Wednesday, July 14, 2004
This is horrible. A shipping company in Atlanta has apparently made off with $30,000 in deposits from Operation Give, the effort by Chief Wiggles (see the link) to bring toys to Iraqi children. Here is Dean Esmay's post on the subject:
We are horrified, we are angry, and we need your help.
Please. We have shipped tens of thousands of toys to Iraq, but now one shipping company has made off like bandits with enough money to buy a small house in some parts of the country. They took it as a deposit for shipping and did not return it or make good on it. Money you gave, money I gave, and toys you shipped to our warehouse have evaporated into thin air because a shipping company in Atlanta made off with money we gave them in good faith to pay for their shipping services.
This is big people. THEY FUCKING STOLE FROM US. They're in Atlanta. Please, if you have a weblog, link the Chief's story, and if you know anyone in law enforcement or with other legal means to help us figure out what's going on and to get that money back, please help us.
This isn't funny. This is money we gave to help Iraqi children and to help our brave and noble service members serving over there. WE GOT RIPPED OFF, AND WE NEED TO GET THESE PEOPLE AND GET THAT MONEY BACK.
This isn't funny, and it isn't minor. Please help if you can.
Man oh man. You try to do something good and someone comes along to screw with you.
Update: Thanks to what appears to be a pretty strong and growing reaction on the part of the public, the issue seems to be resolved. Thanks to anyone who took an interest.
Thank you, thank you.
Thanks to all your work, the company that had been ignoring our phone calls after having our money for 30 days, after we had even fax'd them proof from our bank that the check had cleared, suddenly started returning our calls and promising to make good. They tell us our goods will ber eleased in Kuwait tomorrow.
Thank you, thank you. And because some have been asking, I'll say here again that we would never, ever have gone public if these folks hadn't been holding our money for a LONG time and hadn't been ignoring us completely despite our best efforts to get in touch with them.
This looks like it's going to work out thanks to you guys.