Speaker 1: Something's not right here.
Speaker 2: Crime is up all over the state, and the city
Speaker 2: is out of control.
Speaker 3: The economy is sick, axes are high.
Speaker 1: Housing is expensive, and businesses are leaving, leaving.
Speaker 3: California and Meland's fixing and John Phillips is just the
Speaker 3: man to leave the charge. It's the Fix California Hour
Speaker 3: with John Phillips and Randy.
Speaker 2: Wag and we continue at one oh five in the
Speaker 2: afternoon on The John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Weggs in
Speaker 2: Culver City.
Speaker 1: John, there's a little bit of a debate going on
Speaker 1: in the chat room right now at Johnny don't like
Speaker 1: dot com. Some of our listeners think we should do
Speaker 1: a podcast from the Tijuanna River, and some of our
Speaker 1: listeners think we should do a live broadcast from the
Speaker 1: Tijuana River. I don't think anyone's showing up if we
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Speaker 2: What everyone wants to go for a swim? Bring your
Speaker 2: penis en eight hundred two two two five two two two.
Speaker 2: Is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two
Speaker 2: five two two two. It is our pleasure to welcome
Speaker 2: our next guest to the program. She is a correspondent
Speaker 2: for CBS News in California. You can follow her on
Speaker 2: exit Juliet Watts TV. Julie Watts Welcome.
Speaker 4: Hello, gentlemen, thanks for having me, well.
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming back, and you have yet another report
Speaker 2: that went all over the place. Of course, we spoke
Speaker 2: to you about your last one about diaper gate, and
Speaker 2: now you have one about the high speed rail explaining
Speaker 2: just exactly why the state of California isn't getting the
Speaker 2: federal dollars they were expecting.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, well, we found that they didn't buy the
Speaker 5: trains they were. They promised the Feds they would buy
Speaker 5: the trains by a certain date. They didn't, and up
Speaker 5: administration pulled the funding, and so they sued and they
Speaker 5: said they promised the court they would buy the trains
Speaker 5: by another date. They didn't, And fast forward two years,
Speaker 5: they still have not purchased the trains. It is literally
Speaker 5: listed as TBD on the high speed Rail website. And
Speaker 5: the issue there is that the trains take four years
Speaker 5: to build, and initially they were supposed to four years
Speaker 5: to test.
Speaker 4: Now they've shortened that to two years.
Speaker 5: But either way, we still don't have the trains, and
Speaker 5: so the longer you wait, the farther it pushes out
Speaker 5: the ultimate deadline.
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes the law could land somewhere in a
Speaker 2: great area. But if you're dealing with contract law, and
Speaker 2: the contract says you get the money if you buy
Speaker 2: the train by a certain date, and you don't buy
Speaker 2: the train by a certain date, why in the world
Speaker 2: did the State of California even take this to court
Speaker 2: in the first place. Shouldn't their lawyers have told them
Speaker 2: this is a losing argument.
Speaker 4: So you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 5: And I will say when I asked ag Bonta about
Speaker 5: why he dropped the suit, he made it very clear
Speaker 5: that there are some cases that the Training General files
Speaker 5: on his own and some that the Trade General files
Speaker 5: on behalf of one of the state agencies that he's
Speaker 5: required to work for, right and so this was the latter.
Speaker 5: He said, Listen, we dropped the suit, and I think
Speaker 5: it was the right thing to do. I think when
Speaker 5: they filed the suit initially the argument was, listen, we
Speaker 5: may have missed the first deadline to buy these trains,
Speaker 5: but if we buy them this year, we can still
Speaker 5: meet the final deadline. And that's really what matters, not
Speaker 5: the day we buy the trains, but will the project
Speaker 5: be done at the appropriate time. So they argued, listen,
Speaker 5: we will till the judge, we will buy them by
Speaker 5: the end of this year, which still keeps us on
Speaker 5: track to finish by twenty thirty three. And then when
Speaker 5: they missed that deadline, they sort of that was their
Speaker 5: primary argument. They couldn't continue, so they had to quietly
Speaker 5: drop the lawsuit. Le SA's what sources inside the administration
Speaker 5: tell me.
Speaker 2: It reminds me of the purchase of the Oakland Alameda
Speaker 2: County Coliseum, where the group that was buying the building
Speaker 2: missed all of their deadlines and they go, oh, don't worry,
Speaker 2: we're gonna get it by the final deadline, so everything
Speaker 2: is on track and stop pushing back on us. And
Speaker 2: of course the group didn't have the money and the
Speaker 2: whole deal fell apart. We wouldn't make the final deadline.
Speaker 2: I've seen no metric at all that says that we're
Speaker 2: going to do anything on time regarding this train. Did
Speaker 2: they provide any proof at all that indicated that they
Speaker 2: would meet that final date.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, right now, we still don't have a
Speaker 5: lot of responses. I mean, they still haven't explained to
Speaker 5: us why we didn't buy the trains. We've asked the
Speaker 5: news and administration and high speed Rail today my producer Tyler,
Speaker 5: who you see walking around behind me back here, I
Speaker 5: was trying to move the board so that you were
Speaker 5: in private back there. We were at the Capital today
Speaker 5: talking to basically all the transportation chairs and vice chairs,
Speaker 5: asking you know, hey, can you at least find out
Speaker 5: why we've not purchased the trains? And so I'm hoping
Speaker 5: to get that information for you know, California taxpayers. Frankly,
Speaker 5: here's the exact reason why we haven't purchased them. I
Speaker 5: think they'll argue that they could still meet the twenty
Speaker 5: thirty three deadline for of course the shortened version of
Speaker 5: the high speed rail project.
