Another Charlotte murder. Battling retail theft (04-01-2024--Hour3)

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[00:00:27] support. I don't know all, obviously the details of this this murder that occurred at the

[00:00:36] Jack in the box in Charlotte 17 year old, shot and killed inside after he had gotten off

[00:00:45] of work. He had just finished his shift and he's hanging out inside waiting on a ride

[00:00:54] and two men wearing masks, I don't know what kind of masks but two guys burst in, argue

[00:01:05] with the teenager and then one of them pulls a gun out and murders the kid. His name was

[00:01:13] Fate Brandon. On Saturday police arrested 28 year old Marcus Don D. A. H. N. on an outstanding

[00:01:26] warrant. So he was already in trouble, they already had a warrant out for him. They pick him up,

[00:01:39] they interview him and then he gets charged with that murder of the 17 year old Jack in the box

[00:01:47] employee. Along with robbery, with a dangerous weapon and several other charges his record as an

[00:01:57] adult goes back 10 years, 11 years and includes convictions on breaking and entering credit card theft

[00:02:06] and fraud as well as common law robbery. He's being held at the jail, sorry he has been invited to

[00:02:14] be a resident at the jail, no bond, which is the right call here. That's the right decision. It's a murder

[00:02:24] rap. This is, I gotta believe there's something else to this story, you know? I mean, I read so many of

[00:02:41] these sort of have read so many of these horrible types of stories but when it comes to crime like

[00:02:46] this that's just a really, that's a random crime to happen and how, like what were they doing in the

[00:02:54] store? What was the store closed? It seems like the store was closed. How did they get in? Did they

[00:03:01] know this guy was this a neighborhood beef? Because there's a difference of like 11 years between the

[00:03:10] accused and the deceased, right? The victim is just 17 years old and the suspect is 28. So that tells me

[00:03:20] that I mean, chances are like they weren't hanging out in the same group of friends, right? That's an

[00:03:25] 11 year difference at the age of 17. I don't really think you're hanging with 28 year olds but maybe

[00:03:31] I don't know. Like I have no idea. I'm just speculating here but like I gotta believe there's

[00:03:36] there's some element to this story that would make it make a little bit more sense. But I don't

[00:03:46] know what it is but it's just an awful thing. It feels so bad for the family of the victim here

[00:03:53] just you know teenager working and gets off work, some guys. So the other thing too is like

[00:04:02] the mask. Like what kinds of masks were these guys wearing? Like like robber masks, you know

[00:04:09] or they have like the panty hose thing or like Halloween mask or is it like the N95s, you know

[00:04:16] that totally blocked COVID right? While also concealing one's identity or you know I don't know but

[00:04:22] I think that like that's a piece of information that I think is pretty valuable in trying to understand

[00:04:28] like were these guys going in there to rob the place? Were they going after him specifically? Was this

[00:04:34] targeted? And how did they know to go after this guy Marcus Don on an outstanding warrant and why

[00:04:45] why wasn't he picked up before? You know I got a lot of questions about this. Then there was the

[00:04:52] this road rage incident that started up in Greensboro and detective say that the incident

[00:05:02] stemmed from an argument that initially took place at a car meeting like like a car show kind

[00:05:09] of thing. I don't know what kind of car show I'm assuming just you know everybody shows up with

[00:05:13] their their cherry cards. I saw one today on the road actually on Wilkinson Boulevard. It was

[00:05:19] like it had like the old wooden wheels. It was like a 19 it like 30s era car gray. Oh yeah it was

[00:05:29] it was sweet and then he hit the horn one of the stoplights for us and went you know like one of

[00:05:36] those. One of those sounds I can't mimic it. It's an old timey horn though okay anyway so

[00:05:44] detective say that this there was some car show up in the Greensboro Winston Salem area

[00:05:50] so there was an argument there and then apparently they took it to the streets

[00:05:55] well one street basically I 85 and so they began chasing each other there was like four cars

[00:06:04] involved in this. An argument this is according to the Charlotte Observer story an argument at a

[00:06:10] gathering of car aficionados escalated to gunfire when several attendees began chasing each other

[00:06:18] on I 85 north of Charlotte two vehicles crashed during the chase. Well they're not going to be going

[00:06:24] any car shows with that. At the driver survived according to the Rowan County Sheriff's Office

