Los Angeles needs to stop hiding the truth about the fires

on the John Phillips show. Mr. Brandy Wings in Culver City. their sales tax increase this November, they're going to close up to 15 stations. Well, I guess we have that to look forward to. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. She is the former controller for the city of Los Angeles, controller Laura Chick. Welcome. Thank you for having me here. Well, thank you so much for stopping by. And I've got to say when that LA Times report broke last week about the after action fire report, the fire that destroyed the Pacific Palisades. And the Times was reporting that the mayor's office interjected itself into that report to water down the findings so that it made her office look better and not worse. One of the first things I thought is for someone like you, someone whose job it was, you were interested by the voters to look after the books of the city of Los Angeles. When you hear about things like this happening, it must make you want to pull your hair out. It makes me sick at heart. It really does. Because there's really only two authentic sources of accountability left, you know, accountability to the public, to the taxpayer, to the voter. And those authentic sources of accountability are independent press and independent oversight by government institutions like the city controller. This city controller, Mr. Mejia, is asleep at the switch. If I had been down there, I would have been auditing the heck out of the fire department. I did audit them when I was there. I found problems. I mean, these are brave, incredible people, but it's a bureaucracy. And the public doesn't know exactly what's going on. So oversight isn't an attack and transparency is not a threat. And accountability is not an option. So I have to tell you that when I watch efforts to obstruct transparency, that raises serious questions with me about whose interests are being protected and whose interests are not being protected. What of the problems? Go ahead. Well, it's the public's interests that are not being protected. And that fire took lives and it destroyed communities and it forever altered families. And the least we owe the public is the truth unfiltered, unspun, fully independent. That doesn't seem to be what we have. Well, that's 100% correct. And I would add one thing to that list. And that is to make sure that something like this never happens again. And there have been reports out saying that the number of trucks, for example, at the LAFD that are offline because we don't have the mechanics to fix them or I guess we're spending money on other things and not on fixing the trucks. There are more trucks that are out of service today than there were when the fires hit. And we were caught flat footed without the ability to adequately fight that fire. And that's because regular scrutiny of city operations isn't happening. I have to comment about partisan politics. You know, there's a reason the city charter says you don't declare your political party when you run for city council or mayor. It's, it's, city government is about solving problems and delivering basic essential services and making sure taxpayer dollars are being spent to benefit them to make the city run correctly. But that is not what's going on in the city of LA. Take a look at the city controller's office. Look at how many audits are coming out of there. I wanted that job because I love the idea of performance audits, which mean you go in and you ask, how are we doing and how can we do it better? And that's what you're referencing. That an after action report should be filled with recommendations to make positive change, to look at what didn't go so well and how to fix it and expose that to the public. But rather than welcome scrutiny and confront hard truths and commit to meaningful reform, city leadership has chosen to spin and deflect and stonewall and obscure facts and manage optics versus outcomes. And to me, that's not leadership. It's crisis containment. What do you make of the fact that no one seems to care about making sure that we're spending money in the right places, that money that has been allocated for certain services, making sure... Yes? No, never mind. Okay. Making sure that the money goes to where it's supposed to go because we're talking about fire right now, but I can only imagine what an honest audit about the money that's being spent on, let's say, the homeless would look like if you were to actually trace those dollars and find out where that money was being spent. No one seems to care. It's just like, okay, well, the problem isn't being solved, so let's just throw more money at it. Let's not examine how we're spending it to make sure that we're spending it the right way. Right. And that's what I'm telling you, that the city controller is supposed to be doing. I was very unpopular with many of my colleagues inside City Hall. Outside City Hall, the public understood what I was doing. I was pulling the veil. I was pulling the curtain open. So, for instance, elected officials go on trips. They travel. Are they traveling at public expense? What's the purpose of the trip? I'll reference the Ghana trip. That trip had nothing to do with the performance of the job as mayor, and it never, ever should have happened. She did not cause the fire, and her being away did not make the fire worse, I don't think, but she should have been here. What the heck was she doing in Ghana? Well, here's another thing that just makes me scratch my head over and over and over again. You look at the biographies of elected officials, and you typically see a lot of the same professions. A lot of attorneys, a lot of small business people, a lot of people who used to work for