Mover added $3,000 of fraudulent charges, then hid a Miami woman’s furniture and clothes

A Broward moving company showed up in Gainesville with a Miami woman’s possessions hours late, charged her $3,000 over the agreed-upon cost, then held her furniture and clothes hostage when she refused to pay.

That’s in Miami-Dade County Court Judge Michael Barket’s summary judgment for Nicolette Gonzalez against Thompson Nation Holdings (TNH), also known as Small Move Movers (SMM), and Shawn Thompson, the man behind Small Move and numerous other moving companies.

“TNH and SMM materially breached the contract by failing to provide moving services from Miami to Gainesville for the agreed price in the Binding Moving Estimates,” Barket’s judgment said. “After all, TNH and SMM refused to unload Ms. Gonzalez’s belongings; refused her payment of the price reflected on the Signed Binding Estimates; demanded over four times the agreed-upon price; and took all her belongings to an undisclosed location for weeks. TNH and SMM also failed to honor the agreed upon time frame of the move.”

Total damages suffered by Gonzalez: $7,619.81. Gonzalez has until Jan. 10 to file for attorney’s fees.

“Getting attorneys fees is something that hasn’t happened from my research,” said Rasheed Nader of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, who handled the case for Gonzalez.

Nader said a barrier to victims filing these suits is attorney fees not getting included in the judgment and “the fees typically exceed the damages. The judge here has said ‘if you get defrauded and lose money, there’s hope for you to do what you have to do to get that back.”

An employee at Next Door Relocation, one of Thompson’s companies, returned a Miami Herald message left for Thompson and said Thompson had no comment on the case. Thompson’s attorney, Gawane Grant, didn’t respond to an email.

As far as Barket was concerned, Thompson said quite enough in his deposition.

“Based on this testimony, Mr. Thompson was a direct participant in each part of this transaction, including the misrepresentations made to Ms. Gonzalez and the discounts provided on each binding estimate,” Barket wrote. “It is also undisputed that Mr. Thompson had a phone call with Ms. Gonzalez shortly after defendants took her (possessions), where he rejected Ms. Gonzalez’s attempt to pay the amounts on the signed binding estimates and extorted Ms. Gonzalez by accepting only payment of the inflated invoice and discounted inflated invoice.

“Without question, then, Mr. Thompson was a direct participant in this unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent scheme.”

Next Door Relocation is registered with the state at 601 21st St. in Vero Beach, but its Yellow Pages listing puts Next Door at 6742 NW 17th Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. State corporate records say that small building in a Fort Lauderdale industrial area with “Moving & Storage” on the outside houses several companies connected to Thompson, who state records say opens and closes moving companies like a refrigerator door.

One of those companies is Small Move Movers. Gonzalez’s mother, Frances Pera, contacted Small Move in May 2022 when looking for movers to take Gonzalez’s belongings to graduate school at the University of Florida.

Moving from Miami to Gainesville

What follows comes from the judgment’s “Undisputed Facts” section.

After her mother got initial questions answered by sales representative Jaime Forte, including this wouldn’t be a move shared with anyone else’s possessions, Nicolette Gonzalez took over dealing with Small Move. They agreed to a binding estimate of $1,146. She sent a $330 deposit by Zelle.

Small Move’s website claimed it had been “offering customers satisfactory and reliable long distance moving service for years;” that its workers were background-checked and drug tested; and “there are no surprise bills” because any “unexpected or additional expenses must be pre-approved” by the customer.”

Small Move had been registered by TNH as a fictitious name only 11 months before. Registration under “Small Move Movers” to do business in Florida occurred on July 12, 2022, only 11 days before moving Gonzalez. Also, neither company was registered to do intrastate moving.

And when movers showed up on July 23, 2022, they were an hour late and “reeking of marijuana.” In his deposition, Thompson admitted in his deposition that none of the employees or independent contractors were “certified, drug tested, or background checked” and, he didn’t dispute that they showed up exuding the smell of weed.

The movers had Gonzalez sign another binding estimate, as well as a bill of lading (the list of goods given from mover to customer) and a freight bill which included no extra charges on the $1,146. That included labor costs of 90 minutes to load and 90 minutes to unload. After taking three hours to load, the movers left with Gonzalez’s possessions.

They arrived in Gainesville at 9:20 p.m., almost 11 hours after leaving Miami but still “reeking of marijuana.” In explaining arriving so late, the movers said “they were completing another move.” That’s in direct contradiction to Forte telling Pera this would not be a shared move.

