December 23, 2025 • 37 mins
'Tis the season for true crime chaos! Hosts Kristen Seavey from Murder, She Told, Javier Leiva from PRETEND, and Shaun from Sins & Survivors join forces to explore Christmas crimes gone horribly wrong.
From a bath salts-fueled home decorator in suburban Ohio to a serial burglar stealing Robert De Niro's wrapped presents right from under his tree, these real-life Grinches prove that the holidays bring out the worst in some people. The hosts also dive into the disturbing case of postal workers who intercepted letters to Santa meant for underprivileged children...stealing laptops, iPads, and gift cards intended for kids in need.
But the main event is a fresh-off-the-press case from Bangor, Maine. When a couple woke up to find a stranger sleeping on their couch, surrounded by their unwrapped Christmas presents. Police body cam footage reveals just how terrifying this "funny" story really was.
Want to see the footage?
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From a bath salts-fueled home decorator in suburban Ohio to a serial burglar stealing Robert De Niro's wrapped presents right from under his tree, these real-life Grinches prove that the holidays bring out the worst in some people. The hosts also dive into the disturbing case of postal workers who intercepted letters to Santa meant for underprivileged children...stealing laptops, iPads, and gift cards intended for kids in need.
But the main event is a fresh-off-the-press case from Bangor, Maine. When a couple woke up to find a stranger sleeping on their couch, surrounded by their unwrapped Christmas presents. Police body cam footage reveals just how terrifying this "funny" story really was.
Want to see the footage?
Murder, She Told: https://sinspod.co/murdershetold
PRETEND: https://sinspod.co/pretend
https:/sinspod.co/105
https://sinspod.co/105transcript
https://sinspod.co/105sub
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.
Domestic Violence Resources
http://sinspod.co/resources
Click here to become a member of our Patreon!
https://sinspod.co/patreon
Visit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag! Get ad-free access for only $1 a month or ad-free and bonus episodes for $3 a month
Apple Podcast Subscriptions
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
To listen ad free, visit sinspod dot com slash subscribe
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through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey everyone, Happy Festivus, Happy Christmas Eve Eve, and welcome
to Sins and Survivors. I'm your host Sean, and today
we have another very special holiday treat for you all.
Last week when I collaborated with Kristen of Murder She
Told and Javier from Pretend for our true Crime Conversations episode.
We had so much fun working together and that collab
(00:34):
was such a hit that we decided to do it again,
and this time with a festive twist. We're trating stories
about what happens when holiday cheer goes criminally wrong. These
are real cases with real people impacted, but they're also strange, absurd,
and very much rooted in the chaos that seems to
show up this time of year. And for those of
you wondering Where's John, stay tuned tomorrow when we have
(00:55):
yet another surprise for everyone that you won't want to miss.
So settle in, poor yourself your favorite beverage and join
us for the Real Life Grinch, a holiday crossover episode
with Sins and Survivors, Murder She Told and Pretend.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Hey everyone, it's me Javier Leva with the Pretend Podcast
and I'm joined today by Kristen with the Murder She
Told podcasts and Sean with the Sins and Survivors podcast.
What are we doing this again?
Speaker 4 (01:21):
We are doing this again.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
We got such great feedback from our last episode that
we figured, hey, why not, let's do this again, right,
but this time it's Christmas and we should do a
Christmas episode.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Right, Yes, agreed?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, So today we are going to talk about real
life Grinches. Okay, these are stories of Christmas gone wrong,
and boy do we have a doozy Christen kind of
give us a preview of the main story that we're
going to talk about, which is just wild.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
So this actually happened in Bangor, Maine, which is very
very close to me, and it's a recent It was
over Thanksgiving and I had no I have not heard
about this before you brought it to me. By the way,
I'm sick. This is not what I normally sound like.
So thank you for bearing with me. But I mean
both of my stories are kind of home invasion stories
(02:17):
with a gringe twist, and I just think it's fascinating
and a little bit terrifying.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Let me add a little bit to your tease. Because
after we found this story, and like you said, it
just happened, like just just happened. And I quickly whipped
up an email to the Bangor Police Department asking for
a records request, not knowing what I was going to get.
I was just like, hey, here's the suspect, here's the
(02:43):
case file, Like, give me whatever you got, and like
Christmas morning, I got the files and it is it
is crazy. You guys haven't seen it an no things.
Oh my gosh. I got body cam footage of the incident.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
And so we'll talk about this. We're gonna say this
story for last because it is a banger of a story.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
I love though that this is so on brand for you,
Like I didn't even think to do that, and the
fact that you were like I'm gonna go get that
body cam footage, like I'm so excited.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
Was there a dog dressed as a reindeer in any
of the footage.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
Or no, but there is a pet involved. There is
a pet involved, yes, and we're going to get to that.
It's such a crazy story. I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
All right, So why don't we just jump in there, Christian,
why don't you tell us about the first story that
we're going to talk about today?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
All right?
Speaker 5 (03:49):
So the first one that I have for you is
it's in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. It's please, I
might be butchering this, but Van Dahalia and Dalia sounds good.
I usually look up the names, and I'm very meticulous
about it. I'm going to say that I did not
do that. But Vandalia, Ohio. It's a suburb of Dayton,
(04:10):
and this is in twenty eleven, and there was a
resident who discovered somebody putting up Christmas decorations that broke
into their home. So police said that the man was
allegedly a high on bath salts and he entered this
home and began hanging Christmas day cours, which I kind
of love him for that, Like, I mean, if you're
going to break into a house on bath salts, like
(04:32):
the best thing that you could do is just like
I'm gonna go decorate for Christmas?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Can I be honest with you guys. I don't even
know what bath salts are. It just sounds like something
you get at bed, Bath and Beyond or something. But
then the first time I ever heard about bath salts
was that guy in Miami that ate the guy's face
under the bridge, remember, yeah, yeah, real sorry, And then
I was like, oh, bath salts. There are a lot
(04:58):
more menacing than that.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
I realize it's also kind of like a little time
capsule because this case happens in twenty eleven. But I
feel like, back in you know, twenty ten, twenty eleven,
twenty twelve, bath salts were like the high, the go
too high, and it was like a huge news thing
where people were talking about bath salts and it's a
cheap way to get high, and I don't know it
(05:22):
was it was a trend for twenty eleven.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It made him be like an interior decorator, like a
little Christmas elf.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I mean like, I feel like with bath salts, you
never know what you're going to get, Like you might
eat someone's face off like a zombie, or you might
get into the Christmas spirit.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It's a either way, great HGTV concept, right.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Right, yeah, true, decorating with bath salts.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So Terry Trent, he's forty four and he was arrested
on a burglary charge. And there was an eleven year
old boy who found Trent sitting on the couch after
he had decorated part of the house.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
And police said that.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Trent entered through a back door and just made himself
comfortable in the house. He lit candles on the coffee table,
on the kitchen table, he turned on the TV. I
really want to know what he was watching. I'm like,
are we real? This is a real story. I'm like,
are we watching elf? Who are we watching? It's a
wonderful life? Are we crying at the end of Home Alone?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Too?
Speaker 4 (06:22):
When he gives her the ornament?
Speaker 8 (06:24):
Like?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
What are where are we?
Speaker 5 (06:27):
He also hung up a Christmas wreath on the back
garage door. So he's going all out, like he's full
on bathsall interior decorating.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
We're all envisioning welfare, all right? Yes?
