WEBVTT - You, Me and the Stanford Tree 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.400 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:06.680 Elizabeth Dutton Zaren Damn. Glad to see you. 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:07.880 I am so glad to see you. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:09.920 I got a question for you, Yes, sir? Do you 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:10.799 know what's ridiculous? 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:16.360 I do share chocolate. It's ridiculously good. 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.600 I'm with you. You love chocolate, I mean in a 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:19.919 ridiculous announce You know. 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:21.560 Do you like truffles? 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:23.759 Oh? Like the chocolate cover Yeah? 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:26.639 Not the ones that yeah, I like the ones that 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:28.040 pigs don't find right. 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:29.680 So the chocolate e ones you're into that. 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:32.279 Whatever, Let's pretend I am have. 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:33.519 I got the truffles for you. 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.760 Okay. 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.080 Did you know that May second is National Truffle Day? 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.120 I did not. I did not. 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.800 We're recording this in May, yes, uh, mid mid late May, 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:50.360 so to celebrate National Truffle Day. May second. Put that 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.320 in your calendar. Let me get my pen Uller High Life, 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:58.440 The Champagne Appears is partnering with award winning tier and 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:04.760 entrepreneur Philip to create Miller High Life. Barshnacks Truffles, a 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.559 collection of great tasting chocolate confections that toast to iconic 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.839 flavors and memories made in bars everywhere. So they have 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:14.320 what is this six flavors? 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:16.800 You're gonna tell me what they are? 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:17.679 Of course I am. 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.800 What are they? Elizabeth grilled cheese, god. 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.120 So decadent, triple cream cheese, white chocolate ganash, and a 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:31.320 blonde chocolate shell. Lemon pepper chicken wing, an innovative fried 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.880 chicken ganash infused with lemon pepper seasoning. 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:36.080 There's four more. 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:41.880 Pretzel pretzel prayleein that doesn't sound too crazy. Beer nut 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.080 freshly roasted peanuts soaked in the Champagne of beers, then 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:50.120 ground into our fragrant beer nut butter and robed in 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.200 a milk chocolate shell. Buttery popcorn. 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:53.480 They're not even trying anymore. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:54.800 No sweet potato fry. 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.880 Okay, you know that there's a company or I guess 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.160 like the whole champagne industry, and Rant is currently trying 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.360 to sue Miller for calling themselves the Champagne of beer. 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.240 But you think about it, Champagne is kind of the 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:08.080 Miller of wines. 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:14.600 One let me tell you one more thing. There is 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:16.560 a final Boss of truffles. 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:17.960 I was trying to. 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:23.280 So both of these, both the Miller and the one 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.639 I'm about to tell you about. We've been getting a lot, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:30.040 like a lot, a lot, a lot of this compartise 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:33.960 is a chocolate tear and they teamed up with Velvetda 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.240 to create truff Vels, the first ever chocolate cheese truffle. 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.040 Now they may have a bone to pick with the 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.160 Miller High Life. They got some cheese up in there, Yeah, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:50.160 they did. Truff Vels brings the deliciously creamy and iconic 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:54.839 Velveta drip to the world of compartise or like one 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.520 has the accent over the at the end campartise or 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:02.760 compart whatever. This place the chocolate company. They're gourmet luxury 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:07.560 chocolate for whatever reason, they're slumming with Velveta. Yeah, so 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.320 chocolate and Velveta. Okay, you done? No, I'm not done. 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.679 Oh they're made to look like those don't look like 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.200 normal truffles like shells. They look like pasta shells. 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:21.639 Wait, they quick pasta shells like their little like macaroni 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:22.040 and cheese. 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:26.240 Did I stutter like, like you know this shell you 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:27.840 put fancy mac fancy? 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:28.680 Okay, you know if. 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:33.320 You're fancy and you use Velveda in your macaroni and cheese. Okay, 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:34.079 there it is. 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.360 Yeah, that qualifies hundred percent ridiculous. 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:38.040 That was thank you if you got a second, I 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.600 got something for you always Okay. Do you know there 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.800 was a once a two week long hostage crisis, complete 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.640 with proof of life videos, Fax communicates release demands, a 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:53.320 Patty her style kidnap victim, siding with the kidnappers in 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.760 the wildest part Elizabeth. In the end, the kidnapping victim 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.320 was put into a wood chipper. But it's okay, that's okay. 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.800 The victim was a college mascot, the Stanford Tree. 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:24.640 Oh, I just went through such a roller coaster of emotions. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.920 This is ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:34.239 Heist in cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:41.520 and one ridiculous. Oh Saren, Yeah, look at that, Jenks. Okay, 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:43.520 you are a Bay Area native. 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:44.279 Yes I am. 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.520 You are from Oakland, Yes I am. You have family 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:48.599 who attended col. 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.279 Yes, I am the family shame because I didn't go 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:53.880 to cow like everybody else. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:54.880 Oh, it runs that deep. 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.000 Yeah, I went to UC Davis multiple what they call 0:04:58.120 --> 0:04:58.880 the farm school. 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.720 Yeah, actually, yeah, the the farm to caw or. 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.840 Yeah, there's a superior cal Davis say that out of insecurity. 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:08.040 Well, I like to imagine that you have a few 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.480 thoughts and opinions about the Big Game. Oh yes, yeah, okay, Now, 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:13.600 of course around these parts of the Bay Area, that's 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.880 the annual football game between long standing rivals Cal Berkeley 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.600 and Stanford. Now, what do you remember the Big Game 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:20.000 when you were a. 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.600 Kid, Well, we always went, did you, Yeah, you witnessed. 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.600 We'd walk over to the to the game growing up 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.520 and then or my grandparents were Stanford fans and lived 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:31.800 in Paloelto. 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.120 N family division, so I would go over. 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.600 A lot of times to see them on that weekend. 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:42.040 And oh the game against your calams, like come totally 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.800 like decked out in in calgear and sit there with 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:49.320 all the fine swells for Stanford. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.279 You did it even crazier. I thought you were going 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.920 to go basically side against your cal family. You guys 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.839 sit with the Stanford people. You would take your colgear. 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.760 Yes, yes, I would, I like a kid. 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:01.880 No, No, I don't know. 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:06.760 You don't know that. Yeah, you cow kids are crazy. Well, 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.320 there was in the Big Game. I did a bunch 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.760 of research on the Big Game because, uh, like at 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:14.760 one time there used to be like a really big 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:16.680 event in the Bay Area, and I was reading about 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:18.839 how quote there was a time when the Boosters took 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.160 over San Francisco on the Friday night before the game, 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.680 with reports of pet bands playing from the roofs of 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.320 street cars. Oh yeah, I was like, wait, what, like, 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.279 how wild is that depicture going down like Market Street? 