transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:00] And we continue at 2.05 in the afternoon on The John Phillips Show. Mr. Randy Wang's in Culver City.
Speaker 2:
[00:06] Well, Johnny, we gotta start out this hour with a big thanks to this audience, not just in Southern California, but in Northern California, the Central Valley as well. Susan Shelley from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association announced yesterday that the Save Prop 13 Act has made the November ballot.
Speaker 1:
[00:26] All right.
Speaker 2:
[00:28] We were doing those drives at big events at the beginning of this year to get the signatures. The signatures were verified, and this thing's gonna be on the November ballot, and it does two things. One, it would restore the two-thirds majority for all these tax increases that we've seen over the last few years, and this is the really interesting one, it would ban real estate transfer taxes, which means that if the HJTA measure passes, measure ULA in the city of LA is null and void, and the government of the city of Los Angeles will have to refund everybody that paid that tax over the last four years.
Speaker 1:
[01:07] So what you're saying is, we get to keep our homes until Karen Bass goes back to Ghana.
Speaker 2:
[01:12] Yes.
Speaker 1:
[01:17] 802-225-222 is telephone number 1-800-222-5222. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is the founder of Morgan & Morgan. He is also the author of a new book called Life Is Luck, available online at amazon.com. You can get him online at forthepeople.com. John Morgan, welcome.
Speaker 3:
[01:42] How are you?
Speaker 1:
[01:44] I am great. Thank you so much for stopping by. And last time you were on, you made everyone in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Fresno, and all points in between jealous because right after the interview, you were getting off the phone and you were going to have a monkey pod Mai Tai in Maui. And the rest of us are sitting here at work.
Speaker 3:
[02:08] And guess what I did? After that monkey pod Mai Tai, I had dinner one night with Peter Merriman, who owns the monkey pod and Merriman's and a bunch of other restaurants. And I said, Peter, you owe me a lot of Mai Tai. And he said, why? I said, I was on one of the most popular radio shows in California and I plugged the monkey pod. And I had the tape and I sent it to him. So I got extra Mai Tai for free as a result of plugging the Mai Tai at the monkey pod.
Speaker 1:
[02:46] Extra Mai Tai and extra Lily Koi Foam. You can't go wrong with that.
Speaker 3:
[02:50] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:
[02:53] All right. So you got a new book out that's called Life Is Luck. And I love the premise of this and I'll tell you why. I am a huge fan of athletics. I love sports. Ever since I was a little kid, I watched the Showtime Lakers. I've watched the Angels Lose for decade after decade after decade. I'm all in. And I like to gamble too. I like to play blackjack. I like to play poker. I like all of those games and anyone who follows sports closely or anyone who really truly does enjoy gambling will tell you that in gambling, for example, there's a book and there's a certain way you're supposed to play blackjack. And if you play by the book, you will win more often than if you don't play by the book. But it doesn't matter how much you study it. It doesn't matter how familiar you are with the rules and with the statistics and with the odds. If the cards don't go your way, you're not going to win. And you need a certain amount of luck in addition to the skill of being a player who knows what they're doing to win at blackjack or any other game.