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Yeah? Like in the uh in the department store.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, hey, guys, have you seen the place? That's pretty good?
It's a little too good. Corporate must have sent in
a professional.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
So then when the boy came in, he saw him
watching TV. And playing with his toys, and then he
called his mom, who was next door at the Nave house,
and the boy's mother told the police that he tried
to apologize and he was polite and he was sorry
that he scared the kid, and he was arrested without incident,
even though police did find that he was carrying a
(07:14):
pocket knife.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Oh but that's you know, to decorate with, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And no explanation, like he wasn't like he was like, oh,
I thought this was my brother's house or any anything
like that.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
It was just totally totally random. I'm aware of swept
up and just possessed by the Christmas spirit through these
bathrootes he did.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
A coworker did describe him as normally a very caring person.
He's involved with boy Scouts, he's involved with the local
church program, and it just seems like he had.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
An off day.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Or like a really on day.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Yeah yeah, I mean I love I love Christmas decorating.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So yeah, yeah, So he was like, here we go,
let's just let's just make it happen for this family.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
I want to know if it looked good, Like that's
my question. So we should probably file a FOYA for
the actually.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Yeah, for some pictures of the crime scene.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I might, I might actually do this.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
You should.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
It's going to be like twenty eleven, like digital camera photos,
probably not like body cam footage.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So Sean, what do you got You have a story
for us?
Speaker 6 (08:27):
I do?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I Actually I just came back from New York yesterday morning,
so I actually have a.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
New York City story for everyone. Yeah, it was a
really great trip.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I mean New York is just so much hustle and
bustle at the holidays, people just running around the lights,
the tree, all the shopping. The story I have is
actually from a part of town that I didn't get
a chance to visit, which is the Upper East Side
of Manhattan. So this happened in December of twenty twenty two.
The NYPD had already been tracking Shanisaviles, a woman that
(09:00):
they knew was a serial burglar. So they saw her
and she was going through the neighborhood and I guess
trying doors and she found one that was unlocked, so
they kind of, you know, followed her to see what
townhouse she was going in. And this was completely coincidental.
This was totally random, but it was Robert de Niro's townhouse.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
So according to the police, she just walked in.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
The door was unlocked, no alarm, there's no security, and
then she just began taking the wrapped Christmas presents from
underneath his tree and I guess playing with his iPad. Meanwhile,
Robert de Niro is upstairs in the house asleep, and
his daughter was at the house as well, And I
(09:46):
just think, to me, that is the most bizarre part
of the story. I guess because he's such a famous
a lister that he was just.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
In New York City with his door unlocked.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I mean, it's it's not it's unsafe, but it's definitely
not one of those you know communities where people say
we just leave our doors unlocked.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
Because it's so safe.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So it's just that he was home and the tree
is lit, and she just walks in and starts taking
his gifts. But the police were like basically right behind her.
The Thankfully, because the cops were there, the story ends peacefully.
I don't know how it could have gone if he
had come downstairs or heard something.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
I mean, I think we're all lucky.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Although maybe she just would have been shocked and ran away,
or it would have turned into some silly Christmas movie caper.
But yeah, it just ends peacefully. I don't know how
they managed to sleep through everything that happened, but she
was arrested without incident. No one was hurt, and Christmas
continued on as planned. And I just was thinking, I
(10:53):
don't know who the person was who left his door unlocked,
but I am glad it wasn't me, because I wouldn't
have wanted to be yelled at by Robert de Niro.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
You know, I can imagine if Robert de Niro would
have been there, he would have been talking to me, Yeah,
talking to me.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
I will say that the Upper East Side is a
fairly safe neighborhood. I lived in New York City for
a really long time, and it's obviously a very wealthy
zip code zip codes. It's interesting, like who you might
stumble on if you just like randomly pick a house,
because it's all it's all rich people, Like somebody is somebody.
(11:34):
But it's funny that it's Robert de Niro, just because
he's so well known, as opposed to like some you know,
hedge fund guy who you don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, and I wonder if she ever brags about that.
You know, people love to tell their like celebrity sighting stories,
like I wonder if she's ever like, hey, guess what
I did one time and broken?
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I would, Yeah, I would brag about that.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So it's uh, like again like I can't I can't
believe the the guts of some.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
People at the at the holidays.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
They really are like grinches and they're just collecting people's
Christmas gifts right from under their tree. But thankfully, like
I said, it is I guess technically a home invasion,
but you know, one where no one was hurt, thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
But apparently this is not her first time doing this, right,
like you said, she is a serial burglar, and yeah,
this was just another gig for her, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And it's uh, it's interesting that they were they were
already tracking her. I think that probably prevented it from
being something way more dramatic, that they were right there.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
As popped out. Who knows.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
I kind of want to know what was on his iPad?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, I know, yeah, what what was she doing playing
Candy Crush or who knows?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
All right, so my story is next, and this is
about three postal workers that really are just like the
scum of the earth. What they're saying about these people,
of what their alleged crimes are true. I mean, they're
just sick. They are stealing from underprivileged kids during Christmas.
(13:23):
So I'll tell you how this worked. So you got
three postal workers who are real grinches, right, They were
working in cahoots, I guess, making multiple copies of fake
letters to Santa so they could get picked up by
Secret Santa in Operation Santa program. Do you guys know
about the Operation Santa program by the US Postal Service?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I I don't know. I feel like I've heard of it,
but I don't actually know.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
So Operation Santa is basically a program by the US
Postal Service where they match up individuals, businesses, charities with
children in need who write letters to Santa. And the
whole idea is that, you know, these kids can get
gifts right during the holidays, but instead you have these
(14:08):
three postal workers who are basically intercepting these letters. They're
either writing the letters themselves or they are actually printing
out new labels with their address so that they could
receive the gifts. So all of this happened during the
twenty thirteen holiday season. One of the postal workers who
(14:30):
was involved in this scheme received a printer, two laptop computers,
two tablets, clothing, betting, gift cards, and other items. And
one other guy got in iPad, laptop, headphones, boots. All
of this is documented in court docs, by the way,
And it is just crazy to believe that during this
(14:53):
time period, when there's kids who really need gifts, that
there are some people in the post Office thinking, Hey,
I know how to intercept this. I could make a
couple of bucks or get a bunch of free stuff
if I could just steal gifts from underprivileged kids. I mean,
it was just so gross.
Speaker 6 (15:09):
And those are real high ticket, high priced items.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
We're not talking like barbies and like Lego sets, We're
like laptop computers.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Wow, it's really sad. I mean that's like the lowest
of the low.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, it's horrible, But I'm so glad that a program
like this does exist, right.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, and there's way more It helps way more people
than you know than the fraud that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well, hopefully the post Office caught on to the to
this scheme and is keeping a closer eye on this.
But h I say, bahumbug to these guys.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah, recently.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Well I kind of want to inject a story here
that was not in our little prep doc. But this
just happened too, just a couple of weeks ago really.