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.320 Just the street cars and people are all these drunks 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.839 are shouting and screaming about cal Berkeley. 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.240 Yeah, I guess or Stanford likely. 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:37.840 I think there was less to do then. 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:39.520 Yeah, that's true. That is very true. 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.160 When I first moved to nor Call my family, the 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.720 Big Game was still a big deal. Like the dads 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.880 and moms of all my friends, the really pretentious ones, 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:49.440 the ones they wanted you to know they went to 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.559 Stanford and cow They would go crazy big game weekend, 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:55.400 maybe driving around Davis with their cardinal red or they're 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:56.039 blue and gold. 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:56.680 Is it blue and gold? 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:56.839 Right? 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:58.360 Yeah? Not blue and gold. 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.960 Yeah, I'm like nine years old, right, So I'm like, sorry, 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:03.680 I've never heard of either of your schools. I'm from 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.120 sec Land, none that we don't talk about any of this, 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:07.320 But I love your Big Game. 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:08.279 That's it's cute. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.320 But anyways, so to be fair, though, Cal had a 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.120 good football team at one time, Like Aaron Rodgers went there, 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.880 he was a quarterback Tony Gonzalez. Like and Stanford, they 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:19.600 were also pretty good at times. 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:20.440 People have heard of them. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:22.040 Yeah, I know, like they had good goal they have 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.440 good coaching, they have had good players. But these days 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:27.840 both teams are pretty bad. So the big game, it's 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:29.960 not so easy to get excited when they're one and five. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.320 I will tell you everyone I know who went to Cal, 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.679 when their team is criticized, will say to a supporter 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.560 of whatever other team, well, how many Nobel Laureates do 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.480 you have at your college? That's how Cal rolls. 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:43.480 That's so Cal. 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.680 Oh man, Okay, well you know what, like, is there 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.560 an element on the periodic table of elements named after. 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.560 Yeah, there's no Stanford and so yeah, good point. You 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:54.280 got us on that. 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.360 And I got to say, growing up in Davis, they 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.640 like they kind of like bass in the like radiant 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.680 glow that they were once attached to Berkeley because they 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.560 literally were the farm, the experimental farm for Berkeley, and then 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.280 they became their own university. They're always like, yeah, we're 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:13.680 like Cal Davis, you know, like that's so huge anyway, 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.640 So it turns out that the Big Game, it used 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:18.640 to be a big deal, and it's no longer such 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:20.320 a big deal, like you don't even these days. You 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.120 can drive around the Bay that weekend and not even 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.880 tell right. But I thought it was because the teams 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.520 got bad, and that's not the case, it turns out, 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.840 and when I looked into it, it was actually intentionally squelched. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.200 The Big Game and all the antics. 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:35.840 And everything we used to occur when we were kids, 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.800 that's all been downplayed. And the reason why is because 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:40.199 of the story I'm going to tell you about the 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:42.760 nineteen ninety eight Stanford Tree kidnapping. 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:43.600 Oh my gosh. 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:45.800 Yeah, that was the moment when the schools decided, you know, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:47.320 we need to put an end all this fun. This 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.640 is not going somewhere. Well now, the thing about the 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.600 Stanford Cow rivalry is it's really old, right, It goes back. 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.600 But also so do their mascots. There's mascots have great 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:02.080 stories to them. Question, do you know how the cow 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:03.400 mascot is a bear? 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.479 Right? Did you know that the first cow bear mascots 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:07.439 were real bears? 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:08.960 I did not know that. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.600 Yes, like in nineteen thirty, the cow football team decided, 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:14.280 you know, what the hell, and they brought out a 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.000 real bear as their school's mascot for games. Up til then, 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.360 they really hadn't had a mascot. They're like, let's go 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.200 hard full bear. So they bring out a real life bear. 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.280 The kids love it, right, So for five years they 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.040 got a real bear on the sidelines. But there's a problem, 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:28.880 you know with a real live bear, which is it's 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.360 a real live bear. So they had what they called 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.320 control problems because there's a notoriously bad football fans. They 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.960 find the game boring or they're mundane, and they're like, look, 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:39.600 let me just to scratch somebody. 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.320 You know, I have a right to do that. Yeah, 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:42.679 I support that. 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.040 No, I'm a hardcore football fans, so I have to 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.400 disagree with the Bears on this. But regardless, six years later, 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.280 right nineteen forty one, the school trots out a man 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.600 in a bear suit as the new mascot because of 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.920 all the control problems with the live bears. Right now, 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:59.760 when I say a bear suit, I'm being really generous. Yeah, 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.240 this was the new mascot was a dude wearing an 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:03.200 oversized sweater. 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.000 And added to this, he was just a big hairy 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:06.720 fella real. 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.440 Well kind of but a picture a pair of gold 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.760 shoes specifically sized thirteen and a half, snazzy atop his head. 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.240 He wore a bear head. Ok but the bear head 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.640 was just a football helmet with some first stretched over 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:20.120 it and some ears stitched on. 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.560 Right. But the kids, they loved it. They see this 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:24.640 guy running around. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:26.080 Like they said, they didn't have a lot to do 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:27.040 that exactly. 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:28.760 They're like, oh man, the guy in the sweater and 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.240 the bear had this is amazing. Kids are cheering him on. 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:33.240 So he decided, you know what, I'm gonna give this 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.160 guy a name. He starts calling himself Oski. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.040 Yeah that's what they're still called. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.719 Yes, So Oscar the Bear is born that day in 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:45.559 nineteen whatever, thirty forty one, right September, September forty one. Okay, 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.360 so legend is born Osky the Bear. Now this bear, 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.400 this man in the bear suit, nobody knew who it 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.160 was for fifty eight years, really kept a secret for 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.120 fifty eight years. There was a whole deal, like was 0:10:58.160 --> 0:10:59.839 the pride of being Oscy was like. 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:01.160 The anonymity of it. 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.360 Yeah, So in nineteen ninety nine, a dude named William 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.400 c Rockwell. He comes forward and he confesses that he 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.079 is Oski. But he'd only done it for a few 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:11.760 years because eventually put down the Bearhead and he went 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.080 to war in World War Two. You over seas right 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:16.640 for him, But he created such a legend that somebody 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:18.120 else picked up the bear Head. 