transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] And we continue at 2.05 in the afternoon on The John Phillips Show. Mr. Randy Wings in Culver City.

Speaker 2:
[00:07] Well, the poll just dropped. This is the third poll that was commissioned by the California Democratic Party in an effort to get the lower polling candidates to exit the race. So unlike all the other polls, this is tracking the same amount of people from March 17th to the last one was April 5th, to now we have April 17th. And here is what's really interesting. The Baccaria bump is now in two polls.

Speaker 1:
[00:36] Uh-oh.

Speaker 2:
[00:37] So this poll shows, of course, Steve Hilted in first place was 16% of the vote. He was at 14% in the last one. Bianco is flat 14 now, 14 two weeks ago. Becerra on April 5th was in 4%. Now he is at 13% tied with Tom Steyer.

Speaker 1:
[01:03] Well I guess there is such a thing as a Baccaria bump.

Speaker 2:
[01:07] In fifth place is KT Porter, who started this poll on March 17th at 10, then dipped down to 7. Now she's back to 10.

Speaker 1:
[01:21] You know what Louis told me? He said the Baccaria bump is something that goes on in the bathroom of a disco in Acapulco.

Speaker 2:
[01:33] Okay, that's not too bad. Mahan saw a much smaller bump. He was at 4% last time. Now he's at 5%. Viragosa has gotten what can only be described as the John Phillips Show anti-bump. He was at 4% on May 5th. Then he did this show and now he's at 2%.

Speaker 1:
[01:53] Don't blame me.

Speaker 2:
[01:55] That's right. You could also blame John Cobalt. They made that a whole live event. Betty Yee, who just dropped out, was at 1%. Tony Thurmond had a little tiny bump because he was at less than 1%. And now he's back at a solid one. But here's what's the best part about this poll. This poll did not take Swalwell's name off the ballot. So, they asked respondents after everything that happened about Swalwell. Swalwell, who started this survey on March 17th at 10, got up to 12, is now at 1.

Speaker 1:
[02:32] He will generate thousands of votes when the votes are actually tallied.

Speaker 2:
[02:37] One percent of people who responded to this poll, who they've been tracking for the last month, said, yep, Swalwell's still my guy.

Speaker 1:
[02:47] Now that's commitment.

Speaker 2:
[02:49] But of course, the big takeaway here is that now we have multiple polls showing that the Swalwell vote is almost exclusively going to Javier Becerra.

Speaker 1:
[03:01] Why?

Speaker 2:
[03:02] Nobody knows.

Speaker 1:
[03:04] Okay. But this is the problem for Democrats. If the Swalwell vote goes to someone who was in single digits and not someone who was already at the top, you still have the same problem, which is you could get locked out of the November ballot.

Speaker 2:
[03:21] Well, unless all the things that Michael Trujillo says are about to come out, come out in the next week or so.

Speaker 1:
[03:28] Scrub it. Well, the rumors are that Katie Porter is going to be the next one to have her time in the barrel.

Speaker 2:
[03:36] And how many times a day are you clicking refresh to see if it today's the day?

Speaker 1:
[03:41] But here's the thing though. Who out there is voting for Katie Porter? The only people I can think of who that presentation would appeal to are really angry Karens.

Speaker 3:
[03:56] Sorry for the noise. I'm cutting carrots.

Speaker 1:
[03:59] And what percentage of the overall population do angry Karens make?

Speaker 2:
[04:06] You should type that into Grok.

Speaker 1:
[04:10] You want me to?

Speaker 2:
[04:12] I'd be surprised. You know what the thing is? AI will try to give you an answer even when it's nonsensical. Go ahead and see what it says. Go ahead and type into your little Grok bot the percentage of California voters that would be described as Karens.

Speaker 1:
[04:26] Okay. I typed in what percent of California's population do angry Karens make?

Speaker 2:
[04:34] Now is Grok going to just find you the amount of Californians that have the name Karens?

Speaker 1:
[04:39] Okay. It says 0.0 because angry Karens isn't a measurable population. It's just internet slang.

Speaker 2:
[04:46] No! Okay.

Speaker 1:
[04:52] Let me rephrase that.

Speaker 2:
[04:54] All right. We're going to try it again.

Speaker 1:
[04:56] What percent of California's population is made up by angry, violent, unhinged, profane, slovenly women? Let's see what Grok has to say about that one. You see, you got to rephrase it sometimes, Randy, to make it more accurate.

