Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Zara Elizabeth Zarren.
Speaker 1: Listen, Yeah, buddy, you know it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Oh you mean this cold that we've given each other. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's ridiculous. But either than that, we.
Speaker 1: Each brought in, yeah, maybe two different streams.
Speaker 2: And passing them back and forth in the studio.
Speaker 1: Crazy mind virus is to go all over.
Speaker 2: That would this is weird.
Speaker 1: We're patient zero at zero.
Speaker 2: Point zero can be patient negative one. Yes, He's like,
Speaker 2: I don't know how he got it. Twice I was
Speaker 2: doing research for something and I found that I thought
Speaker 2: was pretty ridiculous. I wanted to tell you about it
Speaker 2: because I know you like animals.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: Nineteen ninety three, the Associated Press had the story with
Speaker 2: the headline A gorilla with a badge helps capture smugglers.
Speaker 1: Love that.
Speaker 2: It was like a gorilla bit the badge. I gotta
Speaker 2: click on that. So turns out the fifty year old
Speaker 2: suspect was this cat Victor Burnaal. He was the director
Speaker 2: of zoos and Parks for the Mexican State of Mexico.
Speaker 2: Know that that's all worked for the So in Monday,
Speaker 2: he's in an air On Monday, morning that in Miami
Speaker 2: suburb of Opa Laca, right, and he's there to meet
Speaker 2: with some people who promised to give him some gorillas
Speaker 2: and monkeys. These a middleman, right, So while he's there,
Speaker 2: he's promised he'll paid ninety two thousand dollars. He wants
Speaker 2: a real gorilla and go. Yeah, And so the people
Speaker 2: from Fishing Wildlife, they didn't want to put a real
Speaker 2: gorilla in the cage to do their sting operation. So
Speaker 2: they're like, hey, Steve, you still got that gorilla suit
Speaker 2: from the office party. So they had Steve go and
Speaker 2: put on the climb in the cage and they sent
Speaker 2: him to Opa Laca for this sting operation because quote,
Speaker 2: it's risky and dangerous to you use a real animal,
Speaker 2: so we had to use a willing substitute, an agent
Speaker 2: and a gorilla's outfit. So the unidentified agent flown down
Speaker 2: to Opa Laca. They busted this guy because he gets
Speaker 2: flown as I said, away, he's supposed to get flown
Speaker 2: all the way to Mexican city of Tu Luca. Like
Speaker 2: if they missed this and somehow something went wrong, had
Speaker 2: a long time. Anyway, they busted the guy. He gets
Speaker 2: there when it's arrested, nag out on bail. But gorilla
Speaker 2: in the bas I love that.
Speaker 1: What I wish I could have been there and watched.
Speaker 2: That total the gorilla pulled a gun out of the seat.
Speaker 2: So there you got ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Huh that is ridiculous. And do you want to know
Speaker 1: what else is ridiculous? I was hoping you had something
Speaker 1: for me stowing away. Stowing away is ridiculous.
Speaker 3: There going away.
Speaker 1: This is ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,
Speaker 1: and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder for you,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Oh you damn right.
Speaker 1: Do you like to travel?
Speaker 2: Love it? Love love it? L o v E love it?
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Heay, I love it until I've just completed some travel.
Speaker 1: What do you mean then I'm like, I need a
Speaker 1: break from this for a while.
Speaker 2: Wait, you can travel yourself out of travel.
Speaker 1: I can totally travel myself out of travel.
Speaker 2: You're like so dumb with that.
Speaker 1: I'm like all eagerly awaiting it. I get all excited
Speaker 1: and then I love it while I'm doing it, But
Speaker 1: then like I get home, I'm like, Okay, yeah, I
Speaker 1: got it.
Speaker 2: Not for what?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Thank god, I'm home.
Speaker 2: You you do love being home?
Speaker 1: I God, I do. When was the last time you
Speaker 1: were on a plane.
Speaker 2: A little while ago? I couldn't tell you. I don't
Speaker 2: remember that was the trip?
Speaker 1: Do you remember? If you don't remember which one?
Speaker 2: I think I flew to Hawaii must no see I
Speaker 2: could before that. I flew to Florida. I saw tod
Speaker 2: see family. I think fluid to Florida family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you have a dedicated ticket?
Speaker 2: What are we doing? Yes? I shouldn't have a dedicated ticket.
Speaker 2: It wasn't It wasn't like somebody else's ticket.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh I got to you just had a
Speaker 1: ticket just sneak on.
Speaker 2: No, No, I mean I I don't know how to
Speaker 2: do that. Well, I mean like it's real hard these days.
Speaker 2: If you put me in the eighties, I think I
Speaker 2: could have gotten on a plane.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but now.
Speaker 2: It's like real hard, like so many layers.
Speaker 1: Not everyone gets a ticket though, you.
Speaker 2: Know, really? Yeah, who you get on a plane when you.
Speaker 1: They still always there? Oh I forgot exactly.
Speaker 2: I'm over here buying pilot uniform.
Speaker 1: No no, no, they just stow away. As you said,
Speaker 1: it used to be easier than it would be now,
Speaker 1: so of course.
Speaker 2: I mean you could buy a plane a ticket on
Speaker 2: the plane.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, but like security now makes it. Oh
Speaker 1: you're impossible, good luck, But it still happens. Remember Brian Robson,
Speaker 1: the guy shipped.
Speaker 2: Shipped him out.
Speaker 1: I got more stowaways for you today.
Speaker 2: So are these people who are like going into like
Speaker 2: climbing on the plane.
Speaker 1: Oh, you're going to find out. There are a couple
Speaker 1: of different ways to do this.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm into this.
Speaker 1: Let's begin with the og. This is the first aerial stowaway.
Speaker 2: Take me back.
Speaker 1: Clarence Terhoon, Clarence Clarence Trehoon, nineteen twenty eight, Little Clarence, he's.
Speaker 2: Nineteen twenty eight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's nineteen yearsyears old.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of faith. They've just gotten good.
Speaker 1: Wait till you hear. Okay. So he's a native son
Speaker 1: of Saint Louis, Missouri.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: He had worked as a golf caddy. That was like
Speaker 1: his you know, have golf shoes, will travel, I think
Speaker 1: so idiots. He was loved. He loved stowing away on
Speaker 1: trains and ships.
Speaker 2: Who does it was like his favorite thing that I
Speaker 2: could still do.
Speaker 1: He also he loved to sneak into like big sporting
Speaker 1: events with the ticket.
Speaker 2: Also fun used to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a rambling sort. So it's like he's
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis. He hitchhiked to San Francisco and back.
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't like two.
Speaker 1: Years nineteen twenty six to twenty eight, he's bounces all
Speaker 1: over the country working as a caddy here there like
Speaker 1: to make cash. So like he gets somewhere and needs
Speaker 1: to be that bag for him.
Speaker 2: You gotta stay clean and smell good though, I guess well.
Speaker 1: So on one of his trips, he gets out to
Speaker 1: San Francisco, sneaks onto a government ship and that takes
Speaker 1: him to Nome, Alaska.
Speaker 2: It's not a lot of golfing up there.
Speaker 1: But then he made it back. He made it there
Speaker 1: and back.
Speaker 2: Actually don't know golf.
Speaker 1: But then tragedy struck. His parents suffered a grizzly fate.
Speaker 1: One I'm not going to get No, it would have
Speaker 1: been rad if that. No, this is back in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: Not assion the time it was, it was, it was.
Speaker 1: Bad, it was very violent. That's in July. Thanks for
Speaker 1: laughing at it.
Speaker 2: That was in July.
Speaker 1: Okay, I thought Sarah that we were respectful anyway. Okay,
Speaker 1: So July of twenty his world comes crashing down. But
Speaker 1: then October if that same year, opportunity arose. So that
Speaker 1: was the start of commercial transatlantic flights.
Speaker 2: I was wondering.
Speaker 1: And it kicked off with the airship graf Zeppelin oh
Speaker 1: flying across the Atlantic Ocean from Germany to the United States.
Speaker 2: The blim the huh how long did that take.
Speaker 1: For us real stow away forever? Like Clarence, Right, this
Speaker 1: is an opportunity. This is this is I'm up my
Speaker 1: gate in the sky, right, this is a whole new world.
Speaker 2: It's so rich, idiot.
