Speaker 1: 0:00

They were talking about killing me. Wow, I didn't know enough Spanish to know exactly what the plan was, but I knew they were talking about killing me. Okay, and they weren't going to give me my drugs back. Even if I have to leave this place and jet out the back and never see these guys again, I don't care about my drugs. I'm trying to save my life.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Thank you. Okay, thank you for tuning in to the Redacted Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Bender, and we have our guest here today who's going to be anonymous. It's a secret, it's a mystery. We don't know who he is Back behind the cameras and back behind in the soundboard. We got Pamela doing all the hard work back there. I don't know what she's doing, but it's work and whatever it is, and she's been sworn to secrecy too, so she's not going to reveal who you are.

Speaker 2: 1:20

And today you've got to stand up a little bit, um, because you get a little back problem going on. So I don't know how much we can see that in the camera, but you know, I I know how that is having back problems, like it's the weirdest thing finding a comfortable chair. Yeah, like you're not comfortable anywhere. You gotta stand and move and this chair is great.

Speaker 1: 1:41

That chair sucks which is unfortunate, because this chair is super cool.

Speaker 2: 1:45

Yeah, yeah, it's a badass chair. Yeah, it really is. You just stand in front of it. All right, it's fine, but you got a hell of a story, man. It reminds me of like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which you said you didn't see, but I was like man, this is kind of cool, it's a wild story. Didn't see, but I was like man, this is kind of cool, it's a, it's a wild story. And uh, you know how old were you at this?

Speaker 1: 2:08

time I thought when I first told you the outline of the story, I thought I was younger, but it was after my divorce and I was 28.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Yeah, Okay, so how did it? How did it kind of start out?

Speaker 1: 2:21

Well, so just in my misery of the aftermath of divorce which is normal especially with children I had been kind of an athlete slash bodybuilder most of my life and had started getting into steroids. You know I'm not a big guy, so I wanted to get bigger, stronger, faster you know, faster than natural.

Speaker 1: 2:41

So just through talking with guys in the gym, I thought, you know, steroids is the way to go, and so I decided to do it the right way, man, so to speak, and not grab it off the streets in the States. I went over to Mexico to get it cheap, made a little business out of it at least I thought I was.

Speaker 2: 2:59

So the first time, so before the first time, you tried steroids, or did you try it from someone else or get it off the streets first? Yeah, I actually did.

Speaker 1: 3:07

I tried it first when I was 17. I was on it for about a year. Okay, I didn't even know what I was doing, so I don't know if it actually even got into my body properly, yeah, or if it was real.

Speaker 2: 3:17

Yeah, could have just been oil or something. Could have been Vitamin, right yeah. So what kind of steroids were you looking for? I know there's different types.

Speaker 1: 3:28

I was looking for all kinds. I mean, back then the steroid of choice was Dianabol, which was a pill, Also Anadrol, which was another pill, Very, very potent. You didn't have to take an injection, but everybody knew if you were going to be on steroids. You also had to do testosterone injections. Sure yeah. So I was looking for mainly those three.

Speaker 2: 3:49

Okay, so a little TRT and some anabolic steroids, Correct yeah, and then you can't just get that stuff prescribed here, not back then, you couldn't.

Speaker 1: 3:59

I mean now it's pretty easy, especially if you're older. But the TRT is the TRT is yeah especially if you're older.

Speaker 2: 4:03

But the trt is, the trt is, but not the steroids.

Speaker 1: 4:05

No well, it's all kind of guys, the steroids you know as a kind of a street term okay trt is testosterone replacement therapy so we've kind of coined that term. But testosterone is a liquid.

Speaker 1: 4:17

You know, it's synthetic testosterone that your body already has in it okay and um you know now, we found out a lot of a lot of men are walking around with low testosterone, so they've made it a clinical thing now where you can pretty much go get it just saying, hey, I feel tired all the time, or something yeah, yeah, but not the other no, the dianabol and the anadrol are pretty hard to get. Most doctors won't prescribe that stuff. That's a pretty black market.

Speaker 2: 4:43

yeah, I'm sure there's like specific medical conditions that could qualify for it. Sure, yeah, but people are not using it for that?

Speaker 1: 4:52

No, it's very hard on your liver. So, it's not really safe, as opposed to, injections monitored by a doctor can be relatively safe these days.

Speaker 2: 5:00

Okay, and the goal of this is to get strong and get big Absolutely. Okay, that the goal of this is to get strong and get big Absolutely Okay. That was my goal and this stuff is totally legal in Mexico, or at least it was back then. I know they've cracked down. Now you need like a phony prescription or something.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Actually, I think it's still pretty much over the counter in Mexico as it was back then, really yeah. Okay, Matter of fact. I know it is. I was in Cabo last year. It's all over.

Speaker 2: 5:31

So the first time you go to Mexico, do you? Have a plan? Do you have some research? I mean, this is what early 2000s, yeah 2003, I believe.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Okay, yeah. So what happened was I didn't go over there blind. I had met a guy where I lived in Kentucky that was friends with a guy that grew up in San Diego and recently moved across the border to Tijuana, mexico. Okay, and this guy was a pretty wild cat, as I was too, and so I linked up with him through this mutual friend and we made a plan that I would meet up over there and he would show me the ropes and make sure I was getting the real stuff, because there's a lot of fake pharmacies on the streets, yeah yeah, so you know I get there, uh, first time I'd ever been to I think first time I'd been to california even okay, so I'd get off the, uh the plane, catch a train from san diego over to Tijuana it's like 2 in the morning.

Speaker 1: 6:28

I hop off this train, I walk across the border and I'm looking for a hotel to shack up in for the night. And had his address, so I knew the hotel that I was going to be at was pretty close to him, and in hindsight I realized I was walking down probably the most dangerous street in Tijuana, you know, just lined with prostitutes and drug dealers. What street's that?

Speaker 2: 6:52

Is there a name? I don't remember the name of it. Okay, just like a kind of a skid row or kind of a red light district or something.

Speaker 1: 6:58

It wasn't even that.

Speaker 2: 7:08

It was kind of an off street, like an alley, almost, almost you know, from a popular street in Tijuana which is Revolution Boulevard.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Okay, yeah, so it was an offshoot of that, okay. So what happened was I grabbed that hotel. Of course I didn't sleep all night. It was pretty dingy place, you know, expected to see rats, it's like a shitty roach motel, like really bad yeah right most worse than most things we've ever seen here okay in the states and, um, I didn't sleep all night.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Again, it was like 2, 33 o'clock by the time I got in the hotel. Anyway, yeah, so, crock and on, I'm up trying to contact this guy. Thank god he was awake and he met with me like seven in the morning. Yeah, and so from there, you know, took my stuff over to his place he had a little apartment in there, you know, took my stuff over to his place. He had a little apartment in this little you know this building and this was an. American. This is an American.

Speaker 2: 7:50

Okay.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Yeah, and come to find out. I learned pretty quickly I don't think it was till the next day, though, that I realized that his roommate which was I thought his girlfriend was actually his boyfriend, was I thought his girlfriend was actually his boyfriend. So suddenly I found out and my friend in Kentucky didn't tell me this that this guy is homosexual, but specifically only is attracted to transsexuals, or transgenders.

Speaker 1: 8:19

Wow. So you know, if you've ever been over there, if you've ever seen a really good, you know I hear there's a lot of that there. I mean you can't tell the difference. I'm saying like I was with this person a whole 24 hours before I knew it was a man, a man, a boy, Luckily before you made a mistake. Yeah, none of that ever happened.

Speaker 2: 8:42

I mean, you're anonymous, you can yeah. Well, there was a close call, but nothing ever happened. Okay, okay, there you go.

