Locked In with Ian Bick - How I Ran a $250,000 Boosting Operation & Ended Up in a New York Prison | Chris Johnson

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

Chris Johnson describes how he ran a $250,000 boosting operation in New York, how he stayed under the radar, and what led to his arrest. #BoostingOperation #OrganizedCrime #TheftRing #TrueCrime #LawEnforcement #UndercoverSting #BlackMarket #PrisonStory Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://convictclothing.net/collections/convict-clothing-x-ian-bick Timestamps: 00:00:00 Overcoming Illness and Responsibilities 00:05:58 The Unexpected Path to Rehabilitation 00:12:32 Family History and Alleged Crime Involvement 00:19:25 Navigating the Juvenile Justice System in Connecticut 00:26:00 Survival and Violence in Juvenile Detention 00:32:47 Turning to Crime: The Impact of Anger 00:39:10 Navigating Prison Politics: Loyalty and Betrayal 00:45:50 The Brutal Politics of Juvenile and Adult Prisons 00:52:33 Struggles with Family and Depression 00:59:38 Discovering My True Parentage and Its Emotional Impact 01:07:00 Navigating Loopholes and Clean Living 01:13:29 Arrest at Walmart 01:20:04 Struggling with Anxiety and Addiction 01:26:32 Rise of a Rap Career: From Outdoor Events to Fame 01:34:10 Struggles with Drug Addiction and Withdrawal 01:40:36 A Thrilling Escape and Pursuit Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount. New vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy. How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. Ready or not, summer is coming. And Wayfair's Memorial Day clearance is on now.

Right now through May 25th, get up to 70% off everything home at Wayfair. Plus, score amazing doorbuster deals all sale long and surprise flash deals on Memorial Day. We're talking thousands of products at every style and budget. Now is the time to save big on must-habs for your patio, backyard, and beyond. These savings won't last. So don't wait. Shop Wayfair's Memorial Day clearance now through May 25th. Wayfair, every style, every home. Chris, welcome to Locked in, man. How you doing today? I'm doing good. We had a little snowstorm last night, a little snow scare, but we're here, we made it. It wasn't as bad as we thought. I came down early trying to beat it, so I was smart about that.

Happy it's over. It'll make my travel with back home nice and easy, though. Yeah, I'm just getting over being sick, so for the audience of the little stuff. It's going around. For sure. Everybody I know it's bad. It's bad. And I tested negative for everything, like all the major. I've heard a lot of people say that too. They're like deathly sick, but they're not testing for anything as well. So I think there's just some bugs going around this year. Yeah. For sure. Happy you're doing well. Happy you're doing better. Thanks, man. Yeah, that thing wiped me out. It was like a really bad sore throat. Then to just like a really, you know, cold like... All head. Yeah, it was really a head. Like it was a head cold.

A couple of people close to me about. in the same way. They swore it was strep, like how bad the throat was. And then violent coughs. I couldn't stop coughing, went to bed last night, like terrible coughing. And then today I'm finally, this is the least amount of coughing I got done. The best you've been, all right. Happy it's from my time, then, you know.

Yeah, it worked out good. But you're like me. You said you were a big baby. Yeah, I'm a big. I'll own that. I'm a man baby when I'm sick. I'm like, you know, being in jail, being sick, you don't have a responsibility. You can lay up on that cod all day.

being out in the real world being sick is a lot different. You know, I've gotten better at it. Like the slightest sniffle or head cold when I first came home, forget it. I'm not going in, you know. I'm not working. Nope. I'm just, I want to lay up in bed. And I'm still kind of like that, but I've gotten better at pushing myself and adapting, so to speak.

I think being sick in prison is even worse, though, because you don't have a NyQuil. You don't have any of that. That is true, too. That is true. Like the medical sucks there, but there's no responsibility. That's true. You know, like, yeah. And I can only speak for me. When I was in jail, I was still getting high even in there. So even if I caught a cold, you know, I get high, kind of pushes it away. You know, I feel better. I can just lay in my cop, read a book, not off and on all day. We're out here, you know, I still got a family to feed. I still got a kid who wants my attention. You know, there's no real being sick, like where there was in there. Yeah. Well, one of the kind of, I guess, a few things I would miss about being in there is the lack of responsibility.

You know, you don't have bills. You don't have work. You don't have health insurance, you know, car insurance. All I got to do is make sure I'm fed and I'm good, you know. It was a lot easier in there, at least for me. Yeah, when I was working corporate for a few years before I started this, like when I would go to work sick because I just always felt bad, you know? Like depending. And even like in this job, like, I don't want to cancel.

very rarely cancel or reschedule an interview unless like I'm really, really bad. And I'll make sure the person's local, like they didn't fly all the way out here and I got to change it. I'll still show up for that. So it's, you know, but it's that feeling of people are depending on you. You still got to push forward. You can't really. Especially like I run a restaurant.

So we're like if I know if anybody else is sick, it puts a tremendous strain on everybody else. So me being the manager, if I'm not there, I'm putting strength. on my boss and the rest of my teammate. So it's that responsibility. Like, no matter how bad I feel, I feel bad to do that to them. Where in jail, like I said, like, you know, I don't have to worry about feeling bad for anybody.

I can do what I want still. Yeah, sometimes I miss those days. You know, I would never want to go back. Definitely don't want to go back. But that's, like, one of the few things. And especially, like, I spent a total of 15 years. in and out, jail, prison, like, I'm only five years what I call into like my adulthood. You know, I'm 23, though I'm 35.

You know, I don't know the things, like I don't know how to get a mortgage like people my age do. You know, so I'm still, I'm trying to catch up in life and get back to where I should be compared to all, most of my peers at least. Yeah, but that's real. It's a very real statement you just said. And even the last few days, like, me barely really doing much because I was sick. Like, I was getting antsy. I'm like, I got to do this.

I got to do that. I'm like, how did I make it through three years in prison of doing absolutely nothing or the same thing every day? Well, I mean, when I was caught up in my addiction, kind of jail was like my reprieve, you know? Like, it gave me a break. Though, I mean, like I said, I was still getting high in there. But I wasn't putting the wear and tear on myself like I was out in the streets, ripping and running and, you know, getting into all kind of shit, you know, put a lot of wear

and tear on my body throughout that phase. So it was kind of like my reprieve phase when I was in there, you know, I didn't mind being in there throughout that time. Now I look back and I'm like, what was I thinking just even being remotely comfortable with that? Like, you know, like it was just a regular thing to me in out, and out, and out, and out. It was fine. for the longest time. And then it finally, and I really got to give credit to the last time I was incarcerated.

There was actually like a, I got lucky, I feel. Just the way it worked out for me. I actually had a support system in the jail. There was a drug program they had built. I got accidentally released. I wasn't supposed to get out. So there was no plan or any,

It was just run out the door before they realized that they screwed up type of deal and then I got outside and I'm like what what am I gonna do? My first thought was to get high and I literally like took off running like running trying to catch the bus because I know it only comes once every hour and I like ran for maybe a minute and I stopped I'm looking at the jail and I'm looking that way and I'm like I'm tired of this where for years there was a comfortability for me and It finally just got tiresome where I wouldn't have thought in that time period. So like I said, I'm still trying to catch up in life. But had it not been for that support in there, I don't know if I would be where I am today. I actually went back to the jail, asked the booking officer to call the drug coordinator down. She gets in the lobby. She's screaming, what are you doing out here?

You got four months left still. And I'm like, you tell me, I'm here. Like, they told me to leave. That's not usually how this goes, you know. Usually people are begging to get out. Me, I don't know what to do right now. I'm, like, stuck. So she's like, what happened?

I told them how they ended up being a screw-up in the paperwork. I got brought back to court the night before because my sentencing wasn't right. And instead of having two consecutive terms, they judge clerk screwed up and wrote concurrent. So when they processed it that next morning, they called for me. ran and then I didn't know what to do.

And so once I broke it down to her, she's like, there's no fixing that. They can't call the judge up and be like, hey, your clerk screwed up. We're going to put them back in jail and you fix the paperwork. So she calls a drug program and luckily got me right in. I don't know if it was for her if I would be where I am today. That's awesome. You know, because that was one of my biggest problems. I'd get out.

There was no support. You know, I'm homeless at that time. What little family I do have was not fucking with me at all messing with me. They want nothing to do with me. You know, they were done with me. So get out. I'm homeless. What am I going to do?

You know, I'm already at the bottom of the bottom starting off. You know, there was nothing to build from. So there was no real incentive to get clean. So I would just go right back to it. where actually having that support that one time, out of all my years going, you know, prison, yeah, they have the drug program there, but they don't set up anything on the outside.

It's just basically to make the courts happy and say, or at least in New York, I should say, you know, they got the KSAT program. There is no real, honestly, that's where the most drugs is in prison is the drug house, you know, all the addicts in one house. That's where everything is in New York at least. Like, so it's just a bunch of addicts getting high, no real treatment or anything, no support for when you go home. When you parole, you parole to the shelter.