Speaker 1: The craft Zeppelin is in Lakehurst, New Jersey, and like,
Speaker 1: the temptation is just too much. So he makes a
Speaker 1: bet with his brother in law that he can become
Speaker 1: the first stowaway in an aircraft. He's like, look, I've
Speaker 1: got trains down boats. Dang, I went up to the
Speaker 1: Arctic Circle and so.
Speaker 2: A pioneer of a new game.
Speaker 1: His brother in law, George Hall said, quote, it's just
Speaker 1: like him. He's been doing things like that for two years.
Speaker 1: But this is the biggest job he ever undertook.
Speaker 2: This family.
Speaker 1: He did so the graft Zeppelin came from Germany and
Speaker 1: to Germany, it had to return of course. Yes, Clarence
Speaker 1: has a plan, right. He sneaks onto the airship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and while it's in the hangar, like.
Speaker 2: I was wondering when and how he did this?
Speaker 1: Yeah, then he pokes around and he finds the mail compartment. Okay,
Speaker 1: and so that he just cut tucked himself in there,
Speaker 1: sat and waited.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: And in no time he's going to be in Germany, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how long this takes, yeah, when the
Speaker 1: next years whatever. So he figured that, Okay, I'll get
Speaker 1: to Germany and then I'll bum around there.
Speaker 2: It's like two weeks at least to make that flight.
Speaker 2: So you know, I looked it up.
Speaker 1: I did. It took the graf Zeppelin one hundred and
Speaker 1: eleven hours and forty four.
Speaker 2: Minutes eleven hours, okay, so it's like four and.
Speaker 1: A days, four and a half days. So he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna tuck in with the mail bags. We'll
Speaker 1: see what happens.
Speaker 2: They say, don't go longer in three days without water.
Speaker 2: He's really pushing it, and I.
Speaker 1: Don't believe he brought anything with him. Yeah, so he's like, whatever,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to go to Germany and I'm going
Speaker 1: to do some German golf caddies there.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they do golf.
Speaker 1: They must must assume.
Speaker 4: You.
Speaker 1: I'll get a job so I'll have some more adventures,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah. So but then he gets discovered.
Speaker 2: In the hangar in the air to the air though
Speaker 2: he makes it into.
Speaker 1: The air, but they and they don't make him walk
Speaker 1: the plane.
Speaker 2: They don't make him turn around, you like.
Speaker 1: No, They're like, we can't turn the ship around. Like
Speaker 1: they put them to work work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the drinks, you know, the.
Speaker 1: Captain made him do the dishes and like peel potatoes
Speaker 1: like in the traditional yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And he also just had to like basically be a gopher,
Speaker 1: like go get me this, and he would.
Speaker 2: Just lowest person on the order.
Speaker 1: There was no steerage to put him because like Zeppelin's
Speaker 1: like you're saying this high class, that's trap expensive.
Speaker 2: It's only for like the very luxurious find China and
Speaker 2: you know whatever bone China, whatever you'd expect have then
Speaker 2: very nice things.
Speaker 1: On this particular one, there were ten passenger cabins and
Speaker 1: each had ten two bunk beds, which doesn't sound particularly
Speaker 1: luxurious in each cabin, but they're like sleeper cars and
Speaker 1: trail converted.
Speaker 2: There's a long history of making that luxury.
Speaker 1: There was a day to night look for the sofa
Speaker 1: to bed.
Speaker 2: I got the Orient Express. You would have bunk beds
Speaker 2: in your cabinet, and that's like definitely luxury, right.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll give it to you. But I'm sure there
Speaker 1: was a lot of velvet up in this place, velveteen
Speaker 1: son of So let's talk about how hair brained this
Speaker 1: plan was from the start. So, as we learned from
Speaker 1: lawn Chair Larry, it gets cold up there quickly, and
Speaker 1: they don't heat places like.
Speaker 2: The mail compared why would they need to.
Speaker 1: So basically, Clarence is really lucky he got caught. He
Speaker 1: frozen to death, and so there he is working away
Speaker 1: with the crew. Zeppelin lands in Weimar, Germany. Clarence he
Speaker 1: gets arrested right on the spot, foot on the ground.
Speaker 1: The They didn't even let him lay down and kiss
Speaker 1: the ground, like oh that I mean? This is this
Speaker 1: is his first flight. This is most people's first flight.
Speaker 2: I have a couple cops, this guy may be a
Speaker 2: bit screwy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, so he just they haul him away.
Speaker 2: But like do you think he was cool with them?
Speaker 2: Like when he's getting on, like thanks for the.
Speaker 1: Flight, that was great, he was, Well, here's like back then,
Speaker 1: when you got into Germany without a passport, you could
Speaker 1: get a fine anywhere between twenty marks and ten thousand marks.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess he had zero marks totally. And so
Speaker 1: the Germans they got in touch with the American Consulate
Speaker 1: to quote hasten an amicable settlement. And so the American
Speaker 1: Consulate they like they jump into action, like we gotta
Speaker 1: rustle up a passport for little dude. This is what
Speaker 1: the New York Times wrote, quote a curly headed adventurer
Speaker 1: nineteen years old attained to prominence such as he had
Speaker 1: never known yesterday by becoming the first stowaway on a
Speaker 1: transatlantic airliner. He is Clarence Terrehoon, golf caddie, who had
Speaker 1: hitchhiked his way here from his home in Saint Louis
Speaker 1: because he wanted to quote see the world. The zeppelin
Speaker 1: stowaway Clarence Terrahoon is certainly the most talked about person
Speaker 1: in friedrich Schaffen today. Quite a number of well known
Speaker 1: persons have indicated to the local police their readiness to
Speaker 1: take care of the young man until his people should be.
Speaker 2: Heard from in their homes and stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there's another paper wrote quote, the daring of the
Speaker 1: boy's feet thrilled the Germans and gave them a good chuckleman. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I guess the captain was like, oh, you rascal.
Speaker 1: Like everybody loved him.
Speaker 2: So Wheneber They loved that baron he's going around. They
Speaker 2: love a good wild.
Speaker 1: Person, and so it makes sense Clarence becomes a folk hero.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 1: You can see they love him, The Americans love him.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants a piece of him. Clad he gets dinner invitations,
Speaker 1: job offers. There's in fact, one of the job offers
Speaker 1: came in before he even landed and got arrested because
Speaker 1: everyone finds out, oh there's this stowaway. Store was like, well,
Speaker 1: we'll hire you if you want to work in our store,
Speaker 1: right like a department store, the like, we have a
Speaker 1: position open in the shoot department.
Speaker 2: We could use them free advertising.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then fourteen different women offered their own hands
Speaker 1: in marriage, their own hands. Yeah, they're just I mean,
Speaker 1: times were tough. I hear you're invited to dinner.
Speaker 2: Before the depression gets caught kicked off. Ye, the stock
Speaker 2: market crashed, but I know things are going early for
Speaker 2: some people to I don't know, but yeah, wow fourteen
Speaker 2: that's a lot of offers. That's a lot of offers publicly,
Speaker 2: I mean, like just coming forward, Can I join the list?
Speaker 1: Clarence didn't stick around Germany. No, he was put on
Speaker 1: a French ship back to the States. It was not
Speaker 1: a bad adventure.
Speaker 2: Right, great one. I'm jealous.
Speaker 1: Two years later he popped up in an Associated Press piece. Really,
Speaker 1: the headline his a vanished fame nineteen thirty. So Clarence
Speaker 1: Terrahoon Zeppelin stow away unnoticed at air Exposition. So it's
Speaker 1: like dateline Saint Louis. This is so, it's so cold blooded.
Speaker 1: There's nothing but vanished quote fame for Clarence Terrehoon. In
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight, his name was well known for he
Speaker 1: became the world's first air stowaway when the graf Zeppelin
Speaker 1: pointed at silvered bulk toward Europe. Today, he labored at
Speaker 1: the International Aircraft Exposition, twirling the crank of a miniograph
Speaker 1: machine to feed out stories of another file of quote
Speaker 1: paper heroes. Great and near great, stalked by the twenty
Speaker 1: one year old youth without seeing. No one knew him,
Speaker 1: no one cared. His temporary work drawing to a close,
Speaker 1: is fleeting, fame forgotten? He petitioned an exposition manager for
Speaker 1: a recommendation, just a note, he said, tell them I'm
Speaker 1: a good boy.