Speaker 2:
[05:33] You have to be really specific.

Speaker 4:
[05:35] You can smell it right here.

Speaker 1:
[05:37] Okay. There is no measurable demographic category called angry, violent, unhinged, profane, slovenly women in California or anywhere else. The vast majority of women in California are normal law-abiding and functional.

Speaker 2:
[05:56] Do you see that Katie Porter and Bianco got into it on Twitter over the weekend?

Speaker 1:
[06:02] When is she not fighting with someone? What do you think she's like in traffic?

Speaker 2:
[06:09] Oh, probably louder than most of us.

Speaker 5:
[06:12] Out of my shock.

Speaker 2:
[06:14] But let me give you the back and forth here and then we can move on. So Katie Porter tape puts a post trying to outdo Steyer saying the day I take off, we abolish state cooperation with ICE. Bianco says, what a dangerous take. Gavin Newsom's refusal to allow law enforcement to work with ICE puts all Californians in danger. At Katie Porter happened to walk you through this. Katie Porter then says, I'd rather you walk me through what kind of industrial strength mouthwash you used to get the taste of Trump's boots out of your mouth now that he's dumped you for Steve Hilton. To which Bianco replies, bless your heart. I guess I should thank you for sparing me from the mashed potatoes.

Speaker 4:
[06:58] I'm pulling in to the bakery.

Speaker 1:
[07:02] Speaking of industrial strength mouthwash, we're not going to play that interview with that listener whose buddy took her home from the bar.

Speaker 2:
[07:10] We've played it enough times. You can search for it on the podcast and listen to it whenever you'd like.

Speaker 1:
[07:18] It's interesting that the phrase industrial strength mouthwash made me think of that.

Speaker 2:
[07:24] Here's a fun one. Did you see that over the same weekend, Robert Garcia makes a big post that California should ban the top two primary system and then Robert Garcia endorses Katie Porter?

Speaker 1:
[07:37] Yeah. What is with that relationship?

Speaker 2:
[07:41] He was her only friend.

Speaker 1:
[07:44] Can you imagine the two of them together? Robert Garcia and Katie Porter. It's got to be like Waylon and Madame. Hey, hello, everybody. All right. So California's school population is in free fall. We knew that, but the population is actually decreasing by a lot more than we originally thought.

Speaker 2:
[08:10] The state of California projected a certain amount of enrollment decline and then you have to budget accordingly, realizing that, well, you're going to be getting much less funding. The real number turned out to be seven times higher than they expected of enrollment decline, kids not going to school in California. Seven times. For more on this, we get a KTVU Fox 2 in the Bay.

Speaker 6:
[08:46] Your difference that we're seeing happening at public education. There are fewer children attending California schools right now, and the drop in enrollment this year is seven times greater than what the state originally predicted.

Speaker 2:
[08:58] And of course, this news comes out just days after pretty much every single teachers union, including UTLA, got a big fat raise.

Speaker 1:
[09:08] Well, why does this surprise anyone? Because families need affordable single-family homes. If you're having a bunch of kids and you have, I don't know, five, six people in your family, you don't want to live in a mixed-use building above a PF Chang's. You want to live in a house with a backyard and a car and a garage and those sorts of things. And the state of California doesn't want people to have those things. Well, that's what families with young kids want. So if you make it impossible for them to get that, they're going to move to Texas because you can get it there.

Speaker 2:
[09:48] Well, and the families that can afford to live here, they can all, if you can afford a house in San Jose, you can also afford private school and you're probably putting your kids in that.

Speaker 1:
[10:00] 100%.

Speaker 6:
[10:02] The California Department of Education released a new enrollment data set this week and the education non-profit Ed Source crunched those numbers. We'll turn to our Ali Rasmus live to explain what Ed Source found, Ali.

Speaker 4:
[10:14] Well, they found that the problem of declining enrollment in California schools is a real problem and it appears to be accelerating, you know, the What does it tell you that the people that put together our budget can't do math?

Speaker 1:
[10:28] Everything you need to know.

Speaker 4:
[10:29] California Department of Education released new raw data just yesterday about enrollment and the non-profit education news site Ed Source did an analysis of it and here's what they found for the 2025-2026 school year. So this academic year, the number of students, TK through 12th grade enrolled in California public schools dropped 1.3 percent. Now, that may not sound like a lot, but it amounts to 74,960 fewer students across the state.

