A Consumer Hired a Moving Company. They Stole His Firearms.

In August 2024, James R. and his wife his wife hired Relocation Express LLC to move their household from Houston, Texas to Wasilla, Alaska. The distance was 4,298 miles. The binding estimate was $6,840 for 300 cubic feet.

On moving day, the volume tripled. The bill of lading listed three separate entries: 300 cf + 450 cf + 100 cf = 850 cubic feet. The total cost: $18,480. Nearly three times the estimate.

But the overcharging was not the worst of it. When the shipment arrived in Alaska, all of the family's firearms had been stolen.

The the consumer family reported the theft to local police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and FMCSA. Stolen firearms during an interstate move is not a consumer dispute. It is a federal crime. Firearms that disappear from a household goods shipment and enter the black market create a public safety problem that extends far beyond one family's loss.

The carrier, Relocation Express LLC (DOT 4116149), is registered at 4774 N Powerline Road #201, Pompano Beach, FL 33073. Its broker authority was involuntarily revoked by FMCSA on April 1, 2025. The same address is connected to 'Americas Family & Moving Services.' A second Relocation Express entity (DOT 1919533) is registered in Edison, NJ, with a mailing address in Dallas, TX.

In the criminal justice system, evidence is tracked through a chain of custody: every person who touches it, every location it passes through, every transfer is documented. If the chain breaks, the evidence is inadmissible.

In the moving industry, no chain of custody exists. A consumer's belongings are loaded by one crew, possibly driven to a warehouse, possibly transferred to a different truck, possibly handled by a different carrier, and delivered by people the consumer has never met. At no point is anyone required to document who had access to the shipment.

When firearms disappear from a shipment, there is no record of who opened the boxes. There is no log of which warehouse the goods passed through. There is no manifest showing which employees handled the load. The consumer knows what went in and what came out. Everything in between is a black box.

FMCSA regulations require a bill of lading and an inventory list. They do not require any tracking of custody between pickup and delivery. For a shipment traveling 4,298 miles over days or weeks, that gap is where theft happens.

The the consumer case is not isolated. FMCSA's NCCDB complaint categories include 'Loss and Damage,' which encompasses both negligent damage and outright theft. In 2025, FMCSA received 4,484 household goods complaints. The Loss and Damage category is consistently among the top complaint types.

Consumers who report theft from shipments face a cascade of obstacles. Local police may classify it as a civil matter. FMCSA's complaint process creates a record but does not trigger investigation. The carrier's insurance (Carmack Amendment liability) covers loss at $0.60 per pound per article by default, meaning a stolen firearm worth $1,500 might be valued at $4.20. Full replacement value coverage exists but must be selected and paid for in advance.

The 2012 Senate Commerce Committee staff report on internet moving brokers documented the same pattern: consumers' belongings disappearing in transit with no accountability. Fourteen years later, no chain-of-custody requirement has been implemented.

1. Photograph and document every item before loading, especially valuables and firearms. Include serial numbers for firearms.

2. Place GPS trackers (AirTags) in your shipment. Do not tell the movers.

3. If firearms are stolen, file immediately with local police (theft report), the ATF (stolen firearms), and FMCSA (nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov). The ATF maintains a stolen firearms database. File at atf.gov or call 1-888-930-9275.

4. File a Carmack Amendment claim with the carrier within 9 months of delivery (49 USC 14706). If you selected full replacement value coverage, your claim should be at replacement cost.

5. Consider a Section 14704 complaint to DOT's Office of Hearings for regulatory violations related to the move.

6. For high-value items and firearms, consider shipping them separately through a licensed firearms dealer (FFL) or specialty carrier with chain-of-custody tracking. The HHG moving industry has none.

FMCSA regulates how movers estimate, charge, and deliver household goods. It does not regulate what happens to those goods between pickup and delivery. There is no requirement for warehouse disclosure, no custody logging, no employee background check mandate for crews handling consumer shipments, and no tracking requirement.

The technology to solve this exists. Package delivery services track every scan, every handoff, every facility. The moving industry operates as if GPS, barcode scanning, and digital chain-of-custody documentation do not exist.

Until FMCSA or Congress requires chain-of-custody tracking for household goods shipments, consumers' belongings, including firearms, jewelry, electronics, and irreplaceable personal items, will continue to disappear in transit with no way to determine who is responsible.