electeds, those sorts of things. But now you see a lot of people who come from these homeless services organizations, who somehow, coming from the nonprofit world, are able to put together a campaign that is well-financed, that is viable, that has access to a lot of people with a lot of money, who can write a lot of checks, and those are the people who are getting elected to many of these local offices. You didn't used to see that, but now all of a sudden it seems like that's where the money is, and that's what's producing a lot of the electeds. That's interesting because actually when I was in office, I'm a social worker. I have my math student social work. I used to pitch, trying to get more social workers into government. Why? Because they're trained problem solvers, and that's what we need. So I don't know about the folks you're talking about and where their money is. Like Nithya Robin, for example. Ah, well, you know what, I think the important thing about that is what kind of a job has she been doing? How does her district regard her? How does the people that she's serving specifically feel about her? That would talk to me a lot. That would talk to me a lot. But we have an ethics commission that's supposed to be scrutinizing where the money is coming from and reporting to the public on it. And I hope they're doing that. But, you know, not my job anymore, unfortunately. Can you speak to that because when you were a controller, you accurately described what it was like. You were very popular in the city. You were not popular among those who were elected officials, whose offices you were taking a look at when they would spend money making sure they were spending it the right way. How hard is it to perform a job where you know if you're successful at your job, you're not going to get invited to the right parties and you're not going to get invited to the right, you know, restaurant openings and all of those sorts of things, where you just have to go into it knowing that that's not going to be part of the deal? If you don't go into it knowing that, then you're going into the wrong job. I used to go to a variety of community events, you know, Chamber of Commerce events, I'd walk into the room and I swear I would see a whole crowd of people move to the other side to get away from me. It wasn't just other elected officials. It was the heads of departments. Because I was going into different, like into public works, like into the Department of Street Services and looking at how we're doing filling potholes. You know, the one general manager who was pleasant about my going into scrutinize was Bill Bratton. When I went in to look at LAPD and what were they doing with civilian employees and would it be cheaper to have civilians filling some of the positions that we've got sworn personnel in? But typically, department managers did not want an audit and did not want me coming in. I was always stretching my hand out. It's like partner with me. Tell me where you already know you've got problems. I'll help you highlight them and solve them because I want to stress that audits weren't just a criticism. They were a roadmap to need a change. The most important part of the audit were the recommendations to fix what was broken. One of the criticisms of not just Los Angeles, but California right now is the cost of living. It costs a lot of money to live here. And part of the reason that it costs a lot of money to live here is because it costs a lot of money to run our government. And I've never understood why. We know how hard people work. People bust their hump to make sure that they generate enough money to pay their bills, to pay their taxes, to raise their families, those sorts of things. And the city goes to them and the city asks for money in the form of taxes or fees or whatever the case may be. And if I were in the city government, I would feel a sense of an obligation to make sure that these people who are paying a fortune to live here are getting the best bank for their buck, that we're not charging them one dollar more than what we should charge them to provide the services that are expected to be provided from the city. And it seems like very few people, if any, in city government right now have that respect for taxpayers where they feel that sense of obligation to make sure that those dollars are being spent the right way. Right. Being spent the right way with positive impact on the public and cutting out the fluff and stuff that we don't need. And you know what drives me crazy is that somehow it seems to be the Republican Party that owns efficiency, cost effectiveness, saving money. No, wrong. But this should be all over it. I'm a lifelong Democrat. I care about how taxpayer dollars are spent because every dollar that's wasted could have should have gone someplace else where it was needed. Paving streets and part of the city where if you try to drive there, forget it. Go to your automatic. You know, trees trimmed. And this is what I'm saying about, you know, policy and foreign affairs and all that stuff and social Democrats that doesn't belong in municipal government. What belongs in city government is solving problems. We have complex problems. You mentioned housing. That's a problem. Affordability. It's not a quick fix. It's complicated. And yeah, we shouldn't be charging a penny more than it costs us to deliver. But we need to be asking, are we accomplishing what we set out to do? Are we achieving what we set out to do? And that's what I found in many elected officials. Their eyes glazed over when you asked them to take a look at how government is working. Their eyes glazed over when you asked them about follow up and fine tuning something that isn't working well. When you were