But it's about these prisoners now that the gritch in
this scenario. In this scenario is the actual like prison,
because some of these inmates have gotten pretty pretty clever
(16:11):
and they used in South Carolina, they used drones to
deliver crab legs steaks to the prison. Oh and weed. Well,
let me see or whether it was. Yeah, I think
it was because you know, it goes really well with
crab legs, old bay seasonings.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Oh so they were ready.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
And cardons, some cigarettes because you know, after a big
meal like that. So uh yeah, I just thought it
was so clever because you hear about you know, we
live in this day and age of drones now, and
everyone knows that people in jail have contraband cell phones
and stuff like that, so they're communicating with the outside.
So they're just getting their buddies to drop weapons into
(16:56):
the prison or like contraband and all this stuff. But
like these guys at least, they were just trying to
have like a little Christmas dinner and you know, the
prison just came in and uh and uh swept it away,
and it's gonna be a bad, bad Christmas for those
South Carolina prisoners.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
So who ordered it?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I'm not sure?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Like, how how did this? How did this get started?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Well, this happens apparently a lot like the whole drone
contraband thing. And what I found interesting is that that
the prisons, even if they see the drone coming, they
can't shoot it down. Apparently that is like uh, some
gray area, some gray legal area for the prison. And
it's becoming like a real big problem drones and prisons.
(17:44):
But this article that I've read, and I haven't done
too much research on it didn't say who the who
the inmates were, who ordered this, but I would have
to buy. But I'm looking at a picture right now.
You want to see You want to see a picture
of the of the goods. Yeah, the picture of the goods,
because this is this is pretty awesome. They even vacuum
(18:04):
sealed some of it, so you know, to keep it fresh.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I love that there was old Bay with it.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yeah, of course, a bottle of old Bay, a carton
of marble, a big big ass bag of weed.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Oh that's weed. I thought that was a steak. Oh
my god. Oh now it's Oh my gosh, that is
a big bag of weed.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Wow. The bag of weed, just to give the listeners
an idea, is bigger than the steak. Okay, the steak
and the crab legs combined.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Yes, I thought that.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Was as long as that carton of cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yes, yes, the biggest thing in the picture is the weed.
I guess.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Wow, that is so funny. Who ate it?
Speaker 5 (18:47):
I'm guessing that the probably the cops ate it or
like prisons, that's diabolical.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
That's wrong. I wonder if they you know, if they
put any like, you know, dry ice with it.
Speaker 6 (19:02):
Have to travel yeah, probably.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Not very far. But you know, in my area, there
used to be like drones that would deliver ice cream.
Do you guys have that where you live?
Speaker 4 (19:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (19:14):
No, I think yeah, yeah, drunks. You know, they're getting.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Better and better delivers ice cream. Like you can order
ice cream and a drone, we'll just deliver it to you.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yeah, it just delivered it drops it right in front
of your door.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Yeah, that's an important service we all need.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Exactly because you just never know when you're going to
need a pint of ice cream.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Right, Yeah, you don't.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
It's an emergency.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I love how that it was the South Carolina Department
of Corrections that that put that out in the world.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Come on, this is cool, all right. So when we
come back, we are going to talk about this case
that Christen is going to talk about from Bangor, Maine
where she's from. And well, you're not from Bangor, Maine,
but you're close enough, close enough, right, and it is
a doozy. I can't wait to talk about it. So
(20:08):
we're gonna get into it after the break.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
All right.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
So this case actually happened a couple of weeks ago.
It happened over Thanksgiving, and it's in Bangor, Maine, and
there's not a lot of details on it that I
could find, but that will change.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
We will get to that.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
So a man in Bangor was accused of breaking into
a family's apartment and opening up all of their Christmas presents,
which I'm actually impressed that they had all of their
Christmas presents ready to go on Sunday, November twenty fifth,
this year, twenty twenty five when that happened. So apparently
they did, and Jose Harvey, who's fifty, broke into their
(20:49):
house and somebody called and reported that someone had broken
into their apartment and was sleeping on their couch and
refused to leave.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
But that's all we knew, right like that, that was it.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yeah, he made himself cozy.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
There was no names, no like other than Jose Harvey
we had. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Yeah, So the tenant told authorities that they found all
of their Christmas presents unwrapped, and then they see this
man sleeping on their couch and he couldn't provide any
logical reason why he was in the apartment, and he
was charged with aggravated criminal trespassing.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And unlike Sean's you know bath salt guy or who
was the bath salt person? Was that you Christmas? Oh?
That was me? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Oh yeah, that was the Ohio bathstalt incident.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, unlike your bath salt guy, he did not decorate
the place.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
He did not He just took. He did not give,
He took.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah. Wow, Well, I don't know that this story really
piqued my interest. I was just intrigued by the lack
of detail out there, and so it literally, guys, I
know that it seems pressient. It took me five minutes
to write an email to the Bangor Police Department. And
it was a very eric email, like I didn't ask
(22:02):
for anything specific. But a couple days later, it didn't
even take that long. A couple days later, I get
a ZIP file with like twenty one gigs okay, and
I'm thinking, what the hell is in this thing?
Speaker 5 (22:13):
I mean, that's Christmas getting a foilout where you have
that many gigs?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, that was like Christmas morning. And so I want
to share with you what I found because you guys
have not seen this.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
I have not, and I love that you did that
so much.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, and you know, this is such a silly It
seems like a silly story, but it's about to not
get silly, because you know, on the surface, we hear
about these stories and there's no detail and they sound
funny and we're doing this whole special on Grinci's Christmas.
But this is like a real person that this happened to.
(22:50):
And when you watch this footage, you're gonna see how
scary it is because the cops showed up right as
the purp was still in the apartment, okay, and so
you're like they showed up somehow, these people, the victims
kept this guy Jose Harvey in their apartment until the
(23:10):
cops came. All right, so let's let's watch the footage
we start. There's multiple clips, right, and each folder has
a different body cam from a different officer who responded,
even like the police dashboard. But this clip that we're
watching right now is the officer like heading to the call.
Like he's doing to the call. Okay, so he's arriving
(23:33):
at the scene. It looks like a townhouse apartment type
of situation where there's like one front door and then
when you open up the door, there's multiple different apartments.
So let me stop right here and just kind of
explain to the listeners who can't see this what's happening.
(23:54):
So basically, the officer shows up, he meets the woman
who lives in the arman upstairs who made the call.
They go upstairs and they walk into the living room
and the boyfriend is wearing his underwear. I mean, he's
just like you can tell they just woke up and
this Jose Harvey guy is just standing in their living room.
(24:16):
You could see all the Christmas stuff you guys look for.
Let me go, now, mean it, let's go, And this
is what bothers me. The most about this is that
the cop shows up and he's just like, hey, get
(24:37):
out of here, scram Okay. So now we're watching we're
watching video of them going, the officers following Jose Harvey,
you know, the purp right here, he's following him downstairs.
But I wanted to stop and kind of get your
reactions so far.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
First of all, I love that Jose is wearing red plaid,
like flow red plaid, because it kind of makes them
look like sand. Yeah, it's like like a really creepy Santa.
And he's also got like something green in his arm, Yeah,
like a jacket.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's it's his jacket. But he's wearing a hood, right,
Like that's what kind of gives him the Santa.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
That that face.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
He has a white beard, right.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Yes, he does.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
He kind of looks like Santa.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
I just feel so bad for these people. Look like
he trashed the place. Yeah, like it looks like they
have like a nice place, you know, had the stockings
up and everything.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
If if if somebody broke into my house though, and
the police were on their way, I might I might
put pants on. I think so like that this guy
is just standing there literally in his underwear.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
But I mean think about it though, Like the fact
that they were able to keep this guy in their
living room. I don't think the boyfriend had time to
go get pants, you know what I mean? Like like, hey, hey,
guy who just broke into our house and opened up
all our Christmas gifts, could you stay right here I
go get dressed?
