News Editor Pop Quiz

[quade]

Pretend you're the news editor at Channel 6 in Orlando, Florida.

A reporter has just filed this story.

What should catch your eye immediately to tell you that there's something horribly wrong with the story and your reporter?

Just in case they catch the error, here's the way the story appears as of this posting;

ORLANDO, Fla. -- An Orlando man was taken into custody after the pickup he was driving was found to have a hidden 800-gallon tank custom-welded into the back to steal fuel, police said.

Investigators said a gas station attendant at a Hess station located on John Young Parkway called police and said the driver of a white Ford pickup looked suspicious and lingered too long at the pump.

When officers checked the man's vehicle, they found a fuel tank professionally welded and hidden inside.
"He had an 800-gallon tank in the back of this thing and it was custom-welded," Orange County sheriff's Cmdr. Jeff Stonebreaker said. "There is some very unique equipment the way this thing is set up. It is obviously not for personal business use. It is set up for one use only, which is to steal fuel and redistribute it illegally."

The man also had a key that disabled pump meters, detectives said.

A Good Samaritan helped police capture the driver at the gas station after he attempted to flee. He was not identified.
Police said the man had such a sophisticated setup that it is doubtful he worked alone and may be part of a crime ring, Local 6's Lewis Bolden said.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

[bentbiker]

Originally Posted by quade

Pretend you're the news editor at Channel 6 in Orlando, Florida.

A reporter has just filed this story.

What should catch your eye immediately to tell you that there's something horribly wrong with the story and your reporter?

Just in case they catch the error, here's the way the story appears as of this posting;

Are you concerned about the fact that the attendant evidently called it a pickup truck and they went with that description? I don't think a pickup can handle a 3 ton payload of fuel and tank, but this appears to be a step van and could possibly hold a tank that is an estimated 6 ft in length and 5 ft in diameter.

[GadgetmanKen]

They appearently have several stories of other stations getting hit that way. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner than now. I've been wondering how come tanker trucks don't have armed guards riding shotgun.
You know, I suppose it could be done even more discretely, than with the panel truck, with a pick-up having a big long flat custom tank concealed under a bed cover in the back of it. I don't know how much you could get in it, or how much it would weigh, but I've seen pick-ups with pools in the back of them so I guess it could be done weight wise, that is.

[quade]

Originally Posted by bentbiker

Are you concerned about the fact that the attendant evidently called it a pickup truck and they went with that description? I don't think a pickup can handle a 3 ton payload of fuel and tank, but this appears to be a step van and could possibly hold a tank that is an estimated 6 ft in length and 5 ft in diameter.

That's essentially my point.

The story, as filed, makes it sound as if this is an otherwise normal pick up truck with a hidden fuel tank. It's clearly not.

At first I thought it was a case of innumeracy (which is a whole other discussion), but when I look at the photos, I simply can't understand how the hell the story was written the way it was.