I had a wiener dog that absolutely SLAYED moles like it was his job. Seriously, I bet he killed more than a hundred over a few years. I guess it kind of was his job, wieners are bred to hunt burrowing animals like that. Dachshund is German for “badger hound”.
Anyway, he got a little older, fatter, and lazier, and we also moved to an area with tougher soil, so his mole slaying days were over (we thought). But then we got a young German Shepherd, and he figured out that he could find the mole (his downward pointing ears made him good at that), start digging the hole, and then stand back and let her take over. Then after she did all the hard work of grabbing and killing the thing, he would steal it from her and come present it to us very proudly.
He wasn’t a terribly bright dog, so I was really impressed when he started doing that. The German Shepherd was way smarter than him by any measure, but I think she didn’t care that he was taking credit for her kills. She was just having fun helping him. Both excellent dogs, I miss them a lot.
I hope you’ll find an easier way to do it, but if it was me in your shoes, I’d probably drive out to them. You driving the U-Haul with them driving your car home sounds like a good idea. It’s the safest option to make sure they don’t run into even MORE trouble.