termed out as city controller, over the course of your time as controller, they changed the term limit laws for members of the city council. When you were on the council, you could only serve two terms and then you had to move on and do something else. They changed it to where you could serve three terms. And I had you on and I asked you the question, no, why I did and I said, would you consider going back to the council? Because you know how one term of eligibility left. And your answer was, I'm not sure they're interested in hearing what I have to say. And you took a pass on running for the council again. Since then, city government has gotten much, much worse. How much farther do you think it can deteriorate before we get over the hump of being able to fix what's broken? Before the city gets over the hump? Yeah, before it just gets beyond the point of fixing because you look at it almost doesn't even matter what part of city government you're looking at, whether you're looking at the way that we spend our money, the conversation that we've just had, homelessness, the trash on the streets. It's appalling how much trash is on the streets right now in Los Angeles when we used to be a fairly clean big city. I mean, not that long ago, people would be offended if you just dump things on the side of the road. When there would be graffiti that would go up, we had mechanisms to take it down. Now we have, you know, Taggart Tower in downtown Los Angeles and no one seems to have any idea about what to do about it. How much worse can this city government get? Do you think before we get to go ahead? I hope and pray it doesn't get worse. I think right now the city is screaming for strong leadership and positive change. So you've got an election coming up, not tomorrow, but soon. And I'm a firm believer that the public needs to take a hard look and decide who's the right person to deliver the government that they need. I mean, take a look at what's going on in San Francisco right now. You know, there are a lot of problems in San Francisco and there's a mayor there who's a moderate, is down to earth, pragmatic as heck, a problem solver. He's not into, you know, national and international politics. He's into solving problems in the city. And that's what LA needs. There's incredible talent in that city. Seizing with talent and energy. You need that kind in the leadership of the city. It's crazy because we always used to look at them as the nutty ones. And now you look at San Francisco and you go, okay, they're trying to improve things. You know, they're the ones who are making progress and we're the ones who are running in quicksand. Yeah. And the difference, very down to earth, practical solutions to everyday problems. They're there. It's not, it's not rocket science. It needs hardworking people who think of it as a job, not an office, not a position and not a lifelong career. It's a job. Hey guys and gals, do your job. Solve the problems. Laura check for frustrated. I can tell and you have every right to be. And I'll tell you, we have the fire victims in the Pacific Palisades on the show from time to time. And you just hear about all of the problems that they're dealing with. We spent this conversation talking about what happened with the fire report and the fire department and those sorts of things. But I know that the mayor pledged that she was going to move heaven and earth to get these people back in their homes and rebuilding the Palisades and all those things. And you talk to people who live there and none of that is happening. The frustration is just off the charts. You know, I can only imagine and think about this. If the city under normal circumstances is not working nearly as well as it could be should be, then what happens in a crisis? That's that's when, oh my gosh, that's when you really see what a mess things are. It's not operating well under normal circumstances. And then a crisis and a tragedy like those fires hits. So time to fix things folks time to solve problems. Well, I wish you were back in the controller's office and as a consolation prize, I would, I could take you back on the city council too, but things were a lot saner back then. And now, and by the way, I just comment on that, that change in term limits. What they did was they gave the city council more terms. They have three terms. They can serve 12 years for the three citywide positions, the mayor, the controller and the city attorney. They kept it at two terms. And in doing that, what they did is they reversed charter reform that had been under Mayor Reardon that looked to make a stronger, more accountable mayor. Because now the city council waves to low when the mayor comes in and they wave goodbye because they're there for three terms. And the mayor is in and out in two. The controller is in and out in two. And the city attorney is in and out in two. The three positions that take a look at the entire city and how it's doing serve less time than the city council. All right, we're going to have to leave it there. Former LA city controller Laura check. Thanks so much for stopping by. Thank you. Bye. 800 222 5222 is telephone number 1-800 222 5222. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny, don't like show with gmail.com. That's Johnny, don't like show at gmail.com. And Randy, what do you say we make a couple of listeners very happy? Well, let's do that right now. 790 K ABC welcomes Gypsy Kings featuring Nicholas Reyes at the Grove of Anaheim on August 6th. Tickets are on sale Friday at Ticketmaster.com. But right now, calling number nine at 1-888-795-222 gets a pair of tickets to the show. Tickets furnished by Needleander Concerts. Good luck. Dial it. And right now it's time to open up the California crime blotter. It's happened yet again. I see time for the California crime blotter. And Randy, this would involve a very, very, very frustrated local business owner. A owner of a jewelry store has had it with the city of LA and is shutting his doors after yet another robbery. And he says if he is going to reopen, it'll be an orange County. For more, here's Fox 11 in Los Angeles. That was 530 Woodland Hills Jewel Restore owner says he's ready to call. Got some funky intro music on a Saturday. Oh yeah, sounds like you're at a disco. That was 530 Woodland Hills Jewel Restore owner says he's ready to call it quits on LA after a thief breaks into his shop right through the roof. Good evening to you. I'm Susan here with Suna. The owners of the business say it's the last straw because this isn't the first time their store has been hit by thieves. Fox 11's Hayley Winslow, she joins us now. What are what the limit is for business owners? How many times do you have to get robbed before you say screw it? This city does not have my back. Well, it sounds like we're about to find out. Fox 11's Hayley Winslow, she joins us now here in studio after speaking with that store owner. Yeah, you won't believe his stories. This definitely isn't the first time not only at the store, but at his house as well. He has a boy. Talk about bad luck. Been broken into so many times. Thieves burglarized this business first six months ago. Officers arrested them. So he thinks that these are different thieves, but somebody who's very familiar with the store because they know exactly how to get in and where to look. And cameras definitely didn't slow them down. Take a good look. I mean, it's good footage for the news, but we don't see a lot of evidence that the security cams are doing anything. The license plate reading cameras, those are having some effect in everywhere but LA. At this face, it's time to go from LA. LA has changed. TJ Nezafati and his family are fed up and after 30 years, packing up their business and leaving town. We've been scared to go outside of the jeweler from the jeweler store to home. We're always scared. What if we get robbed on the way? What if somebody puts a gun in our head and says, go back to the store and open the safe fear? That's pretty traumatized. Yeah. Wouldn't you be fear that comes from experience speaking with us from home in Orange County after spending the weekend in the San Fernando Valley, visiting his parents and hearing their screams at 2 30 a.m. Saturday. Oh boy. They probably because they get robbed so many times thought, okay, what's the most annoying alarm sound possible? Maybe that will deter the thieves. It won't. Not even a little bit. My mom, what's going on? And she's like, call 911. And for a second, I thought me and my dad is having a heart attack, but she's like, no, no, no. The store is being robbed. There are people inside the store. They race to the family jewelry store in Woodland Hills, fine, golden, silver diamonds, precious stones and unique coins from the Middle East. The bad guys had already gotten away covering outside cameras and entering in through the roof. The person just hammered and came inside from the roof came down. But when you come down, you see a 18 foot drop. He knew if he if he jumps down, he's going to break something. So he crawled to the end of the store where it's in the second floor. We have two, two stories and he jumped down from there. So bold. The thief doesn't even wear gloves or hide his face from surveillance. Now, what's the point? This is when you know the crooks have zero fear of being caught and punished. He rummages through drawers and in less than 10 minutes escapes with $100,000 worth of precious jewels. You know, I'm starting to think Los Angeles specifically is for the criminals who are at the top of their game. You come to LA to make it big because that's where the rich people are. That's where the jewelry stores are. And you maybe have your way come up in the East Coast. You find your way to LA because this is where the best criminals are. It's like working your way through the miners before you get to play at Dodger Stadium. And you are the expert level criminals that are out there. This is the family's second burglary in the last six months, along with two home invasions followed home from the store. Oh boy. Yeah, I'd cry uncle too. We were held at gunpoint with hands behind our back. Nezafari says police in LA need more funding. I just have to beg. You got to stop going back to the footage of that alarm. That sound is killing me. It's not working on the crooks, but it is working on you. Yes. Nezafari says police in LA need more funding and resources before more businesses join them in opening up shop elsewhere. Well, we're not going to be getting that anytime soon. In fact, even with all the hiring that's being done, it's not keeping up with attrition. So we've gotten less police officers on LAPD than we've had in 30 years. And you just wait and see what happens if Nithyan Raman becomes the next mayor of Los Angeles, a person who has run on the platform of defunding the police. Police officers were nice. They came in and took everything, but I feel like it was just so routine for them. Nezafari says the officers just seemed kind of desensitized to the constant crime here and that forensic investigators did not even dust for fingerprints inside the store. But he wasn't wearing gloves. Why wouldn't you dust for prints? Because then you might catch him. And if you catch him, you know nothing's going to happen to him. Or on the burglary tools that were left behind on the roof. So he's either going to reopen the jewelry store in Orange County now or close the family business for good. So you say that there