In today's video, we're seeing if my $1,000 TCG player investment was worth it. What's up, guys? We're back with another TCG player $1,000 check-in, and this is not only the one-year anniversary or the one-year check-in, I could say. This is the two-year, so we've both invested at the beginning of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 $1,000. So, I invested $1,000 in a TCG player, not just in 2022, but I also did the beginning of this $1,000 more. So, we have $2,000 total into TCG player at the moment, and we're going to check-in on both the two-year check-in for 2022, as well as the one-year for 2023. But before we do that, we do have a giveaway. I'll be giving away a $50 TCG player gift card. All you have to do, like the video, be subscribed to our notifications. Let me know down below. What was our best year in terms of investment, and what should we invest in for 2023? And how should I do it? Last year, I had Twitch chat pick the $1,000. The year before that, I totally picked it on my own. Should I go back to doing it by myself? Should I let Twitch chat do it again? Or should we do a whole separate one? Maybe we can even do a YouTube stream or some other idea that I haven't thought of. Without further ado, let's get to the check-in. We're at year two here from the $1,000 investment back in 2022. If you want to go watch the quarterly check-in videos that we've done since then or the very first video, go check out the playlist on the screen. I've put in all the videos we've done so far, so you can see, like, what my reaction was back then to seeing them.  Hopefully, some crazy spikes today because we need it. All right, so something that happened in the first year was he had condition issues, and that sort of cost us a lot of money. But the check-in at one year last year, we had lost 16% of our money. The most recent check-in, we had lost almost 45% of our money. So we got absolutely killed recently. I'm hoping there's some sort of comeback, but based on the reprints they've done recently, I'm not feeling too good about it. So let's start off with the Blue Eyes My Dragon Ultimate Rare. So let's see if we can improve any way from how it's been going because it has not been very good. Let's say that. So the Ultimate Rare Blue Eyes, we have both a Nearmint Unlimited, which is now $1.72 for the cheapest. Unfortunately, this guy Prodigy Games is here.  So $1.79 is definitely less than what we paid. Okay, so it's the second one because it's not first yet. So $1.79, we have lost $6.15 because it was originally $7.94. That's 77%. Not a great start to our thing. Let's check on the first debt. Unfortunately, it's lightly played because I, you know, this year I kind of was just like, whatever, we're going to do the condition I bought either way. But $4.66, we spent $25.99. So yeah, that is not exactly great. 82%, 77%. Unfortunately, this is only about 33-ish dollars of our actual investment. So not a huge percentage in that way, but we have lost basically all of it already on the Ultimate Rare Blue Eyes, which it's surprising. I wonder what the near mint would be. Let's say I had actually gotten a near mint card when I ordered it. It would be $10. So either way, it'd still be really bad. It'd be better obviously, but still that's a pretty big loss from $25.99. But I will remind you guys, the 2022 investment was right, I mean, it was still in the tail end of the boom for Yu-Gi-Oh! card. So everything was insane. It was super expensive. So it's going to be pretty hard to ever make our money on most of this stuff. 2023 is where we have a little bit of hope because like it was sort of a down, more down market and it kind of is now still. So if it ever gets, you know, exciting again, or like big and hype, I won't say exciting because it's still exciting, but everyone's excited about it at the same time, I should say. Then maybe those could go up at some point. Okay, Silent Swordsman at level five. We have a lot to check in right now. So let's just get right to it. This was another one that we got a lower condition than we thought. I feel like this is up 56.33 from last time at least. So if we look at 56.33, overall we're down 35%. But last time it was at $35. So this one did actually go up. And if you look here, there's only one list or two listed from the same guy at 56. Lightly Played goes up to 75 after that. So that one's actually trending upward. If you look at near mint, I bet we would actually be doing about 114.68. That's usually the case with this one. We actually invested 109. So we'd actually be up if we got the near mint copy when we bought it at that price, which is pretty nice. And as you can see as we went along, it's kind of been down the whole time. But it's nice to see it's actually going back up. The oldies are kind of nice, especially if you actually get near mint. Really hard to get near mint oldies. So it's unlikely that happens. Let's go to the next one. One of our worst investments we've had on this next one. All right. Next one, the Astral Leviathan. Oh my goodness. Even recently, like you can look at this, a look at this nightmare. This is where we two years ago was when we invested. So it was already down a ton. 25.95 for the Astral Leviathan. You know how hard it is to pull this card? That is an insanely low price. If I was investing right now, I feel like that'd be okay. 25.95. But let's just check it how much it is down. $84.76. Look at this. 109.95 would be invested in that one. Yeah. Not great. I'm just going to move past that one because it's sad. Lighting Storm is going to be the same way though, because it's seven prints in rarity collection. Not going to help much. Let's see Lighting Storm Starlight. All right. Here we go. Check this out. Oh, past year we are way down. Oh, 96.88. Oh, that's going to hurt 96.88. We are down 67% from our $298. So yeah, Starlight reprints. Yeah, sure. They're awesome. I love them. That hurt. We lost over $200 buying that card and holding onto it. So that's pretty rough. Unfortunate for us. We are down a, we have 185 total dollars right now. We're halfway through and down 81% overall. This might be our worst one yet. Solid morning ultimate rare up next. It is only unlimited though. So unlimited. It is near meant though, which is good. So near meant for, it's German 4049. That's down too. That's definitely down. So that one's down 41% from 69. I mean, these are, these are down a lot just from last time. Look, this one was $123. That's only down a dollar, but only one thing's been up from even last time. So this is a really, really rough start. Okay. A dust of gold. I know it's not going to be going anywhere. I know that. All right, brothers and legend. Whoa. Check this out. Signs of life. Oh my goodness. Signs of life. A dollar 99. Is this, is this it? Is this where we, we start making a move 146. We made 50, 53 cents since the last time. 53 cents, but we're still not 84% from the original investment of 1299. But hey, glass half full there. There's something, there's something to be happy about. All right, Strato Salty. I think your only chance to at least be close, right? Maybe. Does this get a rarity collection print? Did it get a rarity collection? I can't remember. Maybe it did. But either way, it's down to 1248, which honestly is still a respectable price for a card. Very respectable. So even though we invested 150, we're only down 25%, which is our best one by far, besides the, it's both oldies by the way. Keep that in mind. Ultimate rare, as they just do really well.  