Episodes

  • Runner Finds a Briefcase in a Culvert: The Harwick Convention Racket

    Runner Finds a Briefcase in a Culvert: The Harwick Convention Racket
    12 Oct 2026
    Runner Finds a Briefcase in a Culvert: The Harwick Convention Racket

    A frozen February morning, a luggage cart wedged in a drainage culvert and a leather briefcase with a conference badge clipped on - the badge belonged to a keynote who arrived and found his hotel block erased without explanation. Why did a hotel cart checked out at 3:41 PM vanish from the Kellmore's logs and reappear five days later in a culvert with a briefcase tied to it?

    In this episode, you will hear how a canceled room block, missing bellman logs, and a shadowy billing company intersected with a decade-long pattern that crippled conferences in Harwick; could a single unpaid fee and one man’s decisions explain eleven ruined events and seven vanished speakers?

    Person: Mark Fleming
    Date: February 11, 2009
    Location: Kellmore Hotel / eastern edge of Harwick culvert
    Person: Thomas Insley
    Organization: Halcyon Event Services

    - Luggage cart was checked out at 3:41 PM on February 6, 2009 and never logged as returned.
    - The Kellmore Hotel has 412 rooms and a bellman station staffed through midnight.
    - The briefcase found on the cart bore a laminated badge for a conference held five days earlier.
    - Eleven conferences over four years lost their Kellmore room blocks; seven of those lost key speakers.
    - Raymond Choate served as executive director of the Harwick Events Coordinating Bureau for over a decade.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 min
  • Sealed Records, Lost Licenses: How a City Inspector Squeezed Small Businesses

    Sealed Records, Lost Licenses: How a City Inspector Squeezed Small Businesses
    11 Oct 2026
    Sealed Records, Lost Licenses: How a City Inspector Squeezed Small Businesses

    A sealed government records box sat outside in twelve-degree weather for up to twelve days containing forty-seven original inspection forms stamped by the Foreston City Health Department - documents that would reveal a five-year scheme costing at least two small businesses their licenses. How did routine inspections turn into a quiet extortion racket that moved cash in envelopes and left families ruined?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery, the key players, and the paperwork that changed an investigation: who found the box, what the forms showed, and the single anomaly that set a financial crimes specialist on a path to uncover a larger pattern.

    Person: Janet Patterson
    Date: January 14, 2009
    Location: north edge of Foreston
    Person: Donald Pruitt
    Person: Keith Wallace

    - A cardboard box with Foreston City Health Department tape sat outdoors for between 8 and 12 days in temperatures not above 12 degrees Fahrenheit.
    - Forty-seven original inspection forms were found sealed in that government-stamped box.
    - Polar Star Equipment Services began dominating Foreston and two neighboring counties by 2002 after Keith Wallace started with one used truck in 1994.
    - Donald Pruitt received $2,000 a month in cash beginning in 2004, delivered in envelopes placed inside Polar Star vehicles.
    - The Halabi Brothers failed three inspections between 2004 and 2006 with storage temperature readings of 38 degrees Fahrenheit, two degrees over the limit, and closed in 2006.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • Church Volunteer Finds 41 Permits for Stalls That Never Existed

    Church Volunteer Finds 41 Permits for Stalls That Never Existed
    10 Oct 2026
    Church Volunteer Finds 41 Permits for Stalls That Never Existed

    A church volunteer stumbled on 41 laminated vendor permits tucked behind plastic chairs in a storage annex - each bearing a genuine city seal and a permit number in the 200s that corresponded to no physical stall. Who created a parallel licensing system that funneled monthly cash payments and hid in plain sight across five market seasons?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery and the chain of ordinary transactions that led local authorities to label the scheme extortion. What the episode covers is how permits, manila envelopes of cash, and an unlocked fire door became the backbone of a quiet revenue stream - and who profited from it.

