Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime.
Speaker 2: It's a production of iHeartRadio. And there you are here.
Speaker 2: I am Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: Look at me.
Speaker 2: I've been over here waiting for you for three hours?
Speaker 2: Have you at a three minutes? I just walked in.
Speaker 1: Felt a little bad.
Speaker 2: I just walked in, Atio, So I got a question
Speaker 2: for you. You're here, Yes, sir? Do you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 1: I do?
Speaker 2: Thank goodness, you do want to share with me?
Speaker 1: Well. Research indicates seventy nine percent of shoppers are drawn
Speaker 1: to themed products and sixty nine percent actively seek out
Speaker 1: limited edition formats.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this because I have a mashup. And
Speaker 1: before I get into it, you want to blame someone,
Speaker 1: Blame Simone Rodriguez.
Speaker 2: Is that your other name? No?
Speaker 1: She goes by Scorpio Crochet on Instagram. Very talented.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: She sent us a DM and said she'd never forwarded
Speaker 1: something as fast as this. God and it had a
Speaker 1: picture on this sort of meme and a picture sure
Speaker 1: of this what I'm going to tell you about. Underneath
Speaker 1: it it said toilet's gonna look like Chernobyl right after.
Speaker 2: Oh God, buckle up, buttercup, I'm talking to you.
Speaker 1: So have you ever watched that show Stranger.
Speaker 2: Things the first season and I got bored.
Speaker 1: Okay, I've never seen it, but it's got like a
Speaker 1: bald lady, bald little girl. Yeah yeah, yeah, but I
Speaker 1: think they're all old people now, yeah, they're all.
Speaker 2: Grown up totally. They got to be going on for
Speaker 2: like eighteen years something like that.
Speaker 1: It's been a longer than SVU anyway. So they teamed
Speaker 1: up with Doritos.
Speaker 2: And toilet company teamed up the.
Speaker 1: Toilet Stranger Things.
Speaker 2: Oh right, I'm so on the Chernobyl toilet.
Speaker 1: Toilet, toilet Duck and Doritos are back together. No toilet,
Speaker 1: Doritos and Stranger Things. You know, I guess there's a
Speaker 1: new season coming out or they're a rest home.
Speaker 2: It's got to be the last one, right, I would pray.
Speaker 1: I've never seen it. I just like making these cracks
Speaker 1: like I'm an insider. So they have like old school
Speaker 1: looking bags of chips, like the old style Doritos, like
Speaker 1: the or whatever. Yeah, so they're doing that. But then
Speaker 1: they have something and apparently it looks to me like
Speaker 1: it's only in the UK, which is a bummer because
Speaker 1: I honestly would try this.
Speaker 2: Maybe should travel there.
Speaker 1: It's Dorito's black Garlic dip never had black garlic. I
Speaker 1: have a friend who ferments garlic to make black garlic.
Speaker 2: Of course you do, and yeah, of course you food.
Speaker 1: It has a creamy texture, bold flavor profile, and charcoal
Speaker 1: black color. It's you know, kind of for Halloween. Also
Speaker 1: Rob Possier, he's the marketing director at to Rito's. You
Speaker 1: can blame him. He said, the black garlic dip is
Speaker 1: designed to elevate the snacking experience, perfectly pairing with our
Speaker 1: chips for memorable moments. He sounds like's brother, you just
Speaker 1: think about your elevating your snacking experience. You're just like
Speaker 1: going to town on a bag of Dorito's by yourself,
Speaker 1: light of television, sitting on the floor in your own filth,
Speaker 1: and you're like, this is a memorable moment. This is
Speaker 1: I'm showing you a picture. I'll have them put it
Speaker 1: on Instagram. It doesn't so much look black. It looks
Speaker 1: navy blue.
Speaker 2: Qu construction product blue.
Speaker 1: It changes hours, it doubles as it it's a new
Speaker 1: age polymer.
Speaker 2: Yes, it would glue.
Speaker 1: From amalgamated Dorito's brands.
Speaker 2: It looks horrible.
Speaker 1: It's so ridiculous. The end it's two pounds fifty in
Speaker 1: the UK when it comes out, So all of my
Speaker 1: UK pals out there try it. Let me know, I'll
Speaker 1: be envious because I would kind of like to try
Speaker 1: a black garlic dip. Sure, what if it's like Tom, you.
Speaker 2: Know I love you do Love Tomb, Yeah, so it
Speaker 2: could be equivalent, just.
Speaker 1: So it's like black tomb. Yeah, ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll go with that stamp and ridiculous.
Speaker 1: You're welcome.
Speaker 2: Well, you got a second cause I got some mony
Speaker 2: ridiculous for you.
Speaker 1: I got all day.
Speaker 2: Well, okay. There have been a few escape artists that
Speaker 2: we've featured on this show, but I gotta say not
Speaker 2: since PCP Super Spy Guy, have we had such an
Speaker 2: epic chase, especially not one that devolves as many vehicles
Speaker 2: as this. Oh yit. He's on two wheels, he's on
Speaker 2: four wheels. He's coming by land, he's coming by sea.
Speaker 2: Because Elizabeth, he is this guy. He tried like a
Speaker 2: hell to get away. He was like, cowgun, take me away.
Speaker 2: It's a whole caper of escapes and it's certified ridiculous.
Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
Speaker 2: Hest and cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free
Speaker 2: and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Oh oh oh, I'm gonna start howling all the time.
Speaker 1: That's I'm gonna be.
Speaker 2: Like a Howler. There you go. That's that would work,
Speaker 2: like Howler monkey, no tail. So, Elizabeth, what do you
Speaker 2: know about New England?
Speaker 1: It is a new version of Old England. It's in
Speaker 1: the United States.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's charming, upper right corner on the map. Well,
Speaker 2: the state's there. They're very different from what we have
Speaker 2: out west, like as you know, I spent some time there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and for a Californian like you or ostensibly me, it
Speaker 2: can be weird how small the states are. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: it's wild, Like you can be in Massachusetts and then
Speaker 2: pop over the border to Connecticut or Vermont just to
Speaker 2: buy your groceries, like that's just down the street is
Speaker 2: across the border. Again, for someone from the West, like
Speaker 2: driving around it can feel wild, like we drive four
Speaker 2: hours and you won't even make it to La from
Speaker 2: San Francisco.
Speaker 1: You go four hours east and you might be getting
Speaker 1: into Nevada.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, totally from here there, Yeah, but like four
Speaker 2: hours there across from four or five States. I know
Speaker 2: all about to say, Elizabeth, please allow me to introduce
Speaker 2: you to life in small town Vermont, specifically Walcott, Vermont.
Speaker 2: That's where our story begins.
Speaker 1: That they make Ben and Jerry's Yeah, that's okay, where
Speaker 1: it is right there? Wait, Elbean, that's main.
Speaker 2: That's main. Yeah, with the duck boots.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to orient myself.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that Massachusetts. That's the Bay Colony.
Speaker 1: I love a good fisherman sweater. I've been to Boston.
