Friday, August 14, 2015

Wes Blackman performs magic: explains how it's done to the TV news

It was a fun night last night on Twitter.

The TV news was all over the place about the shooting of an intruder in 'Lantana'. Curious, went to the Post to see what they were reporting and this is what Julius Whigham II had to report:
     An unidentified resident shot and killed one intruder and injured a second one Thursday night south of town, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
     The shootings took place on Hibiscus Tree Drive in the San Castle neighborhood south of Hypoluxo Road and east of Interstate 95.
Meanwhile the TV news is reporting the shooting took place in Lantana and one report even had Boynton Beach. I verified Mr. Whigham was correct and started Tweeting the news media, specifically all my good friends at CBS12/WPEC. One or two reporters Tweeted back they would verify the information.

Now for the magic. How did I know, after less than 2 minutes of research, that the location wasn't in Lantana? Explained, step by step:
  • Mr. Whigham provided the street: Hibiscus Tree Drive
  • Went to Google Maps
  • Zoomed in for a house number (street view)
  • Went to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser
  • Voilà! The first two numbers for the parcel were "00" (unincorporated Palm Beach County)
Not very hard is it?