Like, that's your starting off. So this Albany County Jail has the drug program and it's the only jail that I've ever met. And it was a veterans program as well. So they had extra amount of support for us than, you know, a typical inmate. And if I'm going to be honest, the only thing. reason I went to that program was they had air conditioning. The rest of the jail didn't. It was hot as hell, summer, 110 in there, everybody stanking. You know, this was a real old jail. Like, we had bars on the windows. Like, birds were inside our dorm. Like, you could feed a bird, a mouse, you know,

is real old. And that was like the new part of the jail. But it was the drug program. And when they first called me, I'm like, nah, I'm not going. Actually, just got my commissary. I was ready to go hit the poker table. And they just called me to go. I'm like, no, I'm not going. I was like, oh, just go get some A-C. Even if it's for a day or two, and then you leave. And that was like the stumbling block of it all, but that support was everything for me to get where I am today. So where'd you grow up? Where are you from? Originally, I'm actually from here in Connecticut. I was born here in Connecticut on the New York, Connecticut border, a place called Sharon. My mom had customers. My mom had of me, which was a real rough childhood,

Hartford, Torrington, Waterbury, all over Connecticut. And then my grandparents got custody of me as when I would move to New York. Where was your dad? Did you know? My biological father is actually in prison as well. When my mom was three months pregnant with me,

him and my grandfather and uncle caught life sentences together. together. Oh, wow. His dad. Yep. So my father's dad. And his brother.

And his brother. So basically, you know, that side of the family. So I never got to meet my real dad. I reached out to him as a kid, sent him letters, always got sent back. So he basically let me know what it was. When I would hit adulthood, though, when I went to prison, I didn't know this until my second prison bid, but there was actually a stay away between us. us. And the only way that that could have happened was, in my opinion, if he requested it. Because they don't know he's my dad. You know, we never been together. There's never been any type

of contact, visit. So the only thing, that was like the final straw. I got it. You don't want nothing to do with me. Do you think he was doing you a favor, though, looking back on it now that you're a dad yourself? I could get it from his side because I have a child that, you know, I've done the same thing. He's better off without me. You know, like, I'm just going to bring him harm and good, no good, you know, and mess him up. So I could see where he's coming from, but that also caused a lot of childhood anger, you know, and didn't know how to direct that anchor.

But there was a man who was in my life. He was my mom's previous boyfriend to my father. and he actually, to this day, is who I call dad. So I did, and I thought he was my father until I was a teenager, and they broke all this down to me. Oh, they waited until you were a teenager to do this? Yeah, and to me, at that point, you should have never told me. You should have never told me.

I was already really angry with my mom. That fucked me up. That's what sent me. I was already down a bad path. That's what sent. That was like the final nail in that piece of wood. Do you know? Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life,

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So keep it real. Look for the seal. Real California milk. Are your dad dead? Did you ever find out the details? So I've heard a couple of stories. I've not been able to find it on paper, though. Allegedly, it was murder. They got caught riding around. So somebody had robbed them. My father's side was large drug dealers. They got robbed for two kilos of cocaine. They found the guys. They killed them. And they had them in the trunk.

That was what it originally was. But somehow he got off on that. I don't know how because there's no paperwork I can find tied to that. But then like two months after getting off on that, he went to prison for like 10 years for drug offenses. and then came home, got a DWI, and then went back, and then came home and died like two months later. So most of my life, he spent in prison.

Oh, so your dad's dad now? Yeah, he passed now. So I really don't even know. I just know he spent a bunch of time. Even like normally you can look somebody up on a docs website. And when I would look him up on the New York State Doc's website, it was too late past the murder allegations. Like, I could only catch his most recent bids.

And I think from 89, they didn't have, you know, electronic systems. So things from back then are a lot harder to get than nowadays. And even in like the last 10 years, you can get a good amount of information. Did you have any siblings growing up? So I do have a couple of siblings out there. We don't know each other and I had a couple of siblings that have also passed away.

My mom had a couple of children. My dad, my biological father had a couple of children. But my grandparents had me for a good portion of my life. My mom would get out of prison. She would be doing good. She'd get custom you back a couple of months later. she's already been getting high, going back to jail, my grandparents would get me, and I would bounce back and forth. But the majority of the time, my grandparents have me. So when they finally

told me the truth, I knew a couple of siblings from my mom's side, and then I went and investigated on my dad's side. I've met a couple of them. There's a couple of them out there that I just can't meet. I can't find them on Facebook, so they're under a different name or something like that to even try. Like I know I got a sister in Florida. I have a brother in New York that I have met. I had three brothers pass away here in Connecticut. So pretty much to me, I grew up an only child, even though I had siblings.

I grew up an only child, even into adulthood. Like, it's always been me. Did your grandparents have the means to support you financially? So, oh, yeah. my grandparents were pretty well all. So it was my child who was messed up because of it, though. I'd go from living in projects to doing everything and having all the food in the world

and all the activities in the world and whatever I wanted. And then it'd be like, oh, you're going back to your mom's. And it'd be like, fuck, all right, back to eating, baloney and dry cereal, you know, if we got lucky. My mom was a terrible mom. She should not have had kids at all. Did you ever begin to have resentment towards your mom when you were doing the constant switch?

Oh, yeah. Like, I would hate it. I would hate it when she would pop back up. I would hate it when she would get, you know, I'd be like, all right, how long until, you know, we had this thing called umbrella time. And that's when she would get high, like in the living room. She would make us pop out our umbrellas. And we'd hide behind them and, you know, play with whatever little toy we had at the time.

And then, like, an hour would go back. and we'd pop out and she'd be in the chair knotted out, like just passed out, just a terrible mom. Didn't take care of us. Didn't all she cared about was drugs. How would people describe you as a kid? So with my mom, you know, I was definitely acting out, you know, also in that environment, you know, being raised in projects and ghetto. There's a lot of crime around that, too. With my grandparents, I was a saint up until a teenagehood, you know, when it's a lot of, you know,

and I found out my family history. That's what really, like I said, tipped it over. I was already partying, you know, pretty heavily for a young teenager. You know, I started smoking weed at 10 because that was because my mom, you know, it was always around. But I was also doing, like, cocaine by 12, 13. And that was actually, I did a juvenile bid, and that's where the first time I did cocaine was. And that was after you found out about your dad? Not yet. This was just like my early partying phase. Then once I found out about my bio-dad, it was like I was doing cocaine daily at 14.

Tell us about that juvenile bid, how you got pop for that and what happened? It's my mom's fault. No, it's not her fault. We got charged me and a couple of my friends with armed robbery at 10. Kind of stupid. We were coming back from the park playing baseball. You know, we were going home. We were hungry. We all, none of our parents took care of us, so we had an idea to steal some candy from the corner store. We go in, you know, we load up our pockets.

We go taking off, and hockey grabs one of my friends because he knew what we were doing. He's like, everybody has to hear pockets. My buddy had the baseball bat from playing baseball, and he hit him. And you let him go, and we ran, and we were charged with our robbery for stealing candy. And you got juvenile time for that?

Yep. Yep. And then so I did four years and same thing. This will really, the juvenile system is broken too. The juvenile prison I was in was actually here in Connecticut. They call it Baby Cheshire because it's right across street from Big Cheshire. It's 23 and 1. 23-hour lockdown for kids.

Like, what is that doing to your psych? Like, nobody's meant to go through that, let alone a kid. You know, we got one hour to your time. You got the option to shower, use the phone, you know, mingle with some people, and it's 23 and 1. Now, after two years of being sentenced, and you had GD that came by every day. You did schoolwork and yourself.

After two years of your sentence, you could get a job. but a lot of juveniles weren't getting sentenced to more than two years, you know? A lot of them were just in and out. At this time, I should say, I don't know how Connecticut's run now, but every juvenile offense that, like, deemed worthy, I mean, there was even people there for, like, petty larcenies, but they would go to Baby Cheshire. There wasn't, like, group homes for us to go to.

You would go to Baby Cheshire, and then the judge, would decide what group home you would go to. You didn't just, like, get placement right away. You had to go through the courts to get placement, you know. Where in New York, we have a lot of group homes and stuff like that. You don't go to a juvenile prison. Where here, I mean, granted, armed robbery on paper deserves to go to prison. No juvenile deserves 23 and 1.

Like that really fucked my psych up for a while. Even to this day, I don't feel comfortable out. Like, I'm definitely a homebody. Like, I don't like people. I don't like crowds. And it really came from that because even when I came home in high school, I always wanted to get kicked out because I didn't want to be around the crowd. It was too many people for me.

And I think from that point on, I got expelled every year until I caught my first adult bid. And even that was at 17. So they still allowed you to go back to school then? Like when you got arrested for the juvenile bid, you were still eligible to go back to that school? So actually, like I said, that was here in Connecticut. My mom was in prison when that happened, when I got released. So I got sent to New York.

Oh, so that's why it didn't cross over. Yep. And so I went from there to a group home in New York, kind of like a step-down phase, get me readjusted back to society, and then I went back to regular high school. But I actually got my GD while I was in this group home as a backup plan in case things went wrong, but I wanted my high school diploma so bad. So I went back to high school, even with my GD at 16.

How did your grandparents react to that juvenile sentence? And were they supportive throughout that time? They were supportive, yeah. You know, they took care of me. they were fighting to get me back to New York. They were successful after a certain point. I was just shy of like three years out of a four-year sentence, but I still had to spend that year in that group home was part of the deal.

So, you know, they were supportive even up until my second prison bid. Like they were always there for me. They would come and visit me every weekend. Like, that was actually like, my grandma passed away on my first prison bid. And I knew something was wrong when she wasn't there that weekend. She never missed a visit. Every weekend there for me. So when I went down for the visit, it was just my grandpa.

I'm like, how bad is it? And he was like, it's bad. And then before the next visit, she passed away. So they were always there for me. Do you remember the first time you saw violence in the juvenile detention center that kind of made you think about like, I shouldn't be here? Like, this isn't the life I want. First day. So I got there like middle of the nighttime.