    Person: Emily Jones
    Person: Randy Coleman
    Person: Donna Pryce
    Location: Harwick Fairgrounds
    Event: Five documented market seasons

    - 41 laminated vendor permits found by Emily Jones in December 2011 behind a stack of plastic chairs.
    - All permit numbers fell in the 200 block and pointed to stalls that did not exist on the Harwick floor plan.
    - Randy Coleman began paying Donna Pryce $300 per month in 2006, which rose to $700 per month by 2011.
    - Annual cash take from the racket ranged between $3,600 and $6,000 across the five documented seasons.
    - Ashton Valley Transport owned six trucks, employed fourteen people, and Coleman was 58 years old.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 min
  • A Dog Finds a Casket: The Millhaven Casket Fraud

    A Dog Finds a Casket: The Millhaven Casket Fraud
    9 Oct 2026
    A Dog Finds a Casket: The Millhaven Casket Fraud

    A half-submerged full-sized steel casket with burnished pewter hardware and a deliberately removed serial number was found in a drainage basin after a golden retriever pulled its owner off the trail; how could an empty casket, no grave, and no marker lead to seventeen withdrawn complaints and a fourteen-month financial-fraud probe? What exactly was being sold if not the bodies or graves themselves?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery and the paper trail that linked a funeral home to billing discrepancies, county permits, and a pattern of quiet phone calls; we trace how one casket gave investigators the entry point to answer the central question about the transactions and the people behind them.

    Person: Sandra Polk
    Date: November 19, 2019
    Location: Eugene Lewis Trail (near a fallen cottonwood)
    Case: Seventeen family complaints filed 2014-2019
    Person: Judith Christensen, Millhaven Financial Crimes Unit

    - A golden retriever pulled its owner off Eugene Lewis Trail to where a full-sized steel casket lay half-submerged in cold water and leaves.
    - The casket had a seam split at the lower end and interior lining soaked through but was empty and not associated with any grave or disturbed soil.
    - Examiners found the serial number on the casket's interior panel removed with a rotary hand tool in methodical strokes.
    - Investigators identified forty-three discrepancies across four years of burial permit and invoice records tied to Harlow and Sons.
    - Seventeen families filed complaints between 2014 and 2019, and every complaint was withdrawn before a formal investigation opened.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min
  • Fisherman Finds a Bag That Buries a Whole Town: The Fenwick Road Racket

    Fisherman Finds a Bag That Buries a Whole Town: The Fenwick Road Racket
    8 Oct 2026
    Fisherman Finds a Bag That Buries a Whole Town: The Fenwick Road Racket

    A fisherman found a 211-page spiral-bound logbook sealed in a freezer bag, placed exactly above the October waterline-bone dry and deliberately positioned. Inside were dispatch records that tied a local towing company, a county supervisor, and 43 businesses into an eleven-year pattern of pay-for-release entries-so how did a night dispatcher’s hidden column bring it all to light?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery and the records it contained, what those entries reveal about Fenwick Road Service and local officials, and the questions raised by a log kept in secret for years: could a single ledger expose a decade-long racket?

    Person: John Hicks
    Person: Sherry O'Connor
    Person: Carl Denning
    Pages: 211
    Businesses recorded: 43

    - The logbook was spiral-bound, 211 pages, and sealed inside a freezer-weight zip-lock bag placed above the October waterline.
    - John Hicks, age 51, owned Fenwick Road Service and coached youth basketball at Resurrection Lutheran gymnasium.
    - Carl Denning, age 44, had 19 years as supervisor of Vehicle and Fleet Services and signing authority over towing contracts.
    - Fenwick Boulevard runs four miles from Griggs Road to Miller Creek and contained 43 commercial tenants listed in the log.
    - Sherry O'Connor, age 28, worked night dispatch for 3 years and 4 months and added a secondary notation column with CL, NR, and H entries between 10 PM and 2 AM.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The Box in the Ditch: How 47 Envelopes Bought an Entire School System

    The Box in the Ditch: How 47 Envelopes Bought an Entire School System
    7 Oct 2026
    The Box in the Ditch: How 47 Envelopes Bought an Entire School System

    A discarded cardboard box in an unmapped drainage easement held forty-seven sealed envelopes, each with cash - and that single find would expose nearly two decades of a covert "processing fee" scheme funneling about $200,000 a year from elementary and middle school principals. How did a local supplier, a shell ledger, and missing complaints combine to buy influence across forty-seven public schools - and who let it happen?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery, the people involved, and the paper trail that unraveled a long-running vendor scheme. You will hear how the box was found, who logged it as Exhibit Fourteen, and the missing vendor complaints that led investigators to a county analyst - could a routine complaint be the one to break the whole operation?