was another incident about six months ago. What changed between that burglary and today in terms of, you know, did he add any measures? He did actually. He strengthened his security. He's thought about getting an armed security guard, but obviously that's expensive and he says he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt. Is it more expensive than losing all your jewelry? Good question. Also, I'm not buying this part of it. He's not expensive and he says he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt. Yeah, if I got robbed all the time and I found out that the person robbing me got injured while doing it, I'd sleep a little better at night. And you know what he's trying to figure out now is is it even worth reopening the business? They don't have insurance so he has to. Of course. Because no one in California in that industry can buy insurance. They don't have insurance so he has to pay everything out of pocket, which has been hundreds of thousands of dollars because insurance companies just really won't ensure jewelry stores, not only in LA but all over the country because they're constantly getting broken into lately. And then just the extreme measures that they're taking, you know, that thief that went down the 18-foot hole then had to figure out how to get back up. But they weren't going to let anything stop them. This was a mission impossible style infiltration. So apparently they're professional criminals but they're still kind of remedial. But they weren't going to let anything stop them and the stories that we've heard from other jewelry stores getting robbed in the area, it's pretty remarkable what these thieves are willing to do to get these precious jewels. No, was the jewelry in like a glass case? Like why don't they lock up valuables? They only have so much room that they can put in the safe and they did actually make the safe safer after the last one. What does that even mean? I don't know. But how often do we do these where the safe gets stolen too? Usually that's what happens. Ask Karen Bass about her gun safe. But there's still some jewelry that they have to put in drawers, especially like the silver and you know the price of silver keeps going up so that makes it even more desirable. So you know there's only so much that they can do. They even have a steel front door that the burglar's busted through. Now you're going to need a steel roof. What more can they do? Do they need a moat with alligators? No, at this point you do exactly what he's saying. You move. There are plenty of people in Orange County who want to buy jewelry. Last time so it just doesn't seem like there's anything that's going to stop these thieves when they want something. Through the roof. That's how they got down. So there you go. Losing yet another small business in Los Angeles because of constant crime. And right now it's time to open up the California Crime Blotter. It's happened yet again. I see. Time for the California Crime Blotter. And Randy, this would involve the world of Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook Marketplace is supposed to be a little button on your Facebook app where you can buy and sell things with other Facebookers. But as we are well aware, most of the transactions that take place on Facebook Marketplace are scams. Uh-oh. And that's what happened to one Central Valley woman. For more, here is CBS 47 in the Fresno area. Third for Terry Stivers. It's just been a month back and forth between her bank and the alleged scammers as she tries to get her money back. She says she reached out to us to share her story and to warn others about how easily this could happen to you. I have tried to use Facebook Marketplace exactly once when I was trying to sell the rowing machine that was my COVID purchase. Because I never used it and my wife wouldn't stop making fun of me. And I put it up on Facebook Marketplace and every single response that I got was 100% some kind of scam where they wanted to pay me in crypto. Uh-oh. My hobby is gemstones. And I have a great collection. Terry Stivers has been collecting necklaces, pendants and rings for years. It's a real garnet. But recently she's been selling some of her collection online, including on Facebook Marketplace. I would have stuck to Etsy. You know, I have never bought or sold anything on Facebook Marketplace. And I'm tech illiterate. But even to my eye, that's just seemed like a bad idea. On January 10th, she says a woman reached out asking about a Topaz Sea Horse pendant she listed. I was like, oh, great, you know, I mean, a fourth item I sold in a month. The necklace was listed for $70 and Terry asked for cash. Terry wanted to do the exchange in person here at the CVS on Shields and West in Fresno. But the buyer quickly recommended Zell. And that's when the scam started. Oh, here we go. We're off to the races. Terry says it all started out normal. But the more they messaged, the deeper she got. Over Facebook, the woman told Terry she tried to pay her, but since she didn't have a business account, it wouldn't work. She told Terry to upgrade her account and she'd send her $500. And then Terry would send it back. And the message, this already sounds confusing. Why would you fool around with someone like this? It shouldn't be that complicated to sell a piece of jewelry. And we're talking about a $70 pendant. So you're going to deposit and then withdraw $500 to make $70. No alarm bells ring for this. And the message this scammer wrote, so can I trust you and have your word? Terry replied, yes. She sent it to me and then said it was confirmed, but I didn't look. I just believed it. And then that was my turn to send it back to her, which she sent me. And so this is like the digital version of