Speaker 1: 8:50

But he was, at least you know, respectful enough to steer me away from people that I thought were women, that well, that I maybe was gonna pursue, like oh, that's a dude.

Speaker 2: 9:01

Like oh, okay, and there were a lot of them, but um, and this is just the first of many dangers you encountered the first of many, so I had I think- I had a total of five visits over here with this guy.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Okay, the first several, the first you know, up until the the one pinnacle moment we're going to talk about today. The first four, I guess, were pretty easy smooth, quick in and out. I was there for a couple of days and I was a big pothead. I'd smoke a bunch of pot. We'd send this little kid on a bike. He'd come back with hands full of Malta, which is what they call marijuana, for five bucks you know, probably an ounce of weed.

Speaker 1: 9:41

But this guy Matt I'll tell you his name was was strung out on crystal meth.

Speaker 2: 9:47

Okay, and I'd never been around that. Okay.

Speaker 1: 9:50

So, but the first several, you know, the first four visits, I didn't, I had no, I was, I was afraid of it, I had no desire Just smoking, weed, drinking tequila, hanging out and they were hitting this funny little pipe with glass in it.

Speaker 2: 10:04

They called it Hanging out and they were hitting this funny little pipe with glass in it, they called it. So back to those visits. You would go to the pharmacy, buy what you needed. You had orders, maybe from people back home, yeah had orders from back home. That was a growing list of people that wanted some stuff. So you'd go, you'd get it, buy it cheap Right. And then, how are how? How are you getting it back, did you?

Speaker 1: 10:27

already know. I didn't know how I was going to get it over over the border the first time, but this guy had already done this before. Okay, so this American Matt that I was dealing with would actually make his living digging in dumpsters of hotels in San Diego. So he'd walk his bike across. Because you can't ride your bike across the border, you have to walk it across. He'd walk it across and he would do that every day. So it was all.

Speaker 1: 10:51

The border patrol agents knew him, they recognize him. They didn't card him back and forth, it was just a regular occurrence for him. Yeah Right, so we actually, for whatever reason, didn't use his bike. The pharmacist lent us like a brand new Trek bike, this pharmacist that he knew that I was getting the stuff from and we would put the drugs in the bicycle tires and he would just wheel the bike across the border like he would every day. We would dump them out at the back of a McDonald's into my suitcase. I'd hop on the train then go take a plane. Go'd hop on the train then go take a plane, go home, sell the stuff, come back, you know, a month or two later, wow, yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:30

Pretty smooth.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Yeah, I was making a pretty good living, you know, and living a exciting, dangerous, stupid crazy life.

Speaker 2: 11:37

I mean, how much profit were you making on a trip?

Speaker 1: 11:41

Well, you know, I was very small time.

Speaker 2: 11:43

Couple, couple hundred thousand couple thousand couple thousand bucks it's not bad.

Speaker 1: 11:47

Yeah, not bad, and it was. It was growing first few times. First couple times I might have made a few hundred, but then it turned into thousands. Okay, yeah. And then the final time where the big story all happens was about a 10. It was going to be tens of thousands of profit oh yeah because I had $10,000 of drugs in my possession that were Mexico value at 10,000.

Speaker 2: 12:09

It was probably 80, 100,000 at home. Jeez, so yeah, those times go smooth, easy, no problem. You're feeling good, confident, and then where does it? Where does it turn? Well, funny.

Speaker 1: 12:24

You should ask that because the big mistake I made in hindsight is I started. I took a hit of that crystal meth pipe for the first time.

Speaker 2: 12:33

On the fifth trip.

Speaker 1: 12:34

On the fifth trip. Now, the fifth trip was going to be like all the other ones. It was a two or three-day plan. Hang out, smoke some weed, get the drugs, go home. Yeah Well, for whatever reason, I had enough of curiosity over those other four trips to hit this pipe, and the rest is history. Man, I was awake for five days without any sleep and then, when I did sleep, it was about three hours and I woke up. I remember leaving the apartment and going out with his Matt's significant other and walking down the street and literally seeing cows that weren't there, people walking upside down toward me. And then I went another five days with no sleep. So I was planning to be there three days and I ended up being there 10 or 11 days 10 or 11 days to start, or was that the total?

Speaker 1: 13:24

trip. That was the total trip. That was the last time I ever went to tijuana, mexico okay, so what?

Speaker 2: 13:30

what happened during those 10 days? Oh, man, because I mean you hit meth like day one, day one right, yeah, maybe day two, but it was pretty soon and um and you still had a job to do. You still had to get go buy the steroids, get them over the border, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 13:48

We kind of accomplished all of that right away getting the steroids I would get. I would get that done first day, get it out of the way so I could party and not have to deal with it. Yeah, um. But then I also started to get bright ideas to pick up other stuff for other people, like some people were wanting some Adderall and just stuff like that. So I started getting like Vicodin Adderalls and I'd never done that before so that lasted two or three days, and then by that time I was just blitzed man.

Speaker 1: 14:16

And I had never felt like this in my life. I had experimented with pretty much every street drug out there, but never this.

Speaker 2: 14:22

And that stuff's just crazy, man, it's what they gave the nazis to get them in the blitzkrieg. All the nazi soldiers were. They were issued meth, wow. And they would just stay up for like a week straight and just mow down frenchmen. Oh makes sense. That's how they met, that's how they made it into france so quickly.

Speaker 1: 14:43

I never knew that and uh, yeah, those dudes were all messed up. They were crazy wow, you, you do feel invincible on that stuff. I'm not here to glorify it, because it about wrecked my life. That killed me. Yeah, you know, I definitely I should have died. I shouldn't even be here telling this story right now. Yeah, and a lot of people do go over there and die from it you know, I can see.

Speaker 2: 15:02

I don't even know if Matt's still alive.

Speaker 1: 15:04

Probably not. Probably not, Chances are probably not. Yeah, Jeez, yeah, so uh, after getting strung out on this stuff, it came time after, like I said, about 10 days. It was time I said I've had enough. I got to get across the border, man you know, and go home.

Speaker 2: 15:25

What do you do in those I mean from day two to day 10, you're just sitting around, just sitting around hitting the pipe like. Eating tacos.

Speaker 1: 15:32

Yeah, you didn't care. You don't have much of an appetite, but we would eat tacos a couple times a day. Okay, you know best tacos in the world, of course, for like three, for a dollar, you know. Oh yeah, hell yeah. But yeah, we would just around, hit the pipe and you're just in la la land and you don't care about what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 15:51

Well, you know so now. Now we got to get back home with this.

Speaker 1: 15:55

It's time to go home. I'm like you know, I've had enough. Thank god. I had enough brains somewhere left in my head to just say this has to stop at some point, right? I had kids at home, but I still had to see, yeah, and that's probably uh what, what ended up keeping?

Speaker 2: 16:09

me, you know, in bounds a little bit.

Speaker 1: 16:12

So came time for matt to pack up the bike and take me across and he refused to do it this time and I realized at that moment it was because he was so completely blitzed out of his mind because he wasn't used to having access to that much crystal meth. You know, they're used to getting just a little bits at a time off. The little bit of money he made. You were buying, I was buying.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Ah yeah, I was coming over there, I came over there with a bunch of cash. Now, my girlfriend I didn't come over there with 10 grand my girlfriend was sending me 500 to to a thousand at a time to uh, to buy things, and she's like what?

Speaker 2: 16:47

are you doing like western union or something?

Speaker 1: 16:49

yeah, western union, okay, yeah and so I was buying it up, you know, and filling him and his partner up and a couple other friends that lived there in the apartment complex, and you're feeding everyone, getting everyone high yeah, just a 10 day he was a party man, yeah yeah and um, so he was just so blitzed out.

