July 16, 2026 • 67 mins
In Part 1, Alicia sits down with retired Detective Sergeant Chaz Balogh to discuss his path into law enforcement and his work investigating crimes against children. Chaz also discusses his relationship with his partner, an electronic-storage detection K-9 named Spike, and explains how these remarkable dogs uncover hidden evidence, support survivors and help change the outcome of investigations.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, I'm Alicia Kozak, and welcome to the Alicia Cozac Podcast.
You know, I'm still figuring out how to open these
conversations in a way that feels right, because this podcast,
it's really it's already changing me. I've had such eye
opening and heartfelt conversations with my guests, many who are
also close friends and people who I have worked with
for years. But I've learned these new sides of them,
(00:26):
new facets, new stories, and they've shared new strengths. If
you've been listening to this podcast for a little bit,
you will know that it goes from the darkest places
to the lightest But before we get there, I want
to tell you about why I am here and why
this matters to me so much. When I was thirteen
years old, I was groomed online lord from my home,
obducted and held captive by an internet creditor. I was
(00:47):
rescued by the FBI, and somehow the worst thing that
ever happened to me became the beginning of the work
I would spend my life doing. For more than twenty years,
I've worked with law enforcement, families, schools, lawmakers, and communities
to talk about online exploitation, child safety, grooming, and what
it actually takes to protect children in the digital age.
I work on Alicia's Law My Namesake, which has passed
(01:09):
in thirteen states so far. This legislation gives law enforcement
more resources to rescue children. And I have spent much
of my life alongside the people who investigate these crimes,
prosecute them, survive them, and carry them. That is why
this podcast exists. This is not crime is entertainment, but
(01:30):
real crime, real trauma, real prevention, all lived and told
by real people. And one of the things I've learned
in this world is that darkness is not the whole story.
It just it can't be because the people who do
this work are not only what they have seen. They
are funny, and they are exhausted, and they are brilliant.
(01:51):
They are ridiculous, and they love to tell really dark jokes.
Sometimes they cry in parking lots before and after the raids,
and I've seen it. But they show up anyway, And
that is the part I want you to know too.
You can step into the darkness, but you really always
need to keep your eye on that exit sign and
know exactly how to get out, because we can't live there. Okay,
(02:16):
so this is going to sound really random, but it
will all come together, I promise. A few days ago
my life involved a puppy road trip, the cutest of
all adventures, Like, who wouldn't want to go on a
puppy road trip? My dog Clara has a sister named Chloe.
No really, they actually have the same parents. And if
(02:39):
you know me, you know that I adore my little
fluff Clara. She's a nine month old cream colored toy
poodle puppy who lives in a little pink world because
I made a pink and has so much sass, attitude,
and energy. Chloe is now my mom's dog, which is
funny because originally my my mom absolutely did not want
(03:03):
a dog. She was vehemently against it. But I wanted
to have a dog because I want everybody to have
a dog. And then little by little, she started asking
me about Clara, and then she did the thing you
should never do unless your heart has already decided. And
as soon as she did that, I said to her, well,
(03:23):
now she's gonna show up, and I kid you not.
Six hours later I saw a post on Facebook that
Clara had a tiny, little baby sister who would be
ready for adoption that Saturday. Well we could not ignore this, Okay,
but how do I get this dog to my mom,
(03:47):
who lives eight hours away in Pittsburgh. Well that plan
was simple. My boyfriend Eric and I would drive from Raleigh,
North Carolina with Chloe, and my mom and my brother
would drive from Pittsburgh. We would meet somewhere in the middle,
hand over this tiny ball of fluff, and everyone will
go home. But of course that's not what happened, because
life is not ever so simple best laid plans. Right,
(04:10):
my mom and my brother got a blown tire about
two hours outside of Pittsburgh, and by that point Eric
and I had already we got Chloe. We had her
with us, and we were about two hours two and
a half hours into our own drive. So instead of
meeting halfway, we just kept going and going, and what
was supposed to be a simple handoff turned into a
(04:32):
twelve hour road trip and I loved it. I got
more time with Chloe, we got a little unexpected adventure
with good music, stacks and road trip coffee, which might
just be the best kind. And now little Chloe is
settling into her new home, where apparently she has decided
to skip the land shark phase and goes straight to
cuddly puppy, which feels deeply unfair to anyone who has
(04:56):
ever survived puppy teeth like me from her older sister
Clara head very sharp teeth. And my mom gets the
angel dog, which is great because this has now become
her best friend. This is her little fluffy friend. And
that is the magic of dogs. They enter our lives
(05:19):
and suddenly there is more joy, softness and laughter. They
really can become our best friends. They're so precious that way.
And I wanted to start there today because one of
the heroes we will be talking about today is a
four legged one named Spike. Spike is a canine officer
who is trained to help law enforcement find evidence. He's
(05:39):
protected children, and he also saved the life of the
man his handler who loves him. Now, we cannot interview Spike,
believe me, Believe me, I would, but we are going
to speak to the hero who works with him every day.
Let me tell you a little bit about retired Detective
Sergeant Chas Ballow. He's spent more than sixteen years in
(06:00):
investigating crimes against children and working to rescue children's sexual exploitation.
Chas is also a survivor of abuse himself, and he
chose to take his own trauma and turn it into
a career protecting children. I've had the privilege of working
alongside Chas and having him as a dear friend for years,
from Alicia's law work in Pennsylvania to trainings to behind
the scenes advocacy. Today, Chas continues that mission as an
(06:23):
electronic storage detection canine relationship manager at Ouur Rescue. There
he continues to support law enforcement and to save lives.
So I want you to buckle up because this conversation
it gets real. We talk about chad exploitation, offender behavior, trauma,
male survivor, silence, law enforcement, mental health, and the cost
of doing this work for years, but we also talk
(06:46):
about dogs and dark humor and the tiny, strange, beautiful
things that help people survive what they carry. Because that
is the truth of this world. The darkness. It's real,
but so is the love and the laughter, the dog
who has crowed up beside you when you are not
sure how to keep going. We live in that darkness
so children don't have to. And this podcast is your
(07:08):
invitation to step into that world with us, just for
a little while. By the end of this episode, I
hope you understand not only what investigators see, but also
what they're carrying. And I hope you understand why protecting
children also means we have to protect and support the
people who are fighting for the good. So please let
me introduce you to my dear friend, Chaz Ballew. Chaz,
(07:31):
thank you so much for being here with us. So, Chaz,
I am just so excited that you are joining me
here today, and I've shared your very official title. But
what is it that you actually do well?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
After thirty five years, I retired as a detective sergeant
with the Losera County Just Attorney's Office, where I was
actually the ICAC lead for the Internet Crime to Get
children for the last sixteen years. And then upon my retirement,
I took a position with our rescue and I'm officially
(08:07):
the ESD K and I relationship manager, So I get
to hang out with dogs and give dogs and place
dogs for law enforcement throughout to the United States, which
is just totally incredible. I had the best job in
the world.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I have to say, any job that includes the description
hanging out with dogs would have to be one of
the best jobs in the world, and your career has
been really long and you have done so much incredible work,
and we're going to get into that. But I think
it's just kind of so interesting how we met too.
(08:44):
So we are both from Pennsylvania, but we hadn't crossed
paths in that world. We met at an electronic storage
detection canine training a few years ago now, and you
ran I remember one of these simulations. This is my
very first impression of you, and it was this ridiculous
thing and it was so much fun, and I'm gonna
(09:04):
ask you to walk me through it, but I also
definitely want to show a clip of it because it
is perfect, and I think it shows the kind of
person that you are.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
You to pick up all the pottexts are being deployed.
Pick up there. They're sure that there's something in there
that's important, but it's not the bomb, So I cannot
do that with my cane on. I will not. It's
a direct order that by it's definitely some kind of
note you have to read out loud. Control wants to
hear way to go pig. You activated device five minutes
to stop it. Holy we got five minutes to stop
(09:39):
the bomb four three two? Why thank you for killing me?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
So can you walk me through that that scenario and
why you chose it?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
And yeah, of course. So it just happens that we
were having in one of our advanced handler schools that
you were attending that that particular weekend. So my scenario
was where we had a bomber that had placed some
bomb and in like a power source of building, and
(10:35):
so the handlers had to use their dogs to find
a message which was stored within a cell phone. And
then once they found that message, it told them, hey,
you got to go in. There's a bomb and there's
it's going to go off in a certain amount of time.
And so within that we have like a pipe bomb
with a cell phone. So obviously, being an electronics storage detective,
(11:00):
canines they're finding electronic storage devices. So you know, the
dogs had to go in there and within so much time,
and so it was the greatest scenario ever and I
had the most fun. I almost felt like an actor
that day, And I've always wanted to be an actor,
which is I guess I never made it right here
I am, but it gave me the opportunity of a
(11:20):
lifetime to be that actor I always wanted to be,
So it was just so awesome. So once they got
in through and as you got the witness, you know,
once they opened the door into this facility, there's nothing
but piping everywhere, and it was hard to even get
in and around and work. And it was a fairly
(11:41):
large little area, a large area, and what I thought
was totally amazing. As soon as they walked in, little
did they know on my phone, I had a hidden
speaker that just started blasting music as soon as they
walked through the door, and it was bombs away and
it was very You couldn't have a better song for
(12:03):
the scenario. So it was just a funny sting between
the dog and the handlers jumping getting scared of what
the hell's going on here, and then you're trying to
get their mission accomplished. So it was a great time.
It was probably it definitely is a highlight for me
(12:24):
in my career, as you know, being one of Todd
Jordan's instructor handler instructors and literally, uh, the best time.
That was the best time ever.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
It was, and they're there for this really serious training.
This is really important. There is a bomb that might explode.
I remember the very first thing they do though, as
they open up that piping and there is a ridiculous
note in it where it was like hello pigs or something.
You're very intense about that, And then they walked over
(12:58):
and it was like it was a trigger where the
music would start playing and even some of the dogs
were like, oh my gosh. And then the dogs are
like trying to walk on the piping, and you know,
four legs didn't really help them all that much there.
It only made it more complicated. And you talked about
being an actor, but you weren't only this trainer at
(13:18):
the moment. You were actually the bomb as well. And
every single time just about I think most people unfortunately
didn't pass this because you did make it really complicated.
It was very difficult, but you would scream boom as
loud as possible, and they also weren't expecting.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That that is true. That is true. And by your
memory is phenomenal, by the way, with that note, because
that's exactly what the note said, Ha ha, pigs, this
is the fake bomb. Now you got to find a
real bomb. So that memory is pretty impactable.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
By the way, it was a really funny scenario. And again,
it was the first time I met you. This was
my very first impression of you. And you're screaming boom
and reading off this ridiculous note and you're high energy,
and really that is you. You're a very high energy
and bring such joy to this work and also such
(14:13):
passion and unfortunately a very catchy song which I would
listen to in the car and sing and have fun
with for far too long. It's a very catchy song
that I'd never heard before, and it was just it
was a really fun, fun day. So you have your
own dog, and his name is Spike, and he is
(14:38):
very handsome and very silly and very talented. And we're
going to talk about him a lot more later. Right.
He's helped save children, but he also quite literally has
helped save your life, as you've told me, which again
we're going to get into later. But can you please
(14:59):
introduce our listeners to your free side kick? Can you
tell us about Spike?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Let me tell you so. Yeah. November fourth, twenty eighteen,
I received a just turned two year old black lab
and originally named Sage, I was able to change his
name to Spike, and from that moment on he's been
my best friend, my partner for you know, the last
(15:28):
eight years, and I'm telling you he's incredible. So right now,
Spike's going to be turning ten in October of this year,
so we've been together for eight years and incredible eight years.
You know, the things that we have done and accomplished together,
it's just incredible. So, you know, I don't think people
(15:49):
realize when you receive such a wonderful gift. And I
say it's a gift because it was a gift to me,
you know, in our profession if I were talking professionally,
he's just another tool on my tool belt to help me,
you know, find things. And like you said, we'll talk
about that later, but you know, it's just an incredible
(16:12):
feeling to have that, and the bond that you build
with that dog is there's it's just incredible. It's almost
it's so hard to describe to people. You know. I
know people are dog people and people love their dog,
but when you work with your dog every day and
then you come home with your dog every day and
you're together almost twenty four you travel together, you go
(16:32):
everywhere together, it's it's it's like having that family member
that never leaves you.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
He's always always there with you, and that would have
to create such a bond. And again we'll get into
it more later, but especially on hard days, just having
this frey little sidekick and not feeling alone in this
this really troubling space. You have this passion for this work.
(17:02):
You have done this for a very long time, but
you were also so passionate about it. Did you always
want to be a police officer where there's signs that
this is what you would do, or did you wake
up one day and say like, hey, I'm just going
to join the police academy on a whim.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
No, that is absolutely not the case. I didn't just
wake up one day. From a very early childhood, I'd
be out on my big wheel in my neighborhood, going
up and down like and screaming like Boom, like you
were saying, you know it said as Saint Boom. I'm
going off like I'm a police sire and like going
(17:40):
after bad guys, and you know, just having the time
of my life in my mind, I'm chasing bad guys,
I'm doing things. I was being a police officer. I
went to the extent Alicia that if you remember old
paint cans, and we talked about you know, I literally
took red and blue paint can tops the lids, and
(18:02):
I literally, at a very young age, I had my
brother make sure that to help me attach them to
my big wheel, so it looked like I had red
and blue lights on my big wheel. And really they
were just plastic paint tan lids from this stray paint bottle.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So you know, so, okay, I have to I have to, Okay,
So I need to see I wish I could. There's
got to be a picture or home movies or something somewhere.
So I'm picturing little U. And are you like trying
to dress up like a police officer? Do I to
see this? And you have like a little fake badge
or no?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I did have all that stuff when I was younger,
you know, but when I used to go out, I
used to just get right up. I get my in
my mind of course you know everything. You already have
your uniform on, and you're already in that for ten
mode because it's who I was be that. That's the
person I was portraying every morning, and I listen, I
(18:58):
never realized how much of pain the I was to
some of my neighbors when some of them were trying
to sleep and there's a little Chaz out there maybe
six six point thirty in the morning, people are still sleeping,
and it didn't seem to affect me. I would go
out there, you know, and just have all this energy,
exert it and go after all those bad guys that
were out there.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
You're like the neighborhood rooster. I bit, woo, can you
make the noise?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Now?
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Can you still do it?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Woooooo? Yeah? I love doing it. I loved it. I
had the different jouts for different emergencies. Listen, It's something
when you when you want to be something and you
want to pretend you're pretending, your imagination just runs wild
and you just do it. I never lived my life
ever worry about what to help people thought of me.
(19:50):
So I was out there just having fun.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
What was your idea of what cops did? Why did
you never want to be the bad guy? Why didn't
you want to rob the bank or cause the trouble?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah? I think it all started with my mom. We
loved cop cop shows growing up, and you know, when
I was growing up, we watched TV a lot together.
You know, when my mom was around, and so we
you know, I just fell in love with that whole
line of work kind of like, and it's just something
I always wanted to do. As I got older, I
(20:31):
had neighbors, one specific neighbor that always inspired me to
be a cop. He was, you know, he literally was
like the perfect cop. He was the guy that was
always in shape. He was a runner. You know, He's
a guy that you do if you're running from him,
a bad guy's running from him, you're not getting away.
So I always had people like inspirational people in my
(20:53):
life to look up to, So you know, I sort
of think that's probably the biggest reason why I always
wanted to get into this line of work. I mean,
of course, you know, I always loved the fact that
they always win. They always won, right. I never, really
when I was a kid, never seeing cops getting hurt.
I never seen cops getting and and and getting killed
(21:16):
in the line of work. I didn't see that. I
just seen all the happy things they did when they
would save people. And as little as you might say, uh,
restling the cat from a tree, Well, when I was
growing up, that that was actually some of these cops shows,
right right, So you know, they were things that they did.
They gave people happy, you know, and they saved people,
(21:38):
they rescued it from that situation. So how could you
not want to do that and make people happy. I
always felt in my life that I was always a
happy person, you know, and so I always felt that
this was perfect in line with maybe what I want
to be for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Your mom sounds like she was just it's hugely inspirational
in who you are, and she sounds just like a
really incredible mom. Can you tell me like a little
bit more about your childhood and how you grew up
and how your your mom played into that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yes, actually, uh boy, you start talking about my mom,
I get pretty emotional even now, been passed for many years.
But when, uh, when I was younger, you know, my
my mom worked three jobs just to provide us for
her family. We lived in a low income housing, you know,
(22:37):
we lived in a project where you know, it was
you know, not not an easy life, right. So but
one thing my mom gave us, and it wasn't in
it was love. It wasn't We may not have been
rich and wealth with what we talk about for financially,
(23:00):
but the love that my mom provided to myself, my
brothers and sisters. It truly lives in me every day
because I don't think I wish more people to grow
up like I grew up with that love, because money
(23:25):
comes and goes, and people could be the wealthiest people
in the world and they don't have love. I'm going
to tell you something, Elisia. My mom is stilled love
and affection into us, into our family, and one thing
we were never afraid to do is show affection and
love one another and be there for another. And I
can't even begin to tell you how important that is
(23:47):
in my life and what it has done to me personally,
having you know, a twenty nine year old daughter now
who I tried to raise with those same exact values.
My mom was always the person that even if we
had something, we always had something more than someone else,
(24:07):
and she would always tell us because of that doesn't
make us any better. And when I tell you that's
something I lived by as well, I mean that from
a bout of my heart. I never ever ever felt
like I was above someone else, better than anyone else,
because little of the people know I was never at
(24:28):
that status of many of my friends that they had
everything and they could have anything they wanted and I
wasn't that person so for me, but my mom, it
was just that pure love and the things that she
did for me. And I think about when you grow up,
(24:48):
you know, as I'm growing up in this world with
my mom, My mom was tough too. I mean, if
you did something wrong, you were disciplined. I mean, make
no mistake about it. If we did something wrong, it
wasn't anyone else in my family that was the disciplinarian.
It was my mother. And I could tell you that
(25:09):
was never a good day. And you knew where you
stood with my mom if you were to get in trouble, right, So.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So she was very kind, very gentle until.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
One million percent. My mom. If you did something wrong,
you listen. She was going to make sure you were
well aware of what you did wrong. And at the
end of the day she still loved us. But you
know what, it was always that tough love, you know.
And I think about tough love. I remember like growing
up and not having the best shoes and the best
(25:44):
shirts and and and the best jeans and the sneaks
and just having I remember like kids telling me I
had Bobo sneakers and I'm like, I don't know what
both like, what was Bobo? And it's funny in today's world,
but my understanding, there is such a shoe now called Bobos.
So when I heard this story, I was like Bobos.
When I was a kid, it was like, meaning, you're
a poor kid and you didn't have cool sneaks, and
(26:07):
so now there's some kind of name brand out there
that's called Bobos. That's really cool. But when I grew up,
I didn't have that, and you know, so for me,
it was like okay. But I remember being picked off
by kids. I remember kids picking on me. I remember
kids telling me making fun of me because I wore glasses.
Could you imagine you're in elementary school, You're getting picked on,
(26:29):
and it's so loving of my mother, right, you know.
I tell the story so many times over. I remember
my mom. I came home, I was offset these kids
were picking on me, whether it's my my sneaks, my teens,
but specifically one time with my glasses, and I was
one of the very few students in elementary school. I
haven't warned glasses and so everyone had everyone had good sight.
(26:54):
I don't know what it was, but I and if
they did, like I was the guy that got picked
on because of my glasses. Maybe my glasses wearing his
dances and everyone else, I don't know, but I was
the guy that got picked on because of my glasses
as well. So I remember coming home and I remember
my mom sitting me down and I was upset. She said, listen,
she said, you go back there and you tell those
(27:16):
kids four eyes are better than two. And I'm like, yeah,
that's a good one. Mom. I can't wait. Well, you know,
and we look at today's world, right, we know that
not the answer. But I gotta tell you, God loved
my mother. She always had the answer. She always wanted
to make me feel good and try to give me
that positive attitude, have right, and and always came back
(27:39):
to Andlicia had always came back. We're not that family,
We're You're you know, that person wants to believe they're
better than you and above you, and it's something that
will never understand. It's something that will never do. So,
you know, I love that about her. But you know,
(28:00):
as I progressed through elementary school, now I'm going to
junior high school, I started wrestling. I start wrestling. I
was in second grade, started playing football in third grade.
I could you remember going through seventh grade, everything was
pretty good. I normal kids, still doing good. You know.
I wasn't always the best studio as far as grade wise,
(28:21):
but I was never doing dad either. But I remember
after seventh grade going into eighth grade, and I don't
know what happened to me. I went through life changes,
I guess, and I can. I can recall a time
where I started hanging out with some really some bad
(28:41):
individuals and oh the robbers.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
The robbers, they were robbers.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
And when I look back at those days, although I
was still an athlete, I wasn't hanging out with the
athletes and perspective of like spending my time always with them.
When I was in class and I was doing stuff,
I was hanging out with the robbers. And these are
guys that were like, I mean, listen, they were getting
(29:11):
all the attention, everyone laughing with them. They were like
everyone had fun with them, like.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
The class clowns and the yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Kind of yes, but they take it day day up
the level. They absolutely up the level. And in particular,
you know, one person without mentioning names on the podcast,
which I will make sure that that person listens this
because they will appreciate this story. But I can remember
(29:38):
this is what this and this is this is crazy
in my mind. I remember one time we were in
art class in eighth grade and this one student, our
our teacher went into a closet which was a huge closet.
All the materials you could think of, everything's in there.
And on the outside of that door was a hinge lock. Okay,
(30:03):
so like when he's not there, he can lock it.
And that's how he locked it and secure thinks for
nothing we get stolen. He went in there to retrieve items. Well,
this one student got up, decided to go up, closed
the door, close the last put the lock on, and
(30:23):
the key was never found again for the rest of
the class. He I don't know because we left after
the bell went off, but he eventually had it.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Are they still in there?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
God love that art teacher. Let me tell you something unbelievable.
And it was that moment I thinking, oh my god,
I want to be like that. That was great. I
thought that was cool. Everyone was laughing. I'm thinking, I
want to hang out with these guys. These are the guys.
This is cool. Everyone locked them and I'm thinking I
could be like them. It was the first time in
(31:03):
my life ever that I can remember, I actually became
a follower. It was the first time I think about
being a follower. I really never was a follower. I'd
do everything on my own. I'd go out and be
that cop on my big wheel. I'd go out and
play cops with robbers. I'd go out. So I was
never really a follower. And here I am looking back,
(31:27):
I became that person that never would want to be.
And so, you know, unfortunately, because I started hanging out
with these individuals. You know, once I got through my
sporting events, and you know, I literally was like, not
I was failing. I was stailing eighth grade. I legitimately
(31:48):
was not passing eighth grade. And the whole time, the
whole time, I'm not worried. Could I know these these
knuckleheads aren't passing either. So in my mind it sounds
crazy at the end of the year. Now we're coming
it's May of that school year, and we're getting like, hey,
this is the end of the year. No matter what happened,
I can't pass. I was told you are not passing,
(32:10):
and I'm like, oh, no big deal, I'll just go
to summer school because half of these knuckleheads that I
want to hang out with, they're gonna go to summer school.
Try kid hanging out all summer.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Let's be more fun.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, why that's what chas ballot. Why not let's do it.
And well, that was all a great plan. That was
all a great plan until my mother got involved and
I went home and when I told her I was
not passing eighth grade and I need to go to
summer school, her first question was why didn't you pass
(32:45):
eighth grade? The whole time I'm telling you need to
get your grades up, you're not listening to me. You
didn't listen. And she said, second of all, summer school
costs money, which you did. And she's like, do you
have enough money to for summer school? Because yeah, at
that point, Alisha, depending on how many you know, you
(33:06):
had to get your majors in, right, so I need
to take three classes. Each class costs money.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
So she works so hard for that money.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I did have that, right, So my mom was like,
I I'm gonna I hate to tell you this. Well,
she didn't say I tell you. She she just told
me that you have it. She just told me I
got bad news for you. I'm not paying for you
to a summer school. It was Alicia. I was like,
(33:37):
what are you talking about? I have to go. If
I don't go, I'm gonna have to repeat eight grade.
And she's like, if you think I'm going to spend
money to send you to summer school to go hang
out to say kids that got you to where you are,
you are crazy. You are crazy. I Am not going
(33:58):
to do that. And so I'm like, oh, but I
don't think you understand, like all my real friends, all
my like, like I say, my real friends, like all
the athletes, they're going up, they're going to be in
another grade. I want to be with him.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
They're gonna be left behind.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
And she's like, well, that's that's something you should have
thought about a long time ago. And you know what,
I'll tell you that was a defining moment in my
early childhood about decision making and being a follower and
not a leader. And boy, I will tell you if
there's something I am grateful to my mother, and she's
(34:38):
been I'm grateful for a lot of things, Lucia, But
you know, at that time, I didn't want to hear it.
I was so mad at my mom. I think she
loved me, she can care about me, and you know,
but man, when you look back and the way it
changed my entire life, you and your listener can't even
imagine how to find me as a person because of
(35:02):
that cup love my mom, that decision my mom made
that day and just told me, hey, you're gonna have
to repeat eighth grade. And you know, so when I
when I go and talk to kids, I could tell them,
I know what it's like to grow up. I know
it's like to grow up in maybe a low income
housing and not have everything that you want. I know
what it's like to flunk some of your kids. I
(35:23):
tell them some of you had they never even fought
I flunked. I flunked eighth grade. I know this is
something that most people never want to talk about. One
of the most embarrass that embarrassing moment in your in
your life. But it made me who I am today
in a way, And so my mom making that decision
(35:43):
changed me forever and in the best of ways. You know,
it took me almost a whole year to get the
trust of my teachers in that school again because they
all knew that I had the right qualities, and I
was just I was just being a jackass.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
You just squandering them one percent.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
And you know, when I started coming around, so did
my teachers and giving me that love, that unconditional love
back in the day when teachers knew, like when you
had a bad day, and I felt love again by
my teachers and I was respectful, and you know, I
just think about that, you know, and that defining moment
when you know, when we sit in an auditorium and
(36:27):
you're getting selected for your class that year. They put
you in a big auditorium and they select you by
your class, so they go seventh graders first, and then
when eighth graders came in, my name, I'm on top
of the list. Of course, right B for Bell already,
so I'm like, I'm my name gets called. All the kids,
(36:49):
including like the kids I was hanging out with, all
those kids I was following, were all laughing at me,
the same kids I wanted to be who are now
in ninth grade. And I realized that that moment, man, boy,
I that was the biggest mistake, one of the biggest
mistakes in my life at that time for sure. And
I thought to myself, this is incredible. So yeah, that
(37:12):
tough love really defined me to this day. And there's
something I'm not embarrassed to talk about. It something that
it's who I am. It's a part of my life.
And you know, it just goes to show you that
being a parent sometimes does take tough love and making
tough decisions. Even though you may feel you might be
(37:32):
hurting your child. At the end of the day, we
all know that you're doing nothing but helping her.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Let's move forward to when that childhood dream became real
and you woke up and you put on that uniform
and you took out your badge, and I guess you
pin it right here. What was that like? What was
that like when you put that uniform on for the
first time?
Speaker 2 (37:57):
It was incredible, It truly was. I remember graduating from
the Pennsylvania Misnicipal Police Academy and at that time, you know,
during that graduation, a lot of officers weren't hired by
(38:17):
a police department at that time prior to graduating from
police academy. I was one of the fortunate ones that
I was already hired by an agency and so I
was able to wear a uniform to my graduation when
I graduated from police Academy and so that was the
first time I actually put that uniform on, and we're
(38:39):
so proud. You know, all those memories of being a child.
You relived those moments, you know, extremely emotional receiving your
certification and knowing that you just graduated something that you
always wanted to do. You know, it was a fulfillment,
(39:00):
you know. But at the same time, I couldn't wait
to actually go out and do good things and actually
help people and save people that I remember watching on
television and all the good things have police officers do
in our community. That was an incredible moment in time,
(39:23):
having that uniform on, receiving my certification and just knowing
that I just feel fulfilled childhood fantasy.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Okay, so you put this uniform on it, you start
the work, You are going out there and you're ready
to help people. What is that first high five moment
for you that you can remember where you knew exactly
that this was a dream fulfilled that you were helping people,
that this is where you needed to be, maybe like
your first case or rescue or arrest. What is that
(39:53):
moment where you were like, yes, I made it, I
did it and this is where I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Well, tell you it's believe it or not. That moment
for me was many years after I was already a
police officer. It sounds crazy I've done, and there is
a lot of great things I accomplished during this time,
but I honestly it was eight years after I had
graduated from the municipal Police Academy, when I was working
(40:22):
for the Louisearn County just Attorney's Office when I had
my very first Internet Crimes against Children's Task Force arrest
and I was going to a local municipality and I'll
never forget it because it wasn't something. It was all
related to a cyber tip from the National Center for
(40:43):
Missing sploy Children. And I remember getting this information and
doing the investigation, and I'm now a detective and I'm
working my first case, and I remember it was early
evening hours that we worked that kind of shift. We
nor we will go after individuals during the day, but
(41:04):
I remember I got the information and I realized that
this individual had contact with minor children, and so I
was able to convince our agency, hey, this is something
I need to move on like now, and they're like okay,
like go ahead and do it. And so it was
in the little town of West Pittston, Luzern County, Pennsylvania,
(41:26):
where at that time the chief of police was Michael Turner,
and really I had him and just a couple of
my team members and actually, you know, go to his
door and knocking on that door in doing that investigation.
And as I'm doing the investigation and we're doing our
(41:47):
and we find on his computer just a replay of
child sexual abuse material as we were in the house
and we're doing all this, and it was at that
moment and I I realized that, oh my god, this
is like, this is what I want to do. This
is what I want to do for the rest of
my career. Really, that is the defining moment for me,
(42:11):
when I realized that this job that I just was
assigned to and I recently had started doing was going
to be the most impactful job in law enforcement. So
for me, that that was the moment. And he was convicted.
He got indicted federally, and you know, it was a
(42:33):
really good case to the point where you know, we
found hidden cameras. I mean, it was really a home run.
You know, he worked for a large retail chain. He
was a lost prevention regional manager in charge of all
the cameras and so as you can imagine, So it
(42:55):
was a big case, Alicia, and you know, between the
district office and the West Pitston Police Department, we crushed it.
And you know, it was just incredible. It was an
incredible moment in time, and I could relive that moment
just thinking this is what I want to do. I mean,
(43:15):
and I think about all the things about that guy
that made me realize that this is probably a lifetime mission.
I told you about how his computer was replaying just
on a rerun of child sexual abuse material. Well why
we like it.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Was like it was just playing constantly. It's just on
the loop, like almost like a.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Yes Luke playing child sexual computer. And to make matters worse,
in his ceiling of his bedroom, one of the investigators
actually Chief Turner and some of the investigators actually noticed that, hey,
the ceiling, there's something up with that ceiling. In the
ceiling we found in the ceiling block above above his
(44:00):
bed was literally, I like in excess of like seventy
five eighty USB thumb drives along with little girls underwear
in all the plastic bag. So you know, when you
think about that, I was like, oh my god, there's
(44:22):
people like this in the world that we need to
make sure we get them to help they need, right
And so it was that moment that I realized that
this is a job I'm going to forever want to do.
And that was from that moment on, that is the
job I did for sixteen years, like a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
That's a heartbreaking case and a pinnacle point in your
career that not only are you going to help people,
but that you're coming to save children. And I've worked
in this space for twenty three years, so I've been
(45:07):
here too. And the stories they still they're still shocking,
no matter how you hear about it, no matter how
many stories, how many offenders, it's always shocking the details
of it. I'm just so grateful that you do the
work that you do and that you stopped this person
(45:30):
in so many more so, just thank you, because it's sickening.
It's so important for people to understand how how demented
these people really are, that it's not that they were
just downloading something or that it's this fantasy necessarily that
(45:53):
they have. It goes so much deeper than that in
the fact that he had little girls, Andy's and his ceiling.
Oh gosh, oh, I'm just glad to know that the
world was definitely made a better place that day. That
is that's heavy, and this podcast does get heavy, and
(46:17):
that's something that anybody who listens to this will find
that we really live in the space where how we
communicate together is we will go from this and then
we will just talk about, Hey, how's Spike and what's
going on, and just normal conversation and bounce back and
forth and go from the dark to the light. And
(46:40):
you have to. It's really the only way to survive.
I really want to talk about Spike and about the
important work that he does and because he is just
such a big part of your work and your story.
So for listeners who've never heard of and K nine,
(47:02):
what is that? And what is zachly? Is Spike trained
to find?
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Sure? So let me start off by saying, when you
talk about energy levels and what Spike brings to the table,
one thing I admire most about our master trainer, Jordan
detection canine is matching a handler with their dog. And
I think it's important to talk about that because everyone
(47:30):
talks about I'm an energized bunny. Right. Ever since I
was a kid, that was another phrase instead of being chazz,
it was energizing bunny. Right.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Again, I'm not surprised, right, but let me.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Just tell you Spike brings that same amount of energy
when he's working. And the fact that when I got
paired up with him on November fourth of twenty eighteen,
I never realized what an amazing job our master trainer
does in matching us and our personalities and making us
a team. So when you had the opportunity to get
(48:05):
to meet Spike and see him work, and he brings
not only does he bring energy, but he has he
almost brings the same passion that I do to the
job every day.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Right, He's dreaming about being like this, I feel that
I would have been.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
I just want the listeners to understand that that is huge.
That's a huge part of our of what we do.
You know, when we talk about ESDS, obviously that stands
for Electronics Storage Detection and our dogs all these ESDK
and ies are trying to find electronic storage devices. And
(48:42):
what we think about electronics storage device. The first thing
everyone thinks of laptops, desktop computers, USB thumb drives, internal
external hard drives, but you also have to remember their
cell phones, iPads, micro SD cards, SD cards, tracking the
devices in today's world. These items are what our doctor
(49:05):
are trained to find. And a lot of people are
amazed by this and they're like, how can they do that?