They still lose 25%, which is really a lot. But I'll take it. I'll take it at this point. Red-Eyes, Thor, Metal Dragon, Ghost. How was the ghost going to do? I have hope for this one. It did have a lot of prints in, you know, rarity collection, but maybe just because it didn't have a ghost print. Okay. Rarity collection is probably going to hurt it. You can't even find it because of rarity collectors. All these prints now, son of a nutcracker. All right, there it is. You're going to type the whole freaking name in. Okay. Nearmint first edition. Yeah, that's definitely down 74.97. Oh my gosh. Rarity collection. Rarity collection. Look, I love you and all, but you are not helping our $1,000 investment. Okay. This is bad. Warrior's Triumph has honestly been one of our most solid investments. They're not going to reprint this. So maybe this one can stay steady. Come on, please, please. No, it's down. Oh, that's $15 shipping. Okay. We got to include that. So $94.99. If it's like ridiculous shipping, we'll include that. Okay. That means we are actually only down 4.7%. Yes. We are not up on a single card from 2022. We have literally lost 50% of our money. 40, 48.98. So 49%, $490 have been lost. All I did was spend it and not do anything, and we've lost $500. So wow, that is a really, really rough 2022. I'm hoping 2023 will be a little better. Let's get right to it. We do have a lot more to check out. So year two, here we go. So 2021 or 2022, I should say horrible, horrible, not good, but I'm hoping that these will be better. So Sky Striker A's rose. Let's see how that one's doing. All right. 22 cents. That is not great. Okay. So we're looking at 66 cents. We're down 80% on a card we spent like a $1.20 on. All right. Dark Arm Dragon Ghost Strip. I have more hope for you. Dark Arm Dragon, please, please do something for us. Dark Arm Dragon Ghost from the path. Oh, it's down. Oh, well, it's a little rebound. Okay. Near Mint 30.99. That's definitely less than we paid. 30.99. Let's see, compared to last time, we are down a little bit still. Colossal Fighter Ulti. I'm just going to go a little bit quickly through these because we do have a lot here, but Colossal Fighter, or unless there's something like really big we need to pay attention to, Colossal Fighter was really good for us last time. So I'm hoping that can stay the same. Yeah, it's held up pretty good. Near Mint, 114.86. That's really good. 114.86. Wow. We're up 31%. Okay. Last time, we were up 33%. So it's about steady where it was. That's a good one. I honestly should sell these. I did a little bit of selling, which we sold some of these here, the Trap Tricks here, which, okay, we are up 81%, 30% stuff like that. And we actually profited $118 on those, and I probably should do that for some of these that are up, such as the Colossal Fighter. And that's, I mean, 31% is really solid. Ally of Justice Catastor. Another one, thanks to Edison, that's been doing really well. I'm hoping that continues right here. Catastor Ulti. Where's the Ulti? All right. So, oh, this actually hit a dip for a while, and kind of rebounded a little bit, which is good for us. 98.73. Okay, 98, which looks like we missed on our check-in. So last time it was kind of up there. It went like it threw a dip for three months and came back. So we actually ended up making a little bit more, 41%. Wow. We only spent 70 bucks on this. So honestly, a really, really good investment on that one so far. Should probably move both of these. The thing is with this one, it's only really a $28 profit, which with the shipping costs and everything, like really in reality with taxes, shipping, everything, we're not making that much if I actually moved it. So it probably wouldn't even be worth it to move that one. Colossal Fighter, on the other hand, is up about, what is that? Only 26, so really about the same difference. So that's kind of the thing about, we're profiting on these cards, but it's such a low like margin, even if the percentage is higher. The shipping cost of like five bucks and then like the tax we originally spent on TCG player really adds up to making it such a small profit. It's not really worth the hassle of selling it. Okay, Ash Blossom and Joy Springs, this was the Mega 10 version. So Ash Blossom, will you be up in price for us? 10 of the Pharaoh gods. Oh boy, yeah, all that rarity collection. Yeah, rarity collection is just annihilating the market, which surprise, surprise, printing 50 copies of good cards does not work out so well usually. Okay, so I think there was, I need to do times six, right? There was six of them. So that puts us at down 41% to match our 41% right there. That's a shame. Had I known that they were going to do a rarity collection, I wouldn't have invested in so many staples such as pot of desires, which is an ulti, but guess what? We got another ulti. It's a little bit different though. Let's see. I don't know, pot of desires. Can you hold up? Was this one actually, the pot of desires I got was definitely not in a near mint condition, but we're going to check up for near mint. Look at that rarity collection, just decimation of this card. 36.99, that's definitely going to hurt. So we are hurting from rarity collection. 33% killed us. Okay, Trap Tricks, we sold all those. So we don't need to, I guess we can just put in the amount, right? That's why I think that's came from there. So Trap Tricks we sold, we ended up, we locked that in at 68%. That's why I should have moved some of these cards potentially earlier. But I mean, there's no way to predict what they're going to do with rarity collection, but do have to keep in mind if it's a high end staple, they're going to reprint it into the ground. Eventually it's going to be worth nothing. So that's something that's probably going to happen. I should have predicted. So Tomb Black Luster Soldier. This one actually, I feel like, did okay last time. Let's see if the Crystal Revenge version is doing better. Oh, 880, because that's verified. 880 feels like that's up, actually. Yeah, 880. Look at that. Up a little bit until it gets its next reprint, it's up 12%. That's good to see. It's definitely going to get another reprint. It only has two right now. Instant Fusion Ultimate Rare. These I was forced to do. I had no choice. It was a Twitch Chat decision. If you guys remember, you guys didn't watch when Twitch Chat made me do the decisions. It was pretty funny. And the one with the Fiverr draw. You got to go check out that video as well. So they made me do this, even though I knew this was a terrible investment. And yeah, it obviously didn't work. I went up 34%, which was actually up from last time when we were down 41%. So I guess it's trending in the right direction. Maybe in a little long term, this will be a decent one, which would be great. Night Beam. These actually were kind of hot last time. Night Beams, they were good and oldies. They were really good. So let's see if they keep that up. So first Ed's near meant 1229. That feels consistent. I think we bought 10 of these, right? Yeah, 10 Night Beams. So 1229. That is going to work out as 