Speaker 5 (26:03):
You know, I mean, he seems kind of cozy. He
seems like the Jose guy. He seems kind of cozy,
like he wouldn't have left if the police weren't. Like,
all right, buddy scram.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
And he's very chill like this one as you're about
to see some all right, let's play the rest of
the video. Hold off, hold on, let you in here?
Should Champagne tell you? He Champagne? So how did you
(26:34):
end up in their apartment? I don't know.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
I get I used to't have to okay, I just.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Got okay, somebody, let me let me back up here. Clearly,
this guy there's something. Either he doesn't speak English very well,
or he's maybe on some kind of substance abuse. I
don't know. He's not making himself very clear. He keeps saying, Champagne, Champagne,
(27:09):
let him in. The cop doesn't really know, So let's
play the rest. Okay, somebody invited you in here to
drink champagne. No, no, no his name? Okay, so he
invited you into his apartment and you stumbled into somebody
else's apartment completely unacceptable. Cool, And that's the part that
(27:34):
just blows my mind. The cop, you know, he's like,
why are you here? Who are you wanting to see?
He kept saying champagne, champagne, and then he hands him
his ID and then just sends him off like he's like,
just back here, yeah, don't come back here, Like hello,
he was breaking an entering, But I don't know what
are your thoughts so far? Before we continue.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
It's kind of like like the circumstances are really funny,
but then, like you said, when you see it, it's
a little bit sobering, like this, Yeah, I mean I
would be fully alarmed if there was if this man
was just in my house, and especially if they woke
up in the morning, which it kind of like this is.
It looks like the timestamp is eight forty five am,
(28:16):
so like he was probably sleeping in the apartment with
them sleeping in it, and that's like kind of my
worst nightmare.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, do you get the impression the cops know him
or he has some kind of reputation with them?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
You know, I normally are to solid like that, right,
Like he's like totally Harvey almost like he knew who Yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Like he knew who he was, Like you're on Jose
like or whatever.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
He goes again.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
I couldn't tell if he was like calling in to
see what you know, the station had on him, or
if it was something like he was familiar.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, I don't know, but there's a lot more like
Now the officer, you know, the one that responded that
we were listening to, He hands over Harvey to a
female officer and Jose Harvey goes out with her, right,
but now he goes back upstairs to check on the victims.
So let's play the rest of this couldn't worse. We'll
(29:18):
time you guys go to bed last night late.
Speaker 9 (29:21):
So there's a video.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Camera what times he came in here.
Speaker 9 (29:26):
There's no video of him entering, but there's a video
of him walking around at seven, So I.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Don't know how he got it locked her.
Speaker 9 (29:33):
Yeah, but there's no video of him entering. I get
notifications on my camera for every movement. There's a video
at one am and.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Then where was he when you woke up?
Speaker 9 (29:46):
He was just playing on the couch that came out
to go to the bathroom. And yeah, the next thing
was at seven fifty six, he's just walking around.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Oh my gosh, there's a lot going on here, Like
what are you picking up from that last club?
Speaker 6 (30:05):
Yeah, you really hit them that they could have been dangerous.
They feel really violated. They have.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
They're so confused too, like she keeps saying, like, I
don't understand how he got in, right.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
It sounds like she has cameras everywhere, like she could
tell when she went to bed and he wasn't there,
so that means he must have come in after they
went to bed, But she's not sure how he came
in because there's no footage of him coming in. And
at this point, the boyfriend is fully dressed, obviously because
(30:41):
the situation seems to be under control, right, but she
is shaken to the core. I mean and understanding that this.
Speaker 9 (30:53):
Use in the bathroom has been destroyed and he moved
things around and put things in storage. Containers in the
bathroom were empty.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
So do you think he had any idea you guys
are even home.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I don't know because I don't think he got it
like everything. So she's just trying to figure this whole
thing out. It looks like something's going on in the bathroom,
like the cross space door was open and one of
the cats got out, and this is like just made
a really bad situation worse and so now they're now
they're looking for their cat. I mean, I just felt
(31:28):
so bad. But again, there's like this mystery of like
how did this guy get in? So that's open now.
Speaker 9 (31:47):
I think that's why it's not on the camera, and
I think that's why.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
So that explains how he came in undetected, right, Like
he just snuck into the window. So what ended up
happening was that Jose Harvey. It wasn't like he was
waiting for them to go to bed. He must have.
They must have gotten home late at night, she said,
around at one o'clock in the morning, they went to bed,
everything was fine. He wasn't there, and sometime after one
(32:18):
o'clock in the morning he snuck in through the window.
Must have fallen asleep, and it was It wasn't until
the morning when he started You know, opening up all
the gifts and just messing up their living room. I
think that once the cop realized, like how messed up
this was, he let me see if I could find this.
(32:38):
He realizes, Okay, well we got to take this guy in.
But I don't know why he didn't do that to
begin with. Yeah, stop and hold him. I think I'm
gonna take him on burglary. Yeah duh. So anyway, in
another body cam footage, you get to see where they
apprehend him. They they take him to the jail, and
(33:03):
eventually he was charged. But it's just wild, you know,
because at face value, this story just seemed kind of funny,
right like, now that we get this intimate look into
what happened, and not only like after it happened, we
were watching it happen in real time, it's just it
hits differently, I guess.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
I mean, when you only have so many details like it,
it kind of is like a funny story like someone's
in your house and opened up your presence and then
reorganized your storage stuff in the bathroom. But then you
like see the people and you see the impact, and
it definitely changes it a little bit.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
And the way the officer sighed when he got in
the car, like you could tell that even he was like,
I can't even believe this is happening, Like I think
he even he really felt for them too and knew
to take it seriously.
Speaker 6 (33:57):
So I'm gonna read it your rights and need to
say yes or no.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
I just love that he's handcuffed and he's standing there
with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth like answering
these questions.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah, so that's it, guys. I don't know if this
made you less or more in the holiday spirit after sure,
definitely more. Yeah, well, thank you so much. This was
so much fun. I'm glad you were able to make
this happen.
Speaker 6 (34:27):
Yeah, me too. I look forward to more of this
in twenty six.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
Yeah. I have an episode. I'll plug this. I have
a Christmas crime episode that's a two part. It came
out last year. It is about Bertha Cody on the
murder of Renee Cody, and it is a true Christmas murder.
If you want something that's a little bit deeper dive
and not as a little bit more nefarious and breaking
(34:55):
and entering, but it's a very interesting story. It's from
the forties show Girls. It's got affairs, it's got everything,
So go listen to that if you want some more Christmas.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
That's right, Murder, she told. All right, how about you, Sean,
what's going on with you and the rest of the year.
What should people look out for?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
John and I are going to release our annual Missing
at the Holidays episode because during the typical time on
our podcast we focus on stories out of Las Vegas,
but once a year around the holidays, we share five
or six missing person stories from outside of Las Vegas
that either some of our friends in the podcasting world
(35:36):
have told us about that we want to highlight and
continue to keep their names out there and hope that
the families have answers in the new year. So we
have we'll have our annual Missing out the Holidays episode.
