Million-Dollar Idling Complaints And A City On Edge

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A teenager is lured on Snapchat, vanishes across state lines, and is found hidden in a basement box. That story alone would stop anyone cold, and it sets the tone for a conversation about safety, trust, and how fast predators move in the shadowy corners of social apps. We talk about the relief of a rescue, the gaps that let this happen, and the daily choices parents, platforms, and law enforcement can make to close the distance before harm is done.

From there, we swing to New York City’s Citizens Idling Complaint program—the one where a handful of residents have pulled in hundreds of thousands of dollars by filming trucks idling too long. Is this climate-minded civic action or just a clever cash grab? We break down how the incentives work, why a few professionals dominate the payouts, and what it reveals about policy design, enforcement costs, and public trust. If you care about air quality, governance, or the unintended consequences of “crowdsourced” compliance, this segment will get you thinking.

We finish on turf and turf wars: a head coach leaves Auburn as chatter rises about his love of golf, while NIL and the transfer portal redraw the map of college football. We ask what fans expect now, what coaches can actually control, and whether off-field optics should matter when the job itself keeps changing. To cool it down, we close with a simple question that always lights up a room: sweet tea, unsweet, lemon, or no thanks?

If you’re into true crime prevention, policy that actually works, and the culture of college sports, you’ll find a lot to chew on. Hit play, share your take on the idling payouts and the golf debate, and tell us—how do you take your tea? Subscribe, leave a quick review, and pass this along to a friend who loves a spirited breakdown.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Well, hello my little love bunnies.
I hope you're doing great.
We have three topics for youtoday, and I struggled so hard
to find something today.
It was rough, it was rough.
Because either it's all toogross and gory, and I don't want
to share that, and you know,because it's just or it's just
stupid.

(00:21):
So we're going with mainlystupid today.
Well, except for this one.
This this one is pretty serious,and but it has a good outcome, I
think.
Hopefully it does.
I alright, so a missing girl whois 13 years old.
She was found hidden in a box athousand miles away in an
accused sex trafficker'sbasement.

(00:42):
This is from the New York Post.
I think she was found alive.
I hope she was found alive.
A missing 13-year-old Louisianagirl was found hidden in a box
more than 1,000 miles away fromhome, having been repeatedly
abused by a sex trafficker whotricked her into thinking she
was being adopted.
Y'all be careful what your teensare watching and doing on

(01:02):
Snapchat.
This all happened over Snapchat.
The teen had been reportedmissing from East Baton Rouge
Parish on October 20th beforeshe was found Thursday inside a
box covered by a sheet in thebasement of a house in
Pittsburgh.
There she was allegedly sexuallyabused, repeated by repeatedly

(01:24):
by Keyshawn Crumity, who was 26years old, after he plied her
with booze and fed her marijuanaedibles, according to a criminal
complaint obtained by CBS News.
Now I don't know what the homelife to this girl is.
She could I don't know.
Crumety had befriended her onSnapchat and persuaded her to

(01:47):
travel more than 1,000 miles bybus on the cruel line that she
would on the cruel lie, sorry,that she would be adopted by
trusted adults.
Instead, she was groomed,exploited, and then sexually
abused by strangers who foundher online.
Y'all, this is disgusting.

(02:08):
And all these people findingthem online, how come the FBI or
whoever is in charge of thiskind of thing, surely they can
infiltrate the internet and findthese derelicts?
Derelicks is not the right word.
There needs to be a harsher wordfor them.
This is just one example of thedangers of social media and of
human trafficking.
The girl was not the girl hasnot been identified because of

(02:31):
her age and the belief she is avictim of sex crimes.
She was first abused the day shearrived at the house, and
Crumity had sex with her atleast once or twice daily during
the week she was there,according to the complaint, so
she's gone a week.
She was forced to sleep in a bedin the basement uh with him and
an and an identified woman.

(02:54):
Oh boy.
Crumity allegedly toldinvestigators that he knew she
was a runaway and that he wouldget in trouble.
Yeah, he looks like a frickin'asshole.
Uh Crumity is charged withsleuths.
Okay, whatever.
But she was found alive andreturned home.

(03:14):
I like I said, I don't know whather home life is like.
I don't know what prompted herto do this, but or be suckered
into it.
I don't know.
But she's found safe.
And and something has beenexposed again.
Again, Snapchat online.
Y'all be careful.
Alright, moving on.

(03:38):
Oh, so here this is aninteresting.
This is an interesting article,and I want your take on this.
New York City bounty hunters,and the word bounty hunters is
in quotation marks, makingalmost$1 million a piece by
reporting idling trucks, andthey are professionals.
They live in posh enclaves.

(03:58):
You ready for this story?
This is, I didn't know this wasa thing.
The street snitches who haveraked in up to nearly one
million dollars apiece ofreporting idling trucks to the
city are lawyers, doctors, andresidents of posh enclaves
enjoying the lucrative perks ofa program that targeted even

(04:21):
mobile COVID testing trucksduring the pandemic.
Among the people profiting themost off the Big Apple Citizens
Idling Complaint program, boy,that's a big title for a
program, is Patrick Schnell, whorecords who records show, who
I'm sorry, who records show hasmade five hundred and eighty-two

(04:46):
thousand dollars since 2019 byfilming trucks idling for more
than three minutes, then sendinghis clips to the city and
collecting checks worth up to50% of the vehicles ensuing
fines.
Okay, so this is one way thecity can get rid of needless
spending.