    Person: Lauren Carlson
    Date: September 4, 2011
    Company: Renner Valley Supply
    Exhibit: Exhibit Fourteen
    Investigator: Scott Norris

    - The box contained forty-seven sealed envelopes, each holding cash.
    - Renner Valley Supply held contracts for sixty-three of seventy-one public schools by 2007.
    - The envelopes ranged from $400 to $1,200 each, sized to what each school could absorb.
    - Forty-one intake complaints existed in the county system but only three appeared in the official vendor file.
    - Robert Finch administratively closed every missing Renner Valley complaint within ten days.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • The Bar That Laundered $1.2M: How Tuesday Voids Hid a Racket

    The Bar That Laundered $1.2M: How Tuesday Voids Hid a Racket
    6 Oct 2026
    The Bar That Laundered $1.2M: How Tuesday Voids Hid a Racket

    The quiet pump-truck photo taken at 6:40 a.m. on August 11, 2019 exposed a nearly empty tank behind Pinegrove Tap despite eleven years of reported brisk sales, and nine years of handwritten ledgers that add up to more than $1.2 million. How did composition notebooks, voided Tuesday tabs and a van that "did not exist" conceal a shadow economy in a small-town bar for almost a decade?

    In this episode, we lay out the timeline and the paper trail from the photograph to the storage unit and trace the connections between a bartender, a senior bank officer, a fifty-three-year-old liquor licensee, and an LLC that masked monthly payments - asking how routine transactions went unnoticed for years.

    Person: Cheryl Gallagher
    Date: August 11, 2019 at 6:40 a.m.
    Location: Pinegrove Tap, Aldine Road, Murchison
    Amount: more than $1,200,000
    Duration: nine years of handwritten ledgers

    - A pump-truck driver photographed a gauge showing the tank was almost empty at 6:40 a.m, on August 11, 2019.
    - Cheryl Gallagher held the Pinegrove Tap liquor license for eleven years and kept nine years of composition notebook ledgers.
    - The initials "D.P." in Gallagher's notebooks corresponded to Dennis Prusch, a 58-year-old senior loan officer with 22 years at Murchison Savings.
    - Tom Odell logged Tuesday voids under 22 different account names for 34 months, totaling $412,000 in voided sales.
    - Three businesses shared a registered agent: one leased storage unit 44 at Covell Self-Storage, one held a trucking broker office lease at the Murchison rail yard, and the other was Drale Residential Holdings.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min
  • One Door Left Standing: The Mayfair Textile Arson

    One Door Left Standing: The Mayfair Textile Arson
    5 Oct 2026
    One Door Left Standing: The Mayfair Textile Arson

    The steel door stood upright in a field of ash while twelve thousand square feet of laundry lay reduced to a foundation outline; a locked, undamaged door remained bolted to its own concrete footing amid scorched concrete and poured accelerant beneath a load-bearing wall. Why did one door survive a fire that destroyed the building around it, and what did that survival reveal about who had been to the site before the blaze?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from a morning birdwatcher’s discovery to the fire marshal’s early conclusions, tracing prior visits, a deliberate camera outage, and a demolition bid that arrived four hours after the first photographs - asking whether the sale refusal, unlocked rear door sightings, and a low demolition quote point to something more than accident.

    Person: Alice Hall
    Date: July 9, 2019
    Person: Bernard Schaff
    Person: Dean Barrett
    Event: exterior camera power interrupted between 11:42 PM and 12:19 AM on June 3, 2019

    - Alice Hall, age 62, photographed the intact locked steel rear door from three angles roughly four hours before the demolition bid arrived.
    - The Mayfair Textile building measured twelve thousand square feet and served hotels, restaurants, and medical offices.
    - Bernard Schaff, age 67, owned Mayfair Textile for more than thirty years and had found the rear service door unlocked twice in late May and mid-June 2019.
    - Consolidated Removal Group submitted a demolition bid for $62,000 at 8:17 AM on July 9, 2019; the next closest bid was $73,000.
    - Fire marshal investigator Connie Olson, age 44, found accelerant residue poured under the south load-bearing wall consistent with rear-door entry and exit.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min