"Never Go To Tijuana"

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In a harrowing episode that reads like a script from a suspense thriller, The Redacted Podcast brings you a tale of survival that will leave you on the edge of your seat. In an exclusive interview, our anonymous guest recounts an ordeal that spirals from a desperate quest for a quick fix into a life-threatening entanglement with the underbelly of Tijuana, Mexico.

At 28, following the tumult of a divorce and lured by the siren song of steroids, our guest plunges into a world where the lines between friend and foe, salvation and ruin, blur into obscurity. From the deceptive allure of crystal meth to a chilling brush with death, his story unfolds with the intensity of a fever dream, a relentless pursuit of a goal that nearly costs him everything.

Through a series of gripping escapes, encounters with the law, and betrayals by those he trusted, we are taken on a white-knuckle journey that culminates in a desperate plea for redemption. It's a testament to the human spirit's capacity for resilience, and a stark reminder of the depths to which one can fall when caught in the grip of addiction and deceit.

As dawn breaks on his final escape, our guest's reflection on the path that led him to—and from—the brink is a sobering narrative that will resonate long after the episode ends. Tune in for an episode that's not just a story, but a stark lesson on the cost of chasing shadows.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
They were talking about killing me.
Wow, I didn't know enoughSpanish to know exactly what the
plan was, but I knew they weretalking about killing me.
Okay, and they weren't going togive me my drugs back.
Even if I have to leave thisplace and jet out the back and
never see these guys again, Idon't care about my drugs.
I'm trying to save my life.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you.
Okay, thank you for tuning into the Redacted Podcast.
I'm your host, Matt Bender, andwe have our guest here today
who's going to be anonymous.
It's a secret, it's a mystery.
We don't know who he is Backbehind the cameras and back
behind in the soundboard.
We got Pamela doing all thehard work back there.
I don't know what she's doing,but it's work and whatever it is

(01:15):
, and she's been sworn tosecrecy too, so she's not going
to reveal who you are.
And today you've got to stand upa little bit, um, because you
get a little back problem goingon.
So I don't know how much we cansee that in the camera, but you
know, I I know how that ishaving back problems, like it's
the weirdest thing finding acomfortable chair.
Yeah, like you're notcomfortable anywhere.

(01:38):
You gotta stand and move andthis chair is great.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
That chair sucks which is unfortunate, because
this chair is super cool.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, yeah, it's a badass chair.
Yeah, it really is.
You just stand in front of it.
All right, it's fine, but yougot a hell of a story, man.
It reminds me of like Fear andLoathing in Las Vegas, which you
said you didn't see, but I waslike man, this is kind of cool,
it's a wild story.
Didn't see, but I was like man,this is kind of cool, it's a,

(02:06):
it's a wild story.
And uh, you know how old wereyou at this?

Speaker 1 (02:08):
time I thought when I first told you the outline of
the story, I thought I wasyounger, but it was after my
divorce and I was 28.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, Okay, so how did it?
How did it kind of start out?

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well, so just in my misery of the aftermath of
divorce which is normalespecially with children I had
been kind of an athlete slashbodybuilder most of my life and
had started getting intosteroids.
You know I'm not a big guy, soI wanted to get bigger, stronger
, faster you know, faster thannatural.

(02:41):
So just through talking withguys in the gym, I thought, you
know, steroids is the way to go,and so I decided to do it the
right way, man, so to speak, andnot grab it off the streets in
the States.
I went over to Mexico to get itcheap, made a little business
out of it at least I thought Iwas.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
So the first time, so before the first time, you
tried steroids, or did you tryit from someone else or get it
off the streets first?
Yeah, I actually did.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
I tried it first when I was 17.
I was on it for about a year.
Okay, I didn't even know what Iwas doing, so I don't know if
it actually even got into mybody properly, yeah, or if it
was real.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, could have just been oil or something.
Could have been Vitamin, rightyeah.
So what kind of steroids wereyou looking for?
I know there's different types.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I was looking for all kinds.
I mean, back then the steroidof choice was Dianabol, which
was a pill, Also Anadrol, whichwas another pill, Very, very
potent.
You didn't have to take aninjection, but everybody knew if
you were going to be onsteroids.
You also had to do testosteroneinjections.
Sure yeah.
So I was looking for mainlythose three.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Okay, so a little TRT and some anabolic steroids,
Correct yeah, and then you can'tjust get that stuff prescribed
here, not back then, youcouldn't.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
I mean now it's pretty easy, especially if
you're older.
But the TRT is the TRT is yeahespecially if you're older.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
But the trt is, the trt is, but not the steroids.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
No well, it's all kind of guys, the steroids you
know as a kind of a street termokay trt is testosterone
replacement therapy so we'vekind of coined that term.
But testosterone is a liquid.
You know, it's synthetictestosterone that your body
already has in it okay and umyou know now, we found out a lot
of a lot of men are walkingaround with low testosterone, so

(04:27):
they've made it a clinicalthing now where you can pretty
much go get it just saying, hey,I feel tired all the time, or
something yeah, yeah, but notthe other no, the dianabol and
the anadrol are pretty hard toget.
Most doctors won't prescribethat stuff.
That's a pretty black market.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
yeah, I'm sure there's like specific medical
conditions that could qualifyfor it.
Sure, yeah, but people are notusing it for that?

Speaker 1 (04:52):
No, it's very hard on your liver.
So, it's not really safe, asopposed to, injections monitored
by a doctor can be relativelysafe these days.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Okay, and the goal of this is to get strong and get
big Absolutely.
Okay, that the goal of this isto get strong and get big
Absolutely Okay.
That was my goal and this stuffis totally legal in Mexico, or
at least it was back then.
I know they've cracked down.
Now you need like a phonyprescription or something.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Actually, I think it's still pretty much over the
counter in Mexico as it was backthen, really yeah.
Okay, Matter of fact.
I know it is.
I was in Cabo last year.
It's all over.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
So the first time you go to Mexico, do you?
Have a plan?
Do you have some research?
I mean, this is what early2000s, yeah 2003, I believe.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Okay, yeah.
So what happened was I didn'tgo over there blind.
I had met a guy where I livedin Kentucky that was friends
with a guy that grew up in SanDiego and recently moved across
the border to Tijuana, mexico.
Okay, and this guy was a prettywild cat, as I was too, and so
I linked up with him throughthis mutual friend and we made a

(06:03):
plan that I would meet up overthere and he would show me the
ropes and make sure I wasgetting the real stuff, because
there's a lot of fake pharmacieson the streets, yeah yeah, so
you know I get there, uh, firsttime I'd ever been to I think
first time I'd been tocalifornia even okay, so I'd get
off the, uh the plane, catch atrain from san diego over to

(06:25):
Tijuana it's like 2 in themorning.
I hop off this train, I walkacross the border and I'm
looking for a hotel to shack upin for the night.
And had his address, so I knewthe hotel that I was going to be
at was pretty close to him, andin hindsight I realized I was
walking down probably the mostdangerous street in Tijuana, you

(06:48):
know, just lined withprostitutes and drug dealers.
What street's that?

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Is there a name?
I don't remember the name of it.
Okay, just like a kind of askid row or kind of a red light
district or something.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
It wasn't even that.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
It was kind of an off street, like an alley, almost,
almost you know, from a popularstreet in Tijuana which is
Revolution Boulevard.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Okay, yeah, so it was an offshoot of that, okay.
So what happened was I grabbedthat hotel.
Of course I didn't sleep allnight.
It was pretty dingy place, youknow, expected to see rats, it's
like a shitty roach motel, likereally bad yeah right most
worse than most things we'veever seen here okay in the
states and, um, I didn't sleepall night.
Again, it was like 2, 33 o'clockby the time I got in the hotel.