Speaker 2: There you go. Is that New England, Massachusetts? Yes, it
Speaker 2: is so. Walcott, Vermont was named for a signer of
Speaker 2: the Declaration of Independence, because I think almost everything back
Speaker 2: there is General Oliver Walcott, Okay, Oliver, Yeah, Oliver Walcott,
Speaker 2: not just some of Walcott now, despite the fact it's
Speaker 2: been around for damn near the whole history of the
Speaker 2: United States. In twenty twenty, the population of the town,
Speaker 2: according to the census, was a mere sixteen hundred and
Speaker 2: seventy people.
Speaker 1: Sixteen hundred, yes, small all right.
Speaker 2: Now, just to be New England. Confusing an insular in
Speaker 2: the town of Walcott, there's also the village of Walcott, oh,
Speaker 2: which is an unincorporated village with the exact same name.
Speaker 1: It's like a Russian nesting dolls of Walcott pack.
Speaker 2: And I know that it's a virtue to be parsimonious,
Speaker 2: like in New England they're like, oh, yes, be like
Speaker 2: frugal and smart with your money and with your time
Speaker 2: and energy. But I think they could have spared the
Speaker 2: effort to come up with a different name for the village,
Speaker 2: like come on, live a little New England.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the new Gidea Center Walcott.
Speaker 2: How many licks does it take to get to the
Speaker 2: village of Walcott. Anyway, back to the town of Walcott, Yeah,
Speaker 2: the small town is not exactly a prosperous place to live.
Speaker 2: The median income I look this up is this is
Speaker 2: not per adult, this is per household. That's how you
Speaker 2: figure media income. It's thirty four thousand, seven hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty dollars.
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense for a rural area.
Speaker 2: Now add in the average income for a man in Walcott,
Speaker 2: Vermont is twenty seven and ninety eight dollars. The average
Speaker 2: income for a woman in Walcott is twenty one nine
Speaker 2: and five dollars. Yeah, right, which means roughly fifteen percent
Speaker 2: of the town population is just below the poverty line
Speaker 2: right off the bat, Elizabeth, do you know about the
Speaker 2: poverty line in the US, and like how it's calculated.
Speaker 2: It's not calculated by household income, which is what I
Speaker 2: thought is calculated by individual income. Yeah, and individuals residing
Speaker 2: in a household correct. Yeah, So you want to take
Speaker 2: a guess at what the current poverty line is for
Speaker 2: a single individual in the United States? What the amount
Speaker 2: of money.
Speaker 1: That is a year? You know, I want to say
Speaker 1: it's something absolutely insanely low where you think there's no
Speaker 1: way you could survive on that.
Speaker 2: You're close yours, You're spot on.
Speaker 1: Isn't it like seventeen thousand or some really good?
Speaker 2: According to the Department of Health and Human Services website
Speaker 2: for twenty twenty five, for one person, the poverty line
Speaker 2: is fifteen thousand, six hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: It's in real life federal. It's across the IRL. It's
Speaker 1: above way above.
Speaker 2: That, well one hundred percent. But that's for all of
Speaker 2: that's federal, so it doesn't matter if you're in California
Speaker 2: or in Walcott. Now, for a household with two people
Speaker 2: living in the poverty line is twenty one thousand for
Speaker 2: a household with three people living in it's twenty six
Speaker 2: thousand and six fifty, whereas if you have four people
Speaker 2: in your household, the poverty line is thirty two thousand,
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty dollars. I bring all this up
Speaker 2: to point out one the nature of statistics in the
Speaker 2: United States and how they're disconnected from reality, but also
Speaker 2: be because none of those are reasonable amounts to live on. No, like, no,
Speaker 2: twenty six thousand dollars twenty six, six hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: for three people, that works out to be twenty dollars
Speaker 2: per month. That's before taxes are taken out. And then
Speaker 2: have you seen the price of meat lately? I mean, no,
Speaker 2: wonder Hamburger Helper is flying off the showw you know
Speaker 2: I just did. Anyway, that's the backdrop for this story.
Speaker 2: Hard times in rural America and the poverty that grips
Speaker 2: the people in those regions, which is very real.
Speaker 1: And there are rural areas in every state in the Union.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent, maybe one thousand percent. How big a
Speaker 2: percent can I get out the President's way up there.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go that far, but thirteen thousand percent, So.
Speaker 2: This is the backdrop that basically this was what motivates
Speaker 2: today's anti hero the hard times in a rural America. Sure,
Speaker 2: by the way, this story is something of a two parter,
Speaker 2: so let's start with part A or part one. Now.
Speaker 2: On December first, twenty twenty, our anti hero Eric Edson
Speaker 2: saw an opportunity. There was this trailer parked behind a workshop.
Speaker 2: Sitting on top of the trailer was a mini excavator
Speaker 2: or as your nephew would say, excavator excavator. Now, along
Speaker 2: with the excavator was also a DR Power wheelbarrow, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: in case you don't know what a DR Power wheelbarrow is,
Speaker 2: I'm here to help. According to the dr website quote,
Speaker 2: the pro Power wagon can haul up to seven hundred
Speaker 2: pounds with ease, features a powerful electric starting engine, and
Speaker 2: a modular cargo bed with removable end panel. So you
Speaker 2: think of it kind of like my e bike, right,
Speaker 2: But it's a wheelbarrow powered wheels.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool, right sure. I mean, if you're moving
Speaker 1: like loads of bricks completely.
Speaker 2: Any assisted labor like that, yeah, it's definitely cool. But
Speaker 2: along with just carrying my lazy butt to the to
Speaker 2: the kitchen, to get to the water.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: It's like sometimes I used to wish that I had
Speaker 1: a motorized bed with wheel and that's how I'd go
Speaker 1: to work. You not get out of it all.
Speaker 2: In Davis, there's a guy he'd made a motorized couch.
Speaker 2: You remember, right around on the couch. It's like such
Speaker 2: an early burning man thing, same theory. Now, along with
Speaker 2: this power equipment, there were also a few bags of
Speaker 2: cement on the trailer. So all told, there's an excavator
Speaker 2: worth twelve thousand dollars, the power wheelbarrow worth about two grand.
Speaker 2: The bags of cement, they were like the icing on
Speaker 2: the this felonious cake worth Yeah. So when Eric Etson
Speaker 2: sees all this value just sitting there, what does he do? Well,
Speaker 2: of course he thinks to himself, how can I steal that?
Speaker 2: That's gotta be worth something on the black market. Remember
Speaker 2: just the trailer itself was worth four grand, and you
Speaker 2: steal the trailer and all that comes with it. So
Speaker 2: Edson's he backs up his Toyota pickup truck attaches the trailer.
Speaker 2: Then smooth is like melting ice cream rolling down a
Speaker 2: child's hand. Off he goes. Now for reasons only, Edson
Speaker 2: can explain he didn't go directly to like a garage
Speaker 2: and like high or like a crime layer or anything. No,
Speaker 2: he takes his new stolen booty on like a tour
Speaker 2: of the town. This why not, Yeah, it's in our land, pirate.
