What’s Happening / #TrueCrimeTuesday

They are applying for individual assistance from FEMA. The governor of Kentucky did say that President Trump has declared an emergency disaster area for the state of Kentucky, and on top of that, snow and now freezing conditions. A total of about two to six inches of snow possible throughout western and central Kentucky tonight until tomorrow. The storm is expected to create hazardous travel conditions because of slick roads, poor visibility, and of course, disrupt the recovery efforts from

the floods. Still a few thousand people without power in the state of Kentucky, but it is much better than it was yesterday at this time. International news today is that Hamas has confirmed it will release ten hostages, six of them alive, this week. They said they'll at least the dead bodies of four Israeli hostages, including the two youngest held by the group, a nine month old and a four year old and her there mother, among others.

The group also said they'll release six living hostages instead of the three that had been expected. Israeli Prime Minister's office confirmed that an agreement had been reached for four slain hostages to be handed over on Thursday, six living hostages to be released on Saturday. The bodies, like I said, included the Beepst children, just nine months and four years old, respectively when they were kidnapped back on October seventh, twenty twenty three. Hamas claims that they were killed in an

Israeli air strike. Also today, historic in the LA Unified School District. Cell phone ban is now in effect. That includes smart watches and smart glasses. Because you're anyway, you don't need them, and despite what everybody's been saying, the chance insais of there being a safety issue are minuscule. Starting today as well, many writers need to tap their transit cards in order to get off the La Union

station or get out of I should say. In the latest effort by La Metro to curb crime crack down on the fair evaders, writers need to tap their cards at a turnstile when they exit the subway and head upstairs to the main concourse. Those who paid ahead of time will be able to exit seamlessly. If you didn't, you could be stopped at the gates and face the possibility of receiving a warning recitation or even you get

kicked out of the subway completely. If you didn't pay initially, but you do have a valid tap card when you exit, the fare would be deducted when you leave. Metro officials said it's still a violation of the code of conduct. Writers of Metrolink can already scan their ticket to enable the free transfers on La Metro, but you also need to scan again when you exit any station again that

requires the exit. Jury deliberations are set to begin. Asap Rocky, his real name is rakeem Myers accused of fire in a couple of shots at his former friend Terrell Efron asap Rally, everybody knows that. And their question between the two attorneys is was the gun real or was it a prop? Prosecutor said it was a real gun. The defense claims it was a prop gun that shot out blanks that sounded like a real gun. Asap Rally says his knuckles were grazed by one of the shots, but

he wasn't seriously hurt. Rocky's attorney said that he picked up the prop for security on a music video shoot. And good news is remember that great concert that took place at the Kia Forum and the into a dome Stevie wonder they're playing with Sting late in that concert. They raised about one hundred million dollars through the fire Aid benefit concert concert.

mark the beginning of the conversation. President Trump is signing some new executive orders, while his first joint television interview with Elon Musk will air tonight in prime time. Trump is down at mar A Lago in Florida, setting for an awards program tonight, apparently by a program, an awards program, I should say by a group led by Mike Flynn,

who was at one time National Security Advisor. The White House hasn't commented on these new executive orders that he's going to sign, but he's used previous executive orders for about seven thousand different topics. Delta Airlines jet came down fast, It landed hard, it lost its right wing, burst into flames in a runway in Toronto, and then flipped over, flipped over, and amazingly in the news conference this morning, they said all eighty people on board that flight from

Minneapolis to Toronto survived the crash. The airport's CEO said, all but twenty. I'm sorry. All but two of the twenty one people injured on the flight have been released from the hospital. The case of the Turpins out in the ie was hard to look at group of kids, a lot of kids raised by a family with severe mental illness, in that the kids were never allowed to go outside rarely, that they were not fed properly, they

were not instructed on how to live life properly. And every time we see a story like this, we think to ourselves, how many of these kind of situations exist today, like right now? And unfortunately we found another one in this case. A woman in Pontiac, Michigan, arrested Friday. She abandoned her young children in their home for several years,

according to police. The Oakland County Sheriff's Office said, thirty four year old woman her identity is not released to protect the identity of her kids, left her kids in that home to live in absolute squalor. They were surviving on weekly drop offs of prepared food.

what goes on, they say something like this. Throughout my extensive career in this field, I have never encountered a scenario as dire and prolonged as this one, involving abandonment, neglect, and abuse of the highest order. And he said the situation would be deemed deplorable and intolerable for animals, let alone children. They've been deprived of any interaction with their mother, they have not received an education, and the far reaching consequences of this abuse.