Speaker 2:
[11:00] Okay, so nearly 75,000 fewer kids in this state than they thought would be when they already projected for enrollment decline. And if you want to do some fun math here, 75,000 kids by, let's just round down and say we spend 25,000 per student, that is a loss to the budget of $1.8 billion.

Speaker 1:
[11:22] And think about this, enrollment is up in certain parts of the state. The Central Valley, it's up, the Inland Empire, it's up, Orange County, it's up. So these numbers mean there is a freefall in enrollment in places like Oakland and Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Speaker 4:
[11:40] Fewer students across the state.

Speaker 2:
[11:43] San Jose is seeing a huge decline in enrollment, but they're actually doing what most school districts won't do in their closing schools. San Jose, the land of the dinks.

Speaker 4:
[11:55] Fewer students across the state. And it's not just in public schools. According to that EdSource analysis, enrollment at California's K-12 private schools also saw a decline of 6.6% in enrollment. And the number of kids registered as homeschooled also dropped 3.7%.

Speaker 2:
[12:13] Every single category of a student is leaving.

Speaker 1:
[12:16] And don't forget, it wasn't long ago, Randy, we did the story where enrollment at California State University and University of California is down.

Speaker 2:
[12:26] The only one that's really up is California Community Colleges, but that's because AI chat bots are getting student loans and going there.

Speaker 1:
[12:35] That's true.

Speaker 7:
[12:36] The big surprise to us was the State Department of Finance thought, predicted 10,000 students, the state would see a 10,000 student drop. And just so you know, the state has more than 5,000.

Speaker 2:
[12:49] Just LAUSD was 16,000. That's one different.

Speaker 1:
[12:53] That's huge.

Speaker 7:
[12:54] The state has more than 5 million public school students. So 10,000 drop. It was 75,000 drop. That and that was more than double the decline last year.

Speaker 2:
[13:07] What does that tell you about what the 2030 census is going to show for the state of California?

Speaker 1:
[13:12] It's going to be brutal because we're expected to lose between three and five congressional districts. If enrollment is down by this much, we're probably looking at five, maybe even six.

Speaker 7:
[13:26] From the prior year. So what we're seeing is an acceleration of the decline.

Speaker 4:
[13:35] Now some of the reasons for that decline include demographic trends. Families have been having fewer children overall in the past decade, not just in California, but across the country.

Speaker 2:
[13:44] Yeah, if you've ever seen the opening of that movie, Idiocracy, where only the dumb people are having 10 kids, we're there.

Speaker 1:
[13:52] Well, the people with kids just aren't sticking around. If you look at the people I went to high school with, if we were to have a high school reunion, we might as well do it in Texas because that's where they are.

Speaker 4:
[14:05] California, but across the country, but also part of the equation, according to analysts, increased immigration enforcement this year. The number of people migrating to California has dropped in the past year of the Trump administration, and many immigrant families still here are afraid to send their kids to school. Now this overall...

Speaker 2:
[14:22] Yeah, that's the other factor about this is that, well, LAUSD saw a huge decline because a big portion of the population at LAUSD are kids in the country illegally.

Speaker 1:
[14:33] Well, we shouldn't be paying for them anyway.

Speaker 4:
[14:35] Now this overall decline in enrollment is a trend that's expected to continue in the years ahead. Parents we spoke to this morning were concerned about it.

Speaker 8:
[14:45] Well, it's a big deal because actually our the major issue here was class size. So our class is actually too big. And I see like, I don't know, I'm just worried that if we get fewer school, fewer kids, it's just less fun to go around, right?

Speaker 2:
[14:59] Yeah, but wouldn't that mean that the class size is smaller because there's no kids in it?

Speaker 1:
[15:04] You want it to be smaller, you don't want it to be non-existent. And right now it's headed there.

Speaker 2:
[15:10] These trends are only going to go in one direction. There's going to be some really hard conversations that have to be had about closing schools, about merging schools, and then, hey, take that land and turn that into housing.

Speaker 1:
[15:21] Well just think about this, you don't have any kids, I don't have any kids. If you had kids, would you allow them to go to the public schools in your neighborhood?

Speaker 2:
[15:31] No, I'm LAUSD.

Speaker 1:
[15:34] Yeah, under no circumstances would you allow that to happen. So you'd either put them in private school or you'd move.

Speaker 8:
[15:41] So then there's even going to be less resources.

Speaker 4:
[15:43] I mean our taxes aren't dropping either though, right?