[00:06:31] witnesses began calling 911 shortly after 4am on Sunday on the Transvisibility Day

[00:06:40] and they reported a shooting between several motorists so they're just like driving down I 85

[00:06:46] shooting at each other in four different cars. These are maniacs. What the hell guys? I'm assuming

[00:06:56] it's guys because it does sound like sounds like a guy thing to do but good lord so there was that

[00:07:09] and then what was the other one we heard that somebody shot up some girls at a bus stop like

[00:07:17] and here's the and I'm just got to be more information that comes out about that too because like I

[00:07:21] got like the random acts of violence that that occur like you're more likely I always try to point

[00:07:27] this out whenever we talk about crime that you are more likely to be murdered by somebody you know

[00:07:32] that is the vast majority of it the vast majority of homicides are known you know victim and suspect

[00:07:41] they know each other. They're related to each other or they live together or something

[00:07:47] and then when you break down the racial data it's mostly white on white black on black,

[00:07:53] Hispanic on Hispanic it's the majority of those crimes are inside your own racial group

[00:08:02] but yeah I don't get it. There's a oh yeah Taco Bell in Oakland California

[00:08:11] they were forced to suspend indoor dining indefinitely because they were subjected to a series of

[00:08:17] robberies amid an unrelenting crime surge in the city. Businesses had been restricted or their

[00:08:27] business rather at this Taco Bell had been restricted to drive through service only

[00:08:33] there's a woman quoted in the Daily Mail article Melissa Gilgan she says quote this is annoying

[00:08:39] yes we had she said we had wanted to go inside so we could eat together but no they just had

[00:08:45] to take their crunch wraps on the on the go now they're forced to go through the drive through

[00:08:51] because the next Taco Bell is like seven miles away she said sources say that

[00:08:56] the four restaurants all operated by a franchiser named diversified restaurant group made the

[00:09:03] decision to lock their doors to customers amid a spike in violent crimes in the city the move was

[00:09:10] described as a safety and business decision in Oakland going well there for the for the Oaklanders

[00:09:21] and then this one out of the Charlotte observer huge retail chains like Walmart target CVS

[00:09:27] and others have faced a high amount of retail theft or what they call inventory shrink

[00:09:36] they got a they got a new term for it inventory shrink I just got to tweet from Mary who says that

[00:09:43] the Jack in the box shooting occurred at 2 30 in the afternoon on Friday

[00:09:51] so that means the store was open

[00:09:53] and

[00:09:54] broad daylight I yeah there like I said there's something about this story

[00:10:00] yeah I don't know there's more to it I mean obviously there's very little information that

[00:10:05] we've gotten so far so yes obviously there's a bunch more information that we haven't gotten but

[00:10:10] I feel like there's like something really important this thing from the story so far that once

[00:10:15] we hear it will be like oh okay I mean not that it's okay obviously but that there's

[00:10:23] there's got to be some sense to be made of this story you know

[00:10:30] already so Charlotte observer had this the other day

[00:10:34] inventory shrink is apparently

[00:10:38] the way they are referring to retail theft

[00:10:42] right businesses losing so much money which by the way that raises the the price on all of these

[00:10:48] items in the stores for for you and me and you know people who aren't stealing

[00:10:55] we all now have to pay the price literally we have to pay more it's not just the inconvenience

[00:11:02] of locking stuff behind counters and that sort of thing or behind plexiglass

[00:11:07] you know it's it's the cost that the businesses are having to make up

[00:11:14] when they lose money due to all of the stealing and then of course when the store is closed

[00:11:20] then the area is no longer served

[00:11:25] with those products right so now if it's a grocery store like now you're going to complain about food

[00:11:30] deserts right so you've got stores like Walmart target and CVS they aren't they've been

[00:11:42] implementing what they call measures to eliminate costly losses and they they use this term

[00:11:49] inventory shrink which is stupid okay that's just it's theft that's what's happening

[00:11:55] it's not inventory shrink right it's not it's loss retail stores have implemented new self-checkout

[00:12:06] rules to discourage inventory shrink to discourage stealing okay but again stores are inconsistent with

[00:12:16] their rules Walmart stores have a 20 items or less rule which is grammatically incorrect by the way

[00:12:23] it's 10 items or fewer right so Walmart got to have 20 items no more than 20 items which is

