Magnolia Network Bombshell and Tim Pool got Swatted

This is episode number 174 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Haggett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for another episode of The Homeowner Show here from The Homeowner Show Studios. How you doing, Kev?

Doing pretty good. Doing pretty good. Things are blissful. Blissful. Blissful. You know, blissful.

It's a funny word.

Well, here's the thing. I, I did something tonight that I've never done before. Okay. That you were gonna go, man, you should have done that a lot earlier. And it's pretty simple. Okay. And that is that I tried zoodles for the first time.

Zoodles?

Zoodles.

Like zucchini noodles?

Yeah. The ones—

they're great.

They're fantastic. So we've been, you know, trying to eat a little bit more— not, I mean, not just healthier, like just planning things out a little bit better. You know, all those sorts of things, trying to, you know, eat more fresh foods, fresh meats, those sorts of things. And so she had a really cool— anything you put, you know, flank steak in, I'm gonna be happy. I love flank steak. Okay. And so yeah, so marinated it for, I don't know, 6 to 8 hours. And then anyway, cooked it with some zoodles. And it was fantastic. I loved it. And I'm ready to try all the new zoodle things.

So no sauce?

No, no, no. I mean, so yes, there was a sauce.

Okay. I didn't—

I don't know what the sauce was because she did it.

Okay.

But what's interesting is, I mean, it had, it had a sauce. that you, um, added the marinade juice into, and then, you know, simmered that for a little while, throw the zoodles in there to cook, and then put the steak in there. You got a meal. And it was, it was super quick. Oh yeah, it was, it was very quick.

So did you guys buy them pre-made?

We did, only because, um, We've not gone all in yet because we've not tried it. Yeah. And Kimberly was just gonna buy— sorry, borrow y'all's.

Okay. Yeah.

But we didn't get to you fast enough. And she found those. And they were pre-made. We're like, look, let's just do that.

You can buy— yeah, because you can buy them pre-made. They're way more expensive. Yeah.

I mean, it was one of those deals where it's like, let's just try it. I mean, they're frozen. Let's just try it. See if we like them.

Okay.

I've not seen the frozen ones. Yeah, they were just in the, like, a steamer bag or whatever. So I'm sure they weren't as good as fresh one would fresh ones would have been, but it, it was okay. And, um, I was like, if those are good, I'm sure if we, you know, actually had a spiralizer or whatever. Yeah. Um, so I think we're gonna, we're gonna try to take the plunge and check it out. It was good, man.

I recommend it to anybody, man, because you can, I mean, you can make noodles out of all kinds of different vegetables.

Sure.

Um, and it likes— let's be like, let's— it's not going to be the same. No, noodles are better.

Sure.

Real noodles are better.

Sure.

Like, own it.

Right?

Like, it's good. Yeah, it's really good. I'm like, my— like, we, we kind of had like a little, kind of a little mini date night. It was more like a business meeting. But we use the excuse to, you know, go spend time together.

Yeah.

But my kids had spaghetti tonight.

Uh-huh.

But with zucchini noodles.

Okay, there you go.

And they love it.

Yeah, I mean, we were talking about that. Like, actually on the back of the bag that we bought, it said, you know, pasta sauce and meatballs to go well with this.

Super easy, low-cal, low-fat dinner. I mean, like, it's— and it's, it's just really— and it's good.

It tastes good. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you this. I need to get you this recipe because the marinade— I don't even know what it was because she did all of it. I just cooked it. It was really good, man. Yeah, it was really good. So, so yeah.

And if I'll give some, some people out there some, some tips on this. because I've been, I've been doing this for a long time.

Yeah.

If you like Asian noodles, cucumber is a good substitute.

Interesting.

For the noodles. Okay, you can still use the zucchini ones.

The cucumber ones just kind of have like a little crisper, brighter, little different, different taste.

Okay, so they're good. So anyway, we're doing kind of a news story tonight. A news show tonight.

Yeah, y'all, this is, this is some crazy stuff happening.

We had 2 crazy things happen just within the last week. And we thought it would be worthwhile to share with you guys because it— I mean, both of them have to do with homes, right? Um, and, and homeownership and all this. But one of, one of them is a huge pebble thrown in the pond, made lots of waves, uh, across the internet. Uh, actually, I, I should— I sent you the show, or the— not the show, I sent you the link to the story. Uh, I don't know if it was today or today, but anyway, like, it was— I think it was like almost 2 or 3 hours later, uh, Eric G posts the link to the show in his group off of his show, uh, and I was, I was talking with a couple people in over

there about it, and, you know, man, it's, it's a big story.

Yeah. I mean, it really is because it's a big story because of the, the people involved, right? I mean, let's just break it.

So, well, I mean, like, so before we, before we do that, let's just— I mean, real, real quick, we're gonna be talking about this story. This is involving Andy and Candace Meredith from over at the— what is it— the Magnolia Network.

Yeah, so Magnolia.

So, and then we've got another story involving Tim Pool, right? Something that happened to him at his home, right? So we're gonna, we're gonna be talking about all that tonight.

Yes.

So, but let's get into this story from the Magnolia Network because this, this is the big one of the night, right? Yeah.