16% increase. This year is feeling a lot better already. I mean, that lock in for Trap Tricks has honestly been a game changer. It's made this investment so much better. Like we've actually been holding up like above 1000. Last time it went down a little bit. This time probably going to be down again. Thanks for ready to collection. But some of the stuff is actually doing really well. Like let's check on the Baxia. I'm much happier with our choices. So Twitch Chat, like being there actually did really well. Like I was shocked at how well Twitch Chat has done. They had some good suggestions, though they made me do a meme one, which of course is Twitch. What do you expect? Okay, this was first Ed. Just wanted to make sure that was a first Ed copy. So first edition, Ulty 2398. I feel like that's down a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, a little bit, but not too bad. So we're down 21%. Let's go to Yazzy. Very similar card to Yazzy. I believe these are both Ulty first. Will Yazzy be okay? That one's down as well. I think it had a, didn't have a recent collector where something 1484 or they could have maybe even been a rarity. I'm not totally sure. So that, that was pretty rough on our investment. That's, they weren't huge cards. They're pretty cool. Ulty's rescue rabbit secret first. So near meant first for rescue rabbit is $15. I feel like we definitely spent more than that. Yeah. Down 30. So we are seeing a little bit kind of falling back into not a great trend here. Overall, only minus 12%. It's not terrible. Rising energy. Let's check on this one. This one was one we spent quite a bit on. There was like a, I feel like a refund offered on one of them. Can't remember exactly, but something like that happened. We had a 630. Okay. So what do we spend on these? How many did we buy? 2373? About two. So yeah, we're definitely down on those. All right. 630 times two puts us down 47%. That's pretty rough fiber jar. We just got to refund for that one. So that one's, you know, the star. You guys remember, if you don't remember, go back and watch the video of the mail day gone wrong. Go see when we got the cards. It's right here. It's in the playlist as well. It was, it was insane. I'll have the playlist linked at the end of the video as well. All right. Droll and Lockbird were kind of insane. And I probably need to sell these. These actually went off last time. They're just rares out of tactical masters because we spent like less than a dollar here. It looks, oh man, they're going to be down again, but they were all, let's see. They were like way, way cheap. They were like less than a dollar and they were up at like $5 for a while. Let's see. They're at 332, which is still not bad. And we bought, I think, a play set. Yeah. It looks like one play set. So we are at 332 times three. So it puts us up 600. So last time we were up 918% because we spent $1.40 on three of them total. This was three. That was $1.40. So yeah, we kind of went crazy on these. They were like 40 cents or 49 cents or whatever it was. And now they're worth like 10 bucks for a play set, which is, I mean, that felt like a good one at a time because that had just released.  Everyone had them and it's aged pretty well. No reprints since then. So honestly, pretty good.  All right. Gate guarding. This was the ultimate meme purchase. We bought gate guardians at $5 a piece. Absolutely terrible buy. I mean, terrible. Secret rears. They're now down at 76 cents. So that is going to really hurt. I think we bought 20 something of them, 23. I think I might reserve the right to not allow there to, if we do another one where viewers can choose, if they want a meme purchase, I can veto it. Like if it's something this stupid, like gate guardian, like we spent $101 on gate guardian, now we're $17 for 24 cards. We're not, I'm not allowing that. It's not happening next year because that's really killing our overall vibe. Okay. Battle on the battle fader, which has been really good. I haven't been able to move it though. So the price is a little bit fraudulent. Let's see. Nurement unlimited. It's down to 39. So this is a little bit more reasonable. Where even is my price? I added up at like the lowest price and it just keeps going down. So 39.98. We're kind of back to what I spent on it. It was crazy for a while. It's up 33%. It was at $125 at one point, which it wasn't selling for that, but that was the lowest price it got bought out. So still up 33 bucks. It's not bad. It looks like we're actually going to lose money here for the first time all year. But see them off.  So these are, these are going to add back some, some value, but not a ton. Really.  We got unlimited 37 cents. We bought 14 of these. So 37 cents times 14. That puts us down 41%. We're actually down for the first time this year, 4%.  Thank you rarity collection. We went from up 18, up five to down four. And it was basically all rarity collection. We killed our ash blossoms, our pot of desires. For some reason, I think these two were in rarity collection, but I couldn't be wrong about that. If they were, then it makes perfect sense why they're down.  You know, it's still up, but it's probably more reasonable about what it is right now. That gets a reprint. It's going to hurt it even more. So overall, though, we have not lost a ton of money one year in, let's compare this year where we're down 4% after a year to last year. How much were we down after one year? And should we expect it to go back up? Or is it going to continue to tank like it did in year one? So if we check right here, a year later, I had lost 16%. So we're doing better than last year after a year, but still it was down a little bit, but it was doing a lot better than it is currently like 16% compared to 49%. So are we going to see like these cards being down 4% going to down 20% or 25%? The good thing is, and really the main reason we're doing so well is I locked in this $292 sale, which was a 68% increase in our trap tricks, traphold nightmares. And really, I should have done that on a few other cards as we went. And maybe next year I'll be more intentional about doing that. And that'll help us actually profit in the future. Let me know what you think about this video. Do you want to see a year three and what do you want to see different if we do the year three? Because of course I'm leaning toward doing it because it's one of the most fun series we have on the channel. But I do want to change it up a little bit. I do want to have some way to make it even more fun, like maybe be more intentional about selling stuff, make content out of that, like buying and selling the cards, stuff like that. Maybe we can even buy stuff throughout the year to continue into our investment. Like if I sell something at a profit, maybe spend that money immediately on another investment. So we can have more and more cards. That could be really fun. So if you do enjoy this video, don't forget to subscribe to the channel because we're going to have more content just like this. Shout out to Tom Foshow, Daxter, Puffins of Doom, Renesto Dina, America Doidster, Leo Gwine, 62, Brad KK Beatz, Anonitaisho, Ian Musa, Junior Marding, Robert F. Thomas McLean, Changolang, and Joey Castle. Thank you guys for supporting the channel. I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.


