Michael Arterburn - on the frontline of child protection.

This week, Leslie welcomes Michael Arterburn, a former policer who specialized in child exploitation and trafficking. Michael and Leslie discuss the challenges faced by first responders, the dangers of child exploitation on the internet, and ways to better protect children. He also talks about the time he spent in a coma!

Hosted by Leslie Dobson. Produced by Liam Billingham. Executive producers are Paul Anderson and Scott McCarthy for Workhouse Media. The views expressed in this podcast episode are solely those of the guest speaker and do not reflect the views of the host or the production company.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to another episode of Intentionally Disturbing. Today, I get
to talk with my friend Mike Ardiberm. Now Mike was
a police officer in crimes against children, with a large
focus on internet crimes. He would view the images, the videos,
and he would find the perpetrators and his advice, his stories,

(00:35):
his experiences are absolutely incredible and they will teach you
how to protect your children, but also things that you
can teach everyone around you. So I'm excited for you
to listen. We talk a lot about explicit sea SAM,
which is child sexual assault material. So trigger warning that

(00:56):
we do talk about things that are very, very uncomfortable,
and this is not an episode for children to listen to.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, you're here.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I started following you because of your safety advice and tips,
and I mean you used to play a child on TV.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Let's talk about that. Let's talk about your career a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, go, okay, twenty three year police officer. That's a
long time to see all that crazy shit.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah. They say that the average person maybe sees three
critical incidents in their life, and if you're a first responder,
you see like around seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Wow, and how many have you seen?

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
I don't know. It's a lot we made. Where I worked,
we worked a shooting or stabbing every single day. Now
they work three.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
What's crazy to me is that there's no mental health preparation,
Like I don't tell you what it's going to do
to you, your trauma, your family, your marriage, your life.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, you know. It contributed to losing my first marriage
for sure, when I was in crimes against children and
they gave no heads up on this is the trauma
you're going to see and hear firsthand. And it's not
so much when you're because you have to review all

(02:32):
those videos to look for se sam or contraband.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
And.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
There was no warning and there's no check up. It
should be mandatory for first responders to go, depending on
your job, like every six months you should have just
to check in. It doesn't have to be anything. You
know big and the cops will complain about it, for sure.
But I was telling you I got sick when I
came out of that. I thought I was five. I

(03:00):
hadn't retired yet. I was getting close, but I thought
I was fine with all my unprocessed trauma, and it
just came vomiting out when I woke up and started
to get my brain back together again.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
It was to explain you had a minor shoulder surgery
that led to pneumonia and a one month coma.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, yeah, that's the fine print they never tell you
about when you're getting general anesthesia, is that pneumonia is
a risk. So I had this minor shoulder surgery that
took an hour to repair, and I didn't think anything
of it. Three days later, I had one hundred and
five degree temperature and cough of my head off. Couldn't
take it, couldn't hold air in my chest, and I

(03:46):
told my wife. I was like, hey, can you look
after our son. I got to drive myself to the
hospital and I left her a note, so I deliriously.
I hallucinated on the way to the er. We live
an hour were from the closest hospital. Oh my god,
At like three in the morning, I get there and
I walk in and they're like, you need a wheelchair.

(04:09):
So they they put me in a wheelchair and take
my temperature and they're like, yeah, you're you're in a
bad spot. So they put me in one of the
beds and they asked me because I have no reference
of time, and they asked me for, uh, my code
to get into my phone so they can call my

(04:30):
wife who's in surgery, and uh, that's the last thing
I remember.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Oh my god. And so you were so you were
in a natural coma.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
It wasn't a no.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
They put me on a drug induced coma. But I
was getting so so little oxygen that things just were
not functioning. My body was failing. I had kidney failure,
liver failure. I've lost sight in partially in this eye
because of lack of oxygen. The doctor told me that
had I not been as big as I was, that

(05:07):
I probably wouldn't have survived. Wow. I woke up fifty
three pounds lighter. Yeah. All the stuff they don't tell
you when you're in a coma is that you're gonna
have to learn how to do stuff again because your
body's gonna forget. So I'd learned how to feed myself,
how to walk again. They told me if I could
with my little IV three, if I could walk around

(05:29):
the nurses station, they'd let me go home. And I
did because I'm hard hitted, and they're like, you can't
go home. Oh, they're awesome.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
What's it late?

Speaker 1 (05:41):
What was it like in those those few moments where
you woke up, it was.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
A different it was a different season. It was fall
when I went to sleep, and it was snowing when
I woke up. The first words I remember, well, I
had a lot of really buz are nightmares that I
couldn't wake up from. And they told my wife, you know,
who's a physician, your husband's going to die. You know,

(06:10):
Usually they say like we're gonna do all we can
that kind of thing. They're like, you need to make
funeral arrangements. So that's what she's dealing with. And I
remember her. And I always tell people if you know
somebody that is a loved one that's in a coma,
to talk to them because I can't write you a
book on what I had heard, but I can write

(06:32):
the cliff notes. I can remember things that were on
the radio. I remember my wife vividly holding my hand
and telling me and praying and also telling me I
need you to fight for me. And I remember, yeah,
I remember that as clear as a belle. And I

(06:52):
asked her after I could, after I could talk again,
I asked her, did you say that or is that
a dream? She said no, no, I said.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
That so you were in a coma, but you were
aware of your surroundings.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
What was that like, like emotionally, I mean, were you
could you feel sadness and fear and all that shit
when you're terrifying?