Speaker 1: 17:08

I think that he was scared to take and at this time it was much more drugs, like we could barely get them in the, in the, in the bike tires, right yeah and so I think he just got super paranoid and just was like I'm not doing it.

Speaker 2: 17:24

So you're taking these and stuffing them in the tube.

Speaker 1: 17:29

Yeah, yeah. So the bottles, it's a lot of glass bottles. The steroids, you know, the testosterone, okay, and then pill bottles, you know, but we would take the pill bottles, take the pills out of the bottles and put them in like Ziplocs.

Speaker 2: 17:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:42

Stuff like that, and back then it was before TSA, so you could fly with that stuff, no problem, you know.

Speaker 2: 17:48

But well, that would have been right. 2003 would have been Right around the start of TSA.

Speaker 1: 17:54

Yeah, you're right, I guess they had TSA.

Speaker 2: 17:56

but I never had a problem. I don't think it was as advanced as it is now.

Speaker 1: 18:01

And I would even take them on my carry-on. I never had a problem going through security at the airports, ever.

Speaker 2: 18:05

It was never even a concern.

Speaker 1: 18:08

And I never had marijuana or cocaine, which is, I think, what the dogs look for. They're not looking for steroids, so we had so many drugs.

Speaker 2: 18:22

this at this you know this trip that it barely fit in the bike tires, you know, and um.

Speaker 1: 18:25

so he got paranoid. He decided he wasn't going to take the trip. He was adamant, I'm not doing it. And we got in a fist fight on the balcony and again somehow had enough sanity to not kill him because he was you know, in no condition to fight and I'm on steroids. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 18:42

You're on steroids and meth. And meth and you need to get the fuck out of there, right, and he's fucking up your whole plan, exactly.

Speaker 1: 18:49

Yeah, so it could have got ugly fast. But I'll hit him a couple of times. Let him let him alone. And and I took the bike that the pharmacist gave us cause it had all the drugs in it.

Speaker 2: 19:00

Yeah. You know, how did you? Did you pump the tires back?

Speaker 1: 19:04

up afterwards.

Speaker 2: 19:05

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:06

Okay, yeah, we pumped the tires back up.

Speaker 2: 19:08

That's fucking weird man. Yeah, that's a. That's kind of crazy, it's smart.

Speaker 1: 19:14

Well, it was his idea.

Speaker 2: 19:15

You know, meth head engineering, meth head engineering.

Speaker 1: 19:17

Yeah, he had it all down. So I took my suitcase as a little carry-on roll-away suitcase, you know roller suitcase with the bike. And here I'm walking down the streets of tijuana. Man, there's militia sitting there looking at me. They knew I was in and out of town all the time. They probably knew I was up to something. And I'm paranoid as crap that they're just gonna like come up and say like what's up, dude, what's in the suitcase where you going?

Speaker 2: 19:42

yeah, this isn't normal, for well nothing was in the suitcase, right?

Speaker 1: 19:45

no, nothing was in the suitcase. It was in the bike tires, but still yeah like you know they're not gonna be stupid. They start checking the suitcase. Don't find anything. It's gonna make them mad that they're going to check everything and they've seen it all you know. They know people put stuff in tires, you know so. But somehow I made it down the street to the pharmacist and said hey, can you help me? Told him the story he's like hell to the no.

Speaker 2: 20:13

Yeah, not helping you smuggle shit.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Yeah, and he's's like matter of fact get, get out of my shop and never come back and just take the bike with you.

Speaker 2: 20:20

I don't even want the bike back so you told him his tires were all filled full of drugs oh, yeah, he knew, yeah, yeah I think he knew how we were getting them across every time.

Speaker 1: 20:31

Yeah, you know, but he just would never have anything to do with it yeah, you know he had a real business. Yeah, he didn't have any reason to risk his business for me Jeez.

Speaker 1: 20:40

So from there I go all the way across town Don't even remember how I found my way to these people that we had hung out with at one point during that 10-day period. And this guy that had this apartment was married to a woman that was half American. Her mother was American, her mother was American, her dad was Mexican, so she could go across. So when I get to their apartment she's home alone. So I said great, you know, she spoke plain English. I said, hey, here's what happened. Can you help me get across? She said, yeah, I'll do it, no problem, I was going to pay her. She was thrilled. She was thrilled right. So about the time we were about to leave the apartment, her boyfriend her husband, still don't know if they were married comes home and he's cool with me. He wasn't bothered that I was there, he was happy that I was there because he knew I had money.

Speaker 1: 21:34

He was in on the party scene for 10 days with us, you know, jeez and he was thrilled to find out that now he had some control over me. That Matt was out of the picture, right, okay.

Speaker 2: 21:44

Are these all just like strung out Americans?

Speaker 1: 21:47

Oh no, these are all Mexicans.

Speaker 2: 21:49

Well, you said the one was American. Then Matt was American.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Yeah, matt was American, so is there?

Speaker 2: 21:54

just a bunch of strung out Americans down there. No, did you run into them? Just a couple, no.

Speaker 1: 21:59

I was the white guy in town.

Speaker 2: 22:00

Okay.

Speaker 1: 22:01

Me and Matt, like everybody else, was Mexican.

Speaker 2: 22:03

Really yeah, oh shit.

Speaker 1: 22:04

Tijuana is not a vacation spot.

Speaker 2: 22:06

No, you know what I mean. Well, people go over there for exactly what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 22:11

Exactly yeah. College kids go over from San Diego and party.

Speaker 2: 22:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:16

You know, but that's the extent of it, okay.

Speaker 2: 22:18

You know.

Speaker 1: 22:19

So, um, her, her boyfriend or whatever husband, comes home and says, hey, what's going on? We tell him he's like oh, cool, man, yeah, we'll help you out, no big deal, but let's just hang out and party for a while. You know, it's better to go over at night anyway. Yeah, you know, let's hang out and party, man, you know. So I'm like, okay, cool, I mean I'm. You know, I'm blitzed out of my mind, already up for 10 days. Yeah, up for 10 days. What's?

Speaker 2: 22:47

another day. You know I'm I'm thrilled that I found somebody that's going to take me across. Yeah, you know. So you're feeling optimistic at this moment too.

Speaker 1: 22:52

Yeah, so a little, a little. Last party sounded good to me, you know. Yeah, A little send-off. So then what happened was he had called half the neighborhood over, who I didn't know, had never met before, to come party with us that night, Right? So we're all partying, doing all kinds of different drugs all from my stash, of course and for some reason I get the bright idea that I want to take some cocaine with me this time, Right? Ok, I wanted some cocaine that night to do, and then I thought, well, why not take it with me? He's like oh yeah, I can get the best cocaine I've ever had for six hundred a kilo, which you know that's cheap as fuck.

Speaker 1: 23:32

Yeah, I mean I think I could sell on the streets for like four or five grand. Yeah, not only was it cheaper than I've ever seen it, it was uncut. Oh wow, pure cocaine, wow. So I was like, yeah, let's do it. So about an hour later it was getting late into the evening it's probably midnight by now he calls these guys over and it's literally like something out of a movie. I mean, I felt like I was in the middle of a movie at this point, because this guy comes in, this little like danny devito type guy.

Speaker 1: 24:04

You know, he's like four foot nothing you know wider than he is tall with this big like uh, what's that wrestler's name? The giant andre the giant, the giant, literally like under the giant, like a huge dude. Yeah, and they're in leather jackets. You know they look like italians, man, you know, like an italian mafia or something but they're mexican.

Speaker 2: 24:21

They're mexican like slick back hair. Were they like? Matching exactly?