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:19.840 And they stayed anonymous. 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.280 Yes, and then they've just continued doing the tradition, I guess. 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.440 And so there's even a secret society to this day 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:29.120 that's dedicated to protecting the secret identity whoever is the 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:29.960 current Oscar. 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:31.400 Wow. I did not know that. 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:33.440 They also safeguard the mascot itself. 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:35.240 Did you have a mascot in high school, like a 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:36.480 costume that people wore. 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.880 Yeah, the Blue Devils, Yeah, but it was very small. 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:40.680 It was just like a trident and like a hat 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:41.839 like a lot. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.720 We were in high school. We were the monarchs, not butterflies. 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:50.400 Like the Kings and queens. Lion, yeah, oh, the king yet. 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:53.319 And there was a really busted up old lion costume 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:55.600 like that. It looked like it was made out of 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.640 old carpet and it was just just tattered and tattered 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.360 and just smelled, patches are missing, and it was short 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.720 and so like you had to get a short girl 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.880 at the high school. Yeah, and so one one time 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.600 someone was a little tall for it. And look comfortables 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.720 are showing wells. The torso she had over all. 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:16.520 The time, you don't rip the stand up straight. 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:18.760 Then had this really bootsy hood. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.760 And my friend had a pink bunny costume he used 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:22.360 to wear down to. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.600 Bar sometimes because he was his own mascot. 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.440 Yeah, it's basically it a full pink bunny costume with 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:29.200 the head and everything. 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.360 Take it off just to drink, they put it back on. 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:33.160 It was awesome. 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.040 So anyway, anyway, yeah, back to Stanford, they also have 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:37.720 a mascot. 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:39.960 Obviously it's the Stanford Tree. 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.800 So forty five miles south is Palazzo, California, home of Stanford, 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.280 and the Stanford Tree now Stanford Tree came along a 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:49.200 little bit later. It wasn't in nineteen thirty back when 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:54.160 cal had its bear live mascot. Stanford had also a 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.000 live mascot, but it was a person. It was a 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:57.760 Native American man named Chief. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.240 Like, oh, that's right, I remember hearing about the they 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.800 used to have it as what was there. 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:04.160 The Stanford Indians Indian. Yeah. 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:04.440 Yeah. 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.160 The only good thing I can say about Chief Lightfoot 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.000 is it was at least a real native American. It 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.080 wasn't like some rich kid in red face. That's about 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:11.800 the only good thing we can say about this. But 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.480 starting in nineteen thirty Sam Year's Cows with the Bears, 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.360 they had Chief Lightfoot out there whooping and stomping and 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.199 rally and the football team and this this heat street 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.160 created a tradition, also very successful, went on for decades. 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:24.960 Finally in the seventies of school was like. 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.120 Hey, you know what, this is kind of mad racist, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.640 Maybe we shouldn't do this. And so they're like, you know, 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.440 maybe we shouldn't have like a living breathing American as 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:33.720 like our mascot. 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:34.960 And you know it's not like a bear. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:35.360 Yeah. 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.040 Anyway, so they're like, okay, that's the end of the 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.280 Stanford Indians. So nineteen seventy two, Stanford changed its name 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:42.559 of its school mascot to the Cardinals. 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:42.920 Right. 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.520 Yeah, Now this is not because you know, California is 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.560 known for our red birds. We have no Cardinals, like 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:50.880 West of the Mississippi's car to find them, right, But 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.360 the Cardinal was the school's distinctive color on their logo. 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:56.320 They're like, yeah, that's us, We're the color. 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:56.959 Right, So this. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.520 Maybe like if they were the Stanford Millennial Pinks, you know, 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:04.960 like the cal Shar Truce. Anyway, so Cardinals it was 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:06.719 meant to be a temporary name, right, So all through 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.559 the seventies they keep trying different names, the student bodies voting. 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.320 Someone suggests they would be called the Sequoias, right, and 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.120 someone's like yeah, yeah, you know, for the super tall trees. Now, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.079 someone else like, what about the Griffins, And then they're like, yeah, 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:20.760 that's the you know, the mythical lion with their wings creature, right, 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.080 And someone's eventually like, yeah, Stanford Griffins. 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:23.640 I don't know. 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.320 So my favorite suggestion of this era was the Robber Barons, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.360 because Stanford was founded by Leland Stanford, the old railroad 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:34.400 king Robert Baron. How great would it be of a 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.000 school of rich kids and out they're rooting for the 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:40.440 Robber Barons like maybe anyway, whatever. Eventually some kids like 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:42.760 what about the Indians And they're like, yeah, we love that, 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.320 Like they'd forgotten or us. Maybe the mood changed, I 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.040 don't know. They were like yeah, let's do that again. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.440 So eventually the eighties come around, still no mascot, and 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.320 they're like, okay, well let's go with how about the Cardinals. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.680 So they go back to the original temporary name. But 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:58.400 they decided, you know what, we can't have that, so 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:02.080 it's unofficial. Stanford Technical has no mascot. Oh really yeah, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.320 But anyway, there's the Stanford Tree. So the Stanford Tree 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.240 is not the school's mascot. He is a member of 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.920 the school's band, and as such, he travels with the 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.320 band and he shows up at all of these schools 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.760 athletic events, but especially the big ones like the Big Game. 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.600 So to recap, we have a mystery human in a 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.280 bear suit that's husky, and then we have a musical tree. 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:24.440 These are our massot And. 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.360 Isn't their band, Like we're irreverent? 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:27.240 What's up? 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.080 Oh yeah, the bands are reverend Also so is the 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:35.160 musical Yeah, they're like very tongue in cheek, Elizabeth. If 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.880 they do the silly looking tree, he wears sunglasses, he's 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.000 got this big goofy some mile. Basically, the Stanford Tree 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.560 looks like someone's uncle managed to get a Christmas tree 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.800 drunk exactly Okay, so now that we know our players, 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:48.760 let's take a little break and I will tell you 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.280 how this turns into all sorts of violence. 0:15:51.400 --> 0:16:13.320 Oh okay, Elizabeth, Okay. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.520 We have our bear and our musical tree. 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:22.160 Yes, all right, they are the avatars of this rivalry. Okay, Now, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.920 as you would imagined, these the bear and the Tree 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.600 have gone at it in the past. In fact, also 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.120 the fans have gone at it. But specifically here, I'll 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.360 just go with a report from the Daily Cow that's 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:38.040 the newspaper of the cal Berkeley right. So the student 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.720 paper recorded quote on February fifteenth, nineteen ninety five, during 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.280 a basketball game between the Bears and the Cardinals, the 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.560 two mascots wrestled each other to the Maples Pavilion floor. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.280 The fight got so vicious that Oski's head came off 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.960 for a brief moment. However, the head was promptly restored 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.560 and his identity remained concealed. There was a fight to 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.560 keep from being known. So anyway, no one got to 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.480 see the human inside the bear skin. See, society would 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.160 be happy. But meanwhile, the Stanford Tree, the human that's 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.840 inside the Stanford Tree, he's well known on campus it's 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.280 the exact opposite approach and is considered a position of 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.520 honor to be the Stanford Tree. And this is probably 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.320 because it's extremely dangerous for the person inside. Like, there 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:22.320 was a time in the mid nineties when Cow fans 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:24.600 chased the tree off of the field at the end 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.359 of the Big Game and they like narrowly escaped getting 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:29.680 like you know, I don't know, treed and feathered or whatever. 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.520 Well I was always told about in the early eighties, 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.240 there was a thing called the play. 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.320 Oh Yeah, the band went on the next. 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.880 Yeah that the band, the Stanford band, thought the game was. 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:40.280 Over and they go on the field and they get 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:42.840 and the players ran and through the band to score. 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.159 There's like just getting a tube of the tuba knocking 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.240 down a guy with a trombone. It's an amazing benefootage. 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:49.320 I highly recommend it. 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:50.000 Uh. 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.159 There was also another time in the eighties when the 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:54.560 tree wasn't so lucky or sorry the nineties, when the 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.760 tree wasn't so lucky. He didn't he didn't manage to 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.240 get off the field before the fans got to Yeah. 0:17:59.400 --> 0:17:59.879 Once again, I. 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:03.240 Returned to the daily Cow quote. At the nineteen ninety 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.600 six Big Game angry cow fans once again storm Memorial 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.200 Stadium field and targeted the Stanford Tree. The tree was 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.200 not so lucky this time, as portions of the suit 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.920 were dismantled, so they got their hands on the tree. 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:15.680 Was he torn limb from limb? 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.240 Wowow pretty much? 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:21.800 But this time, now that they've gotten a taste of 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:23.800 the tree, it's like a predator from the zoo. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:24.920 He gets a taste of blood. 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:25.800 The bloods. 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.960 We want more trees, pretty much. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.520 I swear to got nineteen ninety seven Big game quote 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.639 a riot which saw twenty three injuries and six arrests. 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.560 Since these massacres, the Stanford Tree has not been seen 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:39.760 on the field for the fourth quarter of any big game. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.240 I do not remember any of this. This is crazy. 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.800 Now we get to the nineteen ninety eight Stanford Tree 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.080 when he gets kidnapped. So, as you see, it's been 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:53.640 building and building. Yeah right, Well, enter the Phoenix five. Yeah, 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.040 that's what the boys called themselves. That's their group name, 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.919 the Phoenix five. Now, mind you, these are not all 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.000 students from Phoenix are Arizona. These are Berkeley students. And 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.000 it's likely because you probably don't know this, it's from 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:09.240 Marvel comic books. There's something called the Phoenix Five. You see, Elizabeth, Uh, 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.439 there was this group, the X Men, and five of 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.320 them one time created their own subgroup called the Phoenix Five. 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:15.520 And you know what, it doesn't matter. 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:17.800 So what you're saying is that these guys are dorks. 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.320 Yes, so they're dorks. Yeah, So the Tree Nabbing Group 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.520 named for this subgroup of the X Men. Their individual 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.560 members also had code names. So, just like in Tarantino's 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:31.240 film Reservoir Dogs, they use color coded nicknames. So there were, 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:32.640 but they didn't use the same ones of the film. 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.800 So they had mister White, mister Black, mister Green, mister Yellow, 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.320 and mister Orange. They wisely avoided the whole mister Brown 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.960 and mister pink debates. Sure so, anyway, it all makes 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:44.679 more sense when you realize the Phoenix five were all 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.680 fraternity brothers. Oh of course, yes, the end the frat 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.560 Theta Kai. So one day, the fraB brothers they had 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:52.719 opted to drive down to Stanford for as they claimed, 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:53.960 a brotherhood activity. 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:55.160 I don't know what that means. 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.160 I don't know if that means they were meeting other 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.600 brothers from the Stanford campus at Theta Kai, or if 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:01.720 they were doing like, oh, it's rush week, let's do 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.159 a prank. I really don't know, but in quotes Brotherhood 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:07.840 of Activities. So what I can tell you is that 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.359 the day was October seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight, the day 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.080 the tree got seventeenth. 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:15.360 So that nineteen ninety eight. 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:17.480 So we're trying to remember where you were. 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:19.080 No, I'm thinking we're what. 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.879 Nine years after the earthquake, Yes, exactly. 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.280 I just hear October seventeen. You're like, go right to here, 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:28.119 and then like it's just the light comes through the 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.040 blinds and I huddle over, and I hear a helicopter. 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:33.040 Yes, a Frenchman smoking a cigarette. 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:34.600 I have a thousand yards stare. 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.000 On the nine year anniversary the Loma Prieta quake, the 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.239 Stanford students were doing what they call Cardinal Chaos. Now 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.840 Cardinal Chaos it's a big silly name for the first 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.679 practice of the season for the men's and women's basketball teams. 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:51.520 That's literally what it is. 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.440 Anyways, So the Phoenix five they ride for Cardinal Chaos, 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.480 and they mingle in with the Stanford students who don't. 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.240 I guess they may have their own secret names whatever. 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:01.840 So everyone's in there in the Maples Pavilion gym where 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.720 the fight had happened two years earlier, and the Frat 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:08.680 Bros are now officially undercover on the Stanford campus and 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:10.640 they're like trying to cause mayhem, and they're looking at 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:12.480 each other and they're kiki in and stands and trying 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:14.520 to go, we should do a prank. But they haven't 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:17.400 disgusted at all. They haven't decided what type of prank 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:19.679 they can do. They're imagining all the pranks they can do. 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.280 They're inside of Stanford, but no opportunities present themselves, so 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.159 they're like, let's leave, So Cardinal Chaos ends. They're like 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.200 they walk out of the stadium or the auditory or 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:30.040 whatever the gym. 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.199 Cardinal Chaos sounds like someone who would just like be 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:45.760 an absolute terror in Vatican City. 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:42.040 Coming in with the mad Red. 