I saw a video posted on the Fox 25 news site about a "reported" hit and run accident in Lawrence.

Now Hit and Run accidents are serious business, because it can ruin someone's life.

With that being said, the video I saw was someone's failed attempt to probably extort some money from an unknowing driver.

If you see the video, keep these points in mind and see if you don't come to a similar conclusion...

1) First of all, why does the video camera just "happen" to be pointed at the exact spot where the incident took place?

2) The child used in this ploy appears to be "waiting" for the right time or signal to run in front of the approaching vehicle.

3) the kids across the street from the kid look like they are giving her the "go" sign when the vehicle gets near.

4) The people's (ie. "witnesses") reaction isn't of distraught or shock at seeing an accident, but shame that their ploy failed to work.

Call me cynical, but this smells of extortion or insurance fraud.

I should mention that you can't actually see the vehicle hit the child, because the parked car that she ran behind blocked that critical view from the camera.

Oh well, I guess they'll have to try again with someone else.

For a long time Lawrence was the insurance fraud capital of the world - they once staged a bus "accident" - there were 10 investigators on the bus and it intentionally hit a parked "bait" car . . . before the police arrived - over 30 people from the 'hood showed up claimed to have been on the bus (video proved otherwise) . . . by the time the sting was over (many months later) over 100 people had filed claims claiming injuries from the accident - they were easy to find - people expecting to hit the lottery actully provided their real name and address . . . lot's o people in trouble.

Yeah, whenever I see "news stories" that show a "crime" or "accident" that was video'd by a supposed stranger, I look at it with a little skeptimism. If the person just "happened" to be facing the right direction to catch the accident BEFORE it happens, and there is nothing around the scene to make a person shoot video of a "regular" scene, that's when I start thinking it's a set up.
If the people's reaction to an incident/accident are not shock and disbelief, it tells me that they were expecting what happened to happen, or had seen it enough in their "practice runs" to not react as a normal person would to an accident.

It's stories like this one that get my "BS" warning signal blaring!