Crime Wire Weekly 5/21/26 | Operation “Restricted Domain”, Pool Noodle Prank, Escalator Traps

0:16 All right, everyone, welcome back to Crime Wire Weekly. We're going to cover some of the topics we'll be discussing today. In Baton Rouge, an e nt has been assaulted by a patient in an ambulance and it may not be the first time for this guy, so we're going to be talking about that. Also in Louisiana, Operation Restricted Domain Targets sex Offenders. Good name. I like the what they called it. Yeah, they always come up with these interesting names for operations, whether it's in the military or in you know, the police spectrum. As this is sixty people arrested in that will be covering it. Pregnant woman gives birth during her Now that's a hell of a time to have a baby.

1:03 Yeah, I mean literally bring your baby in with you to your life of crime. I guess. Yeah, there you go. Uh so we're gonna be talking about that. A Missouri man threatens a high school graduation. A lot of graduations taking place obviously right now, this is the time for him and uh one in Missouri. Yeah, I had some problems. Yeah, I mean a hell I was aut of a high school graduation just this weekend. And yeah it didn't it had problems, but nothing of that. Yeah, this is really bad. And the Ohio man orders one hundred and sixty five pool noodles and receives all of them in individual boxes from Walmart. Unbelievable story will be bringing your way today.

1:44 A man dies after being trapped on an escalator in Massachusetts and uh, just terrific story. Video out there of that incident. We're going to be covering that a man abandons exotic snakes on Hollywood Woods Walk of Fame after police are called. He abandons them after police are called. Yes, so they get called because he had some exotic snakes to begin with. Donkes walking around with snakes and uh, we're gonna tell you all about it. Robbers and Florida mace themselves during a pawn shop heist. I love it. I love it A little bit. Got a little bit crazy with the bear spury on this one. Miami hotel is sued by a family after their daughter is groped in a pool.

2:33 What do you have to say about that? Just uh huh, Well, I don't play at pools because you know your kids are in their swimsuits and the freaks are out, so you have to be It's so sad though, you have to be vigilant everywhere at all times. And I think that's the moral to this one that we're going to discuss. Auburn University graduate killed by her boyfriend's dad in Alabama. Yeah, that's that's got some odd odd oddness to. It, right exactly. And of course we'll have overtime after that, but we're going to jump into today's topics, and just prior to doing that, I do want to mention we brought you, of course, the story of Ricky Foster, who was subject of the Devilwaar's Dunks documentary. He was arrested on Friday, and we were going to report that to you today, or rather he was bonded out of jail. He had already been arrested. We're going to report to you that he bonded out, but before we could get to that, he has been rearrested. Shocker, So two days later for some more counts, in this case two counts a violation of a protection order while he was apparently out on bond.

3:44 He has his own worst enemy. He cannot seem to understand, nor does he want to understand, that you cannot do whatever the hell you want. Yeah. Well, he's off the deep end now and he's back in jail, and this time he leases his right to a bond. Yeah, and then the amount of money that I guess his family came up with to get him out, that his family property money, but money and property that his family believes in him. And I know, look, that's common. People screw up and their family loves him so much that oh, you know, they don't want to believe it, or else they just don't want their poor baby to sit in jail, whatever the hell it is. But to do that to your own family, whoever put that bond up, and then you go within twenty four hours and mess that up, You're sorry or you should be.

4:32 Yeah. Well he's back in jail again. But not much to report on that except for the fact that he's back in and this time he doesn't have a bond. So we'll jump. Into the main cusp of the episode today and we're going to bring you to Baton Rouge and a female East bat and Urge Parish EMS crew member was assaulted by a patient while transporting him to the hospital this past Wednesday evening, prompting an emergency call for police back up and leading to the man's arrest on felony charges. Kenneth Armstrong, whose age was not released, faces charges a battery of emergency room personnel, emergency services personnel or healthcare professional, and resisting an officer. This according to the BRPB, the incident unfolded at around six pm after an East Batnan Ridge EMS unit was dispatched to a medical call. Following an onseene evaluation, paramedics determined Armstrong further medical attention and began transporting him to a nearby hospital. While en route, Armstrong allegedly grabbed a female MT by the back in the back of the ambulance and assaulted her. The crewmember radio for assistant four. Baton Ridge Police Department officers responded, helped to restrain Armstrong, and escorted the ambulance the rest of the way to the hospital. Armstrong was treated and he was medically cleared at the hospital before being looked into ebr Parish Prison. Due to safety concerns for Savilian staff,

6:05 he was not fingerprinted at that facility. The assaulted EMT was evaluated by emergency room staff and later released without serious injury. Now court records do show that Armstrong had a previous charge of battery of an er personnel. This in August of twenty twenty five, that carried an outstanding bench warrant. So sounds to me like he, you know, there's got to be something going on here with him, you know, in the dome, but outstanding warrant out walking around doing his thing. And you know, if you go to a hospital now, or anywhere really with that's a medical facility, there's signs up for this very reason that you know, it's against the law for you to assault staff. They're here to save your ass, not to kiss it. So this is something that unfortunately is very common, and you can I know, we have people that are nurses or in the medical field that'll tell you that people come in and you're trying to help them and they just want to be And it's no different if they're out in an ambulance that they come in contact with people who are mad, who are mentally unstable for a multitude of reasons, but they you know, they don't deserve to be beat on or abused or grouped or whatever the situation is here just to try to transport somebody definitely happens.

7:18 I don't know if I would classified as common I know several EMT workers. It's certainly not something that occurs super often, but with this guy, it was twice that he's done this. This was not his first time. As a matter of fact, he had battery on an er emergency room personnel prior to this. So I don't know why someone would choose. You've got people here that are are they're trying to take care of you medically and you could die in some situations obviously without your help, and you're beating on them or doing whatever it is he's doing. It's not real clear on exactly what he was doing to this female email crew member, but uh, yeah.