The movers also arrived with a new invoice, “which charged her $4,389.25 for 25 hours’ worth of work ... and included fees that were never specified or requested.”

Over $3,200 of extortion

The $354 of discounts included in the previous estimate had been removed. The labor charge went from $375, three hours for loading and unloading at $125 per hour, to $1,906.25 or 15.25 hours of labor. There were extra charges for mileage ($500), shrink-wrap ($800), moving bird cages ($150), a “Long Carry Fee” ($75), an “OD Fee” ($149), and “Intrastate Fuel & Mileage” ($445).

Gonzalez said the movers told her she wouldn’t be charged for shrink wrap. There had been no extra charge for the bird cages as a “bulky item” on the invoice earlier in the day, though they were on the 66-item inventory Gonzalez gave the movers the day before.

Anyone with a map app or Google can find the direct driving distance between a Miami address and a Gainesville address. Despite that and his claims “to do thousands of moves a year,” Thompson said estimating “Intrastate Fuel & Mileage” charges before the move was beyond his powers: “only Superman can do that or God.

The $500 for mileage? Thompson testified he didn’t know what that was about.

Thompson testified that the company’s policy “was to revoke all discounts if the “three–hour minimum” was passed but admitted that they do not state this on any document.”

Gonzalez wasn’t about to pony up $3,243 beyond what she’d agreed to pay. She offered to pay what she’d agreed to pay.

“The movers rejected her offer, refused to unload her belongings unless she paid the entire Inflated Invoice, and threatened to break all of her belongings if she did not pay,” the judgment said. “Gonzalez then called the police because the movers refused to unload her belongings, but they left with all her belongings before the police arrived, leaving her with nothing but an empty apartment.”

Emailing the moving company the next day got Gonzalez only more extortion. Now, Small Move wanted all the $4,389.25 plus “a “redelivery fee” if she ever wanted to see her belongings again.”

When she talked to Thompson directly, he admitted the shared move, but said he’d only knock the new invoice down to $4,014.25. Gonzalez refused.

Meanwhile, she had to pay $479 to stay in a hotel, and spend $5,596.38 on short-term stand-ins for her household goods, furniture and clothes, including attire suitable for the professional graduate program.

After Gonzalez filed suit against Thompson and his companies in August 2022, Barket issued an order demanding the companies return Gonzalez’s goods until the suit’s resolution.

“When she picked up her belongings from [Thompson’s] warehouse, several items were missing, damaged, and mildewed,” Barket’s judgment said. “She had paid $788.44 for the missing items, which were brand new.”

Shawn Thompson’s companies

A search through the state’s corporation registrations turns up the following moving companies connected with Shawn Thompson, some of which have similar names to more established companies.

▪ Affordable Cleaning and Restoration, registered to do business October 2021 and still active after October 2023 reinstatement.

▪ All-American Relocation and Storage, registered to do business July 2022 and dissolved Dec. 18, 2023.

READ MORE: Florida’s Old Southern Brass liked about ‘Made in USA,’ veteran involvement, feds say

▪ All Stars Moving and Storage, registered Sept. 27 and still active.

▪ American Liberty Van Lines, registered September 2017 and dissolved May 2019.

▪ American Relocation and Storage, registered July 2022 and dissolved Sept. 22, 2023.

▪ Greater American Van Lines, registered March 2018 and dissolved September 2019.

▪ Hole In One Moving and Storage, registered August 2019 and dissolved December 2019.

▪ Moving USA Today, registered November 2018 and dissolved April 2019.

▪ Next Door Relocation, registered December 2022 and still active.

▪ Next Level Relocation Group, registered January 2018 and dissolved September 2019.

▪ One Man, One Van, registered July 7, 2023 and still active.

▪ Rite Way Relocation, registered March 2018 and dissolved September 2019.

▪ Single Move Movers, registered July 2022 and dissolved Dec. 18, 2023.

▪ Thompson Moving, registered April 2011 and dissolved September 2015.

▪ Thompson Nation Holdings, registered October 2019 and dissolved Sept. 22, 2023.

▪ Thompson Nation Holdings Estate, registered June 2021 and still active.

▪ Thompson Nation Holdings Group, registered January 2022 and dissolved June 14, 2023.

▪ Thompson Nation Holdings Group and Affiliates, registered Sept. 7, 2023 and still active.

▪ Thompson’s Nation of Movers, registered to do business January 2017 and dissolved September 2019.

▪ Travel Lounge VIP, registered June 9, 2023 and still active.