Like how do they do that? And the simple way
of saying, there is a compound chemical that is prayed
on every electronic storage device by the manufacturer, and it's
called triphenylphloschene oxide. And for the listeners, do not try
(49:27):
to say that because it takes a little practice. It's
abbreviated for TPPO. That is what our dogs are imprinted
on to actually smell that chemical to find those electronic
storage devices. So, as you can imagine, Lisa, when we
go out on a search warrant, houses can be cluttered,
(49:49):
they can be full, and it could be large. When
we're looking for something as small as a micro SD card,
it's very easy for our perpetrators to hide those and
put them somewhere that we would never find them. As
law enforce officer, and I tell people these perpetrators, yes,
(50:10):
they are hiding them from law enforcement because they are
because it's their collection, it's something they've been doing for years,
and it's something they're proud to have, but they're also
hiding it from their family, so they're going to keep
it in a place that most people are not going
to look. So having an esdknine as a tool in
(50:33):
your tool bell when you're going to do an execute
a search warrant on a perpetrator's house for child sexual
abuse material as essential. I mean. Agencies that do not
have one of these dogs are foolish because every agency
in the United States that is conducting Internet crimes against
children investigations and child sexual abuse material, if they do
(50:56):
not have one of these dogs at their as a tool,
they're missing stuff. One. So these dogs are a game
changer in child sexual exploitation and I mean that. And
we have countless of success stories throughout the United States
(51:17):
with our dogs finding these kinds of devices. I mean,
you think about it, our rescue. We have sponsored one
hundred and sixty two Electronic storage detection canines in the
United States and throughout the world. That's wonderful, that's incredible. Yes,
it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Law enforcement, as you and I both know, often doesn't
have the funding it's not just that they don't want
to have these resources. It's not that they're just foolish,
it's that they are financially incapable in many ways. So
thank you so much for bringing that tool. And I
(51:54):
have to let's go back to the man with the
idea in the ceiling and I don't think you had
Spike at that point, and it was and it was
one of the officers who was there who looked up
and spotted that there was something up with the ceiling tile.
Would Spike have been able to find that more quickly?
Speaker 2 (52:16):
Yes, yes, the matter of fact, Spike would probably it
was right underneath his dad, So the dog would have
hit on the center of that dad, indicating something's above him,
which is because the odor will fall and it'll drop
down to that level and the dogs will start hitting
in that area, and eventually the racer knows and their
(52:40):
eyes looking up indicating to the handle of that whatever
it is, I'm smelling, it's above me. So yes, And
we've had found things in very high areas thanks to
you know, an East.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Knine, and I know that it's very scientific. I learned
a little bit about it in the advanced trading where
it does fall, and the wind and the way it
goes in all of this with the dogs, and one
thing I think that is just so cute about them
is that they all sort of have their own signal
(53:15):
to say, hey, there's a device here. What is Spike's
little tell?
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Of course you would ask that question. So every other
every other eesd K and I handler out there who's
listening to this and have had the opportunity to see
Spike work, they understand about what I'm about to say.
But let me just tell them the listeners first of
all by telling them. Traditionally, our dogs are given verbal
(53:45):
commands to go to work and to find these electronic
storage devices. When they get in order, they will sit
at a very nice little sitting position, and then another
verbal command is used, ask you know, where is that device?
And then that particular dog will put their nose right
(54:05):
where the device is, and that would be a true
indication that okay, right here is something that we need
to look for. And that's every almost every esdkniney. Unfortunately,
as we talked about earlier, Spike has his own personality
and his own energy that he brings. He is a
(54:25):
bull in a china shop. And again I use that
phrase because my mother always referred to me as a
pull in the china shop that I can never sit still.
I'm always going and have that energy. So Spike brings
that same energy. So now when Spike comes into a
room and he finds something, and there's something might be
in a drawer, he literally doesn't sit. He just starts
(54:49):
pulling the drawer literally with his teeth. And once he
gets the door open, he dives into there and he
will pull device out. It's and we'll have it in
his mouth and then just literally handed to me.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
Steah, Wait, he doesn't have hands. He has a little pause,
so it's his mouth.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
He puts it in his mouth and he hands it
right to me. And for those people who actually had
the opportunity to see this, it's pretty incredible to see
him work. And again I goes back to the passion
right and and his desire to succeed. We talked about
(55:28):
that bonding, that friendship. I'm a true believer if you
truly work your dog the way you're supposed to work
with your dog, you develop your dog's personality the way
you want it. And he had that personality as as
as if he's working like Chaz Ballow and I'm just
sitting there watching Chaz Ballow do a search, and it's
really my dog doing the work because he understands what
(55:51):
I'm when I'm asking of him. And again that that bond,
that that whole connection, there's there's nothing, there's nothing in
the world better. There's one thing better than that. And
to see your dog find that device that maybe you
would have never found, You're a proud dad. You are
a proud you are that proud mom dad that your
(56:14):
son just got on the b on a roll, a
honor roll. You know, they made the deal, whatever it
might be, that proud moment you are living at with
your dog every day. I to have that, to have
these stories that I get to share when I'm out
in the community and doing public speaking talking about successes
(56:35):
not only of my dog but all the dogs throughout
the United States throughout the world that have been successful.
I'm proud. I'm proud to say I'm an ESD Knin
handler and I'm proud of like what they do and
what they're all about, you know. So for me, he
brings he brings a whole different game to every search
(56:57):
work and that's really what every agency should want to bring.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
A case is only as strong as his evidence. If
you miss that, you could miss everything where somebody could
be charged with so much less and get a tiny
slap on the wrist and then essentially get away with it.
These dogs are they're crucial to the investigation. I think
(57:26):
when people think of law enforcement going into a home,
and I certainly used to that, they're going to search
through the cushions and rip stuff open and tear light
sockets out of the wall and be like, Wow, that
tea cup looks suspicious. Let me break it and see
if there's something in it. And that's not how it works.
You can't just do that. It's very likely that you're
going to miss something. And does he offer a sense
(57:50):
of when you're leaving a scene and a warrant, do
you feel a sense of completion and call home that
something wasn't missed, that you that you had that backup.
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Yes, I mean that's the whole purpose of having it.
You know that we're walking out there out that door
because you'll get one shot at it when you're doing
a search. Woman, and so you want to make sure
you have all the tools that you need while you're there,
because once you leave, you're not going back in, and
if you have to go back in again, another search
for and by that time whatever you did missed, the
(58:29):
perfator definitely has removed in places somewhere else, probably not
even in the household. So yes, I mean it is.
It is.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
These items are sometimes found in really mysterious, unlikely places,
and we don't have to get into that. I always
worry about telling people a little too much where we're
giving the bad people the ideas. But I do want
to know what is what's one of Spike's most important finds.
Is there a moment where he really changed changed the
(59:02):
case and the outcome of it.
Speaker 2 (59:04):
You know, Yes, I mean it really wasn't It really
wasn't a find. It wasn't it wasn't a fine. He
didn't find an electronic storags device. We we we brought
him in the house to find an electronics sports device,
which we did find a device. But we we had
a case where we had we believed that a mother
(59:28):
was trafficking her own daughter, and this had been going
on for many years, unfortunately for over three years. And
when I got contacted by a local agency asked for assistance.
You know, we brainstormed, and we realized that we could.
(59:49):
We had enough information to obtain a search warrk to
get into the house where the perpetrator, of course and
our minor child vicker was living. But at the end
of the day, the goal was to go in there
and try to find that device, but the secondary goal
was to actually be able to talk to this young
(01:00:10):
girl because unfortunately, in the course of three years, that
child had been interviewed by child protective Services numerous times
and never made any disclosures of being sexually abused and
or sexually exploited. So we knew that that wasn't the
case based on information that we had received. So once
(01:00:32):
we got that device, we were able to secure an
area in that household to actually have myself, Spike, and
a female investigator talk to that child victim. And about
forty five minutes into that conversation, after just letting her
hang out on the floor and Spike and Spike just
rolling over, letting her mother's belly and him just giving
(01:00:55):
her unconditional love and just calming her. Was just incredible
to see the fear that she had, knowing that we
were there for her and knowing that she's been told
never to tell anyone anything about any of this stuff
(01:01:16):
and she hasn't done so in three years.
Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
You're scary in that for her at that with that, oh,
you know, it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Was a defining moment, and it was towards the end
of my career. I was. I knew that Spikes and
I were probably going to be retiring there in their future.
And to hear that young girl, yeah say, you know,
I know Spikes here to protect me and going to
(01:01:53):
help me and finally made her first disclosure in three years,
which which totally allowed us at that point, after she
made that disclosure to take her out of that house
and take protect the custody of her and get her
(01:02:14):
away from the heart that she's been going through for
all those years. And so that little kid had two
great requests. First one is she didn't want her mom
or her mom boyfriend to see her when she was
leaving the house. And the the second one was first
(01:02:37):
Fikee to be with her. And so of course you
know that was an easy request. Spike was able to
go with her through the child After Center shortly thereafter
that initial contact where she made a full disclosure and
(01:03:00):
we were able to proceed with criminal charges against those
individuals who had been not only sexually abusing her, but
sexually explaining her for many years. And so you know,
for me, Spike has found a lot of a lot
of great things, right, He's done a lot of things
(01:03:21):
or a lot of places that we would have never found.
You know, he's been with a lot of children during
child abbacy interviews. But if you asked me a defining
moment if Spike was talking and not me, that was
the moment that was one hundred said the moment that
(01:03:48):
he said that kid, he's literally saved her life. So
for me who that was the moment, it was the moment.
So he's a hero, not just for that reason, but
for everything he has done. I'm just as handler. I
(01:04:09):
just tried over out. He does all the hard work.
He does a heavy lifting, right, But that was the
moment in time that for me I could be more
proud to be at Himler for me, and.
Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
You're an amazing team. And that's something that is really
wonderful that these dogs also provide, is that is that
support in those hard times for those victims where they
will go to the different interviews and they will sit
with them in court in a time when they feel
(01:04:47):
so alone. And I really wish I had that as
a little girl. I think that Spike could have saved
me in ways that I can't even imagine now. And
I love to know that that is happening, that kids
have that, and that little girl is somewhere now, somewhere
(01:05:09):
she is away from these monsters and these people who
were so badly hurting her. Because of Spike and you
and this team that you have, these dogs are they
are heroes. They are such heroes, and I like to
(01:05:34):
think that they know what they're doing, that they have
this idea that they are are making a difference. That
he gets up in the morning and he puts on
his little vest. You put it on him. He can't
put it on, I would imagine, but you get this
little vest on him and goes off to work, and
(01:05:55):
you too. There's a difference between saving a life, which yes,
you did and you've done so many times, but it's
so much more than that. It's giving a life back
that that child will now continue to get to live.
(01:06:18):
There's a difference between she could have maybe survived there
for a very long time, but not have lived not
have been free, and you gave her, gave her that freedom,
You and Spike, so just just thank you, thank you
(01:06:41):
so much for listening to Part one with my friend
as Ballad. Today you got to hear how he came
into this work, the values that were baked into him
as a kid, and how he basically grew up knowing
that he wanted to be a cop. We then ended
on that story about how his ESDK nine helped a
little girl finally disclose her abuse and get the help
that she needed, which is exactly why this work matters.