I think probably the thirtieth December thirtieth, I think this year.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
So everyone go check out Sins and Survivors and Murder,
she told. And of course pretend if you're listening to
on the other feeds, and we hope you know that
you guys have a wonderful holiday and a happy new
Year and just take time to relax and start all
(36:11):
over again. In twenty twenty six, so thank you for
listening and go and check out all of our shows.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod dot com, slash subscribe for
exclusive bonus content and to listen ad free. Remember to
like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and threads
at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please
leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice.
You can contact us at questions at Sins and Survivors
(37:00):
dot com.
Speaker 10 (37:01):
If you are someone you know as affected by domestic
violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources
or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources
is available on our website, Sins and Survivors dot com.
Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research, written,
and produced by your hosts Sean and John. The information
shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording.
(37:24):
If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us.
Links to source material for this episode can be found
on our website Sins and Survivors dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast creators, hosts and their guests. All
individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not
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Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey everyone, Happy Festivus, Happy Christmas Eve Eve, and welcome
to Sins and Survivors. I'm your host Sean, and today
we have another very special holiday treat for you all.
Last week when I collaborated with Kristen of Murder She
Told and Javier from Pretend for our true Crime Conversations episode.
We had so much fun working together and that collab
(00:34):
was such a hit that we decided to do it again,
and this time with a festive twist. We're trating stories
about what happens when holiday cheer goes criminally wrong. These
are real cases with real people impacted, but they're also strange, absurd,
and very much rooted in the chaos that seems to
show up this time of year. And for those of
you wondering Where's John, stay tuned tomorrow when we have
(00:55):
yet another surprise for everyone that you won't want to miss.
So settle in, poor yourself your favorite beverage and join
us for the Real Life Grinch, a holiday crossover episode
with Sins and Survivors, Murder She Told and Pretend.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Hey everyone, it's me Javier Leva with the Pretend Podcast
and I'm joined today by Kristen with the Murder She
Told podcasts and Sean with the Sins and Survivors podcast.
What are we doing this again?
Speaker 4 (01:21):
We are doing this again.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
We got such great feedback from our last episode that
we figured, hey, why not, let's do this again, right,
but this time it's Christmas and we should do a
Christmas episode.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Right, Yes, agreed?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, So today we are going to talk about real
life Grinches. Okay, these are stories of Christmas gone wrong,
and boy do we have a doozy Christen kind of
give us a preview of the main story that we're
going to talk about, which is just wild.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
So this actually happened in Bangor, Maine, which is very
very close to me, and it's a recent It was
over Thanksgiving and I had no I have not heard
about this before you brought it to me. By the way,
I'm sick. This is not what I normally sound like.
So thank you for bearing with me. But I mean
both of my stories are kind of home invasion stories
(02:17):
with a gringe twist, and I just think it's fascinating
and a little bit terrifying.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Let me add a little bit to your tease. Because
after we found this story, and like you said, it
just happened, like just just happened. And I quickly whipped
up an email to the Bangor Police Department asking for
a records request, not knowing what I was going to get.
I was just like, hey, here's the suspect, here's the
(02:43):
case file, Like, give me whatever you got, and like
Christmas morning, I got the files and it is it
is crazy. You guys haven't seen it an no things.
Oh my gosh. I got body cam footage of the incident.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
And so we'll talk about this. We're gonna say this
story for last because it is a banger of a story.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
I love though that this is so on brand for you,
Like I didn't even think to do that, and the
fact that you were like I'm gonna go get that
body cam footage, like I'm so excited.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
Was there a dog dressed as a reindeer in any
of the footage.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
Or no, but there is a pet involved. There is
a pet involved, yes, and we're going to get to that.
It's such a crazy story. I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
All right, So why don't we just jump in there, Christian,
why don't you tell us about the first story that
we're going to talk about today?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
All right?
Speaker 5 (03:49):
So the first one that I have for you is
it's in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. It's please, I
might be butchering this, but Van Dahalia and Dalia sounds good.
I usually look up the names, and I'm very meticulous
about it. I'm going to say that I did not
do that. But Vandalia, Ohio. It's a suburb of Dayton,
(04:10):
and this is in twenty eleven, and there was a
resident who discovered somebody putting up Christmas decorations that broke
into their home. So police said that the man was
allegedly a high on bath salts and he entered this
home and began hanging Christmas day cours, which I kind
of love him for that, Like, I mean, if you're
going to break into a house on bath salts, like
(04:32):
the best thing that you could do is just like
I'm gonna go decorate for Christmas?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Can I be honest with you guys. I don't even
know what bath salts are. It just sounds like something
you get at bed, Bath and Beyond or something. But
then the first time I ever heard about bath salts
was that guy in Miami that ate the guy's face
under the bridge, remember, yeah, yeah, real sorry, And then
I was like, oh, bath salts. There are a lot
(04:58):
more menacing than that.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
I realize it's also kind of like a little time
capsule because this case happens in twenty eleven. But I
feel like, back in you know, twenty ten, twenty eleven,
twenty twelve, bath salts were like the high, the go
too high, and it was like a huge news thing
where people were talking about bath salts and it's a
cheap way to get high, and I don't know it
(05:22):
was it was a trend for twenty eleven.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It made him be like an interior decorator, like a
little Christmas elf.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I mean like, I feel like with bath salts, you
never know what you're going to get, Like you might
eat someone's face off like a zombie, or you might
get into the Christmas spirit.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It's a either way, great HGTV concept, right.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Right, yeah, true, decorating with bath salts.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So Terry Trent, he's forty four and he was arrested
on a burglary charge. And there was an eleven year
old boy who found Trent sitting on the couch after
he had decorated part of the house.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
And police said that.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Trent entered through a back door and just made himself
comfortable in the house. He lit candles on the coffee table,
on the kitchen table, he turned on the TV. I
really want to know what he was watching. I'm like,
are we real? This is a real story. I'm like,
are we watching elf? Who are we watching? It's a
wonderful life? Are we crying at the end of Home Alone?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Too?
Speaker 4 (06:22):
When he gives her the ornament?
Speaker 8 (06:24):
Like?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
What are where are we?
Speaker 5 (06:27):
He also hung up a Christmas wreath on the back
garage door. So he's going all out, like he's full
on bathsall interior decorating.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
We're all envisioning welfare, all right? Yes?
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Yeah? Like in the uh in the department store.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, hey, guys, have you seen the place? That's pretty good?
It's a little too good. Corporate must have sent in
a professional.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
So then when the boy came in, he saw him
watching TV. And playing with his toys, and then he
called his mom, who was next door at the Nave house,
and the boy's mother told the police that he tried
to apologize and he was polite and he was sorry
that he scared the kid, and he was arrested without incident,
even though police did find that he was carrying a
(07:14):
pocket knife.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Oh but that's you know, to decorate with, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And no explanation, like he wasn't like he was like, oh,
I thought this was my brother's house or any anything
like that.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
It was just totally totally random. I'm aware of swept
up and just possessed by the Christmas spirit through these
bathrootes he did.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
A coworker did describe him as normally a very caring person.