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:45.280 So the Bros they all head back to their car 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.879 in the parking lot Cardinal Chaos, and all a sudden 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.280 serendipity plays a hand because the Phoenix five spot the 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:56.560 Stanford Tree. Yes, the man inside the tree, Chris Henderson, 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.919 was busy loading the Stanford Tree into the hid of 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:02.560 his car. All right, plan is quickly hatched. Follow that tree. 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.160 So the bros all hop in their car and they 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.959 follow Chris Anderson. So we're in Palo Alto, California, Stanford campus. 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.200 The Phoenix five are on the prow. They follow Chris 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:13.359 Anderson and he's the you know, the man in the tree. 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:15.399 And they get all the way back to the Stanford 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:18.680 band shack, now the Phoenix five park, and they sneak 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:20.680 up close. Henderson gets out and he goes, it'side the 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:22.480 band shack. They get up close, and what should they do? 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:24.640 Elizabeth just rush in, knock him out, take the tree. 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:25.280 What's the plan? 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:26.480 I have no idea. 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.680 Well, they realized burn it down the shack with him. 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:34.080 It turns out they can hear music as they get closer. 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:36.399 There's a party going on. The band shack is a 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.080 rocking so don't come and knock in, right, So they 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:41.119 decide let's hide out. Right, they can't blend in. It's 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:43.080 too small. The band probably all knows each other. It's 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:44.440 not be like, hey, I'm with Scott Man. 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:45.120 Yeah that's cool. 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:47.399 So are these four guys? You'd be worring. So they're like, 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.080 I go, it's hide out. Let's wait. So I did 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:51.560 a bunch of research on this, as I told you. 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:53.760 Back in two thousand and eight, on the tenth anniversary 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:56.080 of the kidnapping of the Stanford Tree, the Daily Cow 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:59.119 interviewed one of the members of the Phoenix Five, and 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.439 he gave us valuable insights as to how they did 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:05.159 everything right the school paper. He's speaking of mister Orange, right, 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:07.280 mister Orange, he was a freshman at the time, youngest 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:10.399 member of the prank crew. He recalled that fateful night. 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.480 He remembered sneaking into the Stanford band shack. He said, 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:16.400 the group waited to the small hours of the morning, Elizabeth, 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:19.879 the purple hours. Right, here's mister Orange quote. Of course, 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.959 there could still be passed out drunk Stanford band members 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:26.120 inside after the party ended. I remembered lots of nerves 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:28.080 during that time when we really couldn't be one hundred 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:30.520 percent sure that there were no people left inside the building. 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:32.960 So they're just like five nerds sweating it outside. 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:34.440 Right there did dork on dork Vine. 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:38.000 Exactly four am rolls around the coast. Is finally clear. 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:40.639 Two of the Phoenix five break into the band shack. 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:43.280 The other three wait outside keeping watch. Back to mister 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:47.480 howd quote it was pretty dark inside save a few 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:51.080 neon signs, et cetera. I remember there being discussion about 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:52.440 whether we're abandoned the whole thing. 0:23:52.480 --> 0:23:53.879 That's how tenuous it was. 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:56.440 So yeah, I don't think I really thought too much 0:23:56.480 --> 0:23:58.680 about the craziness of the whole situation at the time. 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:01.040 We were just focused on getting the job done without 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:01.920 getting caught. 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:02.320 Right. 0:24:02.359 --> 0:24:04.680 So these two dudes inside, they scramble through an old 0:24:04.720 --> 0:24:07.440 medical library. Then they find a hole in a wall. 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:08.919 They go through a hole in the wall and they 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:11.200 squeeze into the bandshack. They don't use like a door. 0:24:11.240 --> 0:24:13.880 They find make their own weird way. Boom, they're inside 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:16.520 the banshack. There's nobody passed out drunk on the ground. 0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:19.760 They see the tree, they grab the tree. It's four 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:21.680 in the morning, so they just walk out the front door. 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:23.840 Now they don't go back out to the medical library. 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:25.240 I know, a hole in the wall. 0:24:25.280 --> 0:24:26.960 They got lucky. They just purely get lucky. 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:29.400 So now the Phoenix five disappear with the Stanford Tree 0:24:29.400 --> 0:24:30.720 into the purple hours of dawn. 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:32.720 Huh gone, all right. 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:35.960 So now they've successfully walked out with Stanford's mascot, what 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:39.240 do they do, Elizabeth, they go racing safely back to 0:24:39.359 --> 0:24:43.440 tow down, always with the fire. Well, luckily, mister Orenty 0:24:43.480 --> 0:24:44.400 tells us what he did. 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:45.080 Quote. 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:46.560 Even though we managed to get our hands on the 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:48.720 tree in the very early hours of the morning, this 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:51.520 didn't mean that there couldn't be random students walking by, 0:24:51.840 --> 0:24:54.960 cops passing by on the street, et cetera. In fact, 0:24:55.240 --> 0:24:57.399 we actually did see a cop car pass as we 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:01.000 were planning things out behind the banshack. Oh danger, danger, 0:25:01.040 --> 0:25:03.480 Will Robinson. And anyway, their plan to get away is 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:05.600 let's stuff the Stanford Tree into the back seat of 0:25:05.600 --> 0:25:07.720 the car and just tear us out of here. Yeah, 0:25:07.720 --> 0:25:10.560 but they can't get five people and the Stanford tree 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:12.280 into like whatever little car they have. 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:15.120 So, as mister recalled. 0:25:14.720 --> 0:25:17.400 Quote, remember it was a nine to ten foot tall 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:20.440 costume with a ton of material, even though it was 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:23.320 a somewhat collapsible. I don't know about the other guys, 0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:25.199 but I more or less felt like it was a 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:28.320 mission that we had to accomplish in the stealthiest way possible. 0:25:28.520 --> 0:25:31.560 We were very aware that we were in hostile territory. 0:25:31.840 --> 0:25:35.440 Oh God, take a little serious, right, So the frat 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:37.960 Bros's side, they'd have a plan to make it right, right, 0:25:38.000 --> 0:25:39.680 So they shoved the tree in the back of the car. 0:25:39.800 --> 0:25:42.960 Two bros hop in, they drive off. Apparently I think 0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:44.960 one of their family members lives in Palo Alto, because 0:25:44.960 --> 0:25:46.960 they went to a quote safe house and then they 0:25:47.000 --> 0:25:50.000 tucked the tree right, and then they looked just be cool, right, 0:25:50.040 --> 0:25:53.159 and then they drive back and they get back to 0:25:53.200 --> 0:25:55.560 the three camp the three kids at the left on campus. 0:25:55.560 --> 0:25:58.119 They load them in the car boom. They leave Palo 0:25:58.119 --> 0:26:00.159 Alto back to Berkeley to get another car, and then 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:02.080 they come back, get the tree and go back to Berkeley. 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:04.800 And then they finally managed to sneak it into the 0:26:04.840 --> 0:26:06.920 frat house and they just go into I believe mister 0:26:06.960 --> 0:26:09.440 Black's room and just shove it in the back right. 0:26:09.480 --> 0:26:12.040 Lots of shoven of this poor tree. So now they've 0:26:12.040 --> 0:26:14.080 successfully stolen the Stanford Tree. 0:26:14.200 --> 0:26:15.160 So what do they do now? 0:26:15.760 --> 0:26:16.440 I have no idea. 0:26:16.520 --> 0:26:18.960 Well, based on all the prank wars and the fights 0:26:19.000 --> 0:26:20.920 and the riots has been leading up to it, they 0:26:20.960 --> 0:26:24.560 wait for the chaos to erupt, so all hell they 0:26:24.600 --> 0:26:27.400 know will break loose. First up, they decide, okay, let's 0:26:28.400 --> 0:26:30.960 let's just not tell anybody anything. They don't even tell 0:26:31.000 --> 0:26:33.240 their other frat brothers what they've done. They keep it secret. 0:26:33.280 --> 0:26:37.080 The Phoenix five hush hush, right, So they wait a 0:26:37.160 --> 0:26:41.399 week passes, right, and turns out the police decide to 0:26:41.440 --> 0:26:43.879 investigate this as a break in and robbery and they 0:26:43.960 --> 0:26:46.359 label it as a felony. This means years in prison 0:26:46.359 --> 0:26:48.080 are going to being discussed by the police. 0:26:48.240 --> 0:26:49.760 What's the value of the tree? Did they? 0:26:50.280 --> 0:26:50.399 Oh? 0:26:50.480 --> 0:26:52.480 Yeah, they get into that. I'll tell you about that 0:26:52.480 --> 0:26:55.520 in a second. So the Phoenix five they're laying low superheroes, 0:26:55.560 --> 0:26:57.919 hiding out in their secret layer or whatever. And as 0:26:57.960 --> 0:27:01.240 I told you, they told no one, right, And eventually 0:27:02.040 --> 0:27:04.840 Stanford Daily newspaper a week after the crime, they publish 0:27:04.920 --> 0:27:08.080 a feature story Stanford tree stolen, you know, And there, 0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:10.800 of course they immediately assume it's cow students who are 0:27:10.840 --> 0:27:12.359 behind the tree hate crime. 