So if you didn't know, I mean, Chip and Joanna Gaines have been off of, you know, the HGTV network for a while because they've got their own network. Why wouldn't they? If the Longhorns can have their own network, so can they. Don't, don't, don't.

That's, that's a— I mean, like, that's, that's a sore subject.

I know it is.

And it's—

it's because you're an Aggie.

No, on national championship night? Come on.

Yeah, I know.

Sorry. Um, people are triggered enough that their team ain't in the game.

So nobody's watching this. The game's on.

That's right. That's right. If you're listening to us, you're clearly not a football fan.

Well, or you're just watching this, you're listening to it later.

Doing like Kevin, just kind of got it off on a screen on the side.

That's right.

He's really not engaged with the show. I don't know what you're talking about.

So anyway, yeah, they've got their own network. And so they're, they're bringing other shows on, all this kind of stuff. Yeah. And there's this new show that they— it's really kind of a really cool thing. I mean, That— so Candace and Andy Meredith, they, um, they transformed a school into a home for themselves.

Yes.

And kind of made a name for themselves doing it.

Yeah. And so it's a cool house. Yeah.

And so if you haven't had a chance to go look at it, go look at it. Just Google their names and they're— they're—

You'll find them on Instagram.

There you go. Yeah. And so they, they decided to do show. I mean, they do remodeling, those sorts of things, just like Chip and Joanna, but they can name the thing Homework.

Yeah.

Which is so cool. I mean, they transformed a school into a home. Homework, obviously school, but it's, you know, it's a, it's a remodel.

Yeah.

So it makes sense, right? So that's kind of the backstory of how this came to be, right? And Joanna was like, hey, let's get these people on. They started filming. They filmed a bunch of episodes. They've been filming for, like, 2, 2, 3 years, right?

I don't know. I mean, it seems—

because, because some of this stuff was, like, dated back to, like, 2019.

Yeah.

So, so it means at least 2 years. Okay. So 2 years that they've been filming, and that's just normal. I mean—

I mean, some of these projects take a long time.

Right.

And so, like, you know, when— and, and I think, I think this is important to remember when you're, when you're watching some of these home improvement shows and, and not to dog on them, But like, they really, you know, crunch down the time it takes to complete a project. I mean, there were those shows for a while where they're like, we can do this in 48 hours, which I just thought that was stupid. I mean, like, there's no way that that stuff's gonna last. But I mean, like, so you're seeing like a very condensed version of what actually was going on, right?

Right, sure.

So who knows how long some of these projects were going on, but basically here's what happened is Chip and Joanna pulled the plug on this show.

Right.

And it was supposed to air like this week?

Yeah, I mean, it was coming out soon. I mean, they, I mean, yeah.

And I think the idea was is like these guys were gonna be kind of like a foundational piece of their new network. You know, they, they make stuff look really, really cool. Um, they, they seem to have really good on-camera personalities. Um, I don't trust his haircut.

No way. Um, no, not with that beard. The haircut with that beard, I'm— I, I don't know.

He's got a funky haircut and a red beard. I mean, come on.

Hey, I don't have a haircut, that's for sure.

The distrust meter is off the charts.

So the beard's not in yet either. It's coming.

It's coming. So, but, but anyway, um, basically there was 4 big complaints that came through.

Yeah.

About specific projects that they had done for the show.

Right.

And these people who had had these projects done took to Instagram and were just unloading on, on this couple and, and saying that they'd been dishonest, uh, that they, you know, had not been communicating, that they'd gone way over, like, you know, where projects were supposed to take $20,000, they're coming in saying, hey, you owe us $40,000.

Right.

Um, at least, and again, like, we need to, we need to be really clear. We don't know.

No, this is just what the article is telling us.

Yes.

And we know that they're getting a lot of backlash. We know that they have pulled this. We're just, we're understanding the story as we know it to be.

Yes. Yes. And so, you know, obviously, you know, Chip and Joanna, they smell something, you know, something, something ain't right. Yeah.

And not just that, like, they pulled it after the allegations were made. Sure, that's one thing. But I think they did some research first and then decided to pull it. Right? Right.

Well, and, and let's be honest, I doubt Chip and Joanna are doing much research.

No, they aren't. They have— they've got their people.

They have a home improvement theme park. I mean, these people have teams of people to do research for them. Yes. Not to say that they are incapable of doing research. But like, look, come on, like, they have agents, they have lawyers, they have people that are— they have people that are doing this stuff for them, right? And they—

this was vetted before they just willy-nilly pulled something, right?

Well, I mean, like, we— I would, I would like to believe it wasn't willy-nilly. Could it have been willy-nilly? Absolutely.

Sure. You know, but they've invested a lot of money into this.

Yes.

And to just— because a couple of people, uh-huh, 4, call it 4 people have decided to speak out against it. Now they're just gonna willy-nilly pull it. I don't think that's the way this works.

Well, I mean, like, okay. You know, like, have you, have you really ever watched one of these shows where it's like a project that's a home improvement one where at the end, the person who was, had hired that person was unhappy?

No.

I mean, like, it's no, because that's not good TV. People wanna see a good, happy person finished with the good, happy product.

