This week as I was enjoying some time with my son at the pool, I got a call from Officer Lima from the Stoughton Police. He told me about a moving company called Massachusetts Enterprises, owned by a Portuguese Stoughton resident Joe Edwards. They found their storage place at U-Haul full of boxes that were supposed to be sent to Brazil. The officer wanted me to meet him at the police station to see how I could help them find the Brazilian owners of the boxes.

When I arrived there, just one hour after the phone call, I met officer Kevin Lima and detective Arlindo Romeiro. They told me that Marlboro police had many complains about this company not sending the boxes to Brazil. Some of the boxes were stored at U-Haul on route 138 but they only had reference numbers and no contact information so they could not find the boxes owners. I guess they called me because they know about my TV show and community work.

I said that I had a very good network of newspapers and also my website, TV and magazine that I can quickly spread the word and have the owners come and pick up their boxes. Detective Romeiro said he found only one contact number at a box but once he called and said he was a policeman the guy hung up the phone. I got my cell phone, called the same number and explained to the Brazilian on the other side of the phone that we only wanted him to come and pick up his boxes.

That same night I put up the news on my blog at  www.papotv.com with information about the boxes, the Massachusetts Enterprise and the Stoughton police phone number and the name of the officers that speak Portuguese. Although I would love to have the news exclusive to my magazine and TV show, I felt it was more important to let people know about their boxes as soon as possible so I send the news to all Brazilian newspapers and let them reproduce my article for free. That same night some pastors and leaders printed my article and spread the word. I went on live at a friend’s radio program and had the news printed in some newspapers.

That same night also I went to the house of Joe Edwards and his Brazilian wife Eliene, the owners of Massachusetts Enterprise, a moving company located at 2 Canton St, Stoughton. I wanted to hear their version of the story. They told me they went bankrupt and they had no money to send the boxes to Brazil because their partner Carlos Maia kept the money. Carlos Maia told me he was just a worker collecting boxes and he never took any money from the company. Four month ago Carlos opened his own moving company Rio Maia in Marlboro.

Slowly people are getting back their boxes but many people that call me in reference to the boxes they sent with Mass Enterprise give me a box number that is not at the Stoughton storage. There are many boxes stuck at the port in Brazil.

William, a Framingham resident, the first guy that came to pick up the boxes, said he had bought $15,000 in merchandise to send to his family in Brazil. A stainless steel refrigerator, a TV, a washing machine, a computer, printer and a bedroom set. He paid $7,000 for shipping. When I met him at the U-haul while he was picking up what was left from his stuff, he was happy and sad at the same time. He said that he did not have hope to find his stuff anymore, but he was also sad to see that many things were missing, that he lost the shipping money and that all his work was in vain.

Lucia of East Boston sent in October a box full of clothes and a laptop to her son that she doesn’t see for 3 years as a Christmas gift bought with hard house cleaning work. She, like most people did not report the case to the police. Maria of Framingham sent in August a box full of clothes to donate to a charity place in Brazil. They are all afraid to get into a police station because of their illegal status. I understand their fear that is why I offered to go with them to pick up their boxes at the storage.

Unfortunately it is very easy to prey on illegal immigrants. To steal and abuse them knowing that they will not report to the police. Can we have a police that is more worried about catching the bad guys that steal from people than about working immigrants trying to support their families?

I might not be able to help people with Aids in Africa but I can for sure help people in my own town. Thanks to officer Lima and detective Romeiro.