[00:12:32] another way to say you don't have to be grammatically incorrect Walmart you can just say

[00:12:37] no more than 20 or 20 item limit that's even fewer letters say that see how that works all right

[00:12:43] anyway so they are they put this 20 item cap in order to steer shoppers with more items to

[00:12:53] the checkout clerks that might help reduce the occurrence of theft but neither customers nor

[00:13:00] workers seem to be observing the 20 item rule no of course not right of course not look I mean

[00:13:10] there's there are a number of reasons why people avoid the the clerks right I will do so

[00:13:17] if there's a line and there's no line at the self checkout but I will never do so with a large

[00:13:22] shopping cart filled with stuff because I'm not an animal right and there are apparently a lot of

[00:13:28] people these are the same people I suspect that leave their carts you know not returned to the the

[00:13:36] corral out in the parking lot right these kinds of monsters exist among us and they shop with us

[00:13:42] and they will fill up their big ol buggy and they will wheel that sucker over to the self checkout

[00:13:49] and you know like first off there's not even enough room you know you with your big old buggy

[00:13:56] there there's not even enough room for other people now to use the machine next to you because your

[00:14:01] cart is so big right but also then it takes forever right and because what because you know what happens

[00:14:09] here right they start scanning the stuff and then they run out of room on the bag inside

[00:14:14] and then what they try to start moving the bags around and then what happens

[00:14:20] right now you got to have the attendant come over they got to make check make sure you're not

[00:14:25] stealing stuff and then they kind of do their little badge wave and whatever they clear it out

[00:14:30] and then it happens again like this yeah these people like I'm not for the death penalty

[00:14:38] but I'm I'm open to the argument here for for this class of offender okay

[00:14:46] the next step for retailers in addressing inventory shrink at self checkout would be to eliminate

[00:14:54] self-check altogether like okay who is this reporter Kirk O'Neill Kirk what are you doing man

[00:15:03] what are you doing why are you why are you putting this out into the universe we do not want to lose

[00:15:09] the self-checkouts because as much as I hate the people that bring the big buggies up and check out

[00:15:14] I'd like the option because I will use the self-checkout when I have like one or two items again

[00:15:20] because I'm not a monster right and it's a much faster process I don't understand the people

[00:15:25] that stand in the line and wait on the self-checkout when there's like seven eight people waiting

[00:15:32] it just use one of the checkouts with the clerk you know use the attendant

[00:15:37] but you really must be bad at small talk or you just don't want to talk to a stranger or something

[00:15:42] here's the thing too like I know the I know the cashier is now at my Harris-teeter and it is mine

[00:15:49] is why I get so angry when people clog up myself checkout lanes all right it is turni time and

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[00:17:06] book slash nc also NASCAR is not a sponsor of this promotion and is used under license got a tweet

[00:17:14] it's a peete tweet from get off my lawn he says uh just wait until you have a cashier

[00:17:22] that licks their thumb to open the plastic bag and then picks up your food with the same hand

[00:17:29] I had that happen a couple times to me I just walked out of the store without my food the last

[00:17:35] time I will never again use the cashier never never ever use the cashier again

[00:17:49] well I found a very handy way to avoid that very scenario and I found found this out

[00:17:57] actually right now it just came to me that would never happen to me because I'm always bagging

[00:18:06] myself or there's somebody who is a bagger that is dedicated so they're not

[00:18:13] now I don't know what I would do if I saw the bag and you know the bag boy do that like if he

[00:18:17] would as lick his hands but I've never seen that I've never seen them do that that's kind of gross

[00:18:26] that is really gross um

[00:18:28] um

[00:18:30] jeff says peete I like using self checkout

[00:18:33] uh I always see people sharing memes on facebook about they refuse to use them because they are

[00:18:41] quote not an employee I always reference this back to pumping gas we used to have gas

[00:18:47] attendants that pumped gas but not anymore unless you're in new jersey

[00:18:52] and unless you're in new jersey new jersey has a state law that requires somebody to pump your gas

[00:19:01] so if you are stopping through new jersey first off my condolences secondly that's why

[00:19:09] you know you never stop for gas in jersey never we did once my wife and I did once we had

[00:19:18] to stop in jersey and it freaked her out because the guy comes walking over to the uh

[00:19:29] to the car just like she's got out she starts you know going to the pump and it's like oh wait