(05:07):
Get rid of this program, how areyou paying for this?
But it's just a side hustle forSchnell, who lives in a leafy
Borham Hill, Brooklyn, and is apediatrician with a long resume
from high-powered medical groupssuch as Pfizer.
Well, of course.

(05:27):
So he's probably a climateactivist, too.
Uh as part of his streetreporting shtick, Schnell
appears to have an X accountwhere he posts footage of cars
and drivers who have obscuredtheir license plates or parked
legally.
Schnell's estimated half milliontake from the complaint program

(05:48):
only places him at the bottom ofits top five earners.
He protested to the post onSunday that the amount of money
the city says it has shelled outto him is not the money I have
received, before adding, it'shard work.
Oh, sure it is.
Manhattan residents Ernest Weldhas meanwhile brought home a

(06:10):
staggering eight hundred andninety-five thousand dollars
under the program since 2019,more than$100,000 per year while
working as an environmentallawyer by day and living on a
hip East Village Street nearThompson Square Park.
This sounds like these peopleeven created this program so
they could get money from it.

(06:31):
Oh my gosh.
Oh, another top earner isMichael Streeter, with$709,000
in bounties under his belt, wholives on a leafy and secluded
Brooklyn Heights street, whichviews the East River.
Michael is awesome, saidneighbor Nick Burkett Caudle,

(06:52):
who called Streeter ahardworking sweetheart and fully
supports his idling complaints.
Oh, you people, I swear.
I swear.
This it goes on and on and on.
If you want to go finish readingthat, it's interesting.
Uh I hope the Pat Ungrade peoplebring this up because it's

(07:13):
stupid.
Wow, what a way to make somemoney, huh?
Alright.
Down my last one.
I really have no idea what I'mtalking about here, so I'm just
gonna wing it.
It's the Auburn football coach,head football coach that got
fired recently.
And it might be because he likesgolf better than football.

(07:33):
Hugh Freeze's love of golf maynot have been the reason he was
shown the door at Auburn, butthe football coach's love for
the Lynx didn't help the causeeither.
Uh Freeze was given a$15.8million buyout to leave Auburn
football program over theweekend after the Tigers' 10-3
loss to Kentucky, and they'reand they've gone four and five.

(07:56):
One okay, I don't understand allthose numbers.
During his three seasons atAuburn, it's been no secret that
Freeze loves to golf.
But it appeared that some peoplebegan to take issue with how
much he prioritizes golf.
They they goes on to say thatpeople even saw him on the links
the day before a game on Friday.

(08:18):
Uh wasn't playing golf, he justcame out to watch them, and he's
posting all of his scores whenhe plays.
Apparently, the guy spends a lotof time on the golf course.
But you know, in today's age,why not?
Because the, you know, with allthe portal things happening now
for college football, I mean,can the coaches even go out and

(08:39):
recruit properly?
Because I don't think thecoaches can offer money.
I could be wrong.
The those portal things comefrom other corporations and
sponsors and all that that uhpay the that pay the players
money.
So, I mean, can it even does iteven coach?
Do coaches even coach anymorewith this new portal thing for

(09:01):
the college football players?
I don't know.
So, what do you think aboutthat?
All right, we need to move on,and we're gonna do the question
of the day.
And I had a really good one theother day, and of course, I have
forgotten it.
So the let's come up with adifferent one.
If let's see what I can come upwith.
The question of the day is Howdo you take your tea?
And I don't mean hot tea, I meancold tea.

(09:22):
Down here in the south, we haveunsweet and sweet tea.
I know, I notice up there innorthern people, when you go
into a restaurant and I ordersweet tea, they look at me like
I have two heads and they say,We don't have sweet tea, but I
can bring you some sugar.
And so, which is weird becauseyou know, uh, I don't get it.
Why don't you have sweet tea?
And then some people like lemonin their tea.

(09:43):
I do not, but every time I ordera tea, sweet, I like unsweet
tea, no lemon, they always bringme, they always put the lemon
in.
I think it's just a habitsomebody came up with because
they think everybody likes lemonin their tea.
No, ma'am, I do not.
And then some people like somepeople like they call it the
Arnold Palmer, where it's umhalf half lemonade and half tea.

(10:08):
I just I don't see theattraction with tea and lemon.
I just I don't I don't get it.
If I want lemonade, I'll orderlemonade.
Because lemonade and tea are twodifferent things, they're not
good together.
I'm sorry, Arnold, they're not.
Okay, I know.
I know, I know.
Probably a huge disrespectthere.
I'm sorry.
All right, and some but now I dolike some other flavored teas,

(10:30):
like I like raspberry tea, umother like other things like
that, but I don't like lemon inmy tea.
Okay, whatever, you don't care.
How do you like your tea?
All right, I gotta go.
Thanks for listening.
Bye.