Locked In with Ian Bick - I Was Toledo’s Most Wanted — Then I Went to Prison | Devin Prince

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Devin Prince grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and became a father at just 17 years old. Struggling to provide, he turned to selling drugs — and soon fell into addiction himself. What started as a hustle spi...raled out of control when a robbery gone wrong forced him to flee, landing him on Toledo’s Most Wanted list. While on the run, he became involved in a scam and later continued dealing drugs in Virginia, where he was eventually arrested and sentenced to three years in state prison. But in a shocking twist, luck was on his side — the robbery case that once had him labeled one of Toledo’s most wanted fell apart, giving him an unexpected second chance. In this episode, Devin opens up about teenage fatherhood, drug dealing, addiction, being a fugitive, life in Virginia prison, and the moment everything changed. #MostWanted #TrueCrimeStory #FromFugitiveToFelon #PrisonLife #RedemptionStory #Toledo #CrimeDocumentary #podcastinterview Thank you to BLUECHEW for sponsoring this episode: Visit https://bluechew.com/ and use promo code LOCKEDIN at checkout to get your first month of BlueChew & pay five bucks for shipping. Connect with Devin Prince: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BaHGU8xmU/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TPGRIND Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop Timestamps: 00:00 How He Became *Toledo’s Most Wanted* 01:20 Growing Up in Toledo & The Road to This Interview 02:20 From Poker Games to YouTube Hustles 03:33 Family Trauma, Addiction, and Searching for Belonging 04:34 Becoming a Teenage Father & Trying to Be a Man Early 06:58 First Taste of the Streets & Gambling Takes Over 08:04 Getting Pulled Into Dealing: Fast Money vs. Consequences 10:06 Drug Money, Power, and the Illusion of Control 12:14 The Heroin Spiral: “I Thought I Could Handle It…” 13:41 Running Away to Missouri — And The Past Following 16:11 Love, Breakups, Relapse… and Losing Everything 20:49 *The Case That Changed Everything* — Fugitive Life Begins 24:13 South Florida Call Center Scams & Dodging Arrest 27:23 Life on the Run in Virginia: Meth, Madness & Federal Heat 33:35 The Arrest: Reality Hits in Cuffs 41:13 Inside Virginia Prisons: Politics, Hustles, Survival 44:39 Dating From Prison & The Emotional Escape 53:03 Getting Out… Then Relapse Hits Hard 55:00 Fighting Back: Sobriety, Support, and Rebuilding His Life 58:46 Starting From Zero: Housing, Jobs, Family Reconnection 01:00:56 Trying to Live Normal Again — But Gambling Still Lurks 01:05:01 The Truth About Gambling Addiction & Sports Betting Culture 01:07:32 What He Learned — And What He Wants Others to Know Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:44 Devin Prince was a teen dad selling drugs to survive until one mistake turned him into a fugitive and one of Toledo's most wanted. Devin, welcome to Lockton. Thanks so much for coming up here today. Thanks, Ian, man. It's long drive. Nine and a half hours. I'm happy to be here, though.
Starting point is 00:02:02 Yeah, all the way from Ohio, right? Toledo, yeah. Yeah, we've had quite a few. few guest drive from Ohio. When you're older, nine hours actually doesn't seem like a lot. Like I remember I used to bitch and whine about nine hour drive or going to six or seven hours to Rochester. Right. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad. It stopped to get gas, I think, twice. And I rented a brand new 2025 of Hyundai to drive out here. So yeah, it was fun. I'm happy to be here. You know what's crazy about those new cars is that some of those cars are even
Starting point is 00:02:30 more expensive than like a sports car. It's crazy. So I put it in cruise control and the car started driving and by itself. Really? Like when I let go of the wheel, it literally drove by itself on cruise control at 72. Like I didn't, like for five minutes, I let it do it. And then of course I put my hand back on the wheel because I wasn't sure. I was just crazy experience to these new cars. Yeah, they're nuts. So tell the audience about your YouTube channel. Okay, so I started YouTube, I don't know, about a year ago. Right now it's called the Toledo Poker Grind. I'm a big poker player in Toledo. Empire Poker Lounge is a place I go frequently and play tournaments. I've won all times of tournaments. I won a chance to go out to Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker.