Speaker 1: 24:24

I feel like I see them matching yep, both leather jackets.

Speaker 2: 24:28

It studs on the jacket. Yep, okay, yep, man, I can see them. Mustaches, no mustaches.

Speaker 1: 24:36

No mustaches, okay yeah. So these two clowns walk in, you're throwing the party.

Speaker 2: 24:44

Everyone's doing your drugs, right? You're paying for everything and this isn't an apartment.

Speaker 1: 24:49

It is. Okay, one room apartment, literally like one room, with a bathroom with a curtain around it in the corner, that's it, I mean. Shitty with a bathroom with a curtain around it in the corner, that's it, I mean shitty indescribable. There's nothing to compare to in america that I've seen yeah, in the united states that I've seen, because mexico is really part of america, but so yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:07

So vinnie and vinnie walk in. Vinnie and vinnie walk in, and are you like?

Speaker 1: 25:10

ah, at this point I'm getting scared just by looking at them because I know they're a whole nother level, like in my mind. That's what cartel looks like. I'd never been around cartel that I know of. Maybe all these guys were part of the cartel, but these guys looked like like enforcers or right, like they had some bosses, like some kind of gangster, right in some way.

Speaker 1: 25:30

Yeah, okay, yeah. So they bring these big, these two big rocks, and lay them on the table, test them, put a little on my tongue. My teeth instantly numb. I'm like oh my.

Speaker 1: 25:41

God craziness, I'll take it. So I run down to the pay phone, call my girlfriend. The apartment's a second-story apartment unit. So I run down the steps, pay phone right there at the end of the street and call my girlfriend to send me the money. She wires me like $1,300 or whatever it was, because I got two of them. I'm like, hey, 600 a kilo, let's get two of them.

Speaker 2: 26:02

How the fuck were you going to get that Hub?

Speaker 1: 26:04

I didn't care. I was out of my mind.

Speaker 2: 26:07

Logic was out the window days ago obviously You're like fuck it, Hook it up.

Speaker 1: 26:12

Yeah, what I was thinking at that point, who knows. But I had the confidence because I was never afraid of the airports, I was only afraid of getting across the border. And so here's where the story starts to get crazy, because these guys said oh, we'll take you across. You have too much stuff now to get in the bike tires, let's take it all out, put it in your suitcase and we'll throw your suitcase in the trunk and drive you to the border. Then you get out, walk across the border, we'll drive across and give you your drugs and you're free to go. You know, and you, you pay us, and I'm stupid enough and blitz out enough to believe they're actually going to do this. For me that sounds like a bad idea. So I started to realize things.

Speaker 2: 26:56

You paid him for the Coke.

Speaker 1: 26:58

No, I haven't paid him right, you paid them for the Coke. No, I haven't paid them oh. I paid them for the Coke. Yeah, paid them for the Coke. And so about that time they decided they all want to go downstairs across the street to a taco place, right, it was kind of like a restaurant. It wasn't just a taco stand and it had, like you know, it was like covered seating Right and like, um, you know, it was like covered seating right and um, like a patio, and there was probably uh well, actually let me digress a little bit.

Speaker 1: 27:26

So what happened before we went and eat the tacos is the guy that owned the apartment, literally like in front of me, kicked half the people out. And I know in hindsight that the people that he kicked out were not in the actual gang he was a part of. They were just other neighborhood people that he knew, yeah Right, people that I'd met. They weren't in the circle. They weren't in the circle.

Speaker 2: 27:43

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:43

Yeah, and so there was probably about eight or 10 of us left in the room at this point. They want to go down and eat some tacos, right, and so I'm realizing I've got to get away from these guys, man. Oh, so what happened was again sorry, I digress when they, after they kicked those other guys out six or eight of those other guys out they had conversations amongst each other in Spanish, not knowing that I was formerly married to a Panamanian and knew pretty good Spanish and I caught on to what they were saying.

Speaker 1: 28:15

They were basically saying hey, you know, we're obviously not going to give him the drugs. We're going to take him, you know, and if we have to, we'll kill him. You know, they were talking about killing me.

Speaker 2: 28:24

Wow, I don't know enough, I didn't know enough Spanish, or just leaving your ass. Yeah, yeah, one of the two, yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:41

I plan was, but I knew they were talking about killing me, okay.

Speaker 1: 28:43

And they weren't going to give me my drugs back. Okay, yeah, which was obvious to any sane human being at the time, but I wasn't sane at that time, right? No, so we, finally, we go down to the taco stand or the taco place and I realized I got to find a way out of this place. Right, everybody in the apartment, including the girlfriend, came with us, so there was nobody left in the apartment. Okay, so I asked the waitress. I said, as we're waiting on our tacos after we ordered them, I said is there a restroom here? She said yeah, it's around. Back, I said perfect, Even if I have to leave this place and jet out the back and never see these guys again, I don't care about my drugs, I'm trying to save my life.

Speaker 2: 29:20

Yeah Right, all your shits in the apartment, oh yeah, in my suitcase at this point.

Speaker 1: 29:22

The bikes up there, so the bikes up there, but fuck the bike, you don't need that, don't need the bike, everything's in the suitcase, right? Okay so, as I as I obviously didn't have to go to the bathroom. But I get around the back of the building and I peek around the side and I see they all got their tacos and they're busy eating Right, so not paying attention to anything. Yeah, so, and they're busy eating right, so they're not paying attention to anything. So, for whatever idiot reason, I had the balls to race up to that apartment up steps. They could see this whole thing if they just looked over and saw me right Go up there apartment doors open, thank God, don't know why they left it open Grab the suitcase that had all my stuff in it clothes and drugs and everything, race down the steps and ducked around the corner to a Greyhound bus station and hid in the bathroom for like two hours. I just I didn't know what else to do.

Speaker 1: 30:05

And I'm surprised that the employees at Greyhound didn't, you know, come in the bathroom and be like what are you doing? What the fuck are you doing? Yeah, but at this point it was like 2 am and I just wanted to be gone enough out of sight long enough for them to just forget about it and realize they weren't going to find me.

Speaker 2: 30:22

Yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:25

So that's what I did, and I came out of the and actually the time frame is really kind of mixed up in my head. This was about 20 years ago but I came out of the Greyhound bus station and I believe it was nearly daylight at that point and I was about to get in this cab and two guys that were brothers that got kicked out of the apartment by the apartment owner in the inner circle showed up there happenstance-ly on the sidewalk and saw me with my suitcase and I was like, oh crap, I thought they probably knew.

Speaker 1: 30:59

Right, yeah, I was like I am freaking dust. These guys are going to take me behind the barn and kill me, man. Yeah, and they didn't know, they had no idea. They're like hey, what are you doing? You know, I thought you were going across last night. No, I didn't. He's like oh well, we will help you across, we can help you across. Let's get in the cab and go to our house. We'll hang out there because my dad is half American, or my dad's American, my mom's Mexican. It's weird because everybody's got you know, half and half wants to help you. But who?

Speaker 1: 31:27

knows if that's even true, but so we go up in the hills in an area I've never been in, didn't even know how we got there, wasn't paying attention, didn't care.

Speaker 2: 31:35

This is now the third group of people that is supposed to help you get your shit over.

Speaker 1: 31:43

First, matt, who I had to nearly beat up.

Speaker 2: 31:45

Then the guys in the apartment yeah, vinny and Vinny. Vinny and Vinny, those guys, and now the guys that got kicked out, who I later found out were Zetas, which is a vigilante group in Mexico. What?

Speaker 1: 31:59

does that mean? Well, they're just, you know, they're rebels against the government.