Speaker 3 (07:17):
It was terrifying. And I guess because of all my
past A lot of people dream normal dreams. I dream nightmares.
Sometimes it's cases that I've had. Sometimes it's variations of
cases that I've had, but instead of somebody else's kid,
it's my kid, you know. And it's Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Your nightmares are of the crimes against children happening to
your children.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, that's fucking horrifying.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, we can give you medication
these days, They're like, we can give you medication to
stop the night terrors. And I'm like, I had bad
experiences with those kind of drugs, you know, added up
residence and stuff like that. I'm good, I'll figure it out.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Okay, So we didn't even really introduce that part of
your career, Like the focus was child trafficking and online trafficking.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, So, I mean I think the biggest question is,
you know, how can we educate the audience on preventing trafficking,
Like what should we be looking for?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
How does it start?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
So it's mostly prevention. The FBI estimates there's over a
half a million child predators online at any given moment.
That's what you're up against.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
A lot of half a million in the world or
just in America, the world.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
They could be anywhere, and I'll tell you this, if
they are outside of the United States, they're not under
our jurisdiction. And unless I've worked with Interpool, I had
a cool have to do some cool things that I'm
very grateful for. My day would start with an image

(09:08):
or a movie, and my first objective is to identify
the child. If it's a legit Sea Sam, So I'm.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
An image, Yeah, what's the image of Is it just
a child or is it actually somebody being harmed?

Speaker 3 (09:25):
It's usually a mix of both. It could be first
I got to figure out is it legal. If it's legal,
my job is over. I have more. I have a
stack of cases. I can't get to the reality of
eye tract detectives. And you can ask any eye CAAC
detective this. We have so many toddler images and toddler

(09:49):
Sea Sam. If they have secondary sex characteristics in the
in the video or the image that goes on the
back burner unless you know exactly who that child is.
If there is a chance that they are over the
age of eighteen, like a barely legal kind of situation,
that case goes on the back burner. Unless you know

(10:09):
for a fact that child was fifteen, because they've been
previously identified in their tracking it the nick Mick, the
National Center for Missing Exploited Children NICKMK keeps the database
of known images, and it's.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Problem, what's the secondary sex characteristic that you would consider.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Development of breasts, pubic care, just generally how their body
is developed.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
And so back burner if you are if the little
girl's thirteen and she started to develop reasts.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Unless it's just obvious they are a child, then you
just don't have time. There are cases that you can
work that are there just aren't enough detectives doing this,
and the problem is so huge. People just don't know
and the topic is so awful, people don't want to

(11:03):
talk about it. The detectives in Crimes against Children we
had our own office. My partner and I and the
other detectives knew not to come in our office because
they're gonna they're gonna have trauma from for just walking in,
because it's just the nature of the cases. So we

(11:23):
would get an image. Usually my day would go like
we would. We would get to work. I would get
a case from the National Center from Missinge. Exploited children
are our own cases that came within our county, but
my cases were worldwide. This kid could be anywhere, literally,

(11:44):
So if it's a totally unknown which was very frequent,
you look for things in the background, like what did
the wall sockets look like? The outlets because in Europe
they're different, So you start to develop flues. What did
the trees look like? What kind of climate are we in?
Now they have software. There's a content creator called jose Monkey.

(12:08):
He's awesome and people will send him a picture of
themselves somewhere in the world and say find me, and
he will find them. Oh wow, So the software has
come a long way and I don't know, fourteen years Wow.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Well, I mean, but the software has been educated by
you and your experiences, right, so I hope so? Well,
I mean they have to put it into the machine
learning and teach it, right, So who's doing You've built
the foundation for it?

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, things like Google Maps and things of that nature
that are constantly taking surveillance and you know with AI
and all that. These days, the AI is terrifying from
my perspective on what I used to do on like
I had a voice changer which was super special and
the only reason I had it is because I was

(13:00):
working with the with the FBI. I worked on the
Innocent Images Task Force. So the FBI is great. I know.
I know shows portray them to be like they'll take
over your case or whatever they want. Credit not my experience.
In my experience, they were like, we're the bank. You
do your job and be good at it, and we

(13:21):
will help you do whatever you need. That was my experience.
I was like, bring it on, let's go. So they
gave me. I had access to their forensic lab, their
their their computer lab, which was amazing. Those guys are
fantastic because my cases were one or lost. I never
lost case. My cases were one or lost on digital

(13:43):
images on the computer.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
So you're are you talking about cases where you could
identify the child and then you'd find the perpetrator and
go to trial.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yes, in some cases they were local and you could
go kick the door in, you know, this guy's and
it's almost always a male. They're creating Sea Sam and
if it were a new enough image and it was local,
I could get a search warrant after doing some detective

(14:13):
work and then go kick the door and rescue the child.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
What's it like to to look into the eyes of
a pedophile that you're about to arrest.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
So I'm gonna say what I said as a young officer,
which is crimes against children is the one job I
would never have. And part of it is because I
would grab that guy and throw him off the bridge.
So what happens in police work In my experience after

(14:48):
I was in about seven or eight years, you get jaded,
two drug dealers shooting each other in the street. I'm sorry.
I feel sorry for their parents, but you're you're in
that game. I lost my empathy about the only kid.
The only people that I really really cared about were kids,

(15:09):
because kids are innocent. I'm that way to this day.
You call me in the night, I'll come help. So
with that, I guess it was just God's timing. I'd
worked in domestic violence and I took a break for
maybe eight months, and then I was asked to apply
for this position, and domestic violence kind of molded me
for these kind of cases, because with domestic violence, it's

(15:32):
not a who done it, You know who the perpetrator is,
so you can mold your interview technique. And what a
lot of people don't understand is that when you're putting
on your case to a jury of normal people, most
normal people don't understand how a full grown man wants
to have sex with a three year old, and so
that beyond reasonable doubt. That reasonable doubt is what could

(15:55):
possibly hold that one juror, Like, people don't think that way.
There's no way that that man that I'm looking at
right there wanted to do that. So my job interviewing
pedophiles was to not be intimidating because my guys weren't
like bank robbers and murderers. These are guys that have

(16:16):
never been caught committing a crime. So what I had
to do, I would come in as a dumb, fat guy.
I would wear a big Hawaiian shirt that was my
dress for the day.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
That's such a technique that lawyers use in depositions too,
Like if a lawyer always wears a fucking Hawaiian shirt,
so that you don't think.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
He's gonna come at you. But okay, this is good.
It's actually an excellent tactic for a pedophile.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, so you structure your whole interview technique around that.
And my job was to get that confession, was to
get him to say, yeah, that's that's what I typed,
that's what I like. I like this age group. Once
they're of a certain age, I don't like them anymore.