It was like 4 a.m. And then tier time. So like every day was different time because there was four different tiers for one housing unit. So like one person would have morning like 10. One person would have one. One person would have three. One person was seven. And I rotated. I didn't get my house had 7 p.m. that night. So I slept. I go out in the house, housing care, and I don't know what to expect. Like, it's already loud. It's like disorienting. I'm scared shitless. I don't know what to expect. You know, I hear all these stories about prison already. Like at 10 years old, like, what's going to happen to me?

And two, three minutes later, there was a kid on the phone. And I know I'm just watching. my surroundings. I don't know what's going on. And I just happened to look the right way at the right time. And this kid cracked them with two fucking huge, like, blocks of soap and a sock. He had, like, melted down the soap by, like, water. You know how you can, like, compact it. If you shave it down, they were, like, two huge blocks of soap.

Not just a bar. Like, blocks, cinder blocks almost. No, more like a brick. But he cracked them. And that sound, like, is one. one of those sounds I'll never forget to this day. Like it was instant blood. And like that's when I was like, all right, shit is real. Like, you know, everything you've heard is real.

Like, it's time to grab your little sack and man up even though you're 10 years old. You know, and I think within my first week, I had a fight over a honeybone. This kid tried to play me. like I said when I first went in I was super like it was a shock to me so they put me on like antipsychotics right away they did that to a lot of the kids you know they dope this up right away so I had a sleeping pill I didn't like so I would sell it because it would like it made me I don't even know what it is to this day but it made me the most drowsy I've ever been in my life so I didn't like it so I would sell them and this kid's like yo here's your soup

and I'll send the honeybone out when I come out on tear time because they would do it on opposite sides. And he came out and I'm on the door, I'm on the gate, and I'm watching and I'm watching. He's just going about his business. So, you know, I start kicking the door to get his attention. He just ignoring me. So never comes by the cell next day.

Mind you, we did eat with everybody though. Next morning, next morning, I'm like, yo, what happened last night? And he's like, yo, you're deaded. I'm not giving you shit. Fuck you. I'm like, all right. So I really didn't want to fight him. Not going to lie.

He was way bigger than me. Like I was 10. He was like 14. Way bigger than me. And so I just play cool. Like, all right, you got that. You got that. You got that.

You know, it's no big deal. And we were allowed hardbacked books in there, though. That was one of the big things they did actually have was a good library. And I had this big Harry Potter book. It happened to be like big print in the book too, like for an old person. And it was tier time later on that day. And he sat down to watch the football game. And I came and just cracked him upside the back of the head with the Harry Potter book.

And it made him fall forward and bash his face off the table. And I thought that was the best part of it. And it didn't hurt them that bad though So we get up We get fighting They pull the pin Everybody gets on the ground While we're fighting

We tussle You know I got my ass Smoke definitely beat me up But I stood my ground And so they break the flight up They put us in different housing units now We both got locked in for a week And then when I got to my new housing unit

I already had some respect From coming from the other one And And there the more you did it, you became like a pod boss, you know? And I saw that pretty early on and I never made pod boss status, but I'd be closer to the top just because I'd be willing to fight. Granted, 90% of those fights I lost and got jumped, but I would be, I would not hesitate to swing off. And so that kind of kept me safe for the most part. And, you know, everybody was like, you know,

granted, there was only like three white boys on the whole tier. Like, that's the white boy you don't fuck with. You can go fuck with them too. You can go take their shit, you know, extort them, but you don't fuck with him. So it was pretty smooth. And then I got a job for the last little bit and then came back to New York. How'd that make you feel when you did that? I don't really, I don't really remember feeling any type of way. I remember before even prison, like growing up in projects, I already was around violence. I was nine. I lost a brother to gun violence. my younger brother at that. I watched my 6-year-old brother die in my arms

and from just stray bullet from gunfire. So I already was adapted to violence. It wasn't nothing, but I don't like to be violent. Even though I've grown up around it, I can be violent like on a flip of a switch. I can be violent, but I've never liked it even when I do it. Like even when I'm being violent, like if I'm fighting somebody, once I see like if I'm winning and I see their hurt I back off I back off like I don't need to

pulverize you to prove my point or stand up for myself or protect myself and granted the more since I learned that in juvenile prison going into adult prison I would try to set that same tone you know I'm not looking for trouble I'm not starting trouble but I'll protect myself And the first few slight tests I got, I would, you know, fight and for the most part, made my bid smooth. And then the more of a junkie I became as the older I got and going through jail too, because I was getting high the whole time, basically, made me more susceptible to violence myself. It's really hard to fight. 10 guys when you're dope sick in prison, you know.

I would have found myself a lot less likely to swing off knowing I was dirty too, you know, because that's a lot more box time. You piss dirty than just a fight. So I don't know if people picked up on that, but that could also have been a changing factor in my life was there was more violence happening towards me the more I did in jail. I found then me doing violence

to other people. Were a lot of those kids that were in the juvenile detention center, did they come from broken homes as well? Oh yeah, we all did. Nobody came from like a good home. No, like everybody and most of them knew each other. You know, I knew some of the guys there,

but a lot of them knew each other because they spent their whole lives here where I was getting ping pong back and forth from Connecticut to New York. They all knew each other. They all grew up together. They all went to school together. It was basically like your click from the streets and juvie with you.

Tell us about that period of time once you got back to New York, you're out of juvenile detention, you're out of that home you were in. How is your life looking at that point? Six months from that point, I caught my first adult bit. I was going to high school, really working on trying to get that. I don't know why, but for whatever reason, so many people told me I went graduate. I was determined on graduating, even though I had a GED as a backup plant. So I'm going to high school, but already my addiction's already taken off, you know.

Within my first month of school, I found myself by an ounce of Coke because I would sell Coke to support my habit in high school. sports would keep me out of trouble but that off-season was where I would always find a bad part so my coke addiction's getting really bad my coke addiction's getting really bad I come home from school one day and somebody somebody robbed me

my whole stash was gone all my money was gone everything I literally built up was gone and so I didn't really know what to do it wasn't smart but I got a hold of somebody's checkbook and I started cashing some checks to get some money up to get me going again and obviously that's stupid because there's a paper trail right back to you so it wasn't a hard case for them to figure out you know as soon as the person realized their money was missing and that was my first prison bid. Why do you think you turned to selling drugs when you got out, knowing the ramifications?

I'm sure at that point you knew what it would end up happening. Anger. That anger inside me needed to be quieted and the only thing I knew did it work was drugs. And I already did it one time. I can do it again, you know. I survived that juvenile prison, you know. You know, maybe I'll get away with this. You know, maybe I won't.

There's always that hope of getting away, even though it was. a stupid crime I committed like you know I thought I was gonna get away with that I didn't think they were gonna catch me I was like ah it's only you know 500 bucks they're not gonna notice this money missing and sure shit they did you know I thought I would get away with it

and then uh so my grandparents fought really hard to get me into a drug program they did I uh I fucked their drug program up so the judge's like well I did what I could for him he's going to You know, like I tried.

You know, they did their part. I just wasn't ready to change. Do you think that mentality stems strictly from juvenile detention? Kind of, you know, like, that definitely shaped my mind, you know, like, fuck it, it is what it is, you know. We're going to do what we want to do, and we only have limited options. We're going to pick the worst option there is pretty much, you know. but going to juvenile prison at that age being 17 heading into 18

and in New York we got what we call gladiator schools too there's two of them green in Washington more than likely I'm headed to another gladiator school the only difference here this gladiator school likes to play race or tag a lot you know so was I was more scared to go to adult prison than juvenile prison. I adapted really quickly to that. And I don't know if that's because I was getting three meals.

I wasn't getting that with my mom. I had to steal candy because I was hungry, you know? Like, it was that bad. So I adapted really quickly to juvenile prison, but that first adult prison bid was scary. When they determined your sentence to judge in your first adult bid, did they use your juvenile bid against you

from a different state? They did not. They gave me, they sealed that from my criminal record in hopes that I would get myself together. Everybody knew the judge was really sympathetic to my grandparents. Like, hey, you don't know any better. You know, we're doing our best here, but his mom really screwed him up. You know, she let them think everything is fine to do and there's no consequences. and we're trying to change that in him.

And the judge was really sympathetic of that and try to help him. But, you know, he could only do so much if I'm not willing to do it too. How much time did he give you? One to three years. And you went to green? I actually didn't end up going to green amazingly. And I think, so boom, you know, I'm going through a reception, you know, thinking I'm going to green, thinking I'm going to green.

I don't go to green. I actually go to a sweet-ass prison. One of the few prisons in New York that has stoves for us to cook on. You know, they got a couple of the houses, got ovens so we could bake cakes and stuff. You know, the fried chicken, when we buy off commissary,

we could really fry with a stove. Wait, they sold you fried chicken on commissary? Yeah, in New York. You can buy frozen fried chicken on commissary. Oh, you know what's actually interesting? So remember the big escape? Yeah. And there's a TV show.

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They get their race day fit and you get a payout for trying. Someone on D-pop wants what you've got. Start selling now. D-pop, where taste recognizes taste. I'll escape at Dan Amora. Yep, yep. So it was normal in the TV show for guards to bring inmates, frozen chicken and stuff, because they had like a hot pot, a stove and all that.

