Locked In with Ian Bick - How I Survived Trap Houses & Prison | Aaron Garnes

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

The infamous Fire Department Bandit opens up about his wild journey. Hear firsthand accounts of life in a trap house, the intense struggles of surviving in prison, and the lessons learned along the way. Get ready for an eye-opening glimpse into a world few have experienced, filled with raw, unfiltered stories that will leave you speechless. Perfect for fans of true crime, survival stories, and anyone curious about life on the edge. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Aaron Garnes: Maybe: Ian Bick: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@getagrippodcast614 YT : https://youtube.com/@GetaGripPodcast614 FB: https://www.facebook.com/aaron.garnes.71?mibextid=ZbWKwL His Cohosts’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/louisessig?igsh=eWdtZW45Zm14c3Bo Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Growing Up in a Middle-Class Family 00:03:28 - A Troubled Childhood 00:06:50 - Cutting Myself in Math Class and Becoming a Wrestler 00:10:09 - Wrestling 00:13:37 - The Peak of Addiction and Homelessness 00:17:14 - Life in a Drug House 00:20:52 - Arrested as the Fire Department Bandit 00:24:28 - Impressions of Speaking Spanish 00:27:37 - Troubles in County Jail 00:31:16 - Loyalty and Survival in Prison 00:34:43 - Smuggling in Prison 00:37:51 - Visiting Constraints and Prison Experiences 00:40:59 - Life in the Halfway House and Beyond 00:44:22 - From Homelessness to Love Affair 00:48:06 - Finding Love and Getting Clean 00:51:39 - Overcoming Addiction 00:55:03 - Farewell and Appreciation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My grandmother slept on a futon her whole life. Lived a 96, walked every day. I thought that wisdom was lost. Then I found AirWeave. The Japanese Futan reimagined. Extra firm support that honors tradition, but answers to science. My mornings feel different now. It's like I'm connected to something that understands my body

and lets me customize its features. Airweave is where ancient wisdom meets state-of-the-art technology. Discover more at airweave. I grew up in like a middle class like I never really wanted for everything I didn't I wasn't rich by any means but like I always had toys at Christmas time and like I never knew if we were poor or not you know what I mean does that make any sense yeah of course yeah Christmas is always good I always had like way more than I could ever want as a child so no complaints and like the first eight years of my life after that it's like you have both parents uh until I was about probably 10. I think it's when they separated. And then, yeah, mom went one way. Dad went the other way. Mom, good. Dad, not so good. Kind of like, plummeted into drugs and addiction. My dad was always kind of like a drug addict on and off throughout my life. And then he would have like a year-long bits where like you do good. And then, yeah, just, uh, it would go downhill from there.

What about siblings? I got like a brother and I got a sister. And they're kind of like their own weird things too. My sister was pretty young when my parents were split. So like, when they got divorced, we all kind of picked a parent, lived with the parent. I chose dad because he's fun. You can do whatever you want. Sister went with the mom who's like about rules and all that good stuff. And yeah, that's what was that was probably my first downfall in life was that right there, that decision. Do you know if your dad was doing drugs while you were conceived? It would make sense to me. Yeah, I could probably, like my mom would probably say that.

My dad always had, his thing was, like, liquid cough syrup. You love liquid cough syrup. And then got into some, like, legal trouble for writing fake prescriptions for legal cough syrup, which was apparently pretty easy to do back in the day. Yeah. It wasn't a thing. So do you think those addiction traits got passed down to you from him, looking back on it now? Probably, yeah.

I could, yeah, like, it wasn't much, like, when, you know. my first drug was like introduced to my face. It wasn't like, it didn't take much. Like, I was like, all right, let's go. So, yeah, there wasn't like much debating on it. So it's probably somewhere deeply instilled in me that I don't even see. So when was that first time when you were 10 around? Yeah. So my dad, he was, he loved drugs. He got into like, as the divorce happened, he got into like, I would notice my dad being in the bathroom a lot more. Like, he would come home from work. and then he would spend the rest of the evening in the bathroom. I wouldn't see him again until the next morning when he's going to work.

And then, yeah, so we had one bathroom in a house. I just like, that's the way it was. So I'd go pee outside or whatever had to be done. But then I remember one day he went to work and, like, I just got curious. He was like I was probably 12 at the time. So like weed started to be a thing. So maybe I started like snooping around his room. And then I would find like random drug parapheria.

finale that I wasn't yet hip to. Like, I remember finding some chore boy in his room one day. And I didn't know what that was, but my first automatic, like, thing was, like, I got to try that. So, yeah, just dumb 13-year-old me, like, finds, like, a crack stem and puts some just chore in there. And I'm, like, thinking I'm doing something, just smoking the chore. And, like, I was like, yeah, this is the, this is the crappiest drug. Why would people do this? So, do you think, looking back on it, that if you had a father that wasn't an addict himself,

that your life would have turned out differently? Like if you just had a normal dad, would you have ever been exposed to that? Probably not. Like, I probably would have exposed to, like, the normal elements, like drinking in some marijuana, but, like, heroin and crack cocaine were pretty, like, you know, what 12-year-old in 1990s knew what heroin and crack was?

You know what I mean? So maybe I would have, like, experimented on those roads, but probably not the harder drugs. They wouldn't become so normal to me, like, later on in life. Yeah. Did you end up graduating high school? Did you make it through? I did. So I lived with my dad for a while. And then so I was like my mom was in a different town. My dad's here. Yeah, I'm like slowly but surely like not caring anymore because my dad doesn't care what I do. I can smoke cigarettes. I can drink at his house. I can smoke weed. So eventually like yeah, I just start smoking weed and then that becomes like a heavy thing. And then yeah, then my dad gets involved in loan sharks.

he owes some pretty terrible people some money uh me like he's never around anyway when he's at work so they uh these people like come looking for their money one day they knock on the door my dad's not home i am there and like they see me sitting inside the house so they just start like brick in the house and uh yeah just destroying my house while i'm inside of it so that right there was like the breaking point where my mom stepped him's like you know what i think it's like you know what i think it's time for you to come with me.

What were you thinking when that was going on? I don't know because my dad told me, like, he minimized the loan sharks. I didn't know what that was at the time, but he said, like, yeah, I owe some people some money. They're probably going to come looking for it. Just don't answer the door. Worst case scenario, run out the back door. So that's what I did.