Speaker 8:
[15:46] So bond measures and things like that.

Speaker 2:
[15:48] So I would say the... That's right, we're paying more and more and more. We're paying pretty damn high compared to other states. We're not getting any kind of results and shocker, people are taking their families and going somewhere else.

Speaker 1:
[16:02] People vote with their feet before they vote at the ballot box.

Speaker 8:
[16:05] Expenditures are going up, less resources. That's probably the thing that's the most concerning.

Speaker 4:
[16:15] California public schools are funded based on average daily attendance of students. So fewer students means less money for schools and school districts. And of course, that has a big impact, not just on the districts themselves, but on local jobs, local economies and surrounding communities.

Speaker 2:
[16:31] You know what this means? This means that we're going to go into the next fiscal year with nearly every major school district having fewer kids than they thought they were going to have at the same time that they all signed these sweetheart deals with all the unions to give everybody raises.

Speaker 1:
[16:47] Think about that for a second. The product that they offer is awful. The test scores are awful. We know that many of these schools are not in fact safe places. The teachers unions want to defund the school police. And they are getting raise after raise after raise after raise. So the cost to taxpayers, even though there are fewer students, isn't going down, it's continuing to go up. This model is unsustainable.

Speaker 4:
[17:16] Live in Dublin, Ali Rasmus, KTVU, Fox 2 News.

Speaker 2:
[17:19] There you go. The headline is something you should think about on the way home today. California anticipated an enrollment decline of about 10,000 students. It was actually 75,000.

Speaker 1:
[17:37] 800-222-5222 is the telephone number 1-800-222-5222. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at johnnydontlikeshowatgmail.com. That's johnnydontlikeshowatgmail.com. And Randy, you're monitoring the mailbag.

Speaker 2:
[17:54] Brad writes in at johnnydontlikeshowatgmail.com with the subject line, School Enrollment Mystery Decline Explained. Lower enrollment is caused by the score of billionaires leaving the state, along with their average 3,698.4 children. How many kids does Elon have now? Like 15?

Speaker 1:
[18:17] He's right up there with Sean Kemp.

Speaker 2:
[18:19] Oh boy. That whole generation, by the way, is going to be insane.

Speaker 1:
[18:26] Of Elon's kids?

Speaker 2:
[18:28] Yes. The children of billionaires are even crazier than the billionaires themselves.

Speaker 1:
[18:33] Oh my. And Randy, with the end of the show about a half hour away, if you want to continue listening to us after we sign off at three, that's easy to do.

Speaker 2:
[18:42] All you got to do is search for The John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcast. That could be the Apple Podcast app, iHeart, Spotify. Search for The John Phillips Show. Hit subscribe. You could download all the episodes. You could do a Google on the YouTube. You could get the free KABC app or the free KSFO app or how about the KMJ Now app because we're on the big KMJ in the Central Valley Saturdays at noon. So many different ways to listen live to this show, either on this AM signal that you're listening to or with the apps. You can listen wherever you want. And with podcasting, you can listen whenever you want.

Speaker 1:
[19:18] 800-222-5222 is telephone number 1-800-222-5222. And right now, it's time to open up the California Crime Blotter.

Speaker 5:
[19:28] It's happened yet again.

Speaker 9:
[19:31] I see.

Speaker 10:
[19:33] Time for the California Crime Blotter.

Speaker 1:
[19:38] And this edition involves Justin Bieber.

Speaker 2:
[19:42] All right. This is something that I'm surprised hasn't happened before. But this last weekend was Coachella Weekend 2. Before that was Coachella Weekend 1. And Coachella is a massive undertaking, a huge festival. So, if you are somebody that provides different kinds of products and services in the area, you're probably used to getting calls like, if you own a vehicle company and someone needs to rent four of your dune buggies to go back and forth from the venue to their private villa, you're like, well, that sounds great. Here's the problem. Somebody called one of those vehicle rental companies just pretending that he worked for Justin Bieber. Oh, and then the guy dropped off the dune buggies before the deposit check cleared because you figured Justin Bieber, he's good for it. And then he's tracking because he's got tracking devices on the dune buggies. And instead of going to the polo grounds where Coachella is, they're flying down the 10 freeway in the other direction. That's the set up for the most Coachella crime story you've ever heard of. Here is KTLA.

Speaker 6:
[21:02] Your difference that we're seeing happening at public education.

Speaker 3:
[21:04] There are fewer All a scam and the business owner says a person posing as Bieber's staff requested four of those electric buggy rentals.

Speaker 2:
[21:14] But apparently, if you want anything, just call and say you work for the Biebs.

Speaker 1:
[21:20] Works like a charm.

Speaker 11:
[21:22] But soon those buggies were on their way to the southern border, leaving the company out hundreds of thousands of dollars. KTLA's Jillian Smuckler is live in Hollywood with details.

Speaker 12:
[21:32] Hi, you guys. Yeah, I do want to make know there is no confirmation that Justin Bieber or his team had anything to do with this, but the owner.

Speaker 2:
[21:39] No, they pretended to be the Bieb.

Speaker 1:
[21:43] A case of mistaken identity, as they say.

Speaker 12:
[21:45] The owner tells us that scammer used his name to make his last-minute request seem legitimate, and that's ultimately what led to four of his vehicles being stolen.

Speaker 2:
[21:57] It was in Bieber's rider that he needed green M&Ms and he needed four dune buggies.

Speaker 12:
[22:08] For one Newport Beach business, it's definitely too late for sorry.

Speaker 11:
[22:13] Oh, boy.

Speaker 1:
[22:18] Not acceptable in a market as big as LA.

Speaker 10:
[22:23] Coachella weekend. These little babies are going to go to work.

Speaker 12:
[22:29] Four electric moaks gone after a scam tied to someone claiming to work for Justin Bieber at Coachella.

Speaker 10:
[22:36] The night before we get a phone call for a last minute request for four cars to go to Coachella for the headline errors, which is not out of the ordinary request at all. We've done it.

Speaker 2:
[22:50] It's got to be so, so frustrating to be like an on-site PA for these events the day of when talent asks for stuff like that the day of.

Speaker 1:
[22:59] Oh, and they're all ridiculous. There's a handful of them that are nice people who are well adjusted, and the rest of them, they want the dune buggies with 20 minutes notice.

Speaker 10:
[23:14] Out of the ordinary request at all, we've done it a lot of times.

Speaker 12:
[23:18] The caller claims the cars were to shuttle the pop star between a private villa in the festival grounds.

Speaker 10:
[23:24] I didn't want to leave the beavers high and dry. Never.

Speaker 2:
[23:30] He was just looking to help out the babe.

Speaker 1:
[23:34] It's admirable.

Speaker 10:
[23:36] I didn't want to leave the beavers high and dry. Never thought this would happen.

Speaker 12:
[23:40] But there were warning signs, including a $20,000 deposit that never came through.

Speaker 2:
[23:46] Yeah, that's your first and probably only red flag that you need to know that this isn't legit that when you're renting vehicles from a private supplier, they don't have the deposit.

Speaker 1:
[23:59] Okay, here's something else, though, that frequently happens in this world. Frequently, many of these stars will stiff vendors because they feel like they can. They feel like, okay, you could go out and you can say that you rented your dune buggies to pop star so-and-so. So therefore, since you're gonna use my name to increase your business, I shouldn't have to pay you for the use of those dune buggies.

Speaker 10:
[24:27] I didn't think anything of it because he was scatterbrained and that's normal and he said his...

Speaker 2:
[24:33] Yeah, see, the guy pretending to be the PA that's putting all this together is like, yeah, I don't know what happened. They're supposed to send you the check and I'm gonna need them or Bieber's gonna kill me.

Speaker 10:
[24:44] Said his wire got out a little bit late. We should have it in the morning.

Speaker 12:
[24:48] The cars were delivered to Palm Desert, but just hours later something wasn't right.

Speaker 10:
[24:52] We have a moving vehicle going down the 10 freeway west. I realize that are not going.

Speaker 2:
[25:00] Wait, the festival's east.

Speaker 1:
[25:03] Yeah, but LA County's where all the criminals live.

Speaker 10:
[25:07] Moving vehicle going down the 10 freeway west. I realize that are not going 30 miles an hour. They're on a flatbed.

Speaker 12:
[25:15] When Marta called the renter, the man.

Speaker 2:
[25:17] This was well planned and well organized.

Speaker 1:
[25:21] Yeah, this thief knew what he was doing.

Speaker 12:
[25:23] When Marta called the renter, the man claiming to be with Bieber insisted everything was fine.

Speaker 10:
[25:29] What are you talking about? I go, what am I talking about? It's my car is going down the 10 freeway. What are you?