0:27:12.440 --> 0:27:12.640 Right. 0:27:13.080 --> 0:27:16.159 Chris Henderson, the guy inside the tree, He tells the 0:27:16.160 --> 0:27:18.480 student paper that he'd seen three or four people following 0:27:18.520 --> 0:27:21.800 him around outside the Maples Pavilion parking lot. Why is 0:27:21.840 --> 0:27:24.480 it always three to four people? Do human beings have 0:27:24.560 --> 0:27:27.520 a hard time counting past three? When it's word stress? 0:27:27.560 --> 0:27:31.280 Were like three? I'm going everything's belonging possibly four. 0:27:31.440 --> 0:27:35.280 I can't say, honestly, every time we hear this, it's 0:27:35.320 --> 0:27:37.800 amazing that number. It's never five to six, never two 0:27:37.840 --> 0:27:40.399 to three, it's always three to four. Anyway, guy in 0:27:40.440 --> 0:27:42.400 the tree, Chris Anderson, he tells the press he'd notice 0:27:42.400 --> 0:27:44.600 these three to four guys who'd followed him to the 0:27:44.600 --> 0:27:48.560 Stanford banchack, probably college students. And now the finger of 0:27:48.560 --> 0:27:50.960 blame is squarely pointed a cow. So the story is 0:27:51.000 --> 0:27:53.800 out there. The Phoenix five de side, let's reveal ourselves. 0:27:54.040 --> 0:27:56.200 So they step into the limelight. Three days after the 0:27:56.240 --> 0:28:00.280 Stanford paper breaks loose, the Daily Californian prints there front 0:28:00.280 --> 0:28:04.119 page story a feature interview with the Phoenix five. The 0:28:04.160 --> 0:28:08.280 pranksters lord their people powered success over the private students 0:28:08.280 --> 0:28:11.360 of Stanford. They claimed that they liberated the tree. They 0:28:11.359 --> 0:28:13.359 said the tree had been unhappy at Stanford, and that 0:28:13.440 --> 0:28:15.680 can now that it's been at cal it's learned the 0:28:15.800 --> 0:28:18.399 value of hard work and diversity and the true spirit 0:28:18.440 --> 0:28:21.280 of a campus. Meanwhile, the tree also has by the 0:28:21.280 --> 0:28:23.520 way pend and open letter, so there's a letter from 0:28:23.560 --> 0:28:27.320 the tree. Also in the paper. The Stanford Tree reportedly writes, quote, 0:28:27.359 --> 0:28:29.840 I'm sick of the farm. The Phoenix five have introduced 0:28:29.840 --> 0:28:32.480 me to the outside world. Now once he'd seen the 0:28:32.480 --> 0:28:34.560 outside world and col and he had opinions on the 0:28:34.600 --> 0:28:37.040 two schools, and the Trees then declared, quote cal a 0:28:37.160 --> 0:28:41.680 superior university, a Stanford an inferior one. So they're using 0:28:41.680 --> 0:28:44.200 the tree for their propaganda. At this point, the tree 0:28:44.240 --> 0:28:46.160 also claimed that it was thankful to be free of 0:28:46.160 --> 0:28:50.200 Stanford and its snotty rich kid private school students. However, 0:28:50.240 --> 0:28:53.040 briefly and the Tree also promised that it would be 0:28:53.080 --> 0:28:56.600 back onto the Stanford sideline before the big game quote 0:28:56.640 --> 0:28:58.440 even though he knows that Stanford is full of a 0:28:58.440 --> 0:29:03.040 bunch of weenies. So for the ten year anniversary look 0:29:03.080 --> 0:29:05.840 back the Daily Cow. They asked mister Orange why the 0:29:05.880 --> 0:29:09.160 Phoenix five decided to go down the hostage taken route 0:29:09.200 --> 0:29:11.800 as their communication with the world right. 0:29:11.840 --> 0:29:13.120 Mister Orange said, quote. 0:29:12.880 --> 0:29:15.600 As far as the hostage taker deal is concerned, I 0:29:15.600 --> 0:29:17.840 think there was an initial meeting where we planned all 0:29:17.880 --> 0:29:20.240 these things out, i e. The name of the group 0:29:20.520 --> 0:29:22.640 sending in the initial letter and the picture to the 0:29:22.720 --> 0:29:26.200 Daily Cow. Remember, everything happened extremely fast, and we took 0:29:26.240 --> 0:29:28.960 the tree. Nothing happened for almost an entire week until 0:29:28.960 --> 0:29:31.520 the story broke in the Stanford Daily. Then we had 0:29:31.520 --> 0:29:33.600 that quickly to demonstrate that the tree was on the 0:29:33.640 --> 0:29:37.400 Cow campus and to dissuade others from claiming responsibility. Of course, 0:29:37.560 --> 0:29:39.680 as smart data kuys, we had to come up with 0:29:39.720 --> 0:29:42.360 the wittiest approach. We had lots of fun writ in 0:29:42.360 --> 0:29:45.120 that first letter in the persona of the tree, trying 0:29:45.160 --> 0:29:48.600 to trash Stanford in the best way possible. So now 0:29:48.600 --> 0:29:50.440 that we have this story in the student paper from 0:29:50.760 --> 0:29:54.120 Stanford and now one from Cow, the other people decided 0:29:54.120 --> 0:29:56.040 to take this very seriously. The people that I'm talking 0:29:56.080 --> 0:29:58.400 about are the police and the school administrations. 0:29:58.440 --> 0:29:59.360 Oh so u C. 0:29:59.480 --> 0:30:02.240 Berkeley, Channe, Robert Birdall. He comes in hot and heavy. 0:30:02.440 --> 0:30:04.520 He had obvious motives because you know, as the head 0:30:04.520 --> 0:30:07.160 of the university, he'd overseen now a few years of 0:30:07.160 --> 0:30:10.480 fights and pranks. They've grown more intense. Now he's got 0:30:10.480 --> 0:30:12.920 a riot and then this year he's got a kidnapping. Yeah, 0:30:12.920 --> 0:30:15.160 and he's like, I'm starting to look bad, right. So 0:30:15.360 --> 0:30:18.400 he also imagined that come the big game, Stanford fans 0:30:18.400 --> 0:30:20.600 would be walking past, as you know, all the Cow 0:30:20.720 --> 0:30:23.200 fraternity roads to get to up to the stadium and 0:30:23.240 --> 0:30:25.120 that they would probably be eager to fight the bros. 0:30:25.120 --> 0:30:26.600 The bros would probably be eager to fight, and then 0:30:26.640 --> 0:30:28.920 he'd have once again an even bigger ride. Maybe somebody 0:30:28.960 --> 0:30:31.880 would get hurt or you know whatever. So he comes 0:30:31.880 --> 0:30:34.160 out with a tersely worded statement. He called the prank 0:30:34.240 --> 0:30:37.600 quote outright theft, and the chancellor announced that the police 0:30:37.600 --> 0:30:40.440 would be brought in. He also issued an ultimatum. He 0:30:40.560 --> 0:30:42.800 told the tree nappers had until the big game to 0:30:42.880 --> 0:30:46.920 return the stolen tree or else right else, Yeah, so. 0:30:47.000 --> 0:30:47.920 That the or else. 0:30:48.000 --> 0:30:50.800 The Phoenix five were like, well, what would happen? So 0:30:50.840 --> 0:30:52.920 the chancellor he had an answer for that. He said 0:30:53.040 --> 0:30:56.120 that the cow mascot Osci the Bear, would be barred 0:30:56.120 --> 0:30:59.600 from the next Cow game against Oregon State. Treenappers had 0:30:59.600 --> 0:31:02.280 three days or else. 0:31:03.080 --> 0:31:08.040 He was prepared to kidnap a mascot of his own. Darts. Yeah, anyway, 0:31:08.040 --> 0:31:08.840 the mascot theft. 0:31:08.840 --> 0:31:11.760 This becomes news far beyond the universities, the student populations, 0:31:11.840 --> 0:31:14.080 The Bay area newspapers start reporting on it, the TV 0:31:14.160 --> 0:31:16.720 stations start reporting on it. The story gets bigger and bigger, 0:31:16.720 --> 0:31:19.520 and then it becomes national news. Eventually, Sports illustrated his 0:31:19.600 --> 0:31:23.880 writing about it. Days are passing, the deadline approaches, would 0:31:23.920 --> 0:31:24.880 the tree resurface? 0:31:24.960 --> 0:31:25.120 Right? 0:31:25.160 --> 0:31:27.280 So the Bay Area news teams they send cameras out 0:31:27.320 --> 0:31:30.120 to report live from the University of cow on the 0:31:30.200 --> 0:31:32.000 day of the midnight deadline. 0:31:32.400 --> 0:31:35.520 They wait with the police department, and they waited, and 0:31:35.560 --> 0:31:37.880 they waited some more. No tree. 0:31:38.720 --> 0:31:41.440 So instead there was a news conference broadcast live from 0:31:41.440 --> 0:31:44.640 an elementary school parking lot. Okay, and after this break, 0:31:44.640 --> 0:32:08.160 I'll tell you all about that news conference. All right, Elizabeth, 0:32:08.600 --> 0:32:10.040 I promised you a news conference. 0:32:10.160 --> 0:32:10.720 Yes you did. 0:32:10.880 --> 0:32:12.480 You've been waiting on baited breath an. 0:32:12.320 --> 0:32:14.920 Elementary school parking lot. I am here for it. 0:32:15.040 --> 0:32:17.320 You know what, rather than just discuss it, look, just 0:32:17.400 --> 0:32:21.800 close your up my picture. It it's nighttime in the 0:32:21.840 --> 0:32:24.120 Bay Area. The autumn breeze is brisk. 0:32:24.400 --> 0:32:27.560 You are growing cold standing in an empty parking lot 0:32:27.600 --> 0:32:30.880 of an elementary school in the Oakland Hills. Elizabeth, you 0:32:30.880 --> 0:32:33.880 are a camera woman from the local Fox affiliate KTVU 0:32:34.000 --> 0:32:36.840 Channel two. You've been sent out on assignment to record 0:32:36.840 --> 0:32:39.240 a press conference with the Phoenix five. You have rigged 0:32:39.280 --> 0:32:41.640 a two camera setup for the live feed. One camera 0:32:41.720 --> 0:32:44.520 is on sticks. That's industry talk for a tripod. The 0:32:44.560 --> 0:32:47.120 second camera is a should mounted job that you plan 0:32:47.240 --> 0:32:49.440 to use for close ups and some wild coverage of 0:32:49.480 --> 0:32:53.200 the late night press conference. There are no other media outlets. 0:32:52.840 --> 0:32:53.400 There, just you. 0:32:53.640 --> 0:32:57.120 The KTVU Channel two reporter five college dates guys wearing 0:32:57.160 --> 0:33:00.600 halloween masks and balaklava ski masks, and they are holding 0:33:00.640 --> 0:33:03.520 captive a ten foot tall tree costume, the Stanford Tree. 0:33:03.600 --> 0:33:06.040 That's the reason you're in this elementary school parking lot. 0:33:06.320 --> 0:33:08.520 You rack the focus and you set a clean image 0:33:08.520 --> 0:33:11.640 of mister Green, spokesman for the Phoenix five. The KTVU 0:33:11.680 --> 0:33:14.520 reporter steps into the shot. Okay, let's do one. She 0:33:14.640 --> 0:33:16.800 raises the mic into the shot and ask mister. 0:33:16.640 --> 0:33:17.760 Green, how is the tree. 0:33:17.840 --> 0:33:20.880 The Stanford Tree is still unharmed, and he tells the 0:33:20.920 --> 0:33:23.280 reporter how it's fine. And you can see for yourself 0:33:23.320 --> 0:33:25.960 this Phoenix five drag the Stanford Tree into the shot. 0:33:26.160 --> 0:33:28.200 The mask men promise that the tree has been treated 0:33:28.240 --> 0:33:30.520 well as you can see, and further, it would be 0:33:30.600 --> 0:33:33.440 returned to the weenies at Stanford before the big game. 0:33:33.720 --> 0:33:35.640 You try to squelch a little laugh at their jokes, 0:33:35.840 --> 0:33:37.920 but they go on as they say, truth be told, 0:33:37.920 --> 0:33:40.080 The tree may never want to return to Stanford. Now 0:33:40.120 --> 0:33:43.080 the decene life outside the private school. The frat rose 0:33:43.080 --> 0:33:44.880 tawk a little more smack, then they laugh and they 0:33:44.880 --> 0:33:47.240 start to dance around with the Stanford Tree. You now 0:33:47.280 --> 0:33:49.080 have to swivel around to keep their shot. As the 0:33:49.120 --> 0:33:51.400 Stanford Tree and the frat roser dancing around in the 0:33:51.400 --> 0:33:54.120 parking lot, now you really can't help but smile. It's 0:33:54.120 --> 0:33:56.880 become just ridiculous. You're also getting colder by the minute. 0:33:56.920 --> 0:33:58.720 The news reporter is still trying to do a straight 0:33:58.760 --> 0:34:01.680 interview with the tree case, but it's pretty much impossible 0:34:01.720 --> 0:34:03.840 now that the frat rows have broken into dance. It's 0:34:03.920 --> 0:34:07.040 like a real live crime musical. The reporter asked when 0:34:07.080 --> 0:34:08.880 the Phoenix five planned to return the tree to the 0:34:08.880 --> 0:34:11.080 students of Stanford. But the Phoenix five just laugh and 0:34:11.120 --> 0:34:13.839 keep dancing around with the Stanford Tree. You wonder how 0:34:13.920 --> 0:34:15.319 much of this you have to shoot before you can 0:34:15.400 --> 0:34:17.279 just load up the cameras and go because you want 0:34:17.280 --> 0:34:19.520 to go home, crawl back in bed and watch reruns 0:34:19.520 --> 0:34:23.240 in your favorite Barry a show restaurant review check please Yes. 0:34:23.480 --> 0:34:24.759 As the cold evening. 