He's involved with boy Scouts, he's involved with the local
church program, and it just seems like he had.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
An off day.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Or like a really on day.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Yeah yeah, I mean I love I love Christmas decorating.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So yeah, yeah, So he was like, here we go,
let's just let's just make it happen for this family.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
I want to know if it looked good, Like that's
my question. So we should probably file a FOYA for
the actually.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Yeah, for some pictures of the crime scene.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I might, I might actually do this.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
You should.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
It's going to be like twenty eleven, like digital camera photos,
probably not like body cam footage.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So Sean, what do you got You have a story
for us?
Speaker 6 (08:27):
I do?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I Actually I just came back from New York yesterday morning,
so I actually have a.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
New York City story for everyone. Yeah, it was a
really great trip.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I mean New York is just so much hustle and
bustle at the holidays, people just running around the lights,
the tree, all the shopping. The story I have is
actually from a part of town that I didn't get
a chance to visit, which is the Upper East Side
of Manhattan. So this happened in December of twenty twenty two.
The NYPD had already been tracking Shanisaviles, a woman that
(09:00):
they knew was a serial burglar. So they saw her
and she was going through the neighborhood and I guess
trying doors and she found one that was unlocked, so
they kind of, you know, followed her to see what
townhouse she was going in. And this was completely coincidental.
This was totally random, but it was Robert de Niro's townhouse.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
So according to the police, she just walked in.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
The door was unlocked, no alarm, there's no security, and
then she just began taking the wrapped Christmas presents from
underneath his tree and I guess playing with his iPad. Meanwhile,
Robert de Niro is upstairs in the house asleep, and
his daughter was at the house as well, And I
(09:46):
just think, to me, that is the most bizarre part
of the story. I guess because he's such a famous
a lister that he was just.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
In New York City with his door unlocked.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I mean, it's it's not it's unsafe, but it's definitely
not one of those you know communities where people say
we just leave our doors unlocked.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
Because it's so safe.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So it's just that he was home and the tree
is lit, and she just walks in and starts taking
his gifts. But the police were like basically right behind her.
The Thankfully, because the cops were there, the story ends peacefully.
I don't know how it could have gone if he
had come downstairs or heard something.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
I mean, I think we're all lucky.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Although maybe she just would have been shocked and ran away,
or it would have turned into some silly Christmas movie caper.
But yeah, it just ends peacefully. I don't know how
they managed to sleep through everything that happened, but she
was arrested without incident. No one was hurt, and Christmas
continued on as planned. And I just was thinking, I
(10:53):
don't know who the person was who left his door unlocked,
but I am glad it wasn't me, because I wouldn't
have wanted to be yelled at by Robert de Niro.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
You know, I can imagine if Robert de Niro would
have been there, he would have been talking to me, Yeah,
talking to me.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
I will say that the Upper East Side is a
fairly safe neighborhood. I lived in New York City for
a really long time, and it's obviously a very wealthy
zip code zip codes. It's interesting, like who you might
stumble on if you just like randomly pick a house,
because it's all it's all rich people, Like somebody is somebody.
(11:34):
But it's funny that it's Robert de Niro, just because
he's so well known, as opposed to like some you know,
hedge fund guy who you don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, and I wonder if she ever brags about that.
You know, people love to tell their like celebrity sighting stories,
like I wonder if she's ever like, hey, guess what
I did one time and broken?
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I would, Yeah, I would brag about that.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So it's uh, like again like I can't I can't
believe the the guts of some.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
People at the at the holidays.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
They really are like grinches and they're just collecting people's
Christmas gifts right from under their tree. But thankfully, like
I said, it is I guess technically a home invasion,
but you know, one where no one was hurt, thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
But apparently this is not her first time doing this, right,
like you said, she is a serial burglar, and yeah,
this was just another gig for her, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And it's uh, it's interesting that they were they were
already tracking her. I think that probably prevented it from
being something way more dramatic, that they were right there.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
As popped out. Who knows.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
I kind of want to know what was on his iPad?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, I know, yeah, what what was she doing playing
Candy Crush or who knows?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
All right, so my story is next, and this is
about three postal workers that really are just like the
scum of the earth. What they're saying about these people,
of what their alleged crimes are true. I mean, they're
just sick. They are stealing from underprivileged kids during Christmas.
(13:23):
So I'll tell you how this worked. So you got
three postal workers who are real grinches, right, They were
working in cahoots, I guess, making multiple copies of fake
letters to Santa so they could get picked up by
Secret Santa in Operation Santa program. Do you guys know
about the Operation Santa program by the US Postal Service?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I I don't know. I feel like I've heard of it,
but I don't actually know.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
So Operation Santa is basically a program by the US
Postal Service where they match up individuals, businesses, charities with
children in need who write letters to Santa. And the
whole idea is that, you know, these kids can get
gifts right during the holidays, but instead you have these
(14:08):
three postal workers who are basically intercepting these letters. They're
either writing the letters themselves or they are actually printing
out new labels with their address so that they could
receive the gifts. So all of this happened during the
twenty thirteen holiday season. One of the postal workers who
(14:30):
was involved in this scheme received a printer, two laptop computers,
two tablets, clothing, betting, gift cards, and other items. And
one other guy got in iPad, laptop, headphones, boots. All
of this is documented in court docs, by the way,
And it is just crazy to believe that during this
(14:53):
time period, when there's kids who really need gifts, that
there are some people in the post Office thinking, Hey,
I know how to intercept this. I could make a
couple of bucks or get a bunch of free stuff
if I could just steal gifts from underprivileged kids. I mean,
it was just so gross.
Speaker 6 (15:09):
And those are real high ticket, high priced items.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
We're not talking like barbies and like Lego sets, We're
like laptop computers.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Wow, it's really sad. I mean that's like the lowest
of the low.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, it's horrible, But I'm so glad that a program
like this does exist, right.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, and there's way more It helps way more people
than you know than the fraud that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well, hopefully the post Office caught on to the to
this scheme and is keeping a closer eye on this.
But h I say, bahumbug to these guys.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah, recently.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Well I kind of want to inject a story here
that was not in our little prep doc. But this
just happened too, just a couple of weeks ago really.
But it's about these prisoners now that the gritch in
this scenario. In this scenario is the actual like prison,
because some of these inmates have gotten pretty pretty clever
(16:11):
and they used in South Carolina, they used drones to
deliver crab legs steaks to the prison. Oh and weed. Well,
let me see or whether it was. Yeah, I think
it was because you know, it goes really well with
crab legs, old bay seasonings.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Oh so they were ready.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
And cardons, some cigarettes because you know, after a big
meal like that. So uh yeah, I just thought it
was so clever because you hear about you know, we
live in this day and age of drones now, and
everyone knows that people in jail have contraband cell phones
and stuff like that, so they're communicating with the outside.
So they're just getting their buddies to drop weapons into
(16:56):
the prison or like contraband and all this stuff. But
like these guys at least, they were just trying to
have like a little Christmas dinner and you know, the
prison just came in and uh and uh swept it away,
and it's gonna be a bad, bad Christmas for those
South Carolina prisoners.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
So who ordered it?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I'm not sure?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Like, how how did this? How did this get started?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Well, this happens apparently a lot like the whole drone
contraband thing. And what I found interesting is that that
the prisons, even if they see the drone coming, they
can't shoot it down. Apparently that is like uh, some
gray area, some gray legal area for the prison. And
it's becoming like a real big problem drones and prisons.