Speaker 4: But you know, at the end of the.
Speaker 5: Day, for me, it was important that we were able
Speaker 5: to sort of show this to California taxpayers and say, listen,
Speaker 5: let's not pretend that we are moving in a direction
Speaker 5: that we're not. Here's actually what happened. We still don't
Speaker 5: have these trains. And here's why that matters.
Speaker 2: When you speak to the members of the various transportation committees,
Speaker 2: the Committee and the Senate, the Committee and the Assembly.
Speaker 2: How much frustration do you see from those members about
Speaker 2: the pacing or I guess the all of the delays
Speaker 2: associated with this train, because we spoke with Barbara Stone,
Speaker 2: the political scientist, earlier this week and I asked her
Speaker 2: about that, and she said, the union still want the train.
Speaker 2: So as long as the union still want the train,
Speaker 2: the train is not going anywhere, at least with the
Speaker 2: current makeup of the legislature. So while they're frustrated, they're
Speaker 2: going to keep on supporting it until the Unions turn
Speaker 2: south on it for some reason.
Speaker 4: You know. It's it depends on the party right.
Speaker 5: So basically, all the Republicans that we speak to say,
Speaker 5: let's just cut bait and move on. The Democrats say,
Speaker 5: you know, we need to get this done. This is
Speaker 5: really important for California. So I think there is definitely
Speaker 5: frustration among you know, lawmakers from both parties.
Speaker 4: It's interesting. I spoke with.
Speaker 5: One of the Assembly member today who represents a district
Speaker 5: where this you know, shorter version of the train will
Speaker 5: actually go, and they are all of these half built
Speaker 5: you know, overpasses there, and I said, wouldn't you want
Speaker 5: to at least just finish this portion that goes through
Speaker 5: your district, and he said, no, I'd rather take it
Speaker 5: down and spend the money somewhere else. So, you know,
Speaker 5: to a person, the republic lawmakers makers we talk too
Speaker 5: are very frustrated and they want to see this money
Speaker 5: somewhere else. And to a person, the Democratic lawmakers we
Speaker 5: talk to say, yeah, we are frustrated. There needs to
Speaker 5: be more accountability, but we are committed at least to this.
Speaker 5: You know first portion of high speed rail, Well, you.
Speaker 2: Drive through the Central Valley where the portions of it
Speaker 2: have been built, and it's just kind of an eye
Speaker 2: sore because it's this big thing that is attached to nothing.
Speaker 2: It's not like anyone can buy a ticket on a
Speaker 2: train and use it. It's just there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I honestly have only seen it in pictures.
Speaker 5: I haven't actually driven through the Central Valley to see
Speaker 5: these portions of it. But you know, I think for
Speaker 5: folks who live in the Central Valley, it's just a
Speaker 5: constant reminder of this thing that's supposed to be coming
Speaker 5: to Fruition that frankly isn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the weirdest thing. It's like having in my
Speaker 2: old neighborhood when I was a child, there was a
Speaker 2: house that was being built and they ran out of
Speaker 2: money and the house was like half built, and then
Speaker 2: they just walked away from it. And then we had
Speaker 2: this house, half built house that was just in the
Speaker 2: neighborhood for like decades until someone came in and decided
Speaker 2: they were going to finish the project. It was the
Speaker 2: weirdest thing ever. But that's the feeling that you get
Speaker 2: when you drive by this thing where you see this
Speaker 2: I'm not even going to say half built, maybe one
Speaker 2: percent built project and it's just there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And you know, one of the we're in the
Speaker 5: process of editing the sort of video television version of
Speaker 5: this story.
Speaker 4: We published it first.
Speaker 5: And in it you can see Governor Newsom and the
Speaker 5: high speed Rail CEO, among others, hammering nails into a track.
Speaker 5: And you know what we reveal is that was actually
Speaker 5: just a prop that wasn't it's not really a track.
Speaker 5: It's still there or still you know, will ever be used.
Speaker 5: It certainly wasn't a high speed rail track. And we
Speaker 5: spoke to the Inspector in General of high speed Rail. Right,
Speaker 5: this is the watchdog, the guy who's supposed to be
Speaker 5: making sure the high speed Rail eventually gets this project
Speaker 5: done right, And he is working on a bill right
Speaker 5: now that we here may actually die on Monday in
Speaker 5: the Appropriations Committee that would give him the resources and
Speaker 5: the staffing he needs to actually hold high speed Rail accountable.
Speaker 5: So I think, you know, I have all that to say.
Speaker 5: I think it's really important that we that we do
Speaker 5: keep eyes on this project. It starts to kind of
Speaker 5: become white noise. Oh high speed Rail. I'm talking about
Speaker 5: it forever and it's never going to come to fudition.
Speaker 4: But I think that it.
Speaker 5: Really does shine a light on other issues within the
Speaker 5: legislator legislature that this project really highlights.
