WDJT evening anchor Jessob Reisbeck is revisiting a story he broke in 2013 by working with Raw TV and Netflix in their documentary, The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker.
The documentary tells the story of Kai, whose legal name is Caleb McGillvary, who saved a stranger by hitting her attacker over the head with a hatchet.
“I was the reporter who introduced the world to Kai, The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, almost 10 years ago, in Fresno,” recalled Reisbeck. “The interview I did with him went viral, and Kai skyrocketed to worldwide fame, largely on the heels of his emphatic ‘smash, smash, SMASH’ reenactment of how he hit the man with his hatchet.”
WDJT reporter Mike Curkov will interview Reisbeck about the experience next Thursday, January 19, on CBS 58 at 10 p.m.
Curkov and Reisbeck will talk about breaking the story, the story going viral and what it was like working with Netflix on a Top 10 streaming documentary.
“It has been incredible to see how quickly the world has latched onto Kai’s story. While that is extremely rewarding, and great to see, it is heartbreaking to know that so many lives were affected so severely,” said Reisbeck. “It was a story that had all the makings of fame, fortune, and happiness. Unfortunately, that’s not how it turned out. Hopefully, this documentary can help those people in some way.”