So you can still get the, we've always had the hot pots, and then the house has a hot pot too. But there's a couple of jails in New York that has stoves. I think there's only three. And I don't even know now because so many prisons and jails have closed because there's no inmates in New York right now anymore. like the inmates are winning, they're running the streets. Nobody's locked up no more.

But that's a whole other conversation. So, like, you would have real fried chicken. Like, it would be crispy just like Popeyes because you got the hot oil. Like, there's a flame there, you know? Like, it's real cooked meals in that prison. So it was so, though it's prison, there's violence, you know, that's regular shit going on. Having that and it was such a short bid was so sweet. Were guys still going to chow if they had those nice commissary options or not really?

If it was a good meal, yeah. If it wasn't, like, I wasn't. I wasn't. I was probably going to maybe three, four meals out a week, you know, three meals a week. We're talking 21. Most of those meals were cooking. Fried Jack Mack. They would make some crazy stuff.

Clams, oysters, sauces. Like, you know, they provided us. pots and pans. So, like, you could really chef up. Like, there was whole meals being cooked. And you get a little team, like, you know, I got the rice today. You got the beans. You got the mac and cheese. You got the chicken. And, you know, we'd rotate. So it wouldn't be so expensive. And, okay, today's your day to cook. Tomorrow's, you know, and it was just your team. That's what you did. Now, would you say most people didn't take advantage of those privileges, like setting a cell on fire or something, because they had access to it because they don't want to screw up those privileges?

So for the most part, yeah, but there is, I mean, I saw somebody throw hot boiling water with baby oil in there and took somebody's face off, literally, turned them into like Batman's Two-Face. They took the stove away for a month for that. They called out putting you on the burn. Like if the house is fucking up, they'll burn the house. No hot pot, no cooking. You have to have your own hot pot if you want to cook. And so it tries to keep us in. line. But it's prison, you know, there's politics, there's things that are going to happen. How will inmates treat the person that did that? Because is it gang affiliated or not? If he's gang affiliated, you're accepting it.

If not, they're going to beat the shit out of them, you know? And I shouldn't even say, you don't have to be, yeah, because you're still gang affiliated, because I got the house burned one time in case that actually. What did you do? So New York, they took away, they allow you to smoke. but you can't have a lighter. What? They don't want you smoke inside the house is the thing.

Outside, they have these lighter boxes where you can light your cigarette and smoke, and the yard has them, and they're on the walkway, but no lighters. And the maxes still had lighters, though. So if you came down from a max, the property guys would throw them to the side, and they'd sell them, and I had a lighter. and we'd be in the bathroom smoking all the time. Most COs don't care, but there's always those couple of assholes

like, I catch anybody smoking, I'm gonna burn the crib, everybody's going down, I don't care, and we'd still smoke, and nine times out of ten, they wouldn't burn the house no matter what. He came through to do a bathroom check and he heard the flick of the lighter.

And he kicks the stall open, and I'm like, I drop the lighter, I flush it quick, I don't want to get called with the lighter because that's something something's something. So he burned the house for a month for that. I got saved because I was running the store for my, so in Mike, I was this cube. The next cube to me was the most highest rank in blood on our compound actually. And I ran the store for him.

And he was like, what? I just got us burn last month. So what if he did? Fuck it. Like, we're always on the burn. So what? If he didn't do it, one of you guys were going to do it. they wanted to fuck me up

he saved me he saved me a couple of times not going to lie he was good to me until the end he he he turned his back on I don't I'm trying to make sure I word it right because I don't want to say

in like a really derogatory way but he set me up he used me um they one of his bloods had a problem with a white boy they jumped him Now normally

Like you get away with a fight Somebody's gonna have a knot It's gonna get noticed Once that happens They put everybody on the count They make you strip basically They're looking They're checking your hands

Make sure you ain't got no cuts So they know Once they realize He's beat up They're coming And one of them's gonna go down But if they lump somebody else up Those two are gonna look like they were fighting

so he was homie was really mad about something out separate from that and uh he was mad at me because he kind of blamed me because i ran his store but the thing was like you know out of the 55 inmates 20 of them are blood they're running in and out of his cube all day and a pack a brick went missing a pack of newports he was pissed about that. He couldn't figure it out. He felt like I was responsible for it because I run the store. I'm like, yo, like any one of them could have took it. I would have marked it down if I took it or if I gave it out.

Like, you know our rules. You know how it is. So I thought we were cool. And then a couple hours later, I went in the bathroom and they beat the shit out of me. And they made it, it look like me and the white boy fought. And there went my protection. So I get sent to the other side of the jail And His gang was already on my heels as soon as I got out the box

And I think it wasn't long Maybe two, three days had gone by I'm trying to duck the situation He sent word over to leave it alone Mind you like I said He had the compound He was the highest ranking member

In our prison So once he sent word over to leave me alone, you know, I could breathe again. It was like, whew, we might not die now. So that was my last prison bit. And that definitely, I think, played a factor into instilling into my head I want to change, but I'm not quite there yet. You know, I got one more good run in me. And I went home and started getting high, and then,

Went to jail and that was when that whole drug program thing had luckily saved me. What were your thoughts about prison politics? You know, coming from the juvenile detention center, doing your first bid that time, what did you think about it? Juvenile prison taught me like, though there's politics, every rule can be broken. Like, nobody's safe and people will turn their backs on you. Like I've seen, you know, bloods jump bloods and set them up, you know, like I've seen bloods cut bloods when that wasn't like even supposed to be the mission, but they set it up that way. So when I saw like what they do to themselves, but there's politics, you know, like there's no, there's no like safe zone in there. I knew that just from what I saw in juvenile.

Same thing in adult prison. Like, though they're all from the same gang, like, they'll still go after each other. Like, it doesn't, there's no safeguard even being a gang member. Like, I've seen what's supposed to be a two-on-one. They're jumping somebody. And they have a third guy, what they call a safety, like a safety on a gun. He's your backup, if anything goes wrong. And the safety ends up cutting all three of them.

even though he's supposed to be your guys as safeguard, he ends up cutting you. That showed me alone, like, there's no loyalty in this. No matter how cool you are with somebody, there's always something that will change that. Like, that'll make them turn their back on you. And I saw that at our juvenile was worse. There was, their politics was just,

there was, the politics weren't ran, by like an adult prison there's high ranking people that are calling these politics. In juvenile, there's nobody setting up these politics. Nobody making the rule. Was nobody saying you got to follow this? So it was basically who was the strongest, who beat up most people, they're making the politics. And what's the fairness in that? But even in adulthood prisons, there's no fairness in any of the politics.

There's no, to me, it's all really, really stupid. How old are you when you got out of that from that first bid and what happens next? So I got out at 20. Same thing. Came home, started getting high again. You know, I'm on parole, getting high. I'm beating them with fake piss. I was the master of the fake piss game.

What did you do? I had a couple of different ways. throughout the years. The main one was just have somebody else piss in a bottle. I clean out a little, like hand sanitizer bottle, like the travel-sized one, clean it out, put the piss, and then right up underneath the sack, today's body temperature, you know, my thing was I'd always give him

one or two real ones because in New York they watch you pee. So, but no, they don't enjoy that either. So, you know, okay, first one, he watched piss come out, my dick is clean. Second one, he watched the piss come out. Piss come out my dick is clean. Third one, he didn't look. All right, he's done watching me now. He knows I'm doing the right thing.

So now I can start flucking around. I'll beat him with the fake. And I just pop the top, squeeze a little. I make sure I leave enough in there in case something goes wrong. I can give him a second one. And here's your cup, and we're good to go. And I would get away with that for the longest time. you know, until it basically got arrested again.

And then it's like, oh, I've been getting high. And they're like, well, your urns don't say that. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, about that. I don't know how they never like marked down on my jacket. Like, hey, watch them constantly always is beating tests. But I did have a friend report me to a parole officer one time. And you stripped me down. And I had a bottle on me and I still beat them.

that was just by the luck and grace of God but I was so later on in life I got a Wizzinator I stopped using those because I called a violation for this one time I went in drug test boom I go like go to turn it on it's not turning on

give him a flick trying to get him turn on but not trying to do too much like to cause you know even if he looked It looks like a fake thing hanging there, but I don't want to call this too much, you know, looking. And I'm trying to get it to turn on. All of a sudden it makes a, like a loud winding sound. He's like, hey, what's that?

So he comes over and he's looking. And he's like, drop your pants. And I'm like, why? Why do I got it? You can see it. He's like, drop your pants. I'm like, drop my pants. You see the whole thing.

Cuffs me right up. He's like, are you stupid? I'm like, how to try it. You know? It is what it is. you got me. I'm already getting high. I'm taking this risk, you know? So I had a couple

of ways and then I just like I said, from that point on I thought I was invincible when it came to parole. Right before parole was about to end, I think I had like a month or two left.

I caught a burg charge. Yeah, at that point I caught the bird charge. So I'm still on parole, I get locked back up. They offer me a county year. I take the county year. I finish off my parole. I come home free. But at this point, my family's cut me off. You know, they're tired of this. I'm looking just like my mother in and out of prison, in and out of jail, and like 22, 23. So, you know, what do I really got to lose? I just start getting high again.

Start getting high, start getting high. I moved to, I was about at that point an hour south of Albany, New York. I was constantly going to Albany to get my drugs because they were way cheaper than where I lived. But I started making that trip like two, three times a day. So we're talking two, three hours of travel time at the minimum of day. So I'm like, why am I living here? Why don't I just move up there where the drugs are cheaper? So I moved up to Albany.

And then from that point, 23 to 26, was like my longest real stretch of freedom. But even that whole three years, I wasn't free. I had like two 60 day bids in there And I'm 190 day So I'd basically get like Eight months to a year Free of just running wild Getting high

Um And I'd catch a little bid Get a reprieve Go right back out and do it And then I caught my final last prison bid In 2015 And these are all just violations You're getting popped for

Because you're on parole Continuously Well no I was I was completely paper-free after that bird charge. I did the county year. So I'm just doing like little county bits, like petty larcenies. I'm getting popped for possession. I'm getting popped for driving without a license.

So I just get a little 60, 90 days in the county. Were you working a normal job at all? Did you try to get a job? I didn't. I didn't have a normal job until my first normal job I ever worked was in 2017. Wild. Yeah. A lot of selling drugs.

robbing people selling drugs robbing people a lot of robbing people did you just have no desire to do better why do you think you didn't have that you know still covering up that anger that anger fire was like built up in me

and the only thing I knew to calm that fire was drugs the only thing like that quieted that anger in me was drugs and anger is only a secondary emotion, so it was being fueled by the depression

of, you know, my mom was a fuck up, my dad doesn't want nothing to deal with me, the guy I thought was my real dad, isn't my real dad, you know, everything's just going wrong. So it took a long time to put that fire out. And it's still not even completely out,

but it's at a more manageable phase. there was no desire to do better at that point Tell us about the burglary charge That you got the year in county for Where me and a couple of kids are hanging out in town I don't even know what made me do it But I had Oh that's right

So when I left to go I lived where my house was like our driveway was super steep So it would always be a sheet of ice So I took a sheet of ice So I took the hammer and was breaking up the ice so I could walk down the driveway. And I was being lazy, I didn't want to walk back up and put the hammer up. So I throw the hammer in my back pocket, and I'm going to meet up with a couple of kids. They wanted to buy some Coke.

I was going to do a couple pills with them. By this point, I transitioned to pills from Coke. So I'm going to go sniff a couple of pills, tell them some Coke. You know, we're getting high. We're having fun. It's middle of wintertime. we don't feel cold, we're all high and shit

and this store had accused me of stealing like a week before and for whatever reason that really pissed me off except for once I wasn't stealing like if I have no problem if I'm stealing I'll tell you I'm stealing like fuck you what are you going to do about it

like there was no shame but for whatever reason that really bothered me that I was being accused of something I didn't actually do I do everything under the sun I'll own that but I didn't do that. So for whatever reason, we were right by that store, and I'm looking at it, and it makes me mad.

He did that, so I grabbed the hammer, and I just hit his front door. And the glass shatters, and this loud alarm goes off. Like, probably one of, like, the loudest alarms I've heard in my life to this day. Like, louder than any fire alarm I've heard. Like, you know, I have the fire alarms in the county, like, ring. Like, they are deafening loud. this was louder than this. This was their security system.

So I wasn't expecting that. It scared me. So I took off running. They took off running. And my house was like a quarter mile away. So I want to get off the main road immediately. So I run up into this backyard and I'm going to cut through a couple of backyards to my house. It's wintertime.

I leave footprints in the snow. So I get back to my house. And just as I get back home, I'm walking up the driveway. My dad comes to pull in and he can't get the car up the driveway. So I'm helping him up, pushing him up, finally get him up the driveway. And I'm walking up now. And the state trooper comes creeping by. And I'm like, oh, he's looking for that person.

And he stops and he gets out. And he's like, hey, hey you. What are you doing? And I'm like, oh, my dad's right there. The car was stuck at the bottom of the driveway. Couldn't get up. I was helping push him up. My dad's like, yeah, that's what he was doing.

And the cop's like, all right, come here. I got the hammer in my pocket. So he calls me over. And as I'm walking over to the cop car, I realize it's a cop I know. And me and him had bad blood. Like, real bad blood. So as soon as I see it's him, I'm like, no, fuck you, God, free. I'm not coming to you.

Fuck you. Fuck you. I'm not. Fuck you. I'm just cursing them out. I'm not going there. My dad's like, just go over to him. CJ.

Just go. Go. And I'm like, I don't want to. I didn't do nothing. Put my hands up on the car. He starts pat me down. Pulls out. He's like, what are you doing with this?

I'm like, my dad was stuck. I was breaking the ice up from the driveway. Like, it was the first thing I came to my mind. Even though it was partially true because that's what I did. So he handcuffed me. I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, you just broke into a store. I'm like, no, I didn't.

What are you talking about? He's like, I just tracked your footprints from the store to your yard. How do you think I knew to come this way? I'm like, no, those aren't my footprints. So they take my boots off in the cop car and they go and they put them. It's my boot prints. So they couldn't prove I went in the store. They couldn't prove I stole anything.

So they dropped the burglary down to criminal trespassing and gave me a year. That makes sense why you only got a year with your record. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they were definitely pushing, but they couldn't prove much because nothing did happen. I cracked the window and ran. I was scared to death from that security system. I knew the cop station was like 500 feet away too. Like the cops were not far away.

I needed to get out of there. So now your dad that you call your dad, that was one of your mom's boyfriend, still stuck by you even though he wasn't with your mom? Yep. So he loved my mother to death. My mother treated him like shit, broke his heart, and he stuck around. You got to give him big props to that. Got to commend him for that. He's actually, he put that in me.

I have one son and I raised another son. Who wasn't mine? But he's mine just like how my dad was with me. When I was two, he moved into my grandparents' house. So when I went there, he would be there because when my mom had me, he was coming to get me every weekend and taking me from my mom. And he figured why he was actually living where he worked at a high school, a private high school

they had housing for them he's like why don't I just move in with you guys and I'll help take care of him like I love him like he's mine and he stood up and like I said I wish they never told me anything different

I get it as an adult on my birth certificate I probably would have saw there was another name there but why didn't we deal with that when that bridge crossed you know why do you do it then

and he didn't have any criminal lifestyle past. No, no addiction, nothing. He just happened to fall for your mom and couldn't control who he fell for. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. That sucks for him. Yeah, he's a great guy, man, big heart.

Sucks for him. And then, so shortly after they told me that he wasn't my dad, like I said, that fueled that anger in me. So I'm hardly ever home. I go to school. I'm out all night. You know, selling drugs, partying already.

So he found himself a girlfriend. She happened to be here back in Connecticut. So I don't know if he didn't want to tell me or what, but one day he didn't come home from work. So two or three days go by. He calls me, he's like, hey, just so you know I'm staying at the school, I'm staying in the nurse this station.

I'm like, okay, whatever, no problem, cool. Next thing I know, it's like two weeks later. I didn't even realize how much time had really passed, you know. And he calls up and he's like, hey, I just want to tell you, I got a girlfriend, and I've moved in with her. So on top of all that other anger, now my dad just fucking left me. You know, my only dad I got. Now he just deserted me.

So that, like I said, that fuck. was just building throughout my teenage years. And it took me some years to get over that resentment between that. He ended up marrying the lady, you know. Me and her had a bad relationship. She passed away. And then finally when I got clean, he came back into my life. Tell us how you got caught for your last prison sentence.

What happened? Oh man, so I was ripping and running pretty heavily. I was living at a hotels. I was selling heroin. On top of that, I'm a booster. And from like that burglary time where they dropped it down to my last prison, but majority I was boosting, and I was really good at it. Tell people that don't know what boosting is what it is.

Shoplifting. from any type of store and mostly, you know, bigger name stores, Best Buy, Walmart, malls, targets, things like that, things that people have desired to purchase on a regular day basis for the most part. When I got caught on my last prison bid, they actually sent a Walmart investigator

to come talk to me while I was in the county. and like I'm so I walk in the room he's like you're good and I'm like yeah

he's like you found a loophole in our system and I'm like I did I did and he's like so you figure

every trip you went in here you were stealing $5,000 every time I was like oh if not more like

good five to $10,000 I was stealing from Walmart in a trip. One trip. Sometimes two, if I couldn't carry everything out at one time, but tried not to do that because obviously that's more of a risk. He estimated in that six-month span that they at least could start identifying me, I had stolen $250,000 worth of goods, all electronics.

I would, so I'd go in, I'd get a shopping cart. I'd push the shopping cart over to the suitcases. And I would find the biggest suitcases they had on the shelves, and I would partially open the zippers. And I'd go over to the electronics section, and I already have a list of things that my fence sells easily. Mind you, this was 2012 to 2015. Roku's, Apple TVs, PlayStation 4 controllers, PlayStation 4 games.

One big item was the internet routers, TVs, but I try to stay away from them because they were bigger. Portable hard drives were really big when they first came out. Beats headphones were really good when they came out. And I would load up two to three. large I mean four foot suitcases with this merchandise and I would just clear

off the shelves and I had a rotation of stores because I found a loophole in these stores they were 24 hour Walmarts but from the hours of 1 to 4 a.m. they didn't have security on

so unless a regular employee stopped me there was nobody watching me there was nobody watching what I was doing I did have a couple of instances where like they would notice

I would just go right past the self-checkout and go right to the doors and they'd like hey hey hey but by that point it's too late for you I'm already hitting those doors takes two seconds

to throw the suitcases in the trunk and I'm gone and I would beep they would have the spider wraps on them. I wouldn't care. There was no security I found. There was nobody watching this store like that. And I was doing this two to three times a week. Different Walmarts? I had like seven Walmarts, like within about an hour and a half circle. And I would, so I'd always give

them like a week or try to give them a week to restock the shelves after they just got emptied out. Because somebody's going to come asking an employee, hey, you got any PS4 control? Oh, they're empty. We'll get that filled up. You know, I try to give them a week to restock back up. And, yeah, so I would just kind of go in a circle. Sometimes I'd go in and they hadn't really fully restocked. I started off small, mind you.