8:03 Well I can tell you this. When I taught years ago, we used to intern our students on ambulances because we had an EMT class and one of our students was right here in Baton Rouge doing her ride along getting her hours, and one of the first calls she went to, she got out to help and it turned into a shooting and she had to run. Yeah, and I believe you know that there's even a you know, a policy where if police are called to a scene and then EMS is dispatched, police have to secure that scene before MS can go in. They can't just go in before the police get there. Absolutely in these dangerous situations. So it's a very dangerous job. It's you know, it's aching to what a police officer deals with a first responder. You know, you get on the scene, especially a dangerous scene, shit can go down that ain't Yeah.

8:51 I had a friend that he's no longer a deputy, but he got called out to a call one time and the husband was beating on the wife. That's why they responded. When he gets there, he goes to take the husband into custody, and then the wife jumps on him and bites him in the army had to go to the hospital and get his arm stitched up. You know, people will turn on you for a multitude of reasons, and that's just another example of you know, people are wilding out. Man. You gotta be safe. You got to be a vigilant. All right, let's go to Actually, we're gonna be right here in Baton Rouge. Now, this was huge. We had a multi agency operation that was led by the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation and their whole goal was to target sex offenders who were violating their Louisiana sex offender registration requirements and this resulted in sixty arrests. That is a massive number of arrests and this was all announced by the Attorney General's Office on Monday. So the AG's Office, alongside several sheriff's offices and district attorney offices said that the arrests were as a result of Operation Restricted Domain and this had started in February. So basically the operation was done where law enforcement databases and other resources were used to identify who were these registered sex offenders and guys, if you're a registered sex offender, that means that you have been convicted and that we know that you are a problem, okay, and so they have registration requirements and these requirements mean that there are certain things you have to do based on what you've been convicted on. Well, Operation Restricted Domain was a major success,

10:24 and basically the state of Louisiana is saying there are no safe havens here for people who pray on children. Attorney General Liz Merle said, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will bring you to justice. And so they did target these guys or follow these guys who were in violation of doing unlawful online activity and listen real quick to what all platforms they caught these guys and gals. What the platforms were. As parents, I think it's important Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, tick Talk, Discord, PlayStation Network, Reddit, Grinder, Luxury Date, and Fortnite. All of these are very familiar sites that I know children frequent because they're playing their games. But the largest number of these arrests came from sex offenders being identified on Facebook.

11:20 On Facebook guys, thirty three instances were located from that meta owned platform. So Liz Murrell asked parents to be vigilant about allowing their children to use these platforms as well as games like Roadblocks, a frequent target of Murrell led sex crimes operations and lawsuits. There are no safe havens for sex offenders. That was a direct quote the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office, Feliciana Sheriff's Office. And then there's like this massive list I could keep going through, but like our Livingston Paris Sheriff's Office, Public Safety and Corrections and a multitude of other agencies were part of this investigation. The eighteenth Judicial District Attorneys Office nineteenth twentieth twenty first, twenty third. All of those districts were involved in the operation as well, and the AG's office said that this year the IKAK Task Force and Cybercrime Unit have made a total of two hundred and ninety two arrests, identified thirty six child victims, and rescued thirty two children from ongoing abuse investigations. Huge.

12:27 Yeah, and the IKAQ Task Force y'all, which is Internet Crimes against Children. This is a task force of individual investigative units inside of each sheriff's department inside of the State of Louisiana. So you have to opt into this program. And over time, the Attorney General's Office has partnered with any sheriff's office that would like to partner with them. They now have all sheriffs departments in the State of Louisiana participate in this and they kind of group together, band together, they share information, and all of this is used to catch child predators. Has been very successful and it's got a lot of these guys off the street.

13:14 But in this case, these were. Guys that were registered already, So as Kelly said, they've already got a conviction and as part of their sentence they have to register on the sex offender registry and they're doing that, and then some of them weren't doing that when they were supposed to be all all of these sorts of issues, and so sixty people in one sweep listening scary. Very important to note two things here. Number one, if it's taking an IKAC team to locate, identify, and follow these guys and catch them in what they're doing, it's no wonder that it's difficult for a parent to track all of this, you know what I'm saying, especially if you're not tech savvy. That's why you have to be on top of it. Because predators of today are not the predators of yesteryear where they are riding up and down the streets. Not obviously some are, but we have given them a new avenue here with social media. We've given it to them. There's no checks, there's no balances.

14:13 Even if there are some that they say there are on platforms, they're going to find a way around it. It is what it is. But secondly, is this, please I implore people look up your local sheriff's office website. They usually have a sex offender registries section on there. You can click it. You can put your address. In your address, it will bring up sex offenders and you can pick what radius you want, one mile up to whatever, show your children their faces. Be proactive, don't pretend it doesn't exist. You never know. It might save your child. And no parent here I'm assuming that had a child victim went oh, I know, I just didn't care. A lot of times it's happening under the radar and they're being groomed. So be proactive as best you can.

14:56 And now that's the ones that have been caught. There's a lot of people not on the registry that are predators, and so you need to be in your kid's business. You need to be absolutely on their phone every night. If your kids under a certain agentle neator freaknfone, I will argue people down to death. An eleven year old doesn't need a phone, you know, what do they need a phone for? Or if they do have a phone, make it where and only make calls. You know, you can get phones that you can't download applications on. Get them something like that, because this is where these predators are shopping. And there's also believe that there's also things too that people don't realize, like metadata in photos. So if your kid sends a very vanilla or benign photo, for example, there's a latitude and longitude in those photos captured, and with the right software or with the right knowledge, someone can find where you are taking these photos. And kids what they don't know can hurt them. So it's well beyond just saying, hey, don't talk to strangers, be proactive being their business. I agree, yep, all right.

15:56 Let's go to Brooklyn, New York and a thirty three year old woman to olivered to healthy baby boy on a wooden bench inside a packed Brooklyn courtroom. This is this past Friday night. While awaiting arraignment on low level drug possession and trespassing charges, Samantha Rendazzo, who was nine months pregnant at the time, went into labor. This is at eleven thirty pm that night. Her water broke as she sat on the bench, surrounded by police officers in court personnel. Court officers quickly assisted the judge as he cleared the courtroom, and she gave birth to what her attorney described as a bouncing baby boy just minutes before midnight.