Speaker 2:
[25:33] Oh, he left his cigarettes in LA. We have to go pick them up.

Speaker 1:
[25:39] It wouldn't be cigarettes that they were going to get.

Speaker 10:
[25:41] The 10 freeway. What are you talking about?

Speaker 12:
[25:44] Marta says he immediately called CHP trying to stop the vehicles before they reached the border.

Speaker 10:
[25:49] I was tracking them down the 215 to the 15 Escondido.

Speaker 2:
[25:53] This is like the only time there's no traffic on any of these roads is when someone's trying to smuggle dune buggies out of the country.

Speaker 1:
[25:59] Oh, you should have seen what the traffic looked like this morning.

Speaker 2:
[26:02] Oh boy.

Speaker 10:
[26:03] I was tracking them down the 215 to the 15 Escondido. I go, they're heading towards the border. Stop these cars. Stop this train.

Speaker 12:
[26:10] But it was too late.

Speaker 10:
[26:11] I watched those cars go across the border into Tijuana.

Speaker 12:
[26:15] The GPS.

Speaker 2:
[26:16] You never see in those dune buggies again, buddy.

Speaker 1:
[26:18] Oh no, they're already stripped.

Speaker 2:
[26:20] They're already stripped for parts and the hull are probably sitting in the river.

Speaker 12:
[26:25] You can smell it right here. The GPS signals went dark.

Speaker 2:
[26:31] I sure hope he had insurance.

Speaker 1:
[26:34] Although well, he's not a jewelry store operator, so maybe he did.

Speaker 12:
[26:37] The GPS signals went dark and the cars were nowhere to be found.

Speaker 10:
[26:41] They probably were taken out and whatever they were found, they were taken out and just tossed.

Speaker 12:
[26:46] The loss more than $200,000 worth.

Speaker 2:
[26:50] Those are some pricey dune buggies.

Speaker 1:
[26:52] Yeah, no kidding. I would assume that they have to be insured just because it's a vehicle. And any vehicle in California needs insurance.

Speaker 12:
[27:03] Is now hitting a major portion of his business.

Speaker 10:
[27:06] Takes away a third of the business basically.

Speaker 2:
[27:09] So he had 12 of these things and four of them are in TJ.

Speaker 1:
[27:14] That's gonna hurt.

Speaker 2:
[27:15] Get ready, more Bieber time.

Speaker 10:
[27:16] It's a big hit.

Speaker 12:
[27:18] And while the scammers may owe him a sorry...

Speaker 2:
[27:21] No!

Speaker 1:
[27:23] We're doing it twice.

Speaker 2:
[27:25] No, no, no, no, no. I know it's a silly Coachella story and I know Bieber's involved, but you do not make two sorry jokes in the same rap. That is unacceptable. Next Star Media, do better.

Speaker 10:
[27:44] It's a big hit.

Speaker 12:
[27:45] And while the scammers may owe him a sorry, Marta says what he really wants.

Speaker 10:
[27:50] Maybe they're coming back for a week and two. They can only hate and pray, pray and hope.

Speaker 2:
[27:55] Yeah, they're gone, buddy.

Speaker 1:
[27:58] They're in Mexico. You think they're coming back?

Speaker 2:
[28:01] Maybe they're looking back for stagecoach.

Speaker 12:
[28:03] We'll have to wait and see on that one. Riverside County Sheriff's Office says they are investigating the case, but the owner tells me he's hopeful that someone watching this story tonight may have some information that leads to an arrest.

Speaker 2:
[28:15] You know what I really don't understand? He was tracking this all the way from the Palm Desert area. You got to imagine he called the CHP pretty early on, was actively tracking the flatbed, and the CHP lets this thing get all the way to Mexico?

Speaker 1:
[28:34] Yeah, that seems like someone dropped the ball.

Speaker 12:
[28:37] Reporting live in Hollywood, I'm Jillian Smukler, KTLA 5 News.

Speaker 2:
[28:41] Even if there's no traffic whatsoever, you're talking about three hours.

Speaker 1:
[28:48] Yeah, they just didn't seem to care, did they?

Speaker 2:
[28:52] They did not. And there you go, the saga of the fake Justin Bieber PA stealing a bunch of dune buggies for Coachella.

Speaker 1:
[29:03] 800-222-5222 is telephone number 1-800-222-5222. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at johnnydontlikeshow.gmail.com. That's johnnydontlikeshow.gmail.com. All right, it's time to reopen the California crime blotter.