Speaker 2: Oh man, Like, why why I publish that?
Speaker 1: Why write this?
Speaker 2: That is so fing?
Speaker 1: This guy's a nobody, Yeah, begging for job.
Speaker 2: Do you know how bad of nobody here that is?
Speaker 1: Uh? Anyway, did hes.
Speaker 2: Piss off the writer? I mean, like two years ago,
Speaker 2: Dania consult the writer, and the writer waited until I.
Speaker 1: Know three years ago. The writer's girlfriend was like, will
Speaker 1: you be so that takes this? So we're in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty and all the women just like everyone wants this guy.
Speaker 1: Two years after this, thirty two, Sure he's in the
Speaker 1: papers again.
Speaker 2: Every two years, they're like, we gotta check in on
Speaker 2: Turhoo headline.
Speaker 1: A round World hitchhiker stopped in China gives up.
Speaker 2: Watch China, get out of here, Turhoo.
Speaker 1: Clarence Turhoon, who stowed away on graf Zeppelin, returns to
Speaker 1: Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: So that's the sub editor wild turhoo. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Clarence Terhun graf Zeppelin stow away, great thirties voice, by
Speaker 1: the way, thank you so much. Who left Saint Louis
Speaker 1: March ninth on a proposed quote hitchhiking trip around the world.
Speaker 1: Returned home Sunday after being forced to abandon the journey
Speaker 1: because of unsettled conditions in China. Oh read yes, well,
Speaker 1: he calls himself read at this.
Speaker 2: Point, Oh he's read now read tun said.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he said he reached Shank And he reached Shanghai
Speaker 1: April eleventh, after stowing away aboard the Empress of Russia,
Speaker 1: but was prevented by conditions from going on to Russia.
Speaker 1: He stowed away on a dollar Liner bound for the
Speaker 1: United States and got a job in the engine room.
Speaker 1: Following his arrival in San Francisco, Tarhun rode freight trains
Speaker 1: to Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: Anti shanghaied himself Anti fur.
Speaker 1: He's San Francisco, exactly one of the few San Francisco
Speaker 1: he was allergic to buying tickets apparently right, and so
Speaker 1: it seems. At some point he studied under these really
Speaker 1: incredible aviators and became involved in the industry. Somehow I
Speaker 1: found an obituary for this UH aviation engineer who was
Speaker 1: also like a great pilot and instructor, and they listed
Speaker 1: read Turrhoon or one of his Yeah, So the only
Speaker 1: other mention I could find from him was his obituary
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven. Clarence Terrehoon, semi Coolin was zeppelin stowaway.
Speaker 1: Clarence red Terrehouon, a local resident who gained international attention
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty eight when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean
Speaker 1: as a stowaway on the Graf Zeppelin. Died Sunday at
Speaker 1: Missouri Baptist Hospital after a heart attack. He was seventy nine.
Speaker 1: At mister Terhune's request, no funeral arrangements will be made.
Speaker 1: The body will be cremated. Mister Terrehoon of Shrewsbury was
Speaker 1: the first aerial stowaway to Europe to make his adventure possible.
Speaker 1: Mister Terrehoun, who was nineteen at the time, hid among
Speaker 1: the mail bags of the Zeppelin a dirigible. Upon his
Speaker 1: return to the United States, mister Terrehoon was hailed as
Speaker 1: a great adventurer. Surviving or his wife Catherine, a daughter
Speaker 1: Janet Seacats of San Dimas, California. San Diemus Hied football rules,
Speaker 1: a son, Don Lee Terrehoon of Manhattan, Kansas, seven grandchildren
Speaker 1: and two great grant children. So it sounds like he
Speaker 1: had a pretty marvelous true adventurer. You want to hear
Speaker 1: about another adventure. Let's take a break and we get back.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you all about him, deal zaren. Okay, we
Speaker 1: just had Clarence read love him.
Speaker 2: I may you name a car read he should?
Speaker 1: You should? Let's do it. I got another one for you.
Speaker 1: Liam Corcoran na Liam co he is an adventurer. In
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, Liam was eleven years old and he was
Speaker 1: out with his mom shopping and somehow he like slipped
Speaker 1: away from her over it and he made his way
Speaker 1: to the airport in Manchester, England, like a couple of
Speaker 1: miles away.
Speaker 2: He got on a bus the heck of an adventurous queen.
Speaker 1: Wandered around Terminal one and then quote tailgated another family
Speaker 1: as they went through security.
Speaker 2: Oh, just stayed with it, right on the stuck right
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 1: Twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: That's smart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So an airport employee told the Daily Mail, quote
Speaker 1: often one parent has the boarding card for all their children,
Speaker 1: so the security guard should count the cards and the children,
Speaker 1: but obviously they failed to notice there was one extra.
Speaker 1: So he gets through security and then just headed for
Speaker 1: the first gate that he could find, and he's actually
Speaker 1: like looking for restrooms, but he figures like whatever, I'll
Speaker 1: get on a plane, and so like with security, he
Speaker 1: blended in with other families traveling with kids, made his
Speaker 1: way onto a flight to Roam. Onto a flight, yeah
Speaker 1: the airline jet too. They didn't do head counts or
Speaker 1: like secondary boarding pass checks. So Liam just takes a
Speaker 1: seat and buckles up his first time ever on a plane. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pretty soon, like the other passengers are noticing that there's
Speaker 1: this boy all alone.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, it also looking like he's never done this before.
Speaker 1: Right, And by this time it's too late to like
Speaker 1: abort the flight and head back to Manchester, So they
Speaker 1: continued on to Roam and police intercepted him, interviewed him
Speaker 1: on the plane, they kept him on the craft and
Speaker 1: he had to stay right there until the flight went
Speaker 1: back to Manchester two hours later.
Speaker 2: Basically, yeah, you get an air marshall now.
Speaker 1: But apparently he's like unfazed. He's just chatting enough cool.
Speaker 1: Don't forget this is July twenty twelve, right around the
Speaker 1: London Olympics, and so this is like a major security lender.
Speaker 1: And so like the transport secretaries freaking out about it
Speaker 1: jet to the company. They suspended three employees who just
Speaker 1: like waved him through, and then they started initiating head
Speaker 1: counts on all flights. Liam was like told the Sun
Speaker 1: newspaper that it was super easy to pull it off.
Speaker 1: He said, it was quote easier than doing my homework.
Speaker 1: I didn't have anything on me and no one asked
Speaker 1: me for anything, he said. A neighbor said, I think
Speaker 1: he's going to be a bit of a hero among
Speaker 1: his friends for managing it. I think, And then a
Speaker 1: relative of his added, Liam's an attention seeker. He runs
Speaker 1: away constantly, but he's never done anything like this. The
Speaker 1: little monster went off to Rome.
Speaker 2: So this is twenty twelve, you said twenty twelve, So
Speaker 2: thirteen years later, she's twenty four years now. We're gonna
Speaker 2: hear from Liam again soon. I bet I don't.
Speaker 1: I hope you do a good thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, like you may not be busted, but.
Speaker 1: So here, well, here I can I can tell you
Speaker 1: about being able to follow a story all the way
Speaker 1: through with that's one child on an airline that what
Speaker 1: about two?
Speaker 2: Let's let's hop it, let's happen it Ireland. I'm ready.
Speaker 1: Dublin Iron Kids, August nineteen.
Speaker 2: Eighty five, eighty five, What a time Dublin eighty five.
Speaker 1: Live Aid Fever as local boy Bob Geldoff raises millions
Speaker 1: of pounds for famine relief in Ethiopia?
Speaker 2: Did you lie laugh the worst? I'm over here laughing,
Speaker 2: and you're like and and I'm still laughing.
Speaker 1: We were there and I thought we were the sensitive
Speaker 1: types here.
Speaker 2: I normally am until you get me on these hooks.
Speaker 1: So there's these two boys. Yes, there's ten year old
Speaker 1: Keith Burne and thirteen year old Noel Murray.
Speaker 2: Noel Murray and Keith.
Speaker 1: Keith and knowle little Keith, bigger nol Keith. And so
Speaker 1: like any boys of this age in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: they loved the show the eighteen and they loved it
Speaker 1: when a plan came together. And they also these two
Speaker 1: loved to get up to no good little chancers, as
Speaker 1: they'd say, they shoplifted, they robbed people.
