This Is Why I Used U-Pack For Moving Instead

SAN DIEGO, CA — Former San Diego resident Steve Barton has been looking for someone for a month, but he doesn’t know who the person is. There's one tiny clue, and it has a Temecula connection.

The writer and indie filmmaker moved from San Diego to New Jersey in June, and hired a moving company to pack his things and take them across the country.

When his stuff arrived, he found pictures of people he didn’t know and artwork that wasn’t his.

Barton said he ran back outside immediately to tell the movers that some of the belongings weren't his, but they told him to keep it. When Barton said he didn’t want them, the mover said, “throw it away,” and drove off.

In addition to being left with things that weren’t his, Barton estimated that the moving company broke about 80 percent of his personal items and the movers went through his clothes to use them as packing materials. Some of his stuff was just gone after the move, he said.

Many of the things he lost were collectibles, things like decades-old lobby cards from the original Dracula and King Kong movies, limited-edition statues and movie props that are impossible to replace, but hard to get money from insurance for.

Barton took it upon himself to find the owners of the stuff. Since the movers wouldn’t help him, his only clue has been a bulletin board with photos on it, and an advertisement for Bianca’s House Cleaning in Temecula. He called the number on the ad, but the company didn’t recognize the people in the photo.

Barton has been all over the internet searching for the strangers in the photo. He’s put up the photos on Instagram. He’s contacted the media about his story. He put up a post on Facebook, accompanied with photos and videos of his broken items and the mystery stuff. Barton wrote that he cried as he filmed the videos of broken collectibles — pieces of his soul, he called them.

“I cannot in good conscience allow this to happen to another person. The thought of someone else going through this agony sickens me,” Barton wrote in the 1,437-word post. “I know the pain that I'm in right now, and I know they must be feeling that too. I just want to give them their belongings back.”

Officials with American Long Distance Moving and Storage, the company Barton hired for the cross-country move, said they could not comment on the situation or their history of working with Map Express Logistics, the subcontractor they hired to handle Barton's move. Map Express Logistics did not respond to Patch’s request for comment.

A friend of Barton’s also started a GoFundMe to help him recover from the loss of his stuff. Barton described in his Facebook post how he ended up paying more than $2,000 more than what he was quoted. The fundraiser brought in more than $6,500 as of Monday. The money is being used to pay for Barton’s lost and damaged items, but is still accepting donations so he can continue searching for the family whose items are missing and potentially take the moving company to court.

Barton is still searching for the people on the bulletin board, and it’s been more than a month. He’s asking for people to share the photos, hoping someone might recognize the items or the people in the photos.

—GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner.