Monday, February 3, 2014

Florida Woman Carjacks Reporter's Van. News Film Makes Cops' Job Easy

Here's a Journalism 101 lesson for you:
Florida woman steals reporter's TV van
because she objected to story the reporter was working on.  

If you're going to steal a reporter's car because you don't like the story he's working, don't do it while the reporter is filming the whole thing. It makes it too easy for the cops.

Josh Taylor, a reporter for WTXL-TV the ABC affilliate in Sarasota, Florida, was investigating a report of fraud in Siesta Key, Fla.

Yes, yes, all the strange crimes come from Florida and here's another one.

Apparently, a house was being advertised as having 11 bedrooms and room for 25 to 30 people, when that was not the case. The house was much smaller, and couldn't handle that many people, according to reports. That false advertising would make this a fraud case.

Taylor wanted to get the homeowner's side of the story, as pretty much any reporter would. He encountered a woman named Jean Price, who allegedly works for the homeowner.

She strenuously objected to Taylor's attempts at reporting the story. She said "You're not doing a story" even though Taylor had the right to be there, as he was on a public street. And of course, Price is not his editor, so he could do the story even if Price objected.

So Price, took Taylor's camera tripod, stuffed it in his reporter's van, got in and drove off in the van, all as Taylor filmed these proceedings.

She drove it a ways down the road, walked back and again informed Taylor he was not doing the story. Problem was, Taylor had called the police, who were then on their way to arrest Price and charge her with grand theft auto.

I'm sure Taylor's footage was very helpful to the police as they investigated this. Nothing like making things easy for the cops, huh, Jean Price?

In the end, Taylor didn't get his fraud story. At least not yet. That's coming, supposedly. He did get a nice story though, on a bizarre, kooky woman getting arrested for grand theft auto.

Film at 11!

Here's the video:


No comments:

Post a Comment