Susan Nussbaum known as 1-800-GOT-JUNK — and now, she says, it is 1-800-GOT-PROBLEMS.
Nussbaum had used the junk elimination service as soon as earlier than. So she known as once more when she had some furnishings to eliminate earlier than transferring between flats on the Higher West Aspect. She had three undesirable gadgets – a mattress, a bookcase and a big wall of cabinets.
It price her $412 to maneuver that furnishings — and a complete lot extra.
The wall contained a protected full of treasured jewellery — price about $100,000 and of nice sentimental worth, in accordance with a Manhattan Supreme Courtroom lawsuit filed earlier this month in opposition to 1-800-GOT-JUNK, accusing firm officers of theft of the protected.
Nussbaum emptied the wall aside from the protected, which was “too heavy” for her, in accordance with her lawsuit. She deliberate to ask the movers for assist, however “within the chaos of the transfer” she uncared for to take action.
She then went to a Mattress Agency retailer throughout the block to take a look at a brand new mattress, Nussbaum instructed The Publish, however returned residence as quickly as she realized her mistake.
“I am unable to run quick, however the truck had already left and I known as the second I bought in,” she mentioned.
“I used to be livid,” she remembers. “I mentioned, ‘They only left, please look within the truck immediately, please make them come again immediately.’ My pal took over the telephone name as a result of I could not discuss. They mentioned they did not see something there. They’re mendacity.”
Nussbaum mentioned she additionally supplied a reward for the return of the protected.
“The customer support group was unable to acknowledge the seriousness of the scenario and did not acknowledge the conflicting statements between [Nussbaum] and their staff,” in accordance with paperwork filed by Nussbaum’s legal professional, Scott Wolinetz. The protected was misappropriated “by fraudulent and fraudulent means. . . . Plaintiff seeks rapid return of the worth of the stolen protected.”
Footage from surveillance cameras on the sidewalk outdoors the constructing exhibits the wall unit on its aspect, its cupboards opening to disclose the protected. One of many two movers then closes the cupboards and so they cart the merchandise away.
“They undoubtedly noticed the protected, however they did not say, ‘Did you need to go away it?'” Nussbaum mentioned. “I even went to the Bronx dump with my son that night time,” however to no avail.
She suspects the jewellery was stolen and pawned. After the incident, which occurred in October 2023, she scoured eBay to see if any of the allegedly stolen items appeared there, however discovered nothing.
Nussbaum, 70, has labored as a particular training trainer and social employee. Her husband, a physician, died virtually 9 years in the past. Since changing into a widow, she has moved a number of instances between rental flats in Manhattan.
Lacking gadgets embrace her first birthday candle, written in her mom’s handwriting, and her son’s child spoon. There have been a number of rings from her grandmothers, Nanny Frida and Nanny Florrie.
Additionally lacking is her late husband’s marriage ceremony ring and a attraction bracelet her mom gave her when she was a teen. “I am going to by no means see it, after all, but when I get it again, I am going to put on it daily of my life,” Nussbaum mentioned.
Jewellery shouldn’t be insured. The protected additionally held essential paperwork, together with passports and start certificates.
“I needed to get issues out of the protected and put them in a bag or name my tremendous for assist,” she mentioned. “I needed to undergo the protected once more, like I do in a lodge room. Once you go away a lodge room, you undergo the drawers.
1-800-GOT-JUNK areas are franchised.
“Our hearts exit to Susan,” Evan Cohen, the regional director, wrote in an e mail to The Publish. “We took footage of the unit each earlier than and after the service was carried out to substantiate our costs and the area the gadgets would occupy within the truck.”
He was unable to supply the pictures upon The Publish’s request, however submitted paperwork stating, “I hereby agree that the work has been accomplished satisfactorily and I perceive that I now not personal the gadgets that had been eliminated,” which was signed by Nussbaum.
“Susan directed the group to take away and eliminate your entire cupboard, which the group did,” Cohen wrote. “Proper after we carried out the service, the cupboard was dropped off at a neighborhood third celebration disposal/recycling facility…Susan known as our workplace a while after the service was accomplished and was very upset. She mentioned there was a protected within the closet wall and he or she forgot about it. She defined that she had not instructed the crew concerning the merchandise and had instructed them to easily eliminate your entire wall…sadly, by the point she notified us, the truck crew members had already adopted her directions and had been disposing of the wall unit on the native disposal facility… The truck crew members reported that they didn’t see or deal with a protected within the wall unit.’
An inside investigation discovered that “the truck crew members and the supervisor adopted our normal service course of and disposed of the wall unit as requested by Susan, the shopper,” Cohen wrote. “The group members vehemently denied taking any protected.”
Data from a non-public investigator employed by Nussbaum confirmed that her first frantic name to 1-800-GOT-JUNK was made at 4:26 p.m. — an hour and a half after the truck left — and lasted eight minutes. The truck was nonetheless on the Bronx dump, AJ Recycling, in accordance with a receipt stamped 4:35.
The supervisor of 1-800-GOT-JUNK in The Bronx “insisted that … his drivers … are dependable” and “additionally indicated that it isn’t uncommon to have contents in lockers that individuals throw away,” in accordance with the investigator’s report. “He insisted that the contents of the truck had already been dumped and that there was nothing extra he might do. . . . [He] identified throughout our dialog that the drivers had stopped for lunch. We can not decide the place and when this suspension was made, as GOT-JUNK refuses to supply additional data.
Nussbaum deliberate to bequeath the jewellery to her daughter and son, each of their 20s.
“I give it some thought daily of my life and it haunts me,” she mentioned.