I didn't start off at this. I'd go in, I'd steal one or two Rokus and shove it in my jacket and I'd run out. And I just kind of built my courage up too. My mom was a booster. not to the level I was, but she would steal small stuff, food, clothes for us, you know, household stuff. She didn't really, like, boost to support her habit like I did. So, yeah, he's like, you found that loophole. He's like, I promise you it's not there anymore.

And I think that is also kind of what might have made me get clean. Like, that was my hustle. And I was afraid to test it if they fixed it or not. but I had a fence too he was a real good fence like a pawn shop yeah yeah he was a pawn shop actually but you know he

everything he took in from me he went marked down or anything like that he paid me cash we we had a really good relationship for a cost to say a PS4 was 400 you're getting 400 for it no I get half whatever half is whatever the half cost is I would get

and he'd be selling it on eBay so like you said it cost 400, he's selling a brand new one for 300. So he's making 100. I'm making my money. So he's making his profits and these things are flying for him. Now once, say you go when the electronic beepers on it and it beeps, aren't you technically burned at that place because they're going to look at the cameras and stuff? They didn't know who I was. At this point, they didn't have the facial recognition like they had. They weren't sending out flyers to other stores. They didn't know who I was. Now I'm burned. Like I walk in, to any of my local Walmarts and securities following me.

Even, so if you went to the Danbury Walmart right now? I think here I'd probably be okay. Um, but up where I live, yeah, no. They really have people. And I'm on a lifetime ban. I'm not even supposed to be there. So I think they're trying like, they're hoping every time. Like every time they're following.

I can point them out. I point them out to my wife. Hey, he's there. He's there. He's there. Every time. Lifetime bands are real. When I worked out Whole Foods,

they would ban people from the store. that shoplifted. Yeah. And their policy was, like, you don't stop the person. Once they leave the store, they're good. So New York has a law where if you've already been banned and you get caught stealing from there again, it becomes a robbery because you're already not supposed to be there. Wow.

So it, like, heightens it. So that's what they do to deter it. Like, we're going to give you a lifetime ban. You know, you get arrested again while there, like, you're done. Like it carries weight of a robbery like you really forcibly took something from somebody But yeah, they watch me. I see them all the time There's some guys that were even on duty when I used to do it because I got caught a couple of times early on But I also learned from those couple of times early on what would you do when you got caught?

Oh, they were normally like you know they're they're either gonna try to physically stop me Which later on I found I would just push the room But in the beginning I was scared So I'd let them physically stop me. I'd get arrested. I'd get a ticket and I'd get sent on my way. That was how it first started. But the longer that record built up,

it would automatically just be go to county. And then that's where those little 60-90-day bits would come in. I also, near me, we have the world's largest Walmart. I don't know if it's the world. It's America's largest Walmart, believe it or not. It's two floors. There's like a double floor. They have so much stuff there.

and they were 24 hours at one part. And they were also on that circuit where they didn't have any security. I think a lot of Walmarts used to be 24 hours before COVID too. Yeah, I think COVID killed. A lot of them were. But I found, so I noticed, like, towards the end, my local Walmarts weren't stocking as much. They weren't, like, I'd go in and steal 50 Rokus, you know?

Like, that would be how many was in one of those suitcases on top of many other items. They weren't as stocking as much. So I started traveling more, and I would find some of these night ones do have security. And that's what led to ultimately getting caught in that. Aren't those things that, like the Roku's, those, you know, the PlayStation's, the handhelds, they're all locked up, aren't they? Now. Back then they weren't?

Nope. They'd be right on the show. If it was like, and before they would use a lot of the spider wrap things, you know, the black wire. You're wrapped, but you can still grab it. You can grab it. And I found, you know, you cut it. It beeps really loud, but if you put it under water, you don't hear the sound. So at my house, I'd had five gallon buckets of water, and I'm drowning these things until the battery would quit.

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snip it and then put it in the bucket. But I got the fence in trouble one time because I got lazy. A couple of times. I started getting lazy. I started hating, dealing with them. I'd be like, you figure it out. You figure it out. I don't care. I'm done with them. I don't, I'm done. Like, it's your problem. And then

he was like, I'm not taking on with their spider wrap, you deal with that. So he put it back on me. So fine. In the pollen shop parking lot, I'd call them, because it was usually after hours, hey, I'm here. I'll be there in 15. Started cutting them, and next door to the property was like an abandoned house.

So I just started throwing them in the yard. Just started whipping them in the yard. And like two, three months goes by that. He calls me one day. He's like, you're a fucking asshole. I'm like, why? He's like, the cops were just here. I'm like, okay, what?

And they're there all the time. I actually got arrested in his shop one time, not even, like, related at all. But I'll get to that one. And he's like, somebody made a complaint about this chirping from the property next door, and they found thousands of spider wrap. So they came right to me. Like, hey, do you buy anything stolen? Wanted to look through the ledgers, wanted to look through the store.

I'm like, oh, yeah, my bad about that. Yeah, I've been throwing them next door. He was like, what the fuck? He's like, you're leading them to me. I'm like, you're right, my bad, my bad. So then I just started, I would just chuck them out the window and drive and throw them wherever, mostly on the highway, so they'd go somewhere and wasn't my problem anymore. So how do you get caught from this operation? So I went to one of those Walmarts that had security, and I ended up leaving the bags behind.

The lady grabbed the cart, tilted it over. She was on the phone with the cops. So I just, we booked it. I had another kid with me, and he was my ride. They got his license plate. So they went to his house office registration, and it was registered to his mom and dad's name. And he gave him up where I was staying in what hotel.

When they came and raided the hotel, they instantly put out my picture to all these Walmarts and within like an hour, seven Walmarts came back that they had me for stealing thousands and thousands of dollars. Like every Walmart and they're like, yep, this one says you took this, this one says you took this. And I'm like, that's not even a quarter of what I took. So I'll take that, that's fine.

That's all right. And yeah, so I'm staying in a hotel. I'm getting high. I'm selling drugs, but I'm doing more drugs than what I can keep up with selling. So that's why I'm still boosting and to pay for the hotel. So I get kicked out the hotel, obviously. So the hotel is like, hey, pack all his shit up and take it with him. So when they packed all my shit up, they found five sleeves of dope,

which is every sleeve is 10 bundles of dope. So I basically had 500 bags on me. They don't even remember what it was bag-wise at this point. So I had the boosting and I had a drug case. And that was what my last prison bid was for. How much time was that? Three years. Now, did you have kids before going to prison?

On the very last one was when I actually had a kid. Right before I went to prison. Well, right, yeah. About a year before I went to prison, getting high. I've had a pretty steady girlfriend off and on at this point. Had two girlfriends, actually. Both of them were getting high with me. One, like, whipped with me, though.

And she got pregnant, and she got clean. And she's like, if you want to be a part of this baby's life, you got to get clean. I'm like, all right, I need some time, but I'm going to. and I didn't, and I went to prison, and to this day I cannot find her. I don't know where she went. I can't locate her, so I can't locate my kid. He's out there somewhere.

And that's where that feeling is, like, I have days where I'm like, I'm going to hire a private investigator, we're going to turn this world upside down to find him. I don't care. And then there's days where I'm like, he's better off without me. How am I going to come back to him, and tell him, I pick drugs over you. And that's why I was gone for so long.

Don't you know her name? I mean, it's, you know, 2025. I do. So, like, we found, anytime we, like, find a social media, anytime I try to contact her through it, like, hey, I've been clean for five years. I want to see my son. Like, where do you live? Because all I need is a county, and I can go to family court.

And, like, can't get no information. Do you think she actually had the kid? Oh yeah, she had the kid. I've seen the kid. Does he look or she look like you? Yeah, I definitely think so. I saw the kid. I've seen the kid off and on throughout its life,

but I'm just stuck on this phase right now. I'm trying to think of the timeline. So I came home from prison. I saw him after he was born. I saw him up to about six months because actually she had bailed me out. I had already been arrested. did on the drug and boosting.

Yep, drug and boosting case. And she bailed me out. I was there with her for like the first six months of the baby's life. They finally gave me my final plea deal. I was going to prison. So boom, went to sentencing, went back to jail, came home. We were in contact. Things were good for a bit.

And then I started getting high again. And then she cut me off. Got high for a while. Right before COVID, we were in communication. And then COVID happened. And all of a sudden one day I went to call her, and the number had changed. Mind you, she wouldn't let me know where she lived at this point because she didn't trust me because of everything I had done.

we would meet in public places so I could see the kid and that was my only line of communication and once I lost that I realized like how bad I really was like I didn't have no other way to get in contact with her so I went to the last place I knew she lived she had been moved out they said and that was it

can't find them how does your current partner feel about that so she has a son whose father wants nothing to do with him. And she can't understand what's going through her head because she has me here who's taken care of hers when he has a father that wants nothing to do with him. And I stepped up to the plate just like my dad did.

Like all she wants is for his father in his life. But he doesn't want to do it. She says she would never keep him away. So she doesn't understand how she keeps me away. like that, like how she can keep me separated. And I try to tell her, there's a lot of hurt, there's a lot of trauma and that lot of relationship, a lot of lies, a lot of broken promises, you know.