(07:33):
Anyway, yeah, so, crock and on,I'm up trying to contact this
guy.
Thank god he was awake and hemet with me like seven in the
morning.
Yeah, and so from there, youknow, took my stuff over to his
place he had a little apartmentin there, you know, took my
stuff over to his place.
He had a little apartment inthis little you know this
building and this was an.
American.
This is an American.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, and come to find out.
I learned pretty quickly Idon't think it was till the next
day, though, that I realizedthat his roommate which was I
thought his girlfriend wasactually his boyfriend, was I
thought his girlfriend wasactually his boyfriend.
So suddenly I found out and myfriend in Kentucky didn't tell
me this that this guy ishomosexual, but specifically

(08:12):
only is attracted totranssexuals, or transgenders.
Wow.
So you know, if you've everbeen over there, if you've ever
seen a really good, you know Ihear there's a lot of that there
.
I mean you can't tell thedifference.
I'm saying like I was with thisperson a whole 24 hours before

(08:33):
I knew it was a man, a man, aboy, Luckily before you made a
mistake.
Yeah, none of that everhappened.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I mean, you're anonymous, you can yeah.
Well, there was a close call,but nothing ever happened.
Okay, okay, there you go.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
But he was, at least you know, respectful enough to
steer me away from people that Ithought were women, that well,
that I maybe was gonna pursue,like oh, that's a dude.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Like oh, okay, and there were a lot of them, but um
, and this is just the first ofmany dangers you encountered the
first of many, so I had Ithink- I had a total of five
visits over here with this guy.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Okay, the first several, the first you know, up
until the the one pinnaclemoment we're going to talk about
today.
The first four, I guess, werepretty easy smooth, quick in and
out.
I was there for a couple ofdays and I was a big pothead.
I'd smoke a bunch of pot.
We'd send this little kid on abike.
He'd come back with hands fullof Malta, which is what they

(09:35):
call marijuana, for five bucksyou know, probably an ounce of
weed.
But this guy Matt I'll tell youhis name was was strung out on
crystal meth.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Okay, and I'd never been around that.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
So, but the first several, you know, the first
four visits, I didn't, I had no,I was, I was afraid of it, I
had no desire Just smoking, weed, drinking tequila, hanging out
and they were hitting this funnylittle pipe with glass in it.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
They called it Hanging out and they were
hitting this funny little pipewith glass in it, they called it
.
So back to those visits.
You would go to the pharmacy,buy what you needed.
You had orders, maybe frompeople back home, yeah had
orders from back home.
That was a growing list ofpeople that wanted some stuff.
So you'd go, you'd get it, buyit cheap Right.
And then, how are how?

(10:26):
How are you getting it back,did you?

Speaker 1 (10:27):
already know.
I didn't know how I was goingto get it over over the border
the first time, but this guy hadalready done this before.
Okay, so this American Mattthat I was dealing with would
actually make his living diggingin dumpsters of hotels in San
Diego.
So he'd walk his bike across.
Because you can't ride yourbike across the border, you have
to walk it across.

(10:48):
He'd walk it across and hewould do that every day.
So it was all.
The border patrol agents knewhim, they recognize him.
They didn't card him back andforth, it was just a regular
occurrence for him.
Yeah Right, so we actually, forwhatever reason, didn't use his
bike.
The pharmacist lent us like abrand new Trek bike, this

(11:08):
pharmacist that he knew that Iwas getting the stuff from and
we would put the drugs in thebicycle tires and he would just
wheel the bike across the borderlike he would every day.
We would dump them out at theback of a McDonald's into my
suitcase.
I'd hop on the train then gotake a plane.
Go'd hop on the train then gotake a plane, go home, sell the
stuff, come back, you know, amonth or two later, wow, yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Pretty smooth.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, I was making a pretty good living, you know,
and living a exciting, dangerous, stupid crazy life.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
I mean, how much profit were you making on a trip
?

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Well, you know, I was very small time.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Couple, couple hundred thousand couple thousand
couple thousand bucks it's notbad.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, not bad, and it was.
It was growing first few times.
First couple times I might havemade a few hundred, but then it
turned into thousands.
Okay, yeah.
And then the final time wherethe big story all happens was
about a 10.
It was going to be tens ofthousands of profit oh yeah
because I had $10,000 of drugsin my possession that were
Mexico value at 10,000.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
It was probably 80, 100,000 at home.
Jeez, so yeah, those times gosmooth, easy, no problem.
You're feeling good, confident,and then where does it?
Where does it turn?
Well, funny.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
You should ask that because the big mistake I made
in hindsight is I started.
I took a hit of that crystalmeth pipe for the first time.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
On the fifth trip.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
On the fifth trip.
Now, the fifth trip was goingto be like all the other ones.
It was a two or three-day plan.
Hang out, smoke some weed, getthe drugs, go home.
Yeah Well, for whatever reason,I had enough of curiosity over
those other four trips to hitthis pipe, and the rest is
history.
Man, I was awake for five dayswithout any sleep and then, when

(12:54):
I did sleep, it was about threehours and I woke up.
I remember leaving theapartment and going out with his
Matt's significant other andwalking down the street and
literally seeing cows thatweren't there, people walking
upside down toward me.
And then I went another fivedays with no sleep.

(13:15):
So I was planning to be therethree days and I ended up being
there 10 or 11 days 10 or 11days to start, or was that the
total?
trip.
That was the total trip.
That was the last time I everwent to tijuana, mexico okay, so
what?

Speaker 2 (13:30):
what happened during those 10 days?
Oh, man, because I mean you hitmeth like day one, day one
right, yeah, maybe day two, butit was pretty soon and um and
you still had a job to do.
You still had to get go buy thesteroids, get them over the
border, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
We kind of accomplished all of that right
away getting the steroids Iwould get.
I would get that done first day, get it out of the way so I
could party and not have to dealwith it.
Yeah, um.
But then I also started to getbright ideas to pick up other
stuff for other people, likesome people were wanting some
Adderall and just stuff likethat.
So I started getting likeVicodin Adderalls and I'd never

(14:08):
done that before so that lastedtwo or three days, and then by
that time I was just blitzed man.
And I had never felt like thisin my life.
I had experimented with prettymuch every street drug out there
, but never this.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
And that stuff's just crazy, man, it's what they gave
the nazis to get them in theblitzkrieg.
All the nazi soldiers were.
They were issued meth, wow.
And they would just stay up forlike a week straight and just
mow down frenchmen.
Oh makes sense.
That's how they met, that's howthey made it into france so
quickly.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
I never knew that and uh, yeah, those dudes were all
messed up.
They were crazy wow, you, youdo feel invincible on that stuff
.
I'm not here to glorify it,because it about wrecked my life
.
That killed me.
Yeah, you know, I definitely Ishould have died.
I shouldn't even be heretelling this story right now.
Yeah, and a lot of people do goover there and die from it you
know, I can see.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
I don't even know if Matt's still alive.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Probably not.
Probably not, Chances areprobably not.
Yeah, Jeez, yeah, so uh, aftergetting strung out on this stuff
, it came time after, like Isaid, about 10 days.
It was time I said I've hadenough.
I got to get across the border,man you know, and go home.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
What do you do in those I mean from day two to day
10, you're just sitting around,just sitting around hitting the
pipe like.
Eating tacos.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, you didn't care .
You don't have much of anappetite, but we would eat tacos
a couple times a day.
Okay, you know best tacos inthe world, of course, for like
three, for a dollar, you know.
Oh yeah, hell yeah.
But yeah, we would just around,hit the pipe and you're just in
la la land and you don't careabout what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Well, you know so now .
Now we got to get back homewith this.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
It's time to go home.
I'm like you know, I've hadenough.
Thank god.
I had enough brains somewhereleft in my head to just say this
has to stop at some point,right?
I had kids at home, but I stillhad to see, yeah, and that's
probably uh what, what ended upkeeping?