Speaker 2: He just drives around town for at least an hour.
Speaker 2: I assume he's driving around, like hitting up different people
Speaker 2: he knew who might be in the market for a
Speaker 2: hot dr power wheelbarrow excavator.
Speaker 1: Listening to Madonnas this used to be my playground most likely.
Speaker 2: I also think he may have been in no judgment,
Speaker 2: but I'm guessing he had trouble finding maybe a drug
Speaker 2: dealer who wanted to trade for a mini excavator.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's be real, like, where are you going
Speaker 1: to move something like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's only so many construction people in
Speaker 2: the town of sixteen.
Speaker 1: The local consignment shop.
Speaker 2: What do we take for the trailer? The whole thing
Speaker 2: fully loaded? Either way. After an hour him driving around
Speaker 2: town with a stolen trailer, he's spotted by a sheriff's deputy.
Speaker 1: This is a town of sixteen.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's very small town. There's not much town's over
Speaker 2: exactly there's not much town to drive around anyway. The
Speaker 2: deputy had heard about the stolen trailer, so he turns
Speaker 2: on his lights and sirens. He loves exactly pulls over Edson.
Speaker 2: So this thief he complies. He pulls over on the
Speaker 2: side of the road, and then when the deputy steps
Speaker 2: out of his patrol car, Edson floors it. He takes
Speaker 2: off his little Toyota pickup trailers off with the attached
Speaker 2: to olen trail with a full paload trip totally. So
Speaker 2: the deputy just runs back to his cruiser, hops in
Speaker 2: he gives chase. So now we got the Sheriff's deputy
Speaker 2: in high speed pursuit of the Toyota pickup with the
Speaker 2: trailer loaded down with the mini excavator and the dr
Speaker 2: power wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, Edson, he's driving like an amateur NASCAR driver, right,
Speaker 2: he's this high speed car chase reaches top speeds of
Speaker 2: seventy five miles per hour. I'm talking over hill and
Speaker 2: Dale Elizabeth through snowy woods like he's Robert Frost. He's
Speaker 2: trying to get away, right. Edson's taking side roads, He's
Speaker 2: taking dirt roads. He's like in the dukes of Hazzard.
Speaker 2: But he like he thinks he can ditch this small
Speaker 2: town deputy, the small down deputys like, this is not
Speaker 2: Hazard County, and I am not Roscoe Pea coletrane Son,
Speaker 2: and you damn she ain't one of the duke boys. Now,
Speaker 2: at one point, the trailer becomes unhitched like not like
Speaker 2: it gets divorced and it's on mayor yeah, unhitched like
Speaker 2: it's now he is no longer connected to the truck,
Speaker 2: except for Edson had done the due diligence before he
Speaker 2: drove off with the stolen trailer. You see, he'd attached
Speaker 2: the emergency chains for this exact possibility. God, yeah, in
Speaker 2: case the trailer got undone from the pickup truck.
Speaker 1: For the blight.
Speaker 2: Exactly probably most likely, I mean about it. So now
Speaker 2: the trailer is swimming around behind his little Toyota pick
Speaker 2: up as Edson tries like held us straight in the
Speaker 2: curves and flatten the hills, and he loses the sheriff's
Speaker 2: deputy on those country back roads. So I guess at
Speaker 2: this point when he's like, okay, I ditched the deputy,
Speaker 2: where should I go? He goes back into town. According
Speaker 2: to local news reports, Edson eventually drives into the North
Speaker 2: Hyde Park Fire Department parking lot, like like really sun anyway,
Speaker 2: next thing you know, he drives across the lawns of
Speaker 2: two different homes, and his whole dukes of hazard escape
Speaker 2: plan finally ends when he crashes his Toyota truck into
Speaker 2: a stone wall. Boom. Yeah. At this point, he hops
Speaker 2: out makes a break for it. He's like, well, forget
Speaker 2: all that stuff, wasn't my truck. Anyway, he runs through
Speaker 2: the woods, he makes the tree line Elizabeth. He manages
Speaker 2: to ditch the deputy again. So the deputy then calls
Speaker 2: in the canine units. Because even this town, as small
Speaker 2: as they were, I guess maybe a neighboring town or
Speaker 2: maybe this town I don't know, had canine units. Dogs
Speaker 2: are turned loose in the woods. They go off barking
Speaker 2: off after him, slippery as he is. The police dogs
Speaker 2: were successful. They catch up to Edson at this like
Speaker 2: babbling brook, which the news stories were always keen to
Speaker 2: point out, They're we got a babbling brook. I'm like,
Speaker 2: is there another kind of brook, isn't there? Like yeah,
Speaker 2: like a gossipy brook. So, once he's cornered and caught,
Speaker 2: the deputies arrived, they handcuff them, arrest him, and know
Speaker 2: when he's arrested, the cops find meth and suboxone in
Speaker 2: his pockets. A suboxone, if you're not familiar, is typically
Speaker 2: used as an opioid treatment for medication. However, folks can
Speaker 2: get addicted to it since it's essentially a low grade opioid.
Speaker 2: So at this point in the Lamielle County Superior Court,
Speaker 2: fifty one year old Eric Edson of Burlington, Vermont now
Speaker 2: pleads guilty on charges of grand larceny and running from
Speaker 2: the police. He's initially given seven years behind bars. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's reduced to seventeen months in prison. Wow. Now that
Speaker 2: was my man, Eric Edson's first time running from the law,
Speaker 2: or at least the first time he got caught. And
Speaker 2: that's just to introduce you to his modus operandi aka
Speaker 2: the dukes of hazard of meth. Now, next up we'll
Speaker 2: get into his much wilder chase. It was so epic
Speaker 2: even the Coastguard got involved.
Speaker 1: What.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but first these messages and will be back in
Speaker 2: a bit. We're back, Elizabeth. Hey, So now and he
Speaker 2: asked you another question, Yeah, what do you know about
Speaker 2: Burlington Vermont aka home of the Burlington Kochek.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, is there a factory there? Wait,
Speaker 1: that's about all I know.
Speaker 2: Placing my finger to my ear, I'm being told that
Speaker 2: is not correct. Burlington Cote Factory is not from Burlington, Vermont,
Speaker 2: which I always assumed is said. The company of the
Speaker 2: full name Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation was founded in
Speaker 2: Burlington Township, New Jersey. So they try and play it off,
Speaker 2: right yeaheah. They don't act like we're from New Jersey.
Speaker 2: It's much more like we're from Vermont.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're trying to you know.
Speaker 2: The fun fact Burlington Cote Factory was founded by a librarian.
Speaker 2: Interesting she saved up her money and decided to get
Speaker 2: into the coke game. Hey, I don't know. I guess
Speaker 2: a lot of coats were left in the library. She's like,
Speaker 2: I could move these way. Back in nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 2: Henrietta Milstein talked to her husband Monroe, into taking the
Speaker 2: seventy five grand she'd saved up working as a librarian
Speaker 2: and invested in a former factory outlet store in where
Speaker 2: Burlington Township, New Jersey. Seventy five grand that was The
Speaker 2: down payment for the full price for the former factory
Speaker 2: outlet store was six hundred and seventy five thousand back
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy two. Whoa, Now, the first store was
Speaker 2: the success, which led to a second store, and then
Speaker 2: the third store and a fourth store, and you get
Speaker 2: the idea of the rest is history.