Welcome back and so the breakfast and plus TV Africa this time around will be focusing on Nigeria's economy. Now the nation's public debt is set to exceed 50 trillion narrators yet representing a 29.8% increase above the 39.56 trillion narrow at the end of 2021. Now according to the debt management office DMO, the latest data that is, the national public debt rose by 20% year on year till 39.56 trillion narrate in 2021 from 32.9 trillion narrate in 2020. Now the 20% rise in the total public debt was driven by a 25% increase in external debt and 17.3% increase in domestic debt while total external debt rose to 15.86 trillion narrate last year from 12.71 trillion narrate in 2020 domestic debt rose to 23.7 trillion narrate in 2021 from 20.21 trillion narrate the preceding year. Now further analysis showed that most of the increase in the public debt in 2021 was occasioned by the federal government's borrowing activities. Consequently the federal government's total debt rose by 22.8% or 6.51 trillion narrate to 33.12 trillion narrate. Now economists Mokhtar Mohamed joins us now on this discourse. Good morning to you Mokhtar, thanks for joining us on the breakfast as we look at these issues bordering our economy. Good morning. All right so let's talk about Nigeria's public debt. It's as though we are sounding like broken records if I may say because over time we know what the issues are you know we keep on borrowing we keep on mounting a whole lot of debt and it's as though we are mortgaging our children's future it's as though that as though we we just don't care what happens in the future is just to sort out the issue of now why can't we move beyond this huge debts? I think it's because the the government is not releasing things out of the we are doing same thing all over again and we expected different results. I think that is a major problem debt in itself borrowing in itself is not an issue but you have to borrow knowing fully whether you'll be able to pay the challenge with Nigerian debt is that the government keep reminding us that our debt to the GDP is what is very normal but remember GDP does not pay your debt it's your your revenue that you can pay your debt it's like a man working in a good company and saying that oh the company and working is very good and then you are collecting debt and yet your salary from that company cannot pay your debt so it's all about being strategic and knowing what really we are borrowing for this administration came in with a good borrowing plan but along the line I think they missed it. So what exactly we're doing wrong at this point in time because if you look at the statistics and the reports we're looking at heating 50 trillion nair. No, 53 trillion nair is not what Nigerians cannot pay for but what it means is that we will not even have money for capital projects and knowing that our budget about 80 percent of our budget is for recurrent expenditure. So what we should be looking at is that the government that knows what to do wants to begin to say I can reduce the cost of governance and then instead of borrowing for Abuja Kaduna, the Kano Kaduna, Lagos, Ibadon, Onitsha, Enugu. What we should be doing is we should be using those projects as equity so that we can do the PPP and then with that PPP then the government will not be spending so much. All right Moqta, over time we've talked about you know looking inward and you know generating more internal revenue from the country but over time the issue has always been that we are just one side and we're always focusing on you know oil you know we're just a mono economy. Yeah because we are not strategic in our thinking and the only time we talk about diversifying the economy is when the price of oil is down. Once the price of oil goes up, we forget about diversification, we go back to our normal ways of doing things especially when the revenue from oil is coming in. Unfortunately this time we are having it because the revenue of oil has actually gone up I mean in terms of the price of food has gone up and because our refineries are not working a lot of things are not being done well so we are having the challenge of trying to meet up especially what we gain in the high price of food oil we lost it in the area of subsidy payment. So with that we are not thinking inward. Now what do you think inward? You think about revenue generation. Now how do you think about revenue generation? You think of two ways here either increase taxes or you use taxes as a means to attract investment and those investments will increase jobs and those jobs and those companies will not pay their taxes. Unfortunately we see no looking at that what we think about our own tax is how to get tax for revenue. We are not thinking about how can you start to grow our informal sector which will be a cash cow in the area of revenue. So until we do that we keep on going to the simplest ways which is I mean the simple form of borrowing which is going to borrow from international vendors but they are always ready to give it to us because they know that our assets even in terms of our food oil is able to pay those debts they don't think about how we wish to do other projects in the nation. So I think the government should begin to think out of the box then something like I said instead of you just looking at those those projects and say oh the government want to do it with borrow money why can't you do the public private partnership like it's done all over the world whereby the government now use those projects as an equity to attract the public the private companies to come and buy into that and maybe and finish that project and you give them to the five years to recoup their money that they are spending on those projects and after they recoup their money then you take it from there and then your credit job you remember that this company will see pay tax from the revenue they are generating so it's a win-win situation for both for you and especially for the government so you have more money to put into social investment like education and healthcare. All right Mooksa we'll come back we'll take a quick break now we'll come back and talk about the finance act of 2021 how we can actually explore that to deepen the economy it's still the breakfast and plus tv africa we'll take a quick break and return with more to join us again. All right welcome back it's still the breakfast and plus tv africa and we'll still have Mookta Muhammad an economist joining us as we look at the issues in our economy vis-a-vis the rising death profile of the nation's economy. Mookta just before we went on that break we're talking about you know tax legislation and how we can actually explore all of that you know to show up all of this and you know deficits that we have. What would I thought that would finance act of 2021 would have actually explored that to the extent that we can be getting more or driving more revenue from or driving more people into the tax net? Well getting more people into the tax net is not it's not orchestra science but again when it comes to tax payments you must have the structure so what are those structure that used to capture those in the tax bracket? It's not just by going to an office and feel that this office have a very good building that is where they're making a lot of money so you cannot give them taxes because the some of them just happen the government just come and clamp down on the company and just give them a strenuous that is how much you are going. They lack structures to do that so if we really want to do tax payment then we need to begin to look at building the structures and so that is one then secondly you need to build structures for the informal sector because the situation whereby the informal structure provides practically everything for themselves you don't think such people will not come voluntarily to begin to pay tax so but when you build infrastructure for them you attract them to say this is what we have done for you. So by buying and vowing this you should be able to pay your tax so that we can do more that is how so that is how we can attract the informal sector. The informal sector in any economy at the largest tax bracket we call it talk about the informal sector like in Nigeria you'll be talking about the woman that is selling something on the one that have the parking saloon the man that the woman that have a headdress in saloon even the man that rides on or cut down the route that you took. There's a lot of the Kekena pep the downfall driver these are the informal sectors so how do you attract them you create revenue and then you build structures so by that you'll be able to they will be able to say okay we need to pay our tax so that government can do more for us but whereby the informal sector provides properly everything for himself and you're not telling him to come and pay tax it's already the difficult thing to do. All right Mohtak Mohamed let's also look at the fact that if you look at the Buhari administration I mean if you look at this government it feels like we have tripled you know the debt profile compared to the previous government and not to make any kind of