0:34:24.440 --> 0:34:27.040 Air chills your cheeks, you long for your pillow. The 0:34:27.080 --> 0:34:29.640 reporter gives you the signal this interview is done. You 0:34:29.719 --> 0:34:32.360 pack up as a frat Rose continue to dance around 0:34:32.360 --> 0:34:35.360 the parking lot with the tree in there stolen glee 0:34:35.680 --> 0:34:39.279 the mascot dancing with them and their wicked revelry. They're 0:34:39.280 --> 0:34:40.400 busy making memories. 0:34:40.560 --> 0:34:40.919 They are. 0:34:41.080 --> 0:34:44.399 Yeah, well, that proof of life video gets broadcast by 0:34:44.480 --> 0:34:48.160 k TVU around the bay. It's another outsized reaction to follow. 0:34:48.440 --> 0:34:51.560 Enter the Stanford Police. They don't see the humor in this. 0:34:51.920 --> 0:34:54.120 A man by the name of Captain Raould and Memeier 0:34:54.120 --> 0:34:56.760 steps forward, the Stanford Police Captain. He makes public comments 0:34:56.760 --> 0:34:59.200 of his own, he says, he goes to the news meeting. 0:34:59.239 --> 0:35:01.760 He says, the Stanford tre tree is practically priceless. Remember 0:35:01.840 --> 0:35:04.160 you asked me how much. He puts a dollar amount 0:35:04.200 --> 0:35:04.440 on it. 0:35:04.480 --> 0:35:06.320 Practically pricelessly priceless. 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:10.040 But if a monetary value were to be assigned to 0:35:10.080 --> 0:35:13.720 the tree, it would be worth well over one thousand. 0:35:13.280 --> 0:35:15.120 Dollars practically price. 0:35:16.040 --> 0:35:18.000 I know a price for most people. 0:35:18.120 --> 0:35:20.839 One thousand dollars would not sound like very much, but 0:35:21.239 --> 0:35:24.359 it does qualify the theft as grand larceny, which makes 0:35:24.400 --> 0:35:27.319 it a felony. So the Phoenix fiver looking at real 0:35:27.360 --> 0:35:29.719 prison time. If Captain Neemeyer has anything. 0:35:29.400 --> 0:35:31.200 To say about it is jurisdiction. 0:35:31.400 --> 0:35:33.080 Well, the humorless cop went on to say, if you 0:35:33.120 --> 0:35:34.520 do the crime, you do the time. 0:35:35.120 --> 0:35:35.800 You kidding. 0:35:35.960 --> 0:35:36.280 Yes. 0:35:36.680 --> 0:35:39.360 Meanwhile, the Barrier, newspapers, the TV stations, they continue to 0:35:39.360 --> 0:35:41.240 cover the story because now they got one with real 0:35:41.320 --> 0:35:44.120 legs and it's running. So in fact, they become a 0:35:44.160 --> 0:35:46.920 part of the story. Ransoms get raised, one by a 0:35:46.960 --> 0:35:50.080 local newspaper, another by a sporting good company. They promise 0:35:50.160 --> 0:35:52.920 if the tree is returned unharmed, they will donate fifty 0:35:53.040 --> 0:35:55.560 thousand dollars to a local Christmas tree charity. 0:35:56.320 --> 0:35:58.560 A Christmas tree charity. Yeah, later down the air, I 0:35:58.600 --> 0:36:02.000 feel like calmless Christmas tree to get trees home. 0:36:02.040 --> 0:36:04.040 So Lizabeth get these trees a home, if. 0:36:03.920 --> 0:36:05.200 Only for three weeks. 0:36:05.560 --> 0:36:06.839 Now, I think he's to give him out people who 0:36:06.840 --> 0:36:07.520 can't afford. 0:36:07.320 --> 0:36:08.719 Christmas tree awareness. 0:36:08.840 --> 0:36:10.880 Yeah, it's a really it's a holy Kito tie and 0:36:11.080 --> 0:36:14.040 like a little ribbon you put on the tree. Anyway, 0:36:14.160 --> 0:36:16.640 guy inside the tree, remember him, Chris Anderson. Yeah, he 0:36:16.719 --> 0:36:18.120 jumps forward again. He speaks out. 0:36:18.239 --> 0:36:19.520 He kind of wish he was in the tree the 0:36:19.520 --> 0:36:19.960 whole time. 0:36:20.080 --> 0:36:22.799 He's had He does too, he has had enough. He 0:36:23.080 --> 0:36:25.279 becomes really aggressive for a man who's best known as 0:36:25.320 --> 0:36:29.359 the bone structure of a tree Henderson. He releases his 0:36:29.400 --> 0:36:32.720 own statement to the press as the guy inside the tree. 0:36:32.760 --> 0:36:34.799 He mocks the tree n appers, and he tells that 0:36:34.840 --> 0:36:37.080 the phoenix five quote stop talking to a pile of 0:36:37.120 --> 0:36:38.800 fabric can show a little back bone. 0:36:39.000 --> 0:36:41.360 So he didn't fight over the tree. 0:36:41.600 --> 0:36:43.640 Now, the students from both campuses, you may be wondering, 0:36:43.680 --> 0:36:46.120 what did you think about this prank? Well, most of 0:36:46.120 --> 0:36:48.279 them thought it. His harm was fun. Some just wanted 0:36:48.360 --> 0:36:50.120 to it all go away. Others were like, who knows 0:36:50.120 --> 0:36:52.799 who cares? Right, They took your approach. But there was 0:36:52.840 --> 0:36:55.239 one cow student. I found a freshman on the rugby team, 0:36:55.280 --> 0:36:57.719 Teddy Miller. He admitted that he was no big fan 0:36:57.760 --> 0:37:01.920 of Oscary calam mascot. He said, quote, I'm pretty lukewarm 0:37:02.000 --> 0:37:04.759 about him, right, But my favorite part is that he 0:37:05.200 --> 0:37:06.840 went on and he wanted to make sure that he 0:37:06.880 --> 0:37:09.400 could kind of run down the handshake of Oscy. 0:37:09.800 --> 0:37:12.600 He said back to Teddy Miller, and he got wet hands. 0:37:12.640 --> 0:37:14.440 I shook hands with him two or three times in 0:37:14.480 --> 0:37:16.560 my life, and every time I've had to wipe my 0:37:16.640 --> 0:37:17.680 hands on my pants. 0:37:19.520 --> 0:37:21.399 He's shaking his hand more than once. 0:37:21.600 --> 0:37:26.600 Yes, I'll give him another chance, so win me over. 0:37:27.080 --> 0:37:29.080 Staring it, Osky, this is your third chance? Is the 0:37:29.160 --> 0:37:30.160 last one? Three strikes? 0:37:30.160 --> 0:37:30.480 You're out? 0:37:30.480 --> 0:37:30.600 Bear? 0:37:30.719 --> 0:37:33.759 Well, I mean the guy is in like a fur suit. Well, yeah, 0:37:33.880 --> 0:37:35.400 he's allowed to have sweaty hands. 0:37:35.840 --> 0:37:37.520 Who doesn't like a moist bear? Really? 0:37:37.560 --> 0:37:42.920 You know, I mean come on, but anyway, back to 0:37:42.920 --> 0:37:45.520 the grill again, the grill again, Elizabeth? Where were we? 0:37:45.600 --> 0:37:48.840 That's right, stolen tree. Yes, a chancellor was threatening to 0:37:48.880 --> 0:37:52.160 abduct our mascot product his own mascot to get back 0:37:52.160 --> 0:37:54.719 at school. All right, And the students, what did you 0:37:54.760 --> 0:37:56.560 think about that part of the whole mascot? 0:37:56.600 --> 0:37:57.719 Kerfuffled? Like? Were they like? 0:37:57.840 --> 0:38:00.239 I think the administration's being a little silly, like of 0:38:00.239 --> 0:38:03.759 anybody there being the ridiculous ones. Well, I'll tell you 0:38:03.800 --> 0:38:06.239 this much. Some of the students pointed out that this 0:38:06.400 --> 0:38:09.160 was a fifty seven year old, sweaty, clammy handed bear 0:38:09.200 --> 0:38:12.680 mascot who really gives a darn right? Right, So, like 0:38:12.680 --> 0:38:14.320 you know, Teddy Miller would be proud of these students. 0:38:14.360 --> 0:38:16.640 But anyway, setting aside all the empty threats to Oski. 0:38:17.360 --> 0:38:19.759 What about the more real threats of felonies that the 0:38:19.880 --> 0:38:22.680 knee Myers throwing around for the students. Well that apply pressure? 0:38:22.680 --> 0:38:24.359 Would the other students come to them like, hey man, 0:38:24.360 --> 0:38:26.640 you can't making Theta Kai look bad or whatever? 0:38:27.120 --> 0:38:27.279 Right? 0:38:27.360 --> 0:38:29.760 Well, back to mister Orange from the Phoenix five, because 0:38:29.800 --> 0:38:32.040 he says that basically the dudes in the frat house 0:38:32.040 --> 0:38:34.160 were trying to be you know, cooler than Canna Reeves 0:38:34.160 --> 0:38:37.800 and a pretend gunfight. So, as mister Orange said, quote, 0:38:37.840 --> 0:38:40.360 in all honesty, we knew that no one had a 0:38:40.400 --> 0:38:42.279 clue who we were at the outset. We got the 0:38:42.320 --> 0:38:45.200 tree without anyone seeing us. So the whole police investigation 0:38:45.360 --> 0:38:48.040 was a big sham. They claimed that they had stopped 0:38:48.040 --> 0:38:50.919 a car with five cow students on campus that night, 0:38:51.000 --> 0:38:53.160 but to this day, I don't know whether that actually 0:38:53.200 --> 0:38:54.719 happened or if it was just some attempt to. 0:38:54.640 --> 0:38:55.800 Get us out into the open. 0:38:56.560 --> 0:38:58.680 Right, because me comes forward, he's like, we're gonna check 0:38:58.680 --> 0:39:01.279 the DMV because we pulled over these students, and they're like, oh, 0:39:01.480 --> 0:39:02.160 I'll go for it. 0:39:02.200 --> 0:39:02.759 Whatn't us? 0:39:02.880 --> 0:39:03.120 Yeah? 0:39:03.440 --> 0:39:06.080 Anyway, So other than the police tricks, So what did 0:39:06.120 --> 0:39:08.480 the boys parents think because you know, if they're gonna 0:39:08.520 --> 0:39:10.319 get kicked out of school or go to prison over 0:39:10.360 --> 0:39:12.520 a stolen bear. I mean, I think my parents would 0:39:12.560 --> 0:39:15.160 be mad, pissed. And I'm just saying well, mister Orange 0:39:15.360 --> 0:39:18.520 once again said quote, cooler heads prevailed now. He also 0:39:18.520 --> 0:39:21.040 said quote, I think out of the five, I was 0:39:21.080 --> 0:39:23.719 the one who felt the least amount of pressure. I 0:39:23.760 --> 0:39:26.240 was a seventeen year old freshman, not living at the house. 0:39:26.360 --> 0:39:28.360 I was a minor in the legal sense, and not 0:39:28.480 --> 0:39:31.120 around the actual tree on a regular basis since it 0:39:31.200 --> 0:39:33.360 was being kept at the house for a while. The 0:39:33.440 --> 0:39:36.160 older guys in the group obviously felt more pressure as 0:39:36.160 --> 0:39:38.520 time went on, as more people were finding out about 0:39:38.520 --> 0:39:40.960 our involvement. So yeah, now that they got like the 0:39:40.960 --> 0:39:44.680 circle of swelling to snitch on them. So our youngest 0:39:44.719 --> 0:39:48.120 of the crew, mister Orange, he's not feeling the same 0:39:48.120 --> 0:39:50.080 pressure as the older guys, right. He wants to keep 0:39:50.120 --> 0:39:52.799 the tree. He's like, let's run this table man. And 0:39:52.920 --> 0:39:55.360 I quote once again from him, quote, there were major 0:39:55.360 --> 0:39:57.600 discussions concerning whether to return the tree. 0:39:57.640 --> 0:39:58.440 I was lobbing to. 0:39:58.360 --> 0:40:00.480 Hold onto it until the big gang take it on 0:40:00.520 --> 0:40:03.239 a road trip. But the older guys in the group 0:40:03.280 --> 0:40:06.120 probably had better information on exactly how close we were 0:40:06.160 --> 0:40:08.399 to being discovered. So yeah, we never did get close 0:40:08.440 --> 0:40:10.160 to being caught, and I'm pretty sure we could have 0:40:10.160 --> 0:40:12.560 held out a little longer and done more fun things 0:40:12.560 --> 0:40:15.520 with the tree. But again, as the youngest, I wasn't 0:40:15.520 --> 0:40:17.960 in the best position to make the important decisions. 0:40:18.239 --> 0:40:20.920 Oh Man Horn's storytelling kills me. 0:40:21.960 --> 0:40:24.200 So at this point in the kidnapping ordeal, right, some 0:40:24.239 --> 0:40:26.960 of the tree nappers facing serious life changing penalties. 0:40:27.760 --> 0:40:28.719 Mister Orange is like, he. 0:40:28.680 --> 0:40:31.279 Tells, like, oh, well, I'll just leave it to him 0:40:31.320 --> 0:40:33.799 because I don't want to he tells the story, so, well, yeah, 0:40:33.800 --> 0:40:36.440 here I go. One was up for a big scholarship. 0:40:36.560 --> 0:40:39.000 Mister Yellow could have been deported, at least that was 0:40:39.000 --> 0:40:41.840 the claim. So even though I was really disappointed that 0:40:41.880 --> 0:40:44.680 the tree was returned after such a short period of time, 0:40:44.800 --> 0:40:47.480 I can understand they were coming from. So now apparently 0:40:47.520 --> 0:40:50.680 there's threats of deportation for various members of the Phoenix five. 0:40:50.800 --> 0:40:52.759 So that's a bit of a rough one, getting kicked 0:40:52.800 --> 0:40:55.279 out of Cow because of a stolen tree. Anyway, the 0:40:55.320 --> 0:40:58.960 big game comes, So Elizabeth, is there going to be 0:40:59.000 --> 0:40:59.400 a tree? 0:41:00.040 --> 0:41:00.279 Hmmm? 0:41:00.560 --> 0:41:00.640 No. 0:41:01.040 --> 0:41:03.960 On the day before Halloween, two weeks after the theft 0:41:04.000 --> 0:41:07.560 of the Stanford Tree and after the original missed ultimatum 0:41:07.560 --> 0:41:11.040 in deadline, a call comes into the UC Berkeley Chancellor's office. 