Mhmm.

And, and so you can imagine that whatever it is that they had worked on, filming's already been done.

Oh yeah.

And so these stories that they're going to be sharing on their show Homework, they're going to be portraying these people as this, this work was great, everyone was happy, look at how great this looked. And then these people who are actually living in these situations are going to be again going to Instagram, going to Facebook, going to Twitter going, what the hell, right? Like, I'm not happy at all.

No. And, and that's, again, whether it's good TV or not, it's bad press.

Yeah.

And, and bad press is worse than good TV. Yes. You know what I mean? Like, even bad TV, bad press is worse than bad TV.

Well, like, even if it's good TV, if people, you know, look, one of, one of the, one of the reasons that Chip and Joanna have the reputation that they have is cuz I think a lot of people believe that they can trust them.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, they believe that—

They've given us years.

Yes.

Of that.

And people believe them to be good people.

Yeah. Well, I mean, good.

That is, that is part of their—

Christian, you know, honest, all of the things, right?

Yeah, all that. And so it's part of their brand.

Yeah.

And so for there to be any sort of hypocrisy happening on their brand new network—

No, thank you.

I can imagine them just putting the kibosh on it.

Yeah, and maybe so. Maybe they did. But when I'm— when I read this article, it said something to the effect of, towards the end, Something to the effect of there were allegations made. After looking into it, we decided to pull it. Yep. So I feel like this was not just a hasty decision.

Yeah. You know. Well, and and so couple Andy, Andy and Candace, you know, in you know the spirit of the internet.

Yeah.

Took to the internet and released a seven-page letter that they then posted on Instagram, which we. Way to post a letter, but you know they have a lot of followers there. Over 100,000.

So I'd say they have a few followers over there.

I'm just saying people aren't going to Instagram to read a letter. No, not you know anyway.

We are we are today.

Yeah, I mean we we did the legwork for you people. We wouldn't we wouldn't read the stupid letter.

All right, which okay so so so here's the letter. They basically said, look, there's always—

Two sides.

There's always two sides to a story.

Yeah.

And, uh, we're not going to sit here today and defend ourselves because we believe that would make it worse.

Well, in—

At the moment.

In, in that letter, they also owned up to a couple of things that had been alleged.

Sure.

That like they had, um, basically they hadn't paid one of the contractors.

Right.

That they had hired or that their general contractor had hired. And like it was, Man, it was, it was like reading the, the rap sheet of like a New York gangster. Because it was like, the couple refused to release the name of the general contractor that they used on any of their projects. And I get it. They're not, they're just trying not to sell them up the river.

Right.

Because they're in, you know, they're just trying to take the heat on themselves and good for them.

Sure.

Like, you know, it's like, Meredith ain't no snitches.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, snitches get stitches. Stitches. Yeah.

I mean, because it's one of those deals where, I mean, you gotta understand, these people are putting their name behind something, but they're still— they're doing it all over the country, right? They're subcontracting out to people that live in that area, right? They're, they're vetting the people, making sure they get the right people, all that kind of stuff. It's— it— the fact— I mean, Chip and Joanna were not doing all of the work on those jobs either. Right? Chip was going in there helping out with the tear-out because he loved that.

Right.

Joanna was doing the design because she loved that. And then hiring other people to do the work.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, which, which is what lots of good contractors do.

And I, you know, I did— I don't know this for certain, but like just from the context of the article and the letter and different things that I saw, it looked like they almost work exclusively in Utah.

Well, that, that's where they're from.

Right.

And so I would assume their home base was at least starting out there.

So, yeah. Well, I mean, part— one of the things that clued me into that is in their, you know, boring Instagram letter, um, they, they said that they always hire, um, uh, licensed contractors.

Sure.

And I'm like, okay, like, that's something that you— because not every state, right, requires contractors to have licenses.

And, uh, we would know that well. Yeah, because we live in one.

We live in one.

Yep.

So, which I know Eric absolutely is appalled by.

Yeah, he really is. He's like, what?

Yeah, we all, we all survive. Yeah, none of the houses are— not all the houses are falling down, right? But anyway, so I just, I got the idea that, you know, they were trying to keep it local. Mm-hmm. Which also, I mean, that could be— that could actually be worse for them.

Oh yeah, because I mean, now that the— now the show is pulled, Uh-huh. They, they may be tanked. It could be. I mean, I mean, who knows?

This is, this is their business. I mean, this is what they do.

Right.

I mean, like, they, they go in and they remodel houses.

Right. And, and, and look, your re— your reputation is everything.

Yeah.

I mean, your name is everything. Your brand recognition is everything. Now you were on this national network that was a trusted network.

Uh-huh.

Now you've been pulled. This is problematic for them.

But could you see how like it might be better if like they'd just gone and like done stuff in Indiana?

Right?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It's like on the national stage, like everyone's like, oh, those horrible people. They screwed those people in Indiana. And like, you go back home to your, you know, hometown of Utah, everyone's like, yeah, but we know them. They're great.

Yeah. And, and again, if you go look at some of their work, it's really good.