Speaker 3:
[04:10] Well, that's exactly right. And it's the cards that are dealt. So the book is kind of like this. Look, we're all dealt certain cards, but it's not necessarily the cards we're dealt, but how we play those cards. In blackjack, if you're sitting on 16 and you hit on 16, you really deserve to lose because that's not what the book says. And so I take, I spend a whole chapter on casino gambling and the odds of luck and the house's edge. By the way, the worst luck for any game is Keno, which is you're just going to lose. But I spent a lot of time talking about the cards we're dealt. And in life, you know, luck comes in all forms or fashion, and it doesn't come just sitting there. The way you get luck is you look for luck. You look for opportunities. And so what I did is last year, they had me on the cover of Forbes Magazine as a billionaire. And when I saw it, it was like stunning. Like how did this happen? And I started going back through my life, and I was like, it's really nothing but a series of 1,000 left turns, 1,000 right turns, 1,000 U-turns. And all of a sudden you wake up and you're here. And one different turn, everything's different. I'll bet you, if I was to ask you, what was the one moment in your career, what was the left or right turn in your career that brought you here? It would be a lucky day, a lucky call. You went here instead of there. Something happened. And it's a whole series of life. Now, when I looked at my life, the thing that really struck me the most is I was born in Lexington, Kentucky, but I was a paper boy. And I have found in life that paper boys had an entrepreneurial seed early on. And a paper route's very hard. It's every day, it's rain, sleet and snow, except in California. And it's start that lucky seed, that entrepreneurial seed that Warren Buffett calls the Ovarian Lottery comes early. And where you're born, hey, there's 8 billion people in the world. But where would you want to be born? Right here, right here in the United States of America. We had nothing to do with it. We weren't born in Cameroon or Karen Bass, Ghana. We were born in America. That's lucky. And so the whole book is kind of taking luck, not saying that everything we did was lucky, but saying a lot of it came from luck, but with luck comes looking for opportunity. So it's not my life story, but it's stories from my life, from my businesses, my attractions, my hotels, my law firm, shopping centers. And I think it's a practical book for people. It's kind of a how-to book to be successful.
Speaker 1:
[07:37] One of the things that I-
Speaker 3:
[07:38] But at the same time, go ahead.
Speaker 1:
[07:40] No, go ahead, go ahead, finish.
Speaker 3:
[07:42] I was gonna say, but at the same time, because when I say to people, you know, 99% of what happened to me is luck, they don't wanna hear that, especially successful people. They wanna say, I did it all on my own. But if you really look at what happened, a lot of it was luck. Not necessarily blind luck, because there's luck in practice luck. But for example, if you like sports, how many times do you think Villanova beats Georgetown if they play that game 100 times again? How many times do you think Duke loses this year if they play that game 100? There's just a lot of balls that bounce. The Immaculate Reception with Franco Harris. You go through life, and there's been a lot of lucky breaks. There's bad luck. There's good luck. And this book is how to enhance and find luck and turn failure into your friend.
Speaker 1:
[08:38] One of the things that I've learned from you, appearing on this show and other programs, is that you are a very good listener. There's not a lot that gets by you. When someone's talking, you're paying attention to what they're saying. And if they answer a question that you're thinking of, you make a mental note of it. If they present an opportunity that you were unaware of before, you acknowledge that opportunity and you know that that's on the table. It seems to me that a lot of the people out there who have bad luck are people who are awful listeners. And sometimes the answers to their questions are right in front of their face. But if you don't stop talking and running people over all around you, you're unaware that all of these lucky situations have presented themselves to you. Or the answers to your questions are right there in front of you. You don't even see it because you're running everyone over.
Speaker 3:
[09:38] Right, and all you're doing is talking, and when all you're doing is talking, you're not learning. You can't learn talking. You can only learn by listening. And the more you listen, the more you learn. And the more you learn, the more opportunities come your way. And the more opportunities that come your way, the more luck falls into your lap.
Speaker 1:
[10:11] It's funny, when you think about people who are truly successful in whatever industry you're talking about, they're listeners. John Wooden, the basketball coach, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time around him before he passed away. He was a man of few words, but man, there was nothing that got by him. That guy picked up on everything that went on, at that table, and the next time you saw him, he would remember everything that was said.
Speaker 3:
[10:42] And he had it all built in that pyramid. You know, he had that John Wooden pyramid of to-do's and don'ts. And the great thing about John Wooden, if you look at all the players, they all loved him, loved him. Kareem, who's the most prickly player ever, loved John Wooden because he listened. And that's why he was and is the wizard of the Westwood.
Speaker 1:
[11:11] What advice would you give people who regard themselves as storm clouds? Because there are people who do regard themselves as storm clouds, where they think that if there's a fork in the road, they're going to take the wrong road every single time. What advice would you give them to get out of that rut?