16:37 Both mother and child were reported in good condition and we're taking to the hospital immediately afterward. Now she had been arrested the previous evening after NYPD officers observed her and another person on a rooftop of a public housing complex with a controlled substance in plane view. She was charged with criminal possession and trespassing. According to police, she was wearing baggy clothing, did not disclose her pregnancy during the initial arrest or at the station house, and initially declined medical attention. Later at the station house, Randaza reported drug withdrawal symptoms and informed officer she was pregnant. She was transported to a hospital around three point thirty am Friday, treated and discharged later that day despite being in full term.

17:25 She was then returned to custody and brought to the arrangement that evening. Her attorney called the birth a joyful and sad situation given the circumstances. He netted the court staff responding immediately and restraints were removed once labor began. Sharp also said hospital doctors had not realized how close she was to delivery. Public defender organizations they were reacted without rage and a joint statement. They basically said she gave birth in shackles on a courtroom bench. Without adequate metal care, privacy or dignity, rounded by court personnel, etc. So you know, look, she put herself kind of in that situation. I hate to say that, but you're on a rooftop the night before you give birth and you've apparently got a drugs and you're trespassing, and that's what puts you in a position where you were forced to kind of deliver this baby in a courtroom.

18:24 Look how you're complaining. Yeah, give it's the system's fault. Given birth is not an illness. You know what I'm saying. Giving birth is not an illness. It's pregnancy. Deliveries happen. We've reported on deliveries and airplanes. That's that's not wanted, but it happens. People have given birth in grocery stores and on the side of the road. Hell, we've been given birth for how many years here, thousands and thousands of years. For them to react in outrage is absurd. Okay, you can't predict anything beyond the fact someone might go into labor around the nine month mark. We practice medicine. It hasn't been you know, perfected. So you know, she's where she was supposed to be. She was given immediate care. She gave birth in an air conditioned building, surrounded by people who assisted her. They took off her shackles and was transported to a hospital. What more do you want?

19:12 How about there's the outrage over a pregnant woman using drugs when she's pregnant or allegedly. Yeah, yeah, I'll say allegedly. But come on, where there's smoke, there's fire. I believe that. So the outrage needs to be really I think maybe they should hold a mirror up to her and that's where the outrage should be. But hopefully this baby can help her change her mindset, turn her life around, make better decisions, and maybe this can be the thing that sparks that. That would be wonderful, all right. Saint Charles, Missouri, a thirty six year old Saint Charles man, whose wife, a local high school teacher, died by suicide late in March, repeatedly parked her vehicle at the school where she works and at a district administrative office at least fifteen times, even after being served with an order of protection. Whi well displaying a bumper sticker that read, quote unquote, I'm unpredictable.

20:04 That's according to authorities that has creep factor written all over it. Alex Reikert was arrested earlier this month, and he was charged with first degree stalking, first degree making terrorist threats after prosecutors say he blamed school staff for his wife Sky's death, stalked a district employee, and posted online threats with countdowns that all pointed to the Saint Charles School District's Class of twenty twenty six graduation ceremony. Skyriikert had been placed on administrative leave by the district after her husband filed a defamation lawsuit in March against an anonymous staffer who allegedly sent emails to his employer accusing him of providing alcohol to children and other inappropriate behavior.

20:48 She then died by suicide at the end of March. Following her death, Alex Riikert allegedly began targeting the school and a female district employee described as his former quote unquote paramore. He was seen circling the school in his deceased wife's car before parking it outside and in close proximity to the Saint Charles High School campus and then those nearby district offices of St. Charles Police Lieutenant Daniel Gibbons added that he even placed a Mupper stickle in the vehicle that read I'm unpredictable. So police say Rykert parked the car at the school twice in March and continued the behavior at other district buildings fifteen times after being served with a restraining order. So he then went and changed his Instagram account name to alex dot countdown and posted numerous social media messages featuring countdowns that all ended on this Sunday, as it's quoted, which was the date of the district's graduation ceremony. According to the authorities, SO prosecutor described the posts as communicating an implied threat involving danger to life with references to guns and a potential incident at the event. So in a bond request hearing I guess, prosecutors wrote that Reichert has lost his job, his wife, and his paramour, and that his behavior and social media posts indicate he has nothing left to lose and will take his anger and frustration out on innocent civilians.

22:09 And they noted that he possesses guns and implied that he would use them. So the suspect presents a danger to the staffer, as well as to the attendees of the ceremony and the community. According to the filing, the suspect has already been served with an order protection and continues on his campaign to harass and to stalk. So Rykert was ordered held without bond and he remains in custody in the Saint Charles County Jail. He is scheduled for court appearance next week. What is a paramour? I thought that a paramour was like your your like enemy, but I think I'm wrong on that. Okay, we'll look that up. And while I like the band paramour, this oh his lover. Okay, your enemy, Jim.

22:54 I'm glad I didn't say something crazy about you know, like this is my paramore? Oh my start my own. So this guy, from what I'm gathering from this, he's blaming the school for his wife's suicide. Yes, is that? Yeah, that's what it looks like. But he doesn't really get into why he would be blaming the school for that, does it? Did I miss something? No? But like what I'm the way I'm seeing this is that his wife was placed on administratively because of what her husband was accused of. If that makes sense right, because they said he was the one allegedly providing alcohol to children and doing inappropriate behavior.

23:35 So i'most going to ask Scott something wrong. Obviously got some mental issues with him, and I don't know if the suicide is what drove him to that, but he needs some help. Man, What are you doing? Fifteen times? It looks like his wife might have been and I'm you know, I'm guessing with an educated guest here, but it looks like he had an illicit lover. Maybe the lover it's implying maybe that person maybe sent the email or something. Then the wife not only gets put on administrative lead, but also, you know, has her husband cheating and maybe it just got too much for her. Instead of him going, maybe I have something to do with this, he's mad at everybody else. I don't. He wants everyone else to suffer. I guess, well, and you got innocent kids at a graduation.

24:17 And regardless of whether he means he was going to do what he was implying he was going to do, it's pretty messed up. Yeah, you don't. You don't there threatened something like that. That's not a joke at all. That's not even even if you're angry. There's certain things you don't joke about or that you don't say even in anger, and that's one of them. All right, let's go to the favorite segment of the day, and that is utterly unrelated. And this is where we cover something that's not necessarily a crime, but definitely interesting and fun to talk about. And this time we're going to take you to Ohio and a thirty five year old from Ohio who placed what he thought was a straightforward bulk order for some foam pool noodles and one hundred and sixty five of them.

