A ‘Holiday Miracle’ For Las Vegas Family

In what can only be described as a "holiday miracle," a family moves to Las Vegas for a fresh start, has all their belongings stolen on their first night in town, and then most of their stuff found again the very next day!

I remember the excitement and anticipation my wife and I felt when we moved from the Inland Empire of Southern California to Las Vegas. I was coming here for a brand new job opportunity in 1994, and we were totally stoked to be moving to such an exciting, vibrant city. I cannot even imagine the kind of hurt and disappointment we would have felt if all of our belongings were stolen on our first night in our new home. It would have been devastating.

According to an article posted by Madison Kimbro of 8 News Now, KLAS, on Newsbreak.com, this is what Melissa Bair and her family recently went through during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Melissa, her husband Adam, and their six children, loaded up a U-Haul with all of their belongings, and moved from their home in Maine for a new life here in Las Vegas. They arrived here on November 20th, and woke up on November 21st to find that their SUV, and the U-Haul moving van attached to it, were gone. Just vanished.

I cannot imagine the panic they must have felt as they filed a police report recounting their experience of having everything they owned, stolen on their first night in town. Not only did that U-Haul contain clothing, furniture, bedding, and other household goods, it also contained all of their precious memories and mementoes.

After filing the police report and posting their predicament on social media, Melissa Bair received a tip on Thanksgiving night that the U-Haul and SUV were parked a couple of blocks away from where they had originally parked on Rochelle Avenue their first night in Las Vegas. And what makes this a "holiday miracle" is that only a few of their belongings were missing! Most of their stuff was still in the U-Haul. A member of the Bair family was quoted in Kimbro's article as saying: "A lot of the stuff that was in the front of the U-Haul is missing, but I’m just thankful for what was in the back, most of my kid’s belongings and the sentimental things, and those weren’t touched."

A pretty nice ending to a potentially devastating story. Let's go ahead and call it a "holiday miracle." If you would like to help the Bair Family, you can donate on their GoFundMe page by clicking here.

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Larry Martino is the long-time Afternoon Drive personality on 96.3 KKLZ. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of Larry Martino and not necessarily those of Beasley Media Group, LLC.

Mark Wahlberg recently moved from Hollywood, and now he's your neighbor! He's moving to Nevada to give his family a "better life."

He said in an interview with Yahoo!, "I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting and I've only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there. "So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer, this made a lot more sense for us."

Wahlberg and his wife, Rhea Durham, have four children. Three kids at home: sons Michael and Brendan, ages 16 and 14, and 12-year-old daughter Grace Their eldest child, daughter Ella, is 19. "So, we came here to just kind of give ourselves a new look, a fresh start for the kids, and there's lot of opportunity here," He said. "I'm really excited about the future."

By the way, I had to see what he  meant by "a couple" movies: He has been in 55 movies and produced 27 movies. Whether those were in California or not, seems he's done a little more than "a couple."

Wahlberg also wants to build a "state-of-the-art studio" and create "Hollywood 2.0", so he doesn't have to travel too far for work.

In April, Wahlberg put his home in Los Angeles on the market for $87.5 million. His family compound is located in the very ritzy Beverly Park neighborhood. The entrepreneur bought the six acre property for $8.25 million in 2009 and commissioned architect Richard Landry to build the house which has 12 bedrooms and 20 - yes, 20! - bathrooms. Gee, I hope they can find a little something here in Las Vegas to help them get by! I'm pretty sure that no state taxes, and low property taxes were also an appeal, when researching "places for Mark Wahlberg to move to."

Real estate records show that Wahlberg purchased 2.5 acres of land in a very nice area of Las Vegas, for $15.6 million. Most likely he will build a home on the land, as it's zoned for single-family housing. It is located in The Summit Club, a very secure area reserved for hefty mega-mansions - Celine Dion's primary home is there.

The cheapest plot of land in the exclusive area — which doesn't include the cost of building a home — reportedly sells for about $2 million.

Welcome to Nevada, Marky Mark!

Here are some of my favorite Mark Wahlberg movies:

-Carla Rea

A hard-edged satire of U.S. involvement overseas, with a heist storyline. It starred Wahlberg, George Clooney, and Ice Cube  as a trio of soldiers who stage a gold heist during the 1991 Iraq invasion. A great cast, and a good movie.

Probably one of Wahlberg’s best films! He plays a real hero - First Class Marcus Luttrell.  He totally committed to the intense physical demands. He made Marcus Luttrell stand out as an individual to humanize tragic events, and Wahlberg was able to bring his personality to the part. The bonding moments he shares with fellow soldiers, played by Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster are very believable. The four actors great chemistry make the movie even better!

Boogie Nights is a great movie! Wahlberg stars as a new, emerging porn star. He could’ve easily been overshadowed by his incredible co-stars - Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly -  but he was not. His transformation into  porn sensation Dirk Diggler was surprisingly heartfelt. He humanized the porn industry, and showed what it was like being part of an untraditional, yet loving and caring family.

This was one great movie, with one of the best casts. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Vera Farmiga, and Martin Sheen. An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston. Wahlberg’s best scenes are when he isn’t the star. Watching him scream profanities may not be the only reason The Departed is so (re)watchable, but Wahlberg’s performance makes the film’s darkness even  more gritty, and more nasty.

One of my favorite movies ever. Fun, dark, and fast moving. It's a rare remake that was actually better than the original. Wahlberg proved that he could share the screen in a heist film loaded with heavy names, including Charlize Theron, Seth Green, Jason Statham, and Mos Def. He’s the star of the movie, but you don't really know that, because he's generous with his screen time. The heartfelt moments he shares with Charlize Theron as they mourn the loss of their former team leader (Donald Sutherland) were perfect character touches amidst the nonstop action. Watch this one if you haven't - it's a lot of fun!