You Guilty??

Dear Cousin Gobo,

I have to admit, I'm guilty of a crime.

In today's world of fast information and instant gratification, all rules will be broken. What was once know as an absolute do not, has become a minor sidethought.

I'm taking about multitaking while driving. Everyone does it. Now it is becoming dangerous. Talking on the phone, listening to the MP3 players, watching television, using GPS, all of these things are increasingly distracting drivers.

Last week, I was almost rundown but a guy not paying attention while driving through a crowded parking lot. Luckily I got out of the way in time, or I could have been extremely injuried. As I looked back toward the man, I noticed he was wearing earphones connected to a MP3 player.

Yesterday a lady wasn't so lucky. She was just sitting patiently at a bus stop when I man in a car hopped the curb crashing into the bench she was sitting on. She didn't die but both of her legs were broken. The police said that the accident was caused by light rain that fell eariler. But I don't buy that. I believe he was too busy on his cell phone, because he was on it the whole time I was there shooting video of the accident.

Technically it is illegal (or at least looked down upon) to do anything in a car other than drive. I remember in driver's education (many years ago) being told that I was never allowed to drive a vehicle while wearing headphones, yet today anyone who has an MP3 player has probably done it at one time. I know I do when I go home from work late at night. In some states it is illegal to talk on the phone while driving. Many cell companies step around these laws by selling hands free devices to install in your car. Asking a police officer about it, he told me that drivers aren't even suppose to listen to the radio at a loud volume. So what about all those people who drive around with their bass blasting. And can someone tell me what's the point of installing multiple flat screen TVs in the car, if it is illegal to watch those TVs while driving.

The point is that we are all guilty of these crimes. Maybe it is more of a crime against society. There are so many worst things going on in the world that these minor things have no importance. So we don't pay attention to them, until something awful happens. You know it is possible to be convicted of manslaughter, being locked up in prison for decades, all because of a cell phone call.

But I'm not your Jiminy Cricket, so do whatever you want.

Missing Tweeker

Dear Cousin Gobo,

I had a very interesting weekend. On Saturday, I had to drive to the far east side of the valley to cover a missing person story at the Las Vegas Wash. It is like a fake river that flows into a man-made lake. Who knew that this could be in the desert?



There was a missing woman out there. Her family and friends, who called us, came out to search for her. We were told by the officals she was out here during the night with her boyfriend, and something happened causing her to get lost in the darkness. There is absolutely no light out there at night. Off the record, we were told that most likely she was out there doing drugs with her boyfriend, and they got into some kind of an argument and she ran out into the water. All tweeked out.



But the family believed otherwise. They think her boyfriend killed her and dumped her body into the wash. So after the detective left the scene, the family continued searching for the missing woman. I was out in the swampy wash area getting shots of the search when the woman's sister started screaming like bloody hell. I thought, Oh Shit! They found her body. Hell yeah, we are the only news crew out here. But no. They only found her clothes, which for some reason enraged the sister. She ran out of the wash to find and kill the boyfriend. There was a fight involving choking, screaming, large rocks, F-bombs all caught on tape. Great television!

Which resulted with me getting a subpoena.



The police returned to resume the search. This time they brought out the helicopter and the dive team. The detective found out about the fight, and he politely asked me if I caught it on tape. He told me that he might need a copy for the possible investigation. Hence subpoena. They didn't arrest the boyfriend but took him to the station for questioning. The family was balling their eyes out calling the boyfriend a murderer. We knew we staying out there for the long haul.



Several hours passed, and there was no sign of the missing woman. The search crews told the family that they would have to quit soon before the sun setted. The family was not pleased.



So after the helicopter made a few more passes and the sun setted, everyone left us out there in the dark to do our live shot.



It turns out the police have a strong reason to believe that the woman was not murdered by the boyfriend. They think that she was high as a kite and wanted to swim in the wash. So she stripped naked and jumped into the water probably drowning. I'm sure we'll do a follow-up if and when the bloated body is discovered.