(17:44):
But this article that I've read, and I haven't done
too much research on it didn't say who the who
the inmates were, who ordered this, but I would have
to buy. But I'm looking at a picture right now.
You want to see You want to see a picture
of the of the goods. Yeah, the picture of the goods,
because this is this is pretty awesome. They even vacuum
(18:04):
sealed some of it, so you know, to keep it fresh.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I love that there was old Bay with it.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yeah, of course, a bottle of old Bay, a carton
of marble, a big big ass bag of weed.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Oh that's weed. I thought that was a steak. Oh
my god. Oh now it's Oh my gosh, that is
a big bag of weed.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Wow. The bag of weed, just to give the listeners
an idea, is bigger than the steak. Okay, the steak
and the crab legs combined.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Yes, I thought that.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Was as long as that carton of cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yes, yes, the biggest thing in the picture is the weed.
I guess.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Wow, that is so funny. Who ate it?
Speaker 5 (18:47):
I'm guessing that the probably the cops ate it or
like prisons, that's diabolical.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
That's wrong. I wonder if they you know, if they
put any like, you know, dry ice with it.
Speaker 6 (19:02):
Have to travel yeah, probably.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Not very far. But you know, in my area, there
used to be like drones that would deliver ice cream.
Do you guys have that where you live?
Speaker 4 (19:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (19:14):
No, I think yeah, yeah, drunks. You know, they're getting.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Better and better delivers ice cream. Like you can order
ice cream and a drone, we'll just deliver it to you.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yeah, it just delivered it drops it right in front
of your door.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Yeah, that's an important service we all need.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Exactly because you just never know when you're going to
need a pint of ice cream.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Right, Yeah, you don't.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
It's an emergency.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I love how that it was the South Carolina Department
of Corrections that that put that out in the world.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Come on, this is cool, all right. So when we
come back, we are going to talk about this case
that Christen is going to talk about from Bangor, Maine
where she's from. And well, you're not from Bangor, Maine,
but you're close enough, close enough, right, and it is
a doozy. I can't wait to talk about it. So
(20:08):
we're gonna get into it after the break.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
All right.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
So this case actually happened a couple of weeks ago.
It happened over Thanksgiving, and it's in Bangor, Maine, and
there's not a lot of details on it that I
could find, but that will change.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
We will get to that.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
So a man in Bangor was accused of breaking into
a family's apartment and opening up all of their Christmas presents,
which I'm actually impressed that they had all of their
Christmas presents ready to go on Sunday, November twenty fifth,
this year, twenty twenty five when that happened. So apparently
they did, and Jose Harvey, who's fifty, broke into their
(20:49):
house and somebody called and reported that someone had broken
into their apartment and was sleeping on their couch and
refused to leave.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
But that's all we knew, right like that, that was it.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yeah, he made himself cozy.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
There was no names, no like other than Jose Harvey
we had. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Yeah, So the tenant told authorities that they found all
of their Christmas presents unwrapped, and then they see this
man sleeping on their couch and he couldn't provide any
logical reason why he was in the apartment, and he
was charged with aggravated criminal trespassing.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And unlike Sean's you know bath salt guy or who
was the bath salt person? Was that you Christmas? Oh?
That was me? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Oh yeah, that was the Ohio bathstalt incident.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, unlike your bath salt guy, he did not decorate
the place.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
He did not He just took. He did not give,
He took.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah. Wow, Well, I don't know that this story really
piqued my interest. I was just intrigued by the lack
of detail out there, and so it literally, guys, I
know that it seems pressient. It took me five minutes
to write an email to the Bangor Police Department. And
it was a very eric email, like I didn't ask
(22:02):
for anything specific. But a couple days later, it didn't
even take that long. A couple days later, I get
a ZIP file with like twenty one gigs okay, and
I'm thinking, what the hell is in this thing?
Speaker 5 (22:13):
I mean, that's Christmas getting a foilout where you have
that many gigs?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, that was like Christmas morning. And so I want
to share with you what I found because you guys
have not seen this.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
I have not, and I love that you did that
so much.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, and you know, this is such a silly It
seems like a silly story, but it's about to not
get silly, because you know, on the surface, we hear
about these stories and there's no detail and they sound
funny and we're doing this whole special on Grinci's Christmas.
But this is like a real person that this happened to.
(22:50):
And when you watch this footage, you're gonna see how
scary it is because the cops showed up right as
the purp was still in the apartment, okay, and so
you're like they showed up somehow, these people, the victims
kept this guy Jose Harvey in their apartment until the
(23:10):
cops came. All right, so let's let's watch the footage
we start. There's multiple clips, right, and each folder has
a different body cam from a different officer who responded,
even like the police dashboard. But this clip that we're
watching right now is the officer like heading to the call.
Like he's doing to the call. Okay, so he's arriving
(23:33):
at the scene. It looks like a townhouse apartment type
of situation where there's like one front door and then
when you open up the door, there's multiple different apartments.
So let me stop right here and just kind of
explain to the listeners who can't see this what's happening.
(23:54):
So basically, the officer shows up, he meets the woman
who lives in the arman upstairs who made the call.
They go upstairs and they walk into the living room
and the boyfriend is wearing his underwear. I mean, he's
just like you can tell they just woke up and
this Jose Harvey guy is just standing in their living room.
(24:16):
You could see all the Christmas stuff you guys look for.
Let me go, now, mean it, let's go, And this
is what bothers me. The most about this is that
the cop shows up and he's just like, hey, get
(24:37):
out of here, scram Okay. So now we're watching we're
watching video of them going, the officers following Jose Harvey,
you know, the purp right here, he's following him downstairs.
But I wanted to stop and kind of get your
reactions so far.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
First of all, I love that Jose is wearing red plaid,
like flow red plaid, because it kind of makes them
look like sand. Yeah, it's like like a really creepy Santa.
And he's also got like something green in his arm, Yeah,
like a jacket.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's it's his jacket. But he's wearing a hood, right,
Like that's what kind of gives him the Santa.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
That that face.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
He has a white beard, right.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Yes, he does.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
He kind of looks like Santa.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
I just feel so bad for these people. Look like
he trashed the place. Yeah, like it looks like they
have like a nice place, you know, had the stockings
up and everything.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
If if if somebody broke into my house though, and
the police were on their way, I might I might
put pants on. I think so like that this guy
is just standing there literally in his underwear.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
But I mean think about it though, Like the fact
that they were able to keep this guy in their
living room. I don't think the boyfriend had time to
go get pants, you know what I mean? Like like, hey, hey,
guy who just broke into our house and opened up
all our Christmas gifts, could you stay right here I
go get dressed?
Speaker 5 (26:03):
You know, I mean, he seems kind of cozy. He
seems like the Jose guy. He seems kind of cozy,
like he wouldn't have left if the police weren't. Like,
all right, buddy scram.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
And he's very chill like this one as you're about
to see some all right, let's play the rest of
the video. Hold off, hold on, let you in here?
Should Champagne tell you? He Champagne? So how did you
(26:34):
end up in their apartment? I don't know.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
I get I used to't have to okay, I just.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Got okay, somebody, let me let me back up here. Clearly,
this guy there's something. Either he doesn't speak English very well,
or he's maybe on some kind of substance abuse. I
don't know. He's not making himself very clear. He keeps saying, Champagne, Champagne,
(27:09):
let him in. The cop doesn't really know, So let's
play the rest. Okay, somebody invited you in here to
drink champagne. No, no, no his name? Okay, so he
invited you into his apartment and you stumbled into somebody
else's apartment completely unacceptable. Cool, And that's the part that
(27:34):
just blows my mind. The cop, you know, he's like,
why are you here? Who are you wanting to see?