[00:19:37] no you can't do that that is not allowed it's really screaming they're not allowed um yeah so

[00:19:44] in jersey it's a jobs program you know um and everybody pays for it you got to pay a little bit

[00:19:49] more for your gas in jersey to keep people pumping it um

[00:19:56] joseph says shrink is a term that was used back in the 90s when I worked in retail it includes theft

[00:20:05] but also damaged items return scams even shipping damaged losses while the store I worked at

[00:20:12] had a less than one percent shrink rate the stores in uh cities these days are seeing 10 to 20

[00:20:20] percent rates which is why they are putting everything behind glass or just closing all together um

[00:20:27] yes so let me go back to this because they're citing these self checkouts as uh

[00:20:32] you know a way that you get this inventory shrink you know either people stealing it or

[00:20:40] mistakenly not scanning an item or whatever okay um five below that's a store

[00:20:51] from what I understand uh it's very cold but whatever um value retailer five below

[00:20:58] has implemented associate assisted checkouts in all of its stores for 2024 the CEO Joel Anderson said

[00:21:06] during a uh an earnings call last month quote in addition in our high shrink stores

[00:21:17] our high shrink stores the primary option for checkout is more of the traditional over-the-counter

[00:21:22] associate checkout we expect to have 75 percent of our transactions chain wide assisted by an

[00:21:29] associate with a goal of a hundred percent in our highest shrink highest risk stores

[00:21:37] a hundred percent to be assisted by an associate additionally in those stores they're

[00:21:43] implementing uh further mitigation efforts including receipt checking additional store payroll

[00:21:52] and guards which like what's the point of guards why are they

[00:21:59] going to be empowered to to stop anybody right um then there's this the retail giant that runs

[00:22:11] the Fulton Transit Center in Lower Manhattan wants out of its deal with the MTA much-polled

[00:22:21] transit authority um so they want out of their contract and they blame crime for scaring

[00:22:28] tenants away from the shopping space westfield Fulton Center this is in New York obviously

[00:22:36] Lower Manhattan claims that the subway hub has been overrun by homeless people street hustlers

[00:22:43] and vandalism street hustler what's this i mean is that something that you want like oh he's got

[00:22:54] hustle right don't in that anyway uh they say there's not enough security and uh one of the

[00:23:03] shop managers told the New York Post that uh they get their tip jar stolen multiple times

[00:23:10] assaults and employee intimidation have become more and more common at the glass and steel building

[00:23:16] on the corner of Fulton Street and Broadway which the MTA initially pitched as comparable in stature

[00:23:22] to Rockefeller Center or Grand Central Station few businesses want to open and operate a store

[00:23:30] where their employees and customers regularly would experience theft property damage bodily harm

[00:23:37] or threats thereof the company said in a uh march response to an MTA lawsuit because the MTA

[00:23:45] is suing the company to make them stay you have to stay as the managers of the property

[00:23:55] as the safety and security of Fulton Transit Center continued to degrade it became nearly impossible

[00:24:00] to attract high quality sub tenants they said existing ones declined to renew their leases

[00:24:06] and some surrendered their leases early and the remaining existing sub tenants have begged westfield

[00:24:12] for help many of the sub tenants confirmed that Fulton Transit Center's security issues were the sole

[00:24:19] reason they left the space um the MTA says that they're going to face irreparable injury I mean not like

[00:24:28] an injury like the workers would face when they're assaulted at the center uh but you know a different

[00:24:35] kind of injury if westfield abandons the building which will open in 2014 the 20 year lease was

[00:24:42] signed in May of 2014 so they're only halfway through it and it requires westfield to manage

[00:24:48] and operate the Fulton Center and it's not allowed to back out over crime concerns according to the MTA

[00:24:56] which I mean you got to admire the game there like seriously like 10 years ago they were like we're

[00:25:02] just going to write this into the contract that if this place turns into a crime ridden hellhole

[00:25:07] you still can't get out and westfield's like oh that'll never happen sure

[00:25:12] the agency asked the court to force westfield to stay and if it leaves anyway uh they want them

[00:25:19] to be declared to be in breach of the contract um only one security officer is on duty the tip

[00:25:29] jars stolen they they have a hogging dog store that had to close it's been robbed every several weeks

[00:25:36] so they shut down um there's been an increase in felony assaults and burglaries

