Folgers' Crystals

Many have wondered where I've been these last several days. Well, with the holiday season upon us, it seems as though someone is off just about every day. Since most of our news seems to happen during the day, they have been pulling me off nights to cover the daysiders' shifts. But then, since Wendy wants material for her late show also, I end up working well into the nightside as well.

My apologies to my readers. With several twelve hour days (and one sixteen hour day) over the last week, I haven't had much time to blog. However, I did want to log in and relate this one interesting story.

Last Monday one of our photogs, a guy named Al, called in sick. I got a call from the desk asking me to come in and cover for him. I was happy to oblige, but only after I had taken a shower, which my news director seemed to think would take too long. I think I've been accommodating, so I didn't think showering was too much to ask.

Anyway, Sunday night there had been a big (at least for our area) prostitution bust. We're a small town, yet there's still an area where a guy with $40 can pick up a girl on the street and get it on in his car. Apparently the guys would pick up the girls and simply drive around the corner to a street with a bunch of abandoned houses, then circle back around to let the girls out when they were done.

In the first half of their operation, the cops picked up several women who usually worked that stretch of street. Then they secretly replaced them with imitation prostitutes and recorded what happened with hidden cameras. It was like those old instant coffee commercials, but with whores.

None of the news outlets in the market knew about the sweep until the cops announced the results that Monday morning. They had arrested six prostitutes and fifteen Johns. Except that one of the Johns wasn't a John, but an Al. The same Al who called in sick Monday morning after spending most of the night in booking, wishing he hadn't chosen Folgers' Crystals. Our crime reporter didn't even look at the names the cops gave us, and nobody here would have noticed if the newspaper hadn't printed them.

Interestingly enough, nothing has been said. Al was in his own car on his own time and wasn't identified with the station in any way, so the managers are pretty much acting like it's none of their business.

Maybe they're just in the holiday spirit.