wtf actionscript

hey guys, I'm coding something up in flash. The following is part of a method I wrote in a class to create an empty clip on the timeline and attaches some clips to it.
_parent.createEmptyMovieClip("clip" + ident,_parent.getNextHighestDepth());
_parent["clip"+ident]._x=100;
_parent["clip"+ident]._y=100;
_parent["clip"+ident].attachMovie("LinkageID0", "thing0",_parent["clip"+ident].getNextHighestDepth(), {_x:0,_y:0});
_parent["arrow"+ident].attachMovie(LinkageID1", "thing1",_parent["clip"+ident].getNextHighestDepth(), {_x:40,_y:0});
The two clips appear on the screen in the corner, properly spaced from each other. I can trace and get their coord within the "clip"+ident MovieClip, however when I trace the coords for "clip"+ident I get undefined. wtf?

flash developer != programmer