Speaker 3:
[11:31] Well, first, I would tell them, you have no choice but to take one of the roads. Wayne Gretzky said, you know, if you never take a shot, you never make a goal. I would tell them, don't take one fork in the road, take a hundred. It's like the lottery. The more lottery balls you have, the better chance you have to win the lottery. What happens is people go down that one road and it turns out to be a bad road and that's the end of the road for them. When you get to a bad place in the road, you got to back up, turn around, come back out, go back down the road, pick yourself up and try again. Because if you don't try again, you never win, ever. And so what I would tell the storm clouds is this, focus on the positive, not on the negative. You meet people all the time, half the glass is half full, the glass is half empty. For me, the glass is always half full. And it's because I believe in me, I believe in me. And so I would tell these people, when you have a black cloud over yourself, it's because you don't believe in yourself. And if you don't believe in yourself, nobody's going to believe in you.
Speaker 1:
[12:53] What you just said is so similar to advice that William Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, former Ayatollah of the California State Legislature, gave at a talk when I was an undergraduate in college. And the advice that he gave was, in life, Plan A very rarely works out. And the secret sauce to success is to have 932 Plan Bs, because the likely scenario is that it's going to be one of your Plan Bs that takes.
Speaker 3:
[13:24] Always. My children know this. I have a thing in my family and I call it ABC. They know what that means. And what ABC means in the Morgan family is this. When somebody says, you know, sometimes they'll say ABC, which means if A goes wrong, what's your B? And if B goes wrong, what's your C? The Morgan children always have an A, a B, and a C. Because things don't always go right. And if you don't have a plan for B, then you don't have a plan. And if you don't have a plan for C, you don't have a plan. And what I write in my book, Life Is Luck, is this. Hope is not a plan. A plan is a plan. And a lot of people start off without a plan. Look, the most successful people in the world have goals. The most successful people in the world usually write those goals down. Every year, I write three goals down of what I wanna accomplish during the year. And I go back to them over and over and over again during the year. When you have real goals, a lot of people don't have goals. You know, they don't have a plan. And they're just hoping that it's gonna work out for them. Well, that's not how it works. It only works for you if you are working. And like one of my chapters is called Never Eat Alone. If you're eating at your desk every day, if you're not getting out there and mingling, whether you're at a CLE or a convention or a lunch, then your lunch is gonna be eaten. If you're eating peanut butter and jelly in the office every day, you are not gonna be as successful as the guy or gal out there networking and hustling. Because remember this, everybody out there hustling, they're trying to take your lunch. They're trying to take your business every day. And you're sitting in the office, eating peanut butter and jelly and playing solitaire.
Speaker 1:
[15:36] Of all of the politicians that you've worked with and gotten to know over the years, which one has been the best at finding luck?
Speaker 3:
[15:47] Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton. He's resilient. To have luck, you gotta have a lot of things. You have to be resilient. You have to be tenacious. You have to have grit. You have to have ambition. You have to be Teflon. I mean, Clinton can also compartmentalize like nobody else. I mean, I don't even know how he was walking during the Monica Lewinsky thing. I had dinner with him. My boys had dinner three or four months ago here in Orlando. And this guy has gone through life looking for luck. And I think he's been the luckiest one of everybody. And even now, in this political system, you'll find that Republicans probably like Bill Clinton as the Democrat they like the most. By and large, I mean, you say Kamala, they vomit. But when you say Bill Clinton, they're like, well, I like him. And so, when you can start getting Republicans like you as a Democrat, that's pretty lucky because Republicans don't like Democrats at all.
Speaker 1:
[17:20] Is it true that he's on some crazy diet now and won't eat meat and will only eat certain things and won't consume booze?
Speaker 3:
[17:28] It was a funny thing. He's eaten meat now. We had a steak at a place called Chatham's. We were having, I said, do you want some wine? And his hands, his left hand kind of, his left hand, his hand shakes. And it's not, it's not, it's not Parkinson's. And he said to me, he said at dinner, he says, my doctor said, if I have a glass of wine, my hand will stop shaking for three hours. I said, well, why don't you have four and let's stay for 12 hours and get drunk. And, but he stopped eating meat for a while when he had the heart problems. He went totally vegan or vegan or however you say it. I'm from Kentucky. And, but he's now said that his doctor and he had a steak that night. He had a steak that night and he had wine and he had port. And we had a hell of a time. We, the dinner started at 730 and we left at midnight.
Speaker 1:
[18:36] Oh my.
Speaker 3:
[18:38] Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:
[18:39] I'll tell you, I don't know how it happened, but there's a clip of George Burns on the Tonight Show from the old days with Johnny Carson. That showed up in one of my feeds and I just clicked on the video and I watched it. And he's sitting there smoking a cigar during the interview. And Johnny Carson goes to him and says, those things are going to kill you. What does your doctor say to you when you're sitting here, just chain smoking these cigars? And Burns just looked at him and goes, my doctor's been dead for a long time.
Speaker 3:
[19:09] Hey, I'll tell you what, here's one for you. I'm watching years ago, Johnny Carson. Do you remember Chi Chi Rodriguez?
Speaker 1:
[19:17] Oh yeah, the golfer.
Speaker 3:
[19:19] So he's on first and he's doing this Puerto Rican golfer, had this big thing he did like a sword. And so he moves down the couch and they bring in this runway model or some beautiful girl. And they're talking about diets. And the Johnny says to the girl, so do you ever eat meat? And she goes, no, I never eat meat. It's so bad for you, so terrible for you. And Johnny says to Chichi, Chichi, do you eat meat? He goes, he said, Johnny, I had steak for breakfast. I had steak for lunch. And I have a steak for dinner every single day. And the girl looks at him and he goes, she goes, Chichi, you're gonna kill yourself. And he said, sweetheart, let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen a Sikh tiger? And I never forgot that, you know, have you ever seen a Sikh tiger?
Speaker 1:
[20:18] I'm up against a hard break here.
Speaker 3:
[20:19] Now I have it.
Speaker 1:
[20:21] John, I gotta run. The book is Life Is Luck, available online at amazon.com. John Morgan, thanks so much for stopping by.
Speaker 3:
[20:30] All right, thank you, man, bye.
Speaker 1:
[20:34] 800-222-5222 is the 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. And Randy, with the end of the show quickly approaching, if you want to continue listening to us after we sign off at three, that's easy to do.
Speaker 2:
[20:56] I want to tell you right now, if you're just tuning in right now and you didn't hear that last interview with John Morgan, which we've gotten a ton of emails, people loved that interview. If you didn't get to hear the entire thing, it's pretty fantastic. So I will have that podcast posted at like 302-303. But if you're subscribed to the podcast, it automatically goes to your phone as soon as I posted. But subscribe just for that interview. It was very fun. It was very inspiring. Great job. All right.
Speaker 1:
[21:27] Well, I could talk to that guy all day long. Always a fascinating interview.
Speaker 2:
[21:32] Got me thinking about my ties, you bastard.
Speaker 1:
[21:37] All right. Well, let's get you thinking about something else. Let's open up the California Crime Blotter.
Speaker 4:
[21:43] It's happened yet again. It's Wild Wild West out here.
Speaker 5:
[21:50] It's the California Crime Blotter with John and Randy.
Speaker 1:
[21:56] And surprise, surprise, the first edition of today's California Crime Blotter takes us to the city of Oakland.
Speaker 6:
[22:02] It's a lot of crime now.
Speaker 2:
[22:03] Copper wire theft is plaguing the Oakland Hills. For more, here is Cron 4.
Speaker 7:
[22:10] Our top story this half hour. Copper wire thieves are targeting a neighborhood in the Oakland Hills, triggering repeated internet outages for residents. Cron 4's Sarah Stinson has the story.
Speaker 2:
[22:22] Copper has got to be so frustrating if you're working from home or even doing something as simple as streaming us online on KSFO.
Speaker 1:
[22:30] Or how about this, trying to drive in the dark?