Speaker 2 (16:09):
me, you know, in bounds a little bit.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
So came time for matt to pack up the bike and take me
across and he refused to do itthis time and I realized at that
moment it was because he was socompletely blitzed out of his
mind because he wasn't used tohaving access to that much
crystal meth.
You know, they're used togetting just a little bits at a
time off.
The little bit of money he made.
You were buying, I was buying.

(16:34):
Ah yeah, I was coming over there, I came over there with a bunch
of cash.
Now, my girlfriend I didn'tcome over there with 10 grand my
girlfriend was sending me 500to to a thousand at a time to uh
, to buy things, and she's likewhat?

Speaker 2 (16:47):
are you doing like western union or something?

Speaker 1 (16:49):
yeah, western union, okay, yeah and so I was buying
it up, you know, and filling himand his partner up and a couple
other friends that lived therein the apartment complex, and
you're feeding everyone, gettingeveryone high yeah, just a 10
day he was a party man, yeahyeah and um, so he was just so
blitzed out.
I think that he was scared totake and at this time it was

(17:13):
much more drugs, like we couldbarely get them in the, in the,
in the bike tires, right yeahand so I think he just got super
paranoid and just was like I'mnot doing it.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
So you're taking these and stuffing them in the
tube.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, yeah.
So the bottles, it's a lot ofglass bottles.
The steroids, you know, thetestosterone, okay, and then
pill bottles, you know, but wewould take the pill bottles,
take the pills out of thebottles and put them in like
Ziplocs.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Stuff like that, and back then it was before TSA, so
you could fly with that stuff,no problem, you know.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
But well, that would have been right.
2003 would have been Rightaround the start of TSA.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, you're right, I guess they had TSA.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
but I never had a problem.
I don't think it was asadvanced as it is now.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
And I would even take them on my carry-on.
I never had a problem goingthrough security at the airports
, ever.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
It was never even a concern.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
And I never had marijuana or cocaine, which is,
I think, what the dogs look for.
They're not looking forsteroids, so we had so many
drugs.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
this at this you know this trip that it barely fit in
the bike tires, you know, andum.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
so he got paranoid.
He decided he wasn't going totake the trip.
He was adamant, I'm not doingit.
And we got in a fist fight onthe balcony and again somehow
had enough sanity to not killhim because he was you know, in
no condition to fight and I'm onsteroids.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
You're on steroids and meth.
And meth and you need to getthe fuck out of there, right,
and he's fucking up your wholeplan, exactly.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, so it could have got ugly fast.
But I'll hit him a couple oftimes.
Let him let him alone.
And and I took the bike thatthe pharmacist gave us cause it
had all the drugs in it.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah.
You know, how did you?
Did you pump the tires back?

Speaker 1 (19:04):
up afterwards.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Okay, yeah, we pumped the tires back up.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
That's fucking weird man.
Yeah, that's a.
That's kind of crazy, it'ssmart.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Well, it was his idea .

Speaker 2 (19:15):
You know, meth head engineering, meth head
engineering.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, he had it all down.
So I took my suitcase as alittle carry-on roll-away
suitcase, you know rollersuitcase with the bike.
And here I'm walking down thestreets of tijuana.
Man, there's militia sittingthere looking at me.
They knew I was in and out oftown all the time.
They probably knew I was up tosomething.
And I'm paranoid as crap thatthey're just gonna like come up

(19:39):
and say like what's up, dude,what's in the suitcase where you
going?

Speaker 2 (19:42):
yeah, this isn't normal, for well nothing was in
the suitcase, right?

Speaker 1 (19:45):
no, nothing was in the suitcase.
It was in the bike tires, butstill yeah like you know they're
not gonna be stupid.
They start checking thesuitcase.
Don't find anything.
It's gonna make them mad thatthey're going to check
everything and they've seen itall you know.
They know people put stuff intires, you know so.
But somehow I made it down thestreet to the pharmacist and

(20:08):
said hey, can you help me?
Told him the story he's likehell to the no.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, not helping you smuggle shit.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, and he's's like matter of fact get, get out of
my shop and never come back andjust take the bike with you.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
I don't even want the bike back so you told him his
tires were all filled full ofdrugs oh, yeah, he knew, yeah,
yeah I think he knew how we weregetting them across every time.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah, you know, but he just would never have
anything to do with it yeah, youknow he had a real business.
Yeah, he didn't have any reasonto risk his business for me
Jeez.
So from there I go all the wayacross town Don't even remember
how I found my way to thesepeople that we had hung out with
at one point during that 10-dayperiod.
And this guy that had thisapartment was married to a woman

(20:56):
that was half American.
Her mother was American, hermother was American, her dad was
Mexican, so she could go across.
So when I get to theirapartment she's home alone.
So I said great, you know, shespoke plain English.
I said, hey, here's whathappened.
Can you help me get across?
She said, yeah, I'll do it, noproblem, I was going to pay her.
She was thrilled.
She was thrilled right.

(21:16):
So about the time we were aboutto leave the apartment, her
boyfriend her husband, stilldon't know if they were married
comes home and he's cool with me.
He wasn't bothered that I wasthere, he was happy that I was
there because he knew I hadmoney.
He was in on the party scene for10 days with us, you know, jeez
and he was thrilled to find outthat now he had some control

(21:40):
over me.
That Matt was out of thepicture, right, okay.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Are these all just like strung out Americans?

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Oh no, these are all Mexicans.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well, you said the one was American.
Then Matt was American.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, matt was American, so is there?

Speaker 2 (21:54):
just a bunch of strung out Americans down there.
No, did you run into them?
Just a couple, no.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
I was the white guy in town.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Me and Matt, like everybody else, was Mexican.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Really yeah, oh shit.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Tijuana is not a vacation spot.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
No, you know what I mean.
Well, people go over there forexactly what you're doing.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Exactly yeah.
College kids go over from SanDiego and party.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know, but that's the extent of it, okay.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
You know.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
So, um, her, her boyfriend or whatever husband,
comes home and says, hey, what'sgoing on?
We tell him he's like oh, cool,man, yeah, we'll help you out,
no big deal, but let's just hangout and party for a while.
You know, it's better to goover at night anyway.
Yeah, you know, let's hang outand party, man, you know.
So I'm like, okay, cool, I meanI'm.
You know, I'm blitzed out of mymind, already up for 10 days.

(22:42):
Yeah, up for 10 days.
What's?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
another day.
You know I'm I'm thrilled thatI found somebody that's going to
take me across.
Yeah, you know.
So you're feeling optimistic atthis moment too.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah, so a little, a little.
Last party sounded good to me,you know.
Yeah, A little send-off.
So then what happened was hehad called half the neighborhood
over, who I didn't know, hadnever met before, to come party
with us that night, Right?
So we're all partying, doingall kinds of different drugs all
from my stash, of course andfor some reason I get the bright

(23:16):
idea that I want to take somecocaine with me this time, Right
?
Ok, I wanted some cocaine thatnight to do, and then I thought,
well, why not take it with me?
He's like oh yeah, I can getthe best cocaine I've ever had
for six hundred a kilo, whichyou know that's cheap as fuck.
Yeah, I mean I think I couldsell on the streets for like
four or five grand.
Yeah, not only was it cheaperthan I've ever seen it, it was

(23:41):
uncut.
Oh wow, pure cocaine, wow.
So I was like, yeah, let's doit.
So about an hour later it wasgetting late into the evening
it's probably midnight by now hecalls these guys over and it's
literally like something out ofa movie.
I mean, I felt like I was inthe middle of a movie at this
point, because this guy comes in, this little like danny devito

(24:03):
type guy.
You know, he's like four footnothing you know wider than he
is tall with this big like uh,what's that wrestler's name?
The giant andre the giant, thegiant, literally like under the
giant, like a huge dude.
Yeah, and they're in leatherjackets.
You know they look likeitalians, man, you know, like an
italian mafia or something butthey're mexican.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
They're mexican like slick back hair.
Were they like?
Matching exactly?