Speaker 2: Do you think the expectation was that Kamala Harris would
Speaker 2: win the election or Joe Biden would win the election,
Speaker 2: and we'd be given some kind of waiver of Okay,
Speaker 2: well you're not going to meet this deadline by this date,
Speaker 2: but we'll give you a waiver and we'll extend it,
Speaker 2: and the money is still going to come in.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Actually, I spoke with the chair of the Senate Transportation
Speaker 5: Committee today and he said exactly that, in fact, he
Speaker 5: didn't think that the Trump administration should have pulled the
Speaker 5: funding even though we didn't purchase the trains. He said, listen,
Speaker 5: you know under previous administrations they would just extend it.
Speaker 5: Nothing ever happens exactly on the schedule. But what's important
Speaker 5: is do we hit that end goal?
Speaker 4: And I did push back.
Speaker 5: Several times saying, okay, but if you're giving money to
Speaker 5: an agency that is not meeting its major milestones, do
Speaker 5: you continue to give that agency money. I didn't really
Speaker 5: get a straight answer there, but you know, I think
Speaker 5: that's a really important question. And the answer is absolutely.
Speaker 5: We're a different administration. I believe that is sort of
Speaker 5: the standard. Yeah, they just give you extensions.
Speaker 2: We know that the High speed Rail Authority is an
Speaker 2: authority that does not like to talk to the press.
Speaker 2: You have to really push them to get information out
Speaker 2: of them. In many cases, not just with issues related
Speaker 2: to this, but I mean so many issues since that
Speaker 2: agency came to be. Of all of the agencies and
Speaker 2: departments within the state of California, is this the hardest
Speaker 2: one to get information out of?
Speaker 4: Oh? Not even close, not even close. Here's some deal.
Speaker 4: We have an inspector general.
Speaker 5: There is there is a guy an agency right that
Speaker 5: their whole job is to investigate high speed rail, So
Speaker 5: it's actually much easier to get information because you have
Speaker 5: somebody whose job it is to investigate them. It's hard
Speaker 5: to get information out of the State Auditor's office at
Speaker 5: this point under the previous auditor as much easier Now
Speaker 5: it's I can't get an interview to save my life
Speaker 5: HHS Health and Human Services impossible to get to get
Speaker 5: information out of CDC are the corrections to Derartman. I
Speaker 5: had tried for years to get interviews with folks inside
Speaker 5: that agency. So no, this is really just state agencies
Speaker 5: in general in California are very difficult to get information
Speaker 5: out of it.
Speaker 2: And it's so weird because you look at just the
Speaker 2: political climate that we exist in today, where we have
Speaker 2: a governor who is now termed out, so it's not
Speaker 2: like he's going to run for governor again, and he
Speaker 2: can pretty much do whatever he wants. Is a lame duck.
Speaker 2: If he wants to talk to the press or direct
Speaker 2: his agencies to speak to the press, he can do
Speaker 2: that at any time he wants to do it. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's running for president, and certainly I think that's the
Speaker 2: focus of what he's thinking about right now. But we
Speaker 2: have a candidate who is the leading candidate to replace
Speaker 2: him as Governor, Javier Bessera, who's operating his campaign kind
Speaker 2: of that way where I don't think he's had a
Speaker 2: press avail since early June, right after the election, and
Speaker 2: he had a big event yesterday in Sacramento and he
Speaker 2: refused to stick around and take questions, And you go, Okay,
Speaker 2: if this is the way it is now with a
Speaker 2: guy who has nothing to lose, imagine what it's going
Speaker 2: to be like in the future for a guy who's
Speaker 2: running his campaign this way.
Speaker 5: It's funny you say that because I was literally standing
Speaker 5: in the Assembly hallway today chatting with other reporters about
Speaker 5: just that. I've shared the video that one of our
Speaker 5: colleagues here in Sacramento shot of Bessara. So that's the
Speaker 5: interview that you're talking about, where she was sort of,
Speaker 5: you know, chasing him back to his car, asking if
Speaker 5: he was going to do the debate, and it got
Speaker 5: a lot of criticism.
Speaker 4: I got criticism for sharing it on Twitter.
Speaker 5: You know, oh that was a you know, a gorilla tactic.
Speaker 5: And what I explained to folks on Twitter, and I
Speaker 5: think it's important is if these lawmakers avoid the media.
Speaker 5: You can't just pull the press conference, say you were scripted,
Speaker 5: you know, whatever your scripted speech is, and then not
Speaker 5: answer questions. We're in a world right now where I
Speaker 5: think at least the Sack Press Corp Is getting more
Speaker 5: comfortable with tracking folks down to get answers right. And so,
Speaker 5: but we were sitting there today saying, gosh, if this
Speaker 5: is going to be them, it's already hard enough to
Speaker 5: talk to our for us to get an interview with
Speaker 5: our current governor, it's going to be very difficult if
Speaker 5: faber Vissia is the next governor and doesn't want to
Speaker 5: sit down and chat with us. But here's the deal
Speaker 5: about politicians is at some point you know where they're
Speaker 5: going to be right, and so we the media have
Speaker 5: the credentials to be in the room with them, and
Speaker 5: if we really want to ask the.
Speaker 4: Question, we will.