Speaker 8:
[22:33] Copper has been stolen from these power poles several times in the last week, resulting in frustrating outages for people who live nearby. In the Oakland Hills, crews with AT&T spent Tuesday afternoon repairing damage from yet another round of copper theft.
Speaker 2:
[22:51] Now I know why my cell phone bill is so expensive.
Speaker 1:
[22:54] Reach out and touch someone.
Speaker 8:
[22:56] The company says thieves targeted cables along a walking path on Skyline Boulevard and Keller Avenue, cutting both copper and fiber lines. An AT&T spokesperson confirming at least two separate outages triggered by the cuts on April 15th and 16th, each lasting about five hours.
Speaker 9:
[23:16] That also affects my TV because I use the internet service for my TV, for my streaming, and obviously my computer service.
Speaker 2:
[23:23] Okay, of those five hours that the internet and the TV was out, how many of those five hours did he spend constantly trying to connect to the Wi-Fi and be like, it's not working?
Speaker 1:
[23:36] Oh yeah, he was definitely on the line with someone from India going, have you tried unplugging it?
Speaker 2:
[23:42] You don't realize how addicted to this crap you are until the internet gets shut off for an extended period of time. And you're like, I don't know what to do with myself.
Speaker 1:
[23:52] People get the shakes.
Speaker 9:
[23:54] That also affects my TV because I use the internet service for my TV, for my streaming, and obviously my computer service. Yeah. So I was out for a while.
Speaker 10:
[24:04] Definitely for my work because I work from home and my daughter is online for her master's degree.
Speaker 2:
[24:09] There's an old Simpsons joke where the dog rips out the cable line for the whole neighborhood so everyone loses their TV and this emergency alert signal goes out and says, your cable line has been cut. Don't try to do any sexual activity with your partner because the years and years and years of television radiation has left your genitals withered.
Speaker 10:
[24:35] Definitely for my work, because I work from home, and my daughter is online for her master's degree, so yeah, it was interrupted.
Speaker 8:
[24:40] For neighbors like Nancy Taylor, it's not just an inconvenience, but also a safety concern.
Speaker 10:
[24:45] That these are right in my backyard. Yeah, so that does make me very nervous.
Speaker 8:
[24:50] AT&T says police reports have been filed, and its global security team is now working with Oakland Police Property Crimes Investigators. Meanwhile, the motive may be simple. Copper is currently selling for about $4.50 a pound.
Speaker 2:
[25:05] Doesn't sound like a lot, does it?
Speaker 1:
[25:07] No, but meth is expensive.
Speaker 2:
[25:09] Well, that's the problem. Meth is actually cheap. Two pounds of that will get you a teenth.
Speaker 8:
[25:16] Meanwhile, the motive may be simple. Copper is currently selling for about $4.50 a pound. This according to Scrap Monster. Cameras have been ins...
Speaker 2:
[25:25] Wait, there's a website called Scrap Monster?
Speaker 1:
[25:29] There's a website for everything.
Speaker 2:
[25:31] Well, and here's the thing. Every single time, the thing that drives me crazy about this story is unlike every other commodity, if you steal deodorant at Rite Aid, well, no, Rite Aid went out of business. If you steal deodorant at Walgreens, you go sell it in the Mission at some stand. We know that's happening. But if you're stealing copper wire, there are very specific businesses you have to sell it to. So why is it so hard for city attorneys or the attorney general or the secretary of state to shut down the businesses that are buying stolen copper wire? For as much as we say you got to have a permit for everything in this state, shouldn't you have to have a permit to be a licensed seller of copper?
Speaker 1:
[26:15] Seems easy enough to me.
Speaker 8:
[26:17] This according to Scrap Monster, cameras have been installed on the power poles to catch potential thieves in the act. But for many in the area, confidence in a long term fix is low, as copper thefts have continued to plague the Bay Area for years.
Speaker 9:
[26:32] Well, it's a problem. Yeah, and I don't know what you can do about it. Police and the city has an issue on their hands and I don't know how to deal with it.