Speaker 1 (24:24):
I feel like I see them matching yep, both leather
jackets.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
It studs on the jacket.
Yep, okay, yep, man, I can seethem.
Mustaches, no mustaches.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
No mustaches, okay yeah.
So these two clowns walk in,you're throwing the party.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Everyone's doing your drugs, right?
You're paying for everythingand this isn't an apartment.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
It is.
Okay, one room apartment,literally like one room, with a
bathroom with a curtain aroundit in the corner, that's it, I
mean.
Shitty with a bathroom with acurtain around it in the corner,
that's it, I mean shittyindescribable.
There's nothing to compare toin america that I've seen yeah,
in the united states that I'veseen, because mexico is really
part of america, but so yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
So vinnie and vinnie walk in.
Vinnie and vinnie walk in, andare you like?

Speaker 1 (25:10):
ah, at this point I'm getting scared just by looking
at them because I know they're awhole nother level, like in my
mind.
That's what cartel looks like.
I'd never been around cartelthat I know of.
Maybe all these guys were partof the cartel, but these guys
looked like like enforcers orright, like they had some bosses
, like some kind of gangster,right in some way.

(25:30):
Yeah, okay, yeah.
So they bring these big, thesetwo big rocks, and lay them on
the table, test them, put alittle on my tongue.
My teeth instantly numb.
I'm like oh my.
God craziness, I'll take it.
So I run down to the pay phone,call my girlfriend.
The apartment's a second-storyapartment unit.
So I run down the steps, payphone right there at the end of

(25:51):
the street and call mygirlfriend to send me the money.
She wires me like $1,300 orwhatever it was, because I got
two of them.
I'm like, hey, 600 a kilo,let's get two of them.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
How the fuck were you going to get that Hub?

Speaker 1 (26:04):
I didn't care.
I was out of my mind.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Logic was out the window days ago obviously You're
like fuck it, Hook it up.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, what I was thinking at that point, who
knows.
But I had the confidencebecause I was never afraid of
the airports, I was only afraidof getting across the border.
And so here's where the storystarts to get crazy, because
these guys said oh, we'll takeyou across.
You have too much stuff now toget in the bike tires, let's
take it all out, put it in yoursuitcase and we'll throw your

(26:34):
suitcase in the trunk and driveyou to the border.
Then you get out, walk acrossthe border, we'll drive across
and give you your drugs andyou're free to go.
You know, and you, you pay us,and I'm stupid enough and blitz
out enough to believe they'reactually going to do this.
For me that sounds like a badidea.
So I started to realize things.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
You paid him for the Coke.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
No, I haven't paid him right, you paid them for the
Coke.
No, I haven't paid them oh.
I paid them for the Coke.
Yeah, paid them for the Coke.
And so about that time theydecided they all want to go
downstairs across the street toa taco place, right, it was kind
of like a restaurant.
It wasn't just a taco stand andit had, like you know, it was
like covered seating Right andlike, um, you know, it was like
covered seating right and um,like a patio, and there was

(27:19):
probably uh well, actually letme digress a little bit.
So what happened before we wentand eat the tacos is the guy
that owned the apartment,literally like in front of me,
kicked half the people out.
And I know in hindsight thatthe people that he kicked out
were not in the actual gang hewas a part of.
They were just otherneighborhood people that he knew
, yeah Right, people that I'dmet.

(27:40):
They weren't in the circle.
They weren't in the circle.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, and so there was probably about eight or 10
of us left in the room at thispoint.
They want to go down and eatsome tacos, right, and so I'm
realizing I've got to get awayfrom these guys, man.
Oh, so what happened was againsorry, I digress when they,
after they kicked those otherguys out six or eight of those

(28:05):
other guys out they hadconversations amongst each other
in Spanish, not knowing that Iwas formerly married to a
Panamanian and knew pretty goodSpanish and I caught on to what
they were saying.
They were basically saying hey,you know, we're obviously not
going to give him the drugs.
We're going to take him, youknow, and if we have to, we'll
kill him.
You know, they were talkingabout killing me.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Wow, I don't know enough, I didn't know enough
Spanish, or just leaving yourass.
Yeah, yeah, one of the two,yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
I plan was, but I knew they were talking about
killing me, okay.
And they weren't going to giveme my drugs back.
Okay, yeah, which was obviousto any sane human being at the
time, but I wasn't sane at thattime, right?
No, so we, finally, we go downto the taco stand or the taco
place and I realized I got tofind a way out of this place.
Right, everybody in theapartment, including the
girlfriend, came with us, sothere was nobody left in the
apartment.
Okay, so I asked the waitress.
I said, as we're waiting on ourtacos after we ordered them, I

(29:01):
said is there a restroom here?
She said yeah, it's around.
Back, I said perfect, Even if Ihave to leave this place and
jet out the back and never seethese guys again, I don't care
about my drugs, I'm trying tosave my life.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah Right, all your shits in the apartment, oh yeah,
in my suitcase at this point.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
The bikes up there, so the bikes up there, but fuck
the bike, you don't need that,don't need the bike,
everything's in the suitcase,right?
Okay so, as I as I obviouslydidn't have to go to the
bathroom.
But I get around the back ofthe building and I peek around
the side and I see they all gottheir tacos and they're busy
eating Right, so not payingattention to anything.
Yeah, so, and they're busyeating right, so they're not
paying attention to anything.
So, for whatever idiot reason,I had the balls to race up to
that apartment up steps.
They could see this whole thingif they just looked over and

(29:45):
saw me right Go up thereapartment doors open, thank God,
don't know why they left itopen Grab the suitcase that had
all my stuff in it clothes anddrugs and everything, race down
the steps and ducked around thecorner to a Greyhound bus
station and hid in the bathroomfor like two hours.
I just I didn't know what elseto do.

(30:05):
And I'm surprised that theemployees at Greyhound didn't,
you know, come in the bathroomand be like what are you doing?
What the fuck are you doing?
Yeah, but at this point it waslike 2 am and I just wanted to
be gone enough out of sight longenough for them to just forget
about it and realize theyweren't going to find me.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
So that's what I did, and I came out of the and
actually the time frame isreally kind of mixed up in my
head.
This was about 20 years ago butI came out of the Greyhound bus
station and I believe it wasnearly daylight at that point
and I was about to get in thiscab and two guys that were

(30:46):
brothers that got kicked out ofthe apartment by the apartment
owner in the inner circle showedup there happenstance-ly on the
sidewalk and saw me with mysuitcase and I was like, oh crap
, I thought they probably knew.
Right, yeah, I was like I amfreaking dust.
These guys are going to take mebehind the barn and kill me,
man.
Yeah, and they didn't know,they had no idea.

(31:07):
They're like hey, what are youdoing?
You know, I thought you weregoing across last night.
No, I didn't.
He's like oh well, we will helpyou across, we can help you
across.
Let's get in the cab and go toour house.
We'll hang out there because mydad is half American, or my
dad's American, my mom's Mexican.
It's weird because everybody'sgot you know, half and half
wants to help you.
But who?
knows if that's even true, butso we go up in the hills in an

(31:31):
area I've never been in, didn'teven know how we got there,
wasn't paying attention, didn'tcare.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
This is now the third group of people that is
supposed to help you get yourshit over.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
First, matt, who I had to nearly beat up.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Then the guys in the apartment yeah, vinny and Vinny.
Vinny and Vinny, those guys,and now the guys that got kicked
out, who I later found out wereZetas, which is a vigilante
group in Mexico.
What?

