Speaker 1: And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon
Speaker 1: on The John Phillips Show, broadcasting live from San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Mister Randy Wang's in Culver City. Every time you say
Speaker 1: it like that, it feels like an attack. You're in
Speaker 1: San Francisco and I'm in Culver City. It's like you
Speaker 1: can always tell who's going to win the boxing match
Speaker 1: based on how the ring announcer introduces them. Johnny, we
Speaker 1: ran out of time for this, but I just have
Speaker 1: to play you this little snippet of KPIX sitting down
Speaker 1: with Floyd Mitchell because he might be the worst interview
Speaker 1: guest of all time?
Speaker 2: Can you help residents understand why you didn't feel like
Speaker 2: it was a good fit or some specifics?
Speaker 1: A man a few words? Why even agree to sit
Speaker 1: down for the interview? If you're not going to explain
Speaker 1: what made you quit Oakland? Well, why do you even
Speaker 1: have to ask the question? Why would anyone not want
Speaker 1: to be law enforcement in Oakland? Gee? I wonder why.
Speaker 3: Who else do we gonna call Superma?
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't need Barbara Walters for that interview.
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is
Speaker 1: telephone number one eight hundred two to two five two to two. Well,
Speaker 1: we have a couple of dueling stories about the bums today,
Speaker 1: which reminds me of Barbara Ferrara and Eric Garcetti when
Speaker 1: they teamed up for the dueling Ums. Do you remember
Speaker 1: that during COVID Randy, Oh, do I remember it? I
Speaker 1: bet you. I still have it on here. M I
Speaker 1: still haven't deleted that off of the main board. Ah,
Speaker 1: the good old days. This is a duel and homeless
Speaker 1: encampment story for you. Let's start in southern California in
Speaker 1: unincorporated La County, unincorporated Holly Mitchell Territory, mindful of a
Speaker 1: massive homeless encampment full of RVs and tents that was
Speaker 1: cleared a year ago that is back and bigger than ever.
Speaker 1: If you live in Holly Mitchell's district, you're I'm your own.
Speaker 4: You do whatever we can to get people to come.
Speaker 5: Tacos balloons.
Speaker 1: For more on the encampment. Here is Fox eleven and
Speaker 1: the Greatest Guy, Matthew Sedorf.
Speaker 6: A massive homeless encampment stretching for a half mile in
Speaker 6: West Rancho, Domingus. Entire roads covered with RV's tents and
Speaker 6: fortified shocks our Matthew Cedar have got the tip from
Speaker 6: a viewer who said calls to the county had long
Speaker 6: gone unanswered.
Speaker 1: If you are not getting any response from local government
Speaker 1: and you have a legitimate beef slide into Seedorf's DMS,
Speaker 1: this guy gets results. Yeah, And let me just tell
Speaker 1: you something else. If you see RV as far as
Speaker 1: the I and there isn't Mount Rushmore in the background,
Speaker 1: it's a failure of government.
Speaker 6: Story you will only see on Fox eleven.
Speaker 7: Well ignored no more.
Speaker 8: A sprawling homeless and canon now dominates wes Rancho Dominguez,
Speaker 8: stretching a half mile along West Compton boulevards or shelter.
Speaker 8: Our estimate more than two hundred RV's tents and fortified shacks.
Speaker 1: Two hundred RV's tents and shacks, that's a lot of
Speaker 1: cousin eddies.
Speaker 7: Our estimate more than two hundred RVs.
Speaker 1: So that's two hundred RVs all dumping their sewage right
Speaker 1: there on the street. Can you imagine the smell in
Speaker 1: that neighborhood? You know, Katie, next time you want to
Speaker 1: point out an environmental crisis, I don't even think you
Speaker 1: need to go down to the Tijuana river.
Speaker 3: Who can smell right here?
Speaker 8: Our estimate more than two hundred RV's tense and fortified
Speaker 8: checks the house.
Speaker 1: To you, she's got a living room now? Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Also again, I don't want to be stereotypical. I know
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people from a lot of
Speaker 1: different circumstances. But I can just hear meth voice to
Speaker 1: the house to you, you think she still calls it
Speaker 1: the master bedroom or do you think she's updated her
Speaker 1: language to be politically correct?
Speaker 9: That's my bedrooms?
Speaker 10: Do you.
Speaker 1: Sarah walking closet?
Speaker 7: Do you get power? Yeah?
Speaker 8: Through the streetlight right there right?
Speaker 1: How is that not something that we can enforce? People
Speaker 1: stealing power from the utility poles? And why do they
Speaker 1: even need to steal power from the utility poles? It
Speaker 1: sounds like they've all been hit by lightning so many times.
Speaker 1: All they have to do is wave their hand and
Speaker 1: turn the lights on. Well, they're gonna need power so
Speaker 1: they can turn on They're stolen.
Speaker 7: TV through the tree line right there, right.