(17:03):
Just just the details and get them talking. I'm not
a smoker. I had a whole drawer full of cigarettes,
and if they smoked, I smoked. It's just that that mirroring.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, because a lot of pedophiles also like they have
new friends.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
They have really really they don't have social skills. They don't.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Yes, it was they talked to children.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
And many of them wanted me to hear, wanted to
hear from me. It's not your fault you have a sickness. Yeah,
and it's not your fault that you're this way, and
we're gonna get you some help. And of course, in
my mind, my help is sending them away for at
least into fifteen.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Years yeah or forever.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeahs I could.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
So you you could pull yourself together enough to sit
there and engage with them in conversation about raping children, yes,
and masturbating over children.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yes, and blaming the child. And you feel like such
a grease ball when you're in front of a jury
on the stand and they're watching this interview video and
I'm sitting there saying, well, she was wearing that short
little skirt and she was wearing you know, you had
to change your diaper or whatever, and you're blaming the
victims so that they're like, and they'll be sitting there

(18:27):
going yeah, yeah, so yeah, and everybody's different. Interviewing interrogations
are are an art form as much as they are
a pseudoscience. And one of the easiest ways I could
tell like, you have to know when to when to

(18:49):
read somebody Miranda, because they're in custody and I'm going
to ask them questions about the crime. That's the two
prongs for Miranda. So if you don't have one or
the other, you don't have to read Miranda. Like, well,
we're sitting at McDonald's and he's free to leave, I
don't have to read him Miranda. But one of the
hurdles as an investigator that you have to get over

(19:09):
is that fear of you have the right to remain silent,
because if they invoke your rights, your interview's over unless
they spark it back up. And it's all on video.
Everything's videoed. So what I would do how I knew that, like,
I could talk to him about their day or whatever,

(19:31):
as long as didn't have to do with the crime.
I could talk to him and build rapport.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, so rapport such a fancy word.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
You really got them to trust you and like you quickly,
and you were good at.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
It trying to you know, and and some people just
don't like you. I worked on a guy for two
hours and he would not he didn't invoke his right
to remain silent, but he would he would not tell
me what I needed to hear. And my partner, who
was female, came in and honey babied him and touched

(20:10):
him on the knee and he cracked immediately. And that's
not a technique I can use. So it's just you know,
it's just people like you or they don't. But one
of the techniques I would use to know that it
was safe to start getting into the crime that we're
building rapport is I would buy them a soft drink

(20:31):
and on the in the inner interrogation room, there's a
table between us, and I would be able to tell
the soft drink would be in between us to start,
and as they started to open up, they would move
it to the side so that barrier was not there anymore. Oh,
I like this.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
There's so much psychology involved in this.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, it's wild, just on human nature. And you know
everybody's different, but everybody's the same too, Like everybody wants
to mitigate. So you don't want to say you rate
that kid. You say you made love to that child?

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Child healthy sex? Yes, yes, it's fucking disgusting.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah, And like I said, when you're up on the
stand and your normal people are watching you, how you
do your interview? You have to reassure them, like, look,
this is an act. I'm trying to solicit the truth
out of this guy. But yeah, it's a wild world.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
You gotta get paid commercial time. So what do you
what do you do with it?

Speaker 1 (21:44):
I mean you, it goes inside you.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
You feel you're aware.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Of so much trauma and horrific things. And I've seen
the images too, like I never leave my brain. How
did you manage just survive it?

Speaker 3 (22:06):
You don't do anybody any good if you fall apart.
And that goes for any any scene that you're on.
You got a job to do. I've had younger officers breakdown.
A dad had rolled over on his infant because they
were sleeping and suffocated her to death, and one of

(22:28):
the officers that was there was was breaking down. I'm like, hey,
you're not doing anybody any good. We got to get
through this. We we fall apart later, but right now,
you're here to help these people. So you keep that
in mind. You process with you know, working out, booze you.

(22:51):
I isolated myself during my first marriage and didn't know
that I was what I was doing.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
But I would go down isolated physically and also emotionally,
like you weren't telling her what you were seeing and
how you were feeling.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
Reasonably, she had told me, don't tell me about your day,
and I was like, cool, well what and that that's fine.
I shouldn't bring all that awfulness to somebody else if
they're not getting paid. Oh, but what I should have
done is had some kind of healthy outlet, And thankfully

(23:33):
I was working out. I worked all the time, like
if there was if there was overtime to be had,
or if there was a case that went long, No
supervisor is going to tell me to go home, because
what's the alternative. You know, the child gets hurt and
that makes the news because you made me go home.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, it's I mean, in part, you're a body for
the government, right, you're a number, But also you're this
human being who has to ruin himself to take on
a caseload that in one case is enough, but to
just keep going and work overtime because you'll never catch up.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Yeah, and there's that feeling of I know it makes
a difference if I show up to work. If I
stay home or I call in sick, or I don't
do my job, something bad is going to continue to happen.
But if I come to work and I do my job,
I might be able to save a kid. Like it
is tangible. So it was a tough job to leave,

(24:46):
but it was definitely burnout. Is just over a year,
about a year and a half on typical crimes against children.
I did it for seven, Oh my god, And there
was nobody to pull me aside and tell me, dude,
you're burned out. You need to you need to take
a break. So when it was time, it was definitely time.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Seven years. How many cases have you how many cases
have you been on?