Speaker 1 (31:59):
does that mean?
Well, they're just, you know,they're rebels against the
government.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Okay, so not cartel.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
I don't know if they're cartel per se, but
they're probably tied to cartel.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
But it's a gang.
Yeah, it's a gang, it's awell-known gang.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I mean, they kill people, they leave heads on the
side of the road.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Okay, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
So they're a big organization you know yeah.
And so, yeah, I would liken itto the difference in Hamas and
ISIS.
I mean same agenda.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, same family of craziness right.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
So anyhow.
So what happens is we go up totheir apartment.
It's daylight.
So what happens is we go up totheir apartment.
That's daylight, it's morning,right, and they're like, you
know, our dad's gone for the day.
He's out doing stuff and heworks tonight and then he'll
take us over tomorrow morning.
So we're talking 24 hours andwe'll be with these guys okay.
Okay, so, again, here we go,again, let's party.

(32:48):
We got you.
Jeez, you would think that I'dlearned the first time, but I
didn't Okay.
So I'm like, okay, cool, youknow, I had a 16th of meth in my
pocket, which was quite a bitfor three people to last us 24
hours.
And they get the idea.
I said let's go party onRevolution Boulevard.
And I'd never been there, I'dparty and I'd walk down that
street during the day.
But it's like the strip, it'slike the Vegas strip of mexico

(33:18):
bars and, yeah, restaurants,clubs, you know westernized, you
know, yeah, and areamericanized.
And so the idea was they had acar um, can't remember, don't
remember what, what kind of carwas?
An old car with a trunk, bigcars, I'll remember and they
said let's throw your stuff inthe trunk, let's park the car at
this pay lot across from thishotel that we'll go get, we'll
hang out at the hotel tonightand party up and down the strip,

(33:39):
and that way your drugs aresafe, because you don't want to
drag them across the street and,you know, be checked at the
hotel and all that.
Just keep them locked in thecar.
I was like, okay, cool.
So I had enough, you know, methin my pocket to last us easily
through the night.
And so as soon as we check inthe hotel and come out on the
streets after smoking some, some, some meth, um, all of a sudden

(34:02):
man, like five cop cars comeout of nowhere, lights and
sirens on, coming right at us,and I'm thinking, wow, what's
going on?
Man?
You know, I'm like I'm lookingfor something crazy happening
right next thing I know they'recoming right up to us.
Throw the three of us it wasmyself and the two brothers,
right, and just for referencesake I'll say one brother was
older and shorter, the other guywas younger and taller.

(34:24):
Okay, and so we get thrown upagainst the cop cars.
I throw the little pack ofcrystal meth I had on the
sidewalk and this is like amarble type sidewalk with lights
on it.
How the cops didn't see thatthing just sitting there, I have
no idea.
It was so obvious.
You know they never saw methrow it.

(34:45):
They threw us up against the car, had us put our hands on the
top of the car and then the copthat was, you know, that had,
you know, was booking me, forlack of a better term had put
his hands in my pockets.
Grabbed everything I had out ofthere, which was just cash I
had about $500 American dollarsin pesos at the time Throws it
on top of the car in front of meand I see him grab some off the

(35:07):
top probably a third of it.
Puts it in his pocket and I'mnot dumb enough at this point to
argue with him.
I don't care what he takes,fuck no him.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
You know what I mean.
Are they saying anything to you?

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Well, they're kind of talking, you know, yelling,
screaming, you know, and I don'tknow enough Spanish at that
point to know, and I'm freakingout anyway.
So, you know, I couldn't reallyunderstand what was happening.
Yeah, and I still didn't knowwhat was happening.
Yeah, and I still didn't knowwhat was happening.
I didn't know, you know, likehow they knew who I was and why
they were coming after me andthese guys, you know.
So they put us in two cars.

(35:42):
I'm in the back of the car withthe shorter guy, the older guy
who's kind of the ringleader ofthe.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Do you in handcuffs or anything?

Speaker 1 (35:49):
uh, I think we were cuffed before we put it.
We're putting the car, yeah,okay, yeah.
And then the younger, tallerkid was in the other car by
himself in the back.
They pull us over to a reallydark alley, just the two cop
cars and the three of us and youknow four cops, I guess total,
and the car that I was in waspulled up against the sidewalk

(36:12):
in front of the other car wherethe one kid was in by himself.
Next thing I know, as we're, asthey're getting us out of the
back of the cop car, they'rebeating a.
They're beating this young kidto a pulp man, like literally
beating him up, bad.
And I'm like, oh God, we'renext.
Like what's happening here?
You know this all happenedreally quick you know, so I'm

(36:32):
like, oh, my God, god, what isgoing on?
So they luckily did not beat usup.
They threw that kid that theybeat up back in the back of the
car through his, his, uh, olderbrother, the shorter kid in the
back of that car, and they tookoff and said they're going to
jail.
Now I'm here with two cops andthe one cop car and they,

(36:53):
they're like, look man, we'vebeen looking for these guys
forever.
These are bad dudes.
We know that you're mixed upwith them.
We've known you've been in townfor a couple of weeks dealing
with these guys and we want toknow what's going on.
I was like I just met him, man.
Like I just met him yesterday Idon't know what you're talking
about, man, I came here to meeta friend and you know, he, he,
we had a fight and I just metthese guys.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
I don't know who they are, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
And um, he said, okay , well, look, how much money do
you have on you?
So I sold him all the money Ihad, Cause they they'd given me
my money back after I got in thecop car.
For some weird reason, I guessthey just did that so they could
take what they wanted.
The cop that cuffed me.
So I said you know, I pulled itall out of my pockets.
They were like, okay, we'retaking your money and we're
taking you to jail.

(37:37):
And I was like, all right.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
I guess there's no negotiation here, so whatever,
and at this point I'm obviouslyfreaking out I had seen shows
you know, with Mexican jails,mexican jail dude, and I'm just
like I'm not coming out of herealive man you know.
So they call another cop car tocome get me, just a solo cop.
He comes and gets me, puts mein the back of his car.
He's talking to me on the waythere, asking me if I had any

(38:02):
more money on me.
I said no, they took everythingI had.
He's sorry, man.
Well, this is your lucky day.
I got another call and I don'thave time to take you to the
jail house.
I'm going to take you to the,to this border crossing.
I'm gonna let you out andyou're never allowed back in
mexico again.
Just get out of here, nevercome back.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
And I was like oh, thank god, man, you know, sounds
like a fucking scam, like asetup it was a setup, yeah, and
funny.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
You should mention that because at that point it
dawned on me this dude's likeyeah get out of here and you're
you're, scared to shit mostpeople would be like I'm not
going to complain, Right.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Like I'm not telling anyone about this.
I'm not going to ask to speakto your supervisor, Right?
I just got fucking robbed.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, I don't want your badge number.
Bye.
Yeah, exactly, don't come backto.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Mexico Sounds like a good idea.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah, you would think that that would be the best
idea, right?
Just leave my stuff and be gladthat I didn't die, so you don't
have your suitcase?
I don't have my suitcase.
It's stuck in the back of thatcar at the pay lot.
It's still in the pay lot.
Still in the pay lot, okay, andI mean I walk across the border
of the American border agent,so they're literally laughing at
me.
They probably see it all thetime.

(39:10):
You know I'm blitzed out of mymind.
Dumb enough to talk to themabout what happened.
You're like they stole my drugsman, and I asked them like
should I go back?
And he's like whatever, dude,it's up to you, I mean we can't
tell you not to go.
That's their country, you know,yeah, and so I walked back
across the border Because youwanted your suitcase, I wanted

(39:30):
my suitcase and I felt like Icould find my way back to that
pay lot because it was in apopular area Revolution
Boulevard, yeah, and I could getmy stuff and find a way to get
it across.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
So I get to the pay lot.
I mean you weren't thinkingright?
Of course not In any stretch ofthe imagination?

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Not even yeah, because that cop just told you
to never come back to Mexico.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
And here you are, back in town walking around.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
I mean 30 minutes before I decided to go back.
I'm wondering if I'm going tolive or spend the rest of my
life in a Mexican jail, which noAmerican spends the rest of
their life in American jail anda Mexican jail.
They either get deported backor they get killed.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
So, yeah, again, uh, say no todrugs, man.
You know it could.
It really should have cost memy life.