Yeah. You know, but like, if they, if they exclusively screwed over people in their community, like that's not going away.

No, that— no.

I mean, like, you and I both know that, uh, Nextdoor and Facebook groups rule the market when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Oh yeah.

And, you know, the minute you get a bad rap and like you get like 2 or 3 people who will just like, you know, dump post on you in some of these groups, you're done.

Oh yeah.

Like, you're just not getting another job because, I mean, like, it just takes one bad experience and one mouthy person to, to just ruin you.

Yeah. mean, you know, and, and that's the thing is eventually enough press is bad press.

Yeah.

Eventually.

Yeah. I mean, you, you can—

you—

because, yeah, you can—

you—

I mean, you can slough off, you know, 1 or 2, right, you know, bad reviews.

But it— I mean, even if it's the same person, if they keep coming back up, keep coming back up again, your name recognition matters.

Yeah.

And if your name is associated with something that's poor, it's going to matter for that as well, you know.

So, and, and it, it does, it does seem as if at least, you know, you know, there's people out there who are, you know, willing to, you know, blindly or unblindly defend them. Um, you know, and it's good because I mean, these people obviously need friends. I mean, like, this is a difficult situation. I mean, like, these people are being toasted on the national stage. Um, and, you know, and like, we, I, I At least, you know, based off the, you know, amount of— short amount of research that you and I did. I mean, Chip and Joanna haven't said any statement of support for them or any, any sort of explanation for why they pulled the plug on this show, right? Um,

so, but I mean, like, this is, this is also the, you know, result of streaming culture right now.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

You know, because, you know, if this was on like, you know, you think, you think back in the day, I mean, like you couldn't just pull a show from a time slot. You had to fill that slot.

Oh yeah.

You know, you need something at the 7 PM, you need something at the 8 PM. And so, you know, you couldn't really get away with pulling a show like this. But now, because it's streaming platform, it's like, just pull the show.

Yeah. So actually, a little tangent here. Um, we— my wife and I, we just watched, um, Being the Ricardos. Have you heard of this?

Uh, the, uh, well, I know that the Lucy and Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, what's her face?

Lucille Ball?

Well, and the gal that plays her.

Um, yeah, it's got, uh, Nicole Kidman in it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is she good?

She's good. But dude, that— and I don't remember his name at the moment. The guy that plays Ricky is just— he's outstanding.

Oh, okay.

Outstanding. Anyway, um, so it's kind of the story about a specific week in time, um, during the life of Ricky and Lucille Ball. Ricky— Desi Arnaz, sorry, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.

Yeah.

Anyway, Ricky was his name.

Yeah, sorry, I'm getting confused.

Anyway, um, so they start off the show. And it's like, look, today we have shows that come out and they are knocking people off their feet. And they've got 14, 15, 16 million views. And it's— people are going, man, doing really great. So you need to understand, when primetime TV hit for the I Love Lucy show, they were seeing 60 million people watching this.

Yeah.

So we think TV's big today. The life we live is very different because of the streaming world that we live in.

Yeah.

Right? Stuff that happens live, people watch it way later. you know, they binge watch it, you know, 3 months later, right? Whatever. It's just a different, different era. So yeah, you can just choose not to put something up and no one's gonna care. But yeah, they might be like, oh, nuts.

But at the end of the day, well, I think, I think why this is noticeable, I think this was something that people were really anticipating.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, because I mean, this was the kickoff of a brand new network. Yeah, it's a big deal. It's a big deal. I mean, and look, This is, this is another brand that they're putting their name behind. The Gaines' name is behind this, along with Magnolia Market, along with, you know, all the things that they do.

Yeah.

This is a big deal.

Well, and there was— ah, man, I need to see if I can pull it.

And 2 years of filming, yeah, has gone into this, right? I mean, most likely they don't just have a back pocket person. Okay, let's fill it with this person. I mean, we may be looking for another year before they start putting content out. Who knows? Yeah, who knows?

Yeah. And you have to imagine that like the, the cost benefit of them not airing it— oh, they've made that calculation, right? So like they've decided that it's, it's more valuable to their brand to not air this thing, right? So, and like they've got Let's see what this says.

Yeah.

So this is kind of sad. So they put up a post and it's like the Magnolia Network and the Candace or the Meredith post was, can't believe we get to be a part of this. Magnolia Network launches today.

Yeah, it's a big deal.

But it looks like they got a whole cast of characters doing this network. So I imagine you know, that they're, they're gonna be like— the network itself, I imagine, is gonna be fine.

Oh, most likely. But here, here's the thing. You, you should go read some of these allegations. I mean, again, yeah, definitely read the story for yourself. Double the budget on some of them. One of them said they paid them in February 2020.

Yeah.

In September of 2020, they still had not begun the remodel.

Right.

Okay. So we're talking, what is that, 7, 8 months? 7, 8 months.

Yeah.

And nothing's happened. And so, you know, there's a lot of these things. One person asked for a refund. They, they paid in $50,000, which was half. So it was a $100,000 remodel. They hadn't done the work. They decided to get a refund. And as of writing this article, which again, over a year since the— since that had happened, they had been paid $14,000 in refund.

Geez.

