Online chat with a Taco Bell victim

[rbcp]

A couple of years ago I happened across this girl's Yahoo profile and I noticed she worked at Taco Bell.  I wondered, could this be our Taco Bell?  The very same Taco Bell from the PLA TV video?  So I whipped up a new Yahoo account and tried to chat with her about it.  She was only 17 or 18 at the time and she took her job way too seriously.

mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:02:35 PM): Hey Jessica, I need to ask you a question. I don't know you but I promise I'm not a perv or anything. I just have a quick question.
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:03:00 PM): So can I talk to you for just a minute?
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:03:48 PM): Pleeeeease? It's about Herb.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:04:02 PM): who is this
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:04:37 PM): My name's Chad. I don't know you. I just wanted to know if you work at the Taco Bell by Eastgate. Cause if you do I have a question about it.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:04:54 PM): i worked there for a year
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:04:58 PM): but then transfered to alton
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:05:09 PM): but i still know a lot about it cuz all my friends work there
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:05:20 PM): Where you there when someone was taking over the drive-thru speakers and messing with the customers?
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:05:39 PM): yeah
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:06:00 PM): I know the guy who did that. He lives in St. Louis. I was just wondering what it was like working there that day.
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:06:12 PM): I hope you weren't offended by it.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:06:21 PM): we all were
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:06:38 PM): Aww. Well I'm sorry. I guess you don't wanna talk about it then?
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:06:49 PM): actually i'm kinda interested
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:07:09 PM): I was just wondering what it was like to work there when it was happening. Was it complete chaos there?
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:07:20 PM): it was complete bullshit
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:08:01 PM): we had customers who came through and whoever it was
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:08:06 PM): said really bad things to them
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:08:11 PM): we could have lost a lot of money
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:08:14 PM): we did lose a lot of money
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:08:18 PM): a lot of customers
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:08:20 PM): Yeah, I was with the person when they were doing that.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:08:24 PM): and we had to take orders by hand
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:08:31 PM): where were you at?
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:09:02 PM): In the parking lot at Eastgate. My friend in St. Louis had radio equipment he was doing it with.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:09:18 PM): why would you do something that stupid?
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:09:38 PM): It wasn't me! I did find the whole thing pretty funny though.
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:09:45 PM): It seems like you didn't though.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:09:49 PM): no, not really
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:10:17 PM): Well, at least you can appreciate how easy work normally is now that you had to go through that.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:10:48 PM): trust me, that wasn't the worst thing we've ever had to go through
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:10:57 PM): Really? What's worse than that?
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:11:07 PM): a lot
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:11:12 PM): how did you know all of our names?
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:11:49 PM): I don't think we did. Maybe we just heard you guys say them over the radios. Neither of us know any of the employees there.
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:12:58 PM): I'll leave you alone now. I just happened across your profile and noticed that you worked there. Thanks a lot for talking to me about it!
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:13:05 PM): no wait
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:13:07 PM): And I promise it won't happen again.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:13:12 PM): it can't happen again
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:13:18 PM): Why not?
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:13:21 PM): we got our system fixed so noone can tap into it
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:13:40 PM): Haha, that's what you think. It would be simple to do again.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:13:52 PM): yeah ok
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:14:36 PM): They just changed the PL tone. It's a code that is played whenever you talk into the headsets. The frequency never changed, I can still listen to Taco Bell on my police scanner. It would take less than 15 minutes to figure out the new PL tone.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:15:24 PM): if your friend lives in stl why would he come all the way here to screw around?
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:15:40 PM): I live in Alton and we're friends.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:16:04 PM): gotcha
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:16:10 PM): so why didn't you go to alton taco bell?
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:16:30 PM): I think that Taco Bell was torn down at the time, wasn't it?
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:16:40 PM): uh no
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:16:45 PM): that was only about a year ago
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:17:05 PM): Hmm. Well I never go to Alton's to eat. East Alton's is closer to where I live.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:17:53 PM): how old are you?
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:18:05 PM): late 20's
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:19:08 PM): and you're that immature? wow, that's not much to say
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:19:16 PM): Hey, I've really got to get going. Thanks again for talking to me.
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:19:28 PM): Yes, I'm very immature and have no life. You got me figured out.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:19:30 PM): yeah, you have a great time, by the way
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:19:44 PM): if you would have been caught, you would have gotten in SO much trouble
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:20:00 PM): we had police involved and everything
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:20:05 PM): Yep, I realize that. Good thing we didn't get caught!
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:20:06 PM): b/c of the threat to herb
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:20:25 PM): Which threat?
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:21:30 PM): telling him to go over to sonic or w/e cuz you'll kick his ass
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:21:58 PM): Ahh, that threat.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:27:20 PM): are you done talking to me now
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:27:51 PM): I suppose so. Not really much else to talk about with you.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:27:57 PM): jee thanks
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:28:08 PM): Well no offense or anything.  I just don't know you.
jessica62024 (9/14/2004 9:28:22 PM): yeah well, it's a good thing, cuz i'd hit you for doing somethign that stupid if you did
mynameisnotoffensive (9/14/2004 9:28:38 PM): I sure don't wanna get hit.

[frog]

I sure don't wanna get hit.