(40:14):
I made some really stupiddecisions, as you can tell
already.
So, anyway, I get to the paylot, the car is gone.
The attendant knew me, he knewhe had recognized me because I'm
the white guy and he recognizedme.
So, no, they came and got thecar like 30 minutes ago.
Man, they've been gone a while.
I was like, oh man, that's whenI knew I got.

(40:34):
So the brothers, the brothers,yeah, so they didn't go to jail.
They didn't go to jail.
No no, they all split my money.
I took a beating, took abeating to make this look good.
And what's interesting now thatyou mentioned that, is I
actually read a book before thefirst time I ever went over
there on how to traffic steroidssafely from mexico, and they

(40:55):
talk about this scam in the bookthat they'll literally have two
guys, get with the cops, getyou caught up with the cops and
they'll literally beat one ofthem up.
No shit, this is a scam thatthey do on a regular basis and
you just forgot about it, orwell, I was blitzed out, man.
Yeah, man, you know just enoughcan't be said about how, how out

(41:16):
of my mind, how fucked up youwere.
You know, not just the drugs,but when you don't sleep for 10
days, no, that alone will makeyou delirious.
Oh, of course you know what Imean, yeah, and you know very
little nutrition, a couple tacosa day.
You weren't really hungry, knowso all right.
So, anyway, what happened wasfrom there.
Um, I was still dumb enough anddetermined enough to get my

(41:41):
stuff back Right Now.
I was mad that I got took byeverybody, right, couldn't just
leave the country and say forgetit.
So I, um, I catch a cab, okay.
So I catch a cab, okay.
And this is like I want to say.
It's like 2 in the morningagain.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
It's always 2 in the morning with all your shit.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Well, like a full 24 hours had passed from the last
escapade, right where I escapedthe last guys, vinny and Vinny.
So, anyhow, I get in this caband I have literally no idea
where these guys live.
I mean, I'd never been to thatpart of mexico, that part of
tijuana, up in the hills, wherethese guys had this little house
.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
I mean what's it like ?

Speaker 1 (42:23):
30 minutes outside the city or something, probably
20 at least okay, yeah, and so Iget in this cab and I try to
describe, describe to this guywhat the neighborhood looks like
, what the neighborhood lookslike, what the houses look like,
and I said it's up here in theHills somewhere and we go
driving literally for six hoursin that cab you know, just as a

(42:44):
side note, I I think I gave thatguy like a hundred American
dollars.
It was more than he makes allweek, Like he was thrilled to
stay up all night with me, but Ifinally gave up, man, after six
hours I was like there's justno way I'm going to find out
where these guys live.
I'm never going to find them.
And we were up in the hills.
So again, how dumb is it tostop there to end the cab ride

(43:08):
there.
Why wouldn't I have them takeme back down to the city?
I was just out of it, right?
Yeah, I literally get out ofthe car and I look to my left
and I'm at the house.
I'm at these guys house.
Craziest thing, man.
Like coincidence you thought youwere just getting the fuck out
yeah, I thought it was justending the cab ride and I think

(43:31):
in my mind I was going to walkaround the area, maybe you know.
Yeah, because I think I wasstarting to realize I can't keep
, I can't stay in this cab muchlonger, because, oh, I think the
cab driver was like I got to gohome, dude, like it's past my
shift, you know, I got family athome and I think it was kind of
him too.
Now, that I think about it yeahso anyway, but he still could

(43:52):
have taken me back down to thecity and I didn't have him do
that, right?
So I'm like getting out of thecar and again I looked to the
left and I see that it's theirhouse.
I'm like you gotta be kiddingme, man.
And these, these places have nowindows, no doors, nothing.
They're just like like housesunder construction almost or
something you know.
But they're old, they're not alittle concrete or brick, yeah,

(44:12):
like concrete, just forts typething you know yeah and so I'll
walk in there and the youngerbrother, the taller skinny one,
is in there in the house.
I'm like what's?
What's going on, dude?
you just fucking waltzed in yeah, just waltzed right in and he's
like, hey, you know, he's he'sthrilled to see me, right, and

(44:32):
or at least he acted.
It was, you know, and I waslike what is happening, man?
I just, you know, I came fromthe pay lot earlier.
They said he's thrilled to seeme, right, or at least he acted
as he was.
And I was like what ishappening, man?
I came from the pay lot earlier.
They said y'all left, and itwas like an hour after the cops
left.
I was like what happened and Ican't remember exactly what he
told me and what his excuse was,because his brother, the older

(44:53):
brother that was younger wasn'tthere.
And I can't remember the excusehe gave me of where his brother
was and where the car was, butI feel like he told me that his
brother was still in jail, thatthey let him out because they
beat him up, so they felt badfor him and let him out early
something like that.
But his brother was still injail and I was like, okay, but

(45:16):
where's the car?
Why don't you have the car?
Then?
And I can't remember to thisday what he told me.
You know, he might've justdenied it and said we didn't get
the car.
They're lying to you, the caris still there, or something.
I can't remember, right.
So I was like he's like, but hey, let's, I'm, I'm hungry man,
let's go down into town and getsome tacos, get some food.
I was like, all right, cool,man, he goes, my brother will be

(45:39):
out of jail soon and he'll beable to get the car and get your
stuff.
We'll still take you across,right?
And I'm like I don't believe itat this point, but I didn't
have any other options.
I'm hungry too.
I need to get back down down totown too.
So I'm like all right, let'sgrab a cab, let's go back down
to town, let's get somebody toeat and go from there, right?

(45:59):
So we're there, a couple ofhours walking the streets, I
realized nothing's going tohappen.
I'm not going to get my stuffback.
I finally, you know, finallymake amends with that.
I'm not getting my stuff back.
So I duck into an internet cafe.
He follows me.
I did it kind of suddenly.
He's like wait, what's going on, what are you doing?
I was like man, I'm getting outof here.

(46:19):
I mean, I wasn't scared of thiskid.
He was, he was, he was the pawn, right, yeah.
So I was like look, dude, I'm,I'm out of here, bro, I need
some sleep and I'm just donewith this.
So, for whatever reason, I thinkbecause obviously I would have

(46:40):
needed a credit card or a debitcard to book it, and I think I
maybe didn't have enough in mybank account because my
girlfriend had actual cash shewas sending me to book the
flight.
I think that's probably whathappened.
And so from there, he left theinternet cafe while I was
booking the flight and wentaround the corner to get
something to drink or something.
And so when I realized Iwouldn't be able to book the
flight there, I jetted Okay,craziest thing again, man, you

(47:04):
would think that this thing'sover.
Right, three rounds, I'm over,I'm done, yeah, I'm leaving,
looking for a plane ticket.
Well, I run into these othertwo guys that I had met that
were not in the apartment thatnight with vinnie and vinnie and
them, but I'd met them duringthe 10 days, right, okay, and
they were not like gangsters,they were like just regular
dudes, you know, had jobs.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
I think even but they were just partiers like, like I
was yeah, and so they seemedsafer.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
So they invited me back to their apartment right
now this is in the middle of theday and they're like man, we'll
help you get your stuff back.
We know who those dudes are.
They're nothing to worry about,we can get to them, we'll get
your stuff back from them andhelp you out.
I was like now, they didn'thave, you know, unlike the other
guys, they didn't have a remedyto get me across.
But they're like I don't knowhow you're going to get across,

(47:52):
but we'll get your stuff back.
They might've been being honest, but I sat there for a couple
of hours and I was just like youknow what, dude, I'm just done,
man, I'm out of here.
So again, memory doesn't serveme well at this point, but I
think I actually went to theairport to book the flight in
person with cash, cause I had mygirlfriend send me like the
last bit of cash I had.