Speaker 2: 32:03

Okay, so not cartel.

Speaker 1: 32:05

I don't know if they're cartel per se, but they're probably tied to cartel.

Speaker 2: 32:08

But it's a gang. Yeah, it's a gang, it's a well-known gang.

Speaker 1: 32:12

I mean, they kill people, they leave heads on the side of the road.

Speaker 2: 32:13

Okay, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 32:14

So they're a big organization you know yeah. And so, yeah, I would liken it to the difference in Hamas and ISIS. I mean same agenda.

Speaker 2: 32:24

Yeah, same family of craziness right. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:27

So anyhow. So what happens is we go up to their apartment. It's daylight. So what happens is we go up to their apartment. That's daylight, it's morning, right, and they're like, you know, our dad's gone for the day. He's out doing stuff and he works tonight and then he'll take us over tomorrow morning. So we're talking 24 hours and we'll be with these guys okay.

Speaker 1: 32:44

Okay, so, again, here we go, again, let's party.

Speaker 1: 32:48

We got you. Jeez, you would think that I'd learned the first time, but I didn't Okay. So I'm like, okay, cool, you know, I had a 16th of meth in my pocket, which was quite a bit for three people to last us 24 hours. And they get the idea. I said let's go party on Revolution Boulevard. And I'd never been there, I'd party and I'd walk down that street during the day. But it's like the strip, it's like the Vegas strip of mexico bars and, yeah, restaurants, clubs, you know westernized, you know, yeah, and are americanized.

Speaker 1: 33:21

And so the idea was they had a car um, can't remember, don't remember what, what kind of car was? An old car with a trunk, big cars, I'll remember and they said let's throw your stuff in the trunk, let's park the car at this pay lot across from this hotel that we'll go get, we'll hang out at the hotel tonight and party up and down the strip, and that way your drugs are safe, because you don't want to drag them across the street and, you know, be checked at the hotel and all that. Just keep them locked in the car. I was like, okay, cool. So I had enough, you know, meth in my pocket to last us easily through the night. And so as soon as we check in the hotel and come out on the streets after smoking some, some, some meth, um, all of a sudden man, like five cop cars come out of nowhere, lights and sirens on, coming right at us, and I'm thinking, wow, what's going on? Man? You know, I'm like I'm looking for something crazy happening right next thing I know they're coming right up to us.

Speaker 1: 34:15

Throw the three of us it was myself and the two brothers, right, and just for reference sake I'll say one brother was older and shorter, the other guy was younger and taller. Okay, and so we get thrown up against the cop cars. I throw the little pack of crystal meth I had on the sidewalk and this is like a marble type sidewalk with lights on it. How the cops didn't see that thing just sitting there, I have no idea. It was so obvious. You know they never saw me throw it.

Speaker 1: 34:45

They threw us up against the car, had us put our hands on the top of the car and then the cop that was, you know, that had, you know, was booking me, for lack of a better term had put his hands in my pockets. Grabbed everything I had out of there, which was just cash I had about $500 American dollars in pesos at the time Throws it on top of the car in front of me and I see him grab some off the top probably a third of it. Puts it in his pocket and I'm not dumb enough at this point to argue with him. I don't care what he takes, fuck no him.

Speaker 2: 35:17

You know what I mean. Are they saying anything to you?

Speaker 1: 35:20

Well, they're kind of talking, you know, yelling, screaming, you know, and I don't know enough Spanish at that point to know, and I'm freaking out anyway. So, you know, I couldn't really understand what was happening. Yeah, and I still didn't know what was happening. Yeah, and I still didn't know what was happening. I didn't know, you know, like how they knew who I was and why they were coming after me and these guys, you know. So they put us in two cars. I'm in the back of the car with the shorter guy, the older guy who's kind of the ringleader of the.

Speaker 2: 35:46

Do you in handcuffs or anything?

Speaker 1: 35:49

uh, I think we were cuffed before we put it. We're putting the car, yeah, okay, yeah. And then the younger, taller kid was in the other car by himself in the back. They pull us over to a really dark alley, just the two cop cars and the three of us and you know four cops, I guess total, and the car that I was in was pulled up against the sidewalk in front of the other car where the one kid was in by himself. Next thing I know, as we're, as they're getting us out of the back of the cop car, they're beating a. They're beating this young kid to a pulp man, like literally beating him up, bad. And I'm like, oh God, we're next. Like what's happening here?

Speaker 1: 36:29

You know this all happened really quick you know, so I'm like, oh, my God, god, what is going on? So they luckily did not beat us up. They threw that kid that they beat up back in the back of the car through his, his, uh, older brother, the shorter kid in the back of that car, and they took off and said they're going to jail. Now I'm here with two cops and the one cop car and they, they're like, look man, we've been looking for these guys forever. These are bad dudes. We know that you're mixed up with them. We've known you've been in town for a couple of weeks dealing with these guys and we want to know what's going on. I was like I just met him, man. Like I just met him yesterday I don't know what you're talking about, man, I came here to meet a friend and you know, he, he, we had a fight and I just met these guys.

Speaker 2: 37:14

I don't know who they are, you know.

Speaker 1: 37:17

And um, he said, okay, well, look, how much money do you have on you? So I sold him all the money I had, Cause they they'd given me my money back after I got in the cop car. For some weird reason, I guess they just did that so they could take what they wanted. The cop that cuffed me. So I said you know, I pulled it all out of my pockets. They were like, okay, we're taking your money and we're taking you to jail. And I was like, all right.

Speaker 2: 37:39

I mean.

Speaker 1: 37:39

I guess there's no negotiation here, so whatever, and at this point I'm obviously freaking out I had seen shows you know, with Mexican jails, mexican jail dude, and I'm just like I'm not coming out of here alive man you know.

Speaker 1: 37:56

So they call another cop car to come get me, just a solo cop. He comes and gets me, puts me in the back of his car. He's talking to me on the way there, asking me if I had any more money on me. I said no, they took everything I had. He's sorry, man. Well, this is your lucky day. I got another call and I don't have time to take you to the jail house. I'm going to take you to the, to this border crossing. I'm gonna let you out and you're never allowed back in mexico again. Just get out of here, never come back.

Speaker 2: 38:17

And I was like oh, thank god, man, you know, sounds like a fucking scam, like a setup it was a setup, yeah, and funny.

Speaker 1: 38:25

You should mention that because at that point it dawned on me this dude's like yeah get out of here and you're you're, scared to shit most people would be like I'm not going to complain, Right.

Speaker 2: 38:36

Like I'm not telling anyone about this. I'm not going to ask to speak to your supervisor, Right? I just got fucking robbed.

Speaker 1: 38:42

Yeah, I don't want your badge number. Bye. Yeah, exactly, don't come back to.

Speaker 2: 38:47

Mexico Sounds like a good idea. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:49

Yeah, you would think that that would be the best idea, right? Just leave my stuff and be glad that I didn't die, so you don't have your suitcase? I don't have my suitcase.

Speaker 1: 38:58

It's stuck in the back of that car at the pay lot. It's still in the pay lot. Still in the pay lot, okay, and I mean I walk across the border of the American border agent, so they're literally laughing at me. They probably see it all the time. You know I'm blitzed out of my mind. Dumb enough to talk to them about what happened.

Speaker 1: 39:16

You're like they stole my drugs man, and I asked them like should I go back? And he's like whatever, dude, it's up to you, I mean we can't tell you not to go. That's their country, you know, yeah, and so I walked back across the border Because you wanted your suitcase, I wanted my suitcase and I felt like I could find my way back to that pay lot because it was in a popular area Revolution Boulevard, yeah, and I could get my stuff and find a way to get it across.