25:04 Actually, he orders these from Walmart and they must had a sale going on. I don't know why he would need one hundred and sixty five pool noodles, but he sure ordered that. And when they come in, they come in in one hundred and sixty five individual boxes. Could you imagine how much time it would take to open them? Well, his name Matthew Bright. He used cut up pool noobles actually as packing material, so it did come out what he used these pool noodles for. He sold antique cast iron cookware. He would restore this cookwar and then ship it back to the person he said he expected the order to arrive in just a few, you know, which you would think of as pool noodle boxes, just a few of them, maybe twenty five in each box. Whatever instead FedEx, and I said, well, Walmart filled the order, but FedEx actually livered it. The FedEx driver pulls up and he unloads one hundred and sixty five separate oversized cardboard boxes on the first day, and then the second day seventy five more that he didn't even order, so he ended up with two hundred and forty boxes.

26:15 Now. Video footage shared by Bright shows his front porch and lawn completely covered in identical brown boxes, each containing a single two dollars foam noodle. What are we doing, he said as he opens box after box. It's all one order with the exact same item. The post quickly spread across social media, where users joked about everything from the delivery driver's easy day one stop and they weighed nothing to the Walmart packer who apparently spent an entire shift taping and labeling one hundred and sixty five boxes. Many commuters pointed out the environmental waste in questioned Walmart's automated shipping system, which is what I was kind of thinking was man the.

27:00 Expense to ship those two. Dollars noodles times you know what ended up being two hundred and forty boxes. Walmart can't be happy about that, right. In response to. The backlash, Walmart did reach out to Bright and offer him a fifty dollars gift card along with an offer to. Pick up the excess boxes. Bright told local media he was flabbergasted by the delivery, but has seen the humor in it and now has more than enough packing material for years of shipping restored cook wear. And you ought to see it. If you're watching the Patreon right now, you're you're seeing these. It took up his whole freaking storage ship, just the same flat box containing one freaking pull noodle's.

27:45 I gotta tell you this, though, I actually sell resell like stuff online too similar. That's genius to use the pull noodle. That actually never occurred to me. So you've just inspired me. But for some reason I thought that he in my mind when we started the story, I thought he was going to have like a massive pool party and they were going to be like doing a pool noodle fightle or something. That's what I thought he would be doing with them, but the boxes could be reused. To uh shah, Well that's what he said. Yeah, so the people who are outraged by the environmental I mean, I mean, you know, whatever, it could all be used, it can go. But that's that's got to be a new sense to store. I mean, just from a business standpoint, as a business owner, I'm like, man. Why didn't there software. A lot of waste of money? Yeah, why didn't there software bulk that it's all going to the same address, you would.

28:28 Think, I'm sure they did, But some guy decided I think he was trying to be funny. Somebody at Walmart thought he thought it was funny. Yeah. Man, they got people with says heme or at Walmart. I think somebody's just not that smart and thought it was appropriate to a single pack of noodle. All right, let's go to Somerville, Massachusetts. And this story is not only tragic but horrifying. And you don't ever think about this taking place because there's harrowing new surveillance footage that is shedding light on the moments of forty year old father of two, Stephen McCluskey, who became fatally trapped at the bottom of a moving escalator at THEBTA Davis station.

29:11 And here's the part that's just unnerving. While more than a dozen commuters walked by him without stopping to help, McCluskey, who was a carpenter from South Boston who ran his own home improvement business, stepped on the escalator shortly before five am, this was February twenty seventh, as he was heading to the subway platform, and if you watch the surveillance video, which was obtained by a local news station, NBC ten Boston, he lost his balance at the bottom and fell backwards. He became entangled in the machinery. His clothing and even the skin on his back was pulled into the escalator's mechanisms, constricting his airway and penning him in place. Now, more than twenty minutes goes by. McCluskey was struggling visibly. His legs were flailing as he was trying to free himself, and the video shows him eventually going just limp. He's lying motionless on his back, one hand is above his head. Dozens of riders passed within feet of him, some of them even glancing over and looking at him. One man did pause to pull on his legs for a few seconds before just going oh well and walking away. No one hit the clearly marked red emergencies stop button that's right there on the front of the escalator. It took eighteen minutes for a nine one one call to even be placed, and then another few minutes for an employee to finally stop the escalator.

30:33 So when firefighters arrived, they found him without a pulse. It took the rescuers almost thirty minutes to free him from the machinery before he could even be transported to the hospital by stretcher. But this was now almost an hour after he initially fell. He was revived, but he remained in a coma and then would unfortunately die ten days later. His family was speaking out from their home and they expressed the heartbreak and outrage over what they described as a preventable inaction in a public see and I have to say, Jim, I really actually agree with them on this one. This is a quote. Nobody cared, nobody stopped, nobody took the time to help to make sure that he was okay. And that was his mother, Mary Flaherty. She was crying while she said that if somebody took that minute just to help him. He would have been here today. He was a somebody, He had a life. We loved him. They treated him like he didn't even exist. His sister, Shannon added, I want to make sure that there's somebody or something held accountable for the fact that my brother wasn't protected in a public space.

31:33 She noted that Mcluskey had struggled with drug addiction in recent years, but he did his best every single day to show up for the people that he loved. His obituary described him as a devoted father of his two young sons, Shane and Stephen, who meant the world to him. He was a talented carpenter and he took pride in building things and helping others, spending hours talking with people and offering advice or fixes around the house. So the DA's office does have an ongoing investigation into this death, and so they are now waiting the medical Examiner's ruling on the cause and manner. Now. An escalator safety expert his name was Robert Cotton, who has more than forty years of experience, told investigators the delayed response was unacceptable. The MBTA breached that duty. If somebody had knowledge of it, that should have been active upon immediately. I don't find that acceptable. That's way too long now. In the statement from MBTA, they called the incident a terrible accident and reminded riders that anyone can stop an escalator using the red emergency buttons and should call nine one one immediate immediately.