Like, they knocked. I'm like, all right, cool, I'm good. And then, like, when shit started flying through the windows, I'm hauling ass out the back door, scared of death, man. Holy shit. Yeah, it was terrifying. Wow. And did you ever end up going off to college? Later on in life. Like after I moved with my mom. She was a completely different city.

And that was like a, I don't know, like I had not a good life, but I had friends already here. And then I just pick up and go over here. And so like high school, starting off high school was pretty terrible for me. I didn't know anybody. It's a small town. Everybody's all clicked up already. So my thing throughout my life is I've always been obsessed with like WWF wrestling, like TV wrestling. So I started like getting to these like weirder offshoots of wrestling. It's called Japanese like hardcore wrestling where they would use like barbed wire thumbtacks. And it's fucking insane, man. So like my thought at school is like to try to show off and like get some friends. I would like start sticking myself with thumbtacks in school and like that would be cool.

and then I just end up being like the weird guy that sticks himself with thumbtacks and like stabs himself in math class. So would they just be sitting out of you? Like I'd be, I remember like at lunchtime very vividly. Like there was like a pinboard and I was just trying to like show off to some chick probably and I pulled him out. I was like, hey, check this out and just started like poking away. And yeah, like not the reaction I was looking for, man. Like it served the opposite purpose for me. Did any of your friends or teachers or principals report you to, like, your mom?

Yeah, so I didn't have any friends at this point. And then I remember sitting in my math class and, like, wrestling to bleed, they always, like, take a razor blade to their head. So I thought, like, this would be good. I'll do that in math class. So I'm sitting in math class and I pull out this razor blade. And for some reason, like, yeah, this is like, this is going to be my niz and scene. Yeah, this is going to be the climax. This was going to get me the attention.

So I bust out this razor blade and I cut my head open and math. math class and then like nobody's reacting to me and then like the teacher leaves and I get called down to the guidance counselor's office and she's like so I hear you're you're cutting yourself in math class and I'm like no what's I don't know what she's talking about and meanwhile yeah blood pouring down my face and then she called my mom and then that was a whole yeah my mom thought I was like suicidal or I'm just trying to get friends mom did they get you help at all I I don't know because I probably didn't want it because I wasn't like having a suicidal or hurt myself. You know, I didn't want to do it because like I like hurting myself.

I was just doing it as like a look at me, please. Holy cow. Yeah. So what happens next? So at this time too. So I'm like again, I'm weirdly obsessed with wrestling. I am watching TV one day and I see a commercial that says like, hey, you want to try out to be a pro wrestler call this number. So I called the number and I'm like 16 at the time, maybe a little younger.

And yeah, they're like, no, bro, you're, you got to be an adult to do this. So I just kept bugging them over and over and over and over until they finally were like, all right, well, you get your parents to sign off on it. We'll let you come in and train and do the whole bit. So that's what I did. And that became like the obsession for the next few years of my life. So you actually became a wrestler? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I did it. Like not very like large. Like it's like high school gyms. armories, but like, yeah, at 16, 17, like, I was obsessed with wrestling and I got to go around doing it and, like, meet all these guys. Like, I grew up watching on TV that are now kind of, like, washed up. And, yeah, so that's, like, I was living my best life. So, did you end up going to college for that? No. Or, I mean, I know you didn't right away, but did you want to go to college for wrestling? Is that even an option? No, because, like, high school wrestling and, like, TV wrestling

completely separate beasts, you know what I mean? Like, collegiate wrestling, that's, like, I don't want to say it's real athleticism, but you know, you have to know, like, the science of taking a man down and blah, blah, blah. This is just, like, showmanship. And, yeah, it's not, I don't want to say it's not real, but it's not, like, there's no real sport going on. Yeah, like, Logan Paul wrestling and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What is, is that legitimate or? I mean, it hurts, like, but, like, everything's predetermined. Like, me and you are supposed to be on the show tonight. A promoter will come and be like, hey, I'm. You're going to win. I don't care how you do it. And then you just fill in the blank from there. So like, all right, cool.

You're going over. What's your finishing move? So they know what the finishing? Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. So is that title championship belt shit? It's all like, yeah. It doesn't mean anything.

No. It's just like a glorified nothing. Yeah. So I did that for a while and I got pretty decent at it. And like it started. So I'm in high school and I start doing that. And I'm kind of like, I'm not involved in. anything in the school. I do that and I'm starting to make like a little bit of money doing it

on the weekends, blah, blah, blah. And then it kind of cut me short one day. I was wrestling one of those guys. I was telling you about I grew up watching. He kind of dropped me on my head, which ended up breaking my neck. And I didn't even know about that. So my dad came back in the picture at some point. And now he's like, he loves, he supports the wrestling thing, but he's like feeding me narcotics nonstop. Anytime I get hurt, anytime. And yeah, you throw me a percassette or whatever. And then that became like, hmm, I kind of like these, you know. How do you not know your neck was broken, isn't it? Because like, I don't know. I don't know if I have like a pain tolerance or what it is, but like I'm just kind of like when you're doing the wrestling thing, you're just kind of used to being sore all

the time. So I just felt like I had like a chink in my neck the whole time. So I'm like, it'll go away eventually. And then, yeah, I became hooked on these painkillers. My dad's giving me. He runs out. So one day I do go to the hospital and I like, hey, my neck's hurting, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, yeah, it should be, man. It's like, it's broken. It's like, oh, cool. So then they prescribe this ridiculous amounts of narcotics. And that's what starts to down. That's what's, yeah, that's what's the beginning of the end of my journey. I thought when you break your neck, you die.

No, no. Like if you like rip it from your whatever's back there, your spot up. No, it's just like you can break a vertebrae or, yeah. So it's like a part of your neck that's like, yeah, you like chip the bone in your neck that's holding it together, yeah. It was pretty ugly. But I didn't think it was a big deal. So like I can't really do anything at this point. My dad has an apartment. He's like, you can come live here. I'm like, great. So I go, I'm moving with

my dad and it's just, we're just, we're just, It becomes like a drug den eventually. Your mom didn't want to prevent you moving in from your dad. My mom always tried her damnedest to, like, steer me away from that. But, you know, when you're a kid, like, I don't want to do anything that's not fun. You know what I mean? So, like, dad's house was fun. You could do whatever you want.

