Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Solo Rescue

Transcript

Solo Rescue · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Crime does not pay.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: It's a saying that almost everyone knows. We teach it
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: to our children to remind them not to take shortcuts,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: because in the end, your actions have consequences, and your
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: choices will catch up with you. Stealing something is still
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: stealing something. Of course, this sort of moralizing has not
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: prevented crime from happening. Thievery is a profession as old
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: as the very concept of ownership. And since we no
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: longer hang thieves for taking things, and most petty theft
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: happens too fast to notify police, merchants have found themselves
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: in need of alternate ways to deter criminals. United States banks,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: for example, are armed with a dummy wad of cash
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: that conceals a trap for potential robbers. Inside this innocuous
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: looking wad of tens and twenty dollars bills, there is
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: a small explosive triggered by radio to detonate when brought
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: out of the doors of the bank. This explosion releases
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: tear gas and sometimes a colored paint that marks the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: bank robber and more importantly, the stolen money. Any cash
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: marked in this way would be unusable to the criminal
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: in question. This bank robber deterrent is known as an
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: intelligent banknote neutralization system or IBNS. The first prototype was
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: developed in nineteen eighty two, using colored smoke rather than paint.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: After a decade in development, the modern system was fully
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: finalized and her remains in common use to this day.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: But this was not the only crime deterrent that took
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: on in the nineteen eighties. On the other side of
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the globe, the country of Japan was facing an interesting crisis.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: They were running low on eggs. This wasn't because people
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: were stealing eggs at increased rates. It was because people
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: were refusing to pay at toll booths.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Yes, you heard that right. You see, at this time,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Japan was facing a small epidemic of people who wouldn't
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: pay tolls on public highways. They would just drive past
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the attendance and keep going down the highway to avoid
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: any payment. Toll workers responded to this behavior by throwing
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: raw eggs at the vehicles that did it. This was
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: an imperfect system, of course, more useful in letting out
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the frustration of a toll worker than inflicting any real
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: consequences on the drivers. But this practice gave someone the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: bright idea of replacing the eggs with something more permanent,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: because egg can be washed off fairly easily, after all.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Sometime in the early nineteen eighties, someone developed a suitable
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: egg replacement, a plastic sphere about the size and shape
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of a baseball, filled with bright orange paint. Toll workers,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: who presumably had plenty of practice with eggs, could use
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: them to tag a fleeing vehicle, providing a more useful
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: mark for policemen to find the perpetrator. These plastic paintballs
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: eventually became known as bohan yokara buru or anti crime
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: color balls. In the years following their invention, they would
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: expand from toll booths to banks and even convenience stores.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Even today, when you step into a convenience store in Japan,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: you're likely to see a small pile of these orange
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: balls waiting by the cash register. Of course, they're rarely used.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: In fact, studies have shown that even in cases of
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: store robbery, the owners rarely turned to the paintballs for assistance.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Their benefit, it is said, is more psychological than physical.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: If someone enters a store and sees these innocuous plastic oranges,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: they will think twice about shoplifting. It's impossible to say
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: how many potential crimes were deterred with the mere threats
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: of getting painted, but one thing is for sure, anti
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: crime color balls make a much stronger statement than raw egg.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Cody Klausen was starting to get scared. It was the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: summer of two thousand and one, and the thirteen year
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: old boy scout had been hiking for hours. He began
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the day excited to be venturing into Yellowstone National Park,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful natural areas in the country.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: As part of his scout training, he had spent hours
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: navigating with a map, hiking through brush, and orienting himself
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: with the stars. He even had the badges to prove it,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: so he felt comfortable as he set out for a
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: short walk down the trails. That morning, he had wandered
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: for a bit, hoping to see some wildlife, and then
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: he would be home in time for lunch. But he
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. For some reason,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the trails didn't seem to match the trail that he
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: thought he was following. Nothing looked familiar no matter how
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: many times he doubled. A few hours passed his scheduled return,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Cody was shivering as he struggled through the brush. He
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: figured if he picked a direction and headed towards where
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: he thought the trailhead was, he would stumble upon a
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: marker or another hiker soon enough. But as the hours
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: racked up and no savior materialized, he began to really worry.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Cody was woefully unprepared for his long hike. He was
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: wearing sandals, shorts, and a thin T shirt, which was
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: doing nothing to cut the cold. As the sun dipped
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: below the horizon, any snacks or water that he'd brought
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: with him were long gone by then. He needed to
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: find his way back soon or he would really be
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: in trouble. A rumble sounded from overhead, and Cody looked
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: up to see his problems had just gotten worse. It
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: was starting to rain as he continued walking, soaked to
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the skin, the rain turned colder in the night, air,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: freezing into sleet that stuck to his skin. Cody looked
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: for cover and managed to find a cave nearby. He
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: spent a long night shivering in the cold, wondering how
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: on earth he would fight his way home. When Cody
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: woke up, it was to the sound of helicopter blades
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: beating the air above the forest. Still cold and groggy,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: he struggled to his feet with just one thought on
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: his mind, rescue. But when he emerged from the cave,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: he saw that there was a problem. The trees were
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: so thick the helicopter, flying back and forth overhead couldn't
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: see him through the canopy. He had to think fast
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: before it moved on to the next area. That's when
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: he remembered his belt and its shiny metal buckle. Cody
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: whipped the belt off and used it to catch the sunshine.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: He reflected a beam of light back at the helicopter,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: hoping the pilot would see him, and miraculously it worked.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: The pilot set the chopper down in a clearing close
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to the caves. Cody ran to the pilot as he
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: stepped out of the chopper, but froze when the man
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: pulled his helmet off, his desperate joy turned to star
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: struck wonder because the man standing in front of him
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: wasn't just any pilot. It was the one who had
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: made the kessel run in less than twelve parsecs Han
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Solo himself, Actor Harrison Ford. Harrison had been flying since
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties and often volunteered with the Teton County
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Search and Rescue Team. He'd been flying nearby when the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: call came over the radio asking pilots to look for
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: lost Cody Clawson. He'd heeded the call and quickly found
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the missing scout. Surprisingly, this wasn't even Harrison's first rescue
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: mission in the area. Just a year before, he had
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: rescued another lost hiker, Sarah George, who thanked him by
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: promptly vomiting inside his helicopter. Harrison flew the starstruck Cody
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: to a nearby search and rescue place after eighteen hours
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: in the wilderness, he thankfully wasn't worse for wear. Before
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: flying off, Cody reported that the actor knelt down to
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: tell him one last thing that after all he had
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: been through, he certainly deserved a merit badge. Now I'm
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: no scout master. In fact, I might just be a
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: half witted, scruffy looking nerve herder. But if Han Solo
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: says you've earned a badge, he probably has a point.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.