Unsolved Mysteries Rewind · Unsolved Mysteries Rewind

The Harrassment of The Wackers

April 9, 2024·49 min·4 clips

What does the cryptic message 'cheaper, but we'll do' scrawled on the wall reveal about the Wacker harassment case?

"Cheaper, but we'll do." The crayon message on the dining room wall gives the episode its weird little hook, because this case refuses to act normal from the start. Mark opens loose. He and Amy joke about Willy Wacker's name, then steer back to the harm done to Dorothy and Bill. The side talk drifts into suburbia: who hears yelling, who reacts, and why neighborhood life now feels different. Then the details get nastier. Dorothy is not badly injured, but Bill comes home to find a .22 caliber revolver, an antique watch, a video camera, and a radio scanner missing. The scanner tangent fits the show perfectly. Amy and Mark explain how police scanners worked before phone apps, back when someone's friend's dad might keep one by the television like a little cable box. Then they hit the wall message. "Cheaper, but we'll do" is so strange that the hosts slow down and pick at the logistics. Did the intruder bring the crayon? Did they find it there? Was the haul being compared to something better, even though Mark notes that a gun, camera, scanner, and antique watch sound like a decent haul? Nobody lands the plane. What sticks is the behavior: the effort, the repetition, the sheer question of how someone keeps this going without getting bored. The episode stays skeptical and a little irritated. The facts feel ordinary and suburban. The motive does not. There is no solved-it bow, just the nagging sense that theft alone feels too small and every cleaner answer slips away.

As heard by us

A suburban mystery gets skeptical banter and an open-ended read.

Mark and Amy work through a suburban break-in with the skeptical banter that gives the show its shape. They start with jokes about Willy Wacker's name, then move through the stolen possessions, the crayon message on the wall, and the nagging question of what the intruder was…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a weird burglary, a crayon note, and two hosts side-eyeing the whole thing.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Unsolved Mysteries Rewind