Speaker 3 (25:20):
You would get three to four cases each detective per day,
and some of those there's nothing to them. Were they
lead to China. Enemy countries don't cooperate with us. So
my connections at Interpol, the case was dead because I

(25:42):
have to follow the track I have to. I have
to trace that image through different countries. Germany was great,
England was great. They're like, we'll go snatch that go
up right now, so because they don't have the same
right since we do. Mm hmm. So so and you
know what, I had to of those cases. But you

(26:02):
never know what you're gonna be working for that day.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
And just so that people are aware these images, the
things you're reviewing the evidence, I mean, these are not
just images of children, but these are adults assaulting children.
And you are seeing the graphic details of grown men
and literally babies at times, yes, and the aftermath and

(26:29):
the wreckage.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
The thing that you pray for is that there are
a bunch of known images on this person's hard drive
and I don't have to see them because there's a
hashtag number not a hashtag a hash number assigned to
those images, which is more accurate than a fingerprint. So
hopefully there's Like I said, there's a bunch of known

(26:54):
images and I don't have to look to a bunch
of unknown images. But another thing they don't tell you
is that there's a bunch of legal porn that is
awful self harm videos. Uh, the Pain Olympics just to
name a series of horrific videos that are completely legal.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Here what what?

Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (27:19):
What are the pain Olympics is? It's like BDSM but snuff,
there's there's some video is not going to be monetized.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
No, it's I just said snuff.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Okay, that's that old timey stuff you put your nose.
It's that's stuff.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Uh, how do we let's let's explain to people what
what is snuff?

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Gosh stuff? Videos are kidnapping videos that are illegal, and
there are fake ones and there are real ones where
usually a female is kidnapped, she's sexually assaulted and then
murdered on camera.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yep, there you go.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
So the Olympics are people usually on PCP that can't
feel pain. One of them was a guy that circumcised
himself with a razorblad. On camera one, a guy sits
on a big wine glass and puts it in his

(28:23):
rectum and it breaks and he's pulling out the shards
one by one. On Yeah. Well, I don't know if
it was or not, but I'm assuming they had some
kind of pain medication or something.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
People are masturbating to this.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
This is like, it's more like an It just like
a fun It's.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Like Faces of Death, that old VCR thame where it's
you know, just awfulness and a normal person doesn't see that.
So like I don't go to see horror movies. I
don't go I don't go to haunted houses because I
know what it is to go to be called to
a house. There's a person that is wanted for a

(29:07):
violent felony. It's this third strike, is never getting out
if he gets caught. The house is completely dark, he's
probably armed, and he's hiding in the attic or he's
hiding somewhere in the house, and it's my job to
go get him. And you're afraid. I mean, I don't
want to die, but that fear keeps you safe, you know,

(29:30):
so you you think of all the different things that
you can do to mitigate the danger and going and
getting that guy. But yeah, the reality of the job
mad I done. I'll be honest, I had no idea
what I was doing when I applied to be a
police officer. I had no idea what. Yeah, I have
no idea. I don't. I have no idea what? What? What?

(29:52):
I had no idea what cops really do. I was
hooked when I made my first, my very first run
out of the before I even knew my FTO, my
field training officer's first name. Our first run out of
interrupted roles tall was an armed robbery and I'm riding

(30:14):
literal shotgun and I was cooked after that. After that run,
I was like, you could just pay for my rooming board.
I'll do this job for free. And I had that
attitude for three years. And then after three years, you know,
the newness wears off or whatever and it becomes a job.

(30:35):
But yeah, that's the that's the part I don't tell
my kid, I don't want to be a cop.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, And you know I've had similar you know, in
my role as a forensic forensic psychologist, these cases and
I see the gruesome details. I'm not there on site
that would just add this layer. I can't even fucking imagine.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
But I get these flashes throughout the day of.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Not necessarily with emotion, but just images of like, oh,
this could happen, or this happened.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
And the worst for me are like when I'm changing
my son's diaper and I'm like, oh my god, I
remember this scene. This is how the child was laying.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah. I don't think.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
People realize that like that. We're doing this for the
world and we're carrying it with us every day too.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Ye. What gets me is the people that don't have
it coming. Family of five driving down the expressway hit
by a semi tractor trailer in a minivan, bodies literally
all over the road, and I'm picking up body parts
and they it's just a family going to church or whatever.

(31:55):
They didn't have it coming. And I think of that
now that my un drives. That's what scares me, that
that's what, you know, the normal person doesn't think of
that kind of stuff, But I'm that way on almost
everything that I do.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
And you know, you and I both get a lot
of shit online like that were fear mongering and all
this bullshit, and it's like, what do you want us
to do. Do you want us to pretend that this
fucking world doesn't exist. I mean, somebody has to be
there to explain grooming. It's it's amazing to me. Like,

(32:39):
tell me how how in your mind you justify these
these fear mongering comments.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
My first thought is that person's blessed and they don't
know it because they've never experienced awfulness.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
That is, this person is an evil cunt.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
But okay, that too, they're pretty blessed.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
I hold back on my videos. I intentionally tell it
like I'm telling detective on the stand. I do my
best not to sensationalize things because I feel like that
the truth is so awful. And this is how I
was a helicopter parent to my son. He's seventeen now,

(33:29):
but when he was two, when I was in crimes
against children, I was a helicopter parent because of all
the awfulness that I mean, drowning, you name it, that
I had seen that it happened to somebody, and I
just didn't want it to happen to me, you know,
or to my family. But yeah, the grooming. I've had

(33:51):
cases where the bad guy's known this person since they
were twelve, and they're like, just wait until you're sixteen,
because at the time, sixteen was the magic age in
my state. Now, if they took a picture of it,
it had to be eighteen because that's federal. But the

(34:13):
actual act of grooming starting at twelve. If you've had
that conversation saying just wait till you're sixteen, that's illegal.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Let's give some tips to people on how to how
to catch grooming, especially online. If your kids are.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Getting groomed, Blake, what can we tell parents?