Speaker 1: And of course all these people have dogs, and I
Speaker 1: guarantee the dogs are being abused, and nobody in government
Speaker 1: seems to care about that. Yeah, why is it? Why
Speaker 1: is it when you look at people who own animals,
Speaker 1: we have animals in their possession. It's always people who
Speaker 1: just love dogs, the Betty Whites of the world, the
Speaker 1: Bob Barkers of the world. And then on the other
Speaker 1: side of the spectrum, you have people who take math
Speaker 1: for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the dog is just
Speaker 1: an accessory. Oh it's worse than that. There's been investigations
Speaker 1: that show that the drug addicts on skid row are
Speaker 1: using their dogs to test if their meth has any
Speaker 1: fentanyl in it. Wait, so the dogs are methaddics too,
Speaker 1: not by choice.
Speaker 8: Through the tree line right there, right countless dogs, trash
Speaker 8: piled by the ton hopper, wild or cable use condoms.
Speaker 1: We sure want the world here for the World Cup
Speaker 1: in just a couple of weeks. Again, I guess we
Speaker 1: should be happy they're using protection. Well, the condoms tells
Speaker 1: you a different story. And we had some people point
Speaker 1: this out to us when we're doing that condom filled
Speaker 1: homeless in camp. But that Seedorf have talked about a
Speaker 1: while back. The condoms don't tell you that the homeless
Speaker 1: are fornicating amongst each other. The condoms tell you that
Speaker 1: the homeless RVs intents are also dens of prostitution who
Speaker 1: could get turned on having sex with someone in a
Speaker 1: homeless methaddics RV Creepy dudes gotta do a creepy do's
Speaker 1: got to do. The swallow wells of the world got
Speaker 1: to get off somewhere. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but
Speaker 1: can't they just go back to Thailand.
Speaker 8: Through the streetlight right there right, countless dogs, trash piled
Speaker 8: by the ton hopper wire cable.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, stolen copper wire of course, all over the place. Well,
Speaker 1: we can't criminalize that, Hugo said as much.
Speaker 3: You know, let's criminalize kind of lists of converters, let's
Speaker 3: criminalize copper.
Speaker 1: Let me just point out, for the umptyam time, that
Speaker 1: guy is up for re election and if Hollywood and
Speaker 1: Echo Park gives him another four years, that's on y'all.
Speaker 1: Clap that up. Do not vote for him.
Speaker 8: LA and illegal hookups of cable and wines running straight
Speaker 8: from county infrastructure into shelters.
Speaker 1: What are they also stealing the cable? I don't think
Speaker 1: they're paying for anything. Spectrum, get on it.
Speaker 7: How long have you been out here?
Speaker 1: I have to go, so I have to stay where
Speaker 1: I am, but you have plenty of places to go.
Speaker 1: I can't stand this mentality of I can't go anywhere,
Speaker 1: so I need to stay here and create filth. No,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this is where the local government not
Speaker 1: cooperating with the FEDS is awful. If you really truly
Speaker 1: wanted to clean these encampments up, you need to send
Speaker 1: the police in and find all of the warrants for
Speaker 1: a rest. I guarantee you you're gonna hit about half
Speaker 1: of them, if not more, just from the outstanding warrants.
Speaker 1: And then you're gonna find a bunch of them who
Speaker 1: are here illegally, and you need to send them back
Speaker 1: to wherever it is that they came from. And then
Speaker 1: if you observe people breaking the law, you can arrest
Speaker 1: them for that. You don't need any special laws, you
Speaker 1: don't need any special permission to bust up the homeless encampments.
Speaker 1: You just go in and enforce existing laws and bye bye.
Speaker 1: So I had to stay right him, but I don't
Speaker 1: like it.
Speaker 3: Well now spill it into the neighborhood. So Petie is
Speaker 3: like the only thing we can do is actual.
Speaker 8: Leaf alt send me this tip on Instagram, calling conditions
Speaker 8: horrible after multiple Can.
Speaker 1: You imagine if you live in one of these neighborhoods
Speaker 1: that just been completely taken over and because you're an
Speaker 1: unincorporated LA Holly Mitchell is your mayor. And Holly Mitchell,
Speaker 1: don't give a damn Willie No, it's Lord of the flies.
Speaker 8: ALTI send me this tip on Instagram calling conditions horrible
Speaker 8: after multiple calls to officials went unanswered.
Speaker 1: And Holly Mitchell deserves more blame than almost anybody for
Speaker 1: this nonsense. Before she was the La County Supervisor, she
Speaker 1: was in the state Senate and she authored the Housing
Speaker 1: First Bill, which meant that you could take your drugs
Speaker 1: to the shelters, which have made the homeless problem way
Speaker 1: worse from She doesn't get a lot of attention, but
Speaker 1: she is one of the most destructive politicians in all
Speaker 1: of California.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of people out here who have overdosed,
Speaker 3: a lot of shootings, a lot of stabbings.
Speaker 7: Come to work and it's all everything's on fire.