Speaker 2: And can you also give a background to how this works,
Speaker 2: where before a reporter chases down a politician or chases
Speaker 2: down a public official, there are usually many requests in
Speaker 2: private for an interview, for comment, for some kind of
Speaker 2: access to them, and it's only after many doors are
Speaker 2: slammed that something like that happens.
Speaker 5: Absolutely and we call them, you know, unscheduled interviews. But
Speaker 5: every reporter worth their salt, and there may be some
Speaker 5: out there that just want the clickbait and the chases
Speaker 5: and so, but every reporter that I know in the
Speaker 5: press corps, you send several emails, you make phone calls requesting, hey,
Speaker 5: can we please sit down with you? And frankly, we
Speaker 5: all would much prefer to sit down with nice lighting
Speaker 5: and good cameras and ask the question and have a conversation.
Speaker 5: But it's the follow up questions that I think you
Speaker 5: see when I do interviews with people in the past
Speaker 5: that they don't like the follow up questions, and so
Speaker 5: that is what they're avoiding. And so at some point
Speaker 5: you have to say, listen, I'm not doing this for me.
Speaker 5: I'm not doing this to do a story. I'm doing
Speaker 5: this for the public because the public has a right
Speaker 5: to know the answers to these questions. And generally, when
Speaker 5: I'm asking questions, I'm asking questions that I think the
Speaker 5: public wants to know. And so yes, then we do
Speaker 5: what it's called the unscheduled interview, and we'll ask the
Speaker 5: question that we're trying.
Speaker 4: To get an answer to, and a lot of times.
Speaker 5: I think after a few of those, the politicians' staff
Speaker 5: starts to get wise and says, okay, okay, we'll give
Speaker 5: them the interview because they look better sitting down than
Speaker 5: running away from the reporter.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw it, but there was
Speaker 2: a piece in the California Post that was written by
Speaker 2: John Fleischman about the Besara strategy for this election. And
Speaker 2: essentially what Fleischmann said is when you look at voter
Speaker 2: registration in California, Democrats outnumber Republicans by about two to one,
Speaker 2: and the final results in the primary mirrored the final
Speaker 2: results from the last gubernatorial election, where Democrats had little
Speaker 2: over sixty percent Republicans a little under forty percent. And
Speaker 2: I think the expectation is that that's where this election
Speaker 2: is going to go, or that's the most likely place
Speaker 2: for this election to go. And the strategy for Bessera
Speaker 2: is he can get knocked for not talking to the press,
Speaker 2: and he'll take a certain certain hit for that, but
Speaker 2: that hit is extremely minimal compared to the hit he
Speaker 2: would take if he were to have a flub or
Speaker 2: have some kind of embarrassing moment that attracts negative attention.
Speaker 2: So the attitude is to do as little press as possible,
Speaker 2: have as few public events as possible, and just pretend
Speaker 2: like the election is not happening.
Speaker 5: I mean, I obviously I can't confirm that because I
Speaker 5: have not actually spoken with his staff about why he's
Speaker 5: avoiding the public.
Speaker 4: But I will say this.
Speaker 5: I spoke with somebody, a political consultant who I respect
Speaker 5: and believe, recently, who said, listen, based on the pulling
Speaker 5: and based on the data that they have, but Sarah
Speaker 5: could drop out and Steve Hilton still wouldn't win. I mean,
Speaker 5: they really believe that this is a done deal, that
Speaker 5: be Sarah's going to be the next governor, and the
Speaker 5: hope for Hilton is to just bring you know, Republicans
Speaker 5: out to the polls to vote in you know, their
Speaker 5: way on ballot measures.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll tell you. You go back to that
Speaker 2: Senate race between Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey, and essentially
Speaker 2: Schiff had kind of a similar strategy. He didn't do
Speaker 2: a lot of media, he didn't have a lot of events,
Speaker 2: and he just expected to ride the wave of the
Speaker 2: registration advantage to victory and it worked out that way
Speaker 2: for him. The difference between the two is that Steve
Speaker 2: Garvey kind of did the same thing. I remember in
Speaker 2: the middle of the campaign he went on this law
Speaker 2: trip to Israel, and I go, dude, don't you have
Speaker 2: business here? But he decided to go on the trip. Anyway,
Speaker 2: Steve Hilton is a lot more active of a candidate
Speaker 2: than Steve Garvey was or Brian Dolly was when he
Speaker 2: ran against Gavin Newsom the last time around. And it'll
Speaker 2: be interesting to see how Steve Hilton plays his cand
Speaker 2: of cards to try to draw Javier Bessera out of
Speaker 2: the basement and into a public forum or public forums
Speaker 2: where he does answer questions about what the future of
Speaker 2: the state looks like should he be elected governor.
Speaker 5: You know, it's interesting and to me that was the
Speaker 5: most interesting part of our CBS California debate, when you know,
Speaker 5: they just happened to be standing next to each other
Speaker 5: on the stage. That wasn't pre planned. It was just,
Speaker 5: you know, we picked the names out of a hat.
Speaker 5: But the two of them debating each other was very interesting.