I could have parties over there. He'd buy the beer for the party. Anything goes. Mom, like, I couldn't even bring girls to the house in high school. You know what I mean? So, yeah, dad was always, like, the go-to. Did you end up finding like a normal job or anything? I had like a job as like a front desk guy at a hotel for a while.

So I was living with my dad and like, you know, I was paying like my share of the rent. And he's like doing his thing. And then he ends up getting cancer, gets like some like, I don't know, some bad cancer, but they give him a ridiculous amount of pain pills. So eventually like now I'm buying off my dad. And then eventually like I ran out of money to stop going to work. because, like, I can't perform without these pills. And then, yeah, it's just an insane cycle for about six years of just leaching off my dad and getting drugs and doing nothing with my life.

You probably saw some insane stuff as a hotel guest person, right? Oh, yeah, because it was like a shady hotel, too. It was like a weird. I remember, yeah, being, like, proposition by, like, women, like, prostitutes that would come in and say, hey, you know, I'll do this for. if you give me a room for a couple hours. And to a young kid, I'm like, oh, that sounds pretty tempting. Luckily, I never, like, I never jumped.

I was always too consumed with drugs to worry about women. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, yeah, my dad, he gets cancer. And in the meantime, like, I go from, like, snorting these pills to, like, shooting these pills.

I don't know what I'm doing at this point. So I'm just muscle-popping pain pills. And I'm just getting abscesses everywhere. Getting sick all the time. Then my dad dies of like a blood disease. He gets this weird blood infection dies. I almost die a week later. And then, yeah, so now I can't leach off my dad.

So I'm basically homeless now. I'm losing my apartment because, like, I didn't pay for anything. It's in his name. So I'm homeless on the streets of Columbus now. How is he supporting himself financially? He's got like, he's a veteran. So he gets like a disability check. and then we're selling, like, so they were prescribing my dad,

it was 400 of the strongest pain pills you could possibly get a month. Like, 400 a month is absolutely insane to give somebody. So we would sell 50 of them, make rent, blah, blah, blah, and just party on the rest for, you know, the rest of the month until prescription time came around. And he didn't leave you anything when he passed? No, money-wise or anything? Yeah. No, he left me with a hell of the drug habit.

Wow. Yeah. So, yeah, it was pretty nasty point of life, man. Did you ever reflect on, think on that maybe his addiction came from his time in the service? That's where he started doing drugs. Like, he's in Vietnam. So, like, that's where, like, the OG Vietnam people, you know, like, that's where the heroin came from back in the day. So that's, like, how he got started.

It was like, went to Vietnam, got strung out, and then came back, and then just up and down since then. Man. Yeah, it was pretty. It's kind of, it's interesting seeing the domino effect and how it affects, you know, generations to come after that. Afterwards, I know. Yeah. So now you're homeless. What year is this? This is like 2012. And you're how old?

I'm probably, I don't know. I also had 12, like 28, maybe. 28, okay. Yeah, 28. And this is like the peak of your addiction. Yeah, like this was like, yeah, the lowest, like where I'm doing the most drugs I've ever consumed in my life, yes. Had you ever been arrested at this point? No.

It's ever been not a. Wow, you had a pretty far run not being arrested as an addict. I know. I know. You hear about coming into like, you know, simple arrests and whatnot. I guess because your dad kind of sheltered you. He was like my, yeah, he was like my sugar daddy of drugs. You know what I mean?

But like here's where like the down comes, like immediately after I run, you know, that wells run dry. So now I'm on my own. And I don't know shit about heroin. I don't know anything about the streets. So I'm just trying to like figure it out like okay where do I get more of these pills I can't afford these pills because I'm homeless so obviously the next best thing heroin right the cheaper alternative and then yeah do that and it's it's just a wrap for me I'm in homeless shelters um yeah shelters for most of my adult life actually for the next

yeah 10 years or so you just want 10 years inside shelters off and on the streets yeah like uh yeah shelters or I spent two years living in an abandoned warehouse. That was, yeah, it was a low. But yeah, mostly shelters in the streets of Columbus is where... Is it like what we see in TV where it's just a bunch of addicts and these like warehouses all just, you know, doing drugs and... Yeah, for the most part. Yeah, it's just a bunch of, yeah, a bunch of like people at their, like, most animalistic in a room and, like, trying to survive. So you're always constantly on the lookout for like, you know, it's kind of like jail, but I'd say worse. Yeah, because like somebody's

going to steal from me or somebody's going to like beat you up in the bathroom or just, yeah, take advantage of somehow, man. What was maybe one of the strangest or craziest things you saw in one of these drug houses? Oh, the trap houses, man. So eventually like I would get there to like, I found a place where I frequented and would buy drugs from all the time. You can go in and do him. But I remember, yeah, there's, this is, I still feel bad to this day. There's this one kid. He's like a Somalian kid. He just came in and bought his drugs. He was doing him. Got into some tiff with a girl that was in there. She ended up stabbing him in the head with a knife, right? And this kid, it was like freaking out because blood's coming down everywhere. And he's like making

a scene. So we like pitch him outside. And there's a hospital probably a block down the road from the house. So we're like, yeah, just go. Go to the hospital and come back when you're done. And he's like freaking out outside being loud and yelling and blah blah blah said like the trap guy that's running the place was like i'll give 20 bucks whoever goes out there and shuts him up and i was like i ran out of drugs at that point so i'm like 20 bucks is 20 bucks so i got there and i'm like dude please be quiet please be quiet and he's like still raising a fuss so like i had to like punch this poor kid out and he's like just like a hundred pound small young kid that's strung out and uh yeah so i had to like beat the shit out of him

and like make him go to the hospital and it was god awful man what happened to him i don't know i didn't like he i think he went and got sutured up and then i never i don't think i saw him again after that does he report to the cops then the cops come to no some no somehow now he never says never said a word yeah wow yeah so then when's the first time you actually end up getting arrested yourself okay so around 2012 i had like fake stints of sobriety right where i would just like clean up to to to please the people in my life. My mom, who I've done all this dirt to, like, my entire life stint, like, has been just, like, no, fuck you.