blames but on on the long run you have the government running this budget deficit I mean we've been running on this for a very very long time even when you have the oil prices on a high I mean we are very dependent on oil prices the economy is a mono economy so we're highly dependent on the exchange from you know oil proceeds however you want to put it so even when the prices are high we're still running the budget deficit and that's what the government has been doing over time consecutively why is this the situation? Because we are running a deficit number one because our revenue is low now that you're talking about the price of oil going up remember like what I said we are now paying more on more on subsidies because when the price of food goes up that means the price of the cost of subsidy goes up initially the government was budgeting about three trillion but at the last time the president have sent a budget of four trillion to the national assembly so that's an increase of about one trillion naira so that is a major challenge so the rising price the rising cost I mean the rising price of goods is not good news to Nigeria because we are seeing a nation that depends upon almost 80 to 90 percent of a refined petroleum product outside the issue of this country so that is basically all the challenges Alright Mukta there's also the talk of this issue of fuel subsidy which has actually resulted in the government of a budget request of 2.56 trillion naira to fund fuel subsidy from July to December of this year how do we get past this? The only way we can get past this is if the refineries are working one then secondly if the government also will take a call on their revenue now how do I say they take a call on their revenue remember that when these products land the Nigerian port as well as enter the Nigerian water there's a lot of charges that have been charged by government agencies NEMASA, NPE, the revenue commission a lot of charges come in are government ready to take a bite on their revenue that will bring down the cost of the petroleum product that could indirectly then you will remove subsidy then the cost of refined product will not be too high it was the comrade governor then that that man said that immediately the product hit the Nigerian water the cost goes up by almost 30 percent so government need to look at that to take a chunk to not just pushing everything to the people so by the time we do that you will be able to remove subsidy on petroleum product without the astronomical rising price in the price of refined petroleum products but if you do it as it is now with the cost of higher price this high will the government not ready to take a bite on their revenue you could see the price of good oil I mean the price of refined petroleum products going as high as 400 and that will probably already be published in Nigeria so basically that's the challenge so would you also agree talking about the challenge now and you have a lot of experts I mean your colleagues who were saying that Nigeria is faced with a double challenge of low revenue revenue base and also a huge infrastructural gap is that really a current reality that is the current reality but like I said government is not thinking like what all governments are all government all over the world are thinking now most government all over the world are not thinking about PPP remember the america infrastructure that was that was just passed by the current president by Joe Biden it's all about PPP no government is ready to put all his revenue into infrastructure what did you try to partner with the private sector we have seen that happen in their papa route up to up to the the the the house to a battle yeah I mean not a battle to the two gates in Lagos it's being done by a company so we see the second Niger beach also being undoed by Nigerian southern westbound and then the government partner in it so so what you do is use the PPP so what happened the PPP is that the private sector builds those infrastructures for you and manage it for a number of years and to recoup their money that they spend in there the if the private sector is not going to manage it for a number of years then you give them tax brackets for numbers of years for them to recoup what they have spent on infrastructure we see that also going to happen in the in in the multilambular main international airport that was recently commissioned by the president that was a PPP project so you need to begin to look at PPP especially when you don't have enough to carry out this project because of your revenues short for but okay just just before you know Justin comes in a typical example I mean we won't see how effective the PPP system is because we have states or maybe a state in Nigeria that has been very strong on the PPP I mean I would talk about the cross-evalued state government signing the PPP you know being part of the PPP arrangement and if you look at the state right now there's really nothing to write them about so how effective is the PPP arrangement do we also the PPP arrangement that cross-evalued state goes into was not implemented by the incoming administrations that was what happened remember the PPP arrangement you're talking about I'm sure you're talking about the TINAPA no beyond the TINAPA I mean if you probably get all of that signing an agreement that you would have some PPP arrangement over time you hear the government saying we're partnering but at the end of the day there's almost nothing to show for because they are they are not doing it sincerely look we have seen the PPP now work did you see it work we see it work in the NAPAPA routes up from from NAPAPA as far as Bojidubega we have seen that work because government have decided to be sincere in that we see the PPP also work in the second Niger bridge it's been somewhere in the Nigerian sovereign wealth fund with the government bringing some part of the funding I just mentioned the Mutala Muhammad International Airport that was just commissioned now the terminal that was just commissioned now that was the PPP arrangement okay remember Mutala Muhammad II MMM II the local that's the PPP arrangement and it's still working so what happens if the PPP arrangement does not meet you know sincerity of the uh the elites the ruling class let me tell you why it doesn't mean because every ruling record every new administration wants to have a chunk of cake because of corruption because government is supposed to be a continuous process but when they come in there they get to put a lot of demands on the PPP that is the background of why you see some of this thing does not do not do not succeed go and confirm it's corruption that's why you have no reason not to succeed an agreement have been put in place the private sector have committed their resources to it the only PPP that the federal government has entered that did not succeed remember it was a legacy bad on expressway and like you said it was given to an elite that was not even an engineer but when the government said that it was not going to suck it they took it from him and they took it themselves and they have been doing it now and now what are they going to do in the road they're going to tow that route so it all depends on integrity and sincerity on the part of both parties but the PPP and the government especially the government because if i'm a PPP person i'm not coming there for charity i'm using my company money to develop the project i want to make profit that is capitalism all right as we just wrap up all of this now it's not just about the federal government that is involved in this you know debt profiling and everything let's look at let's look closely at the state governments for instance and because they also do their own programs they also do their own project and every other thing you know and most of the state have blessed with a whole lot of resources that they could explore to you know build your own state why are they not looking in that direction okay number one when you talk about resources remember that no state government own any resources in this country that is one of the issues that we have government because of the constitution so that is a constitutional problem sometimes you will not blame the state government the only time you need to look at the state government is how much of infrastructure have they been able to do in your state to begin to tax their tax business is there so most of the government are not doing anything and so they are not ready to put the body more on the people and some of them also speak government as a social investment they don't think government as what you use to generate revenue how many states can really stand on the side if they don't go to the federation if i mean we're just released of recent that almost 24 states did not attract a single foreign direct investment because there's no there's no specific project or they are not even thinking on how to bring in projects they're always depending on the federation accounts a state like Lagos one Lagos is thriving is because of the private companies that are most located in Lagos so they were able to generate internet generated revenue even if you have to question sometimes the way they go about it so states that can begin to do that should begin to provide look at Lagos Lagos is trying to improve security and even partner with the private sector to improve security they were trying to build infrastructures for the business is to grow look at power it's not that it's not like Lagos cannot provide their own independence power plant but the Confucian does not support it so sometimes when it comes to revenue from the side of the government it's not just because the government are not thinking about the boss but because there's a constitutional issue all right thank you so much and Mokhtar Mohammed for all of the thoughts that you have shared with us and how we can improve on what we have and not mortgage the nation and our children's future as regards at the rise in that profile would you appreciate your time Mokhtar? my pleasure thank you all right it is still the breakfast on plus tea Africa will take yet another break and this time around when we retail we'll be looking at the 35 percent affirmative action for women in a moment to join us again


Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragnet.  You're assigned a burglary detail. For the past several weeks, a gang has been breaking into neighborhood stores. Routine investigation fails to turn up any kind of a lead. Your job, find one. Drama of an actual crime. For the next 30 minutes in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step on the side of the law through an actual case transcribed from official police violence. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force in action. Tuesday, March 20th, it was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out a burglary detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Bernard. My name's Friday. We're on our way out from the office, and it was 947 AM when we got to the third floor of the Bell Arms Hotel, room 314. Sure dark. I'm going to try it again. Yeah. Sounds like somebody's moving around. You're Jedenagle? Yeah, why? Police officers would like to talk to you. I ain't done nothing wrong. There's no reason to rouse me. You want to open the door? All right. Come on in. I just got up. Yeah, you alone? Yeah, there's nobody else. Frank, yeah. That's the bathroom. I told you that there wasn't anybody else here. Well, you don't mind if we look around, do you? I do, too, mind.  They're going to ruin my reputation. People are building good things for your friends. Well, now I'll tell you, we won't tell them if you don't. What do you want, anyway? We got a report that you were down on East Fifth last night. Is that right? Well, I don't know. All last night's kind of foggy. I don't remember where I was, exactly. Do you remember being downtown? I told you I didn't. Why? What are you trying to lay off on me now? Place is clean, Joe. Well, I told you it was. Now you want to fill me in on what this is all about. All right. We'd like to know what you were doing downtown last night. Well, I know. I had it rough last night. Anybody else along with you? No, not that I remember. Remember being near the Palace liquor store? No, not right off. I might have checked in, though. I threw a lot of business there away. Well, the question is, is there something wrong? We'd like to have you tell us. Well, I'd like to help out, but there ain't nothing I can do. We got a field interrogation report that you were in the area. Police cars stopped to chuck you down. Is that right? Ain't nothing new. I'm always getting stopped. You ever been arrested? A couple of times. What charge? Go. At all? Yes. Never stood anything heavy, even drunk. Ever do any big time? No. A couple of months at the gas station.  Didn't hold on, did it? Well, you know, all right. You don't have to have an aspirin, do you? No, we don't. How about your friend here? He said we didn't. Oh, that's too bad. You know, I sure could use one. Mind if I take a look in the bathroom, there might be something in there to take care of my head. Sure, go ahead. We checked your record before we came up here. That right? Yeah. Mind out of anything? Enough to know there's a warrant on you. For what? Seems you got two wives back in Texas. They're both looking for you. All right, now come on.  You want to tell me what this is really about? What? They didn't send two plain clothes cops down here to take me in on a bigger recharge. What's the real pitch? It was a burglary last night. I wondered if you had anything to do with it. Burglary? That's right. Not me? I haven't got the guts to get into something like that. That's what caused all the trouble with my women. What's that? Oh, I'm all the time telling me I should get off a dime and do something morning, noon, and night. All the time running off at the mouth about how I was lazy. I can't expect a man to take much of that.  Send her back to Texas. We don't know what's going to happen. We just have to take you in. Gee, I sure hope I don't go back. Woman's nothing but trouble, Mr. Nothing else. You remember it. Must not bother you much. Huh? You're married to him. Jed Nagle was taken to the main jail and held for the Texas authorities. A check of his actions on the previous night showed that he couldn't have committed the burglary. 1130 AM, Frank and I checked for the office and then we went over to the crime lab. Ray Pinker was just finishing up his investigation. Come on in, Joe. All right. How's it going, Ray? Yeah, just wrapping it up. You got anything for us? Same as you had on the last three jobs. Here, pictures are there.  This is the entrance, huh? Yeah. He went through the wall from the barbershop into the bar. How'd they get in there? Barbershop? Yeah. Used a Jimmy on the back window. Aligned in, went to work on the wall. I wonder why they didn't go right into the bar. Place is covered by the alarm system, Joe. Here, this is the box inside. Yeah. Just turned it off after they got into the place. You got any prints? No. Went over all the windows, safe, barred cell. Didn't turn up anything he used. What about the men themselves? Can you give us anything on them? Must have been at least two of them. Might have been three. Why'd you come up with that? Foot prints. Oh. Kicked up a lot of plaster when they went into the place. A lot of dust around. One on more size nine, shoe, and the other one had a size seven and a half foot. Where'd you get the third man? A lot more on the smaller impressions. Either the little guy jumped around more or else it was someone to help make the prints. Anything else, Ray? We got some good pictures of Jimmy Marks and the barber shop. If you come up with a tool, we'll be able to match it for you. What about the safe, Ray? Punch job. No class there. Anything on it? Mm-hmm. How much they take this time? Order guesses at about 5,000, wouldn't it, Ray? Yeah. Gives them a total of what? Well, according to our figures, a little over 12 since they started working. It's going good. Better than they think. Huh? We've just about run out of leads. Frank and I've been all over town trying to scratch something up. None of them work out. Got to be one some place. Yeah, Skipper keeps telling us that. Corner pocket's on his back. Bound to be. Yeah, I guess so. Doesn't make it any easier on us, though. You signed the application. Yeah, well, thanks, Ray. I think he turns up to give us a call, will you? Sure, Joe. It isn't likely, though, you've had it. Mm-hmm. You going back to the office? Yeah, stats office should have those cards for us by now. OK, I hope they point somewhere. Yeah, you better get in the line, huh? Take it easy, Ray. Yeah, drop around sometime. I'll pop for a lunch. Now we get this and cleaned up, we'll buy. You got a deal, my wife will go for that. Huh? She's been after me losing some weight. Huh? Looks like it'll be a long diet. Frank and I went back to the city hall and checked with the stats office. In the runs they'd made, they came up with cards on seven men who were known to have used the same method of operation in committing burglaries. We checked the list through R&I. Three of the possibles were still serving sentences in San Quentin. One of them had died, the two were in Eastern jails. The seventh, honoris poly, had a record listing four arrests and one conviction. His address was given as 4622 50th Street. We left the office and went out to check on him. The registered list of them is living in apartment 12. We walked upstairs. Should be on the left, huh? Yeah. Yeah, here it is. Let me try it again. Yeah. Don't see where that's any business of yours. Police officers. What do you want to see Noree about? Better if we talk to him about that. It's yourself. Don't make any difference to me. You mind if we come in? You can talk right out there in the hall. All right, Miss Polly, open that door. Take a jump. Sadie, what's all the noise? Lady, do you open that door or we will? She is, ma'am. Get out of the way, lady. All right, Polly, hold her right there. You get out of here. You've got no right to break in here like this.  I'm trying to do you a favor and look up thanks again. Well, who asked?   