Photo courtesy of Tracy Samantha Schmidt
From where I sat the inner pane looked sort of like the stuff we have around the front desk at our station. I told her it looked like it might be bullet-resistant.
Looks like I was wrong. Not only was the window not bullet-proof, it wasn't even brick-proof. A woman described (in classic police spokesperson-ese) as possibly being a "mental patient" or "a little sick", lobbed a brick through the window during the John Williams show.
Word of advice to future on-air talent. If you have one or more wacky stalkers, you might want to consider outfitting yourself in one of these ensembles before you go live:
WGN Radio has the story on their website, along with surveillance video. After completing her brick toss the woman sat down in the street, allowing the good citizens of Chicago to provide us with the first heartwarming news moment of the holiday season:
"People were giving her money [while she was] in the middle of the street..."
4 Comments
Bella said:
Joe -- Before you get all wigged out, spreading the word that there is no bullet proof glass, know the story! There are two panes of glass between the world and the WGN Radio studio. The building's regular plate glass is what broke. Behind that is the bullet proof glass that protects the WGN Radio announcers from bullets and bricks. That glass didn't get broken, or even scratched. Don't give people the wrong idea by inferring that people aren't protected in there. Not smart. The correct story was all over the news. You work in there, RIGHT? You might want to know what you're talking about before making a statement like that.
Joe the Cop said:
Bella, thanks. I don't work in there, actually, I'm a police officer, not an employee of WGN. I'm glad that my observation that the inner pane was bullet-resistant was correct. And at the time I wrote this, I couldn't find anything about whether the brick went through both panes or not.
Thank God there are astute readers like you out there to correct me.
Freida said:
Did you incite another riot, Joe?
Is "bullet resistant" glass the preferred glass in a difficult economy when "bullet proof" is just too high?
Mare Swallow said:
ugh -- she throws a brick through the wgn window, then people give her money? i am so in the wrong line of work.
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