Speaker 1: That's a beautiful story.
Speaker 2: Not founded in Burlington, Vermont, as I've always assumed. So
Speaker 2: what is Burlington, Vermont actually known for? Great question? Well,
Speaker 2: turns out the answer is nothing. No, I can't, I can't. Burlington,
Speaker 2: Vermont is a charmingtown. I've been through there numerous times.
Speaker 2: For one, is the largest most populous city in the
Speaker 2: state of Vermont, population forty seven and forty three.
Speaker 1: Wow right wow.
Speaker 2: By hometown a small town Davis, California when I grew up,
Speaker 2: and it was like fifty two thousand, and that was
Speaker 2: like a small We're considered a college town. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is the most populous city in Vermont. That's according
Speaker 2: last census data. Now, the city of Burlington, which is
Speaker 2: its official name City of Burlington, is primarily a college town,
Speaker 2: also home to Champlain College and the University of Vermont. Also,
Speaker 2: it's a popping hub for renewable energy. I learned. Notably,
Speaker 2: it's the first city in the US to be powered
Speaker 2: solely by renewable energy. Go on Burlington, and at one
Speaker 2: time it was the third largest lumber market in the world.
Speaker 2: That was in the nineteenth century. So that's the longer
Speaker 2: the case world. So why am I telling you this.
Speaker 1: All about Burlington Vermont?
Speaker 2: Sure? Well, another great question, Elizabeth. I'm just you're coming
Speaker 2: with your a game. Love that love your curiosity. The
Speaker 2: reason I'm telling you about Burlington, Vermont is because that's
Speaker 2: called setting the stage.
Speaker 1: Oh is that what this is is? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Burlington is where Eric Edson, our Crimer the Day, is
Speaker 2: from and where he would make his name as an
Speaker 2: escape artist. The story goes on August twenty fourth, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three, Edson walks into a store. What store, the
Speaker 2: Sierra Trading Post on five five five Shelbourne Road, come
Speaker 2: down and visit in Burlington, Vermont. Once inside, he gets
Speaker 2: to shopping. Trouble is, he doesn't have the funds to
Speaker 2: pay for his fines. So what does he do? He
Speaker 2: tries to walk out with the stuff.
Speaker 1: We'll just put it back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, no, no, I got it in my hands,
Speaker 2: already really attached these just his shirt would be dope
Speaker 2: on me. So he tries to make it out the door.
Speaker 2: I think he got out the door because, as the
Speaker 2: police bulletin states, quote when I see the era, a
Speaker 2: trading post employee asked Edson to return the merchandise to
Speaker 2: the store. Edson told the employee, dude, I'll blow your
Speaker 2: head off. Whoa, and partially pulled an item that appeared
Speaker 2: to be a firearm from his hooded sweatshirt pocket. So
Speaker 2: apparently this employee thought to himself, I don't get paid
Speaker 2: enough to stop this.
Speaker 1: Well, he's pulling a gun out of the kangaroo pocket
Speaker 1: in his hoodie. Exactly, No, were some outdoor gear.
Speaker 2: Well, if you want to know the stolen goods, his
Speaker 2: haul of merch it consisted of one a backpack, eleven shirts,
Speaker 2: a pair of sneakers, a pair of socks, and a
Speaker 2: water jug o. Yeah, definitely not worth getting your head below.
Speaker 1: No, not at all.
Speaker 2: Altogether, the stolen booty was valued at a grand total
Speaker 2: of three hundred and seventy four dollars. Yeah. So once
Speaker 2: the employee backs off at this point, Edson runs over
Speaker 2: to his waiting vehicle tosses in his ill gotten gains,
Speaker 2: and then the land pirate drives off. Yeah, this is
Speaker 2: how our story begins. Flash forward to a week later,
Speaker 2: August thirtieth, twenty twenty three. Yeah, two officers from the
Speaker 2: Burlington PD are called out to do a welfare check.
Speaker 2: It seems someone has spotted this dude quote passed out
Speaker 2: in a running vehicle. So now these two officers respond
Speaker 2: to the call and they quickly locate the vehicle and
Speaker 2: the still passed out man. Officers step out of their
Speaker 2: patrol car. They walk over to the vehicle and I
Speaker 2: assend like I'm imagining the tapping night stick on the window.
Speaker 2: Sure anyway, Oh, I forgot to mention the vehicle matched
Speaker 2: the description of the car using the robbery at Sierra
Speaker 2: Trading Post a week prior.
Speaker 1: Oh detail.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so their officers have a reason to believe this
Speaker 2: might be the same guy the robber who, as I
Speaker 2: remind you, flashed what looked to be a gun. So
Speaker 2: the Kausea cops approach. They're a little bit wary about
Speaker 2: confronting the passed out man because he could wake up,
Speaker 2: get scared, start blasting. However, since it is their job
Speaker 2: to wake come up. They carefully rouse the man and
Speaker 2: they check to see if he's still alive. Elizabeth, he
Speaker 2: is still alive, very much alive, indeed. And when he
Speaker 2: wakes up and there are two police officers staring down
Speaker 2: at him through the window, he gets heated. No, and
Speaker 2: I quote from the police, he became belligerent and uncoopered. So,
Speaker 2: but that's not all. Apparently the man was no fan
Speaker 2: of cops, so or perhaps he was worried that they
Speaker 2: were there about the whole Sierra Trading Post incident. I
Speaker 2: don't know what his motivation was, but what I do
Speaker 2: know is this, since his car was already running and
Speaker 2: he's now wide awake and in the driver's seat, there's
Speaker 2: only one other thing he needs to do, which is
Speaker 2: pressed down on that gas battle which is empty, right,
Speaker 2: it's right there, So he puts it in gear and
Speaker 2: he floors it. Problem was, the cops were apparently on
Speaker 2: either side or somehow close enough to the car that,
Speaker 2: as the police report states, quote, he fled at a
Speaker 2: high rate of speed, assaulting both officers with the vehicle
Speaker 2: and the process. So they go off their feet. And
Speaker 2: I don't want you to worry about them. They were uninjured.
Speaker 2: They just got knocked down, knocked back, eyes with how
Speaker 2: I imagine it. Anyway, the cops raced back to their cruiser
Speaker 2: and began to chase them in, but try as they might,
Speaker 2: my old land pirate Eric Edson gets away His getaway
Speaker 2: vehicles next spotted where he abandons it in a place
Speaker 2: called the North Avenue Cooperative. Now I was thinking, oh,
Speaker 2: this is Ramont North, I have a new cooperative. I
Speaker 2: bet it's some like commune, like a bunch of like
Speaker 2: aging hippies that are wrong. It was described in local
Speaker 2: news as quote a manufactured home park in Burlington's New
Speaker 2: North End. Okay, so I'm pretty sure that means like
Speaker 2: in newspeak, a trailer park.