was concerned about the well being. They searched the home, they found the three kids. The girls had locked their themselves in the bathroom but opened the door when they were asked, and the pictures of the inside of this home are unbelievable. Piles of debris. Police said the scene was indeplorable shape. Garbage piled as high as four feet in some rooms. Mold, human waste found throughout the house. I mentioned, I mentioned they didn't know how to use

the toilet. They didn't know how to flush it. I should say so the toilet was overflowing. Feces was found in the bathtub. The fifteen year old brother said he and his sisters have been living alone in the home since probably twenty twenty or twenty twenty one. They survived on the prepared food that their mother or a stranger would leave on the front porch each week, so there was someone besides the mom who knew the condition of these kids. Mom never left any personal hygiene items, never

left any toilet paper. While she maintained contact with the boy, it appears that she had not seen the girls in years. To give you an idea of how disgusting it was, the crews that went in and cleaned up all had to wear hazmat suits. Neighbors told deputies they didn't even know that there were kids inside.

a home where you're living at using the tub. That's pretty heartbreaking and the kids had to live under those conditions. An HOA board member, Nosey said she received text messages from neighbors when the news broke. Some of the people tend to keep to themselves in that neighborhood, They said, only to interact with neighbors through post on the association's Facebook page. Children have not attended school in the time since twenty twenty or twenty twenty one. They passed time

watching television or playing games. It appears the girls had not physically left the home in several years. The boy slept on a mattress on the floor. The girls the girls slept on pizza boxes. I'm going to repeat that the boy slept on a mattress on the floor, the girls slept on pizza boxes. Mom was found at a different location obviously has been arrested. She said Dad doesn't have a doesn't have any connection to the kids. The sheriff has given a few more details today about all

of this. Said dad had been in jail at the time that their mom abandoned them. After he got out, he got approval from a court to visit the kids, but mom never allowed access. The sheriff also blamed some gaps in the school enrollment enrollment process that allowed the kids to slip through the cracks, adding that the pandemic probably played a role. Since they were probably living alone since this bring or summer of twenty twenty, when nobody

was in school. The department, they said, was overwhelmed by the support from the community and said they didn't need any more donations. They want to find a law firm, set up a trust fund for the kids to pay for their health and education bills.

his car was stolen. A guy who was arrested after crashing in a stolen vehicle e aded police custody at the hospital, then stole an ambulance to escape. He was seen in surveillance footage driving away while wearing an hospital gown with the IV needle still in his arm. The thriving used car market of West Africa, it's what's driving the stolen car market on the East coast of the United States. There have been I think it's about what

is it a million, roughly a million cars. In twenty twenty three, car theft had been falling steadily since nineteen ninety one, and then we saw at least most of that I should say most of it, not at least most of that was because of simple security systems that became very very popular in cars and then became installed. They came installed on cars that you would buy. But early twenty twenty auto thefts have increased by about thirty percent.

And the statistics for last year are incomplete, but right now they already suggest that we could see a record number of car thefts and violent car thefts like carjackings in the year twenty twenty four. About ten percent of those cars that are stolen in the United States today are smuggled overseas. And what's amazing is those used car brokers in West Africa. They are very specific about what kind of cars they want. You saw this in Gone

in sixty seconds. There's a market out there for high end cars, and all it takes is a buyer to say something like I want a twenty twenty four Mercedes SL three fifty with leather interior, and you go get your henchmen to go out and find that car. The majority of times, the most common way to steal a vehicle is the most basic find one with the engine

still running and the keys inside. That is a crime of opportunity, and according to law enforcement, that's about forty percent of car thefts are again just the most basic. You left your car running and your left your keys inside. Think about times of extreme heat or cold, when it's one hundred and fifteen in the valley you leave your car on to keep the air conditioning running. Or extreme cold that's probably even more likely where you don't want the car to freeze up. So at fifteen below, I'm

looking at you, Minnesota. You leave the car running, you leave the ignition fob and the center console, maybe not the key with the ignition anymore. You are trying to carry a bag of groceries into the house and they slip in while you're in the house and take your car and they're gone. If you figure that each I'm gonna say punk kid, because I'm gonna make a generalization, gets about five hundred to one thousand, maybe fifteen hundred

dollars a car, especially for the higher end ones. Then the next guy is going to get about two thousand and four it, and the next guy's going to get twenty five or three thousand for it and the price goes up, so that, for example, in West Africa, the most sought after vehicle is probably a Range drover or a Toyota pickup or a BMW Sedan. And if you get a BMW seven series to your pickup point, you're

gonna get fifteen hundred bucks for it. But as it goes along the supply chain, you've got the fence, you've got the shipping company, you've got the customs broker.

the Dodge Challenger. The stolen car business was so robust in Washington in twenty twenty three that that parking garage became a de facto showroom for these stolen cars. The buyers and the sellers would meet there every night. They would inspect the cars, the deal was sealed. Cars not sold within hours were listed on Instagram. They were shown by appointment, and it was dependable. It was a business.