Speaker 5: And I will say the thing with Steve Hilton that
Speaker 5: I've thought was interesting from the beginning is that he
Speaker 5: was considered a sort of moderate, almost progressive when he
Speaker 5: was in politics in the UK, and people a lot
Speaker 5: of folks still don't even know that he was very
Speaker 5: high up in politics in the UK.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: He he had a lot to do with which he
Speaker 5: will say was a mistake, but Brexit, but he was
Speaker 5: considered progressive. And so now, yes he is a Republican,
Speaker 5: but he could appeal to moderate Democrats. And you know,
Speaker 5: the question that I asked all the candidates that got
Speaker 5: you know, a lot of heat with the Katie Borter
Speaker 5: interview was Trump got six million votes. And I will
Speaker 5: say Hilton's camp told me early on, we only need
Speaker 5: five million in change in order to win and become governor.
Speaker 5: And so I think their strategy is if we can
Speaker 5: bring out six million people to vote for Hilton, then
Speaker 5: he could win. I don't know that that's possible, that's
Speaker 5: not my area of expertise, but I think that that's
Speaker 5: the plan. And then meanwhile, on the other side, you
Speaker 5: have folks saying that Jabber Bessara could just sleep for
Speaker 5: the rest of the campaign and still win.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: One of the questions it hasn't been asked to Besserah
Speaker 2: because he hasn't made self available to the public which
Speaker 2: I think is an important one. Why hasn't he been
Speaker 2: to Boyle Heights since they've experienced that public health disaster,
Speaker 2: that environmental disaster that is not just in one of
Speaker 2: the biggest population centers of the state, but an area
Speaker 2: that was in his old assembly district and in his
Speaker 2: congressional district, an area that he represented legislatively one way
Speaker 2: or the other for many, many, many years. Newsom hasn't
Speaker 2: shown up. He hasn't shown up, and I can't, for
Speaker 2: the life of me figure out, Well, I know why
Speaker 2: he hasn't been asked about it, He hasn't given us
Speaker 2: the opportunity, but why we're still waiting to figure out
Speaker 2: when he's going to show up and meet with people
Speaker 2: down there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I think there's probably a lot of
Speaker 5: questions like that that people would like to ask. And
Speaker 5: you know, I did hear today as I was chatting
Speaker 5: with the other reporters about what happened yesterday, that his
Speaker 5: team is saying that he is going to start doing
Speaker 5: California media veils. So it'll be interesting to see if
Speaker 5: he does start sitting down with reporters. Of of course
Speaker 5: we'll ask for uh for an interview, But yeah, it
Speaker 5: should be interesting to see what sort of.
Speaker 4: Questions he gets.
Speaker 2: All right, well, I know that's not a Science Fair
Speaker 2: project behind you, but whatever it is, I can't wait
Speaker 2: to see the report when it comes out.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, you're in tune in next week for the
Speaker 5: visual aid that is behind us.
Speaker 2: All right, Julie Wats from CBS California, thanks so much
Speaker 2: for stopping by.
Speaker 4: Thanks guys.
Speaker 2: You can follow Julie on Exit Julie Watts TV. It's
Speaker 2: the John Phillips Show. It's the John Phillips Show. Eight
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Speaker 2: All Right, it's time to open up the California Crime Blodder.
Speaker 1: It's happened yet again.
Speaker 3: Nice see time for the California Crime Bloader.
Speaker 2: And the first edition of today's Blotter takes us to
Speaker 2: my friend Suzanne summers hometown of San Bruno.
Speaker 1: Somebody is Robin Postal Carriers and the Postmaster General has
Speaker 1: put out one hundred and fifty thousand dollars reward for
Speaker 1: more here's Cron four for.
Speaker 7: Streaming free on the Corn four plus mort TV app
Speaker 7: on Grant Lotus and.
Speaker 8: I'm Vicky Leviakis. A reward is now being offered to
Speaker 8: find the person who allegedly attacked a postal worker in
Speaker 8: San Bruno. Anyone with information that leads to an arrest
Speaker 8: could get a check for one hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 8: dollars four as.
Speaker 7: Rob Nesbitz spoke with the US Postal Inspector about how
Speaker 7: often male workers find themselves at risk and the robbery at.
Speaker 9: This San Bruno post office happened on July thirtieth, but
Speaker 9: it wasn't a one time occurrence.
Speaker 1: These were back again. They didn't read that sign that
Speaker 1: says armed robbery post office will give you twenty five
Speaker 1: years in federal prison.
Speaker 2: You think it was Newman or Cliff Claven.
Speaker 9: Wednesday morning and stole more mail caught on camera. Investigators
Speaker 9: shared this video showing a suspect stealing four tubs of
Speaker 9: mail from the San Bruno post office on Huntington, ab.
Speaker 1: Boy, They're gonna just love opening up my bills.
Speaker 2: Okay, if they steal your mail, do they have to
Speaker 2: show up for your jury duty summons? Well?
Speaker 1: That is why it is always a very realistic excuse
Speaker 1: that I never got the summons? What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: It never showed up in the mail. Do you have
Speaker 1: any proof that it showed up in the mail? Then
Speaker 1: leave me alone.
Speaker 9: US Postal Inspector Matthew Norfleet says the suspect also committed assault.
Speaker 6: That person seen in the video. We believe shoved a
Speaker 6: postal worker to the ground. And then you can see
Speaker 6: those those mail tubs in his hand in the video.
Speaker 6: Those are suspected to be stolen mail, and he's loading
Speaker 6: him into his car.
Speaker 1: Images old, what is the plan here? To get as
Speaker 1: many bed bath and beyond coupons as you can and
Speaker 1: cash in?