Starting point is 00:03:14 That's my dream is to go play in the main event. So I originally was doing like Pokemon stuff. I had like a $30,000 collection that got sold to Deep Pocket Monster. He's a famous YouTuber. He bought it, made a video. He got like $3 million. views about my collection and I started getting a little bit of traction from that. But then like, you know, with running the shop and everything, I kind of put it on the back burner. But I really want to make YouTube a priority and start telling my story more and getting it out there. Yeah. I mean, you see how much has come from me just telling my story. So you just got to double down on it and just jump in and do it. Because I mean, the prison, a couple of the prisons I was at,
Starting point is 00:03:54 you know, out by DC and the things that they do out there. It's, I can only imagine. I've encountered They're D.C. guys in the feds and they don't play. Yeah. So where do you grow up? So I grew up in Salito, Ohio, born and raised there. It was pretty much raised by my grandparents. So my mom got into addiction pretty early. Her sister, my aunt, passed away in 99.
Starting point is 00:04:20 And then it kind of made my mom spiral, and she was addiction heavy. So I grew up and was raised with my grandparents. My mom also lived there, though. So, like, she was there to help. But, you know, she was in and out of addiction. So when I look back on my childhood, you know, she was there as much as she could be, you know, when I think about it now, and I've forgiven my mom for, you know, all the times where she wasn't there and I needed her and she wasn't there or, you know, things that happen. We have a good relationship today. My mom's also in recovery.
Starting point is 00:04:51 She got clean in 2005. And it changed her life, too. So. Where's your dad? my dad disappeared when I was born. My mom, she never, I never seen him. He never wanted to be a part of my life. Even when I turned 18, my mom would fight in court for child support.
Starting point is 00:05:17 And he told her, oh, I'll see him when the time is right. And he ended up passing away four months later from alcoholism, from drinking too much. His liver failed. They called me and wanted me to come to the funeral. I didn't want to go. On top of that, they didn't even put me in his obituary that he had a son. In a way, it still kind of hurt me. Even though he was never in my life, I had no feelings for this person.
Starting point is 00:05:43 Like, I couldn't even believe, like, they didn't even acknowledge me in this obituary. But, like, those are things I've used to fuel to be a better father. You know, I have two kids, three kids, really, two that I could take care of. I have an 18-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son. Logan. So I've been taking care of them. But yeah, no, growing up in Toledo, I went to start high school. I graduated in 2007. But before that I got, so I met a girl online back in 2004 on AOL, AOL AOL AIME instant messenger. Do you remember that? Yeah, what was your username? Two Cool DMP. Mine was Dirtbiker for Life 95.
Starting point is 00:06:27 And like you could go on AOL and click on girls and you could like read their aim profiles. And it would say if like they were single or whatever. And I met a girl. Her name was Jennifer on AOL Instant Messenger. We met. I remember riding my bike to her house when I was I was 16. She was 13. And we met.
Starting point is 00:06:47 We started dating. We ended up, we were together for five years and we had a daughter in 2007. When she, when Jenny was 15 and I was 17. turning 18, we found out we were having a baby. How do your families react to that? So we told my mom first, and my mom was like, well, I kind of expected that. Like, she was like, I knew this was coming eventually. So we told mom, we had her, you know, she had our back and everything, and we were just scared
Starting point is 00:07:17 to tell Jenny's parents. I mean, I'm turning 18 and she's 15, and we just didn't know how she would react. So, you know, eventually we told her mom and her mom was like, well, as long as Devin's going to be here and be here for the baby and be here for you, I, okay, it's okay. And I remember her stepdad sitting down and having a conversation with me and putting his arm around me. And he was like, he was like, so he's like, I don't know how you did it. He's like, because we had an eye on you guys 24-7 and like we weren't allowed to like go in her bedroom. Like we could only sit in her living room. So yeah, it was kind of wild that we were.
Starting point is 00:07:55 able to find ways to, you know, have sex or whatever. But that's such a big commitment, though, for them to say, well, if you're going to be around and take care of the baby, you're, it is. And I'm not even, I'm just turning 18. I mean, we were kids, man. We were kids having kids. And I don't recommend it. It was definitely a lot. It was a lot. You know, luckily we had Jenny's parents, her mom and stepdad, who stepped in on the financial side of things and helped us, you know, with diapers and taking food and stuff like that. Because we were still in school at the time. So there was no money at first.