(01:07:02):
Next week, in Part two, we get into some of
Chaz's wildest cases and his unfiltered perspective on the question
that I hear constantly is just looking at images a
victimist crime? I have a lot to say about that one,
and so does Chaz. I'll see you next week, and
please remember to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you
(01:07:22):
get your podcasts.
Hi, I'm Alicia Kozak, and welcome to the Alicia Cozac Podcast.
You know, I'm still figuring out how to open these
conversations in a way that feels right, because this podcast,
it's really it's already changing me. I've had such eye
opening and heartfelt conversations with my guests, many who are
also close friends and people who I have worked with
for years. But I've learned these new sides of them,
(00:26):
new facets, new stories, and they've shared new strengths. If
you've been listening to this podcast for a little bit,
you will know that it goes from the darkest places
to the lightest But before we get there, I want
to tell you about why I am here and why
this matters to me so much. When I was thirteen
years old, I was groomed online lord from my home,
obducted and held captive by an internet creditor. I was
(00:47):
rescued by the FBI, and somehow the worst thing that
ever happened to me became the beginning of the work
I would spend my life doing. For more than twenty years,
I've worked with law enforcement, families, schools, lawmakers, and communities
to talk about online exploitation, child safety, grooming, and what
it actually takes to protect children in the digital age.
I work on Alicia's Law My Namesake, which has passed
(01:09):
in thirteen states so far. This legislation gives law enforcement
more resources to rescue children. And I have spent much
of my life alongside the people who investigate these crimes,
prosecute them, survive them, and carry them. That is why
this podcast exists. This is not crime is entertainment, but
(01:30):
real crime, real trauma, real prevention, all lived and told
by real people. And one of the things I've learned
in this world is that darkness is not the whole story.
It just it can't be because the people who do
this work are not only what they have seen. They
are funny, and they are exhausted, and they are brilliant.
(01:51):
They are ridiculous, and they love to tell really dark jokes.
Sometimes they cry in parking lots before and after the raids,
and I've seen it. But they show up anyway, And
that is the part I want you to know too.
You can step into the darkness, but you really always
need to keep your eye on that exit sign and
know exactly how to get out, because we can't live there. Okay,
(02:16):
so this is going to sound really random, but it
will all come together, I promise. A few days ago
my life involved a puppy road trip, the cutest of
all adventures, Like, who wouldn't want to go on a
puppy road trip? My dog Clara has a sister named Chloe.
No really, they actually have the same parents. And if
(02:39):
you know me, you know that I adore my little
fluff Clara. She's a nine month old cream colored toy
poodle puppy who lives in a little pink world because
I made a pink and has so much sass, attitude,
and energy. Chloe is now my mom's dog, which is
funny because originally my my mom absolutely did not want
(03:03):
a dog. She was vehemently against it. But I wanted
to have a dog because I want everybody to have
a dog. And then little by little, she started asking
me about Clara, and then she did the thing you
should never do unless your heart has already decided. And
as soon as she did that, I said to her, well,
(03:23):
now she's gonna show up, and I kid you not.
Six hours later I saw a post on Facebook that
Clara had a tiny, little baby sister who would be
ready for adoption that Saturday. Well we could not ignore this, Okay,
but how do I get this dog to my mom,
(03:47):
who lives eight hours away in Pittsburgh. Well that plan
was simple. My boyfriend Eric and I would drive from Raleigh,
North Carolina with Chloe, and my mom and my brother
would drive from Pittsburgh. We would meet somewhere in the middle,
hand over this tiny ball of fluff, and everyone will
go home. But of course that's not what happened, because
life is not ever so simple best laid plans. Right,
(04:10):
my mom and my brother got a blown tire about
two hours outside of Pittsburgh, and by that point Eric
and I had already we got Chloe. We had her
with us, and we were about two hours two and
a half hours into our own drive. So instead of
meeting halfway, we just kept going and going, and what
was supposed to be a simple handoff turned into a
(04:32):
twelve hour road trip and I loved it. I got
more time with Chloe, we got a little unexpected adventure
with good music, stacks and road trip coffee, which might
just be the best kind. And now little Chloe is
settling into her new home, where apparently she has decided
to skip the land shark phase and goes straight to
cuddly puppy, which feels deeply unfair to anyone who has
(04:56):
ever survived puppy teeth like me from her older sister
Clara head very sharp teeth. And my mom gets the
angel dog, which is great because this has now become
her best friend. This is her little fluffy friend. And
that is the magic of dogs. They enter our lives
(05:19):
and suddenly there is more joy, softness and laughter. They
really can become our best friends. They're so precious that way.
And I wanted to start there today because one of
the heroes we will be talking about today is a
four legged one named Spike. Spike is a canine officer
who is trained to help law enforcement find evidence. He's
(05:39):
protected children, and he also saved the life of the
man his handler who loves him. Now, we cannot interview Spike,
believe me, Believe me, I would, but we are going
to speak to the hero who works with him every day.
Let me tell you a little bit about retired Detective
Sergeant Chas Ballow. He's spent more than sixteen years in
(06:00):
investigating crimes against children and working to rescue children's sexual exploitation.
Chas is also a survivor of abuse himself, and he
chose to take his own trauma and turn it into
a career protecting children. I've had the privilege of working
alongside Chas and having him as a dear friend for years,
from Alicia's law work in Pennsylvania to trainings to behind
the scenes advocacy. Today, Chas continues that mission as an
(06:23):
electronic storage detection canine relationship manager at Ouur Rescue. There
he continues to support law enforcement and to save lives.
So I want you to buckle up because this conversation
it gets real. We talk about chad exploitation, offender behavior, trauma,
male survivor, silence, law enforcement, mental health, and the cost
of doing this work for years, but we also talk
(06:46):
about dogs and dark humor and the tiny, strange, beautiful
things that help people survive what they carry. Because that
is the truth of this world. The darkness. It's real,
but so is the love and the laughter, the dog
who has crowed up beside you when you are not
sure how to keep going. We live in that darkness
so children don't have to. And this podcast is your
(07:08):
invitation to step into that world with us, just for
a little while. By the end of this episode, I
hope you understand not only what investigators see, but also
what they're carrying. And I hope you understand why protecting
children also means we have to protect and support the
people who are fighting for the good. So please let
me introduce you to my dear friend, Chaz Ballew. Chaz,
(07:31):
thank you so much for being here with us. So, Chaz,
I am just so excited that you are joining me
here today, and I've shared your very official title. But
what is it that you actually do well?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
After thirty five years, I retired as a detective sergeant
with the Losera County Just Attorney's Office, where I was
actually the ICAC lead for the Internet Crime to Get
children for the last sixteen years. And then upon my retirement,
I took a position with our rescue and I'm officially
(08:07):
the ESD K and I relationship manager, So I get
to hang out with dogs and give dogs and place
dogs for law enforcement throughout to the United States, which
is just totally incredible. I had the best job in
the world.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I have to say, any job that includes the description
hanging out with dogs would have to be one of
the best jobs in the world, and your career has
been really long and you have done so much incredible work,
and we're going to get into that. But I think
it's just kind of so interesting how we met too.
(08:44):
So we are both from Pennsylvania, but we hadn't crossed
paths in that world. We met at an electronic storage
detection canine training a few years ago now, and you
ran I remember one of these simulations. This is my
very first impression of you, and it was this ridiculous
thing and it was so much fun, and I'm gonna
(09:04):
ask you to walk me through it, but I also
definitely want to show a clip of it because it
is perfect, and I think it shows the kind of
person that you are.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
You to pick up all the pottexts are being deployed.
Pick up there. They're sure that there's something in there
that's important, but it's not the bomb, So I cannot
do that with my cane on. I will not. It's
a direct order that by it's definitely some kind of
note you have to read out loud. Control wants to
hear way to go pig. You activated device five minutes
to stop it. Holy we got five minutes to stop
(09:39):
the bomb four three two? Why thank you for killing me?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
So can you walk me through that that scenario and
why you chose it?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
And yeah, of course. So it just happens that we
were having in one of our advanced handler schools that
you were attending that that particular weekend. So my scenario
was where we had a bomber that had placed some
bomb and in like a power source of building, and
(10:35):
so the handlers had to use their dogs to find
a message which was stored within a cell phone. And
then once they found that message, it told them, hey,
you got to go in. There's a bomb and there's
it's going to go off in a certain amount of time.
And so within that we have like a pipe bomb
with a cell phone. So obviously, being an electronics storage detective,
(11:00):
canines they're finding electronic storage devices. So you know, the
dogs had to go in there and within so much time,
and so it was the greatest scenario ever and I
had the most fun. I almost felt like an actor
that day, And I've always wanted to be an actor,
which is I guess I never made it right here
I am, but it gave me the opportunity of a
(11:20):
lifetime to be that actor I always wanted to be,
So it was just so awesome. So once they got
in through and as you got the witness, you know,
once they opened the door into this facility, there's nothing
but piping everywhere, and it was hard to even get
in and around and work. And it was a fairly
(11:41):
large little area, a large area, and what I thought
was totally amazing. As soon as they walked in, little
did they know on my phone, I had a hidden
speaker that just started blasting music as soon as they
walked through the door, and it was bombs away and
it was very You couldn't have a better song for
(12:03):
the scenario. So it was just a funny sting between
the dog and the handlers jumping getting scared of what
the hell's going on here, and then you're trying to
get their mission accomplished. So it was a great time.
It was probably it definitely is a highlight for me
(12:24):
in my career, as you know, being one of Todd
Jordan's instructor handler instructors and literally, uh, the best time.
That was the best time ever.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
It was, and they're there for this really serious training.
This is really important. There is a bomb that might explode.
I remember the very first thing they do though, as
they open up that piping and there is a ridiculous
note in it where it was like hello pigs or something.
You're very intense about that, And then they walked over
(12:58):
and it was like it was a trigger where the
music would start playing and even some of the dogs
were like, oh my gosh. And then the dogs are
like trying to walk on the piping, and you know,
four legs didn't really help them all that much there.
It only made it more complicated. And you talked about
being an actor, but you weren't only this trainer at
(13:18):
the moment. You were actually the bomb as well. And
every single time just about I think most people unfortunately
didn't pass this because you did make it really complicated.
It was very difficult, but you would scream boom as
loud as possible, and they also weren't expecting.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That that is true. That is true. And by your
memory is phenomenal, by the way, with that note, because
that's exactly what the note said, Ha ha, pigs, this
is the fake bomb. Now you got to find a
real bomb. So that memory is pretty impactable.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
By the way, it was a really funny scenario. And again,
it was the first time I met you. This was
my very first impression of you. And you're screaming boom
and reading off this ridiculous note and you're high energy,
and really that is you. You're a very high energy
and bring such joy to this work and also such
(14:13):
passion and unfortunately a very catchy song which I would
listen to in the car and sing and have fun
with for far too long. It's a very catchy song
that I'd never heard before, and it was just it
was a really fun, fun day. So you have your
own dog, and his name is Spike, and he is
(14:38):
very handsome and very silly and very talented. And we're
going to talk about him a lot more later. Right.
He's helped save children, but he also quite literally has
helped save your life, as you've told me, which again
we're going to get into later. But can you please
(14:59):
introduce our listeners to your free side kick? Can you
tell us about Spike?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Let me tell you so. Yeah. November fourth, twenty eighteen,
I received a just turned two year old black lab
and originally named Sage, I was able to change his
name to Spike, and from that moment on he's been
my best friend, my partner for you know, the last
(15:28):
eight years, and I'm telling you he's incredible. So right now,
Spike's going to be turning ten in October of this year,
so we've been together for eight years and incredible eight years.
