TV reporter fired for jumping on classic cars during live segment
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SACARAMENTO, California — A television reporter was fired after he jumped on classic cars during a live segment while covering the Sacramento International Auto Show.
Videos posted by social media users show Angel Cardenas, a reporter for Good Day Sacramento and CBS 13, standing alone amid several 1950s-era Ford Thunderbirds before the auto show opened to the public Saturday.
Cardenas mentions that nobody else was around and then hops onto the trunk of one of the cars, stretches out and asks the anchor in the studio, “Tell me what you think about this pose, Tina?”
The reporter then enters the driver’s seat of another T-Bird and opens the door far enough to ding the adjacent vehicle. Cardenas grabs a can of starter fluid and says, “I feel like a kid in a candy store without the owners because you can do anything.”
“No one is out here to tell me which car I can’t go in because some of these are off limits so I’m just going to live on the wild side,” Cardenas says.
Cardenas then moves to where a new hybrid Ford SUV is being displayed, steps over the barrier and jumps on top of the hood.
“That didn’t sound good,” Cardenas says.
A person off-camera can be heard telling Cardenas to get down, at which point the segment ends and the shot cuts back to the studio.
Officials with the auto show told The Sacramento Bee that they reached out to KMAX, which is owned by CBS, regarding the incident and an executive told them the involved reporter was “terminated immediately.”
“This was an isolated incident with a rogue reporter and fortunately neither one of the cars was damaged. I reached out immediately to the management of the station calling for an apology to all involved in the incident,” Stacey Castle Bascom of the Sacramento International Auto Show said.
The incident was originally reported Monday by automotive blog Tire Meets Road.
“Standing in the middle of some classic Ford Thunderbirds, cars that owners spent thousands of dollars and man-hours restoring, Angel leaps onto the trunk of a Yellow Ford Thunderbird, the entire weight of his body pressing onto the classic sheet metal,” Paulo Acoba of Tire Meets Road wrote.
Cardenas began working for Good Day Sacramento in 2012, according to Newsweek. Previous to that, he was a weather, traffic and news reporter for Sacramento’s ABC affiliate, KXTV. He has also done radio work for ESPN.