Yeah, yeah, sure. Bye. Harpy, always trying to take care of me. Real Harpy. You know, she means good, but she doesn't know how to carry it off. Always trying to protect me. Yeah. What do you want to see me about? Want to ask you a couple of questions? Sure, I'll go along with you. No reason for me not to. What do you want to know? I'll come to your home. What would you expect to find me? You're on parole, aren't you? Well, you knew that before you asked the question. Supposed to have a job? Yeah, I got one. I'll come here not working the day. I see what you're getting at. I've got a cold kind of virus infection.  I was in bed when you got here. That's the reason you had all the trouble. Your employer know where you are? Well, sure, I called him and told him. I'm not trying to pull any deals. I've been punching the clock since I got out. I want to keep it that way. Where do you work? Park and lot downtown. Not killing the world, but I'm paying the rent. I got no beef. How do you spend your off time? What do you mean? When you're not working, what do you do? Hustley, sit around the house. Watch the TV.  No, not much. Maybe every couple of weeks, Sadie and me go down to the Mexican place on the corner, have dinner, take any show. That's about it. You've been out this week? What night? Tell us about all of them, will you? No, go. I've been home every night. Can you prove that? What do I have to? That'll make you look better. Well, last Sadie should tell you we've been home together every night. Just sitting here watching the TV. What time are you going to work? I check in about 7. When you quit? 4.30. Once in a while, if it's crowded, I stay over. You work late this week? No, you can check that with the boss. He'll tell you. All right, we will. Well, what's this all about, huh?  That's right. Well, why don't you tell me what it is? I hear stuff once in a while. I might be able to help you out. You see the old crowd anymore, Norf? Well, once in a while, they walk down the street. They nod, I nod. Nothing more. Now, what are you after? Tunnel jobs.  Matches the way you work? No, it doesn't fit. I told you, I've been with the bucket since I got out. Even with taxes, I make more. You heard anything about who's working? Doesn't go out of this room? We won't take it. OK. The boys found out I was giving you information. My insurance premiums sure go up real fast. Then don't you worry about it. I know what you know. I was around with this two guys. We had that going in. They pulled three jobs. Well, they made it four. No, I didn't know about the other one. It'll be in the papers now. You got a name? No, just heard that they were working. Where'd you hear? A fellow down on 7th. He sells papers down there. We have a cup of coffee once in a while, he told me. You know where you can get in touch with him? Yeah, but it'd be better if you didn't, though. He'd right back to me. Sadie? Hey, wait a minute. Where you going with the suitcase? I'm leaving you. Oh, come on. Isn't that thing serious? You don't have a talk to me. Sadie, do you feel when you take their side? I've had it from you, bum. Oh, come on, Sadie. Don't be sore. Take your hand off of me. Baby, please. Don't be sore. I'm going to tell you once more. Take your hand off of me. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, Sadie. What you going hit me for?  Don't go trying to get me to come back to you. I'm true this time. It's too bad, Paulie. No, it isn't. I've been trying to figure some way to get her to walk out since I got out of jail. I've never been able to do it. I sure ain't sorry. I ought to buy you guys a drink for taking care of it for me.  She's always talking. She might have heard me say I'd give you a hand. She blabs that around. I'm in real trouble. You didn't give us any names. That doesn't make any difference. She gets to talk it. She'll have me telling you the name of every hootlem in town. Whether that gets around, I'm a gone duck. I got to get after her. Sadie, no big mouse. You're going to get me in trouble. Well, it can even end, doesn't it? Huh? Yours kept you out of it. Before we left the apartment, we checked Paulie's story and verified the fact that he was not implicated in the burglaries. We drove down to the corner of Seventh and Wilde. We found the newsman, Norris Paulie had told us about. We talked to him for about 15 minutes before we were able to convince him that he wouldn't get into trouble by giving us the information that he had. He told us what he knew about the tunnel burglaries. He was unable to give us a name of the suspect that he had in mind, but he did give us a description in the nickname Kiko. With this information, we returned to the city hall and checked the moniker file. There were several Kikos listed, but only two that meant the description. The first one checked out clean. The second of Franklin James Swig, WMA, 33 years old, had done time in the state penitentiary as a cat burglar. We contacted the state authority and found that Swig was on active parole. From then, we got his address, and we went out to see him. It was a small one-story modern house built in the early 30s. The chrome railing up the front stairs was rusty, and the paint on the front of the building was peeled. We rang the bell and waited. Yep. Your name's Wig? Yeah, that's right. Police officers. This is Sergeant Joe Friday. My name's Smith. What do you want me to do? Why don't you ask us in? That's all I'm saying to you. I don't want to get the carpet sturdy. Let's talk about it.  What for? I want to talk to you. About what? I'll tell you about it downtown. You make a charge, or I ain't leaving the house. All right, suspicion and burglary. You're going to drag that up again. We don't make the rules.  You should have thought of that going in. What good would it do? You cops never learn? Well, you're not much of an example, are you? What's that mean? You're probably going back for another course. Before we took the suspect downtown, we made a thorough search of his home. We found nothing to time in with the burglary. He was taken to the squad room in question for over an hour. During that time, he'd say nothing. He was booked in at the main jail, and Frank and I checked out of the office. The next day, Wednesday, March 21st, we had him brought from the cell. We talked to him in the interrogation room in the main jail. How long you guys think you're going to be able to hold me? Depends on when you decide to talk. Tell you what, cop. I'll make a deal with you. No deals. What do you mean? We don't want you. We want the guy who engineered the burglary. Well, then why don't you let me go now? I want to make sure the story gets a plane of papers. Well, what's that going to prove? Your friend will get worried. We'll figure you're going to talk. Look, if I was mixed up in anything, I'm not one way or the other. But if I was, why should he get worried? Words out that he's the brains. Well, where's that from? All over town? That's not true. The way we got our stories around, you went along for the ride. I'll tell him that all the brain work. Who said that? Everybody who's talked to. Well, and if everybody's talking about him, why ain't he here instead of me? Because he's a smart one of the pair. Somebody who's got to fall might as well be you. People pick up another partner. You telling me the real scam? That's the way we get it. Not true. Oh, he only got your word for that. All I know is if I ever get in trouble, I'd want to make sure I had a pigeon waiting to take the beef. You're here. He's out. And you tell me who's smart. How'd you get to me? It was in the books. Not like this. I fell for cat burglary. Nothing to do with tunnel jobs. Somebody had to blow the whistle. That's all. Sure. He had no call to pick me up. Just right out of left field, you walk in. Who did it? Who made the call? Somebody did, huh? Somebody pointed me out. Come on, I know who it was. You ain't going to get him in trouble telling me. Somebody told you, didn't they? That's right. No, it fits real good.  