So she gets me, she works at a fire station in downtown Columbus. Doing what? She, like, runs, like, the museum part. There's, like, a fire museum part of it. So she sets me up with a job in an office, like, at this museum, which is inside of a fire station, as, like, a raising donations person kind of deal. So that job probably lasts maybe 60 days before I screw it up. Again, I'm just like doing, I'm fake sobriety at this point.

So I'm like, my paycheck, I just go buy some pills and I come in and do the work and then the whole bit. So, yeah, my attention is going to buying drugs all the time. I get fired from the job. So back to the streets I go. And then so here's my drug house. And then here's like the bus that takes me to the homeless shelter. I go buy my drugs and it's like middle of winter. So I'm like, I need to do these drugs immediately.

And the only point from here to there was like the fire department that I used to work in. And I know like it's open to the public. You can come in and you can just go right into the bathroom. No questions asked. No locked doors, no nothing. So me, three nights in a row, I go into this place. I hop into the bathroom. I do my drugs.

I get out, right? So no harm, no foul. What I've been going on at the time is that there's been a strain of break-ins, the fire department people's cars and throwing rocks through windows. So they're watching footage one day and they just happen to see my dumb ass walking in. And I do that three nights in a row. And then next thing you know, I'm on the news. Yeah. They hit me pretty hard with that, man.

Like they originally charged me with like an F5 breaking and entering. And then I'm on like, there's a warrant. out for me now and I make it about two weeks before I'm arrested and then indictments come back right and I'm like cool I'm never been in trouble with my life I'm like uh all right this is like I'll be fine so indictments come back 11 days later and it's uh they charged me with three F2 burglaries holy cow bro wait so did they they saw you on camera do they go to your house or do they wait for you to come back and catch you in the act no I'm homeless at this point they all know it now so they just find you. Um, so they, they put me on the news as this like big bad fire department bandit,

right? Fired department bandit. And then, um, oddly enough, I'm, uh, homeless. Like, it's probably a couple months after the event actually happened. And, um, I'm walking into a gas station. And apparently one of my old bosses that I used to work for who I had stole from, and that's why I got fired, like saw me going into the gas station, called the cops. They came and arrested me right there on the spot. Did they do like a whole big scene or was it just a couple of cops? No it was like it was probably way more than I deserved like uh guns drawn. No they didn't do the they uh they just came like probably four cars deep and then um yeah just pop me like there wasn't much of a fight you know what I mean and it was sad because I had just like found this job that paid cash by the day just gotten

done with an eight hour work day had a little bit of cash in my pocket just called my drug dealer and I'm on the way to go meet him which was like a block down and then bam cops so do you think that that was actually a good thing that happened to you though that you got arrested um i don't know maybe in hindsight like at the time no um i still looking back on looking back i say yeah that was uh it probably saved my life quite honestly because like i i didn't really care at that point like i wasn't like i was surprised i had lived as long as i lived and made it to that age so um yeah i just didn't give a shit at that point now since you were both homeless and in prison before, which would you rather be?

Oh, that's a tough. I don't know, because prison is, like, it's kind of nice because, like, there are drugs to do in there, but, like, they're expensive drugs that I can't afford. So, like, I've probably, in my entire life, I've probably never been happier other than right now than I was in prison, which is weird, I know. I mean, you had your meals, you had showers, you had clothes. I had good meals. I worked in the kitchen.

You had a job. Yeah, had some, like, respect in there. And, like, one of my jobs in prison was, like, I had the kitchen job, which was beautiful, right? And then they found out I spoke Spanish. And then I had my GED, so they, like, talked me into working as a GED tutor for the Spanish people. And then I find out probably, like, much later on into my bit there that, like, the guys I'm tutoring are pretty, like, hardcore Mexican gang members. So, like, it was kind of sweet, man. I had it made in the shade.

Did they try to recruit you at all? No, they were just, like, they respected me and, like, just, I don't know, they, for some reason, people are astonished. Mexican, Spanish people are astonished when you find, like, a white gringo that can speak a little bit of Spanish. Like, they're super impressed by that for some reason. Yeah, you get a little respect for understanding it and whatnot. And then, like, to be able to, like, try to teach them, like, yeah, it was cool, man. I never needed for anything. So do you think that they gave you a hard time about the arrest because they thought you were the person that was doing the vandalism?

I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out and I've tried to like, so I get arrested, right? And then I sit in jail for six months waiting on the court hearings and all that to go through. And then the whole time, like, I've never been in trouble in my life. There's no way I'm going to get like anything. I get a slap on the wrist and I'm good. So they offer me like, and at this point, I don't know anything about the legal system. So the first deal, I'm ready to get out of jail. It was like the worst experience of my life that first time around. So I'm taking whatever they're thrown at me the first deal. So they offer me like this minimum security facility for four and a half months, three years on the shelf and three years probation. What is on the shelf mean? Oh, like if you fuck up, you go and you do your whole bit. So isn't that the same thing as probation?

Kind of, yeah. Or does a probation start after the three years? Because like you're all, yeah, because probation starts after the, yeah. So that's technically like a six-year-old. sentence. Basically, yeah. Six and a half. So I'm just like, I'm just so happy to get out of jail and do anything.

So I'm like, let's do that. That sounds like, that sounds great. So you just wrapped this up a few years ago? Um, 2019 officially. Wow. Yeah. Congratulations. Thanks, man.

It was, uh, yeah. To not be in the system is such a beautiful thing. Yeah, the system is, uh, is unfair. Did you, um, were you stuck in the county jail because you didn't have money to bail yourself out? Yeah, absolutely. How much was your bail for that? My first bond, um, And I still feel like it was pretty steep.

It was 10 grand. And you would have had to come up with what? A thousand of that. And your mom didn't want to? No, fuck no. Her rule ever, like, ever since I was born, her rule was like, I'm not going to buy you a car. I'm not going to bond you out of jail, right? Tough mom.

Tough mom. But, like, in my head, though, here's the insanity of, like, in my head, you can't go in your, like, phone so you don't know any numbers. I know about three phone numbers off the top of my head. And I called everybody. Like, I just, like, one of the numbers I knew. was my old boss that I had ripped off and have like a bad, I didn't leave good on his, you know, but like in my mind I justified calling him like, all right, how can I talk him and I'm bonding me

out of here? And I tried so hard and nothing, man. Yeah, that's one of the best things I guess they could teach you in schools to memorize your emergency contacts. No your phone numbers. Yeah, no your phone numbers. Because when I, I mean, when I got to prison, if you don't know your numbers, you're kind of screwed. There's nothing you can do about it. Yeah. Absolutely nothing you can do about it. I feel like such a dirt bag, because I remember I had almost talked my mom into bonding me out one time, right? And then she's like got sketchy about it because like I don't show up to court. She's got to pay all this, right? So she like pulls out on me.