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Secrecy? No electronics behind closed doors, so no xbox, no computer,
no phone in their room. If your kids sound young
and they play, they use a headset to game. They
don't get a mic. They make plenty of headsets with
no mic.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
If your kids sound young, yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
If they sound little like they have that little voice. Now,
for my child, it was a challenge to communicate online.
Friends are not real life friends. So when he's gaming
on his Xbox and he's in a chat room with

(35:25):
a bunch of people, they aren't his real friends. And
he's like, well, so it's introduced me to this guy
and he's nice, and I'm like, eh, buddy, and it's
my parenting skill or my My parenting mindset was to
expose him enough to my world that it it informed

(35:47):
him but didn't scar him for life. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, I take the same.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
I don't know methodology, Like I inform them, but I don't.
It's not fear, it's empowerment. Yeah, that they walk away
with and there's a grace to doing that. So yeah, timing.
How what age groups do you think warrant certain explanations.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
I think the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. If
you go to missing Kids dot org, that's their website.
Those are the guys that sent me all of the
cases are a lot of the cases for cyber complaints,
like if you see something or somebody does something online
then you think it's illegal, you send it to them

(36:33):
and then they vet it and then they either send
it to me or the FBI. But they have some
really excellent age appropriate videos explaining like through the levels
of age for the dangers of online or over social
media in general.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Oh, that's great. What's the website.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
It's Missingkids dot org. Okay, but yeah, they're a tremendous resource.
They also have take it Down program where if somebody
generates a nude of your child or your team sends

(37:16):
somebody a nude and it gets released to the school
or whatever, you can contact them. And what they do
is they contact all the big companies like Google and
Yahoo and all those companies and they identify that photo
and they say this photo is illegal, and if one
of those big companies sees it going through their mail,

(37:38):
they stop it and then they inform law enforcement that it's.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Going through Okay, Oh so I mean parents can do things.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Yes, absolutely, and it's.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Not just going to happen to you. We can prevent
it and if something does happen, we can stop it.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
Well, federal government has a heavy hammer and there are
federal guidelines where companies have to comply like Facebook, Instagram,
all those guys, they have to comply with. If something
is identified, they have to take it down. So instead
of complaining, you should you definitely make a complaint to

(38:20):
the companies, but also go to Missing Kids dot org
and let them know so that they can follow up
and make sure that those companies are doing the right
thing and taking things down. Like I've had, I've had
the weirdest circumstances. I had a case where the little
girl had her image uploaded to dark holes, which you

(38:44):
can imagine. It's a paid site, so I had to
write a purchase order do my chief for this website.
So it was very odd having to send this to
the official chain and being like, yes, sir, I really
need this membership is I'm working a case. And then

(39:05):
you verify that that image or that movie is on
the site, and then you notify the site, and then
you also notify Nick Nick to get him to take
it down.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Oh my god, the world has no idea what dark
sites are. Most people don't know how many there are
or even just how to fucking access them. I mean,
Interval took down that huge one, was it?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Seven?

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Recently took down a huge one. But there's so many.
How many do you think there are?

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Yeah, well, as soon as you take one down, they
pop right back up. And then, like I said, if
they're going through What's dangerous only fans. You can be
in high school and have an only fans So if
somebody finds that out, it's immediately illegal if you're under eighteen.

(39:56):
But what of age? Models don't know? And I've done
a couple videos and I got a little blowback on it.
There's a site in Russia that I won't name that
works to identify OnlyFans models, where they live, their real address,
their real phone number, how many kids they have, what

(40:16):
their kids' names are, where they go to school. If
the only Fans model has a real job, where she works.
All that is, I've been on the site. It shows
a mat where they live, and there's dudes that contribute.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
And this is for trafficking, I imagine, Yes, yep, and
it's time for break.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Okay, So.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
I have one final kind of bigger question and then
I want to ask you some some rapid fire questions.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
But bigger question is.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
What do you think about this kind of trending vigilante
atmosphere of taking down pedophiles and catching them on your own.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Like there's I.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Forget what they're called, but there's these groups that are
starting to advocate for themselves and finding them themselves.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
I think it's great they got the right heart. When
I was doing sting operations, we adoperate by certain rules,
so it's not entrapment. A lot of the cases that
are generated by individuals and then hand it over to
law enforcement. Law enforcement usually can't take them because they

(41:39):
violated some right of somebody. You did all that it's
when you set up somebody to do something that they
wouldn't normally do. So Gosh, as an undercover, I can't
really tell. I can't explain to you what our rules
are because with out all the other undercovers out there

(42:01):
on our techniques. But to catch a predator that show, Yeah,
a lot of those cases they didn't go They didn't
prosecute them, They just embarrassed the guy. But safety, that's
my main concern as far as I mean, I want
I want the bad guy to go to prison for sure,

(42:22):
and I hope they follow up. But when you meet
one of these guys, just the conversation itself, not meeting
is a ten year mandatory minimum in a federal prison.
There is no probation, there is no parole from federal prison.
You serve most of that time. Now that we've been
doing it enough, that got out into that into the

(42:44):
pedophile community. And the internet's one of the worst things
because these guys network now and they're all over the world.
One of my guys that was filming children in a Walmart.
He was putting his camera over the stall of little
boys to film them. I hate. Yeah, he was networking

(43:08):
with a guy in Canada, and this guy was intentionally
dating a mom to get to her child.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
And there.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
There was a notebook on how to groom a child
and how to make them comfortable with you, to be
physical with them. And it starts with things like wrestling
and tickling. And then now because they have AI, they
can use movies like Shrek or Mickey to show them
Sea Sam and see see it's normal.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Is it all funded by the Catholic Church.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
One of our detectives had a big case in where
I worked with that is.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
That the publishing company?

Speaker 3 (43:55):
So so yeah, there's a well known like how to
groom workbook out there, if you.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Will, fucking disgusting, It's insane And everything you're saying.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Is so true because every victim of.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
I have a lot of survivors who are forty plus
and they were groomed and abused at five or six
years old.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
And that's exactly it.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
I mean, I can't tell you how many wrestling coaches
in high schools went away or had civil litigation against them.
They coached wrestling on purpose, Yes, because it is one
of the most common grooming techniques.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Like what am I going to do? Is he going
to say something.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
If my hand brushes against his penis when we're when
I have him pinned, he didn't say anything. I guess
I can move it to his butt. He didn't say anything.
Let's move it to the shower.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Like parents need to be educated on this.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah, And the scary part is that pedophiles will put
themselves in jobs or positions where they have access to
your children. It's on purpose. And I've made videos before
where I say, look, nobody gets a pass. If a
case coming across across my desk, or if my child
is out there in the world, nobody gets a pass.