Speaker 2: Maybe it was John Witherspoon from the Friday movies.
Speaker 9: So show the suspects car a silver Lexus RX three
Speaker 9: point fifty.
Speaker 1: This was not a one off crime.
Speaker 9: Norfleet says that more thieves came to the same location
Speaker 9: Wednesday morning with a different vehicle, and he believes the
Speaker 9: two incidents are connected.
Speaker 6: Male thieves.
Speaker 1: People are just brazenly running into the post office and
Speaker 1: stealing mail on a daily basis. What the hell is
Speaker 1: going on?
Speaker 2: What are they expecting to find a birthday card from
Speaker 2: a grandma to a grandson who gave him eleven dollars
Speaker 2: in cash for his eleventh birthday.
Speaker 6: We're really just trying to get mail with financial instruments
Speaker 6: in it, because that's how they make money off this crime.
Speaker 6: And so we think it's the financial benefits of doing
Speaker 6: that fraud that's motivating the robberies, that's putting postal workers
Speaker 6: at risk.
Speaker 1: The US Post Maybe we've got to change up the
Speaker 1: way that we deliver credit cards. I'm sure that it is.
Speaker 1: You know, a good business model for Wells Fargo, Chase,
Speaker 1: what have you to send you a credit card even
Speaker 1: though you did not ask for one. But you know,
Speaker 1: when you sign up with American Express, they send you
Speaker 1: that card in one day FedEx in a very special box.
Speaker 1: Maybe we shouldn't have credit cards in the regular mail
Speaker 1: of is this susceptible to threats?
Speaker 9: So Inspection Service is offering a reward of up to
Speaker 9: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for information that leads
Speaker 9: to an arrest and conviction of the person caught in
Speaker 9: the act.
Speaker 1: And how hard could this be? We've got the license
Speaker 1: plate number, Yeah, cameras ah way, we turned all those off.
Speaker 2: This isn't exactly like finding who kidnapped the Lindbergh baby.
Speaker 2: We should be able to figure this one out.
Speaker 9: According to Norfleet, reward money has become more common as
Speaker 9: crimes against postal service workers are on the ride.
Speaker 6: He peaked around two thousand and four of robberies of
Speaker 6: postal workers, and around that time the Postal Service and
Speaker 6: the Postal Inspection Service raised the amount of money available
Speaker 6: for a reward in a case like this.
Speaker 9: If you visited the San Bruno post office or dropped
Speaker 9: mail in one of its collection boxes, you might have
Speaker 9: had your mail stolen. If you have any information about
Speaker 9: the robbery, you can call eight seven seven eight seven
Speaker 9: six two four y y five reporting in San Bruno.
Speaker 9: I'm Robin asbit Crown for news.
Speaker 7: From San Bruno to San Leandro and postal inspectors there
Speaker 7: searching for this person accused of attacking a USPS worker.
Speaker 1: What is going on with our postal carriers?
Speaker 2: The attacker looks like James Brown from the seventies.
Speaker 7: Outside of post office. Take a look at the screen.
Speaker 7: Authority say the employee was returning from a break at
Speaker 7: the Estudio station July twenty seventh when somebody approached him behind,
Speaker 7: punched her in the face and walked away.
Speaker 1: Invested, what is wrong with people?
Speaker 2: Give me those Betty White stamps?
Speaker 7: Sgeters have released these pictures of a suspect that they're
Speaker 7: offering a reward here as well of one hundred and
Speaker 7: fifty thousand dollars for information that leads to an arrest
Speaker 7: in conviction.
Speaker 1: So there you go, all kinds of different attacks on
Speaker 1: post offices and postal carriers, whether we're talking about San
Speaker 1: Bruno or San Leandro, and of course, John, we can
Speaker 1: never do a story about the post office without remembering
Speaker 1: what happened last year in Oakland where they started tagging
Speaker 1: up the different postal vans and then when they drive
Speaker 1: to the wrong neighborhood they get shot at.
Speaker 2: All right, it's time to reopen the California Crime Blodder.
Speaker 1: E's cashier's dummy.
Speaker 3: We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.
Speaker 2: I the hell, no, Manny boy, Let me get up
Speaker 2: on out of here.
Speaker 3: It's the California Crime Bloater.
Speaker 2: And this edition of the Blotter takes us to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: The San Francisco real estate market is real hot, right now,
Speaker 1: I know I'm checking it out on zillo all the time.
Speaker 1: And if you're looking for a rental and you're trying
Speaker 1: to look for a deal, you might be getting susceptible
Speaker 1: to some kind of Scamalah. For more, here is kpix
Speaker 1: in the Bay.
Speaker 10: Long established that San Francisco has some very expensive real
Speaker 10: estate and trying to find the place of your dreams
Speaker 10: that is also something you can afford is more like
Speaker 10: a nightmare, sometimes just not possible. Just last week, a
Speaker 10: report from Zumper revealed the asking price for a two
Speaker 10: bedroom here in the city is now the highest of
Speaker 10: any major city in the country. We told you about
Speaker 10: that on this broadcast.
Speaker 1: Well, this is the AI boom right here.