He kept saying champagne, champagne, and then he hands him
his ID and then just sends him off like he's like,
just back here, yeah, don't come back here, Like hello,
he was breaking an entering, But I don't know what
are your thoughts so far? Before we continue.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
It's kind of like like the circumstances are really funny,
but then, like you said, when you see it, it's
a little bit sobering, like this, Yeah, I mean I
would be fully alarmed if there was if this man
was just in my house, and especially if they woke
up in the morning, which it kind of like this is.
It looks like the timestamp is eight forty five am,
(28:16):
so like he was probably sleeping in the apartment with
them sleeping in it, and that's like kind of my
worst nightmare.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, do you get the impression the cops know him
or he has some kind of reputation with them?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
You know, I normally are to solid like that, right,
Like he's like totally Harvey almost like he knew who Yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Like he knew who he was, Like you're on Jose
like or whatever.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
He goes again.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
I couldn't tell if he was like calling in to
see what you know, the station had on him, or
if it was something like he was familiar.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, I don't know, but there's a lot more like
Now the officer, you know, the one that responded that
we were listening to, He hands over Harvey to a
female officer and Jose Harvey goes out with her, right,
but now he goes back upstairs to check on the victims.
So let's play the rest of this couldn't worse. We'll
(29:18):
time you guys go to bed last night late.
Speaker 9 (29:21):
So there's a video.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Camera what times he came in here.
Speaker 9 (29:26):
There's no video of him entering, but there's a video
of him walking around at seven, So I.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Don't know how he got it locked her.
Speaker 9 (29:33):
Yeah, but there's no video of him entering. I get
notifications on my camera for every movement. There's a video
at one am and.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Then where was he when you woke up?
Speaker 9 (29:46):
He was just playing on the couch that came out
to go to the bathroom. And yeah, the next thing
was at seven fifty six, he's just walking around.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Oh my gosh, there's a lot going on here, Like
what are you picking up from that last club?
Speaker 6 (30:05):
Yeah, you really hit them that they could have been dangerous.
They feel really violated. They have.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
They're so confused too, like she keeps saying, like, I
don't understand how he got in, right.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
It sounds like she has cameras everywhere, like she could
tell when she went to bed and he wasn't there,
so that means he must have come in after they
went to bed, But she's not sure how he came
in because there's no footage of him coming in. And
at this point, the boyfriend is fully dressed, obviously because
(30:41):
the situation seems to be under control, right, but she
is shaken to the core. I mean and understanding that this.
Speaker 9 (30:53):
Use in the bathroom has been destroyed and he moved
things around and put things in storage. Containers in the
bathroom were empty.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
So do you think he had any idea you guys
are even home.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I don't know because I don't think he got it
like everything. So she's just trying to figure this whole
thing out. It looks like something's going on in the bathroom,
like the cross space door was open and one of
the cats got out, and this is like just made
a really bad situation worse and so now they're now
they're looking for their cat. I mean, I just felt
(31:28):
so bad. But again, there's like this mystery of like
how did this guy get in? So that's open now.
Speaker 9 (31:47):
I think that's why it's not on the camera, and
I think that's why.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
So that explains how he came in undetected, right, Like
he just snuck into the window. So what ended up
happening was that Jose Harvey. It wasn't like he was
waiting for them to go to bed. He must have.
They must have gotten home late at night, she said,
around at one o'clock in the morning, they went to bed,
everything was fine. He wasn't there, and sometime after one
(32:18):
o'clock in the morning he snuck in through the window.
Must have fallen asleep, and it was It wasn't until
the morning when he started You know, opening up all
the gifts and just messing up their living room. I
think that once the cop realized, like how messed up
this was, he let me see if I could find this.
(32:38):
He realizes, Okay, well we got to take this guy in.
But I don't know why he didn't do that to
begin with. Yeah, stop and hold him. I think I'm
gonna take him on burglary. Yeah duh. So anyway, in
another body cam footage, you get to see where they
apprehend him. They they take him to the jail, and
(33:03):
eventually he was charged. But it's just wild, you know,
because at face value, this story just seemed kind of funny,
right like, now that we get this intimate look into
what happened, and not only like after it happened, we
were watching it happen in real time, it's just it
hits differently, I guess.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
I mean, when you only have so many details like it,
it kind of is like a funny story like someone's
in your house and opened up your presence and then
reorganized your storage stuff in the bathroom. But then you
like see the people and you see the impact, and
it definitely changes it a little bit.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
And the way the officer sighed when he got in
the car, like you could tell that even he was like,
I can't even believe this is happening, Like I think
he even he really felt for them too and knew
to take it seriously.
Speaker 6 (33:57):
So I'm gonna read it your rights and need to
say yes or no.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
I just love that he's handcuffed and he's standing there
with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth like answering
these questions.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah, so that's it, guys. I don't know if this
made you less or more in the holiday spirit after sure,
definitely more. Yeah, well, thank you so much. This was
so much fun. I'm glad you were able to make
this happen.
Speaker 6 (34:27):
Yeah, me too. I look forward to more of this
in twenty six.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
Yeah. I have an episode. I'll plug this. I have
a Christmas crime episode that's a two part. It came
out last year. It is about Bertha Cody on the
murder of Renee Cody, and it is a true Christmas murder.
If you want something that's a little bit deeper dive
and not as a little bit more nefarious and breaking
(34:55):
and entering, but it's a very interesting story. It's from
the forties show Girls. It's got affairs, it's got everything,
So go listen to that if you want some more Christmas.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
That's right, Murder, she told. All right, how about you, Sean,
what's going on with you and the rest of the year.
What should people look out for?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
John and I are going to release our annual Missing
at the Holidays episode because during the typical time on
our podcast we focus on stories out of Las Vegas,
but once a year around the holidays, we share five
or six missing person stories from outside of Las Vegas
that either some of our friends in the podcasting world
(35:36):
have told us about that we want to highlight and
continue to keep their names out there and hope that
the families have answers in the new year. So we
have we'll have our annual Missing out the Holidays episode.
I think probably the thirtieth December thirtieth, I think this year.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
So everyone go check out Sins and Survivors and Murder,
she told. And of course pretend if you're listening to
on the other feeds, and we hope you know that
you guys have a wonderful holiday and a happy new
Year and just take time to relax and start all
(36:11):
over again. In twenty twenty six, so thank you for
listening and go and check out all of our shows.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod dot com, slash subscribe for
exclusive bonus content and to listen ad free. Remember to
like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and threads
at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please
leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice.
You can contact us at questions at Sins and Survivors
(37:00):
dot com.
Speaker 10 (37:01):
If you are someone you know as affected by domestic
violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources
or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources
is available on our website, Sins and Survivors dot com.
Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research, written,
and produced by your hosts Sean and John. The information
shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording.
(37:24):
If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us.
Links to source material for this episode can be found
on our website Sins and Survivors dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast creators, hosts and their guests. All
individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not
constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal
professionals for guidance.
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