Speaker 1: Trailer park.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So anyway, the officers from Burlington PD attempt
Speaker 2: to seize the abandoned vehicle, but while they're waiting for
Speaker 2: the tow truck the cops they spot a man watching
Speaker 2: them who's not too far away. He seems to me
Speaker 2: watching them with intent. So, as you guessed it, it's
Speaker 2: the purp Edson are police have Eric blocked his access
Speaker 2: to what I assume is his stolen vehicle, so he
Speaker 2: does the next best thing. He hooks it. He runs off,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't run for very long because next thing
Speaker 2: you know, he steals a bicycle and he attempts to
Speaker 2: get away on his new hot bike. Also, it seems
Speaker 2: he may have still had the same firearm, because multiple
Speaker 2: eyewitnesses later claimed to have seen him brandishing the handgun.
Speaker 2: So he's on this hot bike waving a handgun around,
Speaker 2: like get away from me or whatever. So he's riding
Speaker 2: around a small town on a stolen bike waving a gun.
Speaker 2: Doesn't take Edson long to do the math. He realizes
Speaker 2: he's going to get caught, so he's like, how far
Speaker 2: can I go fling on two wheels? I'm going to
Speaker 2: need a new getaway vehicle. Yeah, Elizabeth, you want to
Speaker 2: guess what he steals next?
Speaker 1: I have no idea what he could be stealing.
Speaker 2: For your first hint, Edson rides his stolen bike down
Speaker 2: to a place called Apple Tree Bay. Once there, he
Speaker 2: ditches the bike. He spots a much better getaway vehicle,
Speaker 2: a sailboat.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, And he's like a sailboat, not even
Speaker 1: like a craft.
Speaker 2: No, No, that would be like makes too much sense.
Speaker 2: He's like, I almost something I could live on. So
Speaker 2: he's like time for this lampirate to take to the seas.
Speaker 2: So that's exactly what he does. He steals the sailboat
Speaker 2: and like Enya and the Orinoco Flow, he tries to
Speaker 2: sail away, sail away Christopher Cross. Right. So the police
Speaker 2: they can't just commandeer sailboats and they're like tarn it.
Speaker 2: So then they do the next best thing. They contact
Speaker 2: the coast guard. We're going to need you to bring
Speaker 2: in somebody. And they're like, just name the boat, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's on a lady's pleasure. It's just come up. So
Speaker 2: they asked the coast guard to catch this purp.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: It doesn't take the coast guard long to spot Edson
Speaker 2: in his stolen sailboat. I don't know if he's like
Speaker 2: just like like, you know, tacking incorrectly. When you run one.
Speaker 1: Motor to get out, you know of like, uh, you
Speaker 1: know a harbor, harbor, you.
Speaker 2: Don't you don't go very fast, No you're not supposed to.
Speaker 1: But it also just can't.
Speaker 2: Then once you get out in the open seas, you
Speaker 2: still don't go very fast.
Speaker 1: Whole tail in a sailboat with the motor. Now, but
Speaker 1: when the winds up and you get yeah, sure, get
Speaker 1: some speed, but still you could be all America's cups
Speaker 1: slicing through the water.
Speaker 2: It's like a coast guard cutter.
Speaker 1: Oh no, forget about that. You know, game over.
Speaker 2: So they intercept him on the open seas pretty quickly
Speaker 2: and using their coast guard boat. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it was a coast guard cutter, but it'll say a
Speaker 2: coast guard boat. They forced Edson to turn back for land.
Speaker 2: They're like, go back to where you belong.
Speaker 1: They just like circled around in like the donuts.
Speaker 2: So at this point Edson is fully committed to getting away.
Speaker 2: He's like, I've come too far. So he doesn't give up.
Speaker 2: He damned does not the coastguard to tell him what
Speaker 2: to do or board his stolen sailboat. So he does
Speaker 2: head for the like what they're what they're telling him to do.
Speaker 2: He heads for land, but he doesn't stop there. He
Speaker 2: just runs right into land. He runs a sailboat aground.
Speaker 2: Yeah I'm taking like I'm talking like. He smashes the
Speaker 2: boat into like the base of a cliff, a place
Speaker 2: called rock Point, which I have to assume these are
Speaker 2: rocky cliffs, sure, because I do know that all I
Speaker 2: know is this, I'll tell you what I do know Edson.
Speaker 2: He can't just like run aground on sandy shores. One
Speaker 2: there's the keel of the sailboat. I think something deep
Speaker 2: because eventually he's forced to leap from the boat onto
Speaker 2: wet rocks. And what we do know for sure is,
Speaker 2: as the police report states he abandoned the craft.
Speaker 1: It's like he's going out of his way at every
Speaker 1: step to make it worse.
Speaker 2: The next Edson continues on foot, he now does his
Speaker 2: patented Edson move. He runs off into the woods, and
Speaker 2: the one the woods that surround the cliffs at Rock Point.
Speaker 2: So at this point, you know, it's like when in doubt,
Speaker 2: head for the woods. That's what my daddy taught me exactly.
Speaker 2: So at this point, officers the local Colchester Police Department
Speaker 2: arrive on the scene to help catch this slippery purf.
Speaker 2: But those officers, they're up at the top of the cliffs,
Speaker 2: and thus they couldn't locate Edson down where he is
Speaker 2: because he's below them and he's run into the woods.
Speaker 2: But they can see him kind of like darting between
Speaker 2: the trees. So they call out to him, like, hey, buddy,
Speaker 2: where have you surrounded, come out with your hands up.
Speaker 2: The cops trive this multiple times to quote, make contact
Speaker 2: and start negotiations. So now we have a multi jurisdictional
Speaker 2: task force of officers working the same scene. You have
Speaker 2: the Coast guardsmen from the Coast Guard working the shore.
Speaker 2: You have the original Burlington cops working alongside with cops
Speaker 2: from the Colchester PD. They're soon joined by officers from
Speaker 2: the University of Vermont PD, along with canine cops from
Speaker 2: the Essex Police Department. Total task force. Meanwhile, the Burlington
Speaker 2: PD turns to yet another agency for help, the Vermont
Speaker 2: Department of Fish and Wildlife. Everybody, he's in the woods Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: They're like, well, that's your jurisdiction. So, according to BPD,
Speaker 2: as the police the latter report and their bulletin on
Speaker 2: the ongoing manhunt, quote, it was thanks to their efforts
Speaker 2: that BPD personnel was able to get on to shore
Speaker 2: to search the Rock Point area. Now, altogether, with all
Speaker 2: this assistance, this task force of multiple law enforcement agencies,
Speaker 2: they still cannot find or locate Edson or apprehend him.