So then I started doing like these terrible, terrible things. Like you should never put a mother through to like earn her sympathy. So I remember like faking like sexual assaults in jail just to have mom like I called her one day. I was like mom, they're like, yeah, they're saying they're going to do this to me and do. this to me and like yeah they're starting to like uh touch on me and it was so like cringy pathetic now that i look back at it man and i feel so terrible about that yeah give us a fun uh prison kitchen story from working in there story um i remember oh so just like one day um i walk in and uh it's just completely quiet it's like a normal day and then next thing you know it's like these five essays

are just pounding on this one black guy, man, just out of nowhere. And it's just the chaos that ensues, like, put everything on lockdown and trying to clear 100 people out of the cafeteria. And then just, like, seeing this black dude after they, like, just pummeled the shit out of him. Like, I'd never, like, really seen, like, blood and guts like that. But this dude was, like, yeah, he's open, like, his eyebrows split wide open. Yeah, lips all busted and disgusted. Why'd they do that, too?

I don't know. I still don't know why. I'm assuming probably money or something like that This was at the county jail No, oh county jail This is at prison prison So I go to a minimum right I did go to a minimum at first

So I got out of the minimum And then I'm on probation now after that I'm not good with probation Because I still do drugs, right? So I violate And then the judge It was like So I just did

134 days at the minimum security prison Or yeah And then I get it out and she sentences me right back to that same facility I just got out of. So I go back again. That's where I meet Lou. And then again, I fuck it up immediately. So I fuck it up the second time. And then the judge is like, yeah, you're going to prison. Like I gave you two shots. Like didn't even try. So you're going to prison for the rest of your time. And that was another two years almost.

That was about, yeah, a little over two years. Wow. Yeah, man. Nothing like that. Like, hmm, two years. Two years doesn't seem long. on paper, right? Like, you wouldn't think two years a long time, but like, yeah, as like experiencing it, like, that's eternity, man, two years. Now, white guys in Ohio State Prison, do they have to run with anyone? Are there gangs

in Ohio? Surprisingly, no. I had more trouble in the county jail with, like, not being affiliated or, you know, being a solo act or whatever you call it. But, like, no, like, prison, I never had any problems, man. Why do you think that was different in the county

jail? Probably because like you're in the county jail like Columbus is like notoriously famous for having one of the worst jails in America I mean it's like a animal house like they barely feed you you're on 24 hour lockdown

like there's no wreck there's no nothing and then yeah you got like dope sick people coming in all the time people that need entertainment so it's the jungle all the time I've never been in the county jail where it's not like I'm like hmm this is this is not bad this time around it's it's

war every time you go in. You know, we interviewed a corrupt county jail sheriff. Oh, man. From Ohio. What was his name? Lewis, what's his name? Kyle.

Yeah. Kyle. And, like, I wonder, like, is that the guy that did the, like, stole the drugs out of the thing? Yeah, he was stealing drugs out of the thing. What a, like, what a setup. He was on the show, yeah.

That was a great one. It's called Dirty Detective. Dirty Detective. All right. Yeah, it's just like, I don't know. It's like Darwinism at its finest in jail. Like it's survival of the fittest. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm grateful I never had to go through a county jail experience. And sometimes they combine fed guys in there too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Were you mixed with them? I had a bunch of like, and that's like the only good thing about, like, I mean, not the only good thing about speaking Spanish. It was like if I see some guys, like usually some ice cases that were in there, I'm shacking up with those dudes immediately, man. Because I know, like, you know, they're Spanish people are most loyal.

they eat good and they got your back like no matter what you're one of them and you don't have to be like a specific skin color to be you know to be cool with them like if you're just a dude that speak Spanish and you're good man yeah the Spanish guys once you're in with them they are they're so loyal and they won't snitch on you they stay tight and they move together and if you're yeah if you're hungry and you don't have anything like jump in man like we're all about it what was a difference in food between the county and the regular prison oh prisons like prison's like prison's still shitty food but like i think it's probably more of it county is just like you get i'm a i was 110 pounds in the county jail and i'm next to a you know 250 pound guy and they're

feeding us both the same tiny portions um you know like the math doesn't add up there so you ask you first try you're always hungry oh yeah so i'm my first time in uh in jail yeah i remember like I'd heard stories about it And I was like, all right I just gotta be like tough man You hit the first guy you see Blah blah blah So I walk in and I'm dope sick

And I'm like obviously strung out And yeah some like hawking Big black fella comes up to me He's like yeah I'm gonna need that tray white boy And I was like all right here's my moment right I was like I can't like give it to him Because then I'm fucked the rest of my stay So tray time comes

And I'm like In my head for like whatever two hours it was. So I'm like, what am I going to do? So tray time comes. He walks up to me and like I look like I hoed out and like gave him my tray, right? So I'm ruminating the whole time. He's over there with his tray and my tray.

So it's like, nah, fuck this, man. So I get up and I'm like, beeline over to him. I'm like smack the tray out of his hand. And I smack his tray out of the other hand. I'm like, no, bro, if I'm not eating, nobody is. And then I just proceeded to get my ass whoop. Looking to start 2026 with an unforgettable getaway. Fiji Airways sale is on now.

Fly nonstop round trip to Fiji from just 748. Or enjoy a sunny Fiji stopover on your way to Australia with round trip fair starting from 839. As a One World Alliance member and American Airlines Advantage program partner, your miles go further across the South Pacific. Book now at Fiji Airways.com or contact your local travel agent.

Conditions apply. I like three of his homies, man. So did you gain. respect after that? I don't know. I didn't get fuck with for a few days after that. If you went back to prison now, would you do that again? Or would you do it differently? I don't know. Probably not, man, because I'm like, in the grand scheme of things, like, who really cares if these guys think I'm a bitching? Like, if it came into my life or yours, I'll fight for that. But if it's like, I don't want to get, like, I'm not getting into it over a 25 cent fray, you know? Now, is it other

races getting treated like this or just the white guys? I think it's like mainly the white guys. That's all I saw. I don't want to like, it's not a fact, but like just from my experiences, yeah, like strung out white guys, everybody fucks with them, you know. Yeah, but they're also the ones you got to watch out for because you don't know if they're going to snap. I've seen the crazy, yeah, the crazy strung out white guys do some crazy things, man.