Speaker 2:
[26:42] Yeah, that sounds pretty defeatist but sounds pretty on point.
Speaker 1:
[26:46] Sounds like just about every man on the street interview in the blotter stories.
Speaker 10:
[26:51] Yeah, I would love something to be happening to fix this problem. So that way we can all live in a peaceful community and not worry about these thieves.
Speaker 8:
[27:00] We reached out to the city of Oakland and police but did not hear back in time for this report. AT&T is offering a $20,000 reward for specific information that leads to an arrest and conviction of a copper wire thief.
Speaker 2:
[27:15] You know who we need on this? If AT&T is offering $20,000, is Doug the Bounty Hunter still doing his thing?
Speaker 1:
[27:21] Okay, but they give the $20,000 reward. We catch the person and then the judge in Alameda County lets them out immediately.
Speaker 2:
[27:30] Well, there is that and this is not considered any kind of a serious crime or a violent crime because they value not on the damaged cause but on the actual value of the copper, which as you heard is pretty minimal. This does not qualify, this is still under Prop 47 nonsense of this is a misdemeanor. Even though these thefts can cause millions and millions of dollars worth of damage because the copper isn't actually that expensive, they're getting $950 or less in the theft that they're causing.
Speaker 8:
[28:06] Or information that leads to someone trying to buy or sell these stolen cables. I'm Sarah Stinson reporting in Oakland, Cron 4 News.
Speaker 2:
[28:15] It would be so, maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that it would be pretty easy to crack down on the junkers and the smelters and the recyclers. Maybe the DONGs are buying stolen copper wire.
Speaker 1:
[28:27] It's possible. All right, Randy, it's time to reopen the California crime blotter.
Speaker 4:
[28:33] It's happened yet again.
Speaker 5:
[28:37] I see. Time for the California crime blotter.
Speaker 1:
[28:42] And this edition takes us to San Jose.
Speaker 2:
[28:45] Typically, when you go to a store, like let's say, a bakery in a city like San Jose, the way that the system is set up is that you want to buy something and you give them money. A crazy man walks into a San Jose bakery not wanting to buy something, but wanting to sell something. What that something was, we don't know. And when the bakery said, no, we don't want to buy that, he decided to trash the place.
Speaker 1:
[29:14] That's not nice.
Speaker 2:
[29:15] For more, here's KTVU Fox 2 in the Bay.
Speaker 4:
[29:18] San Jose police announced the arrest of a man who they say terrorized workers and customers at a longtime bakery just before the holidays last year. And it was all caught on video and the suspect was recently located halfway across the country in the state of Arkansas. KTVU South Bay reporter Mark Serr has the story from San Jose.
Speaker 11:
[29:38] Peter's Bakery has been a staple on Alam Rock Avenue in East San Jose for 90 years, first established in 1936. Customer Sheila Lemel says she has been coming here for nearly her entire life.
Speaker 10:
[29:50] It tastes good. They make good product, you know, and everybody loves it. There's nothing. I've never had a bad cake from there.
Speaker 11:
[29:56] But now 44.
Speaker 2:
[29:57] I don't want to judge anybody, but sometimes you can just tell in somebody's voice that they have had too much cake. I mean, you do you. I'm just saying as somebody that used to be a hundred pounds heavier, fat is a sound.
Speaker 1:
[30:14] You think she's a chocoholic, huh?
Speaker 11:
[30:17] But now 44 year old Eugene Morgan is under arrest for a rampage at the bakery, which occurred on December 17th of 2025. It was all caught on security video as the person identified as Morgan began to damage items inside the business after employees declined to purchase some products that he was apparently trying to sell.
Speaker 2:
[30:37] What was he trying to sell the bakery?
Speaker 1:
[30:43] We probably don't want to know.
Speaker 11:
[30:46] A customer who was inside at the time was also assaulted when she was trying to record the incident.
Speaker 12:
[30:52] The suspect fled the scene prior to police arrival and the adult female victim received medical attention on site.