[00:25:43] meanwhile uh the MTA workers they were asking for more protection

[00:25:49] the union is asking for more protection they say there needs to be more officers at all of the 450

[00:25:57] terminals okay if you're listening to this podcast you are obviously paying attention to the world

[00:26:02] around us you also have really great taste I might add but if you haven't started getting prepared

[00:26:07] for various emergencies I got to ask what are you waiting for please call my friends Bill and Jan

[00:26:13] at Carolina readiness supply and they'll help get you started if you have no idea how to start

[00:26:17] they can help you if you're an experienced prepper they can help you too being prepared is just smart

[00:26:23] we've already established that you're smart I mean you listen to this podcast after all so let's put

[00:26:28] those smarts into action go to Carolina readiness dot com that's Carolina readiness dot com or

[00:26:35] call them at 828 226 72 39 Carolina readiness supply has 2000 square feet of supplies as well

[00:26:43] as educational materials that you're going to need for any kind of emergency veteran owned Carolina

[00:26:48] readiness supply will you be ready when the lights go out so several dozen transit workers

[00:26:54] up in New York marched on the governor's office in midtown denouncing the escalating assaults

[00:27:03] targeting them and their colleagues in the New York subway system remember they also had to

[00:27:09] install the the bag checks they put TSA you know down in the subways now basically in New York

[00:27:16] but the governor's got a new subway safety plan right part of the plan

[00:27:22] um at least eight MTA workers have been brutalized on the job this year alone

[00:27:29] transit workers demanded improved safety measures against subway criminals

[00:27:36] their demands include deploying MTA police alongside the NYPD and National Guard

[00:27:43] governor Huckle announced additional security measures including more random bag screenings

[00:27:51] um aimed at protecting both workers and riders Huckle proposed legislative action to ban

[00:27:57] individuals convicted of transit assaults NYPD found 38 people were responsible for more than

[00:28:04] 1100 attacks last year 38 people 1100 attacks

[00:28:15] see we do know how to fight crime it is known this is not some you know wisdom that's been

[00:28:24] lost to the ages here all right in my lifetime New York City figured it out

[00:28:32] and then apparently no people didn't forget people made decisions to go in a different direction

[00:28:40] right people to and apparently this is like they have to keep relearning these lessons over and

[00:28:45] over again so transit chief Michael Kemper called on state lawmakers to strengthen bail laws

[00:28:54] demanding accountability for criminals targeting New Yorkers quote where the voices screaming

[00:28:59] accountability on the people committing crimes on New Yorkers police sir you're

[00:29:06] you're a resident you're a citizen they don't they don't care I think that's

[00:29:11] sorry there's a new pecking order here find it adorable that the transit workers were the last

[00:29:16] ones to be notified of this the governor admitted that they did get some of that old legislation wrong

[00:29:23] she said it never should have gone as far as it did we're trying to pull it back and support our

[00:29:27] police to do their jobs but also protect people's civil liberties right yeah well at least it's

[00:29:33] nice to get an admission from some lefty somewhere that they went too far you know

[00:29:41] was only after they started getting attacked right

[00:29:44] the people been shoved in front of subway cars on the regular up there and getting beaten up

[00:29:50] and peed on and stuff and whatever but now when the mta workers start getting assaulted now

[00:29:56] something's got to change something's gotta get done right another crime story this is probably the

[00:30:03] most this is this is awful be on the lookout for fake eclipse glasses okay the the Chinese are

[00:30:14] flooding the market and the fakes are undetectable basically they look exactly like the real thing

[00:30:24] mainly because the real things are also made in china and so they're really cheap and crappy too

[00:30:29] and so making the knockoff of the chinese product and that's kind of what china does very well you know

[00:30:35] they they can replicate stuff like like coming up with stuff entrepreneurship that kind of thing

[00:30:40] like having the ideas not so much not not so much but ripping off the ideas and replicating products

[00:30:48] and technology very very good they're very good at that so when they got the contracts to produce all

[00:30:53] of these flimsy little eclipse glasses now they've got the knockoffs that look exactly like

[00:31:02] the ones made down the road in in the other chinese factory so so be careful out there when you're

[00:31:08] looking to buy your sunglasses because you could be looking at the sun without proper equipment

[00:31:15] all right that'll do it for this episode thank you so much for listening i could not do the show

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