Yeah, those guys come off. Yeah, they don't care. So you worked in the kitchen in the prison itself. That was, that was, you did that your whole bit. Whole bit, yeah. And, like, it's the best paying job you got there. You got, like, your state pay. And then, like, uh, the company that brought in the food also matched what your state pay was.

So you were like, like, double paid, yeah. And then you can hustle too. You can hustle. Yeah. And like, I didn't really care about the hustling. I was all about like, all right, if I'm going to be here, I'm going to, like, get jacked up. And, yeah, look like a real prison dude by the time I leave. So let the beard grow out.

And, yeah, I just worked and smuggled bullet eggs. And that was, yeah, anything protein, really. I'm just smuggling back, man. Just for yourself. Just for me. Yeah, it was all for personal use. You always had the guys that were smuggling for personal use and then smuggling to hustle. It's funny to watch the hustlers because, like, they're bossy little fellas, man.

Like, you see guys, like, walking out smuggling a tomato juice can under their thing. That's fucking things of onions and peppers. Never would I ever have the balls to, like, try to pull something like that off. You always know when a hits going down, too, because they got the food's a little skimpy during the meal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're doing smaller portions so they could save their eyes. Yep. They played smart. Yeah, they're criminals, man. So what was it like to meet Lewis inside there? Who's now your co-hosts? Lewis, yeah, so Lewis and I have, so Lewis and I, like, I don't know, Lou, I met Lou when I was, like,

in the midst of my addiction. I met him briefly at, like, a meeting, and then, um, I didn't really know him that well. We knew him through a mutual friend, so he comes into the facility on that. I'm already probably, like, a month or two in, so I'm like the, uh, seasoned veteran at this point. And, uh, so he comes in, I see him. I'm like, oh, yeah, so we, like, acknowledge each other, have a little exchange. And then, uh, it's just like the, uh, best friendship ever since then, you know. After that, we just wrecked. How much time did you have on your sentence when he got in?

I think I still had another, that was before prison, so I still had another two years left, yeah. And then he had the same. He had the same. I don't know what he had going on, but probably about the same. You check us paperwork? Yeah, I should have. I still haven't checked his paper.

I don't know what that guy's in for. Do they have paperwork checking out there? I don't know. I've never done that. I've heard of it, but nobody's ever like, hey, can I see your pay? That brings up a great perspective because people will comment saying, oh, we don't, there's no such like as paperwork checking. This is you speaking that you're in prison. Yeah.

And you didn't experience that. I don't know what paperwork they're referencing because, like, I don't remember ever being given paperwork while I was in there. You know, they're not like, here's your file. Like, so I don't know what that means. I mean, everyone has a different prison experience. Yeah, yeah, and different prisons are run different ways. Yeah. So how much did you leave the prison with financially?

Um, not, not anything really. Like, I think they gave you your gate pay. So I was making, yeah, 80 bucks a month from the state. And then my mom would send me, you know, 40 or something for commissary. And I'd blow that. Um, so I think my gate pay when I left from prison to the halfway house was like 25 bucks. Was your mom supportive during your prison time? She was, uh, yeah, my mom, like, bless her soul and all the pain I put her through, always answered jail phone calls, always had, uh, money on the books and always had, yeah. Yeah, the phone money. I would have said, yeah, go, yeah, go F yourself. Like, you deserve this. Good luck. Would she visit you? Never had her come visit me. She came in the county.

She came once, but then when I went to prison, I was like, I can't do it to her. You know what I mean? It's like, imagine seeing your child in prison on the other side of the glass. So I thought I'd, like, spare her of that. Oh, is that how the visits were there? It was a glass wall. Yeah, terrible. You can't hear a thing.

You're packed in there with, like, everybody else who's loud. You're picking up a phone to talk? No, they don't even have that. They have like a little sliver in the wall. So like my method was like I'd have to stick my ear up to the hole while she's talking. And then like you try to time it where I can talk. And it was just a, yeah, it was a nightmare. And that was at the regular prison itself?

Yeah, but county and prison. Oh, wow. That's kind of wild. Yeah. No like a touch. Well, I can't really speak for prison because I didn't, but I've heard. That's what I hear about the prison I was in. Like that's how the visits are.

Yeah. Couldn't touch them, yeah. Wow. So when you got out, were you. you clean or did you do drugs in prison? No, I didn't do any drugs in prison. Like, I did the, like, the normal prison thing of, like, I'm going to do all this programming. I'm trying to get, uh, uh, what's it called, or release, uh, what do you call it?

I'm trying to get out early. Um, and then they tell me, like, when I get sentenced, do all these things when you go to prison and we'll, uh, we'll pre-release here, whatever it's called. So I'm like, cool. So I'm back-to-back, uh, program, program, program, workout, program. And that's all I'm doing in prison. And, uh, so, yeah, I, yeah. get denied of that early release and they send me the halfway house anyway so I get out and I do

11 months and a halfway house 11 11 bud yeah it's no house or us nothing just straight 11 months dude that's brutal but it it was terrible but like it was kind of cool because the end like you're allowed to have a job and you can have money and like somehow you're paying them to stay there which blows my mind they take a percentage of the paycheck right yeah now I mean in my scenario was a it seemed a lot more pettier and stricter at the halfway house and food was worse than prison itself what was your experience um kind of the same uh the food terrible um but like it was one of those like kind of like hood rat uh halfway house where they really didn't care what was going on um i've i've seen there was probably more drugs in the halfway house like i remember getting high my first week in there

some guy he's like you want to do a speedball i was like i've never done that before yeah and then two days later that guy dies in the shower at the halfway house and they just cart them out and bring somebody else in and you stayed away from the drugs in the halfway house uh no i did not i uh which i could say i did i was doing like i did that speedball with the guy and then i got hip to suboxin strips and then like i had a job that nobody else did so i was like the suboxin kingpin i was buying up everybody's suboxins and uh just eating them like crazy yeah no suboxin is huge in prison i know i know when i was in prison that was like a booming thing yeah like the red eye you know that like they stick it in their eyeball and like everybody's walking around with like the red eye.