Speaker 2: 39:41

So I get to the pay lot. I mean you weren't thinking right? Of course not In any stretch of the imagination?

Speaker 1: 39:46

Not even yeah, because that cop just told you to never come back to Mexico.

Speaker 2: 39:50

And here you are, back in town walking around. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:53

I mean 30 minutes before I decided to go back.

Speaker 1: 39:56

I'm wondering if I'm going to live or spend the rest of my life in a Mexican jail, which no American spends the rest of their life in American jail and a Mexican jail. They either get deported back or they get killed. Yeah, you know what I mean. So, yeah, again, uh, say no to drugs, man. You know it could. It really should have cost me my life. I made some really stupid decisions, as you can tell already. So, anyway, I get to the pay lot, the car is gone. The attendant knew me, he knew he had recognized me because I'm the white guy and he recognized me. So, no, they came and got the car like 30 minutes ago. Man, they've been gone a while. I was like, oh man, that's when I knew I got. So the brothers, the brothers, yeah, so they didn't go to jail. They didn't go to jail.

Speaker 1: 40:39

No no, they all split my money. I took a beating, took a beating to make this look good. And what's interesting now that you mentioned that, is I actually read a book before the first time I ever went over there on how to traffic steroids safely from mexico, and they talk about this scam in the book that they'll literally have two guys, get with the cops, get you caught up with the cops and they'll literally beat one of them up. No shit, this is a scam that they do on a regular basis and you just forgot about it, or well, I was blitzed out, man.

Speaker 1: 41:12

Yeah, man, you know just enough can't be said about how, how out of my mind, how fucked up you were. You know, not just the drugs, but when you don't sleep for 10 days, no, that alone will make you delirious. Oh, of course you know what I mean, yeah, and you know very little nutrition, a couple tacos a day. You weren't really hungry, know so all right. So, anyway, what happened was from there. Um, I was still dumb enough and determined enough to get my stuff back Right Now. I was mad that I got took by everybody, right, couldn't just leave the country and say forget it. So I, um, I catch a cab, okay. So I catch a cab, okay. And this is like I want to say. It's like 2 in the morning again.

Speaker 2: 42:02

It's always 2 in the morning with all your shit.

Speaker 1: 42:04

Well, like a full 24 hours had passed from the last escapade, right where I escaped the last guys, vinny and Vinny. So, anyhow, I get in this cab and I have literally no idea where these guys live. I mean, I'd never been to that part of mexico, that part of tijuana, up in the hills, where these guys had this little house.

Speaker 2: 42:22

I mean what's it like?

Speaker 1: 42:23

30 minutes outside the city or something, probably 20 at least okay, yeah, and so I get in this cab and I try to describe, describe to this guy what the neighborhood looks like, what the neighborhood looks like, what the houses look like, and I said it's up here in the Hills somewhere and we go driving literally for six hours in that cab you know, just as a side note, I I think I gave that guy like a hundred American dollars.

Speaker 1: 42:49

It was more than he makes all week, Like he was thrilled to stay up all night with me, but I finally gave up, man, after six hours I was like there's just no way I'm going to find out where these guys live. I'm never going to find them. And we were up in the hills. So again, how dumb is it to stop there to end the cab ride there. Why wouldn't I have them take me back down to the city? I was just out of it, right? Yeah, I literally get out of the car and I look to my left and I'm at the house. I'm at these guys house. Craziest thing, man.

Speaker 1: 43:24

Like coincidence you thought you were just getting the fuck out yeah, I thought it was just ending the cab ride and I think in my mind I was going to walk around the area, maybe you know. Yeah, because I think I was starting to realize I can't keep, I can't stay in this cab much longer, because, oh, I think the cab driver was like I got to go home, dude, like it's past my shift, you know, I got family at home and I think it was kind of him too.

Speaker 1: 43:47

Now, that I think about it yeah so anyway, but he still could have taken me back down to the city and I didn't have him do that, right? So I'm like getting out of the car and again I looked to the left and I see that it's their house. I'm like you gotta be kidding me, man. And these, these places have no windows, no doors, nothing. They're just like like houses under construction almost or something you know. But they're old, they're not a little concrete or brick, yeah, like concrete, just forts type thing you know yeah and so I'll walk in there and the younger brother, the taller skinny one, is in there in the house.

Speaker 1: 44:23

I'm like what's? What's going on, dude?

Speaker 1: 44:25

you just fucking waltzed in yeah, just waltzed right in and he's like, hey, you know, he's he's thrilled to see me, right, and or at least he acted. It was, you know, and I was like what is happening, man? I just, you know, I came from the pay lot earlier. They said he's thrilled to see me, right, or at least he acted as he was. And I was like what is happening, man? I came from the pay lot earlier. They said y'all left, and it was like an hour after the cops left. I was like what happened and I can't remember exactly what he told me and what his excuse was, because his brother, the older brother that was younger wasn't there. And I can't remember the excuse he gave me of where his brother was and where the car was, but I feel like he told me that his brother was still in jail, that they let him out because they beat him up, so they felt bad for him and let him out early something like that.

Speaker 1: 45:11

But his brother was still in jail and I was like, okay, but where's the car? Why don't you have the car? Then? And I can't remember to this day what he told me. You know, he might've just denied it and said we didn't get the car. They're lying to you, the car is still there, or something. I can't remember, right.

Speaker 1: 45:29

So I was like he's like, but hey, let's, I'm, I'm hungry man, let's go down into town and get some tacos, get some food. I was like, all right, cool, man, he goes, my brother will be out of jail soon and he'll be able to get the car and get your stuff. We'll still take you across, right? And I'm like I don't believe it at this point, but I didn't have any other options. I'm hungry too. I need to get back down down to town too. So I'm like all right, let's grab a cab, let's go back down to town, let's get somebody to eat and go from there, right? So we're there, a couple of hours walking the streets, I realized nothing's going to happen. I'm not going to get my stuff back. I finally, you know, finally make amends with that. I'm not getting my stuff back.

Speaker 1: 46:11

So I duck into an internet cafe. He follows me. I did it kind of suddenly. He's like wait, what's going on, what are you doing? I was like man, I'm getting out of here. I mean, I wasn't scared of this kid. He was, he was, he was the pawn, right, yeah. So I was like look, dude, I'm, I'm out of here, bro, I need some sleep and I'm just done with this.

Speaker 1: 46:34

So, for whatever reason, I think because obviously I would have needed a credit card or a debit card to book it, and I think I maybe didn't have enough in my bank account because my girlfriend had actual cash she was sending me to book the flight. I think that's probably what happened. And so from there, he left the internet cafe while I was booking the flight and went around the corner to get something to drink or something. And so when I realized I wouldn't be able to book the flight there, I jetted Okay, craziest thing again, man, you would think that this thing's over. Right, three rounds, I'm over, I'm done, yeah, I'm leaving, looking for a plane ticket. Well, I run into these other two guys that I had met that were not in the apartment that night with vinnie and vinnie and them, but I'd met them during the 10 days, right, okay, and they were not like gangsters, they were like just regular dudes, you know, had jobs.

Speaker 2: 47:24

I think even but they were just partiers like, like I was yeah, and so they seemed safer.

Speaker 1: 47:31

So they invited me back to their apartment right now this is in the middle of the day and they're like man, we'll help you get your stuff back. We know who those dudes are. They're nothing to worry about, we can get to them, we'll get your stuff back from them and help you out. I was like now, they didn't have, you know, unlike the other guys, they didn't have a remedy to get me across. But they're like I don't know how you're going to get across, but we'll get your stuff back. They might've been being honest, but I sat there for a couple of hours and I was just like you know what, dude, I'm just done, man, I'm out of here. So again, memory doesn't serve me well at this point, but I think I actually went to the airport to book the flight in person with cash, cause I had my girlfriend send me like the last bit of cash I had.