Speaker 11:
[30:58] San Jose police say detectives were aware that Morgan may have been in Arkansas, but it was a chance arrest on unrelated trespassing charges when Arkansas authorities discovered the outstanding warrant from San Jose.
Speaker 12:
[31:11] No matter where you flee, you can flee out of city, in this case out of state, we are able to find you and hold you accountable and make sure you come back to face the consequences.
Speaker 11:
[31:20] In a statement, Cat Peters, the owner of the bakery said, This situation has always been about much more than a single small business or a specific individual. It is about the fundamental safety of every community member, patron and neighbor who shares our public spaces. Our deepest hope now is that the district attorney's office and the judges will do their part in the next steps of this process.
Speaker 2:
[31:42] I'm glad they shouted out the judges because they got a good DA out there in Santa Clara County, but it's the judges that throw the hammer into all of this.
Speaker 1:
[31:50] Maybe he told the baker that he could help them cut down on their labor costs if he sold them some Keebler elves. Maybe that's what he was trying to do. Or who knows, maybe he was sex trafficking little Debbie.
Speaker 11:
[32:10] It is crucial for the safety of our entire community that individuals who commit acts of violence are held fully accountable and that they are not simply released back into the populace. When you heard that the police arrested the guy, is that good news for customers?
Speaker 10:
[32:22] Yes, that is good news for customers. It makes us feel safe, too.
Speaker 11:
[32:25] Morgan has already been extradited back to California and is now facing charges of felony vandalism and felony intimidation of a witness with violence. Reporting in San Jose, Mark Sayer, KTVU, Fox 2 News.
Speaker 2:
[32:39] There's the story of the crazy guy that tried to destroy a bakery because they were in line with what he was selling.
Speaker 1:
[32:48] 800-222-5222 is the 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. And right now, it's time to reopen the California crime blotter.
Speaker 5:
[33:07] If the cashier is dummy, we couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.
Speaker 8:
[33:13] I said, hell no, baby boy.
Speaker 5:
[33:15] Let me get up on out of here. It's the California crime blotter.
Speaker 1:
[33:23] And Randy, this one takes us to the San Fernando Valley.
Speaker 2:
[33:26] Yet again, there was one neighborhood, and I was thinking about it yesterday when we were doing all those stories where Selmar got hit, and North Hollywood got hit, and Toluca Light got hit, and you got so many different neighborhoods that were getting hit from these things. Granada Hills. I'm like, you know, the only one they haven't said is Tarzana. Woke up this morning, woman in Tarzana got burglarized, and now she wants to move. Here's KTLA.
Speaker 13:
[33:53] Residents who live in the San Fernando Valley are living in fear as burglaries and break-ins spike. And tonight-
Speaker 2:
[34:00] Boy, that crackdown that Karen Bass and police Jim McDonald announced a few days ago is really working, isn't it?
Speaker 1:
[34:06] Like a Swiss clock.
Speaker 13:
[34:07] Another victim this time in Tarzana is speaking out, telling KTLA she plans to move after being victimized multiple times.
Speaker 14:
[34:15] KTLA's Chris Wolfe live in Tarzana with more on the growing problem in the Valley. Chris?
Speaker 15:
[34:22] That's right. Micah Cher, the victim we spoke with exclusively tonight, says that the city of Los Angeles must funnel more money into the police department and law enforcement resources.
Speaker 2:
[34:37] Yeah, we can't do that.
Speaker 1:
[34:39] Oh, no, we have the social workers to pay for.
Speaker 2:
[34:41] Karen Bass did in her budget announce that, OK, we've got 500 police officers budgeted to meet up with attrition, which means we're still going to be at the lowest level. But I've also funded the Circle Program, which is the ambassador program, and of course, the Crisis Response Program. And then she was asked, well, which one of these people would you send out to the guy that lit somebody on fire last night? And she said, oh, no, that would be the police.