I sure don't wanna get hit.

[Raptor]

Oh boy! we can Instant message RBCP AND TACO BELL VICTIM!!!

[rbcp]

Nah, I deleted that account as soon as I finished talking with her.  I was still paranoid about getting in trouble for that prank.

[ghostman]

I'm surprised she separated "a lot" ... most of the Taco Bell employees here can't, because they don't speak English.  Authentic!

Can you really be prosecuted for some vague idle threat like "I'll kick yer ass" or one similar simple phrase over the phone?  I don't remember you threatening anyone anyway.

"Do you have horsemeat tacos? ...calamari gordita?  ...helium nachos?  ...baby taco supreme?"  -only at LaGrange, KY Taco Bell!  Try 'em, they take requests!  (they are right now)

Late 20's?

[rbcp]

Can you really be prosecuted for some vague idle threat like "I'll kick yer ass" or one similar simple phrase over the phone?  I don't remember you threatening anyone anyway.

I was more worried about the whole being involved with taking over their drive-thru business.  People have been arrested for that before, and we'd been screwing with them for weeks by the time that video was made.  We were driving the management nuts there. 

I remember one night, we'd been harassing them for awhile.  Then I got on the radio and introduced myself as a representative from the FCC.  I said we'd been monitoring this channel and asked if they'd been experiencing problems.  The manager actually believed me and ranted on about how we'd been harassing them all week.  He was pretty pissed when he realized I wasn't really with the FCC.

Months after all this, Spessa and I were going through the drive-thru there.  Spessa asked to speak with Herb the manager. (Referred to as Edwin in the video.)  The girl told us he was busy at the counter right now so Spessa asked if she could give him a message.  The girl said sure.  Spessa says something like, "Tell Herb he's got a really nice ass."  The girl at the window looked pretty horrified at the thought of passing along the message.  I wonder if it was Jessica.

[swangdaddy22]

dude , ur a genius!!  u must have alot of time on ur hands.  But you the shizzle!!

[I-baLL]

Okay, here's my lame Taco Bell story. So a while back, like 6 years ago, maybe more, I worked at my local Taco Bell. So, now you probably heard about the whole e. coli news story that involves them. Well, I've got something related. When I was there I usually worked the closing shift. So I was one of the people who ended up doing the dishes. Well, they washed dishes by the 3 sink method. They had 3 sinks. One had soapy water in it, the other sink was empty, and the 3rd sink had bleach on it. So normally the 3 sink method involved you dropping a dish into the soap water sink, then rinsing the soap off in the second sink, and then sterlizing the dishes in the bleach sink and finally putting them back on the shelves. Well, apparently, it was policy there to do things differently. The policy was that after you sterilized the dish in the 3rd sink you'd dip it in the soap sink again and put it back on the shelf! This made no sense because the first sink was the dirtiest sink and plus the biggest cause of "food poisoning" isn't food but soap poisoning. The management's excuse was that "nobody eats from these dishes". Ofcourse, those were the dishes in which ALL the food was made. So, yeah, if you eat at Taco Bell you might get diarrhea for that very reason. Cause people are idiots.

[nb7899]

Why did the management want you to dip it in the soapy water afterwards anyway?  It seems pretty pointless to me.

[I-baLL]

Why did the management want you to dip it in the soapy water afterwards anyway?  It seems pretty pointless to me.

Yeah, I never figured that out myself.

[mb2025]

i tried to talk to her on my yahoo but she didnt answer

[grishnav]

I'd love to post up some of my..uh...friend's radio pranks, but we're also afraid of getting in trouble for them. After all, they are all felonies. Federal ones at that.

But in addition to drive-thrus, we hit security, tow truck, cab companies, paging systems... pretty much anyone and everyone who uses a radio. Except for Motorola Type II (and even then, only because it's hard, not impossible), no signal coding scheme or trunking system has stopped us yet. There's one guy we've been messing with since the late 90s, with recordings as early as 2001 (jesus fuck have we really been owning the guy for over 10 years now?).

I've even been toying around with the idea of writing software to generate EAS tones and play a wav. The spec is open and fairly simple FSK. I just don't know dick about audio programming.

See, the EAS signals are distributed out from a central location to from hubs via UHF, and then rebroadcast on hilltops on VHF to receivers. If you got close enough to a hub, you could override the signal coming into it, which would then be rebroadcast to all the towers in the area as the weather signal. If you had software to generate EAS signaling, you could conceivably do your own semi-regional weather/amber alerts via the early warning system, which would then be picked up by local radio and TV stations, and...

But again, just toying with the idea...

[sigflup]

See, the EAS signals are distributed out from a central location to from hubs via UHF, and then rebroadcast on hilltops on VHF to receivers. If you got close enough to a hub, you could override the signal coming into it, which would then be rebroadcast to all the towers in the area as the weather signal. If you had software to generate EAS signaling, you could conceivably do your own semi-regional weather/amber alerts via the early warning system, which would then be picked up by local radio and TV stations, and...

To be honest with you I'm surprised this doesn't happen all the time. EAS has been around for what, 50 years? If anyone has any stories of abuse I'd really like to hear them! It's an interesting concept, EAS is kinda like a radio virus.