Speaker 10: The median price for a two bedroom in SF top
Speaker 10: six thousand dollars. Experts said the two factors at play
Speaker 10: are the growing AI industry and a lower supply. Renters
Speaker 10: who are looking right now are competing for a smaller
Speaker 10: and smaller pool of places. So with people really desperate
Speaker 10: to find a place to live, scammers are living large.
Speaker 10: The FTC says since twenty twenty, people have reportedly reported
Speaker 10: nearly sixty five thousand rental scams, with about sixty five
Speaker 10: million dollars in losses.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you think.
Speaker 10: Keep in mind a lot of scams are never reported,
Speaker 10: meaning that sixty five million could only be a fraction
Speaker 10: of what has actually been lost. As for where these
Speaker 10: scams are popping up, the FTC says more people do not.
Speaker 2: I repeat, this is going to be the most important
Speaker 2: information that you've heard all day. Do not buy anything
Speaker 2: off of Facebook. Do not sell anything off of Facebook.
Speaker 2: If you do that, you might be held at knife point.
Speaker 2: You might be scammed.
Speaker 1: Facebook Marketplace or Facebook groups. Anyone trying to advertise a
Speaker 1: rental listing on Facebook, you do not trust it. Look
Speaker 1: how much Facebook outweighs Craigslist when it comes to scam.
Speaker 2: Over half of all of the scams are on Facebook.
Speaker 10: About half of them reported seeing a fake post on Facebook.
Speaker 10: Another sixteen percent said the scam targeted a fake ad
Speaker 10: on Craigslist. And if you're thinking it's older people that
Speaker 10: are skimming Facebook and clicking on something that doesn't seem
Speaker 10: too fishy, that's not necessarily true. It's actually young people
Speaker 10: trying to navigate a challenging housing market, some of them
Speaker 10: for the first time.
Speaker 1: Well, and young people dumb enough to be using Facebook.
Speaker 2: You can go through a realtor for a rental. That
Speaker 2: is possible. And if you go through a realtor, you
Speaker 2: know they pass the test, you know they have a license,
Speaker 2: and you know that if they scam you, there's some
Speaker 2: recourse you have with the state.
Speaker 1: Well, you also know that the listing that they have
Speaker 1: is real.
Speaker 10: Yes, the FDC reported people ages eighteen to twenty nine
Speaker 10: are three times more likely than other adults to say
Speaker 10: they lost money to a rental scam. One of those
Speaker 10: victims was a twenty eight year old in San.
Speaker 4: Francisco who works at a tech startup.
Speaker 10: Like so many others here, he talked to our Kevin
Speaker 10: Coe so he could warn other people about the red
Speaker 10: flags to look out for.
Speaker 11: Shame on you, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: This poor guy taking.
Speaker 11: Advantage of people who are like in this market are
Speaker 11: very desperate.
Speaker 12: Alvin Tran would say that to his scammers if he
Speaker 12: knew who they were. The twenty eight year old product
Speaker 12: designer is a seasoned renter who's moved into two other
Speaker 12: places before sight unseen. He recently found.
Speaker 2: Okay, don't do that either, because you don't know who
Speaker 2: you're living next to. You don't know what's going on
Speaker 2: in the neighborhood. You don't know the history of the house,
Speaker 2: you don't know any of that information. Imagine if you
Speaker 2: live next to one of those homes that lights off
Speaker 2: fireworks twenty four to seven.
Speaker 1: That's a very good point. But this is part of
Speaker 1: what happens when you have this red hot housing market
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. Properties get snatched up so quickly that
Speaker 1: you have people so desperate they're like, I don't even care,
Speaker 1: I don't even need to see it, just let me in.
Speaker 1: Not the greatest idea.
Speaker 12: Listening's online for this condo in the Castro, one on Zillo,
Speaker 12: and one on Craigslist.
Speaker 1: People are still using Craigslist in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Understand why you do that. When I bought my house,
Speaker 2: I went through a realtor and I said, before you
Speaker 2: even take me there, I want to know. Is the
Speaker 2: hoa solvent? Is the neighborhood a mess? Are there any
Speaker 2: obvious problems going on on that street in that community?
Speaker 2: You can have a professional whose job it is to
Speaker 2: figure all that out. Who gets a commission if you
Speaker 2: decide to move in, Why in the world you would
Speaker 2: bypass that to do it on your own with some
Speaker 2: stranger who comes from god knows where on Facebook. They
Speaker 2: might not even be in the country. If you're doing
Speaker 2: it on site unseen, you're just gonna mail someone a check.
Speaker 11: Pashed out on Zillo twice, actually asking if I could
Speaker 11: schedule a tour, and I did not get any response.
Speaker 12: To his luck, he thought his email to the Craigslist
Speaker 12: post was returned.
Speaker 2: It was awesome.
Speaker 1: Okay, big red flag. You reached out on Zillo and
Speaker 1: you got nothing. So you reached out to Craigslist and
Speaker 1: you got a response.
Speaker 2: Let's see, I'm using a legit website. I get no response.
Speaker 2: Let's go to the illegitimate website and see what kind
Speaker 2: of action we can find there.
Speaker 1: Now, do you think that he only uses Craigslist for
Speaker 1: apartment listings or does he hang out around misconnections or
Speaker 1: casual encounters. That's still a thing.
