Florida man steals septic tank using U-Haul truck after failed attempts caught on camera
Florida man steals septic tank using U-Haul truck after failed attempts caught on camera. The KRAK 11 News hour: The World Desk, Criminal Intent, Animals, Sports. Real stories from named sources, read by Chip Marlowe and Deb Sarkissian.
Aired 2026-08-19 19:55 UTC · 5 segments · 11 min · complete transcript below
Rundown
KRAK 11 NEWS
Good evening, Wexler County. This is KRAK 11 News, the top of the hour. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian. Coming up this hour on KRAK 11: The World Desk, where Canada and the United States say a trade deal is close, but neither country will say what's actually in it.
Criminal Intent brings you the story of two climbers who scaled the Empire State Building back in July of this year and unfurled a banner at the top. What it said, and why they did it.
Animals has whales removing barnacles in ways you would not expect.
And Sports covers the Toledo industrial fire.
The Toledo fire is not sports.
Firefighters. Athletes of crisis. Still ahead: two people climbed the Empire State Building in broad daylight and nobody stopped them until they were already at the top. That's next.
THE WORLD DESK
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian.
Deb, before we begin, I need to say something about pronunciation. I have been at this desk for ten years, and I believe our viewers deserve consistency in how we deliver international coverage.
You mispronounced Moselle Tuesday.
I said it phonetically.
You said it wrong.
We begin tonight with a cold case confession out of Germany. An eighty-one-year-old German man has confessed to murdering an American tourist thirty-one years ago in what investigators are calling one of the longest unresolved cases in the region.
Amy Lopez was twenty-three years old when she disappeared in September nineteen ninety-four. She was visiting the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz, Germany, on a solo backpacking trip through Europe.
The fortress is one of Germany's most visited historical sites. It sits right on the Rhine River, commanding view of the entire valley below.
The Moselle.
I'm sorry?
The fortress overlooks the Moselle River where it meets the Rhine. The suspect has not been named publicly. German authorities say the investigation remains active despite the confession.
We move now to the U.K., where a family of three who died in the water off Shoreham has been identified by Sussex Police.
A couple and their teenage daughter traveled from London to the coast Tuesday and went into the sea for a swim. All three were recovered by emergency services but pronounced dead at the scene.
The water temperature off Shoreham averages about sixty-three degrees Fahrenheit this time of year, cold enough to cause hypothermia in under thirty minutes of exposure.
Seventeen degrees Celsius.
What is.
The water temperature off Shoreham. It's the U.K. Sussex Police have not released the family's names pending notification of additional relatives overseas.
An ADHD charity in the U.K. has filed a formal complaint over a Channel Four documentary that aired this week.
The program is titled The Great ADHD Myth with a question mark. One British newspaper called it the most controversial show of the year. The charity says the documentary minimizes a medical diagnosis and could discourage people from seeking treatment.
Channel Four has not responded to the complaint directly, but the network did defend the program earlier this week, saying it was part of a broader public health conversation happening across the European Union.
The U.K. left the European Union in twenty twenty.
They are still part of the broader conversation.
The charity involved is ADHD UK. They represent approximately two million people diagnosed with the condition in the United Kingdom.
That is one in thirty-three people, which makes it one of the most commonly diagnosed attention disorders in Western Europe.
One in thirty-three adults. The rate among children is higher.
Which I believe was my point.
It wasn't.
Still ahead here on KRAK 11 News, a Wexler County man faces his fourth arrest of the year. What prosecutors say links all four cases, and why the sheriff believes this one is different.
That's CRIMINAL INTENT, in a few minutes.
CRIMINAL INTENT
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
I'm Deb Sarkissian. Tonight we're looking back at what we're calling the Florida Tribute — a few stories that crossed our wire this year that remind us why Florida exists.
I have been workshopping that phrase for three days. The Florida Tribute. It has gravitas.
It's four stories about septic tanks and alligators.
Back in March of this year, Marion County deputies arrested a man in Dunnellon after two separate attempts to steal a septic tank using a U-Haul truck.
Both attempts were caught on camera. Deputies say the first attempt failed when the suspect couldn't lift the tank. He returned with help.
He returned to the same camera with the same truck for the same septic tank. That is commitment to a vision.
The vision was stealing a septic tank.
Back in July of this year, a helicopter crash-landed on an island in the middle of Lake Jesup, which is home to thousands of alligators.
A nearby airboat captain heard the crash and reached the crew before emergency services could. He said the island was surrounded by gators on all sides.
Lake Jesup is the most alligator-dense body of water in Florida, which is saying something, and this captain just happens to be passing by at the exact moment a helicopter goes down.
He said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
It should be.
Also back in July, two people climbed to the top of the Empire State Building and unfurled a banner with a quote on it.
Security footage shows them scaling the exterior in broad daylight. They reached the observation deck, secured the banner, and were gone before police arrived.
The banner displayed a Jimi Hendrix quote. Authorities say they're reviewing footage but have made no arrests.
And back in March, data from Google searches revealed which cities in the United States have the most practical jokesters.