32:33 They say that the personnel responded swiftly to all emergencies and do everything they can to assist individuals and secure the situation. The release of the fifty seven minute video has renewed calls for accountability, and it raises questions about bystander intervention station staffing and then escalator safety protocols at one of Boston Area's busiest transit hubs. Yeah, one of the most bizarre. Ways that someone has died I've ever come across via escalator, being trapped in the escalator. I never would have thought that would lead to something like that, but obviously he was choked to death. Yeah, it's horrible. You don't realize the power in an escalator.

33:14 You know, you don't think about it. I know people you know, you just don't think about that. You think you're just going to step off of it. But the problem is when things don't go like they're supposed to when you don't step off, when you stumble and then you fall. That's why that emergency button is right there in the front. So we looked it up or because Jim and I were talking about it before we hit the record button, and I found on just a general search, nothing in depth, but it said that there are two to three fatalities each year around the US in escalators. So it's not a high number. No, I mean that there's three hundred and fifty million people in the United States and two or three, so that's such a small percentage. It's almost like almost minuscule, but non existent. But there's a lot of injuries that happened, and twenty of those injuries, twenty percent of them do involve entrapments like this. So I don't I just and I'm I'm not trying to blame innocent people that were just walking by.

34:10 But well, it's the fault, it's. Not their fault. But but then to see that and to do nothing seems a callous. It seems like not my problem, and you just keep walking. I there's a lot of people in the world. Maybe I know, and I don't want to be one of those people. I want to stop and help anybody. Yeah, if it'll be you know, yeah. Someone just could have hit that button and need be alive. Yeah. A lot of a lot of you know, fade to render aid. It's grime in some cases. Yeah, when you don't do that. If you have not ever seen it, just take the time. When you go to your local mall or you go somewhere with there's escalator, look at the very front of it. There's a big red button right on the handle, at the very front of the escalator, and that is the emergency.

34:52 Stop on both ends. Event. Matter of fact, I'll tell you this, I had one incident in the escalator that seriously could have been bad. You know, you're never supposed to put a stroller on an escalator, right you never You're not. You are never supposed to, I know. But I learned the lesson the hard way. You're never supposed to put a stroller on an escalator. But because of out of inconvenience, because it would have made me walk around to go find an elevator. One time I was at the mall, I decided to get on the escalator. I was very young, it was my first child. Rather than go on backwards where you can like pull you know, I'm trying to say, when you get to the bottom, you can pull over the hump. I didn't think that through, so I pushed your stroller on it where I was behind it. But I popped the wheel up, thinking okay, and then I'll just push the back two wheels over it. Well, my wheels got stuck exactly like they say it will happen, and it caused a chain reaction and it scared the hell out of me. Thank god, there was a gentleman behind me that he actually grabbed me like hard and he kind of picked me up and pushed me and we were able to make it over that hump. And it scared me.

35:51 But simple stupidity on my part, No really, but simple stupid. I was wills get stuck. Imagine being a young and you're the more on. A came and pushed the stroller. A man who was parading large exotic snakes around the Hollywood Walk of Fame to post for tourist photos and collect money, fled on foot when the lapd approached him this month, abandoning the reptiles on one of the world's most famous sidewalks. The incident occurred on May twelfth, when officers from the LAPD's Hollywood Division Vice in It spotted the man walking along the Hollywood Boulevard next to the Hollywood Wax Museum. He was using the snakes, described as several large exotic specimens, including what appeared to be a yellow and white bow constructor, to attract pained tourists. When officers attempted to make contact with the man, he slithered away on foot.

36:44 How do you like that? Like it? That's called a pun? I love it? And he left the snakes behind that. According to the LAPD's social media post, officers quickly secured the animals, placing them into a large bending crate before transporting them to animal control. A lighthearted Instagram post that had since gone viral, LAPD Hollywood referred to the suspect as the quote snake signior equipped. And that is kind of cornering. I didn't find that very funny. Looks like the only thing getting squeezed today was his escape plan. They need a new person running there. He does corny scale offense, very good. The department post evaders of the officer that was funny than what they wrote. Handling coiled snakes in the crate loaded onto a police vehicle. It remains unclear how many snakes were involved, what specific species they were, how the man obtained them. Hollywood Boulevard a major tourists line hubbed a major tourist hub lined with stars on the Walk of Fame see frequent street performers, but live exotic animals are actually not permitted without proper permits. Animal control officials have not released further details about the condition of the snakes or their fine disposition. The LAPD did not respond to request for additional comment in charges are possible or more charges and an ongoing out investigation.

38:11 So yeah, I can't believe you just abandon your animals like that. So I'm wondering if you have some other issues he might also need to be running from. I'm actually a fan of snakes being called danger noodles. I think that that is one of the greatest descriptions of a snake I've ever heard. So I call them danger noodles. Don't touch them. I mean, what do you think about the story? Though? I think that he knew better that people make an assumption when they go to tourist places like that that these people have some type of sense about them that they have a permit, and that they assume that these snakes are not going to be dangerous in any way. I obviously don't know anything about snakes, but that assumption alone is probably the issue. And why the permit? Why do you not know anything about snakes?

38:53 Because I don't want I don't want to know about snakes. I thought you liked all animals. I do, but I don't want to hold one around my throat or you never held one. Matter of fact, I was on the line shooting the post course and a snake slithered across my feet and. The post course for those that don't know, as police corpse. Yeah, and a snake slithered across my feet. So I just holsted my gun and reached down and picked it up and didn't realize it was a venomous snake. And that's when everyone was like, holy shit, no, Kelly, no, and I was like ah, So then I had to throw it, but I didn't know how to throw it because I've never been taught how to let go of a snake, and so I just had to hurl that bitch want out into the woods. Okay, I ain't afraid of a snake. I just don't care for them. Eh, I like the little groun. It's all good.

