Woman claims movers asked for sexual favors

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey (WABC) -- A moving mess as a moving company is under investigation for giving low estimates, holding peoples belongings hostage and even asking for sexual favors in exchange for a lower price.

"Do you feel like you were an easy target for them... Yes definitely," One suspected victim answers.

Hiliary isn't using her last name because she is still shaken.

Last year she was moving from Summit to Morristown. She had a new job and needed a moving company and like so many these days, she found one on the internet, Progessive Movers.

She got a quote of $210 in writing.

Once at her new place, she says the movers stayed in the truck for 45 minutes.

"So they come out provide me the paperwork and tell me that I owe them 1100 dollars in cash," she said.

$600 added on to walk up three stairs and an inflated travel time.

When she protested, one of the three male movers said "So the only way we will give you the $210 is if you sleep with me and the foreman".

Stunned, disgusted and scared she says he continued.

"He's like so you gonna take us up on our offer? I said no here is your cash now get out of here," she adds.

The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs says they've heard this before. "It's not the first time we've seen it but this is one of the worst we've seen," said Eric Kanefsky.

Kanefsky says Progressive Movers has almost 90 complaints against them. Mostly for the bait and switch tactic, so he took them to court to shut them down.

The moving company couldn't be found anywhere.

A call to the company's attorney went unreturned

Back at Hiliary's new home, she estimates she lost $300-$400,000 worth of stuff in the move. Some of it broken, much of it never delivered.

A year later, and a little wiser she offers this advice learn from her.

"Even if it's a simple Google search you can find a lot of information on companies out there which I unfortunately discovered retrospectively instead of proactively before my move," she said.

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3rd-graders will not be asked to reveal a secret

  New Jersey education officials will no longer use a standardized test question that asked third-graders to reveal a secret and write about why it was difficult to keep.

The question appeared on the writing portion of some versions of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge given to third-graders this past week. And it drew criticism from some parents, who thought it was inappropriate.

The state Department of Education says the question was reviewed and approved by it and a panel of teachers. They said it was only being tried out and would not count in the students' scores.

But after further review, Department of Education spokesman Justin Barra says the question won't be included in future tests.

Barra says about 4,000 students in 15 districts had the question

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NJ's top cop asked to explain gov's helicopter use

  By ANGELA DELLI SANTI and BETH DeFALCOTRENTON -- Writing a check to cover the cost of two helicopter flights to his son's baseball games seemed to do little to quiet criticism over New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's use of the gubernatorial perk.

Now, a legislator has requested that the head of the New Jersey State Police testify before a legislative committee examining Christie's use of state police helicopters for transportation.

A letter was sent Friday from Assemblywoman Annette Quijano, D-Union, chairwoman of the Homeland Security Committee, to state police Superintendent Rick Fuentes.

Quijano's committee wants to find out who approves helicopter travel, the standards for approval and how flight arrangements are made, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Pres.

"Based on the limited information released from your office, it appears one of the flights was for the governor to attend a charity event at his wife's employer, one flight appears to be just for the lieutenant governor, a couple flights were apparently for TV appearances, and lastly, a couple of flights appear to be for transporting support staff to Atlantic City and the Meadowlands," Quijano wrote.

On Friday, the governor's office declined to release more information on the trips.

"The list we've provided speaks for itself," Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts said.

The Assembly hearing is set for June 14. A spokesman for Fuentes said he had not yet received the letter.

Christie and the Republican State Committee reimbursed taxpayers $3,383 for personal and political trips the governor took in the past week.

His office released a log showing that Christie or his staff used the helicopter 35 times. The most common use was for trips to New York City, which were made on nine occasions - including two for media interviews.

Christie took to the podium Thursday using a "good father" defense, saying he didn't make a political calculation about using helicopter to see his son's games and was simply "dealing with the realities of life."

He woke up Friday to stinging editorials for his unapologetic tone; Christie had blamed the story on media theatrics "driven by political hacks who want to score cheap points."

"This is a governor who holds a press conference every time he catches a public official eating lobster on the public dime, or getting free rides on E-ZPass," The Star-Ledger editorial board wrote.

Many residents felt the same.

"If other people did what he did, he would complain about it, saying they were abusing their privileges," said Dan Walker, a 58-year-old computer analyst from Spotswood. "He has no right to complain about anyone else after doing what he did."

At the news conference, Christie said a schedule he couldn't control on Tuesday prompted him to take the helicopter, but police in Montvale said the governor's office made arrangements on Friday for him to fly. Three local police officers were on hand to ensure the landing was safe for the governor and pedestrians in the area.

"From the get-go, he should have taken his money, not our money," said Latisha Dotson, a 31-year-old Camden resident who manages a store. "What else is he doing with our money?"

But others felt the connection to his duties as a father.

"He's trying to be the best he could as a dad and a politician, and make both of those situations work," said Joe Smith, a 38-year-old computer contractor from Basking Ridge. Smith said regardless of Christie's brash remarks Thursday, reimbursing the state was an implicit admission that he'd made a mistake.

The governor's brother used Facebook on Friday to call on Democrats to pass pension and benefits reforms as quickly as they threatened to hold hearings to look into the legality of helicopter use.

"Those issues," Todd Christie wrote, "would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars."

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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