There's a lot of hurt there. So while I can understand where she come from, it's still not right, you know. That boy still has a father who's out there who needs to be a part of his life. When did you get out of prison for that last bid? That was 2017. And that's when you went to the drug program.

Wasn't done yet. We weren't done yet. I had another year of getting high. That was when I got my first job. It was overnights. I was getting burnt out, trying to be a father, trying to do everything, trying to take on responsibilities. Nights really screwed with me.

I couldn't sleep. I was having a lot of anxiety. So this was when I actually first learned about fake press pills. I was buying some Xanax's off my friend. Wasn't abusing them or anything really like that. It would take maybe a quarter when the anxiety would get too bad. And then I started to notice. If I didn't take it, I didn't feel right.

Now I know you can become addicted to Benzos, but I was taking such a small amount. Like, I shouldn't feel like that. So I had him up like, yo, what's going on? You know more about Benzos and I. doing it's like oh they're pressies there's definitely fentanyl and that's why you're starting to catch a habit again at that point i was already addicted again you know it's already started now the smart thing would have been to do is quit while it was a minor addiction instead of turning it into a major

addiction um it wasn't very long i think i lasted like two months but i had managed to max out on parole because I didn't have much time because I came home with only a couple of months. So I'm getting high for a couple of months and then that's when I got locked back up and ended up getting in the drug program that's inside the jail who helped me get on the outside. How have you been able to rebuild your life since then? What's your life looked like now? Thank God to that program inside the jail. They got me into a halfway house right away. So I went to the halfway house. I was doing treatment through there.

Mind you, I spent years and years and years in treatment because of parole or probation. So I can pretty much recite everything they're teaching me. I just need to put it into practice. Going to N.A. meetings, going to meetings constantly. I left the halfway house. I was in a relationship with a woman. We moved in together. Got a job, slowly started building up, ended that relationship.

Some time went by, met my wife now. And then we were talking for a few months, and then COVID happened. And we decided to quarantine together instead of being away. And it's just built from there. We've been together ever since. When is this going to come out? Like four to six weeks, four to five weeks. I can't indulge information because she'll see it before, but I call her my wife,

but there's an official plan here in the next few months for us to actually get engaged and everything. So I've started already calling her my wife, yeah. That's so good. I'm skipping a little phase by giving her the title, but there is a plan out there. Hey, it's manifestation. Yeah, yeah. to happen. It's going to happen. Good for you.

Yeah, her son is special needs, but he adores me. He looks up to me. He's a great kid. And she's part of what keeps me on track. But then, like I said, COVID happened. We were quarantined together. We made it through that. And then got a job, and I've just built my way up from there. Been with the same job for almost four years now. I'm a manager with them.

They've got me certified. They've got me locked in. You know, I'm with them for good. Do they know about your past? Yeah, they do. They do. Actually, they're the ones that recommended me to come talk to you because I was telling them. Did they really?

It was the story about how a midget smacked a shit out of me in juvenile. That was like, yo, you really should either write a book or go on somewhere and share some stories because you got some wild ones. We were in juvenile prison And this new kid came to the tier And he was a midget A legit, like two feet tall Mind you, I'm already the height I am I had an early growth spur at like 12

Never grew again. Six foot tall. He's two foot tall. We're all in the corner, we're slapboxing like kids do And I don't even know how it happened But somehow we ended up getting paired together And I'm like, this isn't even a fair fight like whatever all right whatever I'll entertain it

you know we're throwing some shots he's moving around low I can't even hit him you so low I'm laughing joking with people all of a sudden I noticed he was pretty close up to me like right below like my feet and I'm like I'm about to like give him a little slap

and he cocks back and he's Superman jumps like Mario like that except his hands like cocked back and he smacks the shit out of me bro I mean, so hard that I actually started to see stars. Like, I stumbled back and, like, took a second. I'm like, yo, this midget just smacked me.

And I'm like, nah, fuck that. Pull my pants up. I go start chasing him down. Like, you're not going to do me like that. Like, how dare you? We were just playing. And everybody was like, whoa, whoa, chill, we're playing. I'm like, no, he smacked me like a grown man.

I'm like, I want to fight him now. Like, give me a one-on-one. And everybody was like, no, we're just playing. But that was, like, they know about my past, too. I told him some wild stories. On my last prison bit, I met Cardi B. Not like officially. And this was also before she became famous as well.

Her boyfriend, Tommy Guns, was locked up in green with me. We actually were in the same housing unit. Wasn't he like a sex offender or something? No, he got caught with a gun. Okay. I thought one of her boyfriends had it. No, isn't that Nikki? I think we're thinking of?

Oh, Nikki Minna. Yeah, Nicky. So Cardi was still stripping at this point. She was getting famous on love and hip hop. Tommy was in our prison. And I worked in commissary. So every weekend when there was visits, Tommy would go down and they always had once a month outdoor visits

and did like a little event. And you would see her at the event before, like, she became famous before she came a rapper. but that's what led her in her rap career was Tommy's dad Peter Guns. He's a music producer, so he's what helped her do that. But I watched Tommy bite a guy's ear off like Mike Tyson. Swear to God. So there was a gang war in the prison between the Mazzis and the YGs.

Tommy was YG obviously guns. So the Mazzis put a hit out. all YGs are to be smoked off the compound. So Tommy being a gun, they were coming from. Plus he was the head YG of the prison at the time. And I didn't get to see the whole thing. I was in the bathroom smoking, but as soon as we heard the commotion,

we came running out. And Tommy's got the guy like in a headlock. Like, and they're like wrestling and tussling. And I mean, the ears starts gushing, blood, he spits the ear on the floor and mind you, another YG is chasing a mazzi down with the iron because we're allowed irons and just cracks

them with the iron, split his whole head open. So everybody's trying to get into the dorm but the CO's blocking because obviously the rest of the guns are trying to get in there to save Tommy. But there, that was a chunk off of his ear

laying on the floor. That's crazy. Like, I know, we're not talking like a small chunk, bro. We're talking like he bit him just like Mike Tyson did. Yeah, I saw a guy get his finger bit off. Yeah. And put that iron, like the line, it perfectly just cracked that skin open. And it was just pulling blood.

Wow. Pulling blood. It was an insane amount of blood. Did you ever have closure with your mom? Nope. So, two years ago, that's actually what? got me back in contact with my grandfather, because mind you, my grandfather wrote me off

for the longest time, my mom overdosed in prison and passed away. But out of everybody, I had the least ill feelings towards her when she did the most. Like, you know, my biological father, he didn't do much, you know, all he did was ignore me.

My bio, my fake dad, you know, he told me that he wasn't my dad and then split you know my mom i can't blame her she was a drug addict doing the best she could with a couple of kids to feed you know i don't believe because i'm an addict i'm more sympathized towards her my wife was surprised when i got the call that i didn't cry but i cried when i got the call that my dad died my father died and i'm like i don't get this I never met this man, but that was my mom. So I never really got closure whether I tried, but an addict's an addict and she was one till the day she died active.

Even though you had experienced that life with your mom, why do you think you still chose to get high when you had your child and you were given that ultimatum with the mother? So again, young teenage, not sure how to control my emotions. it allowed me to quiet that anger inside of me. But at this point, I had never done any opiates. That's what ended up being my drug choice because I broke my neck.

I was to share with that after I'm going to talk about my mom. So I don't know. Like originally just started smoking weed, innocent, you know? But it went to hard drugs, coke, acid, shrooms, You know, it went pretty quick and heavy. But it just quieted that anger. I didn't think about the pain. I didn't think about it.

It just numbed me, so it worked. And, you know, as wild as I swore, I would never, ever be an opiate addict like my mother was, and sure should I became one. But I don't fully blame myself on that either, you know. Before the opiate epidemic, doctors were over-prescribing. the shit out of them. I broke my neck

due to a skydiving accident. Oh, really? What happened? You're going to make me never want to go skydiving now? So there's only, like, I'm going to make sure I say the right amount of zeros. 0.0.0.0.0.1. percent chance of a parachute failing,

let alone your backup parachute. failing. So this was my first solo jump ever. I was trying to get my life in order for a short period. And that was during that phase. My first solo jump ever. I jump. It's time to pull the strap. Pull the strap. Nothing happens. So now I roll over and I'm looking at my instructor up there. What do I do? What do I do? Pull your reserve. Pull your reserve. Oh, okay. And it just yanks off. And I'm like, what do I do? And like, his eyes got big. And I'm like, I'm going to die. Okay, this is how I go out. I'm going to die. He's like, I hear him. Take your knife and cut the cord. I pull my knife off my belt and I cut the cord. Nothing. This is how I die This is it Falling, falling

Falling Falling About a hundred feet From a tree top of canopies My chute just opens But I'm too low So They figured I was probably doing like

60 to 70 miles an hour But I was like a rock Skipping off water On the top of these trees Before my parachute I slowed down enough Where my parachute could actually catch and then I was just dangling in a tree

and I got I got real messed up I broke my neck I broke my leg I broke both wrists I broke I dislocated my shoulder like I was jacked up I spent six months in a hospital

all that time in a neck frizz that's why I got a stupid hunch back now but they overprescribed the shit out of me you know oxycotton they were giving me 12080s a month. On top of that, they were

giving me 160 perk tens a month. And then they were giving me muscle relaxers on top of that. And I don't know why, but those oxycones quieted that anger inside of me better than anything ever did. And

then the government realized that there was a problem and they changed the oxy-cone method to where they couldn't be crushed up anymore. And regular pillows just weren't working as well. They're really expensive, so it led me to going off and on heroin at points.

