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Good on you, mate! If I were free this afternoon, I’d suggest meeting up and going with you.

I’d post this on my own site, but I can’t seem to get to it today for some reason…

J.

I just called Alicia Ludwig at Atlas. She said the owner of the company is actually Jim Ludwig, he is in Europe and no one can find him. She also said that she is working on releasing the funds. She sounded a little harried as I spoke to her so the emails and phone calls are working. Keep up the pressure.

I spoke with Adam Murphy, the consumer reporter at the Atlanta CBS station, this morning. He wants to cover the story but needs a local person to speak to on camera. If you’re interested, his direct line is (404)[edited].

(I tried to post this to Chief Wiggle’s blog, but his comments aren’t working.)

All-

I just got off the phone with “Brian” from Atlas lines, and here’s his explanation:

Atlas received a $10k check from Operation Give a while back which was forwarded to Kuwait; thus the one released container.

They subsequently received a $20k for the remainder due, but had not forwarded that to Kuwait until their bank had cleared the check; i.e., the bank wanted to make sure the check didn’t bounce. As of yesterday, their bank had not cleared the check yet.

Based on public pressure (I assume), Brian stated that Alicia, who is handling this for Atlas, has faxed a copy of a $20k check, as well as the FedEx envelope used to mail the check, to the Kuwaiti shipper—this, apparently, is standard practice in international shipping, and is generally accepted.

Assuming all this is true (and Brian sounded contrite enough for me to believe him), then the remaining two containers should be on their way shortly.

A couple other things Brian said worth noting:

-Both he and Alicia were on vacation last week when this thing blew up;
-The individuals who were handling this, Clint and Sarah, resigned without a proper turnover and thus Atlas didn’t really know what was going on until Alicia and Clint returned to sort it out.
-The Kuwaitis apparently never return shipping containers-they use them as houses. Hence the requirement for the $30k deposit.

That last point really annoys me: the money donated to Operation Give is not necessarily all going to toys; some of it may be used for Kuwaiti condos. I think the Chief should prepare to never to see the $30k again.

Anyway, I though I would share what I was told when I called. Brian, it appears, has been hit over the head with this for the past few days. He was polite and contrite, and seemed genuinely interested in fixing the problem. Hopefully Alicia is good on her word and the Kuwaitis have at least a faxed copy of the check.

-Ron

I’m not in Atlanta and can’t be of much help, but have you also called the local TV news stations?

Since this involves international shipping, somebody in Customs may also be able to put some pressure on—Altas has to have appropriate licenses, etc.

How high up in the military chain of command can Chief Wiggles get—either directly or via others who are watching this unfold. A call from Col. XX or General YY is a lot more impressive than a call from Random Person ZZ. The only thing more impressive is a call from 60 Minutes or 20/20!

Good luck.

Thanks for the comments and info, everyone. I just got back from visiting with Brian at Atlas (and, Ron, he struck me the same as he did you; polite and trying to fix it) and hopefully this is resolved.

When are we going to be told the details of the resolution to this?

This blog and others that have covered this item this week are leaving us to piece this together ourselves.

At best they want to paint themselves and the internet community as the heros and Atlas as the now, contrite, evil mega-corp now layed low and exposed of it’s wrong doing.

I’m willing to bet that this is not exactly the case.

From what I have been able to piece together here, there and on Cheif Wiggles site in the last 24 hours…

I’m willing to bet that the story goes a little something more like this:

(Scene 1)

Noble charity enters into unknown territory and engages international shipper for noble cause… who rightly requests $30K deposit on it’s shipping containers while donating most of it’s services…

Noble charity scrounges all the cash it has on hand and can produce for this deposit. Noble charity assumes this deposit is “payment” for services.

It is not.

International shipper assumes noble charity is used to running in these cirlces and knows this.

They do not.

Shipping containers and merchandise promptly vanish into abyss of corruption and bribery plagued middle-east shipping industry and part of the shipment is held “hostage” by the ‘ner do wells’ that plaque the region.

Noble charity says… WTF?.. hey, international shipper dudes..uh… we gave you money….why is our stuff not where it’s supposed to be?