Speaker 6:
[35:10] It's impacting everybody now. It's everywhere. And we don't want to live in fear like this anymore. We don't want to feel like we can't be safe in our own homes.
Speaker 15:
[35:20] As a model and actress, appearing on magazine covers, in movies, and on The Price Is Right, Gabrielle Tuitt...
Speaker 2:
[35:27] That's an interesting list of credits.
Speaker 1:
[35:30] Wait, as a model or a contestant?
Speaker 2:
[35:33] Good question.
Speaker 15:
[35:34] Gabrielle Tuitt is accustomed to being in front of the camera, but never like this. As a victim of home burglaries, three within the last couple of years, involving two different properties and neighborhoods.
Speaker 1:
[35:49] What do you think would be your best game on The Price Is Right?
Speaker 2:
[35:54] The Showcase Showdown, baby.
Speaker 1:
[35:56] Showcase Showdown, not Plinko?
Speaker 2:
[35:59] Plinko's too much luck.
Speaker 1:
[36:02] You know what Lewis told me?
Speaker 2:
[36:04] I'm afraid to ask.
Speaker 1:
[36:06] He said Katie Hill cannot be beat at a hole in one or two.
Speaker 2:
[36:15] Proud of yourself?
Speaker 6:
[36:18] I'm asking these people to stop, stop harming the people that are here loving and supporting everybody.
Speaker 2:
[36:28] Well, whether it's the local gangs or the transnational gangs, they don't care about hurting people.
Speaker 1:
[36:33] No, they don't.
Speaker 15:
[36:34] Intruders hit her home in Sherman Oaks twice. The most recent break-in happened at her new house in Tarzana, another upscale community in the San Fernando Valley.
Speaker 2:
[36:46] I don't know if I would call Tarzana upscale, it's fine, but I would not call it upscale.
Speaker 1:
[36:53] Well, compared to Van Nuys it is.
Speaker 2:
[36:56] Well, there is that.
Speaker 15:
[36:57] On Wednesday, April 8th, thugs smashed a glass door to get...
Speaker 2:
[37:01] You know what? I actually think this is going to be brilliant. There was a big push in the 70s and 80s to change a lot of the names in the neighborhood and the valley to up property values. So parts of Van Nuys became like Balboa, parts of North Hollywood became Studio City and Valley Village. Maybe what we need to do in order to deter the criminals from going to these neighborhoods is change those names back.
Speaker 15:
[37:29] On Wednesday, April 8th, thugs smashed a glass door to gain entry and then pried open a bolted closet door to snatch her belongings.
Speaker 6:
[37:39] Obviously, they just used a crowbar and just cranked this piece off.
Speaker 15:
[37:44] Tuitt tells KTLA she's lost more than one million dollars in heirlooms, jewelry and other valuables following the three crimes.
Speaker 2:
[37:54] Whoa!
Speaker 1:
[37:58] Getting expensive.
Speaker 6:
[37:59] The city has to do something. This is outrageous.
Speaker 15:
[38:02] Tuitt speaks for countless others. The San Fernando Valley has become a hotbed of home break-ins in 2026.
Speaker 2:
[38:10] But don't you worry, crime is down.
Speaker 1:
[38:12] Oh yeah, if you were smart enough to understand the statistics, you would know that.
Speaker 15:
[38:16] This week alone, thieves tried to break into a home in Sherman Oaks overnight, but were unsuccessful. A short time earlier, across town in Westwood, criminals were able to force their way inside a home that was occupied at the time.
Speaker 2:
[38:30] Well, at least I can feel good that the crime is still happening on the other side of the aisle.
Speaker 15:
[38:36] No one was injured and items were stolen. KTLA has covered similar crimes in Sylmar, Porter Ranch and Valley Glenn within recent days, with security cameras often capturing menacing figures wearing hoodies, masks and gloves. LA Mayor Karen Bass says she wants to hire more police officers and of course provide funding for that.
Speaker 2:
[39:02] Police Chief Jim McGow, that's lip service.
Speaker 1:
[39:06] 100 percent.