I didn't know they did that. It's insane. Now, Suboxin looks like paper or what, how does that work? It looks like a little rectangle strip of whatever is in it. But it's like paper. It's like, yeah, it's like a little tiny strip of paper. Because they used to smuggle that in through the mail. Through the mail, yeah.

And then they stopped. Yeah. Then they started photocopying the mail like the prison officials. So you couldn't get that back. I think someone was telling me a story about how they shut down the whole mail room. Maybe it was Lewis. I forgot. Yeah.

And now like you can't even order like before your people could send you whites in, now you can't do that. Now you have to go through their people to buy the whites. So they're like the prices marked up. So you're paying double what you would have paid just to like, yeah, no outside books. Got to be directly from Amazon. Yeah, I mean, I think that they're phasing that all out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're hip. They're hip. Yeah. I mean, I know there are some like hustles where you can like, you return something from Amazon and have it rerouted to the prison. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it comes from, there's like different things, you know. But it's kind of crazy that the olden days, you could send, like, clothes into people, sneakers, food, anything like that,

care packages. That's, like, where the definition of a care package comes for inmates. Yeah, like, the cigarettes and, like, yeah, remember your people could send you a carton of cigarettes, but, yeah, that's long days we're over with. Now, were they helping you with, like, programs reintegrating into society and whatnot at the halfway house? No. I mean, you'd have, like, their little BS, like, mandatory things that you go through, but that's, I mean, it's after that, it's, like, whatever, you can get a job, pay us our money, and, yeah,

I get on through. But the good thing is like I successfully completed all my time in the halfway house. So between prison and the halfway house, I was like my time was done and I'm off paper. I'm off everything. So I'm a, I'm a free man ready to do whatever I want to do again. Looking back on it, would you would rather have just done the probation? I probably wouldn't have made it. Like I could, yeah, probation is not my thing. It's not people's things for a lot of people. Yeah, it's a hard, once you get in that system, It's hard to get out of that system, man. Yeah. So, like, I graduate. The halfway house.

I end up, like, befriending somebody in prison who lives in a, like, a fancy part of town. It's, like, a condominium, top floor penthouse. And, yeah, he's a prison buddy. He, like, I move in with him for a while. And then that's where, like, I'm off to the races again. Because this guy is, like, rich financially. And he's, like, rich in drugs, too. So I get out and he's, like, yeah, cocaine.

whatever I wanted is like there as a like welcome home present for me so like I yeah it's again like just right down the shitter immediately wow yeah so how did you finally get clean so I again that was 2019 um I eventually got kicked out of the the condo for stealing his drugs uh yeah just like he would hand me boo-cool amounts of drugs but that was never enough for me so like I'm back homeless flying a sign on the streets like I try my hand in that um Does that actually work? Give us a financial breakdown. If I could do that today, like if I had like no shame and going out there and holding a sign, man, it's probably the best paying job I've ever had.

Really? Yeah. People are actually... A good day. A good day I made 500 bucks. That was like the best day I ever had. What did your sign say? Just like said like anything helps or anything is a blessing.

Thank you. So how many people do you think are actually legit that do that? I met none. Like in my time, as a homeless man, like, living that particular lifestyle, like, and I met nobody that was genuinely out of gas or, you know, just going through a struggle in life. Like, we were all pretty hardcore addicts just feeding the machine, you know. But you all were generally broke. Oh, we're all poor, yeah. All our monies.

So you didn't see people with, like, a house or anything going out there to hold up the same? I never saw any people, like, anybody getting a jaguar after they got done, like, a shift at the off ramp. and drive off. So it is worth it to do that, then? It's pretty lucrative, yeah. So, like, I'm justifying it in my mind. Like, okay, so on average, I'm probably making $150 to $200 a day. I've got a heroin and a crack habit.

So I'm staying in a shelter. So I don't have any. So people will either give you cigarettes, money, or food when you're flying the sign. Like, I love all three of those things. So I'm flying all day. I go buy my drugs, go back, go to the homeless shelter, and then repeat. And like, I've accepted this is my plight in life, right?

So I'm completely good with it. So one day I'm out flying my sign and this lady pulls up in a minivan and she's got like three kids in there and she starts like preaching to me about Jesus and the goodness of Jesus and blah, blah, blah. So I'm like, whatever, you got money or not? So she leaves. I don't think anything about it. Probably a month or so later, the lady comes back, gives me a sandwich.

we start talking more. So she's like a married housewife, lives in a nice part of Columbus, got a husband with a great job, with great money, blah, blah, blah. So this woman, like, keeps coming back every week or so. Gives me a sandwich.

One day. And her thing, too, was always like, yeah, if you ever want to, like, get out of this life, here's my number. You can come live with myself and my family. We got a basement that's pretty sweet. and then like me

I'm like that just interferes with doing drugs so like I can't do that I get kicked out of the shelter one day and it's in the middle of winter time and I'm like what to do now man I've got literally nowhere to go my mom wanting to think about like toying the idea of letting me stay with her

so I call this like rich white lady from the suburbs and I move in with her and like the week later I just feel something different about this woman and uh yeah we begin to like have this relationship and which is like bad because she's married and i'm on drugs she doesn't know that and uh yeah but like whatever the connection

is so strong like we can't stay away from each other um and then like the husband finds out we're kind of in love like so we tell him about it and then this this guy bless his heart too uh just finds out like this homeless guy he let move into his house is like digging on his wife and she's like digging on him and then he offers to like let me stay there even after that right he's like all right well i get it like she's an attractive woman um i just need you guys you can't be together like alone anymore like you still still live here but you can't be alone together and like for me like she was becoming like my new drugs i just couldn't do that so i took like the honorable way out and was like I can't promise you that, man, so I left.

Then this guy puts me up in a, he buys me an apartment for two months. He gives me $600 cash, like, to leave his house. Like, we go to ATM, and he's like, here, I'll give you a few bucks to get you to start. Blah, blah, blah. Gives me $600. And then. Wait, so she picked up a random homeless guy on the side of the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Should give you a shower first at least or something? No, like, she gave me a whole different, like, I walk into this, like, basement and it's like it's legit like a nice apartment i've stayed in way shittier places in my life and um yeah we're just like hanging out all the time and it's kind of working out perfect because she'll take me to the off ramp in the morning she'll drop me off i go do my thing and at the end of the day uh you know i come back and then we hang out the rest of the night and the husband had no idea up until nothing man and like that's the crazy part he's like uh he's a bit of workaholic and he's like emotionally not there so like, yeah, he's oblivious to what's going on around him.

