How It All Began

An Easy Charge

I never met the dress. I only saw if from afar. I never actually touched it, but held it in my hand inside a plastic bag for a few short hours. Then I lost it. The dress. I lost the dress.

Almost three weeks ago I was entrusted with the task of picking up a dress that needed repair for a show that was already in progress. I had the dress with me for most of my return journey home that afternoon, but when I went to retrieve it for the person who was going to do the repairs, it was nowhere to be found.

Gone

I retraced my every step. I searched every place in my apartment. I searched the recycling and the trash bins both in my apartment and outside. I contacted the Metro stations where I was, the Metro Bus Lost and Found, the Metro Rail Lost and Found. I contacted the locations on a number of occasions. I eventually exhausted the time frames allotted to me to track down a lost item.

Next I placed and ad on Craigslist and in the Washington City Paper. Then I searched eBay and Craigslist for anyone who might be selling this dress.

The Stakes

One could ask why I was and am jumping through so many hoops for this dress: It was a rented piece from the Washington Opera Company and the cost to replace the dress has been determined at $3000.00. I do not have this kind of money at this time, so I wanted to exhaust the possibilities that it may have been found, returned, reported or possibly put up for bid.

Alas, no sign of this dress.

The dress is white and has tan trim. It is a "period" piece in the way that it is not at all contemporary.

If I can possibly get a picture I will post it.

Now?

HELP!

I need $3000.00.

Not for saving the world, the hungry, the homeless, or even baby animals. I need it for me to help not only myself, the costume designer and the little theater company that rented the piece.