39:33 I mean, most people are afraid of I'm not afraid. The most common phobia. If I'm not. Mistake, coroaches will put me on another level. One time, students put a fake one in my papers on my desk because they knew that, and when I was slipping through. When I got to it, it freaked me out about it. I pushed backward and I flipped backward out of my chair and they loved it. Well, it's interesting in this story that the guy was making money, so he was you know, you would think, I think that that would be not the animal that you would want to bring to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and try to get people to walk up to you and pet a snake. I mean, look, I know people that love snakes and they have them as pets. I'm not hating on snakes, don't get me wrong, but it seems like that will be the struggle to get money with. But man, a yellow bow constructor i'd probably walk up to.

40:21 I'm not very check it out. Yeah, I'm not very impressed though, with you abandoning your animals like that, like you're using them to make money, but then when times get. Touched, he's getting out of there, he's going to jail, and he's going to have to abandon them anyway. Well still, I don't know. It's just a bad idea all around. I'm not I'm not surprised. I guess is why I have lack of like shock factor, because people do that kind of stuff all the time, and you know, frowned upon, but at least the snake'sre okay, and he ran off, you know. All right, Okay, this is a very important segment, breaking it segment. I'll messed it up. I was trying to give all right, this is a very important segment just now coming in, and it's your favorite segment of foolish felons so.

41:04 Full that is not their favorite segment is unrelated. It's so foolish. Okay, imagine that you are there. It is, I got it. Okay, Imagine you want to go in and steal a bunch of stuff. You don't, but just imagine it. So you come up with a plan, right, a plan that cannot possibly go wrong, right, And so your plan is to be a masked man with your friends, and you're armed with a hammer and bare spray, and you're gonna go storm no other place than the local pawn shop to get your loot. But then your plan collapses in spectacular fashion because when you deploy said bare spray, it filled the store so quickly that you couldn't see, breathe, or even speak because you got so unable to do anything, and you had to leave empty handed. Well, that is what happened here. The attempted armed robbery occurred at five point fifty three PM at Value Pond and Jewelry. The investigator said that once us specs carried a hammer and struck a jewelry display case that had multiple items in it, obviously shattered or broke the glass and created a small hole so they couldn't even break the glass very well.

42:11 The second suspect then discharged the bear spray throughout the store, directly targeting the employees and the customers, but the thick cloud of bear mace quickly overwhelmed the entire business. It did affect three employees and two customers who were treated at the scene by the Orange County Fire Department for chemical irritation. The employee Alicia Capuchin told reporters that she initially thought the loud banging was a gunshot. I turned around and they directly sprayed me in the face, and they directly maced my coworker in the face. It instantly burned your face and your eyes. Even right now, I'm still feeling it in my face and my lips. It's very, very potent, very strong. Police believed the suspects panicked as the spray filled the store and ran out without taking any property, possibly macing themselves. The pair fled northbound down the street. Officers, canine units and even in one air one responded, but they weren't able to locate these guys.

43:02 Firefighters later ventilated the business with fans and open doors, and police are still looking for the suspects. Yeah, and people don't realize that that actually happens, not necessarily when you're committing a robbery, but anytime people yank out, you know, pepper spray that gets in the air, and you can actually inhale that as if you're being a you know, you're being attacked and you pepper spray someone, you've got to be real careful not to inhale and exhale that pepper spray. That's why the jail spray is so much better in those situations. It's actually a jail that is shot a gel like hair jail that is shot out into the face of whoever is assailing you because it can create a cloud.

43:46 Man. Yes, and bear spray is no jake, right. You're taking to do a big ass animal. Well. Part of your training to in law enforcement is that you have to recognize two things. One, there's always a weapon involved whenever you get into an altercation with somebody on the street, because you brought it. There's a gun involved, and doesn't mean you're always going to maintain control of it. Number Two, when you spray your freeze plus P or whatever on the street, you have to be able to also fight while you're also you know, having the effects of that. So one of the things we do in training is that you get sprayed directly in the face with it, and then you have to fight an assailant with you know, they have a fake weapon, but you're learning to mitigate those reactions because it makes it that much more difficult. So they're clearly inexperienced, they're clearly stupid, and they got nothing, and I love that. I'm sorry for the people that did get sprayed. That's horrific. It's terrible.

44:37 But all in all, those idiots didn't get a damn thing. No they didn't, and they won't try that again. But you wouldn't even know that until you try it for the first time. How heavy of a cloud that that actually puts out. I mean, it's not like. A spray of water that comes out in this fine mist and you know, hits whatever you're aiming at, and that's it. I mean, the whole air fills up with that stuff. Look and bear spray especially, that's. Pope, look put you out. I went to the mountains and they said, hey, there's bears out there, and I was like, oh shit, okay, so don't pet them. They're like no, I'm like cool. So they put they put bells around our I mean being facetious, but they put bells around her ankles and they said, where are these bells? And I'm looking at it.

45:17 I'm like, this one dollar bell's gonna save me against a big, old, angry bear, and like, yeah, they won't come near you because of the bear. Well, then we walk up deep into the trail and I kept looking at my husband going do you smell something? Smells like the zoo? And he was like, what are you talking about because he can't smell anything. And I'm like, it smells like the zoo, you know that smell? And he's like no, no, dad, gumt we come back out. And then leader Guy goes, yeah, that's bear musk what you were smelling? Okay? Great? Well I brought my little ding to ding ding Bell to protect me. I needed this big cloud of mace. They say that you if, obviously, if a bear approchaes you, you want to make yourself as big as possible, and you want to like. Go buck wild on the bear, just start screaming, yelling. Jumping up and down. There's two different kinds because one bear you make yourself when you play dead. It's like a.

46:01 Brown bear versus never playing dead. Was you're gonna get your head swiped off by big Opaul almost I'm a fight. You're gonna look ridiculous. Is that a head? I would it ripped my head off? Anyway? Where am I gonna put your headphones? Jim? Yeah, all right, let's go to Miami and I'm gonna tell you about a Swedish family who is suing the Rydisan Resort Miami Beach for more than fifteen million dollars, alleging that the grossly inadequate security allowed of non guests to sneak into the hotels pool and to sexually assault their eleven year old daughter during a vagation. The lawsuit was filed in Miami Dade County Court, and it names the resort's owners, operators, and managers, along with sixty eight year old Osvaldo Diaz, the man who is accused of carrying out the alleged groping. The family parents and their three daughters nineteen, fourteen, and eleven, have been staying at the resort for just two days when the n and occurred back in twenty twenty five. According to the lawsuit, the eleven year old girl was swimming in the hotel pool with other guests when Diaz allegedly grabbed her buttocks.