That's so crazy. Yeah. So then, yeah, so he puts me up in this like apartment, right, gives me two months rent. And now this woman's just like coming over to my apartment. So he's like he kind of like paid for a place for us to go, you know, outside of his house. And then she finds out I'm on drugs. And then like at this point, like I didn't see anything worth living for. I was cool with like doing drugs, going to the shelter and just repeating, like, I'll die eventually. But I meet this woman. She kind of changes it up for me.

And so now she's like, we're right. I'm planting the idea of like getting off drugs. It was like now, maybe I'll try that. So do you still talk to this woman at all? I'm currently married to this woman. Wait, holy fuck. Yeah, I'm currently married to this woman. You married this woman?

So were they like divorced or so? No. Was it just like an open? relationship? Not at all. So they're a pretty strict, like, not strict Christian family, but they both have their, like, beliefs, right? And they're pretty hardcore believers. And, like, she, uh,

fell into this, like, pit of temptation, which was me for some reason. Dude, this is. We just had, like, this weird vibe that you couldn't, uh, I've never had with anybody in my entire life. I guess when you meet that person. When you know, you know, right? And how the universe connected you, like,

if you look at it, like, imagine if you weren't at that, if you stopped going to that ramp. Yeah. or anything happened and you went somewhere else, you never would have... Never would have been... And you have a child on the way with her. I do indeed.

And she has kids from her. She's got... So, yeah, okay, so... Now I'm tickling the idea of, like, getting clean. I'm like, okay, maybe I can do that. Maybe it can be a normal guy. So, like, I do a couple in-and-out stints out of treatment, and it never works out.

Like, day two, I'm like, it sounds good going in. The day two comes, and I'm like, yeah, this sucks, man. I'm not doing this anymore. So I get through a week successfully completing detox, right? And I get out, and as soon as I get out, man, I go to the trap, I buy my drugs. But that's the first time ever in my life where I've called somebody. I was like, listen, I fucked up. I did some drugs.

So she's like, all right, well, let's get out of Ohio for a while. So she took me out on vacation to like Tennessee, had a lovely time. And then when I came home, I went to a like long-term treatment facility. And then that's like where this whole thing began. Wow. Yeah. And it was like a year-long program. I'm like, dude, how am I going to do a year or anything?

And for whatever reason, man, it's stuck. Like I've not felt the need to do drugs since then. I did like the things they tell you to do to get off drugs. I did all of those. But then like, yeah, since then I went to college and you bought a house and like have a decent credit score. Wow. It's weird, bud. Do you think that if you never met her, you wouldn't be clean today?

Oh, absolutely not. Like, I don't like, I'm not putting her on like on a podium, but like, yeah, had I not found anything that was like felt better than drugs, then no, I'd still be. Because I was cool with like, I had it made, man. I was a lone wolf. I did what I wanted. I had enough money and enough cigarettes, enough food to like just exist. It's so crazy how the universe works. Yeah.

And like this girl, like, so her husband make. probably close to like 200,000 a year, which is a lot in Columbus, and like gave it up, all that up for a junkie like me that had nothing to his name, couldn't even commit to a week of treatment. You know what I mean?

And like gave all that up. Like that's what a powerful drug, love is. Like gave all that and just like completely started fresh with me from like the bottom up. Wow. So what do you do for work now? So now,

I work in, I've got two jobs, like I'm a server on my off days from my main job, but my main job is like, I work at a treatment center that I once went through that I couldn't like get, you know, I couldn't last a week through. They have a long-term men's program and I'm kind of like a resident advisor there. And it's absolutely, I feel like such an imposter sometimes because like I look at them and like, I am them, man. Like I was them not that long ago. And I'm sure you can help tremendously because you have the lived experience. And that's like the, you know, like, that's one thing I've learned is like, like, you don't suggest anything really or you don't like, uh, you just speak from experience. Like, I know what worked for me. Like, I think like if a loser like, I was, I was pretty bottom of the barrel gave up on life. Like if a loser like, that doesn't want to be anything better can do this. I feel like anybody can do this, man. Do you ever have temptations to use? And if so, how do you, uh, stay grounded? Um, so. Um, so. like, all right, temptation. No, because, like, I made sure I did all the things

that I could possibly do to stay off drug. Like, there's a shot you can get now that, like, will block any sort of opiate in your system. So, like, I get on that. Like, I do all the things. But the one time, the only one time I've been tempted in almost three years is, like, I was, I re-enrolled in school. And then I was coming in one day, and I looked at the side of the road, and there's, like, giant bottle, right?

So I'm an addict. I get out and look at it. And it's, like, a giant bottle full Adderall, man. like the biggest, fattest bottle you've ever seen in your life, and it's just completely filled to the top with adderol. So I'm like, hmm, that's never really my drug of choice. So maybe I can just, like, pop them every now and again, see what it feels like. So I had on to these freaking pills for, like, three days. Like, you know, it was my dirty little secret.

And then finally I was like, I can't do this anymore, man. Like, I'm tired of thinking about taking them. And then I just, like, told my wife, and I was like, we got to dump these things because I'm going to eat them eventually. I wonder if the universe, like, planted those. I think it probably had to have, right? Yeah, just like just to test you, to, you know, to give you that, to show you that you could do it. Never in my lifetime have, like, yeah, drugs just been, like, there, you know?

Like, such a substantial amount of drugs right there. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to believe that, you know, that's a coincidence. Yeah. And my thinking was always, like, if I tell somebody I, like, I want to get high, that's just as bad as getting high, you know what I mean? Like, I think that's, like, a weakness. And I think once I got over that and just realized, like, getting out there and asking somebody for help or just telling them what's on your mind, like, it's saved my life.

I don't know how many times in the last three years. Absolutely. It's absurd. Well, Aaron, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Great talking to you. Great to meet you and Lewis. And thanks again. And I'll see you around as you guys, you know, continue your podcasting world and using the studio over here.

Thank you, brother. I appreciate you, man.