Speaker 2: They lived in the Murdock would be so impressed.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you have no idea. They lived in
Speaker 1: a rough area and they were just like these little
Speaker 1: adorable hoodlums. She's so cut.
Speaker 2: You think they had nicknames from the eighteen like one
Speaker 2: called themselves.
Speaker 1: Hannibal with ba barocas of course.
Speaker 2: I thought they call themselves be A Barca, Murdoch.
Speaker 1: Face and Murdoch some of them were. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: they they talked a lot about bunking. That's basically riding
Speaker 1: public transportation without paying.
Speaker 2: Oh like free riding bunking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they would they would take buses and trains
Speaker 1: all over Ireland together without their parents knowing, just getting
Speaker 1: up to no good. So the parents would sometimes call
Speaker 1: the cops, the guardy and maybe the GUARDI would come
Speaker 1: and pick them up. They'd be dragged back home, only
Speaker 1: to do it again the next week.
Speaker 2: So they're bring them around the pub.
Speaker 1: They'd go to Donegal. They went to Galway from corner
Speaker 1: to corners. Yeah, they're all over the place. And then
Speaker 1: one day they went a little further where. Okay, so
Speaker 1: Keith's mom tells them to go down to the shop
Speaker 1: and pick up a bag of potatoes. A bag of
Speaker 1: potatoes for dinner. She needed potatoes, which, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: we all need potatoes.
Speaker 2: Who does it now more than ever?
Speaker 1: We need potatoes sweet and kind whatever? Sweet? I like that.
Speaker 1: Let's run with it, so Keith he obliges. On his
Speaker 1: way back from the store, he runs in a knoll.
Speaker 1: Want to hang out? Oh yeah, sure, let's do this,
Speaker 1: And so Keith he takes the potatoes home, drops him
Speaker 1: off spuds as he keeps calling, drops them off.
Speaker 2: Yeh, the spuds.
Speaker 1: His mom says these fateful words. Don't go far. Your
Speaker 1: dinner's nearly ready.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, so we're talking like fifteen twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're already out the door because she yells us.
Speaker 1: And the first thing they did was go to the
Speaker 1: nearby train station, the Dart station, and they hopped on
Speaker 1: a train. Didn't pay, of course. And from there they
Speaker 1: went to dune Leary, like on the outskirts of done.
Speaker 1: So they walk around a bit, they see that the
Speaker 1: ferry is in port, and so they jump on the ferry.
Speaker 1: They've done that a couple times before. Okay, didn't pay, ever,
Speaker 1: so like whatever they you know, your ma is slaving.
Speaker 2: Over your dinner, the hot potatoes.
Speaker 1: But like, why not so they they duck into the
Speaker 1: duty free shop. They steal a bunch of cigarettes on
Speaker 1: the on the ferry, they don't smoke. This is just figure,
Speaker 1: just what I'm thinking, perhaps, And so there they are
Speaker 1: cruising the Irish seat not a care in the world.
Speaker 1: Ten and thirteen, the ferry docked in Wales. Wow, and the.
Speaker 2: Boys they crossed the Irish Channel or the Irish.
Speaker 1: The boys disembark with everybody else and then there's like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're at the train station and you know, we could
Speaker 1: just take a train to London. So off they go.
Speaker 1: Why not? Why not? Your mom slave it over your din? Okay,
Speaker 1: So they get on.
Speaker 2: The train train from Whales to London.
Speaker 1: Oh, they go to London. Somehow they made friends on
Speaker 1: the train with this guy and his girlfriend, and these
Speaker 1: two weirdos let the boys crash at their house overnight.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what load of bull stories the
Speaker 1: boys fed him, but it must have been amazing.
Speaker 2: But this is very eighties. I mean, like used to
Speaker 2: make whole TV movies about doing this, sleeping at a
Speaker 2: bus station and common adults into like taking him in.
Speaker 1: And that's probably where this came from. So there they
Speaker 1: are in London, they've obviously missed dinner and bedtime breakfast
Speaker 1: the next day, but whatever, they're in the big city.
Speaker 1: It's so exciting for them. London ten and thirteen. Dublin
Speaker 1: is this world capital, right, but London is another London
Speaker 1: and London in nineteen eighty five. So in the morning,
Speaker 1: the boys make their way to Heathrow and because they're
Speaker 1: not too far from it where they're saying and like back.
Speaker 2: Home, pop over to heat.
Speaker 1: Well back home in Dublin, they would go to the
Speaker 1: airport as a great place to go steal food.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because you could like.
Speaker 1: Slip into restaurants and take plates, or they go through
Speaker 1: the buffet.
Speaker 2: Line and then before security. It was a great place
Speaker 2: because so much action's happening. People are leaving, no one's stay.
Speaker 1: It's good, good stuff. So, as Noel says in the documentary,
Speaker 1: that's called nothing to declare, which is great, by the way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, quote, we're too little.
Speaker 2: The airport know who you are.
Speaker 1: The documentary he's constantly apologizing for cursing and it's so sweet. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So at the airport they figured out they'd be able
Speaker 1: to jump on a flight back to Dublin. No one's
Speaker 1: the wiser, Bob's your uncle, you know whatever, just get
Speaker 1: up there. Now. They didn't have the security that we
Speaker 1: have now, but they did have security eighty five Heathrow.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that the bridge would have some because of
Speaker 2: all the issues with the IRA.
Speaker 1: At that point, precisely. So the boys they had to
Speaker 1: figure out how to run that gauntlet. So they did,
Speaker 1: like Liam and Manchester, and they just trailed along with
Speaker 1: another family and as Noel tells it, quote somebody just
Speaker 1: fell for that and we kind of just held hands,
Speaker 1: like two little innocent brothers. So they're just hamming it up.
Speaker 1: So they make it through security. Now, okay, find a
Speaker 1: flight to Dublin. So the boys are asking people at
Speaker 1: each gate where the planes are going, and it's like
Speaker 1: all very overwhelming. But then a man tells them that
Speaker 1: a particular flight is going to America, New York City.
Speaker 1: The boys look each other the A team like maybe
Speaker 1: we can meet be a barcas. So the next thing
Speaker 1: you know, they're on the plane. They're like, let's just
Speaker 1: go to New York City.
Speaker 2: To New York.
Speaker 1: Neither hauld it ever been on a plane before. Every time, luckily,
Speaker 1: the flight was nowhere near full, like a lot of
Speaker 1: empty seats. So the boys they sit next to each
Speaker 1: other in an empty rope. They buckle up and they
Speaker 1: just acted like they knew.
Speaker 2: The first time I ever flew, I was thirteen. I
Speaker 2: flew by myself. I wasn't terrified, but I wasn't so chilly.
Speaker 1: These guys, these are some little street tofts.
Speaker 2: This is amazing.
Speaker 1: It was all very exciting. The noise you got, the
Speaker 1: rumble of the engines taken off into the wild blue yonder.
Speaker 1: And it's an It's an Air India flight.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So the flight attendants are in Sorry's with like Bindy's.
Speaker 1: They serve curry, and the boys hadn't really had it,
Speaker 1: and they thought it was way too spicy.
Speaker 2: They're like, what, yeahm uses many spices.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm thinking. So they watched a movie. They watched
Speaker 1: a classic film, one of my fas a view to
Speaker 1: a kill Bond double O seven Duran Duran theme song, Christopher,
Speaker 1: It's perfection.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: They took little snoozes. Uh, let's watch it. Maybe I'll
Speaker 1: do an episode where I just recount exactly next thing
Speaker 1: they know, They're in New York's JFK.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding this? Is amazing.
Speaker 1: No plans, just vibes. So they get off the plane.
Speaker 1: They're headed through the airport. They get asked for their
Speaker 1: passports and they say, oh, mam has them and she's
Speaker 1: just behind right. So the customs agent tells me, wait
Speaker 1: there and let's let your mom catch up with you.
Speaker 1: And so they do the whole like blink blink yes, sir,
Speaker 1: uh oh, we have adorable accents.
Speaker 2: And then the.
Speaker 1: Guy when he's not looking, they just slip through. So
Speaker 1: they hang around the airport for a couple hours and
Speaker 1: they're like sitting in those massage chairs, just people watching.
Speaker 2: In they'd walk outside anyone.
Speaker 1: No, no, not a bit. Uh yeah. But so they see
Speaker 1: a cop and they go up to the cop and
Speaker 1: they're like, excuse me, how do you get to the
Speaker 1: city center?
