SALEM, Ore. — On Thursday, Kieran Ramsey of the FBI gave KGW a tour of a 30,000 square foot warehouse in Salem. It is chock-full of things belonging to people scammed by the moving company East Freight Logistics.
"Moving scams aren't a new thing," Ramsey said. "They've been around since moving companies have been in existence."
But chances are, not all moving scams are as devastating as the one involving East Freight Logistics, a company KGW first reported on back in July 2021.
KGW spoke to a bunch of people who had East Freight Logistics contracted out to them for interstate moves. Their things were picked up, but never delivered.
"We heard a lot of the COVID," Michelle Migliori said. "We don't have drivers. Everyone is sick with COVID. There are transportation delays."
Those are the excuses Migliori and her husband heard after hiring East Freight Logistics in August for a move from Nevada to Arkansas. The company picked up the couple's things, but then weeks went by without a delivery.
"We had actually just given up," Migliori said. "We hit the six month mark and thought we're never going to find it. It'll never happen."
"It's just hard, I guess," Chelsee Karnes said.
Karnes tapped East Freight Logistics in July to move her and her son from Eugene to Texas. The company picked up Karnes' things, but did not deliver any of it to Texas.
"At some point, I grappled with I had lost our things," Karnes said. "I felt personally like I let me and my son down because I was supposed to keep track of these things."
Turns out, a lot of people were having awful experiences with East Freight Logistics. Many of them contacted detectives who started contacting each other. Through good police work, authorities tracked a lot of the missing belongings to a Salem warehouse. Victims are now going there to retrieve their things.
"Coming back here has opened up new emotions," Karnes said. "I was nervous getting here, didn't know why."
"We feel really blessed," Migliori added. "We're one of the lucky people to find as much as we have. I haven't heard that same story with a lot of different families."
"At this point, we're hoping that within six weeks most victims can come claim their stuff," Ramsey said.
Ramsey said none of this would be possible without the hard work of detectives from the Portland Police Bureau, Salem Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
He said the people who run East Freight Logistics could face charges down the road, but right now the priority is reuniting upwards of 300 victims with their missing belongings.
"There's a lot of emotion behind this," Ramsey said. "A lot of special things in these boxes and on the pallets. People just want their stuff."
KGW reached out to East Freight Logistics for comment, but have not heard back.
For information on how to avoid moving scams, click here.