David Loeffler writes:

.... whenever I try to get hold of this with anything like <dtml-var "_[objId].getProperty(dest)"> (objId is the id of the document) it simply redirects ...

"_[xxx]" executes (calls) the retrieved object, if possible. In your case, execution calls "RESPONSE.redirect". You need "_.getitem(xxx)" instead of "_[xxx]". This only retrieves and does not call the object. Dieter