So, I mean, now, that's what the article is saying, right? We don't know. We're not getting this from the lawyers, right? But let's—

it doesn't matter if it's true.

It's out there. It's what people are reading. They're gonna assume it's true.

Yeah.

And this is crazy.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

And you kind of have to wonder if, if they're, they're kind of going through their decision-making process at this point. Going, I mean, should we have spent more money to make these people happy in order to keep our TV show? Yeah, it's possible. I mean, because like you know what's going to make you more in the long run.

Yeah, I mean, because but I mean we're talking thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of dollars here.

But I don't want to incentivize people to be jerks to right you know prominent people in order to.

But we know that happens.

It happens all the time. Yeah, yeah, people know that they can. you know, they can crap on you online.

Oh yeah. I mean, it's, it's extortion, but it is what it is.

Racketeering, blackmail, whatever you want to call it. All the things.

But, but still, I mean, it happens.

Well, the one that was more concerning to me were, and I think it was 2 instances where people had said that, you know, they had good communication at the beginning and there was a budget set.

Sure.

And said, don't worry about this, we never go over budget. And then in both those cases, it was, you know, at least according to the customer, gone extravagantly over budget.

Yeah, and well, and one of them said at the beginning, said we had agreed on a $20,000 budget, right? That's what we had said we would spend. They talked us into $25,000, right? So now we're $5,000 over budget that we, you know, that's a, that's a hefty amount over.

Yes.

And then they were saying, we actually need something like 39.

40.

Yeah, 39, 40. And so it's like, wait a minute. This, I mean, double the budget that we originally started with. You pushed us past it to begin with. We're not okay with this.

But didn't, but didn't, and, and then again, according to the person.

Yeah.

Said that that wasn't communicated with them until the end.

Right.

That, that, that's when the project was completed.

That's what they owed.

Yeah. And it was like, this is not when you tell us this.

Right.

Like, you— like, before you did the things that cost that much, like, we should have been having a conversation.

Well, that's what Chip and Joanna did live on the show. They're like, hey, who's gonna make the call, you or me? I'm gonna make the call. Sorry, it's gonna be $7,000 more for a new air conditioning system. What do you want us to do? Right? They did it live on the show.

Yeah.

You know? So you— again, you kind of expect a certain level of honesty, integrity, like—

Professionalism.

Professionalism.

Yeah.

then you get something like that. And, and, and here's, here's the thing, y'all. Again, according—

we keep saying that—

according to the article. But they said, look, we went and got our lawyers, and we did— we went through the right channels, and nothing was happening. The only thing we needed— knew to do was to go to the internet.

Right.

And here's where we're at.

So if you're interested in finding the article, the article was written by somebody named Carrie Breen. Um, and they did a good job because they reached out to, you know, all parties.

Yeah.

So they were, they were able to talk, and I, at least from the article, it sounded like talk to Candace Meredith specifically, and then to, um, I think 3 of the people that had filed complaints. That's what I saw. Um, so yeah, it's interesting.

I, look, I, I'm not saying that these people didn't do their homework. But at the same time, um, for you as a homeowner, I, I think it's very, very important that you know who you're paying.

Yeah.

I mean, don't just take someone's word for it. This is your home. I mean, one of, one of the allegations was they put a deck on the end of my house— the, the Merediths— they put a deck on the end of my house covered up a sprinkler system.

Oh yeah.

And it caused a drainage issue that they then had to pay $19,000, I think it was.

To get it fixed. To get it fixed.

And it's like, again, why did they do that? Who knows? But vet the people that you're hiring.

Yeah.

Ask for references and, you know, just do your homework. It's a smart thing to do.

Yeah. For sure.

Yeah.

Well, and, and one of the other things that I remember reading was that the, that the Merediths complained that the people were in the home while they were working, which slowed down the process. Okay.

You know, what are you supposed to do?

Well, I mean, you know, sometimes people will go stay someplace in order to, you know, speed up the process, right? So you're not living in the house. But like, I, I disagree with that, man. I mean, like, if, if I'm having somebody open up the walls and change things and do different Like, they were even talking— one of the complaints was like they cut 2 doors and, you know, that one door was going into the other door. You know, like, you want to be there in order to notice the things that are going on, to address them early so that they don't become a more expensive problem further on down the road. So, like, you know, I get it that you don't want somebody

constantly looking over your shoulder. It's annoying. But, like, it's their house.

Yeah.

They need to be there and see what's going on. So, like, not only that, so, like, they don't have to make an awkward phone call.

No.

And, and say like, it's gonna be $7,000 for a new AC system. Like, okay, like you can be there on site to make that call.

Sure.

And, and actually have a more in-depth and actually look at what they're talking about.

Right. So, yep. Eric, uh, Eric G's razzing us over here on, uh, on— he says— I'm just gonna put it up here. If you're gonna razz us, I'm gonna put it up.

Uh, he said your studio has that Chip and Joanna walls. You should do a TV show. We're qualified.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's, that's what we were going for.

Kevin has the beard. Well, he can't have a haircut though.

It's coming in. No. Haircut's not happening, man. Sorry. Not happening. But we got another story.

Yeah.

