial Van Lines and United Moving Solutions (D. Utah, 2:22-cv-00640, October 2022).

A lost sofa can be replaced. Lost identity documents cannot be simply repurchased. Replacing them requires:

Birth certificates: Contact the vital records office in each state where each family member was born. Provide proof of identity (which is difficult when your identity documents are the ones that were lost). Pay fees. Wait weeks.

Marriage certificate: Contact the county clerk where the marriage was recorded. Provide identification. Pay fees.

Social Security cards: Visit a Social Security Administration office in person. Provide proof of identity and citizenship. There is a lifetime limit of 10 replacement cards.

But replacement is not the primary risk. The primary risk is that someone else now has your identity documents. Original birth certificates, Social Security cards, and marriage certificates in the wrong hands are the raw materials for identity theft. The family does not know whether the box was lost in transit, stolen by a crew member, or sold. They may not know for years, until a fraudulent account or tax filing appears in their name.

The $1,000 full replacement value protection the family purchased covers the cost of the physical documents. It does not cover the cost of identity monitoring, credit freezes, or the consequences of identity theft that may result from the documents being in unknown hands.

The household goods moving industry has no chain-of-custody tracking for individual items. Commercial shipping tracks every package with a barcode from origin to destination. Moving companies pack boxes, load them on a truck, and deliver them at the other end. Between pickup and delivery, there is no record of who handled what.

In this case, the family's belongings were in Colonial Van Lines' custody for over two months. The delivery was over 60 days late. During that time, the belongings may have been transferred between trucks, stored in warehouses, or handled by multiple crews. No record exists of these transfers.

When the inventory is illegible and the boxes are unlabeled, the consumer cannot even determine at delivery whether anything is missing. The loss is discovered days or weeks later, by which point the carrier says the claim window has started and the burden of proof is on the consumer.

If you are moving and your documents are at risk:

1. Never let movers pack your identity documents. Keep birth certificates, Social Security cards, passports, marriage certificates, financial documents, and tax records with you. Carry them in your car or on your person. Do not put them in a box that goes on the truck.

2. If identity documents were lost or stolen during a move, immediately place fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian). Consider a credit freeze.

3. File a police report. The loss of identity documents through a moving company's negligence may constitute theft depending on the circumstances.

4. File an identity theft report at identitytheft.gov (FTC). This creates an official record and provides a recovery plan.

5. Request replacement documents immediately. Do not wait to see if the mover finds the box. Begin the replacement process while filing your cargo claim.

6. Document everything. The mover's illegible inventory, the unlabeled boxes, the late delivery, the missing items. This documentation supports both the cargo claim and any future identity theft investigation.