A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 14

This is the 12th year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts.

Tip: Go random.

This is going to sound really stupid. Well, it is really stupid. But all it takes is one time to pay off, then it becomes clever because as we know, there’s a fine line between clever and stupid.

Anyway, the very first screenwriting class I taught nearly 20 years ago was at UCLA. One night, I took two caps and some 3x5 inch index cards. I handed out 10 cards to each student, then instructed them on 5 cards to write a job [e.g., plumber, lawyer, dog catcher] and on the other 5 cards to write a location [e.g., shopping mall, swimming pool, church]. I collected the cards, jobs in one hat, locations in the other.

Then we went around the room, each student pulling a card from each hat, an exercise in generating totally random story conceits.

Someone pulls out “Doctor” and “Cruise Ship.” Nothing much there.

Then another person pulls out “Jockey” and “Restaurant.” Again nothing.

Then someone pulls outs “Cop” and “Kindergarten.”

I. Kid. You. Not. “Kindergarten Cop,” totally random, right there in that Westwood classroom. Okay, so the moment of inspiration was twelve years after the movie, but still it proved — sorta — that sometimes totally random, stupid ideas have the potential to generate story concepts… and even be a little clever.

Today’s story: 17 L.A. gangs have sent out crews to follow and rob city’s wealthiest, LAPD says.

More than a dozen Los Angeles gangs are targeting some of the city’s wealthiest residents in a new and aggressive manner, sending out crews in multiple cars to find, follow and rob people driving high-end vehicles or wearing expensive jewelry, according to police.

In many cases, they’re making off with designer handbags, diamond-studded watches and other items worth tens of thousands of dollars — if not more — and then peddling them to black-market buyers who are willing to turn a blind eye to the underlying violence, police said.

In some cases, suspects have been arrested but then released from custody, according to police, only to commit additional robberies.

Those are among the conclusions of a Los Angeles Police Department task force convened at the end of last year to identify the cause of a sudden surge in “follow-home,” or “follow-off,” robberies, so called because victims are robbed soon after leaving luxury boutiques and hotels, ritzy restaurants, trendy nightclubs and other locations where the gangs are scouting for targets.

According to Capt. Jonathan Tippet, who spearheads the task force, police have identified at least 17 gangs, most based out of South L.A. and operating independently, that are involved. There were 165 such robberies in 2021 and 56 so far this year, he said, including several over the weekend.

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Through surveillance video and other evidence, police have identified crews rolling three to five cars deep in some of the attacks, Tippet said, with gang members jumping out and blindsiding victims.

“There’s no chance or opportunity for these victims even to comply. They’re just running up to people and attacking them, whether that’s putting a gun in their face or punching them and beating on them,” Tippet said. “Pistol whipping them as well.”

In some cases, police determined that gang members inside high-end venues served as “spotters” for those outside, Tippet said, alerting them when wealthy targets were heading out.

Shots have been fired in 23 cases, and two victims have been killed, said Tippet, who also heads the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division, which investigates high-profile crimes.

“In my 34 years on the job, I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

Is this an actual trend or police and media hyping crime because that’s what they do, I don’t know. I do know this:

• There is enormous wealth disparity in this country.
• The COVID pandemic has made it even more difficult for some people to find employment.
• Low-wage jobs force employees to work two, even three jobs to maintain an even substance lifestyle.

Seeing this news article and thinking what movie or TV series could emerge from that as a story concept, my mind went to this:

A modern day Robin Hood. And here is the Protagonist:

Stringer Bell from The Wire. Call it a prequel. A The Wire multiverse where the man has survived. Or a Stringer Bell inspired character.

Imagine a character who sees the injustice of economic inequity. Why do billionaires deserve to exist? They have money to make money. Greed personified. The worst of human traits. Monetary gluttony.

If, as the Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil,” then whatever our Protagonist does to balance the scales by robbing the ultra-rich is balanced out morally by the sheer hubris of the wealthy class.

In the mind of our modern day Robin Hood, the people his crew robs are not victims, rather they are victimizers because of their lifestyle, their accumulation of wealth with no regard for the needs of others.

And while we’re at it, why not tells this story where the Protagonist is a female?

In this story, the Nemesis is the cop — or more likely FBI agent. There are parallel storylines: Robin and the Cop. Akin to movies like Heat, The Fugitive, Thelma & Louis, and A Perfect World.

That’s my 14th story in this month’s series. What would YOU do with this setup?

Other stories in this year’s A Story Idea Each Day for a Month:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13

Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.