And I think we need to get to that one.

Absolutely.

So why don't you, you know, go ahead and jump into that one.

Well, so one of the, one of the news programs that I actually listen to is the Tim Pool IRL podcast. And for those of you that don't know who he is, that's fine.

Yeah, I mean, doesn't really matter.

He's a journalist, he's a podcaster, he's a YouTuber, and a pretty successful one, right? And he puts most of his content up on YouTube. They go live 5 nights a week. They usually have guests. So on January 6th, they had Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Okay.

Who's the congresswoman from Georgia.

Sure.

Do you know anything about her?

I'm taking your word for it.

Okay. So no, she's kind of controversial.

Okay. Well, okay. Now I do know who you're talking about.

Yes.

Because some stuff has— yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. Right. Go ahead.

So they had her on the show January 5th.

Okay.

January 6th, which was the anniversary of the What was it? The, the people that went into the Capitol?

Oh, yeah, the riots.

Yes.

Capitol riots.

Capitol riots.

The ones.

Yeah. So then the very next day, they're doing a live show. And all of a sudden the cops come in the room. Just, just barge into the room live on YouTube.

Yeah, they're on the air. Cops walk in front of the camera.

And people are like, hey, the cops are here. And there's like— and like in the studio is actually a former cop who— and like he jokingly says, hey, did you all just get swatted? And the producer of the show gets on camera and said, yeah, we just got swatted. Tim then responds, how do you know? I'm getting messages from people downstairs. We just got swatted. Tim takes off his headphones, goes downstairs to talk to the police.

Right.

Because it wasn't just one cop.

Multiple.

There's multiple cops in the house as well as more cops out on the road and around the perimeter of the property.

Yeah.

For those of you that don't know what swatting is, it's when someone makes a prank call to emergency services in order to get the police to go into your home.

Right.

And it's— it basically means that they're getting the SWAT team to come in.

Yeah, this is— this is not just a, hey, we heard there was a disturbance.

Yeah.

You know, this is a— there is imminent danger. We have every right at this point because we have credible threat that something's happening. We have to step in.

And in this specific instance, someone had called the police and told them that 2 people had been shot and killed and another person was about to kill themselves.

Yeah.

So it was a murder-suicide situation.

Right.

So when the cops get to the house, and this is why we're talking about this, is because they do their show out of a house.

Right.

When they get to the house, the doormat say, come back with a warrant.

Yeah, that didn't stop them. No, no.

And the cops said, no, uh, emergent circumstances, we have to go in the house, right? We had a call, said that there was 2 people shot and killed and that another person was about to commit suicide. People on the outside of that house said everything's fine, said too bad, we gotta go in.

Mhmm.

So they went through the whole house, man. So, and, and like, why that's important is because, like, one, you need to understand that the police can do that, right? And, and that's also why it's so dangerous for people to be making these stupid calls because, you know, this, this actually turned out pretty well.

Well, yeah, because one, you've got a guy—

When I say pretty well, nobody got hurt.

Right, because there's been plenty of instances where a cop walks in and someone shoots him.

Yes.

Right, it's something like that. Because you're a homeowner, you get to do that, right? Uh, not exactly. But, um, Tim Pool's got a good head on his shoulders. Like, he, he does understand his rights. He does understand what being swatted is. He does understand the situations, and he was able to kind of defuse it.

Yeah. But still, But I mean, like, if you, if you watch anything that they do, I mean, like, it's a big house. There's lots of dark hallways. And so, like, you can imagine if somebody was, like, walking briskly down the hallway and the cop saw them and said, hey, stop, and that person, like, you know, there's all sorts of circumstances that could have happened where this could have gone really, really bad.

Right.

You know, and, and, you know, unfortunately, that's probably what the person who did it was intending.

They were hoping.

That something bad would happen to them.

Sure.

Because people have been killed on these prank calls.

Yep.

And so, you know, what ended up happening is, you know, Tim goes downstairs and he's talking to the cops. He's like, look, I, I appreciate you guys, I respect you guys, um, but there's nothing happening here and I'd really appreciate it if you just leave the property.

Right. At which point they left. Sure.

Because that's what they have to do.

Right.

Um, but people, people need to be aware that like that can happen. And I, I think it's good to just have that in the back of your head, not to be scared But to think through the situation, you know, and to walk through it in your mind and go, okay, if this happened, what would I do?

Right?

How would I be prepared? You know, how would I be prepared to, like, you know, address them, talk to them, and deal with the situation? Because we don't want anybody to get hurt.

No.

And but like, having someone come into your home uninvited is one of the most violating things that can happen to you.

Absolutely.

And, and to watch it, and like, it was, it was— I was actually watching the show when it happened. It was bizarro.

Yeah.

I mean, and you could just tell how the temperature in the room completely changed.

Oh yeah.

Um, once it happened, and then how everybody was kind of shook up a little bit afterwards.

Yeah.

And there was like a mixture of like anger and fear and confusion and frustration, and it just messes with you.

