Aug. 15, 2026

Teen and Mom Tracked a Scammer to His Restaurant

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: 19-year-old Blake in England was scammed selling his MacBook on eBay but, after police were unhelpful, he and his mom went to the delivery address (a restaurant) and got the laptop returned, though he advises others not to do the same. In downtown San Jose, the long-unsolved “San Jose Semaphore” puzzle atop Adobe’s headquarters was decoded by Brian as pixel color values that form a rose from Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus; Adobe teased a new puzzle with a two-year Creative Cloud prize and referenced earlier puzzles encoding The Crying of Lot 49 and Neil Armstrong’s moon quote. In Germany, Andre set a Guinness record popping 60 balloons in 30 seconds using a toilet plunger. A thrift-store buyer restored a Broyhill Brasilia dresser set and sold it for $9,000. An Indiana zoo safely returned a wandering wildebeest to its enclosure.

00:11 Teen Tracks Scam Laptop
01:35 San Jose Semaphore Solved
02:56 Plunger Balloon World Record
03:39 Thrift Store Furniture Flip
04:19 Wildebeest Zoo Escape

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Callaroga Shock Media. Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack with five

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good news stories. A good job by a nineteen year

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old in England who took matters into his own hands.

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He had fallen victim to an online skim and recovered

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his own stolen laptop. Right Blake listed his Apple MacBook

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for sale on eBay, found a buyer. He then got

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what looked like an official email from eBay saying payment

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had been made but would only be released after he

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shipped the laptop. He thought it was right, he mailed

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a computer. The money never arrived. He contacted eBay and

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found out the email had been fake. He went to

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the cops and they were like, yeah, whatever. So Blake

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and Mom went to the delivery address themselves. When they arrived,

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they discovered the address was a restaurant. Blake said, there

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were quite a few guys there. I wouldn't say it

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was threatening, but you get a bit nervous when there's

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more and more. But when we first got there, they

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were obviously claiming innocence. Blake and showed the delivery confirmation

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showing that we said the computer there. Blake zays, after

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about fifteen minutes they admitted they take items at the

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door and then put him on a fridge in the restaurant,

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and then someone else comes to collect them. Mom called

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the police. Blake said, they said, we got a guy coming,

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and that was a bit worried, so we stood a

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bit further away. A nervous man eventually emerged on the

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back of the restaurant. Blake said, this guy comes out

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from the back, comes over to us, and he was

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really nervous, like properly shaking and sweating. The man went

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inside and gave the laptop back. Blake zays he would

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not recommend others try to recover stolen property the same way.

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Probably smart dude. A mysterious puzzle was flashing on top

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of an office building in downtown San Jose for the

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past three years. The display was known as the San

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Jose Semaphore. It was running on the roof of Adobe's

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headquarters since May of twenty twenty three. It was created

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by artist Ben Rubin. The puzzle features a looping animation

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of four circles moving into different positions. For years, nobody

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could figure out what it meant. Brian figured it out.

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He analyzed the repeating patterns and discovered the moving circles

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represented color values for pixels in a digital image. When

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assembled correctly, those pixels revealed a single rose from Botticelli's

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famous painting The Birth of Venus. This is complicated, everybody,

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Brian said in a video. I want to say the

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difficulty level on this puzzle is probably perfect. In some ways.

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It seems a little simple, but at the same time

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takes a lot of work and a lot of effort,

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and it stands for years before anyone solves it. It

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was actually the third installment in the San Jose Semaphore series.

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The first puzzle, about twenty years ago, was eventually revealed

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to contain the full text of the novel The Crying

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of lotch forty nine. The Sagad puzzle encoded an audio

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recording of Neil Armstrong saying one small step for man,

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one giant leap for mankind, and Adobe says there will

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be a new puzzle soon and if you solve it,

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you will receive a free two year subscription to Adobe

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Creative Cloud. Congratulations to Andre. He's in Germany. He said.

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A Guinness World record for popping sixty balloons in thirty

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seconds were nothing more than a toilet plunger. Sure, why not?

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He smashed the old record. The old record of breaking

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balloons with a toilet plunger was twenty three balloons. Of course,

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the new record is sixty. Andre said it was a

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lot of fun. I really enjoy attempting unusual and entertaining records,

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and this one definitely made me smile. It's one of

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those challenges that's just as enjoyable to watch as it

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is to attempt. I think there's still room for improvement.

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I completed the attempt in just twenty four seconds. I

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believe I could have popped even more balloons with a

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little more practice. One thing I focused on was inflating

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each balloon as much as possible so they had maximum tension,

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making them easier to pop with the plunger. Aaron was

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in the thrift store. She saw some furniture priced one

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hundred and fifteen dollars, but she realized it wasn't any

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old dresser. It was a highly sought offer. Broyhill, Brazilia

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set a famous line of mid century modern furniture introduced

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in nineteen sixty two. She removed decorative trim that had

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been added over the years and was thrilled to discover

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the original hardware was still in place. She stripped away

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the paint and uncovered beautifully preserved walnut underneath. She said,

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imagine how Shakta was to find that these pieces were

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pristine under all the paint. Aaron told Newsweek, I didn't

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count the hours, but I get safe to say that

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this took around fifty to sixty hours to thoroughly restore.

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I sold it for nine thousand dollars in less than

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twenty four hours on Facebook Marketplace. Will Visitors at in

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Indiana Zoo got a surprise a wildebeest decided to go

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beyond the enclosure. The Fort Wayne Zoo said the wildebest,

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which had just arrived a few days earlier, were discovered

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in the wrong habitat after apparently crossing a shared pond

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between exhibits. The zoo people stayed come. Michelle is the

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VP of Animal Care and said, our team's response was

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exactly what we trained for, what we hope to see

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whatever an unexpected situation occurs. The wilde beast was safely

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returned to its own enclosure, and the African savanna exhibit

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later reopened to visitors. And those are five good news

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stories for today