The MailChimp was abducted from the Loudermilk Center at the 2008 Webmaster Jam Session. Aside from a humorous flickr photostream and twitter feed, there is no evidence to show who stole the MailChimp. Or, is there?

Yesterday, I happened upon the twitter feed of one Tony Chester. Tony Chester works for OnWired, a web design agency based in Cary, NC.

Today, the abductor(s) tweeted from the “ihazurchimp” twitter account links to photos of the MailChimp in front of a rest area in South Carolina. To state the obvious, this is proof the abducter was driving north, either to or through South Carolina from Atlanta, GA. My interest was piqued. I personally know most (if not all) people from South Carolina who were at the conference, and was able to rule them out through elimination. With South Carolina being ruled out in my mind, I remembered Tony Chester from North Carolina. Recalling that he works for OnWired, and they are located in Cary, NC I quickly checked google maps to estimate the driving distance. Six hours and twenty one minutes. Definitely drivable.

Who is OnWired? As described on their website:

“By day, we’re a small, vibrant web design studio located near Raleigh, North Carolina. By night: a band of highly–trained, elite special operations web mercenaries on the lam from the law.”

Curious, no? I began dissecting the clues within the abductor’s flickr stream and twitter feed. Earlier in the day, ihazurchimp tweeted that he was going to Whole Foods to get some bananas for the MailChimp. After visiting OnWired’s contact info I made a google maps search for Whole Foods Markets near their office. Interestingly enough, Whole Foods is only 2.4 miles from OnWired’s office, down Kildaire Farm Rd.

Whole Foods’ proximity was interesting, but I had to find more. I read more about OnWired’s Team. Alongside Tony Chester, Jon Norris sits as Director of Design and Marketing. On OnWired’s home page I found a blog entry Jon Norris wrote about the Webmaster Jam Session. Within, he mentions that he attended the “Design for Email 101″ presentation which was led by Ben Chestnut of MailChimp. Jon also mentioned he used to work for one of MailChimp’s competitors.

“This session is being led by Ben Chestnut of MailChimp fame. I personally wanted to sit through this one because I used to work for one of his competitors.”

What an interesting revelation. To clear things up, I wanted to find out who Jon worked for. I went to linkedin for the answer. Two years ago he worked for Bronto, an email marketing software provider.

It’s not hard evidence, but the clues sure do point toward OnWired having the MailChimp. I’ll even venture to say they will be handing it off to Bronto software, who happens to be based in Greenville, NC only 22.8 miles from OnWired’s office.

What do you say, OnWired? Do you know anything about the MailChimp’s location? As we know, the MailChimp left Atlanta Saturday afternoon (the 4th). This would mean the abductor would not have been at the Saturday night Blue Flavor after party. OnWired went to the conference as a team, as evidenced by this flickr photo taken Thursday night (the 2nd). Until they can provide photo evidence of the entire team’s appearance at the Blue Flavor party, I think they’re prime suspects. Just sayin’.

Update!

In response to some of the comments, I’ll admit this is certainly all circumstance based. As such, I’ll point out another circumstance. The abductors posted a photo of the MailChimp having a snack of peanuts in front of a brown sofa. It’s a funny circumstance that a very similar sofa can be seen in OnWired’s flickr photostream, here and here. Should this not be enough circumstance for you, take a look at the shadows cast by the circus peanuts in the MailChimp photo. Now, take a look at the light source in the OnWired’s office. What a coincidence! The photographer obviously set the MailChimp up against the sofa where he’d have the sunlight over his right shoulder. The sofas are eerily similar, there are hardwood floors in both places, and the light source is in the same direction. Those poor OnWired fellas certainly have some coincidences stacking up against them. The photos are posted below for you to compare..