(45:15):
I'm going to vet that person. Thank goodness. There's like
it terrifies me if if I see like Facebook groups
and somebody says, hey, there's somebody that use a babysitter
out there that we can use, and I'm like, did
you vet this person? You know you're trusting them with
your three year old. There's a company out there now

(45:36):
that that vets people, and I think it's great. At
least it's something. It's better than nothing.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
What what do you mean, what how do they vet them?

Speaker 3 (45:45):
They use teachers and they do background checks and things
of that nature.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh okay, yep, because like on on care dot Com,
when you're picking a babysitter, you know you can pay
more and they'll do background checks. But I always wonder,
you know, what do they actually do. I just richister
to do it myself well.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
And the scary thing is that pedophiles usually don't have
a record.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yeah, ain't that the truth? So we've learned that.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
You know, vigilantes are have good hearts, but you could
actually fuck it up more to the point where the
pedo isn't going to go away, and you would also
get yourself in legal trouble.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Well, you can get killed too. I've had when I
did takedowns, we would have them meet in a parking
lot or a park that was not busy, and it
was because just in case of gunfight. I've had guys
travel I'm in Kentucky and I've had them travel as
far as North Carolina to come and meet me. And

(46:47):
when we take them down, you take it down just
like a slot operation. You don't give you don't give
them a chance because you don't know if they have
a gun under their leg I've had them show up
with duct tape, valume, crossless panties, sex toys, see sam
on hard drives on like thumb drives, rope, all kinds

(47:10):
of stuff.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Fucking twisted monsters.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
Yeah yeah, when when when when I say predator, That's
what I'm saying is they are predators.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah, yeah, animals.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
But then with with that same brushstroke, I have to
pull it back in because I need this guy to
talk to me. Yeah, So other officers usually take him down,
and I'm the guy that takes the handcuffs off. I'm
the guy who asks him, do you want to smoke?
Do you wanna do you? Do you want to coke?

(47:45):
Are you hungry? Because I think I read something like
eighty percent of human conversation has had over food. So
we had like a a jar that we could dip
into in the office to go get the guy a
happy meal and whatever he's eating, I'm eating.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
When I was working in the state hospital, I got
so pissed at the night staff because they'd bring like
McDonald's to the guys in isolation, like.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
They're not going to learn their fucking lesson. I know
you had a burger last night, but it does. Food
makes uh, Food makes violent, dangerous people easier to be
around and get things out of Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Yeah, oh, I just I want to like shout out
Bark Technologies and not this is not paid at all,
but like you and I both love it, and I
use like I feel like people need some tips with
what they can use to monitor the online presence for kids.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Now.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
I know AT and T has something, bark Tepechnologies reviews
the software, so you'll get alerted to your phone if
your kid is around violence or bullying or bad things.
But what are some other like products things that you
recommend so that parents can feel like they are as
aware as humanly possible with online grooming Gosha.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
I think Google makes family safety something like that. There's
there's just not enough, like Instagram recently put up like
we have keeen accounts and they totally safe. They are
not totally safe.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Yeah. Oh that was one quick question I had.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
If you private your account and you still have images
of your children up, how secure do you think that
is for.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
The average person. Pretty secure for somebody that wants to
see your photos, not secure at all. There's there's a
way or multiple ways to get past the privacy setting
on somebody's account.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Okay, that's a huge, huge lesson to learn.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
But, like I try to tell people with burglars, the
average burglar doesn't know how to jam your Wi Fi.
They don't know how to hack through your password. Most
of them are like trying to pry your door open.
Is it possible that somebody could hack your WiFi and
turn your cameras on or you know, look through your cameras. Yes,

(50:29):
it is possible, it's not likely.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
But how do you know if you're going to be
a target?

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Yeah, it only takes one. I mean, you know, I
live in a safe neighborhood. You live in a safe
neighborhood until the one bad guy walks through your neighborhood
that it's not safe anymore.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Okay, let's do our rapid fire questions. If you could
commit a crime and get away with it, what would
it be?

Speaker 3 (50:58):
Gosh, I don't know. There's some bad guys out there
that so I could probably drop off and not worry
about anymore.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
It's same. I think we probably have the same we did.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
We could just do the crimes together. Yeah, let's just go,
you know, let's just go.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Killed a bunch of people. Anyways. Wow, this video is
just going to be taken off you know.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Okay, if you had to die by death penalty, which way,
which method would you choose?

Speaker 3 (51:32):
I'd probably say firing squad. Really, yeah, I guess because
I'm so familiar with firearms and having to brain and
I guess I would want to be aware of it.
I wouldn't want to like go to sleep and not
wake up.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Oh, I guess you also have the Komma history, so.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
You wouldn't want to like gass you in the not like,
how do you die?

Speaker 3 (51:59):
I didn't three days when I woke up and I was.
I was scared. When when I was afraid to go
back to sleep and my wife was sitting right next
to me in the hospital, God bless her. She didn't.
She didn't leave for thirty days. People brought her clothes,
brought her food. Uh is She's amazing. But but yeah,

(52:21):
I was. I have not been scared since I was
a child, and I was. I felt fear when I
was when I woke up and I was like, I
don't want to go back to sleep. You're gonna lose
your You're gonna lose your mind. You're hallucinating because on
the third day, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Yeah, okay, So so uh if you get the death
penalty you will advocate for, well, make sure you do
it in a state that has death by firing squad. Squad, Like,
do your crime that you won't get caught for in Idaho,
and then right, do the firing squad. Yeah, okay, okay,
one more question. If you could change a law in

(53:03):
this country, what would you change and why?

