Posted on 01/15/2012 2:28:02 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Somewhere around West Bend, several people have pieces of U.S. Navy Commander Wilma Roberts' life - her furniture, her china, her clothes, financial records, the family Bible, even the ceremonial sword from her son's graduation from a military academy.
Nearly all Roberts' worldly possessions were auctioned off by a storage business last summer after a classic military snafu: Though Roberts, 48, was on active duty in Japan and Kuwait from July 2008 to July 2011, Navy officials stopped paying for her storage in 2010 and told the West Bend company it could sell off the goods - though the Navy bureaucrats and even the storage business could have easily learned that Roberts was deployed and protected from such an action.
A man who bought Roberts' more than 7,000 pounds of stored belongings for $2,101 in June later sold most of the things at a yard sale - just as Roberts was returning. She valued the goods at $60,000.
But it's the moving and storage company, Chips Express, that now finds itself a defendant in federal court.
Roberts sued the firm under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which prohibits the sale of any active military member's property to pay a storage lien without a court order. The lawsuit seeks actual and punitive damages and the costs of monitoring Roberts' credit record, because she fears possible identity theft from her missing personal financial records.
Her attorney, a retired Air Force colonel in Louisiana who specializes in cases under the act, concedes there were also serious mistakes made by the Navy.
"It's a real crying shame we did this to one of our own, but the ultimate responsible person is Chips Express," lawyer John Odom Jr. said.
The company's president, Hank Schloemer, said his family-run operation has been contracting with Naval Station Great Lakes' Personal Property Office to pack, move and store service members' property for 15 years and had never heard of the law or had a situation like Roberts'. Officials with the Personal Property Office told him to treat the goods like an unpaid civilian lot, he said, and never tried to help him get better contacts for Roberts over the months Chips Express tried on its own to track her down.
Schloemer also disputes another of Odom's claims - that the buyer at auction had doubts when he unpacked Roberts' crates, and went back to Chips Express to ask if there had been a mistake. Odom says the buyer - whom neither Odom nor Schloemer would name - got information from Chips Express from which he inferred Roberts had been killed in action, and went so far as to put up her photo with candles to that effect during the yard sale.
"That's a bunch of baloney," Schloemer said. "I think that was for effect more than anything."
Items packed up in 2008
Roberts, an Illinois resident and a critical care nurse, has been on active duty with the Navy since 1991. In 2008, she was in training in Milwaukee, Odom said, when she moved to Okinawa, Japan, for two years. That's when Great Lakes arranged to have Chips Express pack up, move and store her property until July 2010.
While stationed in Japan, Roberts was deployed to Kuwait, Odom said. She says she contacted Great Lakes' property office to let them know she would be gone another year, not returning until July 2011.
Somehow, that message never got recorded, and on Aug. 31, 2010, the Navy converted Roberts' storage contract to private-pay. In December, Chips Express sent overdue payment notices to an address for Roberts in Colorado, but they came back undeliverable. In April, it sent a notice of lien to the same address; it was also returned.
On July 2, according to the lawsuit, Roberts' possessions were sold at auction.
A week later, Roberts came back from overseas and requested her property be delivered to her new address in Illinois.
Schloemer remembers that phone call.
"Great Lakes called us with directions on where to send her things," he said. "We said we'd just sold it all. The comment by the person down there was, 'Oh my god - I'll call you back.' "
Roberts, who didn't respond to an interview request placed through her attorney, told the Navy Times last fall that when she found out, she immediately tried to get the name of the buyer, but Chips Express wouldn't cooperate until a Navy lawyer intervened.
Schloemer said the buyer had expressly asked that his name not be given out, and the business wasn't sure about privacy rights. "We got caught in the middle," he said. "Finally we released the name to the Navy."
Odom says that when Roberts went to the buyer's house in West Bend in August, he almost fainted. He had burned her photos, and the only thing he kept was her grandmother's fur coat, since his wife had fancied it, which he returned - though with the original owner's embroidered name panel cut out.
Roberts sat in her car and cried for 45 minutes, the buyer told Odom.
Schloemer said that within a few weeks of the problem's discovery, two people who worked at Great Lakes' Personal Property Office retired, and within a couple of months, the whole operation was closed and transferred to Norfolk, Va.
A public affairs officer with the Naval Supply Systems Command's Global Logistic Support, Nannette Davis, did not return a message Friday. In an interview with the Navy Times, she called the communication breakdown regrettable and said the Navy will do more training in storage procedure so it won't happen again.
Please translate the following acronyms you used for we who are wholly unfamiliar with them
HHG (household goods?)
