Is this an actual theft of Danica Patrick's race car or do my eyes deceive me? First we had this "cell phone video" a few days ago.
Then we got this "surveillance video".
Then there came this statement from co-owner Kim Green onthe AGR site that reads:
“I am disappointed that this video was leaked because it creates an unnecessary distraction as we prepare for the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500. We are in contact with the individuals in the video and are making progress in getting the car returned prior to Opening Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We have no further information to offer at this time and will provide additional details as they become available.”
And now we've got this "News clip".
Can't wait for those "additional details" from Andretti Green over the coming days. Oh, the drama of Indy.
UPDATE: The intrepid Curt Cavin is on the case.
Danica theft a hoaxI'd just like to add I feel a certain warmth for the word "hoax", manly because it reminds me of old episodes of "Columbo" and "The Night Stalker". It's a very 70s word.
A surveillance camera video circulating the Internet is real, but the alleged theft of a Danica Patrick race car is a hoax, a team member said today.
Andretti Green Racing spokesmen still haven't confirmed the story either way except for a carefully crafted response by team co-owner Kim Green that says the "leaked" video has become a distraction.
The team will unveil its Indianapolis 500 paint scheme on Friday at 10 a.m. near the Indianapolis airport. Patrick will be present.
Jeff,
Check the response from one of the members of the MWM Fantasy League.
http://mwmfantasyindycar.blogspot.com/
It makes sense and is a pretty fantastic piece of viral/tease marketing for her Indy 500 livery.
Dex
I'm not entirely sure what the deal is but it sure is looking like viral marketing at this point. That was quite the fake looking newscast.
I DECLARE SHENANIGANS!!!
Yea, it's a fake. That lady isn't a local news reporter on any of the Indy Stations.
I heard her car livery will be unveiled on Friday.
Careful with your words, Reggie. That's awfully close to this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuGIgf-ICHM
LOL, one of my favorite Office episodes! The news report was one of the most ridiculous things in the history of the interweb by the way! It looked like they just photoshopped the AGR building into the background
SHENANIGANS!!!
SHENANIGANS!!!
SHENANIGANS!!!
SHENANIGANS!!!
*cough* publicity stunt *cough
;)
It all a build up for a promo event at Indianapolis International Airport unveiling Danica's new paint job on May 1.
I can't remember where I read this but she is going to drive out of a of one of the buildings and blast down the runway. You will see...
My very first thought was that the PR machine must have been unhappy Daniker hasn't been right on top of the news machine lately, and tried to "remedy" that. All D, all the time. I'd apologize for being so cynical when it comes to that prticular PR machine, but I'm not sorry.
With a name like 'Cynical Sam' it would be bizarre to apologize for being cynical.
FWIW, I think it's pretty good. I'm not in any way a Danica fan but it is a cheap and clever way of getting some attention before they reveal her new livery.
Although all this bally hoo for the car that will finish seventh is a bit odd.
Here is the article.
http://thescore.ibj.com/content/?p=915
I realize this is a publicity stunt, but anyone notice that the cell phone video with the "cops" was uploaded to YouTube on 4/21 and then the "surveillance video" is dated 4/28? What's up with that... that's just not paying attention to detail.
So, here’s what I’m thinking... (sorry Meesh)
The initial cell phone clip at no point shows blue/red lights. This is a VERY expensive piece of machinery to... misplace. Where are the police? You have some flashes on the left side of the screen that appear to be blue lights but they're actually lens flare from the yellow lights from the security car. It’s possible that public service aids in that area use yellow and respond to non active burglaries or this is just a security guard. If it's a security guard, where was he when the car was stolen? It’s kinda hard to miss a trailer that large at O dark thirty in morning. I don't have audio on this pc so you'll have to fill me in if I missed anything that's said that may have any bearing. This was posted a week ago and we're just now really hearing about this?
The surveillance video is suspect in the differing fonts and artifact on the closing bracket "]" at the end of the timestamp. Naturally, what's also suspect is that the car is fully assembled and ready to roll. Also suspect is that the individuals involved know how to load a dallara on to a trailer, but never secure it before driving away. Now, the early press release on the AGR site made it seem as if this was an internal matter, and the ease of access seen in the video screams inside job, but why would insiders not strap the car down? A quick getaway is obviously vital but smashing your cargo in the process is a wee bit foolish. Unless of course that cargo will have new livery on it in a few days in a dual promo event for the airport as the Danicar is scheduled to shoot down a runway. But I’ve digressed here...
The news clip uses sports scores reported on 4/27. It was posted on the same youtube account as the leaked cell phone video on 4/28. Amanda Shalhoub is/was an assistant program director for Milwaukee public radio. No amount of googling revealed who action news is, and with no station identifier on the mic, I'm going with a cooked video for intraweb release.
After my massive waste of bandwidth here, I'm sure most of you want that minute of your life back since I agree that, as was already posted by other commenters, I smell PR stunt. Not a bad try, but in this information age, you need to be dead on accurate in what you do for these things if you don't want to get chuckled at. Still, I hope it works out for them. (They did get us talking about it) The clock is ticking to see if this makes it across the web with any sort of real momentum in time for the reveal.
@indycarbuzz I think they tried to make this a slowly developing story over the course of a week but it didn't really take off as hard as they hoped.
Sources: (thanks to everyone else that posted these)
http://mwmfantasyindycar.blogspot.com/
http://thescore.ibj.com/content/?p=915
http://www.wuwm.com/inside/staff_bio.php?mode=bio&first=Amanda&last=Shalhoub
lol@ Pablo!
fwiw... I've smelled publicity stunt the whole time...