Access and return properties of placedItem.file

Question

I'm trying to assign properties of placedItem.file. However, whenever I try to access placedItem.file it prints/returns "undefined is not an object".
I've used the alert command to print the object e.g. alert(placedItem.file) and it prints the file location of the image. However, when I try to assign that value to a variable ( var exampleName = placedItem.file ) it also returns the same error.
I've also tried accessing sub properties of file, like file.fullName and file.displayName. It returns the same error. If anyone has insight that would be awesome. I really just need to return the path of an image to a variable.

Answer 1

The mystery property does not appear to be documented in the CC OMV, but it does appear in the Data Browser.
function test(){
    var doc = app.activeDocument;
    var p = doc.pageItems[0];
    alert(p.name+". Normal Z-Order: "+p.zOrderPosition+", Absolute Z-Order: "+p.absoluteZOrderPosition);
test();
The above code used on doc screen-shot below prints out: Grp_2. Normal Z-Order: 7, Absolute Z-Order: 13
My experiment here, suggests that absolute order takes into account the child elements of all elements (to show z-order in entire document), and the 'regular' z-order is about the stacking within a container element.
Like layer.pageItems vs document.pageItems ? 
Though when I first looked at this property inside one of my more cluttered real-life documents, I remember that I couldn't verify this relationship.  Maybe I was tired or something.