Yeah. And look, if you're, if you're in a state like the one we're living in, I mean, we got a lot of guns around, y'all. Yeah, I'm, I'm just— whether you believe that that's the way it should be or not doesn't really matter in that instance. Yeah. Um, you know, if you believe that something— someone's entered your home, shouldn't be there, you never know. I mean, you don't know people's circumstances, and so crazy stuff happens.

Yeah, man.

And, and, and look, we also know that we live in a weird world.

Yeah.

And if people can make a prank call for this, they can prank call something else. And, you know, again, I guess our point and the reason we bring this up— and yes, it is a shocking story.

Yeah.

In so many ways. But really, the reason we bring it up on our show tonight is we want you as a homeowner to understand the ramifications of owning a home.

Yeah.

And when you live in your home, just know that, yes, it's yours. Yes, you have rights. Yes, there are things that you possess because you own that home. It's a great responsibility. But you, you just need to be prepared in case something like this could happen. Yeah. What are you gonna do? You know?

Well, and like, this is— today, this is not something that's necessarily going to be odd or weird to have happen.

Right, right.

I mean, like, there's over 2 million podcasts in the world now. People are doing this out of their homes, and these are not just happening exclusively in studios. More and more people are working from their home, and so people are just going to be in their homes more. And so it's going to become more and more important for people to understand their rights and, and, and how they own their home, like what you're talking about.

Yeah.

Um, because, you know, the more that you're at home, the more it's more likely that you're going to have instances to happen.

I wonder, this, this would be an interesting statistic to figure out. Like, what is the number of burglary, like home burglaries that happen today versus before the pandemic hit? Just because—

I would imagine they've gone down.

I would think so too.

Yeah.

Because there's so many more people at home. And people aren't just barging into people's homes anymore. I would think.

I would imagine like across the board burglary have gone down.

Yeah.

I would imagine they've gone down more in bigger cities and, and in, in certain cities in particular, because I know that there's some of them that have said that we are no longer arresting for burglary, you know. And, and so it becomes more appealing to rob from a store, right, than it is from an individual, because they, they were saying if you, if you rob from a store if you steal, whatever, like, you know, we're just not arresting you right now.

Right.

And I think that was like, see, was it Seattle or Portland? It was one of those.

Yeah.

Um, I can't remember which one, but anyway, they basically incentivizing robbers and thieves.

Right.

You know, where, you know, we're like, you know, most, you know, most stores have a policy to not engage with those guys anyway.

Yeah, just give them what they're asking for, let them leave.

Or even if you like witness them doing it, just don't talk to them. Don't, you know, call security. call the police, and just that's the end of it, right? You know, now it's like, well, even if you call the police, they're not doing anything.

Nope.

So like, people can just walk in the store, grab what they want, and walk out.

Yep.

So I would imagine in places like that, burglaries in homes have gone way down.

Yeah, so I— but again, if a burglary happens and you're working from home, like, what are you gonna do?

Yeah.

I mean, I mean, legitimately, I think this is a question that you need to be asking yourself. What is my protocol?

Yeah.

If someone enters my home, barges down, breaks a window, whatever it is, there— even if you just see someone walking your property that you don't know who it is, I mean, be careful because it could be the electric checker, um, you know, but if you see someone that's not wearing a, you know, a certain outfit to let you know that's why they're there.

Yeah.

What are you gonna do? I mean, again, it may just be as simple as calling 911. It may not be that simple. I don't know. I mean, but making a plan, really, really important.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, you know, and know where your stuff's at. Yeah.

And, and how to get to it quickly.

How long does it take you to get there? How long does it take you to open that? How long is it like, you know, I don't wanna, I don't wanna promote anything to anybody, Because I don't want people to feel like they have to do something.

Sure.

You know, like, carry a gun, carry a knife, have a baseball bat. Well, what is your plan? A stick. I don't— whatever.

But what is your plan?

What is your plan?

And, and whatever your plan is, how are you gonna get to it?

Yeah.

And what are you gonna do to employ it?

Yep.

You know, all of those sorts of things. And, and, you know, we, we're, we live in a, a pretty responsive age. I mean, the digital age is huge.

Yeah.

In fact, if you don't know this, and we've talked about it multiple times on our show, but if you don't know this, you can text 911. If you did not know that, please.

Yeah.

No, you can text 911 in almost every place now.

That was one of, like, most revolutionary things I learned in, like, our first year of doing podcasting.

Yeah. Well, it was early, early on. Yeah. Whenever we had Chip Van Steenberg on our, on our show, and he said, we are, we have just employed a new system where you can, that was like 2 and a half years ago.

Yeah.

Where you can text 911. Yeah. Because, you may not—

And if you— like, for those of you, like, wondering why this is such a big deal, like, I'd never thought of it because, like, if you're in a situation where you can't talk—

Or, or if you just don't want to talk.

Yeah.

You know, like, I'm afraid that if someone hears me, I'm in trouble.

Exactly.

Right?

So, like, it's— that was such a cool thing to learn that, like, oh my gosh, if, like, if I'm having to hide for whatever reason and I need help, I can text 911.

It's huge.

Um, so yeah, it's huge.

So what's your plan? Have a plan. Carry out your plan only if you need to. Yeah, you know, we hope you never, you never have to. I mean, statistically speaking, you're probably not ever going to have to, but for those instances where you do, be prepared.

