A Texas man said a moving company last year packed his mother’s ashes with his silverware and caused thousands of dollars in damage.
Russell Jones told FOX Houston that he paid $22,000 for Coleman American Moving Services, an agent for Allied Van Lines, to move most of his belongings to storage last fall. He and his wife were planning to sell their home.
In January, the couple took the home off the market and his possessions came back on a flatbed truck filled with crates.
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“You can see through into the crates the covers on the crates are broken,” Jones told the news outlet. “It rained that day, we have several photos that are ruined. We were telling the movers not to move this, and we found when the box was delivered, there’s nothing in here.”
A container with the remains of Russell Jones’ mother was empty after a moving company took possession of them, he said. (KRIV)
The remains are missing, he said.
“You packed my mother’s remains with the silverware,” Jones said.
Jones said he filed a claim with the company and was told to stop unpacking while it investigated the situation. It hasn’t yet, he said.
Coleman Allied said it offered Jones $1,000 for the missing ashes as a gesture of goodwill.
“Mr. Jones did not identify anything in his shipment as containing ‘human remains,’ nor did he notify anyone in our company of their presence in his shipment,” it told the news station.
The company noted that it is against company policy to transport human ashes.
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“We interviewed all members of the crews performing services, the salesperson, the customer service representative and the manager of the local facility,” a company statement said. “All confirmed that Mr. Jones never mentioned anything about ‘ashes’ or ‘human remains.’”