Speaker 12: So perfect timing his current apartment planned to raise his
Speaker 12: rent by seven hundred dollars if he stayed. Soon, he
Speaker 12: got a text from James telling him he got over
Speaker 12: seventy inquiries for Alvin's dream home and asked if he
Speaker 12: could come by that day. Alvin took this video of
Speaker 12: what he hoped would be his next home. There were
Speaker 12: also six or seven groups of other perspective renters, or
Speaker 12: in Alvin's world, a lot of competition.
Speaker 11: When I was touring in person, I saw someone fill
Speaker 11: out their application and turn it in.
Speaker 1: Are these all other people that are getting scammed? Or
Speaker 1: are these plans to make you think, oh, you better
Speaker 1: sign the papers right now?
Speaker 2: You see. That's the only part I'm not sure about,
Speaker 2: because they could very easily be plans, but they could
Speaker 2: also be marks.
Speaker 11: During the tour, so I know that people were very
Speaker 11: interested and I needed to move fast and be aggressive
Speaker 11: to potentially hopefully secure the unit.
Speaker 2: You know what I think they are. I think they're
Speaker 2: marks too, and I think that whoever it was that
Speaker 2: was running the scam probably scam multiple groups of people
Speaker 2: for the same property.
Speaker 12: Exactly what Alvin did, and he was soon approved, receiving
Speaker 12: this confirmation email, including an attachment of a lease that
Speaker 12: Alvin signed. Then, following instructions, he and his roommate wired
Speaker 12: a security deposit first and last month's rent.
Speaker 1: Your first and last is eighteen thousand dollars price, he
Speaker 1: plays it wasn't even that big. Well, I guess if
Speaker 1: you want to live in the castro.
Speaker 12: Totally eighteen thousand, six hundred dollars.
Speaker 11: I honestly did not think anything was weird because I
Speaker 11: had seen the property in person, and I had talked
Speaker 11: for someone with the same name.
Speaker 12: On the day he was scheduled to pick up his keys,
Speaker 12: no one showed up. Alvin reached out to the Zilo
Speaker 12: listing shown here, who was the real property manager. But
Speaker 12: the Craigslist listing was fake, copying information from the reels
Speaker 12: listing to appear legit.
Speaker 1: See, they take all the pictures that are on Zilo
Speaker 1: and then make a fake listing, and I guess they
Speaker 1: found a time where nobody was around where they could
Speaker 1: get in there, and they made it seem like they
Speaker 1: were the ones you were renting to, when really they
Speaker 1: just stole your money.
Speaker 2: Great, it's horrible.
Speaker 13: To hear about these types of scams.
Speaker 1: A two bed, two bath, fourteen hundred square feet for
Speaker 1: I think it was sixty eight hundred a month.
Speaker 2: Wow, he's got to work in the tech industry.
Speaker 13: Yeah, in our local communities, whether it's a dollar and
Speaker 13: in this case, it's a huge amount of eighteen thousand dollars. Unfortunately,
Speaker 13: this is one of many scams that is very familiar
Speaker 13: to us here at BBBSF Bay Area.
Speaker 12: Al mcgalvin with San Francisco's Better Business Bureau, says the
Speaker 12: development of AI has made scamming easier than ever any information.
Speaker 1: So it's not just a tool that could be used
Speaker 1: to make silly images. For the commercial breaks.
Speaker 2: I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but
Speaker 2: for something like this, go through someone who's licensed and bonded.
Speaker 2: Go through someone who has a realtor's license, and this
Speaker 2: will well, it's likely not to happen.
Speaker 12: Available online like a Zillo listing can be used improperly.
Speaker 12: She also says to never wire money to property managers.
Speaker 14: It is almost impossible to get that money back. The
Speaker 14: reason is is because you know, for example, some of
Speaker 14: the payment apps ask you to verify the person. Are
Speaker 14: you sure you want to send you know, twenty five
Speaker 14: hundred dollars, It's your responsibility to verify the individual.
Speaker 12: Alvins filed twelve reports to various departments, including local authorities
Speaker 12: and federal agencies.
Speaker 1: He's he's not getting that money back.
Speaker 2: I like that. He's out for revenge, though, and he
Speaker 2: went to the news.
Speaker 12: Hoping he and his roommate can get their money back,
Speaker 12: but at the very least he hopes.
Speaker 11: We're not h Yeah, I think, don't get scaled. This
Speaker 11: is a very elaborate scam and very sophisticated. So I
Speaker 11: just want everyone to be away where that these are
Speaker 11: the things that the scammers are doing.
Speaker 1: If there were six other couples looking at that apartment,
Speaker 1: so this one day of pretending that you could rent
Speaker 1: out this place must have netted these people like one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 11: To keep an eye out for them.
Speaker 10: After all of that trouble, Alvin and his roommate decided
Speaker 10: to take the rent increase and stay where they are.
Speaker 10: He says, at least he knows his building and property
Speaker 10: manager are real.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Big rental scam going on and
Speaker 1: San Francisco.
Speaker 2: Good luck with that. It's the John Phillips Show. If
Speaker 2: you'd like to email the show, you can do so
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Speaker 2: That's right, And you know I've been making my rounds
Speaker 2: promoting the Accountability Podcast. Tonight at six, my interview with
Speaker 2: Donald Trump Junior drops, and the two o'clock hour we're
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Speaker 2: along with political strategist Lunnie Ignorance, Don't you Go Anywhere