Speaker 2: Even with the canine unit on the case. This time,
Speaker 2: he's able to evade the dogs so he escapes fully
Speaker 2: into the woods. So the police, the cops, they turned
Speaker 2: to the public for help. They put out bulletins with
Speaker 2: photos of Edson and they basically tell the public, if
Speaker 2: you see this man, call us for now. Up to
Speaker 2: August thirty first. One week later, the Burlington PD put
Speaker 2: out yet another police bulletin. It's an update on their
Speaker 2: manhunt and the update is Edson is spotted in a
Speaker 2: neighboring town in nearby Fairfax, Vermont. Their officers informed the
Speaker 2: public quote, police are seeking the public's help and locating
Speaker 2: a man who was involved in an armed robbery and
Speaker 2: pursued in Burlington last week. Police release surveillance photos of
Speaker 2: Eric Edson today. The fifty two year old has wanted
Speaker 2: for the robbery of a man on Goose Pond Road.
Speaker 2: Edson has also wondered for the theft of multiple vehicles
Speaker 2: in Cambridge and Fairfax. So you want to take a
Speaker 2: guess at what new to him vehicle Edson at this
Speaker 2: point has stolen for his prolonged flight from the law.
Speaker 1: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: Stop guessing, Elizabeth, you never guess.
Speaker 1: I'll never guess it.
Speaker 2: As the Fairfax PD explained in their bulletin. Edson has
Speaker 2: quote been most recently seen operating a full sized John
Speaker 2: Deere tractor in the Fairfax area. No, but his means
Speaker 2: of transportation at this point are unknown.
Speaker 1: He's just going for slower and slower vehicles.
Speaker 2: He's like, it's slow, let's wrong, I'll do it. So
Speaker 2: he's now got this big hass green and yellow John
Speaker 2: Deere tractor as his getaway vehicle in small town from
Speaker 2: hot I also, I have to assume he is not
Speaker 2: sober for most of his Did he stole a John
Speaker 2: Dear tractor?
Speaker 1: Tractor jack? Somebody like out there in the field just
Speaker 1: shoved him off.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: I think he came upon like a basically a house
Speaker 2: and he saw the tractor was just sitting at jack
Speaker 2: up on a guy get off the track, shoves him off,
Speaker 2: his hand in his pouch pocket for his exactly stealing
Speaker 2: a full sized tractor. That just smacks of being high
Speaker 2: as hell. In my book, that's methad logic, right. And
Speaker 2: it's not like he's gonna steal a tractor and be
Speaker 2: like I'm going to make a run for the Canadian border.
Speaker 1: Now, there's no logic to any of them.
Speaker 2: None whatsoever. You cannot find a path to loge.
Speaker 1: I want to stop and say, now, honestly, how do
Speaker 1: you think this is going to play out?
Speaker 2: I shouldn't be laughing, But apparently the police chief of Burlington,
Speaker 2: John Murrad, knew that people would be laughing because he
Speaker 2: came forward to warn the public that quote. Because of
Speaker 2: the unusualness of mister Edson's various modes of flight, from
Speaker 2: cars to bikes, to paddle boards, to sailboats to tractors,
Speaker 2: it's easy to lose sight of the fact that mister
Speaker 2: Edson is a dangerous person. Don't you laugh?
Speaker 1: Guys, He's silly, but he's dangerous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's still likely ar yeah, his packet. He also,
Speaker 2: by the way, the gun could be a water gun.
Speaker 2: Nobody has seen him fire it or even really get ready.
Speaker 2: You know, it could just be like, hey, I got
Speaker 2: a gun. It could could be a toy gun. Who knows. Anyway,
Speaker 2: So we have this dude probably flying high on math,
Speaker 2: possibly armed with the fire arm, possibly arm with the
Speaker 2: water gun, whatever, stealing whatever he can go that goes slowly. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So and to go where where is he trying to get?
Speaker 2: To question? Well, because you know I joked earlier about
Speaker 2: making a run for the border. Yeah, but it's not
Speaker 2: like he was actually close to the Canadian border where
Speaker 2: they are in Vermont. It's like sixty miles, like fifty
Speaker 2: to seventy miles, So i'll say sixty miles away. That's
Speaker 2: a bit of a drive on a John Deere tractor.
Speaker 1: That is.
Speaker 2: Now, that's like a plot of like a movie, you know,
Speaker 2: trying to make the run for the border.
Speaker 1: You have to stop and fill up that tank right now.
Speaker 2: The next update the please share with the public is
Speaker 2: that Edson's still at large, is driving around the area,
Speaker 2: but he'd stolen a new vehicle. Oh no, don't worry.
Speaker 2: I won't make you guess this time. I'll just tell
Speaker 2: you what it is. Or rather I'll let the Burlington
Speaker 2: and Fairfax pd tell you. According to the latest bulletin
Speaker 2: on the ongoing man hunt, Edson had stolen yet another
Speaker 2: slow moving get away vehicle, as a Burlington DPD put
Speaker 2: it quote. Surveillance footage showed Edson on Goose Pond Road
Speaker 2: in Fairfax on Wednesday. One image shows him approaching the
Speaker 2: door of her residence. The second shows him operating a
Speaker 2: stolen dump truck. A dump truck Elizabeth, he's now harmed
Speaker 2: in dangerous hi giraffe eyebrows driving a stolen dump truck
Speaker 2: around the backwards of Vermont.
Speaker 1: You gotta give him credit, though they haven't caught him yet.
Speaker 2: Right, it's apparently working. So how far can he possibly
Speaker 2: get in a stolen dump truck? And what is he
Speaker 2: going to steal next? Well, rather than tell you that,
Speaker 2: I'd like you to close your eyes and I'd like
Speaker 2: you to picture it. It's a calm Thursday in September,
Speaker 2: September seventh, twenty twenty three, to be exact. And you, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: are working as a game warden for the Vermont Department
Speaker 2: of Fish and Wildlife. It's early afternoon, just after lunchtime
Speaker 2: for lunch, you enjoyed one of those bowls of ruffage
Speaker 2: you like rabbit food your coworkers like to call it. Anyway,
Speaker 2: Just after you finish your rabbit food lunch, your radio
Speaker 2: squawks to light A tip has been called in. The
Speaker 2: notorious land pirate Eric Edson has been spotted all no
Speaker 2: longer driving the stolen dump truck. You hear the report
Speaker 2: that he's been seeing on the Lambiel River paddling what's
Speaker 2: presumed to be a stolen kayak. You know you're not
Speaker 2: that far from the river, so you run to your truck,
Speaker 2: fired up and head over to the location where Edson
Speaker 2: was last spotted. When you arrived there, there's a makeshift
Speaker 2: task force of multiple law enforcement agencies in their vehicles.
Speaker 2: There's all kinds of cop cars from neighboring towns parked
Speaker 2: alongside trucks from your co workers at the Vermont Department
Speaker 2: of Fish and Wildlife. You hop out and use your
Speaker 2: radio to find out the latest. Your radio squawks again
Speaker 2: with a report back. Edson is still on the river.
Speaker 2: You head down to the water's edge, not far from
Speaker 2: Vermont Route one oh four A, and you stomp your
Speaker 2: way through the underbrush of twigs and summer dried leaves.
