What are the odds? From Monday night’s transcript: “And now let’s bring in Scarborough Country senior producer Mike Tirone. Mike just came back from a vacation in Aruba. And here’s a coincidence. He stayed at the very same hotel where one of the suspects worked as a security guard and actually met him and interacted with him.” Tirone said he seemed like a very nice guy. The full transcript is after the jump…
SCARBOROUGH: And now let’s bring in SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY senior producer Mike Tirone. Mike just came back from a vacation in Aruba. And here’s a coincidence. He stayed at the very same hotel where one of the suspects worked as a security guard and actually met him and interacted with him.
Mike, I know that you were very surprised. We talked about this before the show, obviously. You’re looking on TV and one of the suspects in the Natalee Holloway disappearance and possible — we hope not, but possible murder, is a guy you interacted with. Tell me about him.
MIKE TIRONE, MSNBC SENIOR PRODUCER: Joe, we were in Aruba at the Allegra resort for about 10 days. We interacted with this security guard.
He was high-fiving my 7-year-old son. We had — we saw him on a daily occurrence every day. I would take a jog and talk to him.
He was a really nice guy. He had a lot of charisma. He was a fun
guy. He went out of his way to help people. And I was very surprised. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the AP and MSNBC put his face up. It was a real surprise.
SCARBOROUGH: You know, Mike, we’re actually looking at some of the video, not here, but we were looking at some of the video that you shot from the resort where you stayed. We’re looking at it right now. I mean, this place looks like a tropical paradise. And you told me that — that, again, very charismatic, that you would not be surprised at all that an American — that an American tourist, like Natalee Holloway, would certainly approach a guy like this and certainly not fear for her life, again, a very charismatic character.
TIRONE: Yes. He would — I could see how Natalee would trust this guy. This guy has a way about him that made you feel warm. He — like I said, my 7-year-old was high-fiving him. I talked to him regularly. He was just a nice guy. He had — you know, he had a nice, warm smile and…
(CROSSTALK)
SCARBOROUGH: And, Mike, Aruba is a very safe place, right?
TIRONE: Yes. Aruba is one of the safest places. I mean, we would go out and walk every night. So did everybody. And I –it’s known as being one of the safest islands in the Caribbean.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes. That’s strange. Well, Mike, thanks so much. We greatly appreciate you being with us.