(48:13):
I think I only had like 400bucks left.
I mean I literally had spentalmost 10 grand, you know,
primarily on drugs, you know,and this is everything you got.
Yeah, this is it.
And so I get there to theairport to buy the plane ticket
and I'm like still like 250short just to get home.
You know, and I might not havethe dollar amounts right, but it

(48:33):
was a good number of you know,and I might not have the dollar
amounts right, but it was a goodnumber of you know, it was a
good amount of money that Ididn't have.
I told the airlines what hadhappened to me.
I just told them I got muggedand, you know, robbed and stuff.
And they could tell I wascompletely blitzed out and
distraught, you know.
And so they gave me some kindof medical exception to get me

(48:54):
home, and I don't remember if Ieven had to give them the money
I had in my pocket.
But I got on a plane.
You know I get on the plane.
Obviously I fell straight tosleep.
I'm completely just blitzed andexhausted.
You know, a couple hour flightto Kentucky Actually it was
actually it was like eight hours, I think flight to Kentucky.
And I wake up on the plane andeverybody around me is just

(49:16):
staring at me like holy crap,like what?
what happened to you soevidently I fell asleep.
I mean, obviously I fell asleep, evidently I was probably
talking to my sleep falling outof the seat, like I remember, a
couple times the airline servicewould come and like put me back
in the seat because I wasliterally about to fall into the
aisle.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
You know, yeah, you were just fucking strung out.
Yeah, just completely strungout.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
Just indescribable, to the point that when I got in
the car at the airport inkentucky and my girlfriend, who
obviously knew me very well,looked at me, was like who are
you like?
What have you been?
She didn't know any of this.
I didn't tell her anythinguntil I got back.
She's like what happened to you?
What, what, what's going on?
Why did you have me, why didyou stay there so long and why'd

(50:02):
you have me send you all themoney you had?
Like what happened?
And I was too blitzed out toeven tell her man.
It was like a couple of weekslater before I could even tell
her what happened.
But she I was so differentlooking I probably lost 20, 30
pounds in that 10 or 11 days,holy fuck.
And she was like you're gross,like I'm, like she got the ick,

(50:27):
like she's like I'm completelynot attracted to you and never
will be again.
So get out of my life.
Yeah so um, so never will beagain, so get out of my life.
Yeah, so, um.
So I was living with my motherat the time, grew up in a
divorced home, so live with mymother.
She gets home, she takes onelook at me and says get out of
the house like I don't knowwhere you've been for two weeks.
But you look like you've beenthrough hell and back.

(50:48):
And she knew I was on drugs.
She knew I was dabbling in allkinds of drugs.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
You can get like a change of clothes or a shower,
yet I did.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
So she let me grab the clothes that I had.
I actually had freshly washedclothes that probably she washed
for me right, Threw them in aclothes basket and she was
literally like, get out.
Or I'm calling the sheriff tolock you up, Like get out of
here.
And I was like, okay, she'sserious.
She's never said something likethat.
You still haven't slept, stillhaven't slept, still haven't

(51:18):
slept.
So she calls all of myrelatives.
We're a real close-knit family.
She's got like six brothers andsisters at that time.
A couple of them have passedsince, but don't answer his
calls.
Call grandma and grandpa.
Everybody Don't answer hiscalls.
Call my sister.
He needs, he needs to learn.
I don't know what he's up to,but I can't deal with him.
He's out of control, leave himalone.

(51:39):
So I'm on the streets for likeseven days, man, you know, I got
like change in my pocket, youknow, not eating nothing.
And I uh, I met my girlfriendat this apartment complex and we
were lifeguards together when Iwas in college and she was
still working there.
So I went over there to see her.
She wouldn't, she stillwouldn't have nothing to do with
me.
But after seven days of beingon the streets, man, and really

(52:01):
still not sleeping much, right,I talked to one of the
maintenance guys that I knewthere pretty well.
So, look, man, here's whathappened in a nutshell.
I got to get some sleep, dude,like I got to get a roof over my
head.
Man, I'm gonna die, this isgonna kill me.
He's like all right, look, dude, I got apartment keys to
everything.
Of course we got a coupleapartments that are that are
under construction, getting somework done to them.

(52:21):
I'm gonna give you a key to oneof them, but if you get caught,
you you didn't get it from mebecause it'll cost me my job,
yeah, you know.
And so I said, all right, coolman, I appreciate.
So he put me in this apartment.
You know, first night went fine,and second night by this time I
had all those clothes I had inthe basket I left my mom's house
was were dirty and needed to bewashed.

(52:42):
So I took a little bit ofchange I had my pocket who knows
even where I got that and wentto the laundromat.
For some stupid reason I had todo it at midnight, couldn't do
it in like normal hours whenmost people wash their clothes,
and so I went over there and I'mback and forth in and out of
the apartment and this youngcouple across the hall hears me
late at night going back andforth.
And they knew I wasn't,something wasn't right, like I

(53:04):
wasn't a normal resident, youknow I wasn't a friendly
neighbor, like hey moved in, howyou doing, you know none of
that right, and the apartmentwas completely empty.
So they probably looked in andsaw you know, this guy's been
here a couple of days andthere's not even a stick of
furniture, you know.
So they call the cops andwithin moments cops are out in
the parking lot.

(53:25):
And I see through my frontwindows these cop lights,
probably three or four cop cars.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
Is this the first day ?

Speaker 1 (53:30):
Second day I was in the, the second night that I was
in the apartment, so you gotsome sleep.
Maybe I was in the the secondnight that I was in the
apartment, so you got some sleep, maybe I got sleep the first
night and I slept like all daythat day.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
This dude's up like 20 days Right Without really
sleeping.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Yeah, I mean I slept some on the streets cause I was
so tired.
Yeah, I did get some sleep onthe streets, you know, and I
would.
I would find places like in thedaytime and just crash out for
a couple of hours, and you'renot doing any drugs at this
point no I didn't have any money.
I had like change in my pocketAgain.
I don't even remember where Ihad the change left.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
but no, I had no money left.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Right.
So I must have given the lastfew hundred bucks I had to the
airlines.
Maybe they did make me givethat, I can't remember exactly,
but I had no money, okay.
And so when the cops came tothis apartment, I could see the
lights show up.
I'm like, oh my God, thesepeople called the cops on me.

(54:21):
So I luckily just finishedwashing all my clothes and
folded them, had them in thebasket, right, because I was
always ready for it.
I was always in escape mode,realizing that if somebody came
in there or whatever, I had tojet immediately.
So I always stayed ready.
So, after I washed all myclothes, I had them all folded
up and in the basket, you know,and I was like laying on a towel
on the floor, right.
So when the cops show up, I goout the door, which is on the

(54:44):
side of the building, right.
So the cops couldn't see meleaving the apartment and I
escaped to the back of thebuilding.
Okay, well, the back of thebuilding is actually facing the
street, kind of like a four waystop.
I Actually it was a three-waystop, okay, and I hide in this
bush up against the buildingPretty big bush, and I'm not a
big guy.
So I thought I was prettyhidden, right.
Well, I mean literally for acouple of hours.

(55:06):
Man, I'm just hiding out inthis bush and the cop lights are
still out there.
I know the cops are stilllooking for me and I'm thinking,
oh my God, dude, like how muchlonger am I have to sit in this
bush?
Finally, after a couple of hours, a cop walks right past me.
I hear his footsteps, I hearhim stop and then go again.
So he had to have seen mebecause he stopped right in

(55:31):
front of that bush.
I don't think that's acoincidence, it's like a movie,
yeah, yeah.
And I guess he just saw ascared young guy that didn't
seem like a threat to anybody,with a basket of clothes yeah,
I'm clean cut, I'm not likegangster looking.
So he probably just thoughtthis guy's a runaway or
something, or in trouble withhis wife he just I'm not going

(55:52):
to, I don't know Right or introuble with his wife he just
I'm not gonna.
I don't know right, but it wasweird that he didn't pull me up
out of that bush.
So finally, after about anotherhour, the cop lights go off,
right, but I could still see acouple of cop cars in that
three-way intersection sittingthere and I'm like God, dude,
I'm gonna have to be in thisbush for God knows how long man.