Speaker 1: There's car accidents, there's people fighting butt naked. Whoa sounds
Speaker 1: like Norman Rockwell's America, doesn't it? How do you what now?
Speaker 1: What institutes the butt naked fighting. I don't know when
Speaker 1: people on meth want to fight. I guess they need
Speaker 1: to nude up.
Speaker 5: Coming to work and it's all everything's on fire, there's
Speaker 5: car accidents, there's people fighting butt naked.
Speaker 7: These orange camera.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for people from Iran to come to
Speaker 1: the World Cup game that's going to be in La
Speaker 1: and be like, I want to go back to the
Speaker 1: war zone.
Speaker 8: These orange cam rails were put in a year ago
Speaker 8: during a major and Cameron clean up on Verdondo Beach
Speaker 8: Boulevard to prevent RVs from parking here.
Speaker 7: They just moved one street over.
Speaker 8: This was that clean up an La County crew who's
Speaker 8: clearing the area.
Speaker 10: The goal is to get the people help that they need.
Speaker 1: That guys such a hack. Oh yeah, that's the sheriff,
Speaker 1: Robert Luna, and he is also up for reelection. And
Speaker 1: if you feel that Robert Luna has been a complete
Speaker 1: failure as La County Sheriff, well I need you to
Speaker 1: not feel that way. Why in the world does he
Speaker 1: even want that job because he comes from law enforcement,
Speaker 1: so he knows better. But he's got to do the
Speaker 1: bidding of the Board of supervisors, who are four out
Speaker 1: of five or crazy, and he's happy to do it.
Speaker 10: The goal is to get the people help that they need.
Speaker 8: Fast forward almost a year, more RVs, more people, more
Speaker 8: help needed.
Speaker 11: They came, they took me, and they put me in
Speaker 11: the hotel.
Speaker 7: Has it helped you a lot?
Speaker 12: Wow?
Speaker 1: Not really, because all we're doing is shoving drug addicts
Speaker 1: in hotels and calling it a success. People belong in
Speaker 1: mental institutions.
Speaker 13: I mean, my hotel's not paid and I don't know
Speaker 13: what's going to happen with me.
Speaker 1: Hope we can. By the way, that lady that he's
Speaker 1: talking to, because I was listening to two different reports
Speaker 1: and there was one where he was going back and
Speaker 1: forth Seedorf with Christine de Vine. This woman gets placed
Speaker 1: in a hotel instead of giving up her RV, which
Speaker 1: I thought was the whole idea. Her son takes over
Speaker 1: the RV and she leaves the hotel to go visit
Speaker 1: the sun. In the RV. I wonder if she sticks
Speaker 1: around for Hampton and breakfast.
Speaker 8: I mean, my hotel's not paid and I don't know
Speaker 8: what's going to happen with me.
Speaker 7: Hopefully we can help get you some answers.
Speaker 1: Heeah, we're how much money would the city, the county,
Speaker 1: and the state have if we stopped subsidizing bombs. Every
Speaker 1: dollar that you spend on that woman, unless it's going
Speaker 1: to a mental institution, is a wasted dollar.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we're we're we're looking for a senior County depth
Speaker 8: for homelessness and housing tells us the issue has been
Speaker 8: raised with Supervisor Holly Mitchell and they'll continue working on it.
Speaker 7: Does the county come by and offer resources or help, Yeah, I.
Speaker 14: Won't take it.
Speaker 1: Boy, that high cost of housing's really a pain in
Speaker 1: the ass, isn't it. We make it as easy as
Speaker 1: possible for you to do meth on the streets. We
Speaker 1: literally give you the paraphernalia for it, funded by the county.
Speaker 1: We don't want to punish you when you steal from people,
Speaker 1: so you have the ten dollars to buy your math.
Speaker 7: But at the end of the day, we allow.
Speaker 1: The drug dealers to be embedded in these encampments because
Speaker 1: we know that's going on, and we, while you're high
Speaker 1: on meth, beg you to come inside, and you're allowed
Speaker 1: to say no, no, thank you. And it costs us
Speaker 1: a fortune. We are going broke in the city and
Speaker 1: the county and the state because we are straight up
Speaker 1: subsidizing drug addicts every single day.
Speaker 8: Well County workers keep offering help. No one we met
Speaker 8: Wednesday wants to leave.
Speaker 1: Of course, because why would they don't.
Speaker 15: Like shelter like shelter, I don't like it, oh, just
Speaker 15: because it's there too many people in the shelter.
Speaker 1: You know, Los Angeles needs to change their motto Los
Speaker 1: Angeles where beggars can be choosers.
Speaker 7: Back out here, you'll notice how dark it is.
Speaker 8: All the street lights are out, likely from copper wire theft.
