There is no Andy Landry. This reads like the Enquirer. - Tiki Central Ohana

H hewey Tiki Socialite Sydney, Australia Joined: Sep 14, 2004 Posts: 4283	H hewey Posted posted on Tue, Sep 19, 2006 4:14 AM On 2006-09-18 23:02, tiki-tina wrote: Question for Wendy: How do you know Barbara? What compelled you to get so involved? Have you heard anything else? As far as I know, it started when barbara posted chasing Kahakii for the tiki for her son. Obviously she was not getting any response. I PMd her and directed her to the thread in which Kahakii explained he was going through a divorce. I explained he was a top bloke when he posted on here, and im sure he just had other stuff on his plate. Got this PM response (all of the following PMs have not been edited in any form): Posted: 2006-08-17 02:29 Hi there hewey, I understand he is going through allot, but, I put down a large payment, over 100.00 dollars for a necklace for my 8 yr old son, who by the way has cancer and not expect to live through his next birthday.I wanted this to be a special birthday gift for him since he is so into Hawaii and surfing.He loves to watch it on TV. If he wasnt so sick, I would take him to Hawaii but his Doctors advised againt it, so I thought the necklace would raise his spirts a bit. Now , I dont have a birtday gift for him. I am a single parent and can not afford the 100+ dollars ive already sent him to make the necklace. The medical bills make it tough for me to afford such a loss to him. I have tried in vain to get in contact with him, he does not return calls, most of his phone #s are disconnected, what am i to think. I have been advised to press charges on him for fraud but I want to give him the benifit of the doubt before I do that. He seemed honest and trustworthy on the phone, maybe I just a trusting person and this is a lesson to me, in any case I may have no choice but to take advice I have been given and press charges. You can understand how upset I am, I know he is going though allot but all i ask is he contact me, thats all. Thanks for your message. Barbara I PMd a few mates on here and suggested that we try and get some stuff to this kid, try and cheer him up. Many of the people I PMd then PMd further people. I beleive this is the point where Wendy came in and did an awesome job of rounding up a HEAP of tiki stuff. I PMd Barbara for her address so I could get folks to send her stuff. Note that at this point I had suggested I would try and send her something, but I did not say I was getting a heap of folks to post her stuff, because I wanted it to be a surprise. This is the next PM I received: Posted: 2006-08-21 06:14 well, I waited all weekend and still he has not returned my call. Its really sad how this has worked out. I know my son looked forward to it, he mentioned it almost everyday, now i dont have the heart to tell him , but i suppose i should soon. His birtday is September 9th. Not sure what I will do now. We live in Texas. If you should see him on here, tell him Barbara Landry 8422 Chickamauga Ln Houston Texas 77083 would like him to contact her. Maybe it just slipped him mind although i doubt it beacuse he knew how serrious and important it was to me due to my situation. I would like to think he or anyone for that matter would not be so heartless, but I supposse he had this planned from the start. Anyway, thank you for passing on the message should you get the chance, you seem very nice. thanks again. I must have rementioned I was sending something now I had her address, cant remember for certain. I think Wendy got into contact with her around this time-ish? Posted: 2006-08-22 10:42 thats very kind of you. I dont know why he did this but whatever the case, I beleive you get back in life what you give and in his case im sure all this will catch up with him somehow in the end. hmmmm, lets all take a minute to dwell on that last one shall we... :) Yeh, thats what I was thinking... But, these PMs do bring up some interesting thoughts/scenarios eg. Scenario #1 - It was an extremely well thought out and implemented scam. She could have browsed through old TC posts and saw that Kahakii had disapeared. By looking at previous events like Purple Jade mug, Stentiki etc. she would know how tops TCers are. She then posted re. getting into contact with Kahakii knowing we would stick up for him (and therefore create interest). She then pulls the Kid with Cancer card, then a little later the kid with cancer card AND the recently deceased husband card. How could we saps not rally together and donate some tiki stuff? She also found 2 shots of the same sick kid to bolster her 'case', which supports her doing a bit of homework. Flaws in this theory - perhaps relied too heavily upon a sap (like me and Barbara) to really get the ball rolling and thus minimise any potential questions of legitimatecy. But this does add more beleivability to the whole thing, as opposed to someone posting they want tiki stuff for their sick son... But if she was this organised you reckon she would have got her shit together with something as simple as ages? Scenario 2 - The bit with Kahakii is true(ish). Hell maybe she put down an order and never paid a deposit or something. From then on everything is made up (eg. the son and father) becasue she realised she could be onto something here... Explains the problems with ages, and how it 'snowballed'. The more stuff she made up, the more donations rolled in. Scenario 3 - The bit with Kahakii is true. The sick son is legit (doubt so, those pics are dodgey), she thought she was onto something and made up the father story. I think # 2 seems most likely to me. Someone who puts in the amount of time as suggested in # 1 doesnt screw up something as simple as ages/years. Awefully convenient how they have "gone to visit grandma" at this stage, when the proverbial starts to hit the fan hey? Very interesting indeed. But - look on the bright side - at the start of all of this there was a kid with cancer. Now, thanks to the generosity of many TCers, there is no kid with cancer! Thus one can state that TC has helped to reduce childhood cancer rates! :) Personally, I think it sucks, but at the time I thought it was the right thing, and in the future I am still keen to help out GENUINE folks with problems, give em a little TC spirit. I just feel bad for my part in so many other folks getting burnt.