International shipper says.. “you must pay “fees” to low life shipping industry/gov’t thugs in Kuwait to get your stuff on it’s way”

Noble charity says.. “But you have ALL our money!!... we thought..uh… we didn’t know.. uh…”

International shipper says… “yes..the 30K which you will get back once we have our shipping containers back home here in the US….(which probably isn’t going to happen, by the way.. which is why we asked you for the $30K up front in the first place…we’re a benevolent business… not a welfare agency)

International shipper and Noble charity.. (in unison)... “oh sh**!!”

then…

Enter stage left some supporters of Noble charity who always assume everything is welfare. They cry foul and attack the only thing they can see… the one entity who has all “their” money…

International shipper says.. “OH f***, we don’t have time to deal with this.. hey, guess what?.. we’ll eat the 3 containers in the name of good will and we’ll send the $30K of your $ that we have to the thugs in the mideast to get your stuff on it’s way…happy now?”

Noble charity and blog nation: (in unison) “We won!!.. We won!!!.. we defeated the evil mega-corp which is sucking us all dry anyway by tapping on our keyboards in unison”

Noble charity: “Glad no one realizes that we’re dorks…”

Int’l shipper: ”...dorks!...”

Evil mideast thugs:”hah… dorks!”

Blog nation: (in unison) “ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, huh.. wha’ happened?”

Kids in Iraq: “yeaaayyyy!!!”

Noble charity: ”....dorks…”

The characters in the foregoing scene represent no one in particular, but I’ll bet it comes a little closer to the reality of this situation than what we have been left to assume.

Tell me I’m wrong…

The truth IS important… it matters…

“When are we going to be told the details of the resolution to this?”

Steve, your demanding point of view is surprisingly not unique. I’ve encountered 8 or 9 people in the comments at other sites who have said essentially the same thing (though they didn’t feel the need to post some elaborate fantasy slam that was almost longer than the original article).

The only reason I “know everything” is because I put forth the effort to hear both sides of the story from the horse’s mouth. Anyone with the capability to dial a phone could have done the same (many did), and it would have taken less time than writing some 500 word fantasy (but apparently it’s easier to expect me to spill every bean). And after doing so, I made the personal judgment that I could not “tell all” ... I could very well be sued for doing so … so I told enough to let everyone know the issue is resolved. Foolishly thinking that would be enough, since people were mainly concerned about Operation Give getting back on track, right? Alternative One brought responses like yours…

“You can’t stop there, I know there’s more to this story, and I have a right to know everything.”

I’d estimate it’s 10-15% of the reaction I’ve seen, a demand for full disclosure. Tell people that doing so might be actionable, and they don’t care, they still say they have a right to know everything. Accept the word and reputation of military veterans in a charity to help Iraqi children? Nope, we must suspect everyone, and see hard proof of anything you say. When I first heard that attitude, I thought I’d made a mistake, and should have simply posted “This issue is resolved.” Alternative Two would have brought responses like…

“You can’t stop there, I know there’s more to this story, and I have a right to know everything.”

The problem is, I cannot prove one thing. I cannot even prove in a court of law that I went to Atlas’ office. I have no physical evidence. I have no tape recording of what I learned, I did not take a court reporter with me, I met in a closed office with one man. If I were to tell you what was said, you would reply, “I don’t believe you, I’m going to have to see proof of that.”

But in essence, that is what you’re already saying ... “I don’t beleive you.” There is no proof people like you would accept as “final.” You will always have suspicious questions, and assume the worst. And this is not a court of law where you have rights. This is one guy’s web site.

So in the future, I think I’m going to go with Alterative Three: Say nothing at all. Then there will be no questions, no demands to know everything, because no one will know anything. Any “good deed” I might take on, well, I’ll be keeping it very very quiet. Paul said, “Hoping for your sake that this good deed will go unpunished.”

Keep your good deeds to yourself, because it’s not just a cliche, folks, it’s reality. And on this page, it’s name is Steve.

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

You’re wrong.

“The truth IS important … it matters.”

Yes, that’s why I went down there. And the truth is available to you. You expect it to be dropped in your lap, but that didn’t happen to me. I had to put forth some effort to find it, and I didn’t find it on the web. If you redirect the energy from your screed to more effective tactics, I bet you can find it, too.

With that, these threads are closed, and this site is out of the “good deed” business. At least, as far as you will ever know.