Speaker 3 (53:08):
One they're working on now and some states have it,
but a lot of states are playing catch up. In
a lot of states. This is a two prong a
generated AI image of a child that is seesam In

(53:31):
some states that's not illegal because it's not a real person,
and it takes forever from the laws to catch up
with technology because technology evolves so fast. The other one
is child YouTubers. I think that the parents are benefiting
massively from if they have a successful show, and many

(53:52):
times the kids don't get anything from it.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Interesting, Yeah, is there anything we can do to help
advocate for that.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
Since you said it's kind of happening.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
Now, Yeah, I think if you just get the ear
of congressman like I was super lucky. I was, and
at the time when I was working, I was working
hard and I was taking a lot of cases and
I got the opportunity to talk to the attorney general
in my state, and he asked me that question, if
you could change something, if I could do something for you,
what would be And I said, Sir, pedophiles when they're

(54:31):
in prison, research where they can move to where the
restrictions aren't so bad. Our state doesn't have enough restrictions
and make their life miserable. We are attracting pedophiles from prison.
And he was like really. I was like, yeah, so
you know this, This comes from talking to bad guys

(54:52):
like I see her from Indiana. Why did you move
to Kentucky? Why are you even here? And if you
really want a real eye opener, go to family Watchdog
dot us and look up the sex offenders that live
around you. Enter in your home address and you will
be blown away at all the sex offenders that live
close to your house.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Yeah, and look up the crimes, like, look up the
penal codes. Figure out what it means. Some of them aren't,
They can't. Some don't have a lot of explanation. But
you know, if you've got loud and lascivious and you
know it's a child, you know what streets to not
walk your kids? Down and you know that on Halloween

(55:33):
they have to be inside. Like sex offenders in each
state have these rules, right, and you can help. If
they're violating their parole, you can find their prolelefts and
let them know.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
Right, and almost all of them do. It's a felony
in my state to not report a change of address
if you're on the registry. So we got those guys
all the time Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a dark person.
I would love to I love going to the mom's

(56:04):
address and arresting these guys because they're visiting, but they
use mom's address for their home address and they don't
live there, so they get to felony warn I'd in
on thanksgetting any guess what you're going to prison?

Speaker 2 (56:17):
I like your style you when I heard a kid,
I'm going to ruin.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
The rest of your fucking life.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
It's not over. You haven't paid your sentence yet.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Okay, can you tell me a secret?

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Like what for me in a direction?

Speaker 2 (56:38):
I don't know something nobody else knows other than your wife.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
I don't know. I guess uh. I was going to
go with you know, police work's not what it seems
like you have it in your mind, it's one way,
and it's it's when you're in the job, it's something else,
and it will change you. I'm definitely not the person
I was before police work, and I don't know. I

(57:12):
guess it's just a sacrifice you have to make, Okay.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
I think it's so important for people to hear because
it's so true. I mean, I work with police in
therapy and it creeps up on you and then when
you retire it floods you.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Yeah. Well, one of the things that as a retiree,
I try to tell guys that I know that are
retiring is find a hobby. I don't care what it is,
because as a cop, it is all encompassing. It is
a twenty four to seven job. You are sworn. So

(57:51):
just because you're home doesn't mean you're you're not the
police anymore. You're still the police. When you retire, you're
not bad anymore. So you got to figure out who
you are and if you haven't thought about if you
haven't been making friends and building foundations, or you've alienated
your family and all your your close friends. And I
don't mean your top friends, because you'll keep some of
your cop friends, but most of my friends are people

(58:15):
I knew before police work. M so, and I'm still
cool with the guys you know that I work with,
and I still have good friends that are that are
that are still cops. But you know, once you're out,
you're out and h you know, and people ask me,
do you miss the job? I don't really miss the job.

(58:35):
I missed the caliber of people that I worked with,
because it takes a special person. You've got to be
a little crazy to want to do that job. I
get along with first responders great, I get along with
military great. There's a lot of common threads and a
lot of professions. But just the guys that I worked
with are all, you know, crazy, and I think we're

(58:56):
all cut from the same cloth.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
I agree, I feel the same, okay.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
And my secret is that when I first started following
your account like years ago, and then you know, we met.
I'm so excited we've met in person, like at conferences
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
I had watched them.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Sorry, are you doing crime con this year?

Speaker 2 (59:21):
They haven't replied to me.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
They have replied to me, either.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
Get it together, crime con. We'll go.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
I'm guessing I'll walk around, we'll go.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Well, we won't be wearing free Diddy t shirts, like that's.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
All of the news right now.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
But I had just watched, uh, what is the movie Beekeeper?
And when I started seeing your videos, I was like,
oh my god, I really I think he's like a
secret beekeeper. I think because he talks like it's your
account is killer, be tactical, your cop. Okay, you're like

(01:00:00):
a secret pedal killer. That's really genuinely what I thought.
And then as I got to know you, I was like,
oh my god, no, he really just makes honey. He
has real he actually has bees and that's his hobby.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
Yeah, that was supposed to be the hobby, and then
it turned into online stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Yeah, we're going to take a quick break and we'll
be right back. But yeah, I think it's so you're
not like a secret murderer or vigilante, but you do
have bees, and that's why your handle is killer, Be tactical.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
One of the great things I was saying before, like
all people say that, you know, I throw that guy
off the bridge or whatever. One of the good things
about what I did. Most cops are disliked in rough areas,
and I could go in my goofy shirt into real

(01:01:01):
housing projects and talk to the guys on the corner
and be like, look, yeah I am I am five zero,
but I'm looking for a guy that hurt a three
year old. They would take me to his apartment. Yeah,
So like in four I've literally had judges say you

(01:01:23):
could have done that a little bit better. But he's
a pedophile, you know. So it's I guess the one
crime most people are united in that is absolutely wrong.
That guy's a monster and let's put him away. So yeah,
it was hard work, and I did come away a
little banged up, But I never asked myself did I

(01:01:45):
do some good? You know a lot of cops when
they retire, they're like, you know, did I make a difference.
I don't ask myself that question. I got to help
some kids, So not everybody gets to say that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
God you are You're so like a officer where you
just minimize, minimize what you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Do, like you're you were on the other end of
nine to one one.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
And I cannot believe that first responders don't understand that
the world relies on this one little phone number and
that you're going to respond like the world relies on
this this small section chunk of people who are willing
to just fucking go out to anything to rescue people
they don't know. Yeah, that's an incredible honorable job. Your

