On Wednesday I dropped in at Malter Galleries with copies of my consignment agreement for selling 84 pieces of amber with insects. They informed me, as they had informed my sister several months earlier that they did not remember my amber and if they did have it, they must have returned it. I talked with Michael Shubin, one of their staff, whom I had met when I first left the amber with them, and he not only remembered the amber, he remembered that they had sold some as recently as four or five months ago. I discussed this with Michael Malter who continued to disavow any knowledge of the amber.

Decided to leave for Las Vegas. Originally I was planning to drive, using a car delivery service. I went to explore the possibilities on the past Wednesday when they had two cars going East. I was told to be there by four, and I arrived at two minutes after four. To make a long story short, they had given my car to another couple - and since I was not in that great a hurry, I did not express too large a dissatisfaction with this agency. I even offered to drive the people over to their car, since I was not in a hurry as I was not meeting Rossie and Barney until 7 PM. We began our little adventure driving down 405 for about half an hour when I noticed the time was a lot longer than I had expected. It was then that I learned the drive was over 100 miles. I suggested to my new found friends that I could not take them all the way, and we began to look for alternative possibilities. At a local gas station in Carson City, they located someone who could take them the rest of the way. We split the $20 that was allocated for this trip and the $10 lightened the inconvenience of having to drive 2 ½ hours. I arrived late for my dinner with Rossie, but as things would have it, Barney was out at an audition.

We went out for dinner at Bangkok West and had both a great meal and shared some good conversation, always taking a little abuse from Barney when we mentioned a friend or experience from Toronto. These New Yorkers have their definitive point of view. But his attitude is understood and accepted as an endearing quality to our relationship.

On Thursday I received a call informing me they had a car going East and they asked me to come in to do the papers. I arrived at the appoi9nted time on Friday, (12 Noon) only to learn that they did not have the cars papers in the office. They insisted that I leave a deposit $200 security and $20 for insurance with them to assure me of the car when it arrived. I was informed that they would have everything in order by three that day. I returned at three to find that they had nothing in yet and again at five - nothing. I was told I would have to wait till Monday. It did not sound good, and I did feel uncomfortable leaving my money with them. I should have gone with my instincts, but I wanted to make certain they held the car for me and not give it away on me again. So Friday was a washout. Upon arriving back at my sisters I received a call from Malter Galleries. They had located my amber and were prepared to make me a settlement offer. I found their settlement offer unsatisfactory as there was no accounting to be made, just an offer of settlement. I thought that I should be entitled to an accounting since that was the nature of our business deal. This was certainly the least I could expect. Not so. Their employee Debra refused to get into a discussion of what may or may not be the right thing to do, she was clearly acting under directions from her employer, Michael Malter.

I was not prepared to settle this matter in such an unfair manner and so I wrote a note to Joel Malter, the father, and the person that I had made my business arrangement several years ago. To date, I have sent him four letters with no response. Recognizing I was not in the most comfortable of positions, I called the LAPD in order to solicit their support. Their detectives Williamson and Fritz attended with me at the Malter Galleries, and while they acknowledged they had no authority in this matter, they assisted in me getting my amber pieces back, and a cheque for $290. To say the least I was not happy with the amount as this merely represented my costs of the materials from which they deducted their 20% commission and in no way reflected our business transaction. The good news is that I learned what snakes these people were before sending the valuable portion of my collection to them for sale. A cheap lesson in retrospect. I have left the door open for Mr. Malter to be responsible to our agreement, and will wait .