Speaker 2: The city center? City center because that's what they call it,
Speaker 2: Dublin city Center.
Speaker 1: Where's the center? And the cop is like, well, where's
Speaker 1: your parents? And as the cop describes it, quote, I said,
Speaker 1: where are your parents? And a little guy, well he
Speaker 1: was the mouth, he was the rig leader. He says me, mo,
Speaker 1: me ma, in the center of town. We're going to meet.
Speaker 1: I said, you're meeting your parents? In the center of town. Keith,
Speaker 1: that's the little one by the way. So Keith, he
Speaker 1: tried to clarify with the cop. No, mem isn't in town.
Speaker 1: We're here all on our own, like this little ding
Speaker 1: Dong tells. So the cop, Officer White, he called his
Speaker 1: supervisor and he said, quote, as soon as I heard
Speaker 1: the brogue, I said, you know, these kids didn't just
Speaker 1: come from the Bronx. They thought they fooled people on
Speaker 1: the airline, that they could do the same with Officer White,
Speaker 1: and I, well, it turned out not to be the case, right,
Speaker 1: So before too long, the boys are in the back
Speaker 1: of a New York police squad car headed for a
Speaker 1: precinct office. When they got there, the cops questioned them,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out like who who are these boys,
Speaker 1: where they come from, where are they going? You know,
Speaker 1: who's with them? If anybody The boys they're cheeky the
Speaker 1: whole time, like they don't give straight answers. What they
Speaker 1: don't take this seriously at all. They did give a
Speaker 1: solid account of their flight from London to New York.
Speaker 1: So the precinct captain, he made calls to London to
Speaker 1: see if they were missing. Two wise cracking street tufts
Speaker 1: cute as buttons is the description with able bro Zarin
Speaker 1: close you app Oh, yes, I want you to picture.
Speaker 1: You are a police officer in New York City, name
Speaker 1: Joseph Stabler. Your son Elliott just graduated from the academy
Speaker 1: and is following in your footsteps, hopefully not too much,
Speaker 1: because you play a little fast and loose. You've been
Speaker 1: on desk duty for three weeks after roughing up a witness,
Speaker 1: so on this day you find yourself passing the time
Speaker 1: going through old casepies. But then those little kids came in.
Speaker 1: Oh they're hilarious. You love them. You know an Irish
Speaker 1: accent a mile away, and those kids got them. You
Speaker 1: tried to tell the captain that how even though they
Speaker 1: were on a flight from London, those kids are Irish
Speaker 1: for sure, got the map of Ireland across their faces.
Speaker 1: Your grand used to say, the Captain of George you're
Speaker 1: a loose cannon Stabler, a real cowboy. A patrol officer
Speaker 1: brought some soda and chips for the kids, and now
Speaker 1: all of you are kicked back and yucking it up.
Speaker 1: Phones go unanswered, papers occasionally slide from the desks. Who
Speaker 1: cares they've asked to see any real American money you
Speaker 1: have in your wallets. They lose it at the sight
Speaker 1: of ones and fives. You tell them they can keep them,
Speaker 1: and the boys are ecstatic. Then the little one, Keith, asks,
Speaker 1: if that's a real gun on your belt? Is you
Speaker 1: tell him? Can I hold it? He asks, I've seen
Speaker 1: Hill Street blues on the telly. You and the rest
Speaker 1: of the guys laugh, Sure, you can hold the gun.
Speaker 1: You take the bullets out and hand it over to him.
Speaker 1: Keith immediately turns and fires the gun of Noel. Whoa.
Speaker 1: Everybody shouts and you grab the gun back. You can't
Speaker 1: do that, you tell him, even if there are no
Speaker 1: bullets in there. Just then the Captain comes out of
Speaker 1: his office. I just got off the phone with Dublin,
Speaker 1: he says, and you boys are in a lot of
Speaker 1: trouble and scene so back in Dublin.
Speaker 2: Immediately turns and squeezes. But I believe it probably the same.
Speaker 1: So back in Dublin the Guardian they go to tell
Speaker 1: Keith's mom that he's been located and he's in New
Speaker 1: York and she says, York Street, no New York, America.
Speaker 1: So she's trying to process back in America. The boys
Speaker 1: they get brought back to the airport, specifically to Air
Speaker 1: India security.
Speaker 2: Who has to pay for the tickets.
Speaker 1: Now, Well, what's looming in the background here is that
Speaker 1: just two months prior, and Air India flight had exploded
Speaker 1: off the coast of Ireland as it made its way
Speaker 1: from Montreal to Delhi via London. Oh All, three hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty nine people on board were killed in the bombing.
Speaker 1: It's like tensions are high, especially with Air India, sure,
Speaker 1: especially coming out of London. So the Air India folks
Speaker 1: they put the boys up in this luxury hotel suite
Speaker 1: with around the clock security while they straighten things out.
Speaker 1: They tried to cuff the boys at first, but their hands,
Speaker 1: their wrists were too small, so they just gave up.
Speaker 1: The boys though, they're loving it. They have McDonald's delivered in,
Speaker 1: they're watching TV, they're lounging around.
Speaker 2: It was amazing for them.
Speaker 1: My favorite part though, is that they had stolen jewelry
Speaker 1: from the duty free shop at heath Grows, Oh nice,
Speaker 1: and they wound up selling it to the security guards.
Speaker 1: So they befriend the security guards. They're selling them, I'm
Speaker 1: sure the cigarettes too. The security guard to take them
Speaker 1: on a sight seeing trip around New York, like they
Speaker 1: give them the iHeart New York shirts and they see
Speaker 1: like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, they buy souvenirs,
Speaker 1: they get back and then they're like the interrogation really begins,
Speaker 1: and so they're asked like, how exactly did you do this.
Speaker 2: I'm glad they got that little experience. Here's let's get
Speaker 2: you some ice cream in Central Park.
Speaker 1: And besides, I bought some I bought the boys asked
Speaker 1: the security guys like, are you going to give this
Speaker 1: jewelry to your wives? And they tell the boys no,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give them to a hooker. And the
Speaker 1: boys are like.
Speaker 2: What the boys exactly my girlfriend.
Speaker 1: It's just like so nuts. Anyway, so they realized, now, okay,
Speaker 1: this is a big deal. When the interrogations kind of
Speaker 1: finally begin, and so they explain every last detail. Keith
Speaker 1: tells it quote, they didn't care that we were two
Speaker 1: young kids having the cracker messing about. They were seeing
Speaker 1: the serious side of this. So then we kind of
Speaker 1: started realizing, Okay, this is serious. We better help these people.
Speaker 1: So the boys they had to go back to the
Speaker 1: airport and walk everyone through what they'd done, step by step,
Speaker 1: every last yeah. And so when all was said and done,
Speaker 1: everyone realized these aren't terrorists, these are just rascals. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they put them on an aer Lingus plane home, Yeah,
Speaker 1: New York to Shannon to Dublin. And the boys are like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, we're in so much trouble. And so
Speaker 1: their parents are going to be mad. They're like, okay,
Speaker 1: well we stop in Shannon when we let's let's jump
Speaker 1: off the plane and leg it and Shannon. But they
Speaker 1: just they were so knocked out by the whole thing
Speaker 1: they fell asleep and when they woke up, they were
Speaker 1: in Dublin. Everyone else had gotten off the planes and
Speaker 1: they're all blank blank and they're wearing their iHeart New
Speaker 1: York shirts when they get off the plane. It's just hysteric.
Speaker 1: But what wasn't funny is that thirteen year old nol
Speaker 1: he had warrants what. Yeah, so his reunion with his
Speaker 1: family was short lived and he was sent off to
Speaker 1: a boy's home whoa yeah something. Yeah. Most of his
Speaker 1: family were like on drugs or in jail, so he
Speaker 1: was kind of on his own, and they basically sent
Speaker 1: him to an orphanage. Keith's parents sent him off to
Speaker 1: boarding school to straighten him out, and it worked for Keith,
Speaker 1: but not so much for Nol. So Keith bounced around. Eventually,
Speaker 1: he gets married, he gets a really good job, has
Speaker 1: some kids. Noel just keeps crying, gets into drugs. But
Speaker 1: now he is cleaned up, functioning really, really well, and
Speaker 1: I want only the best things in life for him,
Speaker 1: for both of them, totally. I highly recommend the documentary.