You know, the things that we have done and accomplished together,
it's just incredible. So, you know, I don't think people
(15:49):
realize when you receive such a wonderful gift. And I
say it's a gift because it was a gift to me,
you know, in our profession if I were talking professionally,
he's just another tool on my tool belt to help me,
you know, find things. And like you said, we'll talk
about that later, but you know, it's just an incredible
(16:12):
feeling to have that, and the bond that you build
with that dog is there's it's just incredible. It's almost
it's so hard to describe to people. You know. I
know people are dog people and people love their dog,
but when you work with your dog every day and
then you come home with your dog every day and
you're together almost twenty four you travel together, you go
(16:32):
everywhere together, it's it's it's like having that family member
that never leaves you.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
He's always always there with you, and that would have
to create such a bond. And again we'll get into
it more later, but especially on hard days, just having
this frey little sidekick and not feeling alone in this
this really troubling space. You have this passion for this work.
(17:02):
You have done this for a very long time, but
you were also so passionate about it. Did you always
want to be a police officer where there's signs that
this is what you would do, or did you wake
up one day and say like, hey, I'm just going
to join the police academy on a whim.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
No, that is absolutely not the case. I didn't just
wake up one day. From a very early childhood, I'd
be out on my big wheel in my neighborhood, going
up and down like and screaming like Boom, like you
were saying, you know it said as Saint Boom. I'm
going off like I'm a police sire and like going
(17:40):
after bad guys, and you know, just having the time
of my life in my mind, I'm chasing bad guys,
I'm doing things. I was being a police officer. I
went to the extent Alicia that if you remember old
paint cans, and we talked about you know, I literally
took red and blue paint can tops the lids, and
(18:02):
I literally, at a very young age, I had my
brother make sure that to help me attach them to
my big wheel, so it looked like I had red
and blue lights on my big wheel. And really they
were just plastic paint tan lids from this stray paint bottle.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So you know, so, okay, I have to I have to, Okay,
So I need to see I wish I could. There's
got to be a picture or home movies or something somewhere.
So I'm picturing little U. And are you like trying
to dress up like a police officer? Do I to
see this? And you have like a little fake badge
or no?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I did have all that stuff when I was younger,
you know, but when I used to go out, I
used to just get right up. I get my in
my mind of course you know everything. You already have
your uniform on, and you're already in that for ten
mode because it's who I was be that. That's the
person I was portraying every morning, and I listen, I
(18:58):
never realized how much of pain the I was to
some of my neighbors when some of them were trying
to sleep and there's a little Chaz out there maybe
six six point thirty in the morning, people are still sleeping,
and it didn't seem to affect me. I would go
out there, you know, and just have all this energy,
exert it and go after all those bad guys that
were out there.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
You're like the neighborhood rooster. I bit, woo, can you
make the noise?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Now?
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Can you still do it?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Woooooo? Yeah? I love doing it. I loved it. I
had the different jouts for different emergencies. Listen, It's something
when you when you want to be something and you
want to pretend you're pretending, your imagination just runs wild
and you just do it. I never lived my life
ever worry about what to help people thought of me.
(19:50):
So I was out there just having fun.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
What was your idea of what cops did? Why did
you never want to be the bad guy? Why didn't
you want to rob the bank or cause the trouble?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah? I think it all started with my mom. We
loved cop cop shows growing up, and you know, when
I was growing up, we watched TV a lot together.
You know, when my mom was around, and so we
you know, I just fell in love with that whole
line of work kind of like, and it's just something
I always wanted to do. As I got older, I
(20:31):
had neighbors, one specific neighbor that always inspired me to
be a cop. He was, you know, he literally was
like the perfect cop. He was the guy that was
always in shape. He was a runner. You know, He's
a guy that you do if you're running from him,
a bad guy's running from him, you're not getting away.
So I always had people like inspirational people in my
(20:53):
life to look up to, So you know, I sort
of think that's probably the biggest reason why I always
wanted to get into this line of work. I mean,
of course, you know, I always loved the fact that
they always win. They always won, right. I never, really
when I was a kid, never seeing cops getting hurt.
I never seen cops getting and and and getting killed
(21:16):
in the line of work. I didn't see that. I
just seen all the happy things they did when they
would save people. And as little as you might say, uh,
restling the cat from a tree, Well, when I was
growing up, that that was actually some of these cops shows,
right right, So you know, they were things that they did.
They gave people happy, you know, and they saved people,
(21:38):
they rescued it from that situation. So how could you
not want to do that and make people happy. I
always felt in my life that I was always a
happy person, you know, and so I always felt that
this was perfect in line with maybe what I want
to be for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Your mom sounds like she was just it's hugely inspirational
in who you are, and she sounds just like a
really incredible mom. Can you tell me like a little
bit more about your childhood and how you grew up
and how your your mom played into that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yes, actually, uh boy, you start talking about my mom,
I get pretty emotional even now, been passed for many years.
But when, uh, when I was younger, you know, my
my mom worked three jobs just to provide us for
her family. We lived in a low income housing, you know,
(22:37):
we lived in a project where you know, it was
you know, not not an easy life, right. So but
one thing my mom gave us, and it wasn't in
it was love. It wasn't We may not have been
rich and wealth with what we talk about for financially,
(23:00):
but the love that my mom provided to myself, my
brothers and sisters. It truly lives in me every day
because I don't think I wish more people to grow
up like I grew up with that love, because money
(23:25):
comes and goes, and people could be the wealthiest people
in the world and they don't have love. I'm going
to tell you something, Elisia. My mom is stilled love
and affection into us, into our family, and one thing
we were never afraid to do is show affection and
love one another and be there for another. And I
can't even begin to tell you how important that is
(23:47):
in my life and what it has done to me personally,
having you know, a twenty nine year old daughter now
who I tried to raise with those same exact values.
My mom was always the person that even if we
had something, we always had something more than someone else,
(24:07):
and she would always tell us because of that doesn't
make us any better. And when I tell you that's
something I lived by as well, I mean that from
a bout of my heart. I never ever ever felt
like I was above someone else, better than anyone else,
because little of the people know I was never at
(24:28):
that status of many of my friends that they had
everything and they could have anything they wanted and I
wasn't that person so for me, but my mom, it
was just that pure love and the things that she
did for me. And I think about when you grow up,
(24:48):
you know, as I'm growing up in this world with
my mom, My mom was tough too. I mean, if
you did something wrong, you were disciplined. I mean, make
no mistake about it. If we did something wrong, it
wasn't anyone else in my family that was the disciplinarian.
It was my mother. And I could tell you that
(25:09):
was never a good day. And you knew where you
stood with my mom if you were to get in trouble, right, So.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So she was very kind, very gentle until.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
One million percent. My mom. If you did something wrong,
you listen. She was going to make sure you were
well aware of what you did wrong. And at the
end of the day she still loved us. But you
know what, it was always that tough love, you know.
And I think about tough love. I remember like growing
up and not having the best shoes and the best
(25:44):
shirts and and and the best jeans and the sneaks
and just having I remember like kids telling me I
had Bobo sneakers and I'm like, I don't know what
both like, what was Bobo? And it's funny in today's world,
but my understanding, there is such a shoe now called Bobos.
So when I heard this story, I was like Bobos.
When I was a kid, it was like, meaning, you're
a poor kid and you didn't have cool sneaks, and
(26:07):
so now there's some kind of name brand out there
that's called Bobos. That's really cool. But when I grew up,
I didn't have that, and you know, so for me,
it was like okay. But I remember being picked off
by kids. I remember kids picking on me. I remember
kids telling me making fun of me because I wore glasses.
Could you imagine you're in elementary school, You're getting picked on,
(26:29):
and it's so loving of my mother, right, you know.
I tell the story so many times over. I remember
my mom. I came home, I was offset these kids
were picking on me, whether it's my my sneaks, my teens,
but specifically one time with my glasses, and I was
one of the very few students in elementary school. I
haven't warned glasses and so everyone had everyone had good sight.
(26:54):
I don't know what it was, but I and if
they did, like I was the guy that got picked
on because of my glasses. Maybe my glasses wearing his
dances and everyone else, I don't know, but I was
the guy that got picked on because of my glasses
as well. So I remember coming home and I remember
my mom sitting me down and I was upset. She said, listen,
she said, you go back there and you tell those
(27:16):
kids four eyes are better than two. And I'm like, yeah,
that's a good one. Mom. I can't wait. Well, you know,
and we look at today's world, right, we know that
not the answer. But I gotta tell you, God loved
my mother. She always had the answer. She always wanted
to make me feel good and try to give me
that positive attitude, have right, and and always came back
(27:39):
to Andlicia had always came back. We're not that family,
We're You're you know, that person wants to believe they're
better than you and above you, and it's something that
will never understand. It's something that will never do. So,
you know, I love that about her. But you know,
(28:00):
as I progressed through elementary school, now I'm going to
junior high school, I started wrestling. I start wrestling. I
was in second grade, started playing football in third grade.
I could you remember going through seventh grade, everything was
pretty good. I normal kids, still doing good. You know.
I wasn't always the best studio as far as grade wise,
(28:21):
but I was never doing dad either. But I remember
after seventh grade going into eighth grade, and I don't
know what happened to me. I went through life changes,
I guess, and I can. I can recall a time
where I started hanging out with some really some bad
(28:41):
individuals and oh the robbers.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
The robbers, they were robbers.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
And when I look back at those days, although I
was still an athlete, I wasn't hanging out with the
athletes and perspective of like spending my time always with them.
When I was in class and I was doing stuff,
I was hanging out with the robbers. And these are
guys that were like, I mean, listen, they were getting
(29:11):
all the attention, everyone laughing with them. They were like
everyone had fun with them, like.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
The class clowns and the yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Kind of yes, but they take it day day up
the level. They absolutely up the level. And in particular,
you know, one person without mentioning names on the podcast,
which I will make sure that that person listens this
because they will appreciate this story. But I can remember
(29:38):
this is what this and this is this is crazy
in my mind. I remember one time we were in
art class in eighth grade and this one student, our
our teacher went into a closet which was a huge closet.
All the materials you could think of, everything's in there.
And on the outside of that door was a hinge lock. Okay,
(30:03):
so like when he's not there, he can lock it.
And that's how he locked it and secure thinks for
nothing we get stolen. He went in there to retrieve items. Well,
this one student got up, decided to go up, closed
the door, close the last put the lock on, and
(30:23):
the key was never found again for the rest of
the class. He I don't know because we left after
the bell went off, but he eventually had it.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Are they still in there?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
God love that art teacher. Let me tell you something unbelievable.
And it was that moment I thinking, oh my god,
I want to be like that. That was great. I
thought that was cool. Everyone was laughing. I'm thinking, I
want to hang out with these guys. These are the guys.
This is cool. Everyone locked them and I'm thinking I
could be like them. It was the first time in
(31:03):
my life ever that I can remember, I actually became
a follower. It was the first time I think about
being a follower. I really never was a follower. I'd
do everything on my own. I'd go out and be
that cop on my big wheel. I'd go out and
play cops with robbers. I'd go out. So I was
never really a follower. And here I am looking back,
(31:27):
I became that person that never would want to be.