Speaker 1: Seriously, it is this. We spend so much money to
Speaker 1: live here and the dregs of society gets to destroy
Speaker 1: all of it and they get all the benefits. You know,
Speaker 1: it won't be long before Oakland starts looking down their
Speaker 1: notices at Los Angeles. I'm telling you that's happening right now.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. They melt to the basketball court. San
Speaker 1: Francisco took the right turn. Oakland is seeming to starting
Speaker 1: to take the right turn. They did not elect Barbara Lee,
Speaker 1: but you have people like Ken Houston on that city
Speaker 1: council making some instrumental change. They actually changed their policy
Speaker 1: for over six years, and now they are abating homeless encampments.
Speaker 1: They're going to find people for illegal dumping. Los Angeles
Speaker 1: continues to steer in the worst possible direction.
Speaker 2: If you're feeling down, if you're feeling blue, let's get
Speaker 2: help for you.
Speaker 7: No word when not cleanup could take place.
Speaker 8: Reporting in West Rancho, Domingas Matthew Sedorf Fox eleven News.
Speaker 1: There you go a massive homeless encampment in unincorporated Holly
Speaker 1: Mitchell's district where they cleaned it up a year ago,
Speaker 1: and it's back and bigger than ever. You have to
Speaker 1: be mindful of that. Now. Let's contrast this to what's
Speaker 1: going on in San Francisco. San Francisco just passed a
Speaker 1: motion to be able to offer to the homeless drug
Speaker 1: free housing. For more, here's KPIX in the Bay.
Speaker 15: We begin in San Francisco, where a plan to impose
Speaker 15: new rules at supportive housing sites has divided community members
Speaker 15: and city leaders. It's the latest flashpoint in a year's
Speaker 15: long debate over how to address rampant drug use in
Speaker 15: the city.
Speaker 1: Overdose don't allow it. If you tolerate it, you get
Speaker 1: more of it.
Speaker 15: Overdose has reached a record high in twenty twenty three
Speaker 15: and remained much higher than pre pandemic levels. Kenny Choi
Speaker 15: breaks down this new proposal.
Speaker 16: For decades, San Francisco has followed a housing first model,
Speaker 16: getting people off the streets without requiring them to be sober,
Speaker 16: and that has.
Speaker 1: Led to and this is the real statistics coming from
Speaker 1: Tom Wolf, thirty percent of all overdose debts in San
Speaker 1: Francisco happened in housing, which means their programs, you're failing.
Speaker 16: But some city leaders believe there's growing demand for more
Speaker 16: drug free environments. San Francisco's permanent supportive housing system, designed
Speaker 16: to help people transition out of homelessness and address addiction
Speaker 16: with services, has long operated under one key rule. You
Speaker 16: can't be evicted just for using.
Speaker 1: Drugs, which means you can bring your drugs, you can
Speaker 1: do your drugs. Heck, you can have the gang member
Speaker 1: drug dealer from Honduras drop off the drugs in your
Speaker 1: hotel room. Those homeless shelters must have looked like Graceland.
Speaker 16: But supervisor Matt Dorsey argues the city's current system isn't
Speaker 16: working for everyone, especially for residents trying to recover from addiction.
Speaker 16: He wants to see more drug free housing options.
Speaker 17: The reality is there are a lot of people who
Speaker 17: are trying to get off the street and get sober,
Speaker 17: and when we put them into drug tolerant environments where
Speaker 17: it's a chaotic place and there's drug use in the hallway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if somebody says I want to turn my life around,
Speaker 1: I need help, and you put them inside an sro
Speaker 1: in the tenderline that's full of meth, that's real hard
Speaker 1: to have the willpower to resist it when it's in
Speaker 1: your face. How do you expect the program to work
Speaker 1: under those conditions?
Speaker 17: A lot of drug related bad behavior playing out. It
Speaker 17: can be a very chaotic environment.
Speaker 16: Supporters and opponents showed up in full force in front
Speaker 16: of city Hall. Junebug Koha is a housing advocate who
Speaker 16: has experienced Junebug.
Speaker 1: I'm wonder if that's on the birth certificate.
Speaker 16: June Bug Kloha is a housing advocate who has experienced homelessness.
Speaker 7: She believes the proposed change will land more people on
Speaker 7: the streets.
Speaker 18: If I'm dealing with homelessness, that's trauma right there.
Speaker 7: And so it just really is it's going to create more.
Speaker 5: Chaos and just cause more harm to our community.
Speaker 1: It's causing more harm to tell people they can't keep
Speaker 1: injecting poison into their veins. Well, the electeds believe that's
Speaker 1: the compassionate thing to do.
Speaker 16: Dorsy says or relapse would not result in someone's immediate eviction.
Speaker 16: A person's conduct would have to be substantially disruptive. His
Speaker 16: proposal with halt city funding for new supportive housing projects
Speaker 16: unless they agree to allow evictions for drug use only.
Speaker 1: For that is a step in the right direction. It
Speaker 1: makes it hard because the state's policy, thanks to Holly Mitchell,
Speaker 1: is you can do all the drugs you want in
Speaker 1: the housing that we're paying for you to be in.