Speaker 4:
[29:21] If the cashier is dummy, ooh!

Speaker 1:
[29:24] We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.

Speaker 13:
[29:27] I said, hell no, baby boy. Let me get up on out of here.

Speaker 10:
[29:32] It's the California crime blotter.

Speaker 1:
[29:35] And, Randy, this edition takes us to the IE.

Speaker 2:
[29:39] In Chino, somebody who is trying to stay in shape at 24-hour fitness realized after a workout that his wallet was no longer in the locker.

Speaker 1:
[29:54] You know, they say that exercise never killed anyone, but they didn't say anything about stealing your identity.

Speaker 2:
[30:01] For more on the 24-hour fitness wallet thief, here is KTLA.

Speaker 9:
[30:08] Now at 6, a mystery at a Chino fitness center. Investigators on the hunt for a thief who is stealing wallets out of lockers. The stolen wallets discovered.

Speaker 2:
[30:17] Okay, so already you know this has to be an inside job.

Speaker 1:
[30:23] I would assume so.

Speaker 2:
[30:25] Unless you just have the person who can pick every lock possible, chances are this is someone that has a key.

Speaker 9:
[30:34] The stolen wallets discovered in the very gym where they were stolen.

Speaker 14:
[30:38] That's thanks to a vigilant victim. KTLA's Shelby Nelson joins us live from Chino where she spoke with that victim and has the story you'll see only on 5. Shelby.

Speaker 5:
[30:49] Sure, Micah, this really led to a bizarre discovery. Chris Meza tells us that when he discovered that his wallet was missing, he tried using this wallet tracker app, but it didn't work the f-

Speaker 2:
[30:59] Wait, we now have apps to track your wallet?

Speaker 1:
[31:05] What will they think of next?

Speaker 5:
[31:06] But it didn't work the first time. He almost accepted his fate, started canceling his credit cards, went home that day, but he realized maybe I should try this again. So he came back to the gym and used that tracker app, and it led him to a very unlikely place where his wallet was.

Speaker 13:
[31:24] It was sad that the fact that even happened, but it was more sad of the fact like how they responded to it.

Speaker 5:
[31:28] Chris Meza is talking about a bizarre experience he had at 24-hour fitness that resulted in someone stealing his wallet. Last Wednesday, he got off work and hit the gym on Central Avenue in Chino. Like he's done time and time again, he brought his gym bag and a lock to stash it in a locker.

Speaker 13:
[31:46] Tug on it a few times, make sure that it's closed, and I leave. I go do my workout.

Speaker 5:
[31:50] But when he comes back, the lock is gone and so is his bag.

Speaker 2:
[31:54] They stole the lock!

Speaker 1:
[32:00] You know, when it's time to go exercise, you wake up early in the morning, you're so comfortable in bed, it's nice and warm there, and you know that if you get in the shower and put on your workout clothes and head down to the gym, it's going to be good for you, but you're not going to like it. You would prefer to be in bed. And you're looking for any excuse possible to not get up out of bed and go exercise. I have to write those emails. I've got to take care of my business accounts, whatever the case may be. Now, when you don't want to get out of bed and go to the gym, you go, I need my wallet. I can't go through life without a wallet. If I go to the gym, they're going to steal my wallet. I'm staying put.

Speaker 5:
[32:55] He reported it to gym staff who told him theft has been an ongoing problem at the location.

Speaker 2:
[33:01] That doesn't really instill a lot of confidence when you're plopping down $150 a month.

Speaker 5:
[33:06] Nope. Meza searched various lockers for his belongings.

Speaker 13:
[33:10] My first initial fear was that they stole my car because my keys are in there.

Speaker 5:
[33:13] He eventually found his bag in another locker. All was there but his wallet. That didn't sit well with him that night. He returned the next day attempting again to use what's called the Tile Slim Tracker.

Speaker 2:
[33:25] So when they stole the bag and they stole the wallet but they didn't steal the car keys, was this guy driving a car that was rejected by the criminal?

Speaker 1:
[33:35] They took one look at that and they go, you know what, we don't need another Kia. Sorry, buddy.

Speaker 13:
[33:40] So it'll show you that I'm close to it. If I got farther away, the circle will get bigger. As I'm walking, I'm starting to hear...

Speaker 2:
[33:46] Why does the tracker app sound like an old Atari?

