Badass Dad Takes Final Stand Against Big Business Takeover (17 Tweets)

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mattstaff
Jul 21, 2019 1:00 AM EDT

This is an actual rollercoaster ride. What better way to honor your dad than to tell one badass story about his final stand against a big business takeover. All would've worked out just fine if it weren't for those damn meddling kids. 

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  • 01
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler I never really talk about this, but my father was in prison when I was born. He was indicted in the summer of 1988 while my mom was pregnant with me.
    via @RonLechler
  • 02
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler After his conviction, he was incarcerated at Kettle Moraine Prison in Wisconsin before being transferred to Coldwater Correctional in Southwest Michigan, closer to where I'm from. I'll explain what happened.
    via @RonLechler
  • 03
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler This was all before I was born, but my dad used to own and operate an amusement park in my hometown. I come from a little beach town on Lake Michigan, and we're a tourist-based economy
    via @RonLechler
  • 04
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler Everyone in town makes all their money in the summer then try to sustain themselves for the rest of the year. It's really stressful way to live. You count on those three months as your main source of income, and if it's a slow summer, you're struggling until next June.
    via @RonLechler
  • 05
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler Anyway, the amusement park would close for the winter and stay open the st of the year. Over the years, business had started to slow down, but it was never in danger of closing down.
    via @RonLechler
  • 06
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler But by the mid-'80s, out-of-state investors had started buying homes and family-owned business and converting them into condos or luxury apartments for wealthy Chicago tourists. Most of the town had been bought and sanitized, but my dad refused to sell the park.
    via @RonLechler
  • 07
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler He got all sorts of offers and turned them all down. He didn't want to see his legacy get turned into some empty parking lot or something, but all these potential buyers just wouldn't take no for an answer.
    via @RonLechler
  • 08
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler People with that much money are really used to getting what they want, and when they don't get it, they turn shitty really quick. They threatened to have the whole area re-zoned so my dad would be forced to close down the park.
    via @RonLechler
  • 09
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler They had safety inspectors in their pocket and paid them to make false claims about the conditions there. There was pressure from other people in town to sell and just get it over with, but dad would not hear it
    via @RonLechler
  • 10
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler He wasn't going to submit. He refused to be muscled into giving up his everything he had built. He had to up with a plan
    via @RonLechler
  • 11
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler He decided that the only way he could keep the park open was to make the property undesirable to these investors; turn it into something they wouldn't buy. So he dressed up as a phantom.
    via @RonLechler
  • 12
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler He would put on his costume and 'haunt' the grounds of the amusement park and scare everyone who wanted to buy the property. He had a projector that would make a hologram of a ghost to give the illusion that he could walk through walls.
    via @RonLechler
  • 13
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler He had a reel-to-reel tape deck to produce a ghostly laugh. He even used dry ice to create a spooky fog.
    via @RonLechler
  • 14
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler The crazy thing is that it worked! The amusement park gained a reputation for being haunted, and subsequently, one wanted to buy it anymore. My dad stopped hearing from investors and the threats and pressure just sort of wen away. Everything was perfect...
    via @RonLechler
  • 15
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler Until these four teenagers and their dog started investigating.
    via @RonLechler
  • 16
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler They spotted some trap doors and paintings with moving eyes, and eventually figured out what was going on. They set up an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys and trapped my father in a big, goofy net
    via @RonLechler
  • 17
    Text - Daddy Long-Lechs Follow @RonLechler The teens handed my dad over to the authorities and the park closed. All my dad wanted was to preserve his legacy and hand over the family business to his son, and he would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling kids.
    via @RonLechler

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