Speaker 1: You just have to stick with it, and you have
Speaker 1: to enforce the rules, all right. So there you have it.
Speaker 1: Two different approaches. In Los Angeles, complete chaos, RVs, fires,
Speaker 1: naked people fighting. In San Francisco, they're letting you know,
Speaker 1: if you're going to stay at one of the city shelters,
Speaker 1: you have to be clean. Which model works best? I
Speaker 1: think we all know the answer to that. Eight hundred
Speaker 1: two two two five two two two is telephone number
Speaker 1: one eight hundred two two two five two two two.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to email the show, you can do so.
Speaker 1: Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny
Speaker 1: don't like show at gmail dot com, and Randy, you're
Speaker 1: monitoring the mail bag, Chuck writes in at Johnny don't
Speaker 1: like show at gmail dot com. Happy Friday, guys. If
Speaker 1: you're feeling down, if you're feeling blue, we have free
Speaker 1: drug paraphernalia for you.
Speaker 2: If you're feeling down, if you're feeling blue, let's get
Speaker 2: help for you.
Speaker 1: And right now it's time to open up the California
Speaker 1: Crime Blodder.
Speaker 7: It's happened yet again.
Speaker 1: Nice see. Time for the California Crime Blodder. And today's
Speaker 1: first edition takes us to Napa. So we've told you
Speaker 1: this before, but we're gonna tell you again. Putting physical
Speaker 1: checks in the mail, like very very very pricey property
Speaker 1: tax checks is not safe. And lots of people have
Speaker 1: been sending in their property tax checks in Napa through
Speaker 1: the mail, only to have the mail stolen, the checks washed,
Speaker 1: and the money going to some criminal, and then the
Speaker 1: California Tax Board coming to you and saying, hey, you
Speaker 1: still owe us the money. And let me tell you.
Speaker 1: They might not know how to educate the children, they
Speaker 1: might not know how to fill the potholes. They might
Speaker 1: not know how to make sure that people don't rip
Speaker 1: off the EDED system. But if you owe them one
Speaker 1: red scent, they will put a helicopter over your house
Speaker 1: and they will have the state control or descend from
Speaker 1: a cable down your chimney to get it. For more
Speaker 1: on the NAPA check Thievan here is ABC seven in
Speaker 1: the Bay.
Speaker 11: We're learning more about the growing crisis at the Napa
Speaker 11: County tax Collector's office, where more than sixty property tax
Speaker 11: checks have been reported lost or stolen.
Speaker 13: We had sixty lost checks in the last two days.
Speaker 9: The checks are being stolen and altered through a type
Speaker 9: of fraud called check washing. It's a story we first
Speaker 9: brought you yesterday, and today more victims are coming forward.
Speaker 11: ABC seven News reporter Cornell Bernard is live and Napa
Speaker 11: with new information tonight.
Speaker 5: Cordell, Hey, Dan and Ama. Yeah, it is the largest
Speaker 5: case of fraud this tax collector's office has ever seen.
Speaker 5: More victims coming forward by the day, including a Napa
Speaker 5: Belly vineyard.
Speaker 1: If you don't have an impound account because you already
Speaker 1: paid off your mortgage, use the website and pay digitally.
Speaker 1: At least there's a track record of it at this point.
Speaker 1: Well and then you get Hilton Honors points too well.
Speaker 1: There is that can you pay property tax with a
Speaker 1: credit card? I think you can pay anything with a
Speaker 1: credit card. There might be a feed though.
Speaker 8: It was one of the largest checks that we write
Speaker 8: throughout the year.
Speaker 5: Jen Wilkinson at Vineyard twenty nine and Saint Helena didn't
Speaker 5: think twice when she mailed in the winery's property tax
Speaker 5: payment for two hundred and six thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: WHOA, that's a lot of money, and Tom Steyer thinks
Speaker 1: it should be higher. Idiot.
Speaker 5: A short time later, she made a terrible discovery.
Speaker 7: It did not make it to the tax collector.
Speaker 5: The check was cashed not by the Napa County tax collector,
Speaker 5: but by a business in Saint Cloud, Florida. The vineyard's
Speaker 5: tax check had been stolen and washed by fraudsters.
Speaker 1: What was your first reaction when you saw that.
Speaker 15: My stomach dropped and my heart started palpitating like crazy.
Speaker 1: The vineyard, I might want to go to the hospital
Speaker 1: or just have some wine.
Speaker 5: The vineyard is not alone.
Speaker 13: We had sixty lost checks in the last two days,
Speaker 13: our normal amount during a two day period, especially during
Speaker 13: this week right after the do date would probably be
Speaker 13: about six.
Speaker 5: The stolen checks now toty.
Speaker 1: This is an exploding crime and the only way you
Speaker 1: can protect yourself is don't put checks in the mail.