Speaker 13:
[33:51] You know, I'm starting to hear it louder. In the next all over, there's like a compartment next to the toilet seat cover holder and it's in there.

Speaker 2:
[33:58] They got stashed in the bathroom?

Speaker 13:
[34:05] And it's in there. So now I'm thinking, okay, this doesn't make sense because someone needs a key to open that compartment. So an only employee would have that.

Speaker 5:
[34:13] This mysterious case of theft taking an unusual turn. Chris's wallet was here behind the wall inside the bathroom stall. He snapped this picture and called Chino Police, who tell KTLA the wallet had been dropped down an access panel. They say gym staff had to cut it open. That's where numerous wallets were uncovered.

Speaker 2:
[34:32] There's a whole stash of wallets at the Chino Hills 24-hour fitness.

Speaker 1:
[34:38] It's a racket.

Speaker 5:
[34:40] Including Chris's. 50 bucks inside of his wallet was also taken. Aside from this notice put up, Chris's status as a long time gym member doesn't seem to have helped one bit.

Speaker 2:
[34:51] Oh, they don't care.

Speaker 1:
[34:52] No. No, they could care less. It's a big corporation.

Speaker 5:
[34:56] When seeking answers or even just an apology.

Speaker 13:
[34:59] No one really seemed to care. They kind of just took it as like, oh, sorry, it's happened again. We can't really do anything about it.

Speaker 2:
[35:06] Sorry, you all got stolen. Maybe you'll bet a luck next time.

Speaker 1:
[35:10] And we're sorry to all the other people whose wallets got stolen too.

Speaker 2:
[35:14] Not surprised at all. This is how the employees at the 24-Hour Fitness operate. Not only the one that stole, but the ones that don't seem to care at all about that.

Speaker 5:
[35:24] Now, Chris was eventually offered $50 toward next year's membership. He also reached out to corporate as did we. We're still waiting for a response. Police tell me that they are investigating, but they have not arrested anybody. They also say that they can't disclose how many wallets they were able to recover. Chris, however, says that-

Speaker 2:
[35:42] It must have been a whole lot.

Speaker 1:
[35:44] I'll tell you, this is awful customer service. If it's an inside job where everyone's getting their wallet stolen and you give them $50 off his membership next year, you think that's an acceptable way to handle this?

Speaker 5:
[36:00] Chris, however, says that there were 20 to 30. Based on what he saw. Reporting live in Chino, I'm Shelby Nelson, KTLA 5 News.

Speaker 2:
[36:07] Did I ever tell you the scam that 24-Hour Fitness tried to pull on me when I was thinking about joining about 10 years ago?

Speaker 1:
[36:14] No.

Speaker 2:
[36:15] Okay, so I was getting ready to get back in shape, and I thought, all right, I'm gonna check out 24-Hour Fitness. So I go to the 24-Hour Fitness, I believe this is when we were living in Burbank. So let's say it was the one in Burbank. And this guy gives me a tour after I get to have my . Initial workout for free day before they give you the hard sell. And he starts telling me, dude, life is going to improve so much. The chicks are going to be all over you. You're going to love it. And then as we're touring the facility, and he's showing me all of the different things that you can do, the equipment, the pool, what have you, a very obvious plant situation happens where as he's giving me this tour, a woman who totally doesn't work there comes up to him and says, hey, I saw you working out here the other day. Here's my phone number. And then he looks at me and says, that kind of stuff just happens here all the time, bro.

Speaker 1:
[37:11] Oh, you got to be kidding me.

Speaker 2:
[37:13] I swear on my life that happened and I did not fall for it.

Speaker 1:
[37:21] I wonder what percent of people do fall for it.

Speaker 2:
[37:26] Well, considering how many people have those memberships and never go, quite a bit.

Speaker 1:
[37:34] I'll tell you, there is a problem in this country with customer service just in general, particularly with the foreign call centers. Have you noticed whenever you call the 800 number, you have a beef with some company and you get a foreign call center? The problem is impossible to fix.

Speaker 2:
[37:52] Oh, I have one that's even worse than that. We had a situation where we needed to call a plumber and the plumber's answering service is now AI. And you have to figure out how to navigate talking to an AI in its very, very rudimentary phase where it doesn't really even understand the question that you are asking even when you're saying I need to talk to a human.

Speaker 1:
[38:16] My local dermatologist here in California has a foreign call center. If you call to change an appointment or make an appointment, whatever, you get sent to the Philippines.