Behind Closed Doors

ABOVE: Jamie Bond, from Place of Hope, trains Good Greek staff in West Palm Beach how to spot signs of child abuse and human trafficking. COURTESY PHOTOS

Good Greek Moving and Storage is making some big moves to help combat human trafficking.

The Jupiter-based moving and trucking company is now the first in the county to train its workers to spot the signs of exploited and abused children in homes, says owner and founder Spero Georgedakis,

The former police officer teamed up with the anti-trafficking non-profit organization Place of Hope.

“Florida is number three in the country for highest reported calls to the National Trafficking hotline, and Palm Beach County is third in the state,” says Jamie Bond, Place of Hope’s director of advancement.

Bond spoke to about a dozen managers at Good Greek’s West Palm Beach facility.

These managers are now tasked with training 600 employees statewide.

“You go where no one else is allowed to go. You can be the first to bring a tip. You may think something is the smallest thing but still make the call,” Bond explains.

“We have girls as young as ten who were trafficked, raped and pregnant. Ninety percent of our child clients were sexually abused,” Bond says.

RIGHT: Spero Georgedakis, owner and founder of Good Greek Moving & Storage is working to help combat human trafficking.

“I could have been one of those girls if not for my parents,” Bond adds. When she was a Royal Palm Beach Community High School student, “My next-door neighbor was recruiting our classmates to visit Jeffrey Epstein.”

“She told them, ‘Go to a party and get paid $200 to rub an old man’s feet.’ Then they get into a room with him and are forced to do things against their will.”

Georgedakis’ background in law enforcement is what motivates him and “the ethos” of his company, he said. The son of Greek immigrants in Astoria, Queens, Geogedakis joined law enforcement at age 19 in North Miami, working in street patrol, plain clothes crime suppression and SWAT (his favorite.) The police department paid the final two years of his Criminal Justice degree at Florida International University.

“I did and saw everything there was to see in that world. I felt I could help more people, and as a young man, I wanted to reach the American dream,” he says.

Managers at Good Greek Moving learn about human trafficking.

And Bond is married to a local law enforcement officer who has served warrants for computers with child porn.

In her training session, she details the lurid world of sex trafficking, “Customers pay premiums for virgins, babies and children. Torture also. This is very, very sick, and it’s really happening,” she says. “We have local kids who are forced to [have sex] 20–40 times a night. Some girls are tied up or put naked in a dog cage and are burned with cigarettes and stabbed.”

She says movers are in an excellent position to spot clues. Some red flags are the absence of groceries at home but lots of takeout containers, a closet filled with costumes but no regular clothes, a child’s bedroom with no toys, or a mattress on the floor and camera equipment.

Bond showed the Good Greek managers a video of Savannah, a former victim from Orlando, who recounted how her prostitute mother sold her at age 10 for a $10 vial of crack. After that, she was taken to a hotel after school to be forced into sex. Savannah always asked her teachers for detention to avoid going home.

In the video, Savannah says, “The teachers never asked why. And I was always at the same hotel, and the people who saw me chose to do nothing.”

Both Georgedakis and Bond stress that even children from good families or kids with a lot of money can be susceptible to predators who want to groom, trap and enslave them.

“This is not just about streetbased prostitution at Riveria Beach and 45th and Broadway, but it’s also about Jupiter and the island of Palm Beach,” Bond says.

In one case, she recalls that police entered a “lovely home, where there was a shed in the back with a false door. Inside were tons of computers filled with porn.”

Georgedakis recalls, “A painting contractor went to a multimillion- dollar home of a retired American Airlines captain in Port St. Lucie.” They saw kids and no food. The father was passed out drunk. The crew called Georgedakis to bring food and wake the man. “These are exactly the types of kids who could be trafficked.” Georgedakis, whose Good Greek was just named “National Mover of the Year” by the American Trucking Association, says he wants to do more to combat human trafficking.

Part of his motivation comes from being the father of twin 16-year-old girls. “They are at an age where they can be negatively influenced by friends and predators,” Georgedakis says.

His next step is to wrap a truck with a giant Place of Hope QR code and rent billboards throughout Florida with the same message.

“This [program] could be as widespread as the ‘don’t text and drive campaigns,’” he says. “This initiative is just as important, if not more.”

And Bond adds, “You don’t have to donate $100,000, you could volunteer at the event. Just get involved!”

Place of Hope is based in Palm Beach Gardens and has served 40,000 children in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties since its founding 24 years ago. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody will speak at their “Hope Bash” fundraiser this December.

For more on Good Greek Moving and Storage, visit greekmoving.com .

The post Behind Closed Doors first appeared on Palm Beach Florida Weekly .