And like I said, I swore my mother would never. When they took those meds away from me, I didn't realize how physically dependent I was at that point. You know, I knew I had a habit, but I didn't realize how bad it was. like the going to the bathroom on yourself, the puking, the nonstop hot, cold, shaking, literally no energy, you'd give your right kidney just to have a small pill to feel better. So when they just yanked them away from me, what are you supposed to do?

You know, it's not like they weaned you down. It's not like, you know, they did it safely. It's kind of like they forced you to go to the streets at that point. And then that's what led me being in the streets for. years just getting high. Knowing everything you know now, if you could go back at time to your 10-year-old self, what advice would you give him?

Don't go in that corner store and fight to stay at grandma and grandpa's. Because I think without going to juvenile prison and being with my grandparents constantly and never seeing my mom's, I would have had a much better shot in life. I think there would have still been that anger inside of me, but I don't know if it would have been to the level of what it was.

You know, not to mention don't do drugs. That would have been the number one thing. Stay away from drugs because I lost a lot of time. I can't get that time back. You know, there's no getting time. There's no, it's priceless, literally. So I've lost time with my kid. I've lost my own time.

I'm behind in life. Like I was 32 before I financed my first vehicle. Like these are things 19, 20-year-olds are doing. You know, I have a lot of catching up to do. But also, on that note, remember, there are people that don't do that till their 40s or 50s. I try to remember that. I know that there's no set stone, no set stone. But those people doing it in their 40s and 50s, they're still accomplishing it.

I don't want to take away from that. But it just the later in life you do it, I feel it is a little more difficult. Or not even just that. You're not getting to cherish it as much. Buying a house at 30 and buying a house at 50, that's 20 years. I didn't get to enjoy that house, you know? Yes, I still accomplished the goal, but I didn't get to cherish it as much as I wanted. Absolutely.

And that's one thing I really wish I could have told myself, you're never going to get this time back. Yeah, you had a blast at times, but there was a lot of pain and misery in there too. You know, I can't tell you the amount of ass weapons I took from robbing people. Like, one guy, so we went to do like a regular deal. You know, I pulled up with a car. He hands it to me.

I think like I'm going to hand him the money and I go to pull off. and he manages to somehow jump inside my car like a monkey hops in the back seat grabs my seat belt and just starts choking me out with my seatbelt as I'm trying to drive away. I end up completely blacking out. I don't know how I didn't hit any of the parked cars or anything. Somebody saw this and just as I'm coming to, the cops come.

Like, what's going on? What's going on? And the first thing I could think of is he's trying to rob me. mean because I know that's what he's going to say I'm trying to do it to him so they uh they handcuff him they put them in the cop car they come over they car start talking to me and I don't know how they knew this but they're like they're like where's the drugs you took from him and I'm like I didn't take no drugs from them they're like you took drugs from him and I'm like I didn't and like we're going back and forth and they're like all right all right you want to lie to us next time we see you down here. I guarantee you

we're going to get you and I'm like, no you won't. So I take off, I get high, I come back like an hour later because I'm already out of drugs. I find another dealer. Everything goes smooth. I don't even, oh, I remember, I called my food stamp card and there was

a bunch of cash on there and then I was like, oh, let me go find a new dealer. So I find them, everything goes smooth. I'm leaving. All of a sudden the undercover car, like it was the weirdest one too. It was like an orange challenge. like a car I would have never thought was a cop car puts his lights on and pulls me over

and gets out and it was one of the cops that was from before he's like I told you don't come back I was like so they got me and they took my drugs and I was pretty upset about that pretty upset about that but it was just I did a lot of robbing people well I told you I had two girlfriends at one point while I was getting high one of my girlfriends went on the run with me.

I was on house arrest, pending court, but I didn't have an ankle monitor. I just was only allowed to go to work. If I'm doing any type of schooling or vocational, I could go to that, any sports, like fitness stuff or home.

That's all I was allowed to do. But there was nobody watching me. So I was partying with this one girl, and I wake up to a call, and they're like, your probation officer's here. And she was doing a house check, and I'm supposed to be home when I wasn't. So I now just violated my house arrest.

So me and this girl, we take off on the run. We went all the way to Florida and back, pretty much, just ripping and running. Well, we were both on the run. She was on the run for another case, and we're just partying the whole of time. We were down in Florida and Miami, and we had just hit broke again. So we're in the hotel plotting and scheming like, all right, what are we going to do, come up with money? What are our ideas? And she's like, yo, you remember those Jamaican guys that smoked with us last night?

I was like, yeah. She's like, yo, I saw in their room. They have a big ass duffel bag of weed. Like, yeah? She's like, yeah. I'm like, all right, here's what I'm going to do. So there was like a regular door and a sliding glass door. I'm like, let me go on the backside, climb the fence, because there was like,

dividers in between and see if it's open. I climb, sure enough, it was open. So I tell her to go towards the front. And when I come through the door, you have the car started ready to go. So she's in the car. I grabbed the bag, hit the door. I'm running to the car. It's not very far, but as I'm running to the car with the duffel bag, they pull in.

And I'm like, no. So I dive in the car, I throw the bag. I'm like, peel off, peel off, peel off. And all of a sudden, you hear, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Bing, bumb, boom, boom. Look over, and these two Jamaican dreadlock guys got some oozes with, like, automatic clips, like the most TV guns I've ever seen in my life. And they're both just letting off at us.

And we're in a stolen car, mind you. And they're just letting off us. This chick is so gangster. She gets out the car while they're shooting at us with automatic weapons. And we had this little 22, six-shot revolving. That's what we did most of our robberies with. We only got six bullets, and she starts letting them off at these guys. I'm like, are you fucking stupid?

They got a hundred more bullets than us. Get in the car. And she's like, no, nobody's going to shoot us. And she just lets off her little six shots until the thing's empty, gets in the car, speeds off. I'm amazed it's even running at this point. Now, mind you, the car is just riddled with bullet holes. I'm like, we got to get out of this state. They're going to be looking for this car.

Let's go back up north. So we start making our way back up north. We're selling weed on the way, getting high. And I'm like, yo, I want to go back to my old projects in Hartford. So we go to make a stop by there. And right after we leave there, the car runs out of gas. And I'm like, what are we going to do? We have no money, like not even a dollar.

Like, we got all this weed in the car. What are we going to do? So I can get out. There's like people on the side of the road. I'm like, oh, can the gas station's like right there? I can see it. I'm like, hey, can you help me push this? Nobody's trying to help me.

A cop pulls up. Oh, here we go. Stolen car on the run. Mad weed in the car. It's like, everything's all right. I'm like, we ran out of gas. He's like, you want to put it in neutral? And I'll use my push bar to get you back over there.

I'm like, I would be so appreciated. Get in the car. we do that. Get there. I get right up to the pump. I'm like, thank you. Thank you. I'm trying to get him out of there.

It's like, no problem. He leaves. I find somebody that give us a couple bucks of gas. I'm pumping the gas. I'm trying to get out of there, trying to get out of there before this cop comes back. And just as I'm about to hang the nozzle up, all of a sudden eight cop cars come and swarm us.

And this was actually related to my first prison bid. This was when I was on the run on my first prison bid. and we got caught with the stolen car. They dropped all of that if we agreed to come back to New York to face those charges. And that was also what influenced the judge that sent him to prison. He's like, I gave him a drug program. He left that. He's supposed to be on house arrest.

He just left, went on the run, look at all this. Like, I got to send him to prison. How do you make amends to the people that you hurt throughout your journey? Or how do you make peace with it? So I came home, I was working the steps, you know, you do the ones you can do. You know, it's not for them, it's for you when you're supposed to make your amend. You know, when you're doing your four-step of NA work, the only time you don't do it is if it's going to hurt somebody else too much, you know.

So you put down on paper what you can, that you can't do face-to-face. And that's another reason why, like, you're caught in a vicious cycle of drugs. Like, you need them because you're physically dependent on them, but you have no money. So you do something shitty to get money. Now you're high. You got a bunch of guilt. You've got to do more drugs to bury that guilt. And it's just a cycle of guilt, get high, guilt get high, guilt, get high.

I still struggle with a lot of things I did. Like, put my family. through a lot. I put my kids' mother through a lot. Like that's part why I don't blame her for, you know, trying to keep a barrier between us. There's a lot of hurt and pain that comes with

it and you try to make your best. You know that I said it before the interview. My wife doesn't know that version of me. It's like a Dr. Jekyll and Hyde type thing, you know? And I try to remind myself, like that's not who I am today.

I wouldn't do those things today if it wasn't for the drugs. As soon as I stopped doing drugs, I stopped getting in trouble with the law. You know, I changed all the, not that there was many people around me, but I changed the couple of people around me, the people who I knew could possibly take me back down that path. But it's hard, though. Like, I have the guilt of the time I'm losing with my kid while I can't find them. And there's a lot of it, but you understand that only certain things you have control over and you make right what you can.

Absolutely. Chris, thank you so much for coming on the show today, man. No problem. You gave a fantastic interview. I couldn't have asked for a better interview. And you did really well. And I really appreciate you taking the time to come out and sit with me and share your story. No, it's definitely a blast.

I wanted to come out here and let people know. I mean, there's people that have obviously done more years than me. have changed, but you can change at any point.