Speaker 1: When I used to pay for my health insurance with
Speaker 1: our union through checks in the mail, I'm not kidding,
Speaker 1: they would lose about every other one of them. And
Speaker 1: ever since I started paying it with my credit card
Speaker 1: on the website, I've never had a problem that one.
Speaker 1: I know you get points for for some reason, they
Speaker 1: won't let you do it with car insurance, and I
Speaker 1: don't get that.
Speaker 5: The stolen checks now total between one and two million dollars,
Speaker 5: including this check from another Napa Valley vineyard for two
Speaker 5: hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, which was also washed
Speaker 5: and cashed in Florida. After our story aired on Thursday,
Speaker 5: more possible victims reached out.
Speaker 12: And we had received three phone calls from individuals who'd
Speaker 12: seen the story had gone into their bank and checked
Speaker 12: on their checks and determined that they had not come
Speaker 12: into our office.
Speaker 13: They had been lost quote unquote lost in the mails.
Speaker 5: Menhen believes this goes beyond fishing envelopes out of a mailbox.
Speaker 5: He says the checks are being intercepted somewhere between Oakland's
Speaker 5: US Mail processing center.
Speaker 1: And Oakland had to just be a part of this story,
Speaker 1: didn't it. How does Oakland insert itself into every Northern
Speaker 1: California crime blodder story that doesn't have anything to do
Speaker 1: with them. Well, and if you remember, the Oakland post
Speaker 1: Office is the one that's all tagged up with the
Speaker 1: gang signs where they were tagging the postal vans, and
Speaker 1: when the postal vans were driving into the wrong neighborhoods
Speaker 1: they were getting shot at. Usually it's the bullets flying
Speaker 1: out of the postal van into neighborhoods, not bullets flying
Speaker 1: from the neighborhoods into the postal van.
Speaker 5: Is wow wow west out here, he says, the checks
Speaker 5: are being intercepted somewhere between Oakland's US Mail Processing center
Speaker 5: and his office. Postal inspectors on the case.
Speaker 1: So this is absolutely get the Postmaster General down here,
Speaker 1: stat It has to be people working at that Oakland
Speaker 1: post office or that sorting center that are stealing them. Possibly,
Speaker 1: but we have seen mail men getting robbed, that's true.
Speaker 14: So this is absolutely concern of post inspectors here in
Speaker 14: the Bay Area and across the country. Unfortunately, there's no
Speaker 14: limit to the means that criminals will use to try
Speaker 14: to get other people's property out of mail.
Speaker 15: I called our bank right away.
Speaker 5: Jenn Wilkinson caught the fraud right away and is optimistic
Speaker 5: about getting the vineyard stolen money recovered. But other taxpayers
Speaker 5: may not know they've been ripped off. Late payment reminders
Speaker 5: now in the mail.
Speaker 12: About thirty four hundred delinquent reminders will be getting out
Speaker 12: to our taxpayers next week.
Speaker 13: I think there'll be some surprises.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because the tax culture believes that some folks who
Speaker 5: get a delinquent notice have actually paid and maybe victims.
Speaker 5: He says that anybody who.
Speaker 1: And of course the state's totally going to give those
Speaker 1: people wiggle room, right, Oh yeah, the states always willing
Speaker 1: to work with you. Would you owe them money.
Speaker 5: Paid by mail? Please check your bank statements and in
Speaker 5: the future, online payments are encouraged. The Florida Attorney General's
Speaker 5: Office is now involved in this case. Were live end
Speaker 5: now by Cornel Bernard, ABC seven Eyewitness News.
Speaker 1: There you go, be careful sending any checks in the mail.
Speaker 1: In fact, at this point, checks are a completely outdated
Speaker 1: way to pay for things, all right, Randy, It's time
Speaker 1: to reopen the blodder.
Speaker 7: It's happened yet again.
Speaker 1: This is wow, Wow, what's up here?
Speaker 2: Dun dun dun, dun dun dundun dun.
Speaker 1: Reached the Califonia Crime Bladder with John Ray and this
Speaker 1: edition takes us to Hayward where there was a big
Speaker 1: old cannabis bust on the week of four twenty. Here
Speaker 1: is ABC seven in the Bay, a.
Speaker 11: Major marijuana bust in the East Bates and my twenty
Speaker 11: thousand Plants season. Two dozen people detained as a state
Speaker 11: task force swarms three buildings in Hayward.
Speaker 1: Pretty thank you for.
Speaker 9: Joining us on, Dan Ashley and I'm on the dates.
Speaker 9: Officers from the State Department of Fish and Wildlife led
Speaker 9: today's operation, their second major bust in the city in
Speaker 9: fewer than six months, and the officers targeted three industrial
Speaker 9: buildings south of Hayward Executive Airport.
Speaker 11: ABC seven Eyewitness News reporter J R. Stone has the
Speaker 11: breaking news update.
