Law&Crime Sidebar - AI CEO Gets Bloody Pig’s Head in Mail with Chilling Note

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Police out in Las Vegas are trying to figure out who sent a severed pig's head to the CEO of a company. We're digging into what we know so far about this disturbing delivery, a creepy note that came with it, and the possible motive behind the macabre mystery right now. And we're going to break it down with Tom Smith. retired NYPD detective and co-host of the Gold Shield Show. Welcome to Sidebar.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. All right, so this is a story that seems straight out of the movies. What kind of movie? Which movie? That's a separate question. But what do we have here? The CEO of a Nevada company that's been working to integrate AI artificial intelligence into buying and selling real estate received a disgusting gift.

Starting point is 00:01:00 in the mail? Maybe that's one way of putting it. Someone apparently sent him a box and nestled down in packing paper and wrapped up in plastic wrap was a bloody pig's head. This is like the godfather, right? So the head arrived at a family member's home via USPS on July 29th. The unfortunate recipient of the box, Blake Owen, shared photos showing the head all wrapped up inside the box with local media outlets like the Las Vegas Review Journal. And along with this gross head was a note. Now, before we dive into what it said, I want to give you a little bit of background on Blake Owens. So the 30-year-old Las Vegas native is the founder of an AI startup called Agrippa. It is named for the Roman General Marcus Agrippa who fought against Mark

Starting point is 00:01:46 Anthony and Cleopatra centuries ago. A little history lesson here on sidebar. So Owens has been working to better integrate AI into the real estate industry. AI is going everywhere right now. And he has made some bold statements in recent months about how eventually AI will make commercial brokers obsolete. It's pretty scary. Back in June, local news station, 8 News now did a story about the shuttered east side cannery hotel and casino, the sale of which was assisted by Owen's new AI tool called Marcus. Marcus, Agrippa, you get it. Okay, so then in July, Owens posted on X about the future of AI in the world of CRE, you know, commercial real.

Starting point is 00:02:26 estate. On July 3rd, he wrote PSA for CRE brokers whose only skill is hitting send on an email blast. Marcus is coming. A Grippa Inc.'s AI dealmaker doesn't sleep, doesn't bluff, and doesn't take a cut. You will be replaced. I'll make sure of it. Long live Marcus. Then he apparently posted a longer tweet or X or message on July 17th, writing in part, CRE brokers, brace yourselves A.I. is coming for your commissions. And don't get me wrong, there are excellent brokers out there, but many are useless middlemen adding unnecessary costs. Just like GROC serves ex-users, Marcus is designed to forecast behavior, provide feedback, and uncover hidden leverage for gripper's users. There's still significant work ahead. Marcus must account for all deal types,

Starting point is 00:03:20 property types, user characteristics, and more. But this $45 million deal was an excited. first step in our thesis of combining AI and game theory, long live Marcus. So it appears that not everyone took kindly to Owens' online boasts, and the note that accompanied the head kind of gives us an idea of what the sender might have been thinking. Okay, to talk about it, want to bring on Tom Smith, retired NYPD detective and co-host of the Gold Shields show. It's an incredible podcast. Hope everybody can check it out.

Starting point is 00:03:54 But Tom, is this the beginning of threats that we see in the AI space? I mean, I think I can make a conclusion here. I don't know for sure. Would it it seem? And I'll get into what the note says. So let's not spoil it yet. But I got to imagine making bold posts about AI and talking about how it might replace people's jobs can be very, very scary for a lot of people.

Starting point is 00:04:19 You think we're going to be seeing threats against AI, Yeah, I think so. Listen, no one wants to lose their job or the position they have in companies. I get that. But there's a line and this guy crossed that line. You could be upset. You could be mad all you want about the innovations that are coming, you know, in the AI world. But when you start doing actions and creating threats like this, you're crossing the line and law enforcement's not going to have it because of, you know, the assassination of Brian Thompson in New York City. you know, last year, uh, kind of set off the watching over CEOs and really paying attention to threats that are out there because no one wants to deal with another assassination of a CEO. Let me ask you this. Pigshead. You ever see anything like that before aside from the chopped up horses head and the godfather? Have you seen in your experience? Has anything like that ever been sent through the mail? Well, there, there's cases of other things being sent through the mail as well. You know, it's a powerful statement that people just, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:29 think are going to get ahead and get ahead of their message. But it doesn't work because there's so many things that you have to do in order to mail that package that inevitably you're going to get caught. How does that work? How does that work? Like, what do police do to look at who had the ability to have a pig, have the head, and ship it in a way where they wouldn't get noticed? Well, the U.S. Postal inspectors and the U.S. Postal Police are going to be involved in this investigation because it is somewhat of a federal crime. So the FBI can also get involved as well and the locals. So there's going to be a team effort to do this because, like I said, the threats that are out there because of what happened in New York City are taken very, very seriously. So they're going to go all out into stopping or arresting this person, which I don't think is going to be a long process.

