Items to be Taken Not Clearly Marked

I almost gave Amvets half of our possessions.

In an unlikely misunderstanding, I confused a phone call from an Amvets driver for the gentleman who was to estimate the cost of shipping our possessions to Europe. I was running ten minutes behind from dropping Judi off at work, and I knew the estimator would arrive at our apartment before I made it back to the property. Of course, I didn’t expect the Amvets driver to show up at exactly the same time the estimator was supposed to, so when I got a call from a gentleman telling me he’d arrived for our “stuff”, I didn’t make the connection that this wasn’t the shipping estimator.

I told him I’d be there in a few minutes, so he asked me a few questions while he had me on the phone. “What am I taking?” he inquired. I explained that he would be taking two dressers, a table and two desks, and all of the boxes he could see through our front window. “What’s in them?” he then asked. I imagined his nose to the glass, his hand over his eyes blocking the glare as he scanned our possessions.
“Oh, a few boxes of clothes, some art supplies, books, and games, linens and bedding, and some camping gear.”
“I’m taking all that?” he asked, with suspicious incredulity.
“Yep.” I explained that I had already stored about a third of our possessions, and sold off another third, and that was all that was left.
“Are you moving”
“… um… yes?”
“Wow, where are you moving?”
“To Belgium- Ghent, for two years or so.”
“Ah, that explains it” he then replied, his surprise seemingly sated. The confusion subsided for awhile, since we had then reached a misunderstanding and were perfectly happy to drop the issue. He thought I was getting rid of everything because of the move to Europe, and I thought he now knew exactly what was going on.

Of course, a few minutes later everything came to light when I finally arrived and saw the Amvets truck outside of our apartment. This man wasn’t the estimator- he was there to take our donations!! He was rather irritated when I explained who I thought he was, and as he grumbled and walked away the true estimator walked up the steps. The driver didn’t even take the items we’d left outside. I immediately busied myself with the true estimator- so without saying a word, he just left a note behind reading “Items to be taken not clearly marked” and drove away.