Good Idea / Bad Idea

We’ve all had one of those moments. Your mouth works before your brain can stop it. Like greeting your friend on the plane with a loud “HI JACK!” Shortly after that you’ll realize the error of your ways. You’ll also become intimately aware of the various and sundry meanings of the phrase “body cavity search.” Think of it this way, these perfect strangers will know more about you than your spouse. Lawyers have an entire site set up for legal good ideas / bad ideas that could cover a year’s worth of posts here were I interested enough to care. Suffice it to say that asking a judge if your, decorated Marine client, is a pedophile ranks near the top. It’s akin to dressing up as a piñata for Halloween and handing out large sticks.

But, fortunately for us, Florida exists. As Todd Wright reports, a resident there set the bar so high (or is that so low) for a good idea / bad idea moment that it may never be eclipsed.

Unless not until the next press release comes out of Florida police department.

Florida motorists can get quite creative when trying to get out of a speeding ticket, but Jonathan Paul Rorech may have taken the cake.

The Naples man had what he thought was a foolproof plan to get out of a ticket, police say — make a prank 911 call.

After being pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy Tuesday, Rorech placed the emergency 911 from his cell phone, the police report showed, and reported there was a shooting in the area and a victim was on the ground, the Naples News reported.

The call was dispatched to the deputy, who dropped what he was doing to attend to the alleged more serious matter, the police report stated.

Rorech, who was allegedly driving with a suspended license and going 45 mph in a 30 mph zone, drove away thinking he had pulled a fast one on the law, apparently

Unfortunately for Rorech, the police have heard of caller ID.

When the deputy arrived at the address given for the fake shooting, the scene was empty and no one had heard any gunshots.

He realized that something was wrong. The deputy quickly retraced the call and got Rorech’s voicemail.

Now instead of just a traffic ticket, Rorech was arrested for making a false 911 call.

Just FYI, in case you think this was a great idea, you could end up doing 3 years in jail for that little prank.

In Las Vegas, in order to keep the land they paid $15,000,000 an acre for (yes, you read that amount right), Mariott Hotels was forced to open a casino in a tent.

Steve Friess has the whole story.

The last time a casino opened around here, the champagne flowed freely, the women wore jewels, “Nightline” taped a segment and Brandon Flowers jammed in the lobby bar.

This time, a guy named Walter Jones unlocked the door, then headed back to his car because the 6 a.m. desert air can be nippy and the fellow responsible for turning on the lights and heat hadn’t shown up yet.

A few hours into Jones’ shift on Wednesday, nobody had shown up to play any of the 16 video poker slot machines inside the 20-by-20 tent erected on a plain of asphalt at the corner directly across from the entrance to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

If you think this gambling hall doesn’t look like other casinos near the Las Vegas Strip, you’d be right. Because of a peculiarity in local law, landowners can lose valuable zoning designation that allows casinos if there’s no active gambling held on their land in an 18-month period. That leads to “pop-up casinos.”

Also, neither Jones nor his bosses cared. In fact, for simplicity’s sake, it would be easier if there was no money exchanged, the better for keeping the paperwork to a minimum.

The purpose of this “casino,” which shut down for good when the clock struck 2 p.m., was not to make money.

Rather, it is to preserve the ultra-valuable zoning designation for unrestricted gaming that exists on the parcel. County law requires active gambling to take place on property zoned for gaming for at least one shift every 18 months or else the zoning expires.

Thus, the landowner, Marriott International, hired Vegas-based United Coin Machine Co. to create this pop-up casino.

It doesn’t even have a name, but in 2008 Review-Journal reporter Howard Stutz dubbed it “Trailer Station” as a play on the ubiquitous middle-of-the-road locals casinos from Station Casinos that includes Boulder, Texas, Sunset and Palace Station.

Many of them take place in small trailers, although today’s took the form of a tent.

United Coin representative Rob Woodson said Marriott has told him that it plans to put up a 3,500-room flagship casino-resort where the tent stands.

What a great job! Show up and hope you never see a customer. If you’re successful you probably get a bonus.

But, seriously, $15 mil for a parking lot? I am clearly in the wrong line of work.

Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG AM 1280, every Thursday morning around 9:10!