On 2006-09-18 23:02, tiki-tina wrote:
Question for Wendy: How do you know Barbara? What compelled you to get so involved? Have you heard anything else?

As far as I know, it started when barbara posted chasing Kahakii for the tiki for her son. Obviously she was not getting any response. I PMd her and directed her to the thread in which Kahakii explained he was going through a divorce. I explained he was a top bloke when he posted on here, and im sure he just had other stuff on his plate.

Got this PM response (all of the following PMs have not been edited in any form):

Posted: 2006-08-17 02:29
Hi there hewey, I understand he is going through allot, but, I put down a large payment, over 100.00 dollars for a necklace for my 8 yr old son, who by the way has cancer and not expect to live through his next birthday.I wanted this to be a special birthday gift for him since he is so into Hawaii and surfing.He loves to watch it on TV. If he wasnt so sick, I would take him to Hawaii but his Doctors advised againt it, so I thought the necklace would raise his spirts a bit. Now , I dont have a birtday gift for him. I am a single parent and can not afford the 100+ dollars ive already sent him to make the necklace. The medical bills make it tough for me to afford such a loss to him. I have tried in vain to get in contact with him, he does not return calls, most of his phone #s are disconnected, what am i to think. I have been advised to press charges on him for fraud but I want to give him the benifit of the doubt before I do that. He seemed honest and trustworthy on the phone, maybe I just a trusting person and this is a lesson to me, in any case I may have no choice but to take advice I have been given and press charges. You can understand how upset I am, I know he is going though allot but all i ask is he contact me, thats all. Thanks for your message. Barbara

I PMd a few mates on here and suggested that we try and get some stuff to this kid, try and cheer him up. Many of the people I PMd then PMd further people. I beleive this is the point where Wendy came in and did an awesome job of rounding up a HEAP of tiki stuff.

I PMd Barbara for her address so I could get folks to send her stuff. Note that at this point I had suggested I would try and send her something, but I did not say I was getting a heap of folks to post her stuff, because I wanted it to be a surprise. This is the next PM I received:

Posted: 2006-08-21 06:14
well, I waited all weekend and still he has not returned my call. Its really sad how this has worked out. I know my son looked forward to it, he mentioned it almost everyday, now i dont have the heart to tell him , but i suppose i should soon. His birtday is September 9th. Not sure what I will do now. We live in Texas. If you should see him on here, tell him Barbara Landry 8422 Chickamauga Ln Houston Texas 77083 would like him to contact her. Maybe it just slipped him mind although i doubt it beacuse he knew how serrious and important it was to me due to my situation. I would like to think he or anyone for that matter would not be so heartless, but I supposse he had this planned from the start. Anyway, thank you for passing on the message should you get the chance, you seem very nice. thanks again.

I must have rementioned I was sending something now I had her address, cant remember for certain. I think Wendy got into contact with her around this time-ish?

Posted: 2006-08-22 10:42
thats very kind of you. I dont know why he did this but whatever the case, I beleive you get back in life what you give and in his case im sure all this will catch up with him somehow in the end.

hmmmm, lets all take a minute to dwell on that last one shall we... :)

Yeh, thats what I was thinking...

But, these PMs do bring up some interesting thoughts/scenarios eg.

Scenario #1 - It was an extremely well thought out and implemented scam. She could have browsed through old TC posts and saw that Kahakii had disapeared. By looking at previous events like Purple Jade mug, Stentiki etc. she would know how tops TCers are. She then posted re. getting into contact with Kahakii knowing we would stick up for him (and therefore create interest). She then pulls the Kid with Cancer card, then a little later the kid with cancer card AND the recently deceased husband card. How could we saps not rally together and donate some tiki stuff? She also found 2 shots of the same sick kid to bolster her 'case', which supports her doing a bit of homework.

Flaws in this theory - perhaps relied too heavily upon a sap (like me and Barbara) to really get the ball rolling and thus minimise any potential questions of legitimatecy. But this does add more beleivability to the whole thing, as opposed to someone posting they want tiki stuff for their sick son... But if she was this organised you reckon she would have got her shit together with something as simple as ages?

Scenario 2 - The bit with Kahakii is true(ish). Hell maybe she put down an order and never paid a deposit or something. From then on everything is made up (eg. the son and father) becasue she realised she could be onto something here... Explains the problems with ages, and how it 'snowballed'. The more stuff she made up, the more donations rolled in.
Scenario 3 - The bit with Kahakii is true. The sick son is legit (doubt so, those pics are dodgey), she thought she was onto something and made up the father story.

I think # 2 seems most likely to me. Someone who puts in the amount of time as suggested in # 1 doesnt screw up something as simple as ages/years.

Awefully convenient how they have "gone to visit grandma" at this stage, when the proverbial starts to hit the fan hey? Very interesting indeed.

But - look on the bright side - at the start of all of this there was a kid with cancer. Now, thanks to the generosity of many TCers, there is no kid with cancer! Thus one can state that TC has helped to reduce childhood cancer rates! :)

Personally, I think it sucks, but at the time I thought it was the right thing, and in the future I am still keen to help out GENUINE folks with problems, give em a little TC spirit.

I just feel bad for my part in so many other folks getting burnt.

Post #255413 by hewey on Tue, Sep 19, 2006 4:14 AM