0:41:11.320 --> 0:41:14.239 On the line is a representative for the Phoenix five. 0:41:14.560 --> 0:41:15.920 He claims that he knows. 0:41:15.719 --> 0:41:18.000 Where the Stanford Tree is, and he reports that it 0:41:18.080 --> 0:41:20.400 is fine, unharmed, and better yet, he would return it 0:41:20.440 --> 0:41:24.719 to the Chancellor's office, but on one condition. Amnesty for 0:41:24.760 --> 0:41:25.240 the thieves. 0:41:26.280 --> 0:41:27.280 Right, yeah, total. 0:41:27.360 --> 0:41:29.640 So the Chancellor agrees to the terms yes, and the 0:41:29.640 --> 0:41:32.480 Stanford DNAs students also agrees to the terms. Four PM, 0:41:32.800 --> 0:41:35.160 an older man described as quote older than a normal 0:41:35.200 --> 0:41:39.080 student who identified himself only as Rishard, walks into the 0:41:39.160 --> 0:41:41.840 Chancellor's office. In his hand was a plastic bag. In 0:41:41.960 --> 0:41:45.040 that plastic bag was the ten foot tall Stanford Tree. 0:41:45.080 --> 0:41:47.840 He handed over the kidnapping victim to the Chancellor's assistant. 0:41:48.040 --> 0:41:50.640 The bag gets open, the Tamford Tree is inspected. There's 0:41:50.680 --> 0:41:54.560 indeed no damage. Oh well except for well, there was 0:41:54.600 --> 0:41:56.160 no real damage, right, it's just like, oh, it's a 0:41:56.200 --> 0:41:57.680 little bit wet, you know. They're like it's kind of 0:41:57.719 --> 0:42:01.040 smelled moldy or whatever. Right, So the it's confirmed. Richard 0:42:01.080 --> 0:42:04.160 walks off, never has to talk to anybody. UC Berkeley 0:42:04.200 --> 0:42:07.160 police sees the tree. Officers escort it back down to 0:42:07.200 --> 0:42:09.400 Stanford in a blue Ford Taurus. 0:42:10.080 --> 0:42:10.319 Yes. 0:42:10.560 --> 0:42:12.919 The police reported that during the trip, the Stanford tree 0:42:12.960 --> 0:42:15.600 was quote very well behaved and very cordial and polite. O. 0:42:15.719 --> 0:42:18.480 Everyone's a cop humor exactly. 0:42:18.680 --> 0:42:18.839 Now. 0:42:18.840 --> 0:42:21.400 Once it's back at Stanford, the administration performed a second 0:42:21.480 --> 0:42:23.040 examination because I want to make sure they got the 0:42:23.080 --> 0:42:25.560 right tree. Can't be trying to like push no fake 0:42:25.560 --> 0:42:28.200 trees on us here. We ain't no punk over Stanford anyway. 0:42:28.239 --> 0:42:31.279 Former guy inside the tree, not the one currently, but 0:42:31.320 --> 0:42:34.560 a former one, Chris Carry. He is apparently on hand 0:42:34.560 --> 0:42:37.640 for the examination, so he later would tell the press quote, 0:42:37.719 --> 0:42:40.279 he looks okay. He looks a little skinny, but we'll 0:42:40.320 --> 0:42:42.560 put him back on a diet of steroids and wheat 0:42:42.560 --> 0:42:44.319 grass and he should be okay for the big game. 0:42:44.400 --> 0:42:45.040 Are you kidding? 0:42:46.000 --> 0:42:48.920 So now for a publicity stuck Carrie tries on the 0:42:48.960 --> 0:42:51.680 tree in the office, decides it's fine, it's fits, there's 0:42:51.719 --> 0:42:54.279 no problems with it. Then another Stanford student who shows 0:42:54.320 --> 0:42:57.880 up in a quote Tree Protective Services shirt, handcuffs the 0:42:57.920 --> 0:43:00.279 Stanford tree and declares that the tree is now under 0:43:00.280 --> 0:43:03.440 his protection and walks away. The police chief Neemuyer, he 0:43:03.480 --> 0:43:05.759 also had his two cents the original joker. He says, 0:43:05.800 --> 0:43:07.480 quote that the tree was going to be secured in 0:43:07.520 --> 0:43:09.799 our evidence room, which is alarmed, and we do have 0:43:09.960 --> 0:43:13.279 armed deputies there. So I got to say, threatening to 0:43:13.320 --> 0:43:15.840 shoot someone in order to protect a trash bag filled 0:43:15.840 --> 0:43:19.720 with the tree costumes so very American. Once the school 0:43:19.800 --> 0:43:24.880 had its tree back, Stanford administration agrees, what dropping all charges, 0:43:25.080 --> 0:43:27.760 you know, the criminal content all it's out the window. 0:43:27.840 --> 0:43:27.960 Right. 0:43:28.040 --> 0:43:30.560 Meanwhile, Chancellor bird All from Berkeley, he gives an interview 0:43:30.600 --> 0:43:32.560 and he says to the Daily Cow that he found 0:43:32.600 --> 0:43:34.560 the prank to be quote pretty funny in a sense, 0:43:34.880 --> 0:43:37.759 and that the Phoenix five had operated quote with a degree. 0:43:37.400 --> 0:43:39.560 Of wit and charm end quote. 0:43:39.560 --> 0:43:43.000 But again he reiterated that his imagined fears of riots 0:43:43.000 --> 0:43:45.200 and murders happening because of the stolen tree, and he said, 0:43:45.200 --> 0:43:48.320 you know, a prank like that could lead to real violence. Now, finally, 0:43:48.520 --> 0:43:51.280 the Phoenix five they got to have the last say. 0:43:51.360 --> 0:43:54.240 Just before they handed over the hostage tree, they faxed 0:43:54.280 --> 0:43:57.200 in a communicate that blamed quote a hostile climate for 0:43:57.239 --> 0:44:00.240 their choice to return the tree. They added, quote, gone 0:44:00.280 --> 0:44:03.000 are the days of healthy rivalry in which students of 0:44:03.000 --> 0:44:05.759 opposing schools could pull pranks on each other in the. 0:44:05.760 --> 0:44:06.840 Name of school spirit. 0:44:07.480 --> 0:44:09.600 Now, later on, for the Big Game edition of The 0:44:09.640 --> 0:44:12.640 Daily Cow, the Phoenix Five were again given a platform. 0:44:12.680 --> 0:44:15.160 They said, quote, we wanted to pump up the rivalry, 0:44:15.239 --> 0:44:18.120 make it a cow spirit thing and poke fun at Stanford. 0:44:18.239 --> 0:44:20.600 With a rivalry like this, you gotta live in it. 0:44:20.719 --> 0:44:23.400 You've got to do something with it. Otherwise, why bother 0:44:23.520 --> 0:44:26.160 having it? That's a point, right, so to have the 0:44:26.239 --> 0:44:28.959 last laugh. The next year, the nineteen ninety nine edition 0:44:29.040 --> 0:44:31.040 of The Big Game, The Daily Cow ran the story 0:44:31.080 --> 0:44:33.360 that featured a photo of the Phoenix Five. 0:44:33.239 --> 0:44:35.960 Revealing their identities for all the world to see. And 0:44:36.000 --> 0:44:36.319 why not. 0:44:36.400 --> 0:44:39.360 They gotten away with it and they got amnesty. Meanwhile, 0:44:39.640 --> 0:44:43.120 there was Stanford's response to this whole tree kidnapping kerfuffle. 0:44:43.440 --> 0:44:45.960 A little while after the Stanford Tree was returned, the 0:44:46.000 --> 0:44:49.399 Stanford band brought it out for the Stanford USC Game. 0:44:49.719 --> 0:44:50.239 That's a big one. 0:44:50.320 --> 0:44:53.040 Yeah, private school on private school, rich kids on rich kids, right, 0:44:53.400 --> 0:44:55.279 and they go out there to pump up the crowd. 0:44:55.320 --> 0:44:57.920 The band at halftime, the band wheels out a wood 0:44:58.000 --> 0:45:01.160 chipper and the Stanford Band They claimed that their fellow 0:45:01.200 --> 0:45:04.680 band member, the Stanford Tree, had been quote contaminated by 0:45:04.680 --> 0:45:07.040 its time with the public school students of UC Berkeley, 0:45:07.360 --> 0:45:10.200 and in order to purify the now soiled Stanford Tree, 0:45:10.239 --> 0:45:13.560 they shoved this tree headfirst into the wood chipper. Boom, 0:45:13.640 --> 0:45:18.080 Stanford Tree is no more just a pile of Stanford toothpicks. 0:45:19.520 --> 0:45:21.800 But boom, all of a sudden, there's a surprise out 0:45:21.800 --> 0:45:25.200 comes a new Stanford Tree, revealed to be better and 0:45:25.280 --> 0:45:29.360 pure clean. Now, when he was asked about Stanford's choice 0:45:29.400 --> 0:45:32.080 to you know, destroy their own tree and a wood chipper, 0:45:32.360 --> 0:45:35.440 Old mister Orange had this to say, really took a 0:45:35.480 --> 0:45:37.920 liking to us after spending some time in Berkeley, and 0:45:37.960 --> 0:45:40.160 we kind of got attached to it as well, So 0:45:40.520 --> 0:45:44.160 a slow, painful death wouldn't have been appropriate. But even 0:45:44.160 --> 0:45:46.680 though the Ferdies felt it necessary to put it through 0:45:46.719 --> 0:45:48.919 a wood chipper, I'm sure the process was a quick 0:45:48.960 --> 0:45:51.560 one and the suffering was minimal. I still don't understand 0:45:51.560 --> 0:45:53.880 why they do that to their own mascot. But nothing 0:45:53.920 --> 0:46:00.160 really surprised me as about Stanford or its students versus 0:46:00.239 --> 0:46:04.080 kids the war. That's what you missed in the late 0:46:04.160 --> 0:46:07.640 nineties while you were away. So what's our ridiculous takeaway? 0:46:08.880 --> 0:46:13.040 I think that again, dork on dork, violence is always entertaining. 0:46:13.600 --> 0:46:15.839 It's no Texas versus eight Mores say. 0:46:15.760 --> 0:46:18.200 They're worried about riots. It's like, honey, take a look 0:46:18.239 --> 0:46:19.040 at what could. 0:46:18.840 --> 0:46:20.759 Happen, Like, go down to look at Texas. What they 0:46:20.840 --> 0:46:22.880 did they called in the military. 0:46:22.400 --> 0:46:23.760 Texas means business. 0:46:23.840 --> 0:46:25.400 They had hunters shooting at people. 0:46:25.600 --> 0:46:27.399 But I mean, I mean, as much as I roll 0:46:27.480 --> 0:46:30.279 my eyes at all their like dorky humor about it, 0:46:31.320 --> 0:46:33.279 I do appreciate this kind of stuff. I think it's 0:46:33.320 --> 0:46:36.160 you know, we need these kind of dramatics to keep 0:46:36.239 --> 0:46:38.680 things interesting, better that than serious problems. 0:46:38.719 --> 0:46:40.480 And it creates a sense of community. And you know, 0:46:40.520 --> 0:46:42.560 obviously as long as no one really gets hurt, you know, 0:46:43.239 --> 0:46:45.120 I think these things are fun. And it's always once 0:46:45.160 --> 0:46:48.120 again the imagined fears that we we lose things because 0:46:48.120 --> 0:46:50.560 of what someone imagines, not because of what occurred. 0:46:50.680 --> 0:46:53.120 Yeah, so you said that, now they squash it down. 0:46:53.200 --> 0:46:54.880 Yeah, they play you all that, they do not. 0:46:55.320 --> 0:46:57.719 Ever since then, they've always said because it's there have 0:46:57.760 --> 0:47:00.560 been other pranks since then, and then they've always threatened 0:47:00.600 --> 0:47:03.879 police action and legal consequences. They've they followed the hard 0:47:03.880 --> 0:47:06.120 line ever since then. So ever since bird All, Chancellor 0:47:06.120 --> 0:47:08.640 bird All put down. There's a serious stuff for bringing 0:47:08.680 --> 0:47:11.160 in the cops. It's always been that. Before that, that 0:47:11.239 --> 0:47:13.279 was not the case. It's always like you, guys. 0:47:13.400 --> 0:47:15.840 Well, let's go over and encourage them to do it again, 0:47:16.400 --> 0:47:17.280 bring it back. 0:47:17.120 --> 0:47:19.280 I say, we go steal it all right, there's Ridiculous 0:47:19.280 --> 0:47:22.880 Crime steals Osky, both Osky and. 0:47:22.800 --> 0:47:24.920 The tree, and then we make them kiss. 0:47:25.120 --> 0:47:28.560 Yes, yes, that's it. 0:47:28.640 --> 0:47:29.360 That's all I got for it. 0:47:29.400 --> 0:47:30.040 That's excellent. 0:47:30.600 --> 0:47:31.560 Well, thanks for listening. 0:47:31.920 --> 0:47:34.360 You can find us online always at ridiculous Crime on 0:47:34.400 --> 0:47:37.440 Twitter and on Instagram and on the internet at ridiculous 0:47:37.480 --> 0:47:40.759 crime dot com. You know, we got all sorts of stuff. 0:47:40.760 --> 0:47:43.120 We've got stories on the Instagram, we got posts and 0:47:43.160 --> 0:47:46.680 stuff on Twitter, and we got the talkback app on iHeart, 0:47:47.239 --> 0:47:49.400 so download that and you can send us messages. You 0:47:49.400 --> 0:47:52.000 can talk at us, yes, so yeah, there you go. 0:47:52.040 --> 0:47:54.279 Also if you want to email us ridiculous Crime at 0:47:54.280 --> 0:47:56.960 gmail dot com. We always like hearing from you. Thanks 0:47:57.000 --> 0:48:04.960 for listening. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and 0:48:05.080 --> 0:48:07.960 Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by our Man with the Chipper, 0:48:08.120 --> 0:48:11.200 Dave Kustin. Research is by Marissa the Tree, Doctor Brown 0:48:11.280 --> 0:48:14.520 and Andrea the Lawyer. Song Sharpened Tear Our theme song 0:48:14.600 --> 0:48:16.440 is by Thomas I Prefer to Smoke. 0:48:16.200 --> 0:48:19.000 Them Trees, Lee and Travis Go Bears. 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