a quick change. All right, let me give you the 20. Now, give me back the 20. I'll give you this 10. That's what's happening here. And so then I looked in my account and they had taken it out of my account. Terry says she wasn't concerned yet and the scammer convinced Terry to upgrade her account by calling the number listed on an email that was allegedly from Zell. Except it was a fake number. The people on the other line were connected to the scam and they were trying to get Terry to send even more money. How many people are in this operation to scam this woman out of her jewelry? Apparently it's quite profitable. This was customer service agent mentioned Bitcoin. That's when Terry realized this wasn't right. I was just going. See, that's the number one red flag. If none of that was already a red flag, when you're just trying to conduct a transaction that you wanted to do in person, once they mentioned crypto, you know this is a scam. Every scam text message that I ever get, every spam text message that I ever get always involves crypto. I was just going by the steps that he was telling me. But when I got to that one part where I wasn't doing what he wanted me to do, he got upset with me. It was then when Terry knew she was a victim of a scam. I just felt like my privacy was being invaded. Joe Ducey with the Better Business Bureau says this kind of scam is unfortunately common. Anytime you're doing peer to peer sales online and there's cash involved, you're taking a risk. Ducey says fraudulent emails like the one Terry thought was from Zell are also common. Ducey says don't call the numbers listed there and go online to the legitimate website. In this case, Zell or Chase, which is the bank Terry uses and then contact the customer service line. Scammers use these pressure tactics and quickly before the victims have a chance to do any research. He says we need you to make this transaction now. And it works. He says meet sellers in percent at safe meetup spots. You're supposed to be making money. You're not supposed to. In fact, did you know that in certain cities and counties, the police or sheriff's department have what's called a safe parking space where if you're doing an online transaction and you're selling something to somebody and you're afraid, you can go park in the sheriff's station. I wonder how often people get robbed at the sheriff's station. You're supposed to be making money. You're not supposed to be giving money to a buyer. Terry says she contacted Chase multiple times. She says she's on a fixed income and losing $500 hurts a lot. I thought it's up to my bank and I'm hoping that they're going to be understanding as if it happened to them and how they would feel. I don't think you're getting that $500 back. No, she's going to have to move a lot of pendants to make up for that. As spokesperson from Chase sent us this statement saying, we are sorry that Ms. Stivers was a victim of a scam. As always, we urge customers not to use Zell for selling or buying items on social media marketplaces. I have chased and I've noticed because I use Zell to pay my cell phone bill because it's still on my parents, whatever. Every single time you open it now, it's like, do you know this person that you want to send money to? Are you sure? I guess this woman really wanted to sell. As always, we urge customers not to use Zell for selling or buying items on social media marketplaces. Only use Zell with others you know and trust. So I tried calling the numbers that were listed in the scam. There were a few of them, none of them connected. I also did reach out to the alleged scammer on Facebook. They didn't answer my message there. You know, I never understand about this whole world. And there's so many scams like this that happen all the time. Is there nothing that the telecom companies can do when you're using all these phone numbers to commit crimes? You have to get a phone number. You have to, you know, you have to have a way to call. Well, what's weird is, whenever I'm trying to perform a legal transaction, if I want to buy something that's out of the state that I live in, or I want to buy something that is unusually expensive, they always put a hold on it. They always say, OK, you need to text one that it's not a scam, or two, if this is not you. And it always becomes a huge pain in the keyster because you're just trying to get out of Costco and, of course, every time you go to Costco, you're going to spend a zillion dollars because that's what we do at Costco. But it slows down the entire process because you have to convince your credit card company that it's not fraud. Yet, when you have instances like this where it's clearly fraud, it doesn't catch any of their AI. Their computer system doesn't recognize it as fraud. Every time I go to Costco, they think it's fraud. But for something like this, they never pick up on it. How many times have they put a hold on your account while you're on the casino floor on a cruise ship? Well, they don't do that there because if you're doing it on a cruise ship, it just shows up as you spending money in Royal Caribbean. It doesn't tell the credit card company that you're in the casino. I also did reach out to the alleged scammer on Facebook. They didn't insert my message there either. So we were told that they were reviewing the profile by Terry from the scammer, but the scammer's profile is still up there the last time I checked. Of course, because why should the social media companies be responsible for this either? No. And who knows? Maybe the person isn't even in California. Oh, they're in Bangladesh. Who are we kidding? That's what I was thinking. All right, we've got one more hour coming up on the John Phillips show. Don't you go anywhere.