Hot Rods Stolen? lost?1932 5 windows coupe body, keep your eyes open

To all my HAMB friends

Last September I bought a 1932 coupe 5w body that was for sale on the HAMB to Hamb Memeber Tom, Tom crated the body very well, and did everything possible to help me, the big wooden box left his place around the 17 November, the company Direct Express Inc (http://www.shipdei.com/) should take care of it, but the 10 January, I received a phone call saying that my 1932 5w coupe body was lost...

until now, no body knows what happened, stolen? lost??

Please open your eyes, if you found something suspicious on Internet or swap meets? please let me know

Many thanks

Peter

 

Bump

 

Lost?
I don't think so. Some lowlife scum has your body, the word lost needs replacing with stolen.
I sincerely hope you get your body back.
Thieves are the lowest form of human.

 

have them find it . they have manifests ( paper trail ) to prove where it was picked up /loaded /transfered / you should also contact us customs as it was a international load and they should have inspected it before it left port .

 

Hope you get it back mate.

 

Pete that sucks.I can only hope that the scum gets caught,and we get a new thread on here:"The Reclaimed Coupe"I can already see that coupe with your spin on it.Your threads always Rock and this build will have a little more to the story.Good Luck ....

 

How could they misplace something that large and not hold anyone accountable! There would be a shipping trail, Customs entry and bonding before release into someone's custody. I presume they would have insurance and if not I hope that you had transit insurance. BTTT

 

The company replied:

Hello Peter,

That is correct. We have filed a claim with the carrier but unfortunately, the claims department takes about 60-90 days to be resolved as in that time they investigate and hopefully try to locate this crate.

I truly apologize for this issue as we do not understand how a crate so big has gone missing. I have provided all details and proof of the crate to the carrier to have this rushed and resolved quickly.


Again, I do apologize for this big headache that has occurred and doing everything in our power to recover the missing crate. I will be following up again next week and I will be advising as soon as I have details from the carrier


If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly: 001.310.413.6869

 

Boy does that suck ! Hope they find it.

Don

 

I still don't understand how you loose a crate that big. Hope it shows up.

 

Keep us informed.

 

Big World to hide a 32 body. Which side of the Pond should we be looking? You're in France/Switzerland, but you didn't say what port it was shipped from by "Tom"...
What call was it last scanned/handled? Did it ever get loaded onto the cargo ship? Did it get scanned, go through Customs in Europe?

 

The box disappear between Virginia and California...

 

What was the story the driver gave when he showed up WITHOUT the crate he left with. I mean it had to be on his log, and he had to sign off on picking it up. So did he show up to the destination and say, "I don't know what happened to it, it was there when I left."? He is the first guy I would look at.

 

I sold Peter the body and there were also parts inside like a nice dash, windshield frame, hand formed quarter windows, and many small parts to finish the roof. Believe me gents when I tell you, this stuff was packed well and that crate was screwed together, not nailed. Everything on the inside was strapped down and a 3/4" plywood bulkhead placed and secured right behind the door pillars so nothing could fall out

I will post pics of the parts/packing soon as I get home. It left Ashland Virginia and was headed toward LA. I have to be truthful in that I did not get a "warm fuzzy" about the shipping company right from the get go. But it was not my call and I certainly feel for Pete.

Please be on the he lookout for any of this stuff. It may be legitimately lost but the New York in me does not think so - something really not right here.

Thanks gents for any help you can give .....

 

Direct Express
310-324-2100

 

much bigger stuff than that crate get "lost" while shipping.

 

I went to their website and it looks like they had an 8 year old write it. are these guys a broker or something?
WTF kind of company can't tell you anything about where it is?

 

hang in there , and keep the pressure on them to find it....i know of a car that got shipped to Sweden that was "lost" for a couple months but was eventually found

 

I shipped a 32 cpe to England ,it sat in storage for a month In a wharehouse until they had enough to fill the shipping container

 

Wow. Not much I can do, but will keep my eyes open I guess.

Sounds like a weird thing, but if it were all screwed together, (cool crate btw) there is no way a 'thief' could have known what was inside, other than that it was big.

If it were transported, was it on a low boy, a boat, a huge plane? (Virginia to Cali should not have been a boat anyways) Manifests should clearly show where it was last accounted for.
On a smaller scale, I have had a package picked up and shipped the wrong way and then had to be placed on another truck going the correct way; could have happened. (Box was in pile of others going one direction)

Hope you have luck, and keep your hopes up!

 

The shipper is probably a broker - spoke to the guy that picked up the body. He knows nothing of what's inside, just its destination. They are not llike Yellow Freight where it's their trucks the whole way. It could be anybody picking up this thing where ever it is dropped off for the next leg of its journey. I was not a fan like I said and yes their website was infantile and that's being nice ....

 

Here are some pics of items and such .....










I do not have a pic of the windshield frame - some surface rust but in red oxide primer and solid all the way around. The quarter windows are definitely unique being home-made so they will stand out in a pile of 32 parts for sale at a swap meet or on craigslist for sure ...

Anything else you need let me know - I am hoping that this thing is lost due to the bad weather across the country - flooding, tornados, heavy rains, especially in LA, during the time it was being shipped. It may be in some warehouse somewhere "for safe keeping" from one or more of those storms .... but I am not so certain of that ....

Keep us posted, Pete ....

 

Hope it turns up.

 

Is this the same one that was "lost" due to flooding? I believe I read something about that a few weeks ago.

 

Worst nightmare when buying from overseas.....you are helpless being so far away.Did you get insurance cover?

I really hope it turns up safe and sound......it's a big crate to lose.That timeline they quoted you, to search it out ,seems way too long to me...call them every day,email them, pester them ...the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Good luck mate.

 

Yes, the supposed crate lost in the floods - but now the shipper has changed their story somewhat. Pete will have to explain that as I have no info other than what he has relayed to me ....

 

I have seen crates bigger than that go missing in shipping, only to turn up late. We had a piece of machinery go missing it was lost for months. While at the freight forwarders warehouse working on the claim, an employee's kid went walking around, as bored kids will do, and he found it in a corner of this 100,000 sq ft warehouse. Rarely does anyone know what's in a crate like that, so theft is usually unlikely.

 

I rent space to truck storage yards. Lots of things go missing. Lots of things get stolen. I will keep an eye out at the big three swap meet here in san diego at the end of the month.

 

Thanks a lot to all for the help, first they told me it was crashed due to the floods in LA , and no one knows where it is as lot of things where up and down , now it is lost , I keep pressure on them , they have insurance that have to recover but still waiting for the money , I will keep you posted , in the meantime I m still working on the frame