Speaker 1: It's like a thirty minute doc and it's them as
Speaker 1: adults telling the story and they're the most charming people,
Speaker 1: and I just love it. Let's break for some ads,
Speaker 1: and then I have one more mad captail of stowing
Speaker 1: away for you.
Speaker 6: Hell yeah, Zaren.
Speaker 1: I mentioned Brian robson up Top Man who mailed himself
Speaker 1: love Trains. I got another one like that for you.
Speaker 1: Charles McKinley, also a self mailer. Self mailer, twenty five
Speaker 1: years old, having a hard time of things. So this
Speaker 1: is in like two thousand and three. He's born and
Speaker 1: raised in DeSoto, Texas, which is like Dallas. Basically, he's
Speaker 1: a good dude. His very sincere comes from this really
Speaker 1: good family, has a degree in microbiology. Just a sweet
Speaker 1: mer cree. Yeah, he's living in New York, but it
Speaker 1: was really overwhelming for him, and then he and his
Speaker 1: girl had a falling out. He was making twenty five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month at a retail job in New York,
Speaker 1: but like in the less than three months that he
Speaker 1: lived there, he blew through fifteen thousand, so it was
Speaker 1: not working.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so too fast a life for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just everything was way more expensive than a
Speaker 1: lot of money paid it. Yeah, So he moves down
Speaker 1: to Florida temporarily to like get himself together, try and
Speaker 1: make some cash. She's living with a he's crashing with
Speaker 1: a friend. So he gets a gig there at a
Speaker 1: financial firm and like things are starting to look up.
Speaker 1: He's just racking up money. So he's like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm going back to New York. Oh Happy two thousand
Speaker 1: and three to make okay. So he wanted to make
Speaker 1: things right with his girlfriend. He wants to get back the.
Speaker 2: Safriend still there, she's still there. He's still holding out
Speaker 2: hope for that life.
Speaker 1: He wants to make another go at the relationship.
Speaker 2: I'm pulling for these crazy cakes.
Speaker 1: He wants to make another go at life in the city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you girl.
Speaker 1: So he takes the cash that he had and he
Speaker 1: goes back. Quote my girlfriend and I had ended on
Speaker 1: a bad note and I wanted to smooth things over.
Speaker 1: This is what he told the Guardian. But that was
Speaker 1: a big mistake and it just made things worse. While
Speaker 1: I was away, she had overdrawn our joint credit card
Speaker 1: and checking account and I was back to square one
Speaker 1: and ready to give up. Oh all right, prot that's rough.
Speaker 1: If you aren't like it, it's just your girlfriend or
Speaker 1: your boyfriend, or you're not you're not married, don't get
Speaker 1: a joint account.
Speaker 2: I don't even recommend a joint account.
Speaker 1: You're married, you can a joint account or joint just don't.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I don't. I would not. I'm not gonna be
Speaker 2: telling people what to do with their money. But damn
Speaker 2: your peace of mind, I think too.
Speaker 1: You always just have to think about your protecting yourself,
Speaker 1: and not necessarily if they're a bad actor, like you're
Speaker 1: going to rack that up, but if there's something we're
Speaker 1: to happen.
Speaker 2: Whatever happens to the identity theft, you've now exposed.
Speaker 1: It to two people away precisely so you know this guy,
Speaker 1: lessons learned for him, as we'll find out.
Speaker 2: Okay, So this seems that you're telling me going from
Speaker 2: York to Florida. I'm just starting to paint a picture.
Speaker 2: Nothing against what I'm hearing, No, but yeah, meaning to
Speaker 2: be judgmental, but fifteen thousand dollars in a few months
Speaker 2: is a lot of money. Yeah, having a joint bank
Speaker 2: account with your girlfriend is.
Speaker 1: A little sus, little suss. He's low, he is brought
Speaker 1: low by this. Okay, like darkest days.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sure twenty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's like, okay, what's the answer. Go home?
Speaker 1: I just got to go back to Texas, back to Texas.
Speaker 1: And apparently, like his mom and dad had foretold this.
Speaker 2: People in Texas generally too are people who leave Texas,
Speaker 2: you'll come back.
Speaker 1: Quote mom and dad always said I'd never make it
Speaker 1: in New York because I was a small town boy,
Speaker 1: and they were right. So at the end of August
Speaker 1: I told him I was coming home. Yeah. So when
Speaker 1: he went down to Florida on that mission to make money,
Speaker 1: he'd left some of his clothes and his computer at
Speaker 1: a friend's house in Long Island. Okay, Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: he went out to pick it all up. He gets
Speaker 1: and he walked back to Queens from Long Island.
Speaker 2: Some of his choices are starting to see him a
Speaker 2: little dressed.
Speaker 1: No little charge. So poor little guy got through.
Speaker 2: Let's just put it that way, right.
Speaker 1: So he's got his stuff is. He's walking along, walking
Speaker 1: back to Queens. He passes a church from Long Island
Speaker 1: and he hears music coming from inside the church.
Speaker 2: Sure, Heaven sent.
Speaker 1: It was Madonna rehearsing for an upcoming tour.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: Yes, he dropped his laptop. He like strode into the building,
Speaker 1: wowing her with deadly dance moves that did not happen. No,
Speaker 1: he's walking, sucking from Long Island to Queens, and he
Speaker 1: walks by a church. And then here's what really happened.
Speaker 1: He noticed that there was a big wooden crate outside.
Speaker 1: No Madonna, Sorry, I got you all excited. He asked
Speaker 1: the people there, like, hey, can you set this aside
Speaker 1: for me so I can use it to ship my
Speaker 1: stuff back to Dallas the Great?
Speaker 2: But these are the kind you put art in, okay.
Speaker 1: But these are good carrying people of faith with love
Speaker 1: for a stranger.
Speaker 2: Sure of course.
Speaker 1: So they set it aside, and they kept their eyes
Speaker 1: on it. They did. They're like, all right, we'll after
Speaker 1: good good luck on your walk. So he's shuffling off
Speaker 1: to Queens. His mind starts cranking. He's like, I think
Speaker 1: I have an idea, or as he said, quote, I
Speaker 1: have no choice, he finishes. Brother, he said quote, I
Speaker 1: had far too much pride to ask mom and dad
Speaker 1: or my friends for the money. And I had literally
Speaker 1: no money of my own and no credit card that
Speaker 1: would work. But I did have a UPS charge card,
Speaker 1: which I could pay off in installments. Even though it
Speaker 1: cost me more money than a passenger flight. It was
Speaker 1: the only way what.
Speaker 2: Happened to freight trains. Brother, let me come on, I
Speaker 2: just swallow.
Speaker 1: Your way down, swallow your pride and make it a lesson.
Speaker 1: Learn anyway. So he gets on the horn with UPS.
Speaker 1: He sets it up for the shipperd to pick up
Speaker 1: the car. He has a UPS card car. I think
Speaker 1: it's from like a previous job, so he he It's
Speaker 1: basically like a UPS gift card, is how I like?
Speaker 1: So he he's like, okay. UPS picked this crate up
Speaker 1: at four pm on September fifth, two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: outside this chair like, yeah, Madonna's inside, don't don't be
Speaker 1: star straight. How much is this going to cost him?
Speaker 1: Six hundred and eighty eight dollars for overnight delivery, which
Speaker 1: is not bad. The same flight one way JFK to
Speaker 1: Dallas two and forty.
Speaker 2: He can't can't get that with an can't.
Speaker 1: Put it on a UPS account charge. So Charles was careful.
Speaker 1: He measured the box to make sure he would fit,
Speaker 1: that he'd be able.
Speaker 2: To determine what fitting was.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be able to sit straight up, like
Speaker 1: just sitting straight up. You remember Brian Robson was like,
Speaker 1: can I fold myself into a pretzel and not carry
Speaker 1: any water? He carried water, I don't know whatever. So no,
Speaker 1: He's like, I want to be able to sit straight
Speaker 1: up and like not be crunched over the whole time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm guessing he's like sitting cross.
Speaker 2: Legged, okay, legs a caimbo kind of.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So he tells UPS that the crate is going
Speaker 1: to be holding very precious, very expensive of very powerful
Speaker 1: computer equipment and it has to be treated with the
Speaker 1: utmost care, white gloves service. You have to protect the
Speaker 1: microchips there. So Charles he's ready to do this. He
Speaker 1: takes off two loose pieces of wood from the crate,
Speaker 1: squeezes inside, puts like head and shoulders first like worms
Speaker 1: his way in.
