WFTV reporter gets soaked

[long521]

There is video on the site.
http://www.wftv.com/news/8482208/detail.html

WFTV Reporter Soaked While Investigating Headstone Story

POSTED: 9:54 am EDT April 5, 2006
UPDATED: 3:24 pm EDT April 5, 2006

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Some Orange County residents are still waiting for their loved one's headstones. Customers said the headstone maker has been hard to find since a suspicious fire at his business.

Channel 9 went to his last known address, but didn't get any answers. Instead, the person at the home threw a pitcher of water on WFTV reporter Leland Vittert.

The State Fire Marshal's Office is looking into the possibility that the owner of Caguas Memorials set fire to the building in December. A week before the fire, one customer paid nearly $2,000 for a headstone that was never delivered.

"God is going to judge him," said victim Cheryl Rayburn.

The business owner, Orlando Cuevas, has lost his license to operate a memorial business. The Orange County consumer fraud unit is also looking into his business.

[pre-set]

I seem to remember a crew up in B'more - I think it was a 'BFF crew - that had a glass full of bleech tossed into the face/eyes of the reporter.

Also, during the JFK jr. saga up on Marthas Vineyard, some assshat spalshed a bucket of seawater into the racks of an uplink truck.

I almost got pissed on once at a homeless shelter.

What is it with angry people and liquids, man?

[Sentinel94]

would love to see the "un-edited" version...

[WillyG]

I'm not saying Leland deserved it, but he does have a bit of an overaggressive (hyper) approach at times. He's young (21 or so) so at least he is getting broke into the business quickly.

[Latin Lens]

Young eager reporter,eh.......sounds like he is a little wet behind the ears!!!!! hahaha. I am so stupid.

[SLIMJIM]

The photog that shot that said what we dont know is that they were outside the front of the house for a good 10-15 minutes while the reporter kept knocking on the front door...the resident repeatedly told them to leave, and threatened to call the cops as well. Now im not excusing her actions, but maybe its understood a little bit better this way.

[RichVid]

what we dont know is that they were outside the front of the house for a good 10-15 minutes while the reporter kept knocking on the front door....


Sounds like he was determined to get something "dramatic" on tape... Since he suceeded, he can't be that upset!

[Lenslinger]

I was in an outlying county doing the obligatory drug round-up package when the deputies led the scariest hillbilly family by in handcuffs. Most freaky was the family matriarch - a beedy-eyed little granny facing crack-trafficking charges, who glared angrily into my lens as she filed past in shackles.

Hoping she hadn't already vexed me with some kind of backwoods outhouse voodoo, I positioned myself to get a beter shot of her and her clan as they made their return trip. When Grandma CrackPipe saw me lying in wait, she nudged her oversized nephew, a lumbering giant who seemed to be missing a few fairly important chromosomes.

Still, he had enough of his D.N.A. strand intact to dig deep and come up with the biggest, nastiest loogie ever captured on videotape. When he passed back by my position he let it fly - and the lethal concoction of snot, Mountain Dew and tobacco juice warbled in slow-motion right for me.

Lucky for me, the inbred saliva projectile fell just short of full-contact splashdown and only a little spittle struck the very center of my lens. Instinctively, I racked focus to highlight the hillbilly spit running down my camera's eye.

It made for a great piece of tease video and we played it back in the edit bay about a million times before eventually losing interest. But not before a half dozen photogs offered their finest analysis of the snot-rocket's aural qualities, phlegm-consistency and intended flight path.

Come to think of it, we broke down that seven seconds of tape like it was the Zapruder Film. "Back, and to the left...back, and to the left..."

[Baltimore Shooter]

I seem to remember a crew up in B'more - I think it was a 'BFF crew - that had a glass full of bleech tossed into the face/eyes of the reporter.

The reporter was Kathleen Cairns. I think she sued the person who threw the bleach at her but I don't know what the outcome of that was.

Kathleen is apparently doing well, she's still reporting at WBFF.

Warren

[WestCoast]

Kathleen almost lost her eyesight. Her photographer managed to get her away and get water to flush her eyes.

I know it happened as she was leaving her card on the door. Kathleen is not the aggressive type at all. The woman was tired of reporters knocking on her door and took it out on Kathleen.

[FTOJRLST]

I once got doused with a marguarita while shooting a story in a Mexican Restaurant. (Full Story (http://tvphotogblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/raging-public.html) on the blog)