

Captain Crunch needs your help - andrew_k
http://savingcaptaincrunch.com/

======
ericlavigne
There's no mention of this on John Draper's personal website or MySpace page.
How do we know this message is from John Draper?

<http://www.webcrunchers.com/>

<http://www.myspace.com/jdcrunchman>

(Found webcrunchers via Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Draper>
and found MySpace via webcrunchers.)

~~~
sp332
There is a Facebook page, but it doesn't look more legit than the
savingcaptaincruch website. They might both be fake.
<http://www.facebook.com/jdcrunchman?v=wall>

EDIT: On inspection, the stuff from early October and back seems pretty OK.
I'm more inclined to believe this now.

~~~
jdcrunchman
None of my doctors are online to make comments, nor are they legally able to
put anything public about their patients.. I was able to get Doctor Roy
Ashcroft to make a statement on my condition but he cannot legally go into
details, and if you look on both my Facebook page, and "savingcaptaincrunch"
page, is a complete diagnosis on my condition including diagram of my spine,
and how this condition is deteriorating the nerves that control my hands...

~~~
romanows
People just want to make sure it is you requesting the money and not a
scammer. You just need to convince people that you are you and then HN/reddit
will be happy to help. Hope you get well!

------
weeksie
The US healthcare system never fails to shock and horrify me. I am so thankful
for my dual citizenship every time I hear a story like this. Pathetic and sad.

~~~
gst
I just wanted to post _exactly_ the same.

I imagine that John Draper has some sort of health insurance. So why are those
things even an issue? Healthcare is one of those few areas where I think that
a government backed approach provides more benefits than a private approach.

~~~
projectileboy
I wouldn't assume he has health insurance. He's gone through long periods of
unemployment.

~~~
jdcrunchman
Agreed, not only have a not too long periods of unemployment, I cannot be
employed in my current condition, let alone the fact that I'm a convicted
felon in the eyes of the credit companies, and databases. I was quoted at
$12,000 to fix my records and get them straight. So head hunters who access
this database will see that I am falsely stated as a convicted felon. When in
actuality during my initial court hearings on my past crimes, it is stipulated
that after successfully completing probation, my felon would be expunged.
Unfortunately, the databases like Equifax and others, have me mistakenly put
down as a felon.

~~~
sp332
Why so much money? It's obviously not in Equifax et al.'s best interests to
have incorrect information in their databases. One would think they'd be glad
to fix the records, at least for a reasonable fee.

~~~
jdcrunchman
I was told that by the time of my inquiry, that I would have to hire a private
detective to go in and see information I'm not entitled to along with my
personal information that I know to be in there and needs to be corrected. The
fees for this at the time is $100 or was. But I don't have any money right
now, so it's really a moot point at this point. Excuse the pun!

------
sgt
USD 6000 + 2000? I don't want to seem insensitive, but a guy with Crunch's
talent should easily be able to make the payments. He could take it across
several years if he wanted to.

(Or he should have just gotten medical insurance in the first place, although
I've heard some nasty things about private health insurance in America.)

~~~
eli
He almost certainly does have insurance. A "Co-pay" is the small amount of the
medical procedure cost that the insurance company bills to you.

~~~
faboo
The co-pay is the portion the insured pays. It isn't always small. It isn't
even always a small percentage. A procedure my wife recently had, the co-pay
was about half the total cost.

Co-pays depend the insurance company, the plan, the health care provider, and
the procedure.

------
sandofsky
There are barely visible links at the bottom of the page for "Shop the Best
Verizon Wireless Deals" and "Thanks to Top CD Rates, Bank Rates and Bad
Credit".

Nobody can verify the affiliation with John Draper.

I suspect this is a both a scam and black hat SEO.

~~~
Indyan
She is using wordpress, and many wordpress themes have these sponsored links
out of the box. These themes are called sponsored themes and have generated
quite a bit of controversy in the past.

------
eps
FWIW the 10K number is about right. The average cost of removing spinal hernia
in Mayo clinic is 11K as of a year ago, and I expect his case to be similar.
That's covering the whole stay, and excluding any follow-up physio.

However the site does look fishy... or if CC in fact can't afford a 10k
expense, then things are just plain sad :|

------
thebooktocome
Hugged into submission by an overzealous fan?

...

Really?

~~~
chaosmachine
Someone I know suffered a stroke from an overzealous hug. Old people are
fragile.

~~~
noonespecial
No, _people_ are fragile. They can have underlying health problems no matter
what their age. Broken bones, recent surgeries etc.

If you're going to go up to someone and grab hold of them you have a
responsibility to make sure you won't hurt them. It is my opinion that you
should just never do this to someone you don't know.

~~~
khafra
Yup. Last Thursday I watched a co-worker grit his teeth in pain when someone
came up and gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder that had just undergone
rotator cuff surgery. I personally give big, hearty hugs; but only to people I
massage or spar with.

------
frou_dh
The last few times he came up on HN I'm sure there were several accounts of
him being accomplished but not a particularly nice person. I have no idea. Can
that be balanced out?

~~~
wyclif
One friend of mine (very reliable source) told me that he met Crunch once and
he was an annoying d-bag. Apparently what happened was my friend, who is a
smoker, stepped out discreetly for a cig far away outdoors but Draper saw him
anyway and raised a whiny fuss, so much so that my friend wanted to slap him
into next month despite the respect he had for his past exploits.

~~~
jdcrunchman
excuse me! I'm highly allergic to that of smoke. It is a medical condition I
have no control over. When people smoke near me, I get extreme nausea,
headaches, and I find it very annoying and repulsive, not to mention it being
a very filthy habit. I have every right to complain just like anybody else.
You're all entitled to your own opinions about me, that's fine, just don't lie
about it.

------
jdcrunchman
I have been inundated with an amazing response, I know I need to update
"webcrunchers.com", My "wiki", and my Facebook page. But due to my lack of
being able to type at normal speed, I'm forced to use Mac Speech Dictate,
which breaks when I get a skype call, or type with my thumbs. I can use a few
more volunteers... "

~~~
jdcrunchman
Webcrunchers has been updated.

------
ayb
Could they have added any more self promotional links at the bottom?

~~~
crocowhile
If you are pledging for money the least you should do is introduce yourself.

~~~
jdcrunchman
that shouldn't be necessary, if you make a donation I know who you are, which
is going to make it very easy for me to return your money if I don't need it.

------
aroon
Being such a skilled programmer, one would think he could get a loan for a
measly 10k and be able to easily pay it back with the kind of salaries we're
paid these days...

~~~
wmf
The demand for 6502 assembly programming isn't what it was.

------
exhilaration
Sent you a few bucks, best of luck with the surgery.

------
bluesnowmonkey
Who are the engineers that built the systems he broke into? How is their
health these days?