Speaker 2: Does he have someone seal him in?
Speaker 1: And he gets inside and then nails the slats back
Speaker 1: in place from the inside out, nails would wraps himself
Speaker 1: in a blanket and then waits and then just pretty soon,
Speaker 1: pretty soon, he's on a flatbed truck on his way
Speaker 1: to Newark Airport.
Speaker 2: On his back. Imagine if he's crate, maybe he's standing.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's sitting. He just wanted to be able to
Speaker 1: sit straight up. Okay, so I'm just imagining it's like
Speaker 1: a box, like a square box type.
Speaker 2: Oh you're imagining a square box. I was maaging a
Speaker 2: rectangular box. Well either way, well one is sitting straight up.
Speaker 2: If you're in a rectangular box, it's more likely going
Speaker 2: to be sitting on one face or you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's say he's probably on his back maybe whatever. Anyway,
Speaker 1: he gets very lucky and they put him into a
Speaker 1: pressurized hole because he made such a big deal about it.
Speaker 1: I mean he called them multiple times. I had it
Speaker 1: like I got to remind you it's computer equipment. So
Speaker 1: they they put them, they're like put a note on
Speaker 1: his file like this trouble. They put him on a
Speaker 1: commercial flight, not a cargo and so if he'd have
Speaker 1: been in a cargo flight, he'd died because it was
Speaker 1: like unpressurized.
Speaker 2: The unpressurized to I.
Speaker 1: Guess can't breathe. So he had to stay super quiet
Speaker 1: while he was being loaded into the plane. Didn't want
Speaker 1: to give himself away, he told The Guardian quote. I
Speaker 1: was put on a conveyor and started bumping into other containers.
Speaker 1: I could hear beeping noises and somebody calling out numbers. Finally,
Speaker 1: someone said everything, tag the pilots of the information they need.
Speaker 1: Then the voices disappeared, and I heard the door closed.
Speaker 1: We taxied on the runway for a while, and I
Speaker 1: knew it was too late to turn back. After about
Speaker 1: twenty minutes, I removed the slats from my crate and
Speaker 1: squeezed myself out. I noticed some NBCTV equipment when I
Speaker 1: walked around a couple of feet within the container. I
Speaker 1: was happy to be going home, but I was nervous.
Speaker 2: He gets out of the crate, gets.
Speaker 1: Out of the crate. That moment of like I knew
Speaker 1: it was too late to turn back.
Speaker 2: That's terrify you said that I had this sense of
Speaker 2: shows like I had that feeling You're locked in now,
Speaker 2: there's no way I can go back.
Speaker 1: You just can't.
Speaker 2: Got to commit now, hold on, but exactly.
Speaker 1: Now, it wasn't a street shot from Newark to Dallas. No,
Speaker 1: he went from Newark to Buffalo.
Speaker 2: That's the wrong direction, right the.
Speaker 1: Wayne Indiana?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, did he gets stuck somewhere where it's cold? Oh?
Speaker 2: I know?
Speaker 1: And then then he's put on a plane to Dallas.
Speaker 2: So he left Indiana.
Speaker 1: He left New York at four pm on September fifth,
Speaker 1: and he gets into Dallas at seven am on September seven,
Speaker 1: So it could have been a whole off overnight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that actually sounds like the New York at four arriving
Speaker 1: Dallas at seven am the next day. Kind of sounds
Speaker 1: like the classic Southwest multi stop cheapo. Like, yeah, taking
Speaker 1: this right exactly. I mean that's the thing too. Guy's
Speaker 1: like twenty five, right, think about when you're twenty five dumb?
Speaker 2: So many ways I had to like suffer for my choices.
Speaker 2: Like now you get to go to five airports because
Speaker 2: you wanted to wait the last minute to fly on
Speaker 2: the holiday thirty dollars money. So here you go. Yeah,
Speaker 2: enjoy Midway Airport.
Speaker 1: I hope you like Baltimore, but like, Okay. So he's
Speaker 1: bouncing around, but unlike if you're in one of those
Speaker 1: Southwest flights, he's not sitting in like a warm enclosed
Speaker 1: cabin or killing time at a Hudson News paying eight
Speaker 1: bucks for a bag of gummy life savers. No, he's
Speaker 1: in the cargo area. Quote. The second plane was hell.
Speaker 1: That's when I really wanted to get it out. It
Speaker 1: was so cold. When we stopped at Fort Wayne, I
Speaker 1: could hear dogs barking in the warehouse, and I felt
Speaker 1: like I sat there for hours. I could see a
Speaker 1: US Customs building and other containers heading for huge scanners,
Speaker 1: and I remember thinking, that's it. I'm gonna get caught. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I was one of the first palettes to be
Speaker 1: put on the plane. I began to feel sleepy, and
Speaker 1: when I woke up we landed, I just knew we'd
Speaker 1: made it to Dallas. You can just feel it when
Speaker 1: you're home.
Speaker 2: Three things the dogs not I'd be worried they'd be barking.
Speaker 2: How did these dogs not smell the sweaty.
Speaker 1: Guy in what I was wondering, are they like police
Speaker 1: dogs or are they dogs being shipped somewhere?
Speaker 2: If sniffing dogs.
Speaker 1: It could be like, you know how people are dogs,
Speaker 1: they thought. I wondered that when I read the quote.
Speaker 2: Who And then also the second one, when you start
Speaker 2: to feel sleepy nervous about the carbon monoxide, like.
Speaker 1: Do not get sleepy, force yourself slap in the face.
Speaker 2: So I've yes, I've actually done that caused physical pain
Speaker 2: for an hour to keep myself yes exactly. And then
Speaker 2: third the feeling like I'm in Texas, Like you just
Speaker 2: feel like I'm in Texas. I can send it. I
Speaker 2: came down through the clouds and I in Texas.
Speaker 1: Well you know here home connection but yees, So he did.
Speaker 1: He made it to Dallas to go, and then he
Speaker 1: was put on a truck and that truck made it's
Speaker 1: weighted to Sodo. And here's how he tells it, quote,
Speaker 1: my mom signed for the crate. My mom signed for
Speaker 1: the crate at the front door. The driver climbed back
Speaker 1: into the truck and backed it into the alleyway at
Speaker 1: the side of my house. Suddenly, as he was letting
Speaker 1: the lifting gate down. The slats fell out of my crate.
Speaker 1: I quickly leaned out and picked them up. But as
Speaker 1: he came around the back he saw me peeking through
Speaker 1: the gaps. He just let out this sigh and said,
Speaker 1: oh man, such a So his mom and dad are
Speaker 1: there watching the whole thing, and quote, my dad said,
Speaker 1: this is like something you see on TV. Mom just said,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you've done, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to know, but you'r home and safe now.
Speaker 2: It's such a perfect text of dance. Is really the
Speaker 2: whole South? Yeah, New York City.
Speaker 1: The problem was to New York City.
Speaker 2: You come back selling yourself in a box.
Speaker 1: Look at you. The problem was the snitch delivery driver.
Speaker 2: Oh, because nobody would have known the cops that.
Speaker 1: So they took their sweet time.
Speaker 2: Though, is he just mad?
Speaker 1: I guess he's a security security comes out, Yeah, they'll
Speaker 1: be like, oh you didn't notice when.
Speaker 2: Itself.
Speaker 1: So the cops though, like they took forever. Charles had
Speaker 1: time to come inside, get settled, take but when he
Speaker 1: comes out, he's all fresh, clean changed. There's two DeSoto
Speaker 1: ped officers in his living room and they grilled him.
Speaker 1: They said he was lying. They said he wasn't telling
Speaker 1: him everything. They said he was a terrorist. They said
Speaker 1: he planned to like pop out of the crate and
Speaker 1: choke out the pilots.
Speaker 2: They stand where the box.
Speaker 1: Was about this though, two thousand and three. This happened
Speaker 1: after the towers.
Speaker 2: Still, Oh, I had not put that together the whole time.
Speaker 1: There's no joking around aloud, that crying out of new Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they locked Charles up for a.
Speaker 2: Month, Homeland Security didn't come to his house.