It was a marketplace that opened up text messages that were intercepted by law enforcement captured the buyers that were placing orders for very specific cars, very specific makes and models. One eighteen year old delivering stolen vehicles had six carjackings

in a week. There was a twelve year old who made headlines throughout all of twenty twenty two and into last year after he stole a BMW, a Jaguar, an Audi, a Tesla, a cargo van, and at one point he hit a half a dozen dealerships in Maryland in less than a month. He had been arrested twenty two times by the middle of last year, but because the Maryland judicial reform stipulated that kids under the age of thirteen couldn't be charged with property crimes, turned back to the

property to the custody of his parents. Kids like that being manipulated by older gang members come in as pseudo father figures and the kids, a lot of them. Teenagers brag about their recent heightsts. They text each other. Gtarl Grand theft auto real life. You can train on social media. You could see the Kiya challenge on how to pick up a key or a Hyundai using a screwdriver in a USB cable. But the GPS tracker that you have in your car, that's not gonna help. They know where

those are, they'll just pull them out. And most of them, like I said, some of the high end cars end up in West Africa for the burgeoning stolen used car market there for those high end the Mercedes, the Range Rovers and things like that. About some of those weird and unbelievable store in the world of crime. And this is a kind of a combination of crime and artificial intelligence, and this is a this is something that should be

a crime. Drew Crecente a couple of months ago got a Google alert that flagged what appeared to be a new profile of his daughter online, the daughter that had been murdered eighteen years earlier. It had Jennifer's full name, It had an old high school yearbook photo of her. It had a biography of Jennifer. It said she was a video game journalist. It said she was an expert

in technology, pop culture, and journalism. The website where this new profile popped up was character dot Ai, and Jennifer's image and likeness were used to create a chatbot that people could talk to.

his life. So character Ai again needless to say, Dad, Drew Crecente, who's seeing his murdered daughter's face on this website. He said, my pulse was racing. I was just looking for a big flashing red stop button that I could slap and just make it stop. It takes it quite a bit for me to be shocked, he said, because I really have been through quite a lot, but this was a new low.

terms of service prevent anybody from impersonating any person or entity. Now, because of the nonprofit that Drew Corescente put up after his daughter was murdered, they spend time preventing teen dating violence. He was appalled that Character had allowed somebody to create this facsimile of a murdered high schooler without her family's permission, and because of his work. Like I said in that nonprofit, he keeps the Google alert that tracks mentions of his

daughters on name online. Every once in a while it shows up on a spam website, maybe a news report that repeats old information. But that October alert led him to his daughter's name and picture on character dot ai, and he couldn't figure out it first. He said, the more he looked into it, the more uneasy he felt.

In addition to using her name and her picture, the chatbot's page described her in very lively language, as if she were alive, like the tech journalist who geeks out on video games, always up to date on the latest entertainment news. He said the description didn't appear to be based on her personality or any specific interests about what her real life was, and he said the factual inaccuracies

were beside the point. The idea of character hosting and then potentially making money from a chatbot using his murdered daughter's name was distressing enough he did not start at a conversation with it. He did not investigate the user that created the bot, but he immediately emailed the character company to have it removed. Asked about other chatbots on their site that impersonate public figures, a spokesperson said the reports of impersonation are investigated immediately by the trust and

safety team. The character is removed if it's found to have violated. There is a privacy researcher at Mozilla Foundation. They said that this approach to moderation is way too passive because it plainly violates its own term of service. In the case of Jennifer Crescente, he says, if they're going to say we don't allow this on the platform, then they allow it on their platform until it's brought to their attention. That's not right. All the while they're

making millions of dollars potentially. I mean, it was disturbing enough to push this guy to ponder up taking a new cause, and now he's considering legal options and advocating for more active safety measures to prevent AI companies from harming or re traumatizing anybody else that may have been the victim.