Speaker 2: You hear someone a splashing in the river. When you
Speaker 2: break through the woods, you spot it there. He is
Speaker 2: paddling like hell, headed up river. You call out to him, Eric, Edson,
Speaker 2: we have you surrounded. Edson spins around on a kayak
Speaker 2: and spots you on the northern bank of the river.
Speaker 2: Then he cranes his neck around the other way. It
Speaker 2: sees all kinds of cops pushing through the woods on
Speaker 2: the southern bank of the river. He decides to chance
Speaker 2: it on your side. He paddles towards you on the
Speaker 2: northern bank. You snake through the trees and try to
Speaker 2: catch up to him before he can disappear again into
Speaker 2: the woods. You call out again, Edson, freeze, you're under arrest.
Speaker 2: That's about as useless as bring an all beef franks
Speaker 2: to a vegan pot. Look Edson sets foot on dry
Speaker 2: land and immediately starts running. You give chase. The twigs
Speaker 2: and leaves sound beneath your hiking boots. You're far faster
Speaker 2: than he expects you are. You draw within about twenty
Speaker 2: feet of him to get away. He decides to double
Speaker 2: back for the river. He stops running when he reaches
Speaker 2: a wide flat rock at the river shore. He turns
Speaker 2: back and yells, oh innocent. You look at him like
Speaker 2: Tommy Lee Jones, and you coolly tell him I don't care.
Speaker 2: In response, he turns towards the river and he jumps
Speaker 2: off the wide flat rock with a mighty splash. He
Speaker 2: drops back into the river. Then he attempts to slim across.
Speaker 2: You watch from the shore as he tries to make
Speaker 2: it across that wide, slow moving river. He does make
Speaker 2: it on the southern bank. He crawls out, sopping wet.
Speaker 2: He waves back at you and then disappears into the woods.
Speaker 2: You can hear the cops on the other side as
Speaker 2: they spot them, and they release the dogs. Moments later,
Speaker 2: you're radio squawks to life again. Eric Heedsen has been
Speaker 2: caught near the Georgia Mountain Road. You may not have
Speaker 2: caught him, but you're damn sure glad you did your
Speaker 2: part to bring in the most wanted man, the ever
Speaker 2: slippery Eric Edson. Nice work, game Ward and Elizabeth, thank you.
Speaker 2: As soon as he's busted, Eric Edson requests a medical evaluation.
Speaker 2: That means fire and rescue. You have to come out.
Speaker 2: And now we got a larger task force. Members of
Speaker 2: the Milton Police Department and the Franklin County Sheriff's Office
Speaker 2: I just keep naming. They're also on the scene to
Speaker 2: provide support when Edson's taken into custody. Not to mention
Speaker 2: the Colchester and the Essex Police departments who also dispatched
Speaker 2: resources to assist. What a chase. It was like the fugitive,
Speaker 2: except in your case. Eventually, you and all these cops
Speaker 2: and game Wards and Coast guardsmen, you all finally get
Speaker 2: your man. So let's take a little break and now
Speaker 2: he's been caught. Catch a breather, and when we get back,
Speaker 2: we'll find out what justice looks like for a land
Speaker 2: pirate in Vermont. That look like we're back, Elizabethaber. You
Speaker 2: ready to hear how this mad methkaper comes to a
Speaker 2: tiger close? Yes, well, now that Eric Edson is caught,
Speaker 2: what does justice look like? Well? Edson goes to court
Speaker 2: the very next day, on Friday, just one day after
Speaker 2: all you apprehended him, and just like he said to you,
Speaker 2: he denies it was him. I'm innocent, as the local
Speaker 2: headlines proclaimed, armed robbery suspect who evaded police for a
Speaker 2: week denies charges in court, which makes perfect sense. I
Speaker 2: mean he's facing multiple charges. Of course, you know he's
Speaker 2: going to do his best impression of the singer Shaggy
Speaker 2: and say it wasn't me.
Speaker 1: He's got to have a public defender, and they're always
Speaker 1: pushing for just kind of deals.
Speaker 2: Oh pretty much. So when he's standing there in the
Speaker 2: Crittenden County Superior County Criminal Court, Edson enters a not
Speaker 2: guilty plea at his arraignment. The charges he's facing, by
Speaker 2: the way, are assault for how he tossed the two
Speaker 2: cops from the wellness check sure when he first fled.
Speaker 2: And then also he's got the original robbery charges from
Speaker 2: the Sierra Trading Post and forget that which involved a
Speaker 2: weapon allegedly, right, and then you have to add in
Speaker 2: all of the stolen vehicles. For instance, Elizabeth. For just
Speaker 2: the stolen sailboat, Edson faced quote two counts of unauthorized
Speaker 2: use of a boat and three counts of careless and
Speaker 2: negligent operation of a vessel as the result of the
Speaker 2: alleged theft of a sailboat. Yeah, so he's facing multiple
Speaker 2: charges just from the seilboat. And then you add in
Speaker 2: the stolen bike, the stolen John Dear tractor, don't forget
Speaker 2: the dump truck. Each of those separate charges with the
Speaker 2: related driving charges anytime he got he was He's not
Speaker 2: like he was speeding, but you know, reckless endangerment. Of course,
Speaker 2: there's also the charges for running from the law. Naturally,
Speaker 2: the judge recognizes that Edson is what we call a
Speaker 2: clear flight risk. Yeah, that's his whole mo. So the
Speaker 2: judge orders have held without bail. Edson gets locked up
Speaker 2: the north West State Correctional Facility in Saint Albans, Vermont.
Speaker 2: Perhaps his time behind bars allows him to like sober up.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but he eventually realizes what sort of
Speaker 2: time he's going to be facing. So because he recants,
Speaker 2: he's not guilty, plead Instead, Edson takes a plea deal.
Speaker 2: Like you said, he gets offered a pleae deal. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but that was just the local charges. Edson was still
Speaker 2: facing federal charges Coastcard.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So you see, the day after he was first caught,
Speaker 2: a federal grand jury had been convened, and the federal
Speaker 2: grand jury returned to simple one count indictment based on
Speaker 2: the Hobbes Act. What's well, on November eighth, he settles
Speaker 2: those federal charges because he accepted an offer from the
Speaker 2: US Attorney's office that was to settle the charges that
Speaker 2: he violated the Hobbs Act. And as you are wondering, Zaren,
Speaker 2: what the heck is the Hobbs Act, I asked the
Speaker 2: bust question the absolute best. I'm really glad you asked,
Speaker 2: because according to the Department of Justice, the Hobbs Act
Speaker 2: quote is prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion affecting
Speaker 2: interstate or foreign commerce. Maybe maybe wondering how does that
Speaker 2: apply in this instance? Well, luckily the DOJ helpfully explains
Speaker 2: on its website. Although the Hobs Act was enacted as
Speaker 2: a statute to combat racketeering and labor management disputes, the
Speaker 2: statute is frequently used in connection with cases involving public corruption,
Speaker 2: commercial disputes, violent criminals and street gangs, and corruption directed
Speaker 2: at members of labor unions.