Speaker 1: Well that's what I think. Eventually happened. He gets charged
Speaker 1: with ten felonies, ten terrorism charges up the who hot
Speaker 1: and eventually he was able to shed all but one
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 1: So February fourth, two thousand and four, he pleaded guilty
Speaker 1: to a charge of misdemeanor stowaway and he got four
Speaker 1: months house arrest and a fifteen hundred dollars fine that
Speaker 1: he avoided fifty years. Yeah, gitmo, So four months house
Speaker 1: arrest not so bad at all. His dad, a chemical engineer,
Speaker 1: had to pay seven thousand dollars in restitution to UPS
Speaker 1: for what that was?
Speaker 2: My I have no ideas therapy.
Speaker 1: Paid who cares? Damn who knows? And it got the
Speaker 1: conversation going about screening cargo because like you know, and
Speaker 1: that pops up every now and then about how uh,
Speaker 1: you know, how folderable we are in terms of cargo
Speaker 1: and they don't scan that kind of stuff. So Charles
Speaker 1: when he spoke with the Guardian newspaper in August of
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, he was working at the local
Speaker 1: walmart and he told the paper quote, I'm being flown
Speaker 1: to Japan next month by a TV company. They want
Speaker 1: to interview me and do a reenactment of what happened.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much money I'm getting for it.
Speaker 1: My lawyer's dealing with that. There's also an appearance on
Speaker 1: the Oprah Winfrey Show in the works. I know they'll
Speaker 1: make a joke about it like everyone else, but I'm
Speaker 1: used to it now. And you know what, though the
Speaker 1: whole mess wasn't over.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: In fact, around the time that he said he was
Speaker 1: used to it, he really wasn't. House arrest means you
Speaker 1: have to stay at the house. He has to stay
Speaker 1: at his parents' house.
Speaker 2: Did they like change his ankle or not? You know,
Speaker 2: he cut on the monit.
Speaker 1: He wasn't supposed to leave the area without permission from
Speaker 1: the court. Okay, you know that's house arrest. So but
Speaker 1: at the end of August two thousand and four, he
Speaker 1: got stopped by Georgia police after failing to pay for
Speaker 1: gas at a station.
Speaker 2: That's the wrong state, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: Right, bah bah bus states away. Yeah. So in two
Speaker 1: thousand and December two thousand and four, just four months later,
Speaker 1: Charles he's in court for this on the probation violation charge.
Speaker 1: He apologized to the US magistrate for leaving the state.
Speaker 1: He said that it was partly to escape the notoriety
Speaker 1: that surrounded his case. So here he's saying like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm used to it. No you're not.
Speaker 2: Also, if you would have stayed inside your house, you
Speaker 2: probably wouldn't have gotten the notoriety unless you the news,
Speaker 2: turned the TV or whatever turn.
Speaker 1: The radio, wanted all the reporters.
Speaker 2: Outside your home in Desoda.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he he had to do a little bit
Speaker 1: of time for that.
Speaker 2: I don't believe this kid, but he tell me he
Speaker 2: gives quotes to the press. They always sound like he's
Speaker 2: trying to portray himself in a certain light.
Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing, I couldn't find anything on him
Speaker 1: after that, which I'm going to take a good sign.
Speaker 1: I want that to be a good thing. Stay out
Speaker 1: of the papers, y'all.
Speaker 2: There little line.
Speaker 1: I'm pulling for this kid unless he like milkshake ducks,
Speaker 1: in which case I wash my hands of the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Definitely. And I'm hoping that he goes back to Texas
Speaker 2: in a way that it returns him to his roots
Speaker 2: in some way that's beneficial for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then he has something fulfilling.
Speaker 2: Some purpose, happiness in the room.
Speaker 1: We've all been in our mid twenties, and oh boy.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised I survived my twenties, honestly. And then I'm
Speaker 2: also surprised that I've survived just as long as I have.
Speaker 2: But I mean, like my twenties in particular, that was
Speaker 2: a lot of like rough businessman. Why would you think
Speaker 2: that would be a good anyway? What's your takeaway the
Speaker 2: graph Zeppelin? Like, no, actually strike that. I think it's
Speaker 2: Keith the Irish kid, like out of him being like
Speaker 2: lippy And then like I just something, I really want
Speaker 2: to see his portray. I'm gonna I'm gonna check that documentary.
Speaker 2: I'd like to see them done up as like a
Speaker 2: TV movie or something. Well, they just like to see
Speaker 2: some child actors.
Speaker 1: I know that that story has been options.
Speaker 2: It's it's right. I mean, that is so mazing, like
Speaker 2: a fun I mean not like obviously an A twenty
Speaker 2: four movie. This is gonna be a little bit more mainstream,
Speaker 2: middle of the road, but that's a fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The Irish papers had stories on the on the story
Speaker 1: getting option for production, and then I tried to trace
Speaker 1: it and I couldn't see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of stories get options, of course. Yeah,
Speaker 2: who knows, what is Elizabeth? What's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 1: Right? All of these people are so charming to me.
Speaker 1: You did a good job of finding, you know, because
Speaker 1: there are some not so charming ones.
Speaker 2: Last guy maybe a little worried. I was constantly worried
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: I'm pulling for all of them. But yeah, they're all
Speaker 1: really fascinating characters. So I was I was pleased with
Speaker 1: that that I didn't have anyone that I have to
Speaker 1: be like, we're.
Speaker 2: Going to skip over this part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, Dave, I need to talk back.
Speaker 2: I got one for you.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, he went.
Speaker 4: Hi, Sarah, Elizabeth, producer, Dave Interns and all those who
Speaker 4: are responsible for the Ridiculous Crime Podcast. Thank you for
Speaker 4: bringing so much laughter in my life right now, especially
Speaker 4: when things are tough. You also remind me that those
Speaker 4: who are making it tough for me are going to
Speaker 4: be in your show sometime in the future. Can I
Speaker 4: wait to listen to their stories? Thank you.
Speaker 2: I love that guarantee.
Speaker 1: This is the thing, like we've we've got to thank
Speaker 1: you Dave for giving us a lot of love on
Speaker 1: the talkbacks this week. True, but I think we need
Speaker 1: to be very gentle with each other. And I think
Speaker 1: this is another thing that I've always said, not even
Speaker 1: when times are distressing, but it's always really important that
Speaker 1: if you if you enjoy something either about media that
Speaker 1: you consume or also just about people that you know,
Speaker 1: tell them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the little shop owner you see all the time,
Speaker 2: let him know I was looking forward to seeing you, yeah, Or.
Speaker 1: Just like there's so I have a friend who every
Speaker 1: time I see her, she just makes me smile. And
Speaker 1: I told her that once, and it's like, every time
Speaker 1: I see her, she just tells me how much it
Speaker 1: means to her. And so it's like, when you have
Speaker 1: those feelings, you got to share them. That's how we survive.
Speaker 2: And as a guy. I gotta say to you men
Speaker 2: out there, you know how rarely you get complimented. Try
Speaker 2: to compliment a man because I think they're doing a lot.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying like we should all compliment man.
Speaker 2: I didn't say that. I said, guys, you should compliment
Speaker 2: a man. We should all look at each other.
Speaker 3: Come.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean meaningful, not in some bs.
Speaker 1: You mean it s so excellent? Yeah, I tell you
Speaker 1: we're shutting dark, Elizabeth. We're gonna go to positive sunshine.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth can hear against all delusion?
Speaker 4: Me.
Speaker 1: God, I love a good delusion.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: That's it for today. You can find us online at
Speaker 1: ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also on Instagram blueski uh
Speaker 1: and I think that's about it. Email Ridiculous Crime at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com and number one leave a talk back
Speaker 1: on the free iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is
Speaker 1: hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Sarah Burnette, produced and edited
Speaker 1: by FAA Airport, Margaritasur Dave Cousten, starring Analys Rutger as Juden.
Speaker 1: Research is by baggage claim manager Marissa Brown. The theme
Speaker 1: song is by guy who always exposes his bare feet
Speaker 1: on the plane. Thomas Lee and Guy in a Cold
Speaker 1: Sweat who Hates Flying Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided
Speaker 1: by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot
Speaker 1: and mister Andre. Executive producers are Duty Free Cashier Ben
Speaker 1: Bollen and Secret Flight Attendive No Will.
Speaker 5: Grapdus Clime Say It one more Timequeous Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.
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