NSFW Citizen Journalist's House Fire Report Leads Her To Great Journalistic Scoop

Citizen journalist Rhoda Young, reporting on Facebook Live
from a Norfolk, Virginia house fire. gets a journalistic
scoop and reports it very colorfully. 

As a former journalist, I still revel in scoops - the uncovering of  a blockbuster fact or facts that nobody else has and presenting that new information for the world to see.

Rhoda Young recently had one of those moments.

As far as I can tell, Young is not a terribly experienced journalist. She's just a person who likes to tell others what's going on in her town.

So she sprang into action (with her husband as cameraman) when a house in her hometown of Norfolk, Virginia recently erupted into flames.

Young took to Facebook Live to give her full reports. In local journalism, raging house fires like the one Young encountered are given prominent display and are viewed, read, and clicked on by many people in the community. It's big news.

OK, Young isn't the best at maintaining her journalistic composure. She dropped a couple of big F-bombs when part of the burning house she was reporting on collapsed. But that's OK. We can all handle that.

Young does have a good journalist's curiosity and she does know the right way to ask questions, so she started asking questions and observing some interesting things when she spotted a man sitting on the grass across the street from the blazing house. The man was sipping on a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

She asks the man, "Is that your house?"

He said. "Yes"

"Oh, God bless you," Young replied. Then quick with the followup question:  "Lemme ask you this: How did it catch on fire? Were you home?"

The man said something unclear, but it sounded like he said he wasn't home with the blaze began.  He indicated he discovered the fire when he came back from the store, where he purchased his PBR.

Donald Stricker is charged with arson, in large
part to citizen journalist Rhoda Young's
colorful Facebook Live reporting from the scene.

A few minutes later, Young, undeterred, took a closer look at the man, who tried to wave her away. She noticed he had minor burns, and some of his hair was singed off. Turning to her Facebook Live camera, she delivered the scoop: The man was lying, he was there when the fire started, and did he set the fire?

Or as she put it, "I now discovered, his motherfuckin' hair was on fire....so he was right there when the fire started, and he's got a six pack of goddamn PBR. Now I gotta figure out how he started that goddamn fire."

Again, not the way your Eyewitless (ha) News team from your local television station would have put it, but she got the message across.

Then, on camera, she tells a fire official: "I did an investigation on the fire and I know how it started."

The fire official initially dismissed Young, as they were busy dealing with the fire. Young accepted that, as she could see the firefighters were pretty busy. She briefly points the camera at the guy, who tried to wave her away again.

Young then reports on camera:  "Once again, that's the homeowner, drunk as a motherfucka, He burnt down the whole fuckin' house."

That's not how I or any other "real" journalist would report on an incident like this, but her style is what would be going through mine and every other journalists' head. We all wish - just a little bit - we could explain the situation like Young did.

Authorities at the scene, at the behest of Young, did turn their attention to the man, and Young captured, on camera, the man being arrested on arson charges. immediately suspected the same. And Young pointed the camera at the man, named Donald William Stricker III as we was arrested, handcuffed and charged with the burning of an occupied dwelling.

Awesome scoop Rhoda: Here's the highlight reel of Young's reporting. Again, it's NSFW, but it is so worth the watch, especially if your yearning for a local TV news report that tells it like it really is, bluntly:

Lawyer, Lawyer, Pants On Fire!

Attotrney Steven Guitierrez'a pants caught on
fire when he was litigating a Florida
arson case.

The sometimes unfair stereotype of lawyers is that they're liars, that "lawyer" is just another way of saying "liar."

And we've all heard the chant directed at the dishonest: "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

Well, in Florida,  (where else would something like this occur?) while a defense attorney was litigating an arson case of all things, his pants caught on fire.

Literally.

According to the Miami Herald:

"Stephen Gutierrez, who was arguing that his client's car spontaneously combusted and was not intentionally set on fire, had been fiddling in his pocket as he was about to address jurors when smoke began billowing out his right pocket."

As you might expect, Gutierrez rushed out of the courtroom. Jurors were ushered out out, and soon, Gutierrez returned, without injury but definitely with singed pants. '

This was not an elaborate defense demonstration, the Miami Herald said. It was a faulty battery in an e-cigarette in Gutierrez's pocket.

The Miami Herald tried to contact Gutierrez, but he didn't return the calls.

Whatever happened, it didn't help Gutierrez'a client, Claudy Charles. He was convicted of second degree arson.

Gutierrez could be held in contempt of court because of the incident, the Miami Herald says, but this isn't the first time e-cigarettes have caused trouble.

As I noted back in November, e-cigarette batteries do seem to have a nasty habit of exploding and/or catching fire, which isn't a good thing for e-cigarette enthusiasts.

I guess that's one habit I won't take up, then.

 Repeated calls to Gutierrez’s cellphone went unanswered. Miami-Dade police and prosecutors are now investigating the episode. Officers seized several frayed e-cigarette batteries as evidence.

“A lot of people could have been hurt,” another observer in court told the Miami Herald.Gutierrez was representing Claudy Charles, 48, who is accused of intentionally setting his car on fire in South Miami-Dade. He had just started his closing arguments when the fire broke out. Jurors convicted Charles anyway of second-degree arson.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman, in the coming days, could decide to hold Gutierrez in contempt of court.

The 28-year-old lawyer graduated from Florida International University’s law school in 2015.

With millions of users across the country, e-cigarettes deliver vaporized nicotine through a heated liquid solution. But questions about the health and fire risks of the products have mounted, with the U.S. Department of Transportation recently banning e-cigarettes from checked bags on airplanes.