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Starting point is 00:07:18 that is home titlelock.com promo code sidebar. Where does someone even get a pig's head like that? And do they do testing on the pig's head? They could. I mean, you know, that's going to be another fact of where, you know, this guy is and the accessibility he has to, to animals and what he did with this. But, you know, it's not so much that, Jesse.

Starting point is 00:07:39 It's the threat. It's the overwhelming scare tactics that are going on in the world. And it's not just this. There's many CEOs, especially after Brian Thompson's assassination, that you had wanted posters up with X's through their faces on postings around New York and other states. So it's being taken very, very seriously. Before I get into this, let me go into the note. Okay. So let's dig into what this note, this letter had to say.

Starting point is 00:08:10 And it starts off by calling Owens Clark Kent knockoff and not to make light of a serious situation. but Owens does kind of look like Clark Kent, down to the glasses. Anyway, it says, Clark Kent knockoff. A simple Google search goes a long way these days, especially in Vegas. Saw your Marcus video. What a joke. AI, which is in quotes, is not going to replace brokers. Clearly, you don't understand real estate wasn't built by developers or investors.

Starting point is 00:08:39 And it sure as hell wasn't built by tech guys in Lulu Lemon. It was built by brokers. We did it the hard way. No shortcuts, no tech, just people. So enjoy your moment while it lasts. And don't get greedy because pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. And the note is signed with just an M. Tom, what are the clues from that note?

Starting point is 00:09:04 Well, he gives up who he is. He's a broker, you know, plain and simple. He goes... Unless it's a misdirection, unless it's a misdirection. It could be. But you know what? when people aren't skilled in this they make mistakes and that was a mistake because his you know his passion came out and he forgot to take out the word we after the word broker you know so it

Starting point is 00:09:26 kind of gives a idea of who he is and and who else is going to be upset about this he he constantly is antagonistic in his post and his videos about getting brokers out of the way and not have you know then not having jobs and being replaced so the obvious answer is this individual is a broker. Now, whether he knows him or work for a company that they were affiliated with will be seen down the line. But he gives up a lot of clues in this of who he is. So if we assume it's a broker of some kind, and now we have the pig's head, we have the note. They just start looking at local brokers in the area. I mean, could it be from another state? How do you, what's the next step? Oh, by the way, by the way, I'm sorry,

Starting point is 00:10:10 fingerprints on the note. that's exactly what I was going to say the box the note all that is going to be printed and processed and there's going to be a series of video surveillance tapes that are going to be pulled as well in and around that area and like I said his identity I don't think is is down the line too far because we've talked about it before Jesse the the surveillance capabilities today of comings and goings into establishments or when crimes are committed are so advanced these days you can literally track someone from getting out of their car to inside the store to back in their car and getting license plates and all that. So I think that's going to be the first step on top of,

Starting point is 00:10:52 like you said, processing the box, the note and everything for any possible fingerprints that are on there. Now, right off the bat, the suspect was indicating that he's done at least a little bit of research into Owens, right? He knows he lives in Vegas. Obviously, he was able to find owns home address to send the package. So then I wonder, is there a way where they can track. I mean, I guess they first have to get a suspect before they can look at what the search history was. Right. You know, once he's identified and arrested, that's going to take place. His digital footprints searches he did because that's going to all build up to the motive of this. And the prosecution is going to build that in their case. So that's going to be afterwards as well.

Starting point is 00:11:34 The letter takes a darker turn at the end, tells Owens to enjoy the moment, not get greedy, talks about a slaughter. You couple that with the actual pighead. You know, this is not just somebody commenting on X. This is a different kind of step. How dangerous is this suspect? Oh, very. You have to take a threat like this for someone to go to the steps that he did in putting all this together, he's dangerous. I mean, you have to be aware of the dangers and mental capabilities of some people out there and how hard things hurt.

Starting point is 00:12:10 You don't know what triggers people in their lives, in their, you know, their jobs and all that. So all of these, you know, threats are very dangerous until you grab this person, get them off the street and have the ability to talk to them and see what's going on. By the way, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the sender's name on the package was Marcus Agripp. So another reference to the company, its new AI tool. And I would say unlike a lot of threatening letters that are featured on TV and movies, this one isn't typed or uses cut out letters from a newspaper. It appears based on the reporting to be handwritten. Could a handwriting analysts help narrowed down the suspect?

Starting point is 00:12:54 How does that work? Yeah, no doubt about it. All the analytical work that's going to go into this is going to be broad from fingerprints, to handwriting analysis to listen the the package had to be dropped off somewhere so you have a starting point that's not a mystery so you have a starting point of where this took place then you're going to go back into some cases has this happened before and you go you're going to go into other investigations of similarities of this did it happen before what who were the suspects in that so there's going to be a lot to do with this this is not a simple investigation this can be pretty broad

Starting point is 00:13:32 not too long and they get this guy. Talking about that, okay, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, they released surveillance photos of a person of interest in this case. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, police said in a press release that the man was seen entering a post office on July 28th, so that's the day before the package was delivered to a home in Summerland. This is just outside Vegas. And Metro police officers reportedly spoke with Owens on the 30th,

Starting point is 00:13:58 according to the review journal and filed a report for harassment. But Owen says they classified the incident as a non-threat. Hmm, it seems like a threat to me, Tom, no? Yeah, very much. You can't, you know, kind of take this lightly. And you would think there'd be more of a push in this. But because of it being, again, in the U.S. Postal Service, it is a federal offense and a federal crime.