The study tracked searches for terms like prank supplies, fake lottery tickets, and how to fake your own death.
That last one's not a prank, Deb. That's fraud.
Google doesn't distinguish.
Still ahead on KRAK Eleven News, a story involving animals that we are not going to describe until you stay with us through the break, because if we told you now you would not believe it.
That's next.
ANIMALS
Time now for the Good News Desk.
You moved the chair back.
I adjusted the height to match the sight line. The left side was two inches low and it was pulling frame left every time I turned to you.
You're sitting at an angle now.
A video showing how whales remove barnacles has gained seventy-six thousand new views in the last two hours. That brings the total to just under two point three million.
Number five on the KRAK 11 animal countdown, which tracks what's gaining, not total views. Posted August eighteenth by DiFlix.
Down one spot since the last count. YouTube's own trending chart has it at number two.
The video shows barnacles the size of dinner plates. The whale uses rocks on the ocean floor to scrape them off.
You can see the moment it works. That's problem-solving. That is a mammal with a plan.
It's a good video.
It's an excellent video, Deb.
That Kemp's ridley sea turtle we reported on last week has completed its journey. Five thousand miles from Wales to the Texas coast, confirmed Wednesday morning.
The Padre Island National Seashore conservation team reports the turtle is healthy, fed, and being monitored. Fewer than one thousand breeding females remain in the wild.
Five thousand miles through open water and it knew exactly where it was going.
Researchers at the Isle of Mull have confirmed that Scottish wildcat swimming video we showed you is the first documented sighting of the behavior.
They had no idea the species could swim between islands. Fewer than thirty-five remain in the wild outside captive breeding programs.
The sighting will be included in a conservation study expected to publish next month.
Still ahead, scores, standings, and a story out of Ohio involving firefighters, which I maintain is adjacent to the larger athletic conversation. That's next.
It's not.
SPORTS
Sports.
Gordo, I need the chair raised back to its original height before we start the scores. I am sitting at an angle and it is affecting my delivery.
You adjusted the chair yourself twenty minutes ago.
I adjusted it to compensate for the left side being two inches lower, and now the compensation has created a secondary issue that requires a primary solution.
The Ohio State Buckeyes open their season September seventh at home against Akron, and if you are looking for a statement game, this is not it.
Akron went one and eleven last season.
And the Buckeyes are ranked fourth in the preseason top twenty-five, which means they are playing a team that lost eleven games, and calling it a tuneup would be generous.
Kickoff is three thirty eastern.
In Major League Baseball tonight, the Cubs took on the White Sox at Wrigley, and Pete Crow-Armstrong delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to give Chicago a four to three win.
That's seven straight wins for the Cubs over the White Sox this season.
Seven straight. And I maintain that if Gordo had rotated the camera just slightly on that final swing, we would have captured the entire arc of the moment.
We don't have a camera at Wrigley Field.
It's a metaphorical rotation.
In chess, Magnus Carlsen defended his title at the twenty twenty-six Esports World Cup, defeating Arjun Erigaisi three and a half games to two and a half.
Five hundred thousand dollars in prize money. That is more than some professional athletes make in an entire season of actual physical competition.
Chess requires physical stamina.
Sitting stamina.
Carlsen's heart rate during tournament play has been recorded at one hundred thirty beats per minute.
Formula One. Honda has admitted it only realized the full scale of its engine problems in January of this year, and through fourteen races the team has scored zero points.
Zero points.
Which I have said on this broadcast is a structural failure at the engineering level, and someone at a larger network is going to notice I said that first.
Someone at a larger network is covering the race that is happening right now.
And when they need context on Honda's trajectory, they are going to pull that line.
In soccer, Barcelona has finalized a sixty-five million pound deal for Manchester City midfielder Rodri, and the club is betting on a midfield rebuild ahead of the Champions League knockout rounds in February.
Sixty-five million pounds is one hundred ninety-three million dollars, and that is for one player who may or may not integrate into a system that may or may not exist by February.
The exchange rate is closer to eighty-five million dollars.
Still ahead on the next KRAK 11 News, at the top of the hour, we will have the latest from the sheriff's office on the disputed boat case that has now entered its seventh month.
Neither party has used the boat in six years, and neither can agree on how to sell it.
Sell the boat.
That is the next KRAK 11 News, at the top of the hour.
Good night.
Reporting behind this episode
- 81-year-old confesses to German cold case murder of US tourist in 1994
- Couple and teenage daughter who died in water off Shoreham named by police
- ADHD charity complains about Channel 4 documentary
- Empire State Building climbers display quote on banner: What does it say?
- Florida airboat captain helps stranded helicopter crew from alligator-filled Lake Jesup
- Florida man steals septic tank using U-Haul truck after failed attempts caught on camera, deputies say
- Here are the most prank-ready cities in the US
- How whales get rid from the barnicales.
- How whales get rid from the barnicales.
- How whales get rid from the barnicales.
- How whales get rid from the barnicales.
- How whales get rid from the barnicales.
- Democratic socialist scores shock win, and other takeaways from US primaries
- Why Aitana's 'Superestrella' is the surprise Latin hit song of the summer