47:11 Believing it might have been accidental, she went underwater to get away from him. The complaint states Diaz followed her underwater and then grabbed her between the legs. The girl immediately climbed out of the pool told her parents and older sisters what had happened, and her father followed Diaz as he fled the property through a neighboring hotel. The family called hotel security and Miami Day Police, who arrested Diaz later that day. Diaz was not a registered guest at the Rytissum was charged with loot and lascivious battery on a child under sixteen and burglary with assault and battery. He remains in custody awaiting trial. The family's attorney, Justin's Shapiro, said the resort failed to provide basic security measures or access controlled to the pool area, which is supposed to be restricted to guests only.

48:04 Quote. There was no supervision, no access control. Anyone could have followed the guest into that pool area from the beach or from the lobby. We have no indication the resort had visible presence of security anywhere on the hotel's grounds, which is grossly inadequate. The family is seeking damages in excess of fifteen million dollars, and so there you have it. So I would agree that there should be some type of security, you know, like you have to use your wristband or your card or something like that to get into certain amenities. A most places have that, especially like a Radison, so that's a higher end hotel.

48:44 But even if they do, all someone has to do is swipe their card and he just walks in behind him. No one, have you ever turned around and said, don't walk in behind me, use your own card. You know that's not true. That's not going to happen. He would have found a way in anyway. I'm not saying they. I'm not saying. What I'm saying is fifteen million seems excessive, not to me, because I wouldn't want my daughter to have if she if this affected us so profoundly. I know this is coming off wrong the way I'm saying this. I'm just like, but here's a I don't mean to interrupt you, but I do want to say. You're looking at fifteen million dollars as what it means to you. That's that's like a dollar to the Radison, the company, the Radison.

49:25 Yeah, you have to when these. Attorneys are suing corporations like that. The whole point is I'm suing you civilly so that you hurt. For that, you feel like you've got to make a change. Fifteen million dollars is not what fifteen million dollars is to you to the radisin Just. Yeah, I guess when I look at a civil lawsuit, I think that obviously pain and suffering obviously damages. Obviously I wouldn't want any type of therapy or something. I would I would have to put my daughter in to help her if she was struggling with it or whatever. But I would want change as far as like in protocol. In protocol, I would want I would be steadfast on their ass about that, Like, you have got to protect your guests. We come here expecting to be protected. But in the same right, I bet you they come back with an argument that we also don't do background checks on all of our guests. Just because you have a key doesn't mean that you're safe, and so we have certain you know, but at.

50:25 Least you're making an effort. You can't just say, well, you can get past that. I mean, of course you can. But if you don't have that protocol in place, fifteen million dollars is going to make you put that protocol in place. A millium won't. Yeah, that's the way that they're looking at that. Well, yeah, I just I hope that this fucker gets put behind bars for a hot minute. Because he's clearly a predator. He obviously went to this hotel because he knew that he wouldn't have to give up any id, any type of because he wasn't a guest there. Of course you would go there because then they wouldn't know who you were. And assaulted this little girl. I feel horrible for her because I know that you know you're young. You're a young girl. What did I do to deserve this?

51:05 Why would someone do this to me? It's because he's a predator. Honey, you did nothing wrong. You're a kid. You were swimming in a pool. And I don't know that the fifteen million dollar lawsuit is going to change anything, I guess is what I'm saying. I would hope that they would go for more, like legislation or something to make those changes. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's something in the books there. But I wonder what fifteen million dollars is for the family. Yeah, can I get it? You know? And the whole point of that is, Look, they just had a lawsuit come down through the pikes from shoot. I can't even remember exactly which company it was, one of the major companies out there and they lost in this lawsuit in its class action suit many people involved one point one billion dollars billion with a B and it's still on bankrupt them. So much money they have, they can give away one point one billion dollars.

52:08 And it doesn't and not miss a beat. That's why Walmart miss a beat can box all. Few companies on earth that can take a one point one billion dollar loss and not miss a beat. This company is doing that. I wish I could remember who it was. But they have policy insurance policies for this type of stuff too, So I mean, I'm assuming there's gonna be an insurance payout if anything. So is it really going to affect them or is it not? You know, those are the things their. Insurance go up for sure. Yeah, you know, I'm not sure how that works, but but yeah, I'm sure they have insurance on something like that, and their insurance is going to have to pay out, but then they're going to have to pay higher rates. Did But my issue is that the bad guy here, the predator here, is who I need put away for.

52:49 I'm not I'm not hating on the lawsuit. I don't know. I hope it didn't come across that way. I'm just no, I was just succepted saying what we as normal human beings. Yeah, look at fifteen million dollars, were like, wow, that's a ton of money. But to those companies that's nothing. That's nothing. To the Radison, absolutely nothing. So you have to sue for that fifteen million just to make them. At least feel it. Yeah, at least change something. If it was my daughter, it would be worth fifteen million. You know what I'm saying. I totally I get what I'm saying. But I hope that they This guy should not have been walking around. I doubt that that's his first victim too. If you're that forward in a public setting. Wow, and I'm thinking speculation, that is absolute speculation. But you'd be unlucky. And this is his first time A fiftieth Yeah, we don't know.

53:33 I just don't. That's predatory. All in all. Okay, let's go to Trussville, Alabama. A twenty two year old recent Auburn Auburn University graduate who had just begun her dream job in interior design, was shot in the chest and killed inside her boyfriend's father's Alabama home in March. Authorities confirmed that this week, and the coroner in Medical Examiner's office officially ruled her death a homicide. So Whitney Harlowe Robison of rich Man in Virginia was found suffering from a gunshot wound on March seventh at a residence about fifteen miles northeast of Birmingham. So first responders rushed her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead an hour later. Now, the chief Deputy Coropner, Bill Yates, confirmed that the cause of death was injury to her left lung, her heart, and a orda due to a gunshot wound of the chest, and that manner of death, like I said, was certified as a homicide. Yates specifically clarified that the shooting was not certified as accidental, correcting an earlier report that had described it that way. So Robison and this girl was a winter y'all. She graduated summacuum lauda from Auburn University's Interior Design program in May of twenty twenty five. She had recently started working as a trade consultant for restoration hardware.

