UPDATES:
More info from Photodude. Reid is the fellow who got resolution last month when this problem first surfaced. (Only Atlas happened to be lying out of their ass then, of course.)
Chief Wiggles has an update too. In brief, Operation Give (OG) is in contact with the Georgia State Attorney's office, they are getting legal counsel here (chances are good for pro bono), at this time only Atlas Line can actually prove where any money is and they aren't talking, the goods in the two containers stuck in Kuwait are going to be transhipped by the US military so the donated items will get to where they need to be and OG will stop incurring daily fees for the containers sitting in Kuwait.
Atlas Line is a shipping company headquartered here in Atlanta. Click on that link for one of the most painful websites I have seen since late 1997. They are not members of the Atlanta Better Business Bureau and appear to be in violation of Trademark against Atlas Van Line. They have only been in business since July 2002. They also appear to be thieves.
Brief history: Atlas Line was the shipper used by Chief Wiggles and Operation Give to ship three containers of donated goods to Iraq. The first container was delivered and was late coming back. The leery shipper on the other end then required a $10,000 deposit for the containers. Operation Give sent $10,000 to Atlas Line. It turned out that the amount needed was $10,000 per container. Operation Give sent an additional $20,000 to Atlas Line. The $30,000 was never received by the overseas shipper. Operation Give was not refunded.
I called Atlas Line today but was unable to speak to any of the principles. They're all out for the day. I did speak with Mary, who did not want to tell me her last name. She is an Operation Clerk there. She assured me that Atlas did not steal Operation Give's money, checks were sent overseas, they were in fact cashier's checks and Atlas does not now have any of Operation Give's money in their own bank account. According to Mary, they would not have been in business so long if they "ripped people off". I guess Mary thinks that two years is an exceptionally long time.
Like most people who read about this my bullshit detector is going off the scale. To that end I'm more than happy to have sent a missive similar to this post to every local news channel and paper.
If they were cashier's checks, they would be able to show this from their bank statements.
Yes, it's bullshit.
To out my honest opinion:
how about smacking Operation Give in the head for using a phoney shipping company?
Not beeing listed with the BBB alone should have rang a bell there.
Now,that doesn't mean I am against kicking Atlas Line in the ass twice as hard.
LW is right, of course, but at the moment that's not the point. With enough pressure and exposure this can get sorted and everyone can learn the lesson.
Jim: there doesn't seem to have been any followup today on any of the blogs covering this situation. Can you keep us in the loop please?
I'll sure be following up. I'm hoping at least one of the local news stations will be intrigued. Maybe I'll call Mary again today and see how she's doing.
Operation Give has photos of the cashed checks.
This is such a great organization; the Iraqi children need something positive in their lives. I am just so irate about the whole thing. Good luck with the letters; Atlas deserves all the bad publicity they get.
Good luck. Let me know if you'd like me to try to put you in touch with a litigator down there.
I thought all this stuff was taken care of already.. this is getting pretty stupid.
Me, I'm getting impatient with everyone (uh, not you!) going, "Spread the word, tell everyone, invoke the power of BLOGGGG," when what is critical here is that OG gets a fargin' lawyer and then removes everything pertaining to this case from the website. They don't need "more" publicity now, but less.