Speaker 1: 48:13

I think I only had like 400 bucks left. I mean I literally had spent almost 10 grand, you know, primarily on drugs, you know, and this is everything you got. Yeah, this is it. And so I get there to the airport to buy the plane ticket and I'm like still like 250 short just to get home. You know, and I might not have the dollar amounts right, but it was a good number of you know, and I might not have the dollar amounts right, but it was a good number of you know, it was a good amount of money that I didn't have.

Speaker 1: 48:42

I told the airlines what had happened to me. I just told them I got mugged and, you know, robbed and stuff. And they could tell I was completely blitzed out and distraught, you know. And so they gave me some kind of medical exception to get me home, and I don't remember if I even had to give them the money I had in my pocket. But I got on a plane. You know I get on the plane. Obviously I fell straight to sleep. I'm completely just blitzed and exhausted. You know, a couple hour flight to Kentucky Actually it was actually it was like eight hours, I think flight to Kentucky. And I wake up on the plane and everybody around me is just staring at me like holy crap, like what?

Speaker 1: 49:19

what happened to you so evidently I fell asleep. I mean, obviously I fell asleep, evidently I was probably talking to my sleep falling out of the seat, like I remember, a couple times the airline service would come and like put me back in the seat because I was literally about to fall into the aisle.

Speaker 2: 49:33

You know, yeah, you were just fucking strung out. Yeah, just completely strung out.

Speaker 1: 49:39

Just indescribable, to the point that when I got in the car at the airport in kentucky and my girlfriend, who obviously knew me very well, looked at me, was like who are you like? What have you been? She didn't know any of this. I didn't tell her anything until I got back. She's like what happened to you? What, what, what's going on? Why did you have me, why did you stay there so long and why'd you have me send you all the money you had? Like what happened? And I was too blitzed out to even tell her man. It was like a couple of weeks later before I could even tell her what happened. But she I was so different looking I probably lost 20, 30 pounds in that 10 or 11 days, holy fuck. And she was like you're gross, like I'm, like she got the ick, like she's like I'm completely not attracted to you and never will be again. So get out of my life.

Speaker 1: 50:32

Yeah so um, so never will be again, so get out of my life. Yeah, so, um. So I was living with my mother at the time, grew up in a divorced home, so live with my mother. She gets home, she takes one look at me and says get out of the house like I don't know where you've been for two weeks. But you look like you've been through hell and back. And she knew I was on drugs. She knew I was dabbling in all kinds of drugs.

Speaker 2: 50:51

You can get like a change of clothes or a shower, yet I did.

Speaker 1: 50:54

So she let me grab the clothes that I had. I actually had freshly washed clothes that probably she washed for me right, Threw them in a clothes basket and she was literally like, get out. Or I'm calling the sheriff to lock you up, Like get out of here. And I was like, okay, she's serious. She's never said something like that.

Speaker 1: 51:12

You still haven't slept, still haven't slept, still haven't slept. So she calls all of my relatives. We're a real close-knit family. She's got like six brothers and sisters at that time. A couple of them have passed since, but don't answer his calls. Call grandma and grandpa. Everybody Don't answer his calls. Call my sister. He needs, he needs to learn. I don't know what he's up to, but I can't deal with him. He's out of control, leave him alone.

Speaker 1: 51:39

So I'm on the streets for like seven days, man, you know, I got like change in my pocket, you know, not eating nothing. And I uh, I met my girlfriend at this apartment complex and we were lifeguards together when I was in college and she was still working there. So I went over there to see her. She wouldn't, she still wouldn't have nothing to do with me. But after seven days of being on the streets, man, and really still not sleeping much, right, I talked to one of the maintenance guys that I knew there pretty well. So, look, man, here's what happened in a nutshell. I got to get some sleep, dude, like I got to get a roof over my head. Man, I'm gonna die, this is gonna kill me. He's like all right, look, dude, I got apartment keys to everything. Of course we got a couple apartments that are that are under construction, getting some work done to them. I'm gonna give you a key to one of them, but if you get caught, you you didn't get it from me because it'll cost me my job, yeah, you know. And so I said, all right, cool man, I appreciate. So he put me in this apartment.

Speaker 1: 52:33

You know, first night went fine, and second night by this time I had all those clothes I had in the basket I left my mom's house was were dirty and needed to be washed. So I took a little bit of change I had my pocket who knows even where I got that and went to the laundromat. For some stupid reason I had to do it at midnight, couldn't do it in like normal hours when most people wash their clothes, and so I went over there and I'm back and forth in and out of the apartment and this young couple across the hall hears me late at night going back and forth. And they knew I wasn't, something wasn't right, like I wasn't a normal resident, you know I wasn't a friendly neighbor, like hey moved in, how you doing, you know none of that right, and the apartment was completely empty. So they probably looked in and saw you know, this guy's been here a couple of days and there's not even a stick of furniture, you know. So they call the cops and within moments cops are out in the parking lot.

Speaker 1: 53:25

And I see through my front windows these cop lights, probably three or four cop cars.

Speaker 2: 53:28

Is this the first day?

Speaker 1: 53:30

Second day I was in the, the second night that I was in the apartment, so you got some sleep. Maybe I was in the the second night that I was in the apartment, so you got some sleep, maybe I got sleep the first night and I slept like all day that day.

Speaker 2: 53:37

This dude's up like 20 days Right Without really sleeping.

Speaker 1: 53:41

Yeah, I mean I slept some on the streets cause I was so tired. Yeah, I did get some sleep on the streets, you know, and I would. I would find places like in the daytime and just crash out for a couple of hours, and you're not doing any drugs at this point no I didn't have any money. I had like change in my pocket Again. I don't even remember where I had the change left.

Speaker 2: 53:56

but no, I had no money left.

Speaker 1: 53:58

Right. So I must have given the last few hundred bucks I had to the airlines. Maybe they did make me give that, I can't remember exactly, but I had no money, okay. And so when the cops came to this apartment, I could see the lights show up. I'm like, oh my God, these people called the cops on me.

Speaker 1: 54:21

So I luckily just finished washing all my clothes and folded them, had them in the basket, right, because I was always ready for it. I was always in escape mode, realizing that if somebody came in there or whatever, I had to jet immediately. So I always stayed ready. So, after I washed all my clothes, I had them all folded up and in the basket, you know, and I was like laying on a towel on the floor, right. So when the cops show up, I go out the door, which is on the side of the building, right. So the cops couldn't see me leaving the apartment and I escaped to the back of the building.

Speaker 1: 54:47

Okay, well, the back of the building is actually facing the street, kind of like a four way stop. I Actually it was a three-way stop, okay, and I hide in this bush up against the building Pretty big bush, and I'm not a big guy. So I thought I was pretty hidden, right. Well, I mean literally for a couple of hours. Man, I'm just hiding out in this bush and the cop lights are still out there. I know the cops are still looking for me and I'm thinking, oh my God, dude, like how much longer am I have to sit in this bush?

Speaker 1: 55:21

Finally, after a couple of hours, a cop walks right past me. I hear his footsteps, I hear him stop and then go again. So he had to have seen me because he stopped right in front of that bush. I don't think that's a coincidence, it's like a movie, yeah, yeah. And I guess he just saw a scared young guy that didn't seem like a threat to anybody, with a basket of clothes yeah, I'm clean cut, I'm not like gangster looking. So he probably just thought this guy's a runaway or something, or in trouble with his wife he just I'm not going to, I don't know Right or in trouble with his wife he just I'm not gonna.