Speaker 10: Multiple individuals detained in Hayward Thursday afternoon after those with
Speaker 10: the California Department of Fish and Wildlife rated three illegal
Speaker 10: cannabis operations at small warehouse looking facilities.
Speaker 1: See la It can be done, and yes they can
Speaker 1: arrest you from that department.
Speaker 10: Authorities have not said if the operations were linked to
Speaker 10: one another, but in total, they recovered twenty one hundred
Speaker 10: and thirty three plants and detained twenty four people. State
Speaker 10: REPS telling us foreign labeled illegal pesticides were also found
Speaker 10: at all three locations.
Speaker 1: That's why you got to pay. It's expensive, but you
Speaker 1: got to pay for that legal weed because otherwise you're
Speaker 1: going to be smoking some poison. Isn't all of it poison? Yes,
Speaker 1: technically none of it's good for you, but you're better
Speaker 1: off with organic, regulated poison than the stuff that's got
Speaker 1: pesticides on it.
Speaker 10: But if you think this is something new in Alameda County,
Speaker 10: think again. In twenty twenty five, eighty one three hundred
Speaker 10: and seventy seven pounds of illegal cannabis was destroyed.
Speaker 1: This is coming up on nearly ten years of Prop.
Speaker 1: Sixty four, and since we legalized recreational cannabis, the illegal
Speaker 1: growing and selling market has gotten bigger. Part of making
Speaker 1: it legal was supposed to end all of that. It
Speaker 1: did not. We taxed it so heavily, and because we
Speaker 1: don't enforce it regularly, the illegal market is stronger now
Speaker 1: then when it was all illegal.
Speaker 10: Twenty twenty five, eighty one three hundred and seventy seven
Speaker 10: pounds of illegal cannabis was destroyed, second only to Los
Speaker 10: Angeles and total plants. The street value of those plants
Speaker 10: was the highest in the state, at one hundred and
Speaker 10: thirty four million dollars. Eric Farb, who goes by Stingy.
Speaker 1: Again, I wonder if that name is on his birth certificate.
Speaker 10: Eric Farb, who goes by Stingy, has been in the
Speaker 10: cannabis industry for twelve years.
Speaker 1: You're telling me what a name like Stingy. He's not
Speaker 1: a CPA. He says.
Speaker 10: Illegal grow locations are a huge problem, and oftentimes they're dangerous.
Speaker 19: Some of these bigger operations they're using a lot of
Speaker 19: like PGRs, and they're using recycled water. Some of them
Speaker 19: are stuffing too many lights in a room, and there's
Speaker 19: mold and mildew on.
Speaker 1: If you want to do things the right way, they're
Speaker 1: going to regular late and tax you to the point
Speaker 1: where you're not going to make any money and you
Speaker 1: will go out of business. But if you want to
Speaker 1: do things the wrong way, there's not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of consequences. In fact, the City of La and the
Speaker 1: La City Attorney openly admit they cannot shut down illegally
Speaker 1: operating pot storefronts. I can't explain it why, but they
Speaker 1: can't shut them down. This is like the illegal dumping
Speaker 1: issue all over again. You make it cheaper and easier
Speaker 1: to do the illegal thing.
Speaker 19: Mold and mildew on the on the weed, and it's
Speaker 19: for the consumer. It's actually bad for their health.
Speaker 10: Those living near this location tell us there was a
Speaker 10: strong smell of cannabis. As to the person or people
Speaker 10: behind these suspected illegal operations, officials are not saying. Farb
Speaker 10: says the legal cannabis industry is facing major challenges with
Speaker 10: taxes and heavy regulation. He feels for the small growers
Speaker 10: trying to make it, but to a point.
Speaker 19: They should have to follow the same regulations that we do.
Speaker 19: You know it, there shouldn't be any shortcuts and uh,
Speaker 19: people's people's health.
Speaker 1: Is at at risk here.
Speaker 10: Authorities have echoed those thoughts, saying elicit activities undermine California's
Speaker 10: regulated cannabis market.
Speaker 1: And shouldn't California be cracking down like hell and anybody
Speaker 1: not following the rules. You'd think so.
Speaker 10: And post serious risks to public health and the environment. JR.
Speaker 10: Stone ABC seven Eyewitness News.
Speaker 1: There you go, the big bust of the illegal grow
Speaker 1: operation going on in Hayward. Eight hundred two two two
Speaker 1: five two two two is a telephone number? What eight
Speaker 1: hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd
Speaker 1: like to email the show, you could do so at
Speaker 1: Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny,
Speaker 1: don't like show at gmail dot com. And Randy, you're
Speaker 1: monitoring the mail bag dimebag. Daryl right z in at Johnny,
Speaker 1: don't like show at gmail dot com. If you deal
Speaker 1: with stingy, you better bring your own scale. Also, Alan
Speaker 1: Napa writes in at Johnny, don't like show at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com? Why they cannot close illegal pot stores? Because
Speaker 1: the illegal pot is grown and sold by illegal aliens.