Yeah, and if you decide to text 911 and/or call 911 with a fraudulent call, yeah, uh, know that they've, uh, at least in this Tim Pool case, they've already said like Yeah, we've— we're already closing in on this person.

Yeah.

And, um, it looks like, at least from what I'm hearing and reading, um, that these guys are going to be facing federal charges because it looks like the call was made from another state.

Oh, oh wow. Yeah.

So, you know, at least, you know, if you're gonna be an idiot, yep, be an idiot in your own state. Yeah, you won't have to go to the federal court. Yeah, apparently the FBI is involved at this point.

Oh my goodness.

So just look, but that's what the FBI is for, is don't make poor choices. Interstate disputes.

Yep. Well, it began— do you know how it began, the FBI?

I think I've heard it before, but I don't remember.

So, um, the Osage Indians are the reason the FBI began. There's a whole book about it.

That's right.

TV show coming out about it, or a movie.

My wife read that book. That's right. Yeah.

What's really, really good, we know some people that are part of that tribe. That's right. And, um, it's really, really interesting. So just a really, really brief story since we brought it up.

Yeah. Um, wasn't it like, didn't like they find— they eventually found out it was like them?

Yeah.

So like people within the tribe doing it?

I don't, I don't I don't think so.

No?

No, I don't think so. Now, I'm—

I may be wrong.

Um, I'm gonna ask now since we know people.

Yeah.

Um, but, but basically they were, they were a very wealthy tribe, right? And because they, they knew how to use their money, they were smart with it, and people, like, they started dropping dead, right? And, um, the— they reached out to, like, to local law enforcement, and I think it was the local law enforcement that was in on it. is what I think was the problem.

Oh, okay.

And so they couldn't, like, they, they weren't really taking care of the problem because they were in on it. And so basically someone from outside had to come in and figure out what the problem was. And it wasn't the FBI at the moment, but that is what precipitated the FBI being formed, was like, we need to have some sort of agency that can go in between states and take care of these investigations on big global levels, um, or not global, um, on national levels. And so, um, yeah, pretty crazy. Yeah, crazy stuff. But so I, I don't remember the name of the book, uh, but it's the Osage Tribe Indians. You, you can find it. Yeah, by that.

Did you see Caroline jump in there? Yeah, sorry Caroline, we got a little bit off of— we, we were doing a little bit more, uh, news news, news ticker tonight. Yeah, we're covering the bomb that got dropped on the Magnolia Network and then this thing that happened with Tim Pool last week.

So they're— they've already been on it, right? With the— with the— with the Gaineses, Caroline and Eric G? What do you mean? They've already talked about this on their show, haven't they?

I don't know.

Okay, well, I thought he posted about it, if nothing else.

Yeah, no, he posted the link to this story on his— on his Facebook page, like right after you and I got done talking about it.

Okay.

So I know he's on it. And then he had another friend that was messaging me about it earlier today.

Okay.

So, yeah, no, he's— I'm sure he's all over it. Yeah, I'm sure he knows somebody over there that's— He probably does.

Yeah, he's Eric G, y'all. He's connected.

Yeah. So anyway, let me grab this thing. So we actually do have— we're going to be doing an episode on this sometime soon.

Yeah.

So I got this.

That— okay, you just got that. Yeah, it's good.

Could you see that? Was that in shot?

Yeah.

Okay, so it's, it's from Hippo, which is a home insurance company, but it's a smart home monitoring system. I'd actually be interested to hear from people if you guys have a home monitoring system. It's not like a security system. It's a home monitoring system.

Yeah.

And so it's supposed to monitor movement, water, Alarms and temperature in the house. So how is that hooked?

We're gonna have to figure out.

Yeah, I gotta, I gotta install it. My, my insurance company, I mean, like, they just sent it to me in the mail.

That's crazy.

And they said in order to lock in your lower rates, you gotta put this thing on your house.

Okay.

So I'm gonna, one, look in to see what the rate would be if I didn't put it in my house, because it kind of freaks me out a little bit.

Um, because it's like, well, you remember back, you know, you know, a number of years ago where they did you know, cars, you would plug in the little thing to your, to your system and make sure you're driving safely.

Yeah.

And if you were driving safely, you could save money on your car insurance. This is kind of the same type of thing.

It seems like that's what that is. And it basically says, like, you know, install this thing so we can keep your rate where it's at.

Right.

Um, so I'm gonna check it out. I'm gonna, you know, plug it in and see what it connects to the Wi-Fi. And it's got like these little— anyway, it's, it's an interesting little bit of gadgetry for the home. I love it. That we're going to be reviewing Very, very soon because my wife is telling me I have to put it in.

So now it's your job.

Now it's my job.

Well, guys, thanks for downloading today's episode. It's it's been interesting, and man, stay safe out there. And thanks for sticking with us. We've been doing this for a while now, but here's what we need from you guys: We need some ratings, some reviews, some followers on on. Facebook, Instagram, all of the platforms. Leave us a review. We would absolutely love that. We're here each and every Tuesday. Until next time, guys, we'll see you later.

See ya.