Starting point is 00:14:22 So the federal agencies that need to be involved are going to be, the U.S. postal inspectors, postal police, the FBI, if needed. But this has to be, you know, run down because the ramifications of not doing it could be dreadful and could be really bad. And also copycats. Yeah, that's going to happen. You know, that happens in every crime because of here's why, the notoriety. Look at the press he's getting.

Starting point is 00:14:49 Look, it may have had an impact on this. So people are going to take extraordinary steps to try to get their point across. but those are going to be perceived as threats. So they're going to be held accountable for those actions. By the way, just to go back to put a fine point on it, why would police, if understanding the reporting correctly, why would they classify this as a non-threat at the time? I don't know, because maybe just the wording of it,

Starting point is 00:15:15 there's not a legitimate, I'm going to kill you, be prepared, watch your family, you know, anything like that. But you have to think outside the box a little bit of, you know, hidden messages and things like that. So you can't just go on face value of what you're looking at to classify a crime. You have to look more into it. And like I said, the ramifications of not doing anything are a lot worse. Well, I guess the question would be, can you send anybody anything you want? Can you write anybody anything you want as long as it's not a direct threat to violence? So if he's upset by this message and he, instead of sending a pig's head, just sent the letter, you know, would that be enough?

Starting point is 00:16:00 Is the pig's head, you know, I'm sure a defense attorney would say it's not symbolic of death. It's he's saying he's a pig, you know, you can't send a live pig to him. So he sent this. I don't know. Is that an avenue? Well, that's why you have people in the DA's office who went to law school and spent a lot of money doing so to make those. decisions, you know, and to look into the crimes and what can be charged. Detectives' jobs are to run down the guy, get them, get enough evidence and probable

Starting point is 00:16:30 cause to lock him up. And then the DA is going to take over from there as far as what to charge him and what can be what he's going to be held accountable for in the criminal justice system. By the way, talking about Owens, he seems to kind of be taking the whole thing in stride, saying it seems almost too theatrical to be taken. taken seriously? I say that because in an interview with outlet K-L-A-S, Owen spoke directly to the sender, whoever they are, saying to that person, I know they have my information. I'm happy to speak with them, perhaps over email instead of a mail package, but whatever I can do to help people

Starting point is 00:17:07 embrace change, I think is what I'd like to do. Now, what do you make of that message? Well, that's kind of trying to quell this storm a little bit and maybe get someone to calm down a little bit with their threats and future threats you know you don't want to constantly get this and that's going to be part of this investigation as well going into his emails and his social media posted any other threats come in of a similar nature or just maybe the same wording that was sent to him so all that's going to be part of it as well but i think that step that he's taking is for to stop future threats from coming in but the sender wouldn't take the bait if they had a meeting in the part or at a restaurant wouldn't police swarm them absolutely i mean it's a good shot you know but you know

Starting point is 00:17:57 sometimes criminals fall for things like that you know so you give it a shot if it doesn't work out you go the next step but like i said with with the evidence that they got the surveillance picture having a photo of someone is enormous because someone's going to know him someone at his work his family his job whatever it might be someone's going to recognize him and the next steps of this investigation i think you're going to be pretty quick By the way, you talked about this being a federal crime, possibly a state crime. What generally speaking, what charges could this person potentially be facing if they're arrested? Well, the threat itself is going to be, you know, a terrorist threat can be perceived from this.

Starting point is 00:18:37 And then you have all federal crimes as far as mail goes, a mail fraud and wire fraud and all that of things being sent through the mail. So all that's going to be, you know, gathered and the best charges are the highest charges. that they can go forward with are going to be laid out. Tom Smith, I bet you didn't think that we were going to be talking about this kind of case this week, but things always change rapidly. Thank you so much for taking the time. Got a great background, by the way. It's amazing that it always stays on sunset.

Starting point is 00:19:07 What a beautiful view you have. I don't know how that happens, Tom, but that's amazing. Just it stays on sunset. Yeah, you know what? It's the New York thing. It's always sunny in New York, but not really. I want everybody to go check out Gold Shields. Thank you so much.

Starting point is 00:19:23 Really appreciate you taking the time. Always a pleasure, Judge. Thanks for having me. All right, everybody. So before we wrap things up, I want to tell you real quickly, I am going to be hosting Cuomo tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on News Nation.

Starting point is 00:19:34 Hope you can all watch it. Hopefully, I can take some calls from you out there. We'll see. Hopefully we have enough time. A lot of stuff happening in the world. But check it out, 8 p.m. Eastern tonight, News Nation. I'll see you them. And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Starting point is 00:19:48 everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. or Spotify.

Law&Crime Sidebar - AI CEO Gets Bloody Pig’s Head in Mail with Chilling Note

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