Speaker 1: 55:53

I don't know right, but it was weird that he didn't pull me up out of that bush. So finally, after about another hour, the cop lights go off, right, but I could still see a couple of cop cars in that three-way intersection sitting there and I'm like God, dude, I'm gonna have to be in this bush for God knows how long man. And it starts to rain and never, you know, never like poor, but it was. It was drizzling at that point. It was probably three or four in the morning at this point, yeah, so about daybreak, I guess, at shift change I see those cop cars leave the intersection. I'm thinking, oh, thank God, so I leave the bush, just go straight out into that street. There's a bus stop there.

Speaker 1: 56:36

I hop on a bus that came almost immediately in its route, hop on this bus, do two trips around the whole city on the back of this bus just trying to gather myself like God, when is this nightmare going to end? And he comes back to the spot that he picked me up at, which happened to be the beginning of his route. So he stopped the bus and made me get off. He noticed I'd been back there for two trips, didn't say nothing to me real friendly guy. Actually he said hey, man, I don't know what you're up to If you're trying to just ride around the city all day with me. But you got to get off the bus because this is my break and when I'm off the bus nobody can be on the bus.

Speaker 1: 57:16

I'll be back in like 15 minutes. If you want to get back on, I won't charge you. I was like, okay, that's cool. So I get off and it dawns on me that I'm standing across the street from a hospital that I knew well, I'd been to as a kid or whatever for different like you know, er stuff, like breaking my elbow on a skateboard accident or something you know. And I knew there was a pay phone in that emergency room on the wall that didn't require any money. It was like an emergency phone that people could use, a courtesy phone for, like family you know, hey, bob's in the hospital or whatever.

Speaker 2: 57:47

So back then we didn't have Internet right, so we had um classified ads is where you would find jobs in the box of newspapers.

Speaker 1: 57:57

We had internet. It just wasn't like a thing then. Well, I guess it was, I don't know Again. All this is pretty much a blur right, yeah, yeah. But so I I grabbed this classified ads newspaper. That's in a newsstand, that's free, just the job section In the ER, no, not in the.

Speaker 2: 58:14

ER Right outside the ER. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 58:16

I grabbed this and I go into the ER and I'm like I don't know how this is going to work out. But one thing I have to do is get money. Money is the only thing that's going to get me out of this situation. So I literally prayed, man to God. I mean, I've always been a believer in God at this point, but I never needed him that bad until now, right Like I was at. That was at my wits end. So I prayed to God. I said, god, you got to help me get out of this situation. Man, nobody's going to help me. I have. No only thing I knew good in my life was my family, and they had. They had abandoned me, you know, jeez. So I literally spend probably 8 am to 5 pm literally standing at this phone, just going to the bathroom periodically probably, and called literally every ad in that newspaper. Nobody would even give me an interview. Wow.

Speaker 1: 59:06

Now, all of my family was pretty well off in the mortgage business, you know, making good money, and they were so busy with it they didn't have time to even train me. I asked them a couple of times will you train me? Because I had another business before I got into all this trouble and I wanted out of it. I wanted in the mortgage business. They wouldn't train me. So I said I prayed again. I said, god, I'm going to call this one mortgage ad said I prayed again, I said God, I'm going to call this one mortgage ad. This is the job I really want. And if and if, uh, man, I get choked up at this point cause it's, it's, it's, it's getting real for me now. But I, uh, I said, uh, if I don't get this job, I'm done, like I'm probably going to go kill myself, man, because I can't deal with this anymore. Man, like I can't live this way, you know.

Speaker 1: 59:52

And I call that ad again, and the owner of the mortgage company answers the phone and offers me an interview. It just so happened it was at the end of the day, his secretary was gone for the day, so he answered the phone himself, liked what I had to say I don't remember what I said to him, but obviously I probably sounded real motivated, you know. And so he gives me an interview, man, and schedule it for the next day. And here I am unshowered, like just a mess, like don't even know how I'm going to present myself this interview the next day, right, and so I call my dad's mother who I'm, I'm. I was pretty estranged from my dad's family because he was a deadbeat my whole life, so we didn't communicate with him a lot.

Speaker 1: 1:00:34

They loved us and we saw him at Christmas, and that was about it. You know, get your toys and go home. And hey, grandma, thanks. You know, rude of me as a kid, but I just didn't know these people, right? So I call her and I said, hey, here's what happened. She said I already know and I can't come get you. Your mother has already called everybody. She won't let us talk to you. And I was like look, here's what's happened. That's kind of wicked.

Speaker 1: 1:00:56

Yeah, my mom had had it with me though, man, because after my divorce I just got buck and I was a pretty wild child anyway before my divorce. I calmed down during my marriage, but I was still doing stupid stuff, so when I got divorced I just lost my mind, you know, yeah. So, anyway, thank God, I told her, you know kind of where I was, had this job interview. I just need a place to shower and clean up and get some decent clothes to wear in the interview, and then you know, that's all I need from you. Man, can you help me? She's like, yeah, but you can't live here, you know, but I'll help you get cleaned up and get you to the interview tomorrow, and then you're on your own. I was like, okay, so I get the job. And I'm just like, hey, what I said? No shit, yeah, I get the job. I'm just like a static. But I'm leaving the interview and I don't even know where I'm going to sleep that night. You know.

Speaker 1: 1:01:49

Well, she was gracious enough. She was glad I got the job. She actually had a plan to take me to a shelter from there. I was like, please don't take me to a shelter. Man, I'd been in those places like just visiting, right, and I was like I just I'll lose my mind there. Please don't take me there. So she had enough mercy on me to let me stay in her basement, but she refused to drive me to work. I'm eight miles to the office. I'm walking back and forth to the office for two months. I become the top producer and the rest is history. Man, god helped me out of that situation really miraculously. That's incredible.

Speaker 2: 1:02:32

Yeah, I mean that had to be like oxygen, just to finally, yeah, like a drop of water in the desert.

Speaker 1: 1:02:40

I've never told anybody this full story and now that I tell it to you and relive it, it's just nothing short of a miracle that I lived through it. Man, like I'm numb right now that I'm even standing in front of you telling this story, man, you know.

Speaker 2: 1:02:56

So, yeah, and then you ended up being very successful. Yeah, I became very successful Working with mortgages.

Speaker 1: 1:03:02

Yeah, within a year and a half had my own mortgage company, became a real estate investor and yeah Fuck yeah, yeah everything went well from there man a real estate investor. And yeah, fuck, yeah, everything went well from there, man, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:03:12

Well, thank you for sharing that with us. I mean, that was. It's an incredible story. It's rags to riches in a way.

Speaker 1: 1:03:20

Yeah, and I mean, life wasn't peachy all the time after that but it was a lot better than you probably learned at death and life in Mexico.

Speaker 2: 1:03:30

Yeah, you had to learn a lot from that experience, hopefully, and you kind of look at it like I never want to go back there. I'm going to have problems, but I never want to be in that hole again.

Speaker 1: 1:03:49

Matter of fact, man, when you say that I remember riding away from Tijuana on that train and looking over the city of Tijuana and saying I will never go back to that place again, never.

Speaker 2: 1:03:56

Don't go to fucking TJ.

Speaker 1: 1:03:58

Never. Yeah, it's worse now, so yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:04:04

Well, thanks for interviewing we appreciate it and thank you for tuning in. Yeah, see you next time.

Speaker 1: 1:04:09

Awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:04:25

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, make sure that you go ahead and subscribe to us. That helps give it a rating, whatever platform you're listening on, give it a thumbs up. Give it a five stars. Like subscribe review. Thank you.