And so, you know, unfortunately, because I started hanging out
with these individuals. You know, once I got through my
sporting events, and you know, I literally was like, not
I was failing. I was stailing eighth grade. I legitimately
(31:48):
was not passing eighth grade. And the whole time, the
whole time, I'm not worried. Could I know these these
knuckleheads aren't passing either. So in my mind it sounds
crazy at the end of the year. Now we're coming
it's May of that school year, and we're getting like, hey,
this is the end of the year. No matter what happened,
I can't pass. I was told you are not passing,
(32:10):
and I'm like, oh, no big deal, I'll just go
to summer school because half of these knuckleheads that I
want to hang out with, they're gonna go to summer school.
Try kid hanging out all summer.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Let's be more fun.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, why that's what chas ballot. Why not let's do it.
And well, that was all a great plan. That was
all a great plan until my mother got involved and
I went home and when I told her I was
not passing eighth grade and I need to go to
summer school, her first question was why didn't you pass
(32:45):
eighth grade? The whole time I'm telling you need to
get your grades up, you're not listening to me. You
didn't listen. And she said, second of all, summer school
costs money, which you did. And she's like, do you
have enough money to for summer school? Because yeah, at
that point, Alisha, depending on how many you know, you
(33:06):
had to get your majors in, right, so I need
to take three classes. Each class costs money.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
So she works so hard for that money.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I did have that, right, So my mom was like,
I I'm gonna I hate to tell you this. Well,
she didn't say I tell you. She she just told
me that you have it. She just told me I
got bad news for you. I'm not paying for you
to a summer school. It was Alicia. I was like,
(33:37):
what are you talking about? I have to go. If
I don't go, I'm gonna have to repeat eight grade.
And she's like, if you think I'm going to spend
money to send you to summer school to go hang
out to say kids that got you to where you are,
you are crazy. You are crazy. I Am not going
(33:58):
to do that. And so I'm like, oh, but I
don't think you understand, like all my real friends, all
my like, like I say, my real friends, like all
the athletes, they're going up, they're going to be in
another grade. I want to be with him.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
They're gonna be left behind.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
And she's like, well, that's that's something you should have
thought about a long time ago. And you know what,
I'll tell you that was a defining moment in my
early childhood about decision making and being a follower and
not a leader. And boy, I will tell you if
there's something I am grateful to my mother, and she's
(34:38):
been I'm grateful for a lot of things, Lucia, But
you know, at that time, I didn't want to hear it.
I was so mad at my mom. I think she
loved me, she can care about me, and you know,
but man, when you look back and the way it
changed my entire life, you and your listener can't even
imagine how to find me as a person because of
(35:02):
that cup love my mom, that decision my mom made
that day and just told me, hey, you're gonna have
to repeat eighth grade. And you know, so when I
when I go and talk to kids, I could tell them,
I know what it's like to grow up. I know
it's like to grow up in maybe a low income
housing and not have everything that you want. I know
what it's like to flunk some of your kids. I
(35:23):
tell them some of you had they never even fought
I flunked. I flunked eighth grade. I know this is
something that most people never want to talk about. One
of the most embarrass that embarrassing moment in your in
your life. But it made me who I am today
in a way, And so my mom making that decision
(35:43):
changed me forever and in the best of ways. You know,
it took me almost a whole year to get the
trust of my teachers in that school again because they
all knew that I had the right qualities, and I
was just I was just being a jackass.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
You just squandering them one percent.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
And you know, when I started coming around, so did
my teachers and giving me that love, that unconditional love
back in the day when teachers knew, like when you
had a bad day, and I felt love again by
my teachers and I was respectful, and you know, I
just think about that, you know, and that defining moment
when you know, when we sit in an auditorium and
(36:27):
you're getting selected for your class that year. They put
you in a big auditorium and they select you by
your class, so they go seventh graders first, and then
when eighth graders came in, my name, I'm on top
of the list. Of course, right B for Bell already,
so I'm like, I'm my name gets called. All the kids,
(36:49):
including like the kids I was hanging out with, all
those kids I was following, were all laughing at me,
the same kids I wanted to be who are now
in ninth grade. And I realized that that moment, man, boy,
I that was the biggest mistake, one of the biggest
mistakes in my life at that time for sure. And
I thought to myself, this is incredible. So yeah, that
(37:12):
tough love really defined me to this day. And there's
something I'm not embarrassed to talk about. It something that
it's who I am. It's a part of my life.
And you know, it just goes to show you that
being a parent sometimes does take tough love and making
tough decisions. Even though you may feel you might be
(37:32):
hurting your child. At the end of the day, we
all know that you're doing nothing but helping her.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Let's move forward to when that childhood dream became real
and you woke up and you put on that uniform
and you took out your badge, and I guess you
pin it right here. What was that like? What was
that like when you put that uniform on for the
first time?
Speaker 2 (37:57):
It was incredible, It truly was. I remember graduating from
the Pennsylvania Misnicipal Police Academy and at that time, you know,
during that graduation, a lot of officers weren't hired by
(38:17):
a police department at that time prior to graduating from
police academy. I was one of the fortunate ones that
I was already hired by an agency and so I
was able to wear a uniform to my graduation when
I graduated from police Academy and so that was the
first time I actually put that uniform on, and we're
(38:39):
so proud. You know, all those memories of being a child.
You relived those moments, you know, extremely emotional receiving your
certification and knowing that you just graduated something that you
always wanted to do. You know, it was a fulfillment,
(39:00):
you know. But at the same time, I couldn't wait
to actually go out and do good things and actually
help people and save people that I remember watching on
television and all the good things have police officers do
in our community. That was an incredible moment in time,
(39:23):
having that uniform on, receiving my certification and just knowing
that I just feel fulfilled childhood fantasy.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Okay, so you put this uniform on it, you start
the work, You are going out there and you're ready
to help people. What is that first high five moment
for you that you can remember where you knew exactly
that this was a dream fulfilled that you were helping people,
that this is where you needed to be, maybe like
your first case or rescue or arrest. What is that
(39:53):
moment where you were like, yes, I made it, I
did it and this is where I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Well, tell you it's believe it or not. That moment
for me was many years after I was already a
police officer. It sounds crazy I've done, and there is
a lot of great things I accomplished during this time,
but I honestly it was eight years after I had
graduated from the municipal Police Academy, when I was working
(40:22):
for the Louisearn County just Attorney's Office when I had
my very first Internet Crimes against Children's Task Force arrest
and I was going to a local municipality and I'll
never forget it because it wasn't something. It was all
related to a cyber tip from the National Center for
(40:43):
Missing sploy Children. And I remember getting this information and
doing the investigation, and I'm now a detective and I'm
working my first case, and I remember it was early
evening hours that we worked that kind of shift. We
nor we will go after individuals during the day, but
(41:04):
I remember I got the information and I realized that
this individual had contact with minor children, and so I
was able to convince our agency, hey, this is something
I need to move on like now, and they're like okay,
like go ahead and do it. And so it was
in the little town of West Pittston, Luzern County, Pennsylvania,
(41:26):
where at that time the chief of police was Michael Turner,
and really I had him and just a couple of
my team members and actually, you know, go to his
door and knocking on that door in doing that investigation.
And as I'm doing the investigation and we're doing our
(41:47):
and we find on his computer just a replay of
child sexual abuse material as we were in the house
and we're doing all this, and it was at that
moment and I I realized that, oh my god, this
is like, this is what I want to do. This
is what I want to do for the rest of
my career. Really, that is the defining moment for me,
(42:11):
when I realized that this job that I just was
assigned to and I recently had started doing was going
to be the most impactful job in law enforcement. So
for me, that that was the moment. And he was convicted.
He got indicted federally, and you know, it was a
(42:33):
really good case to the point where you know, we
found hidden cameras. I mean, it was really a home run.
You know, he worked for a large retail chain. He
was a lost prevention regional manager in charge of all
the cameras and so as you can imagine, So it
(42:55):
was a big case, Alicia, and you know, between the
district office and the West Pitston Police Department, we crushed it.
And you know, it was just incredible. It was an
incredible moment in time, and I could relive that moment
just thinking this is what I want to do. I mean,
(43:15):
and I think about all the things about that guy
that made me realize that this is probably a lifetime mission.
I told you about how his computer was replaying just
on a rerun of child sexual abuse material. Well why
we like it.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Was like it was just playing constantly. It's just on
the loop, like almost like a.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Yes Luke playing child sexual computer. And to make matters worse,
in his ceiling of his bedroom, one of the investigators
actually Chief Turner and some of the investigators actually noticed that, hey,
the ceiling, there's something up with that ceiling. In the
ceiling we found in the ceiling block above above his
(44:00):
bed was literally, I like in excess of like seventy
five eighty USB thumb drives along with little girls underwear
in all the plastic bag. So you know, when you
think about that, I was like, oh my god, there's
(44:22):
people like this in the world that we need to
make sure we get them to help they need, right
And so it was that moment that I realized that
this is a job I'm going to forever want to do.
And that was from that moment on, that is the
job I did for sixteen years, like a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
That's a heartbreaking case and a pinnacle point in your
career that not only are you going to help people,
but that you're coming to save children. And I've worked
in this space for twenty three years, so I've been
(45:07):
here too. And the stories they still they're still shocking,
no matter how you hear about it, no matter how
many stories, how many offenders, it's always shocking the details
of it. I'm just so grateful that you do the
work that you do and that you stopped this person
(45:30):
in so many more so, just thank you, because it's sickening.
It's so important for people to understand how how demented
these people really are, that it's not that they were
just downloading something or that it's this fantasy necessarily that
(45:53):
they have. It goes so much deeper than that in
the fact that he had little girls, Andy's and his ceiling.
Oh gosh, oh, I'm just glad to know that the
world was definitely made a better place that day. That
is that's heavy, and this podcast does get heavy, and
(46:17):
that's something that anybody who listens to this will find
that we really live in the space where how we
communicate together is we will go from this and then
we will just talk about, Hey, how's Spike and what's
going on, and just normal conversation and bounce back and
forth and go from the dark to the light. And
(46:40):
you have to. It's really the only way to survive.
I really want to talk about Spike and about the
important work that he does and because he is just
such a big part of your work and your story.
So for listeners who've never heard of and K nine,
(47:02):
what is that? And what is zachly? Is Spike trained
to find?
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Sure? So let me start off by saying, when you
talk about energy levels and what Spike brings to the table,
one thing I admire most about our master trainer, Jordan
detection canine is matching a handler with their dog. And
I think it's important to talk about that because everyone
(47:30):
talks about I'm an energized bunny. Right. Ever since I
was a kid, that was another phrase instead of being chazz,
it was energizing bunny. Right.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Again, I'm not surprised, right, but let me.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Just tell you Spike brings that same amount of energy
when he's working. And the fact that when I got
paired up with him on November fourth of twenty eighteen,
I never realized what an amazing job our master trainer
does in matching us and our personalities and making us
a team. So when you had the opportunity to get
(48:05):
to meet Spike and see him work, and he brings
not only does he bring energy, but he has he
almost brings the same passion that I do to the
job every day.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Right, He's dreaming about being like this, I feel that
I would have been.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
I just want the listeners to understand that that is huge.
That's a huge part of our of what we do.
You know, when we talk about ESDS, obviously that stands
for Electronics Storage Detection and our dogs all these ESDK
and ies are trying to find electronic storage devices. And
(48:42):
what we think about electronics storage device. The first thing
everyone thinks of laptops, desktop computers, USB thumb drives, internal
external hard drives, but you also have to remember their
cell phones, iPads, micro SD cards, SD cards, tracking the
devices in today's world. These items are what our doctor
(49:05):
are trained to find. And a lot of people are
amazed by this and they're like, how can they do that?