A lot of things I've done that I don't want anybody to know about, but I never blew the whistle on a friend. That's one thing I didn't do. All that stuff about him being the brain that's a lot of coconuts. He can't get into a phone booth without help. I figured the whole deal. Well, it was me who said we'd had it and ought to stop. He wanted to keep going. That's why I left. When was this? Night before last. After we got through, he was sore because there was only a little over $4,000 in the box. We heard there was around 10. Yeah. Said he wanted to make a big score before we quit. Said to go together on one more. Told me what he wanted to do. I wanted no part of it. The guy's off his rocker. I left. What's he got in mind, you know? Once a tunnel into a bank. We're listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your police force in action. We continue to talk to Franklin's weed. From him, we got a complete description of the second suspect and the name Lester Kroll. We checked the name through R and I, and we came up with a record for him. Listed were several arrests for purse snatching and suspicion of assault. In spite of the arrests, Kroll hadn't served any time in jail. We showed the mugshot in the package to Zwig, and we got a positive identification. We asked the suspect in custody where Kroll lived. He gave us an address on South Figaro, but when we checked there, we found that Kroll had left without giving a forwarding address. We talked to all the people listed in this package having known the suspect. None of them could or would tell us where the man was. We questioned Franklin's weed further, but he was unable to tell us what bank Kroll had in mind. We contacted Burn Arm of the Bank of America, Frank Stumpf of the Security First National, and other special agents of Southern California banks. They in turn notified the branch managers to be on the lookout for evidence of Kroll working in their neighborhoods. Special MO bulletins were put out to all officers in the city giving particulars on the methods the suspect was known to use. In addition to these, local broadcasts and APBs were gotten out on all suspects. For a week, the search dragged on. During that time, there were no further reports of attempted tunnelings and no sign of Lester Kroll. Friday, March 30th, 8.01 a.m. I checked into the office. Frank was waiting for me. Morning, old buddy. Hi, Frank. Beautiful day, huh? Now it's a little cold out. Yeah, but it doesn't make any difference to you, huh, old buddy? No, no, it doesn't. You feel any different? Hmm? You feel any different today than you did yesterday. Are you all right? Never felt better. How about you, old buddy? Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, just a minute. I know what's wrong. You do, huh? Yeah, you didn't think I'd forget, did you? Listen, I don't even know what you're talking about. Ah, come on, old buddy. Just a minute. I'll get it. Got it right over here, right up on the top shelf. And I'm putting it in myself. There you are, Joe. Wrapped it myself, too. Looks pretty good, huh? Yeah, I guess it does. I didn't have nothing to put on the top, so I found a couple of Christmas tree ornaments. Put them on with a ribbon. Yeah, it's nice. Come on, dig down in there. Well, what is it?  Got him yesterday after lunch. Thought I wasn't ever going to get you out of the way. Remember when I told you I was going out to buy a new hat? Remember? You know, Frank, I think maybe you made a little mistake. Oh, just take the top right off the box, Joe. Open it right up. All right. There. What do you think? Very nice, Frank. Hey, you bet. Police line slippers. Got a pair of myself. Greatest thing in the world, a cold morning. Keep your feet warm, Joe. Police is warm, you know. Yeah. I got a pair of myself. See the card? There's a card there. Open it up. Go on, read it. Go ahead. Out loud. Sure. This is the day that comes once a year. The day your face does shine. A happy day for one and all. Because today you're nine. Doesn't match too good, I guess. It's all I had at the shoe store. Happy birthday, Joe. You know, I just don't know what to say, Frank. Well, I know how you feel, old buddy. I understand you all kind of choked up, huh? Mm-hmm. Yes, I am. This isn't my birthday, you know. How you choked up, huh? This is not my birthday, Frank. Well, it's the 30th, isn't it? March 30th? Yeah. My birthday's August 30th. Now, wait a minute, buddy. It can't be. I got it right here in my little book. Wait a minute. See? See right here? March 30th, Joe's birthday. I wrote that myself. You know my handwriting. March 30th. Yeah, you get the date right, but it's not mine. You kidding me? Frank, I know my own birthday. Huh. It must be somebody. Who do I know named Joe? I got it. Burgary Friday. Yes, sir? March 30th. That's right. Where is that? I see. All right, sir. We'll be right out. Yes, sir, right away. Come on, old buddy, we got one to roll on. August 30th. Huh? I say we got to roll. Let's go. Barry over at the street department. They got a call this morning. Yeah. Looks like somebody's trying to dig a tunnel in the storm drain. Frank and I left the office and we drove over to the corner of Silver Lake Boulevard in McCollum Street. We met with Barry Falcon of the street department. He led us to a manhole in the middle of the intersection. He told us there had been numerous complaints from citizens in the area that the cover on the outlet kept rattling. When the street department checked it, they found that the cushioning material around the metal plate had been removed. It was replaced, but the next day, there were several more calls. When the neighbors were questioned, they told of a man who arrived in the pickup truck about 2.30 in the morning. He'd lift the cover and enter the storm drain. Before the daylight hours, he'd leave and he'd drive away. From the description they gave, it was possible that the repairman was from the street maintenance department, but a check of their record showed that no crews were working in that area. After talking with Falcon, Frank and I climbed down the ladder into the drain. We walked about 20 feet up the tunnel and we found the reason that we'd been called. Barry, tell you what's over us? Well, as we can figure, it's the vault in the bank, isn't it? Sure is, a kid. Think we'll go over here. All the equipment, lamps, a couple of drills. Yeah, but he's not going to be able to use them unless he ties into an electric line someplace. We'll probably figure he'd run into one. What's that over there in the corner? Don't take a look. Can you see it? No, but it'll leave it alone. What do you got? He's got it all figured. What do you mean? What's over there? Yeah. Looks like nectar glycerin. The people in the immediate vicinity were shown the mud shots of Lester Crowell. He was positively identified as the man who had worked in the storm drain. We asked about the truck, but none of the people could give us a good description of it. The employees in the bank were cautioned and Frank and I arranged for a 24-hour surveillance to be set up on the storm drain outlet. Two days passed without activity and then on Monday, April 3rd, we waited in our car down the street from the intersection. It was about 2.20 a.m. Another cup of coffee, Joe? Yeah, wouldn't be bad. Oh, I sure it gets cold this time of the morning. See, I finally figured it out. What do you mean? Who Joe was. What's that? Here. That's hot. Thank you. Joe, you know the name of my book, The Birthday? Oh, yeah, yeah. It's our mailman. It's our mailman. It was his birthday. I got him one of those cards that says, we're sorry we forgot. You know the kind. We gave him the card and the card and the cigarettes. Oh, Joe, sure we got a kick out of it. Cool. Sure gets cold this time of the morning. Take a look. Yeah, I see it. Park in there. You see his face? Not from here. Well, he gets hot. You even got a hook for the manhole cover. How do you like that? Watch it now. He's going under the light. It's him. All right, let's let him get down in the storm drain. That way we'll be able to get him while he's working. All right. Let him get in there. OK, let's go. You want to give me a hand with the cover? Yeah. I probably figure I'm making a break this morning. Uh-huh. It'll be easy, though. Right. You seem good now. Sure going after. All right, come on, let's take him. All right. See up there? He ran into one of the power lines into the bank. Yeah, he almost made it, Joe. A couple of more inches he'd have gotten in. Yeah. He must have figured wrong someplace. Made a mistake somewhere. Yeah, when he bought that drill. The story you have just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On August 16th, trial was held in Department 97 Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Los Angeles. In a moment, the results of that trial. James Wieg was tried and convicted of burglary in the second degree, three counts, and received sentence as prescribed by law. Burglary in the second degree is punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than one, nor more than 15 years in the state penitentiary. At a coroner's inquest, the death of Lester Bruce Crowell was found to be accidental, occurring while in the commission of a felony. A series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police, W.H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department.


So what stands out to you with his growth as you've covered him as a leader and a player? Okay it's really unbelievable because he's 24 and yet he is more mature than I am let's say. And it's amazing because he leads this team at the age of 24 and you've got veterans like Jason Kelsey, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Lane Johnson who've been here, one of Super Bowl. He comes in and things he says like we got to make daily deposits. The rent is due every day. You start to hear other players say the same thing. So he is the unquestionable leader of this team. And here at the NovaCare Complex guys say they see his car when they come in at 7 a.m. So he's here whatever 5-6 a.m. He's here at night going over the game plans in the installation of the game plan like 7-8-9 o'clock at night. He lives and breathes football and he wants to be great. He wants to be the best and he doesn't feel there's any reason why he can't.