Yeah, This Actually Happened.
It happens to everyone. I'm talking about that moment right before a live report when a woman in a wheelchair gets stuck directly behind you, you help her, and then get stuck in her wheelchair-- so you miss your live report as a result. Yeah, it happens to everyone.
Let me rewind that for you:
Tuesday afternoon I was rushing to meet my photographer at City Hall for a live report on an upcoming public hearing on the potential implementation of security cameras downtown.
Script-- written. Soundbite-- fed. Liveshot-- set.
It was close, but I was ready. Then, 5 minutes before the report, all things fell apart.
An angry man approached me. I know he was angry, because he was yelling, a lot. He was angry at the military, specifically soldiers who were "committing crimes" and "making his life miserable" and (wait for it...kids close your eyes) "saying he is f-ing his dog, all over the internet."
Yeah, this actually happened.
Four minutes to live report.
After that, he yelled at me about how I ruined the occupy movement, I was lumping occupiers with the tea party movement, and I was the reason soldiers were being terrible to him.
This whole time a woman in a motorized wheel chair is trying to get around him and me. I would have told the man, but he was so busy, you know, yelling at me. The woman, seemed to have found her way around, and then I heard a thud.
The man stomped off as the woman got suck in some hole in the side walk.
Yeah, this actually happened.
Three minutes to live report.
I ask the woman if she needs help, and quickly realize she cannot speak very well. I can see she does need help and deadlift her and the motorized wheelchair from the uneven sidewalk.
Impressed? You should be.
However, the woman decided to drive her wheelchair forward before I had stepped away from it.
Did I mention that I still had the microphone in my hand? Because I did, and then the cable was rammed into one of her tiny wheels, wrapped around my legs and nearly threw me on the ground.
Yeah, this actually happened.
One minute to live report.
I try to get the woman to stop, and she finally does. I don't have a lot of time, and try to get loose, but quickly realize that the cable that is caught in the wheel will not come out. I still can't understand how it got stuck in the first place.
I yell out for the photographer, and he tells the producer the live shot is not going to happen, because I'm caught on a wheelchair.
The only way we are finally able to get loose is to find some scissors inside of City Hall, and cut the new cable.
The woman left and I was left yelled at, sweaty, and confused.
Yeah, this actually happened.