Like how do they do that? And the simple way
of saying, there is a compound chemical that is prayed
on every electronic storage device by the manufacturer, and it's
called triphenylphloschene oxide. And for the listeners, do not try
(49:27):
to say that because it takes a little practice. It's
abbreviated for TPPO. That is what our dogs are imprinted
on to actually smell that chemical to find those electronic
storage devices. So, as you can imagine, Lisa, when we
go out on a search warrant, houses can be cluttered,
(49:49):
they can be full, and it could be large. When
we're looking for something as small as a micro SD card,
it's very easy for our perpetrators to hide those and
put them somewhere that we would never find them. As
law enforce officer, and I tell people these perpetrators, yes,
(50:10):
they are hiding them from law enforcement because they are
because it's their collection, it's something they've been doing for years,
and it's something they're proud to have, but they're also
hiding it from their family, so they're going to keep
it in a place that most people are not going
to look. So having an esdknine as a tool in
(50:33):
your tool bell when you're going to do an execute
a search warrant on a perpetrator's house for child sexual
abuse material as essential. I mean. Agencies that do not
have one of these dogs are foolish because every agency
in the United States that is conducting Internet crimes against
children investigations and child sexual abuse material, if they do
(50:56):
not have one of these dogs at their as a tool,
they're missing stuff. One. So these dogs are a game
changer in child sexual exploitation and I mean that. And
we have countless of success stories throughout the United States
(51:17):
with our dogs finding these kinds of devices. I mean,
you think about it, our rescue. We have sponsored one
hundred and sixty two Electronic storage detection canines in the
United States and throughout the world. That's wonderful, that's incredible. Yes,
it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Law enforcement, as you and I both know, often doesn't
have the funding it's not just that they don't want
to have these resources. It's not that they're just foolish,
it's that they are financially incapable in many ways. So
thank you so much for bringing that tool. And I
(51:54):
have to let's go back to the man with the
idea in the ceiling and I don't think you had
Spike at that point, and it was and it was
one of the officers who was there who looked up
and spotted that there was something up with the ceiling tile.
Would Spike have been able to find that more quickly?
Speaker 2 (52:16):
Yes, yes, the matter of fact, Spike would probably it
was right underneath his dad, So the dog would have
hit on the center of that dad, indicating something's above him,
which is because the odor will fall and it'll drop
down to that level and the dogs will start hitting
in that area, and eventually the racer knows and their
(52:40):
eyes looking up indicating to the handle of that whatever
it is, I'm smelling, it's above me. So yes, And
we've had found things in very high areas thanks to
you know, an East.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Knine, and I know that it's very scientific. I learned
a little bit about it in the advanced trading where
it does fall, and the wind and the way it
goes in all of this with the dogs, and one
thing I think that is just so cute about them
is that they all sort of have their own signal
(53:15):
to say, hey, there's a device here. What is Spike's
little tell?
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Of course you would ask that question. So every other
every other eesd K and I handler out there who's
listening to this and have had the opportunity to see
Spike work, they understand about what I'm about to say.
But let me just tell them the listeners first of
all by telling them. Traditionally, our dogs are given verbal
(53:45):
commands to go to work and to find these electronic
storage devices. When they get in order, they will sit
at a very nice little sitting position, and then another
verbal command is used, ask you know, where is that device?
And then that particular dog will put their nose right
(54:05):
where the device is, and that would be a true
indication that okay, right here is something that we need
to look for. And that's every almost every esdkniney. Unfortunately,
as we talked about earlier, Spike has his own personality
and his own energy that he brings. He is a
(54:25):
bull in a china shop. And again I use that
phrase because my mother always referred to me as a
pull in the china shop that I can never sit still.
I'm always going and have that energy. So Spike brings
that same energy. So now when Spike comes into a
room and he finds something, and there's something might be
in a drawer, he literally doesn't sit. He just starts
(54:49):
pulling the drawer literally with his teeth. And once he
gets the door open, he dives into there and he
will pull device out. It's and we'll have it in
his mouth and then just literally handed to me.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
Steah, Wait, he doesn't have hands. He has a little pause,
so it's his mouth.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
He puts it in his mouth and he hands it
right to me. And for those people who actually had
the opportunity to see this, it's pretty incredible to see
him work. And again I goes back to the passion
right and and his desire to succeed. We talked about
(55:28):
that bonding, that friendship. I'm a true believer if you
truly work your dog the way you're supposed to work
with your dog, you develop your dog's personality the way
you want it. And he had that personality as as
as if he's working like Chaz Ballow and I'm just
sitting there watching Chaz Ballow do a search, and it's
really my dog doing the work because he understands what
(55:51):
I'm when I'm asking of him. And again that that bond,
that that whole connection, there's there's nothing, there's nothing in
the world better. There's one thing better than that. And
to see your dog find that device that maybe you
would have never found, You're a proud dad. You are
a proud you are that proud mom dad that your
(56:14):
son just got on the b on a roll, a
honor roll. You know, they made the deal, whatever it
might be, that proud moment you are living at with
your dog every day. I to have that, to have
these stories that I get to share when I'm out
in the community and doing public speaking talking about successes
(56:35):
not only of my dog but all the dogs throughout
the United States throughout the world that have been successful.
I'm proud. I'm proud to say I'm an ESD Knin
handler and I'm proud of like what they do and
what they're all about, you know. So for me, he
brings he brings a whole different game to every search
(56:57):
work and that's really what every agency should want to bring.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
A case is only as strong as his evidence. If
you miss that, you could miss everything where somebody could
be charged with so much less and get a tiny
slap on the wrist and then essentially get away with it.
These dogs are they're crucial to the investigation. I think
(57:26):
when people think of law enforcement going into a home,
and I certainly used to that, they're going to search
through the cushions and rip stuff open and tear light
sockets out of the wall and be like, Wow, that
tea cup looks suspicious. Let me break it and see
if there's something in it. And that's not how it works.
You can't just do that. It's very likely that you're
going to miss something. And does he offer a sense
(57:50):
of when you're leaving a scene and a warrant, do
you feel a sense of completion and call home that
something wasn't missed, that you that you had that backup.
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Yes, I mean that's the whole purpose of having it.
You know that we're walking out there out that door
because you'll get one shot at it when you're doing
a search. Woman, and so you want to make sure
you have all the tools that you need while you're there,
because once you leave, you're not going back in, and
if you have to go back in again, another search
for and by that time whatever you did missed, the
(58:29):
perfator definitely has removed in places somewhere else, probably not
even in the household. So yes, I mean it is.
It is.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
These items are sometimes found in really mysterious, unlikely places,
and we don't have to get into that. I always
worry about telling people a little too much where we're
giving the bad people the ideas. But I do want
to know what is what's one of Spike's most important finds.
Is there a moment where he really changed changed the
(59:02):
case and the outcome of it.
Speaker 2 (59:04):
You know, Yes, I mean it really wasn't It really
wasn't a find. It wasn't it wasn't a fine. He
didn't find an electronic storags device. We we we brought
him in the house to find an electronics sports device,
which we did find a device. But we we had
a case where we had we believed that a mother
(59:28):
was trafficking her own daughter, and this had been going
on for many years, unfortunately for over three years. And
when I got contacted by a local agency asked for assistance.
You know, we brainstormed, and we realized that we could.
(59:49):
We had enough information to obtain a search warrk to
get into the house where the perpetrator, of course and
our minor child vicker was living. But at the end
of the day, the goal was to go in there
and try to find that device, but the secondary goal
was to actually be able to talk to this young
(01:00:10):
girl because unfortunately, in the course of three years, that
child had been interviewed by child protective Services numerous times
and never made any disclosures of being sexually abused and
or sexually exploited. So we knew that that wasn't the
case based on information that we had received. So once
(01:00:32):
we got that device, we were able to secure an
area in that household to actually have myself, Spike, and
a female investigator talk to that child victim. And about
forty five minutes into that conversation, after just letting her
hang out on the floor and Spike and Spike just
rolling over, letting her mother's belly and him just giving
(01:00:55):
her unconditional love and just calming her. Was just incredible
to see the fear that she had, knowing that we
were there for her and knowing that she's been told
never to tell anyone anything about any of this stuff
(01:01:16):
and she hasn't done so in three years.
Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
You're scary in that for her at that with that, oh,
you know, it.
Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Was a defining moment, and it was towards the end
of my career. I was. I knew that Spikes and
I were probably going to be retiring there in their future.
And to hear that young girl, yeah say, you know,
I know Spikes here to protect me and going to
(01:01:53):
help me and finally made her first disclosure in three years,
which which totally allowed us at that point, after she
made that disclosure to take her out of that house
and take protect the custody of her and get her
(01:02:14):
away from the heart that she's been going through for
all those years. And so that little kid had two
great requests. First one is she didn't want her mom
or her mom boyfriend to see her when she was
leaving the house. And the the second one was first
(01:02:37):
Fikee to be with her. And so of course you
know that was an easy request. Spike was able to
go with her through the child After Center shortly thereafter
that initial contact where she made a full disclosure and
(01:03:00):
we were able to proceed with criminal charges against those
individuals who had been not only sexually abusing her, but
sexually explaining her for many years. And so you know,
for me, Spike has found a lot of a lot
of great things, right, He's done a lot of things
(01:03:21):
or a lot of places that we would have never found.
You know, he's been with a lot of children during
child abbacy interviews. But if you asked me a defining
moment if Spike was talking and not me, that was
the moment that was one hundred said the moment that
(01:03:48):
he said that kid, he's literally saved her life. So
for me who that was the moment, it was the moment.
So he's a hero, not just for that reason, but
for everything he has done. I'm just as handler. I
(01:04:09):
just tried over out. He does all the hard work.
He does a heavy lifting, right, But that was the
moment in time that for me I could be more
proud to be at Himler for me, and.
Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
You're an amazing team. And that's something that is really
wonderful that these dogs also provide, is that is that
support in those hard times for those victims where they
will go to the different interviews and they will sit
with them in court in a time when they feel
(01:04:47):
so alone. And I really wish I had that as
a little girl. I think that Spike could have saved
me in ways that I can't even imagine now. And
I love to know that that is happening, that kids
have that, and that little girl is somewhere now, somewhere
(01:05:09):
she is away from these monsters and these people who
were so badly hurting her. Because of Spike and you
and this team that you have, these dogs are they
are heroes. They are such heroes, and I like to
(01:05:34):
think that they know what they're doing, that they have
this idea that they are are making a difference. That
he gets up in the morning and he puts on
his little vest. You put it on him. He can't
put it on, I would imagine, but you get this
little vest on him and goes off to work, and
(01:05:55):
you too. There's a difference between saving a life, which yes,
you did and you've done so many times, but it's
so much more than that. It's giving a life back
that that child will now continue to get to live.
(01:06:18):
There's a difference between she could have maybe survived there
for a very long time, but not have lived not
have been free, and you gave her, gave her that freedom,
You and Spike, so just just thank you, thank you
(01:06:41):
so much for listening to Part one with my friend
as Ballad. Today you got to hear how he came
into this work, the values that were baked into him
as a kid, and how he basically grew up knowing
that he wanted to be a cop. We then ended
on that story about how his ESDK nine helped a
little girl finally disclose her abuse and get the help
that she needed, which is exactly why this work matters.
(01:07:02):
Next week, in Part two, we get into some of
Chaz's wildest cases and his unfiltered perspective on the question
that I hear constantly is just looking at images a
victimist crime? I have a lot to say about that one,
and so does Chaz. I'll see you next week, and
please remember to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you
(01:07:22):
get your podcasts.
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