54:43 Her family and friends said that she had dreamed of a career in design since childhood and she was inspired by watching those ht TV shows. Her obituary described as an independent woman with a radiant soul who touched and transformed everyone she met. But following an extensive investigation by the Trustviille Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division, fifty four year old Travis Scott Towers now this is her boyfriend's father, who lives at the home with his son, also an Auburn alumni, was arrested on May eleventh and charged with reckless manslaughter. He was released after posting a thirty thousand dollars bond and is scheduled to appear in court on July twenty second. His attorney, John Amari and Dame Stewart, they described the incident as a tragic accident and that he definitely was maintaining his innocence. They know that the facts will show that mister Towers has no criminal history, has been a productive and upstanding citizen for his entire life, and is not guilty of these charges. Police have not released additional details about the circumstances of the shooting or what led to it. They determined that Towers acted with criminal recklessness in connection with the fatal gunshot.

55:52 The reckless manslaughter would lead me to believe that this was the situation where he and I don't know if he was showing her gun and went off. And I never say accidentally went off, because a gun doesn't accidentally go off. You have to squeeze the trigger for the gun to go off. Now, the intention to. Shoot somebody might not be there, but if you you know, a gun doesn't just fire unless you pull the trigger. Uh, So it could have been a situation like that. I'm not really going to speculate because we don't know. But reckless manslaughter is not the same as like second agree murder or anything like that. So it tells me there wasn't intent. Right, So manslaughter in and of itself would imply that there was culpability, which means you hold responsibility in the action.

56:38 But the recklessness part, I mean, sometimes people will take a magazine out of a weapon and they don't clear the chamber, and they still have that one bullet in the chamber, and we don't know if it could have been you know, doing something in the bedroom, what even in the same room with her, and he you know, pulled the trigger on accident, goes through a wall and shoots. We don't know, obviously, there's a ton of stuff here that could have happened. We go, we'll see where this goes. I don't feel like, you know, they were very clear it wasn't a suicide. You know, they're trying to make that very clear that this was not certified as accidental. They were yet specifically clarified that the shooting was not certified as accidental. So it's interesting. I can't wait to find out more about this one. If it's not accidental, then that would mean it was on purpose. I'm trying to say so maybe maybe there's just some misunderstanding in between the reporting and and what happened obviously, but but I'll be interested to follow this one well.

57:35 Definitely people posted as we get updates on that. Uh calle any final thoughts. Yes, I want everyone to know that I am now the proud mother of a high school graduate. Yes, a cong She also scored a thirty on her ACT, which I'm very proud of. And she's going to be going into nursing. So shout out to all the nurses out there. We had a new generation coming in and I hope that they will receive. Her with love and support there you go in Southeastern Nursing School. No l s U. Oh they do. Matter of fact, New Orleans is where most people go. But there they've opened it up, opened up now in l s U. Uh nurse like here in nursing school. Yeah, I'm ptty excited about that. Interesting and your daughter, Wait a minute, your daughter had a big success too, I want to I want you.

58:19 Yes, she got accepted into uh the l s U Department of Design. Yeah, girl, blank, yeah. Matter of fact, that's what this young girl right was. Uh, she was well, she graduated in Tier design from Albourne, which is also a very good university there. But let me tell you in Tior Design school, uh, for these top rank colleges are very hard to get into, more competitive than law school. Seriously, have any They only accept like sixty people something like that every year and there's like nine hundred applicants. Good job, little Chapman, good job. Very proud of her for that. You should be any of our listeners, guys, y'all brag online.

59:02 Let us know, did y'all have any graduates any big things this graduation season? Will support them, We support all the successes that these kids are. Yeah. Yeah, message Kelly, Oh my gosh, I am proud of all of that. I am too, super proud. Well, I've got a little bit different of a final thought, and that is that I want to remind everybody that this weekend, after you hear this episode, is Memorial Day weekend. Of course, Monday is Memorial Day and very important to remember these people that have died. It's not and look, I got a little pet peeve here that this is not Veterans Day. So you don't shout out veterans on Memorial Day. You shout out people who have died defending this country. Veterans have their own day where you can think, you know, you want to thank people for their service every day, obviously, but Memorial Day is a day for those who gave their life in defense of this country. So take a minute and if you're barbecuing, hanging out with the VAM, whatever, and put some thought into those who have gave and paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we can have all these frames we enjoy here in the United States.

1:00:13 Amen. And I'll add to that real quick that. Now you can't that was my final thought. You didn't have that as a finals I'm trying to support you okay, go ahead, I'll let you then, all right. My dad is actually gonna receive an award this Memorial Day. Again. He is a veteran, not he didn't die, but he's going to be honored at the Capitol on Wednesday. But all because of a deceased marine who died many, many years ago in Vietnam. My stepdad carried his body out under fire and got a ton of accommodations or not accommodations, what's the word. I'm looking for awards basically for that. But that deceased marine's daughter reached out and she is the reason that's happening because she was so thankful that she got to see her daddy one last time because they recovered him. So to that family, and I'll keep it private just for personal reasons, but to that family, I want to thank them, even though I wasn't even born when Vietnam happened, thank her daddy specifically on this Memorial Day forgiving his life and for our country. I think it's a beautiful thing.

1:01:15 There you go, so and look, stay tuned for the overtime aspect of Crime Wire Weekly. We're gonna be talking about topics today like the true Crime time Machine. We've got We've got some Texas teens arrested after ten shootings in Austin, ten separate shootings. These two Texas teens have finally been arrested. Some woman was arrested for believe it or not, arson after setting her boyfriend's clothes on fire. Yeah, so a lot of people have probably done that and got away with it. Well she didn't. We're going to talk about that. And a teen has been charged after an accidental shooting in Pennsylvania. We're gonna be covering that. So if you're a Patreon member, that's coming up for everyone else. Until next time. I'm Jim Chapman and I'm Kelly Jennings, and we your host of Crime Weekly,