Speaker 1: And I still am not seeing how that.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing Edson qualifies as a violent criminal because at
Speaker 2: the Sierra Trading Post having been gone, it starts us
Speaker 2: all off. Or perhaps he's a one man street gang.
Speaker 2: Who knows, or perhaps the maybe the Sierra Trading Post
Speaker 2: was a member for labor union this was I don't know.
Speaker 2: But in response to his plea deal in December of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, Edson was convicted and sentenced to four
Speaker 2: years in federal prison with a subsequent three years of
Speaker 2: supervised release, which means he got less time for this
Speaker 2: one than the first one I told you about.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it is justice.
Speaker 2: And so ends the mad Methkaper of the Land Pirate.
Speaker 2: The Burlington bandit. So what's a ridiculous takeaway here, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: Let's see, I think stay off drugs.
Speaker 2: That's a good one.
Speaker 1: And always you always have to think through like what
Speaker 1: am I seeking here? What relief do I seek? Or
Speaker 1: what outcome am I seeking?
Speaker 2: And I'm just.
Speaker 1: Really curious, like if you were to sit him down
Speaker 1: and try and get him clear headed and say, how
Speaker 1: do you see this completely playing out?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, totally. I don't think he's the endgame. I
Speaker 2: don't think he ever had one. I mean based on
Speaker 2: his like, oh, I'm going to steal the dump truck,
Speaker 2: I'm a steal a tractor. I think he was very
Speaker 2: much as you know some of like the life coaches
Speaker 2: that some of the Buddhists might say is live in
Speaker 2: the moment. He was very much living in the moment.
Speaker 1: Well, and as I harp on impulse control, yes, he
Speaker 1: has zero.
Speaker 2: Slow and low. It is the tempo.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like the thought crosses his mind and he
Speaker 1: just does it. There's zero impulse control. So his impulse
Speaker 1: is I have to run. I have to get away.
Speaker 1: They can't catch me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, can't get caught again? Are you going back?
Speaker 1: So there's a boat, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And also sailboats that seems fun.
Speaker 1: You know who doesn't like them?
Speaker 2: The other ones run out again, this doesn't run out
Speaker 2: of wind.
Speaker 1: That's right, I can just go forever, Zaren, what's your
Speaker 1: ridiculous Oh thank you for asking?
Speaker 2: What day is it? My birthday is? Wow. Well, since
Speaker 2: you're interested, I will say this, how many Keystone cops
Speaker 2: in Vermont did it take to catch him? How many
Speaker 2: agencies did I list off? I mean I lost track personally,
Speaker 2: I don't even know.
Speaker 1: Human hours dedicated to this one right goofball?
Speaker 2: Like, I'm just I was blown away, like how many?
Speaker 2: Like I'm like, you guys like there's like thirty five
Speaker 2: cops involved, maybe seventy five. I have no idea. This
Speaker 2: is a ridiculous number. And then you guys are still
Speaker 2: like it took them weeks to catch up.
Speaker 1: That's what I can.
Speaker 2: And these are small towns. It's like, can you just
Speaker 2: like cordon off the parts of the streets and be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I know he's in the woods and stuff, but I mean, like.
Speaker 1: Honestly, if he were down in the South.
Speaker 2: It would have shot him. No, they had when I lived.
Speaker 1: Down there, on the news, when people would do these
Speaker 1: sort of things. They drag their mama out and the
Speaker 1: mom wol you got to come in. You got to
Speaker 1: come in. You cannot do this. You are hurting me,
Speaker 1: you are hurting our family. And then like you know,
Speaker 1: the next day he turns himself in.
Speaker 2: I like that. We both went into junior immediately. You
Speaker 2: just know exactly that is so true though, this is
Speaker 2: exactly what would happened in this out. They would they
Speaker 2: pull out mama and she a big, big mob either
Speaker 2: one whoever's living, and he's the oldest woman in the family, right,
Speaker 2: and she's gonna like shame him for what he's done and.
Speaker 1: Tell him like this, this ain't right. You have got
Speaker 1: to come home. You've got to turn yourself in.
Speaker 2: And nine times nine times it's amazing. So you in
Speaker 2: the mood for a talkback and watch this all down
Speaker 2: talkbacks pretucerd can you favor us with one? Oh my god,
Speaker 2: because I love ge.
Speaker 3: Hell over, dude. Just someone goes out to a visit.
Speaker 3: But check out the Note Gallery. It has everything from
Speaker 3: art forgeries and how do you say cucumber. Alec Baldwin
Speaker 3: did a podcast on.
Speaker 4: It, and the art director of the gallery who only
Speaker 4: bought the forged painting because it had a signature that
Speaker 4: misspelled Jackson Pollock's name.
Speaker 3: Check it out, love you guys.
Speaker 1: Bye, Oh my god, that's incredible typo.
Speaker 2: But is that legal protection?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, this is Jackson.
Speaker 1: Pollack Colick Pollick. Yeah, that actually could that's good cover?
Speaker 2: Right? Is it a crime off by one letter? Go?
Speaker 2: I love it well as always. You can find us
Speaker 2: online Ridiculous Crime on social media that's mostly Instagram and
Speaker 2: blues Guide. On Instagram you can find pictures of all
Speaker 2: the crimes we talk about and other delectable bits. And
Speaker 2: on blue Sky you can find uh, you know, the
Speaker 2: good links. So there you go. And also we have
Speaker 2: our account Ridiculous Crime Pod on YouTube. There you see
Speaker 2: a really cool version of animated version and not of
Speaker 2: the story, but of us telling the story. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: we have our website ridiculous Crime dot com, which I
Speaker 2: believe is up for a Nobel Peace Prize. Don't tell
Speaker 2: the President. Yes. Finally, and obviously we love your talkback,
Speaker 2: so please go download the iHeart app, download it, leave
Speaker 2: us a talkback and maybe hear your voice here. We'd
Speaker 2: love to hear it. And also you can email us
Speaker 2: if you want Everydiculous Crime at gmail dot comb. Thank
Speaker 2: you for listening. We will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime.
Speaker 2: It is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnette, produced
Speaker 2: and edited by the light Fingered Fellow of Providence, Rhode Island,
Speaker 2: Dave Kustin, and starring Annalis Rucker as who. The research
Speaker 2: is by the ever fleet footed riverboat Pirate Marissa Brown
Speaker 2: and the water running Jesus Liver Jabbari Davis. Our theme
Speaker 2: song is by a resident house band, the Hans Zimmer
Speaker 2: who stole the keys to Mobima Thomas and Travis Dunton.
Speaker 2: The host wardrobe provided by Body five hundred. Guest hair
Speaker 2: and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are
Speaker 2: Atlanta's Most Wanted, The Perfectly Purloined Purpose, Ben Bolin and
Speaker 2: Mowling Brown.
Speaker 1: Pdicous Cry Say It.
Speaker 2: One More Time Giquious Cry. Ridiculous Crime is a production
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio.