Raise your hand if you’ve heard the term “the Fourth Estate.”  You probably have.  Now, recite what it means; chances are you can’t. Wikipedia describes it as “a societal force... or institution whose influence is not consistently or officially recognized.”  These days that description most often applies to newsgathering organizations — “the press.”   

Tony Lugo had never heard of the Fourth Estate when he contacted this columnist through our TrustDale.com help line a few weeks ago. Tony did know that he’d been in a truck wreck back in 2008 and that a body shop he found in the phone book towed his truck off to Snellville.

He knew the body shop owner improperly cashed $11,000 dollars worth of checks from Tony’s insurance company. Most importantly, Tony knew that three and a half years later, the body shop had not fixed his truck and worse yet, they wouldn’t give it back. Outrageous you say?

I agree and so did the courts. Tony hired an attorney, sued the body shop owner and won a whopping $ 232,000.00 judgment!  Now, most of us would gladly trade a wrecked $40,000 Ford F 150 for close to a quarter of a million dollar court-ordered payday. The problem is — Tony couldn’t collect it. My research found the body shop owner had lost (or perhaps creatively disposed of) all visible assets and didn’t appear to have a pot to, well, you know.

With no payday, Tony’s former attorney lost interest and Tony still didn’t have his truck. Tony Lugo is not the kind of guy who gives up easily, so he filed a theft report with Snellville Police. Surely that would do the trick, right? Wrong. Snellville told Tony it was a “civil” matter already settled by the courts.  Complicated, huh?  Tony’s next move was to get a judge to place a lien against the body shop owners’ property.  This would allow the Sheriff to legally seize the property, sell it on the courthouse steps and give up to $232,000 of the proceeds to Tony.  Finally, some action, right? Wrong. Since 2009, Tony, an honest, soft-spoken plumber by trade, has not been able to get the sheriff’s department to serve the court ordered lien. Why? They’re busy!  No one’s gettin’ killed here people; after all, it’s just a truck!   

Enter the Fourth Estate, in the form of this paper and TrustDale.com. Tony — who had done everything right for three and a half years, could get no relief — got in touch with us. With the help of Tony’s new attorney, Jonathan Johnson, we obtained a copy of the court-ordered lien, called the Snellville Police Department and asked for their presence while Tony and I went over to regain custody of his beloved truck, which we did — in less than thirty minutes after arrival at the body shop.

How could this paper and TrustDale.com achieve in minutes what Tony, his first attorney, the police, the sheriff and the court could not? Call it pressure, persistence, or good, old-fashioned arm twisting.

The bottom line is, none of those recognized institutions wanted to risk the embarrassment of their collective impotence being exposed by this columnist and this paper, otherwise known as “the Fourth Estate.”

And yes, we’re here to help you!  The next time you’re ready to throw your shoe at the talking news head on TV, or use a newspaper to line your bird cage, imagine where Tony Lugo would be without us — still walking to work. 

Dale Cardwell is a six-time Emmy award winning investigative consumer reporter based in Atlanta who spent 25 years exposing business scams, political corruption and teaching viewers to become their own consumer advocate. You can reach Dale Cardwell and the TrustDale Team at help@trustdale.com