GB1
PPSO (personal property storage office?)
NTS
HOR
SIT
SDDC
DPS
Navy on the hook, too? Why? Because this idiot reporter wrote the following line without attributing it to the storage company’s attorney as to why his client is blameless:
“Navy officials stopped paying for her storage in 2010 and told the West Bend company it could sell off the goods”
Good grief. Use some common sense. I would bet when you whip open your parked car door and ding the car next to you; it is the other guys fault for leaving his car to close to where you would be parking 20 minutes later...
Navy on the hook, too? Why? Because this idiot reporter wrote the following line without attributing it to the storage company’s attorney as to why his client is blameless:
“Navy officials stopped paying for her storage in 2010 and told the West Bend company it could sell off the goods”
Good grief. Use some common sense. I would bet when you whip open your parked car door and ding the car next to you; it is the other guys fault for leaving his car to close to where you would be parking 20 minutes later...
Navy on the hook, too? Why? Because this idiot reporter wrote the following line without attributing it to the storage company’s attorney as to why his client is blameless:
“Navy officials stopped paying for her storage in 2010 and told the West Bend company it could sell off the goods”
Good grief. Use some common sense. I would bet when you whip open your parked car door and ding the car next to you; it is the other guys fault for leaving his car to close to where you would be parking 20 minutes later...
Navy on the hook, too? Why? Because this idiot reporter wrote the following line without attributing it to the storage company’s attorney as to why his client is blameless:
“Navy officials stopped paying for her storage in 2010 and told the West Bend company it could sell off the goods”
.
Pardon me but where exactly are you seeing that line being attributed to the companies lawyer?
“A public affairs officer with the Naval Supply Systems Command’s Global Logistic Support, Nannette Davis, did not return a message Friday. In an interview with the Navy Times, she called the communication breakdown regrettable and said the Navy will do more training in storage procedure so it won’t happen again.”
Good grief,thats from the actual article and the navy clearly recognizes their fault.
That statement proves or disproves nothing and you know it. For all you know a Navy Supply Corp Ensign that had been up partying until 3:00 AM after being dumped by his girlfriend answered a phone call and said “well, if a Navy Officer isn’t paying HER storage I know I would sell it”.
Get real.
This have gotten worse. Back in the 60’s they usually contented themselves to break open cartons and steal the good stuff.
“We were USAF though”
So were we during that same time frame and we lost close to 30% of our things. They had been stored in Chicago, I might add.
“The disrespect shown to our service members is appalling.”
It always has been, and in civilian societies always will be.
***********************************
Tommy
I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.
I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-’alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.
Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.
We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.
You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
That’s ridiculous to say they never heard of such a law. I’ve heard of such a law because I work for a law firm, and we do nothing with the military, but before you bring any action you must ascertain whether or not the person you are suing is in the military. For people who deal with the military all the time to say they never heard of this is moronic.
True and thanks for making sure that difference is clear.
The property is gone in either event. I can only imagine how I would feel in the same situation.
The gov’t has never done anything that cost less. Probably
wind up costing 3 or 4 times as much.
“Good grief. Use some common sense.”
Are you asserting that the Navy did NOT stop paying for her storage in 2010?
Are you asserting that the company did not seek permission from the Navy to sell the goods?
Are you asserting that the company did not try to reach the owner of the goods?
So yes, use common sense. The Navy f’ed up and started the whole mess.
When they agree too storage and too pay such during deployment then THEY are responsible. The whole purpose of that system is too store the perasonal household goods of deployed service members. How can they not be reasponsible and HOW CAN THE NAVY NOT HAVE KNOWN WHERE THE COMMANDER WAS? Did they loose her also? 1945 yea maybe. in the 2000's? That info is aviable in a matter of seconds.
When we PCSd from Germany, the company took down my wife’s German Schrank to boards. They ripped apart our wooden bar stools down to the stick. The movers who delivered and set up our stuff provided a statement about damage obviously done by the other movers when they disassembled our furniture.
When you’re stationed overseas, you can get furniture and appliances through the Housing Supply office. Why bring an American washer, dryer, stove and refridgerator? They’re not the same voltage and will not likely fit properly in the foreign homes.
If you’re on a short tour, it really isn’t worth bringing all of your stuff. You would be without it for at least four months while it’s being moved to and from your duty staion.
You forgot JPSO.
:-)
Everything you posted is conjecture at this point. You have idea what the facts are, but the bottom line is the storage company would be an idiot to think anyone in the Navy could or would be authorizing the sale of personal belongings in a personal storage locker.
Sheese.
>> I can’t really blame the storage company.
Every involved party in this story is responsible.
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