(01:02:36):
career is incredibly honorable, and it still is because you
are still spreading the message.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
You're just doing it, and it's such a different way now.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
Yeah, well you gotta have fun. Cops have great senses
of humor usually, uh, and it's usually gallows humor. So
I can be around them and say some really messed
up stuff and everybody gets it and everybody laughs. But uh, yeah,
it's like I said that that run, the very first run,

(01:03:09):
I was booked and it was a dangerous run, but
I was like, let's go. Yeah. So what's funny is
the evolution of becoming a sergeant and being in charge
of those guys. Because when you you're a new sergeant.
I waited until the very end of my career to
make them promote me. So, uh, when I was promoted,

(01:03:29):
they was a new sergeant. They put you on night shift,
and night shift is mostly young guys. I mean, I'm old,
so everybody's young to me. But like the brand new
guys like they've been on since yesterday and like they're
they're all their equipment is super shiny because it hasn't
been through anything. As a sergeant, you got to kind
of pull the reins back a little bit. And because

(01:03:50):
guys are hard chargers and like, let's do this, let's
do that, I'm like, well, hold on now, let's let's
make sure this is legal. We're not violating policy, and
you know we can. We're gonna do it the right way.
And I got to kick out of working with the
younger guys because they never complained, and if they complained,
it was over stupid stuff. They were enthusiastic and most

(01:04:13):
of them wanted to learn because by then I'd honestly,
I've been there and done that. I've done a lot
of stuff. If you want to learn how to write
write a search warran on a bad guy on a
drug deal, I can show you how. If you want
to go pull trash out of a trash can because
you don't need a search warrant, uh, and go through
some DU's trash and get a search warrant for that
house off the trash, I can show you how to
do that. So that part was a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
Of fun, yeah and meaningful.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Well, yeah, you and your wife together are incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
She's a good she's a good person, and I think.

Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
That saving lives too.

Speaker 3 (01:04:52):
Jeez. Yeah, Which she's a good human, Like everybody likes
my wife. Well, after years of police work, I came
through relationship wise jaded, and my fatal flaw was vetting
everybody and I would look to find something wrong with

(01:05:14):
you until I found something wrong with you and then
we were done. Yeah. So, and it was it was
always something awful, like they're talking to like five other
dudes or whatever. But I did that with my wife
and as it turns out, she's actually a good person.

(01:05:35):
And that was almost a hurdle. I didn't I didn't
get over because I wouldn't let myself believe it. Like
I'm there's something there and there's just not. She's just
a good humany.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Yeah, good, I'm I'm happy. I'm so happy for you
with the way that life has turned out.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
Every day is a plus one when when they tell
you you're going to die every day. After that, I
had to come to Jesus moment and I was like, God,
whatever you want me to do, I'm on board. I'm
in service. So like when I have a bad day
or whatever, well, like even like I had to get

(01:06:14):
my blood checked because my blood got all screwed up
from being on all the medications that I was on
and all that from all the blood draws and not
eating all betting on a feeding tube like I had.
I was anemic. I mean, just all the wild stuff
that could go wrong with your blood. I had so
at one point my kidneys weren't working out to be

(01:06:35):
on dialysis. I had a tube sticking out of my neck. Yeah.
But anyway, I'd walk into the blood place and they
didn't tell me that it's a cancer place, and I'd
you know, hobble in with my cane, and I'd look
at all the people that had cancer getting chemo, and

(01:06:55):
I'm like, oh, I don't have any problems. I'm good. So,
you know it, just it gives you perspective on that
every day is a plus one. You got to appreciate
the day and whatever little hiccups I have, I'm alive.
You know, it's not the alternative, So we're good.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
I appreciate that. And also, protect the shit out of
your children.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Yeah, and you brought them into this world, you were
in charge.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
Of keeping them safe.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
Yeah, especially with with online stuff. The online stuff is scary.
You wouldn't take your kid and drop them off at
a bar and be like good luck. And that's exactly
what you're doing when you put them on the internet.
You're putting them out there to guys that are hunting children. Literally,
they're hunting children.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Gives me chills.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
Yeah, well, I thank you for doing this podcast and
I've been talking to you about it forever.

Speaker 3 (01:08:05):
That's my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
And anyone listening, like, go follow Mike's accounts.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Are they all killer be Tactical everywhere?

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
You can go to killerbetatle dot org and whatever your
platform you like. Hopefully I'm on it. Yeah, but yeah,
it's a Killerbetactical dot org and then everything that I
do is on there.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
And genuinely, if he's recommending a product or a safety
tool or pepper spray, he stands by it, and I
really really appreciate that because he's not just selling you
bullshit like a lot of other creators out there.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
Yeah, anything that I represent, if I put my name
on it, I've vetted it, I would use it myself
or my family actually uses it. There's a lot of
trinkets out there, there's a lot of con artists that
will tell you, like with peppers, right because it's not
federally regulated or there aren't very many regulations. A whole

(01:09:08):
can we'll only have a three second burst in it,
whereas the companies, the company that I represent it has
like thirty bursts in it, you know, So you got
to be careful what you're getting, like if you bought
you know from what brand you're buying that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Yeah, yeah, And I appreciate that your recommendations are your
recommendations are awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
Thank you, thank you for coming on this is We
went long, but I think it was awesome and the
world is a better place for listening to us for
an hour.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
Olay you're here.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
Thank you for listening to another episode of Intentionally Disturbing.
I hope you genuinely learned, and I hope you share
this information with individuals in your life.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
And we keep our children safe.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
Check out my bio for all of the links to
these child organizations. Keep protecting your children, Stay aware. You
don't have to be overly vigilant, but if you brought
them into this world, you're in charge of them and
you're protecting them.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
I'll see you next time.