Speaker 1: If you close them down, you report them. ICE can
Speaker 1: get involved, And of course we're not gonna do that.
Speaker 1: That was told to me from a policeman friend in Berkeley. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised at all about that. All right, it's
Speaker 1: time to reopen the California crime blotters to catch his dummy.
Speaker 1: We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried, I.
Speaker 5: The hell, no bad boy, Let me get up on
Speaker 5: out of here.
Speaker 1: It's the California Crime Bloater. And this one takes us
Speaker 1: to the target. A target was set on fire, but
Speaker 1: not in Vallejo.
Speaker 7: Our target was set on fire.
Speaker 1: This time it was in Burbank. That's a nice area.
Speaker 1: For more. Here's Fox eleven in Los Angeles.
Speaker 18: Popular target store in Burbank still closed after a fire
Speaker 18: last Sunday. We've learned there's been an arrest.
Speaker 1: I love hearing Schumann behind the anchor desk. Oh, he's
Speaker 1: the great greatest.
Speaker 18: We've learned there's been an arrest Arson. Investigators look into
Speaker 18: the possibility the fire may have been set to divert
Speaker 18: attention from shoplifters. Fox eleven's Christina Gozalis live at the
Speaker 18: Empire Center in Burbank with the latest Christina.
Speaker 1: That is the most interesting shopping center, because this is
Speaker 1: how any town, USA, Burbank can be Sometimes that shopping
Speaker 1: center has a target and caddy corner from it, in
Speaker 1: the same shopping center as a Walmart.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can see behind us a store and this
Speaker 4: is a very popular store remains close. Millions of dollars
Speaker 4: in damage, we are told and yes, a twenty seven
Speaker 4: year old woman has been arrested at this.
Speaker 1: Point Burbank there was an arrest, not the city of La.
Speaker 1: Burbank doesn't tolerate this nonsense. I regret moving away from
Speaker 1: Burbank to the City of La on a daily basis.
Speaker 4: Has been arrested at this point, she is only charged
Speaker 4: in terms of arson. Take a look. Do you know
Speaker 4: when you're going to reopen the target at Burbank's Empire
Speaker 4: Center where crews are still trying to repair damage from
Speaker 4: a Sunday night fire that seemed to erupt near the
Speaker 4: pillow section. The store was evacuated.
Speaker 1: They were lighting the pillows on fire. They had to
Speaker 1: get everyone's attention away from the shoplifting.
Speaker 4: The store was evacuated with no injuries to shoppers, employees,
Speaker 4: or firefighters. Arson was suspected and is now confirmed by
Speaker 4: Burbank police with the arrest of twenty seven year old
Speaker 4: Stephanie Irene Mendoza. Officers were seen at the extent that
Speaker 4: stay just up the street from the target by witnesses
Speaker 4: who do not want to be identified.
Speaker 1: WHOA again, they're like mob informants. Do they have the
Speaker 1: filter on where you can't tell if this witness is
Speaker 1: a man or a well man. I certainly can't tweet.
Speaker 4: From the hotel. We've also learned two other people were
Speaker 4: detained at the hotel and arrested for unrelated charges.
Speaker 1: So the idea is you come stay at the hotel
Speaker 1: that's in the Empire Center, and then you rob all
Speaker 1: the stores inside the Empire Center to pay for your bill.
Speaker 1: Sounds like there's a lot going on there.
Speaker 4: It seems they were captured on security video leaving the
Speaker 4: target and arriving at the hotel at about the same
Speaker 4: time the fire started.
Speaker 1: You typically, if you are not that I want to
Speaker 1: give any criminals advice out there, but you typically want
Speaker 1: to get away a lot further from the scene of
Speaker 1: the crime than the extended stay that's in the same
Speaker 1: strip mall. You know, Randy, Sometimes criminals aren't that bright.
Speaker 1: Ones that get caught aren't.
Speaker 4: And arriving at the hotel at about the same time
Speaker 4: the fire started.
Speaker 1: Streaming there and the protum a bunch of still from
Speaker 1: the target into coach it it's just a didn't expected.
Speaker 4: And the target again remains closed. And this is Easter weekend,
Speaker 4: which is a real.
Speaker 1: The story was from a couple of weeks ago, but
Speaker 1: we forgot to do it. I just realized who that informant?
Speaker 1: Sounds like, who's that an East German female Olympic swimmer again, which.
Speaker 4: Is a really bad way weekend for them not to
Speaker 4: be able to open. They're still trying. In terms of
Speaker 4: the investigation, Burbank Police are asking anyone with information to
Speaker 4: call them. At this point, this woman has been charged
Speaker 4: only with the arson.
Speaker 1: The big question, well, that is the bigger charge than
Speaker 1: the shoplifting, I'll say.
Speaker 4: The big question remains that she start that fire, possibly
Speaker 4: because they were trying to derail people from realizing there
Speaker 4: was a theft.
Speaker 1: Still an called misdirection. Christina