Last year, a Naples man filed suit in Miami-Dade after an e-cigarette exploded in his mouth, leaving him in a coma.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html#storylink=cpy

Overreaction: Woman Burns Down Strip Mall Because Of A Lack Of Shopping Carts

A woman is accused of setting this fire that destroyed
a strip mall because she couldn't find a shopping
cart at a Dollar Tree store in the complex

We're getting into the Christmas shopping season, and we will see more and more people overreacting to shopping mishaps.

It has already started.

A woman in Washington State burned down a strip mall because she couldn't find a shopping cart, television station KOMO reports.

Yeah, no shopping cart is a bit of a bummer, but she might have taken this a teensy, weeny bit too far, don't you think?  

According to KOMO, the 64 year old woman, who couldn't find a shopping cart, made a comment to a store employee about burning the Dollar Tree store she was at in Kent, Washington.

The women then went into the greeting card aisle then came out 90 seconds later to announce the store was on fire.

And it was. Employees tried to put the fire out, but it spread too fast. Eventually, the entire strip mall containing five businesses burned down.

Nobody was hurt, thank goodness, but this woman put a bunch of people out of work, endangered lives and destroyed peoples' livlihoods because she couldn't get a damn shopping cart.

Needless to say, she's in a heap of trouble so she might be locked up for awhile, thank goodness.

Of course, melting down in a business is a popular pasttime, apparently. Consumerist has a helpful list of such incidents, including times when a Wendy's customer trashed the restaurant because she was dissatisfied with the food, or the time a Burger King customer punched a worker because the food wasn't ready fast enough, and a Macy's customer who bit a clerk during a dispute over a price.

I guess shopping and dining really is stressful

Just take a Valium, OK?

TV Reporter Easily Finds Arsonist At Scene Of Fire

Carlos Peralta, having just confessed to arson to a TV
reporter, reports his crime to surprised cops. 

This post reflects stuff that happened way back in November, 2014, but it's still fun.

A reporter and photographer from television station WJLA was on the scene of a rip roaring arson fire in Rockville, Maryland when they started interviewing bystanders.

As you know, they always interview bystanders at fires.

The journalists knew it was an arson fire. Did anybody they were interviewing suspect who might have started the fire.

"Me! Me! I set it on fire," a guy named Carlos told our reporter.

Well, no self-respecting reporter would let that go without some follow up questions.

With the camera on, the reporter asked question Number 1: "How did you do it?"

Answer: "I just poured gasoline on the floor, set it on fire, went to grab a drink and came back," Carlos replied nonchalantly.

Next question: "How did setting the fire help you?"

Answer: "Just so you (the media) could get here for your attention."

In turns out Carlos lived in the building and hated what he said was deplorable conditions in the structure.

A follow up question from WJLA: "Why didn't you report the alleged deplorable conditions to police first?"

Answer: "I did! I did!" However, Carlos said police didn't pay attention to him.

They sure did when the reporter and cameraman led Carlos to police at the scene of the fire. They were astonished by the confession, but of course handcuffed Carlos Peralta, 27 and booked him on arson charges.

He became decidedly less chatty once taken into custody, WJLA said.

The fire caused about $400,000 in damage

Today's Overreaction: Torch A Car In Retaliation For Denied McFlurry

You're not going to be at ALL surprised that this bit of news comes out of Florida.

A woman set this car ablaze in Florida
because her companion who had been driving
the car wouldn't buy her a McDonald's McFlurry.  

A woman was so angry that her companion at a McDonald's wouldn't buy her a McFlurry that she torched the car they couple came in. 

Witnesses said the woman stormed out of the McDonald's during the McFlurry argument that she went outside and poured alcohol and gasoline on the car and set it alight.

She then ran away.  Bystanders tried putting out the fire, but it got too large too quickly.

Presumably, there were not enough ice cold McFlurries on hand to put out the fire.

Here's the most amazing part. The whole car, almost seemed to go up in flames. But in the confusion after firefighters put out the blaze, the guy somehow drove the charred car away. It was found parked a few blocks away.

The car might have been stolen, since the license plate didn't match the vehicle.

At last check our McFlurry fighters are still at large.

And we wait, but not for long! for the next weird Florida crime story. It'll come in mere minutes, I'm sure.

Vermont Man Sets Fire To Car; Later Realizes It's The Wrong Car

I often do weird crime updates from Florida, which seems to be the World Headquarter for people who do strange,  creative lawbreaking.

Vermont man torches car to get back at somebody
he disliked. But oops, wrong car.  

But where I live in Vermont, we try to contribute to this phenomenon, especially up in the remote Northeast Kingdom part of the state.

After all, this is the part of the state where, in 2012, a mentally ill man ran over and crushed eight police cruisers in a parking lot with a tractor he was driving. 

It's the part of Vermont where last year,  a reporter for a small town newspaper didn't have to go far to get a crime story. He just looked out the window and watched his car get stolen.

Today, we introduce you to Cory Carpenter, 33, of Newport, Vermont. According to the Newport Dispatch, he was caught Saturday night after setting a Dodge Neon ablaze in Newport.

Asked by the arresting officer why he did it, according to the Dispatch, Carpenter replied, "I did it to be an asshole."

Well, no argument there.

Apparently, he wanted to set fire to a car owned by somebody with whom he was having a disagreement. The destroyed car, however, belonged to somebody else, somebody Carpenter apparently had no beef with.

Police said while in custody, he penned this note to the person whose car he torched: "I apologize for setting fire to your car. Wasn't my intention. Peace be with you. Truly sorry, Cory L. Carpenter Jr."

Well, at least he's sorry. But he's still facing charges. Which goes to prove, revenge isn't necessarily sweet.