(56:14):
And it starts to rain and never, you know, never like poor, but
it was.
It was drizzling at that point.
It was probably three or fourin the morning at this point,
yeah, so about daybreak, I guess, at shift change I see those
cop cars leave the intersection.
I'm thinking, oh, thank God, soI leave the bush, just go
straight out into that street.
There's a bus stop there.

(56:36):
I hop on a bus that came almostimmediately in its route, hop on
this bus, do two trips aroundthe whole city on the back of
this bus just trying to gathermyself like God, when is this
nightmare going to end?
And he comes back to the spotthat he picked me up at, which
happened to be the beginning ofhis route.

(56:57):
So he stopped the bus and mademe get off.
He noticed I'd been back therefor two trips, didn't say
nothing to me real friendly guy.
Actually he said hey, man, Idon't know what you're up to If
you're trying to just ridearound the city all day with me.
But you got to get off the busbecause this is my break and
when I'm off the bus nobody canbe on the bus.
I'll be back in like 15 minutes.

(57:18):
If you want to get back on, Iwon't charge you.
I was like, okay, that's cool.
So I get off and it dawns on methat I'm standing across the
street from a hospital that Iknew well, I'd been to as a kid
or whatever for different likeyou know, er stuff, like
breaking my elbow on askateboard accident or something
you know.
And I knew there was a payphone in that emergency room on

(57:39):
the wall that didn't require anymoney.
It was like an emergency phonethat people could use, a
courtesy phone for, like familyyou know, hey, bob's in the
hospital or whatever.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
So back then we didn't have Internet right, so
we had um classified ads iswhere you would find jobs in the
box of newspapers.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
We had internet.
It just wasn't like a thingthen.
Well, I guess it was, I don'tknow Again.
All this is pretty much a blurright, yeah, yeah.
But so I I grabbed thisclassified ads newspaper.
That's in a newsstand, that'sfree, just the job section In
the ER, no, not in the.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
ER Right outside the ER.
Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
I grabbed this and I go into the ER and I'm like I
don't know how this is going towork out.
But one thing I have to do isget money.
Money is the only thing that'sgoing to get me out of this
situation.
So I literally prayed, man toGod.
I mean, I've always been abeliever in God at this point,
but I never needed him that baduntil now, right Like I was at.
That was at my wits end.

(58:37):
So I prayed to God.
I said, god, you got to help meget out of this situation.
Man, nobody's going to help me.
I have.
No only thing I knew good in mylife was my family, and they
had.
They had abandoned me, you know, jeez.
So I literally spend probably 8am to 5 pm literally standing
at this phone, just going to thebathroom periodically probably,

(58:58):
and called literally every adin that newspaper.
Nobody would even give me aninterview.
Wow.
Now, all of my family was prettywell off in the mortgage
business, you know, making goodmoney, and they were so busy
with it they didn't have time toeven train me.
I asked them a couple of timeswill you train me?
Because I had another businessbefore I got into all this

(59:20):
trouble and I wanted out of it.
I wanted in the mortgagebusiness.
They wouldn't train me.
So I said I prayed again.
I said, god, I'm going to callthis one mortgage ad said I
prayed again, I said God, I'mgoing to call this one mortgage
ad.
This is the job I really want.
And if and if, uh, man, I getchoked up at this point cause
it's, it's, it's, it's gettingreal for me now.
But I, uh, I said, uh, if Idon't get this job, I'm done,

(59:45):
like I'm probably going to gokill myself, man, because I
can't deal with this anymore.
Man, like I can't live this way, you know.
And I call that ad again, andthe owner of the mortgage
company answers the phone andoffers me an interview.
It just so happened it was atthe end of the day, his
secretary was gone for the day,so he answered the phone himself

(01:00:06):
, liked what I had to say Idon't remember what I said to
him, but obviously I probablysounded real motivated, you know
.
And so he gives me an interview, man, and schedule it for the
next day.
And here I am unshowered, likejust a mess, like don't even
know how I'm going to presentmyself this interview the next
day, right, and so I call mydad's mother who I'm, I'm.

(01:00:31):
I was pretty estranged from mydad's family because he was a
deadbeat my whole life, so wedidn't communicate with him a
lot.
They loved us and we saw him atChristmas, and that was about it
.
You know, get your toys and gohome.
And hey, grandma, thanks.
You know, rude of me as a kid,but I just didn't know these
people, right?
So I call her and I said, hey,here's what happened.
She said I already know and Ican't come get you.
Your mother has already calledeverybody.
She won't let us talk to you.

(01:00:53):
And I was like look, here'swhat's happened.
That's kind of wicked.
Yeah, my mom had had it with methough, man, because after my
divorce I just got buck and Iwas a pretty wild child anyway
before my divorce.
I calmed down during mymarriage, but I was still doing

(01:01:18):
stupid stuff, so when I gotdivorced I just lost my mind,
you know, yeah.
So, anyway, thank God, I toldher, you know kind of where I
was, had this job interview.
I just need a place to showerand clean up and get some decent
clothes to wear in theinterview, and then you know,
that's all I need from you.
Man, can you help me?
She's like, yeah, but you can'tlive here, you know, but I'll
help you get cleaned up and getyou to the interview tomorrow,
and then you're on your own.
I was like, okay, so I get thejob.
And I'm just like, hey, what Isaid?

(01:01:40):
No shit, yeah, I get the job.
I'm just like a static.
But I'm leaving the interviewand I don't even know where I'm
going to sleep that night.
You know.
Well, she was gracious enough.
She was glad I got the job.
She actually had a plan to takeme to a shelter from there.
I was like, please don't takeme to a shelter.
Man, I'd been in those placeslike just visiting, right, and I

(01:02:03):
was like I just I'll lose mymind there.
Please don't take me there.
So she had enough mercy on meto let me stay in her basement,
but she refused to drive me towork.
I'm eight miles to the office.
I'm walking back and forth tothe office for two months.
I become the top producer andthe rest is history.

(01:02:27):
Man, god helped me out of thatsituation really miraculously.
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Yeah, I mean that had to be like oxygen, just to
finally, yeah, like a drop ofwater in the desert.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
I've never told anybody this full story and now
that I tell it to you and reliveit, it's just nothing short of
a miracle that I lived throughit.
Man, like I'm numb right nowthat I'm even standing in front
of you telling this story, man,you know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
So, yeah, and then you ended up being very
successful.
Yeah, I became very successfulWorking with mortgages.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Yeah, within a year and a half had my own mortgage
company, became a real estateinvestor and yeah Fuck yeah,
yeah everything went well fromthere man a real estate investor
.
And yeah, fuck, yeah,everything went well from there,
man, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Well, thank you for sharing that with us.
I mean, that was.
It's an incredible story.
It's rags to riches in a way.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
Yeah, and I mean, life wasn't peachy all the time
after that but it was a lotbetter than you probably learned
at death and life in Mexico.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Yeah, you had to learn a lot from that experience
, hopefully, and you kind oflook at it like I never want to
go back there.
I'm going to have problems, butI never want to be in that hole
again.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
Matter of fact, man, when you say that I remember
riding away from Tijuana on thattrain and looking over the city
of Tijuana and saying I willnever go back to that place
again, never.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Don't go to fucking TJ.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Never.
Yeah, it's worse now, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Well, thanks for interviewing we appreciate it
and thank you for tuning in.
Yeah, see you next time.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
We hope you enjoyed this episode.
If you liked it, make sure thatyou go ahead and subscribe to
us.
That helps give it a rating,whatever platform you're
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