Starting point is 00:08:29 How are you as a person at that time? So I am starting to get into like street life. But some of my friends are older and there was like an illegal poker room that they had in Toledo that we started going to. I started smoking weed at this time. But basically just weed and alcohol. I really, the drug addiction and becoming an addict didn't really start until after Alina was born for both me and Jenny. Why do you like gambling so young?
Starting point is 00:09:04 I don't know. I've been big into gambling my whole life. I got pocket aces tattooed on my neck. It's just the rush of it, I guess. You know, I've been fighting addictions, different addictions my entire life. And, you know, I still like gambling to this day. I have it under like a moderation and control today. I'm up over 600 on the football season, though.
Starting point is 00:09:28 $600. Yeah, this year. Things have been going good with that. But yeah, so when, you know, the stress of having a baby, so I had to find ways to get money. There had to be some way for us, you know, and my buddy Nick Swartz, who he's dead today, he passed away from an overdose on fentanyl in 2015. He was selling weed. He had people, he had these people that.
Starting point is 00:09:55 that were fronting him weed and he was selling it. And it just became, you know, the progression of it. He got an ounce at first and then a half a pound and then one pound and then like two years into it. He was getting like 10 pounds a week. So I went and signed up for community college because I knew that there was loan money and grant money that I could get.
Starting point is 00:10:14 So I signed up for Owens Community College. I took all the, I took full course of classes and I ended up getting, I think it was like 5,200 a loan check. I took that check to Nick and got five pounds of weed and an ounce of cocaine from them. And that's where it all started as far as. So when you get the college loan, it doesn't go directly to the college. It goes to you. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:38 So, well, you have to pay obviously for the classes. And then whatever's left over the grant money plus the loan money, they give you, they give you like housing money. They include all kinds of different stuff that they give you. Like you can get all types of loans to go to college. Like I didn't know that at first. So I'm fresh 18. And I get all this loan money. And yeah, I take it to Nick.
Starting point is 00:11:00 And I'm like, I'm been ready to have a baby. I want to do this. This is what I want to do. I want to sell drugs. And he was like, all right. And we grew up together. He was one of my best friends. And he was huge at this time.
Starting point is 00:11:12 This was like in 2007. He was like one of the biggest, you know, white boy drug dealers in West Toledo. And he was like my brother. We grew up together. And we started making tons of. money. So Alina was born in 2007 and February 25th, 2007. And at this time, I'm making good money. We have a Jeep. We have a 2007 Jeep Cherokee. We're still living at her parents' house because her mom won't let me get a place because of Jenny still being under age. She's still only, I think,
Starting point is 00:11:45 17 at this point. And she's like, until Jenny's 18, you guys have to live here. All right, fine. And so we're raising Alina. Things are going great. But so during this time, my grandfather was getting percocets prescribed to him, 180 percocet. Well, he didn't like pain pills. He liked marijuana. Well, I was selling marijuana.
Starting point is 00:12:04 I would take him an ounce and he would give me those pills. Well, you know, like an ounce of wheat at the time was only going for like $100, but I could make $500 off these 180 pills. So I would trade him and sell the pills. That was great. And that went on for like six months. Then I had my wisdom teeth taken out right before my 18th birthday and was prescribed percassette. And that's when I started taking them.
Starting point is 00:12:26 And then I would get them from my grandpa every month. And instead of selling them, I would just take them. And that's how the addiction started. Do you think if you never had your child, you wouldn't have started selling drugs? You know, I don't know. It's hard to say. So I tried to join the National Guard when I found out Jenny was pregnant. Her brother was in the National Guard.
Starting point is 00:12:46 and he would have got a bunch of bonus money for getting people to sign up. So he was all for me signing up. And I looked at it like, okay, I can change my life. I can do this. And I went to try to take the test. And because I had got like an underage drinking ticket, I wasn't able to sign up for the National Guard. And I just think of like, man, if I would have went that route,
Starting point is 00:13:06 how my life could have been different. That one little thing derailed it? The one little thing derailed it, man. So that was out of the question. And I needed money. and I just see Nick like living this life. At this time, he's buying a house. He's got a brand new car.
Starting point is 00:13:22 I mean, I want what he has. So that's the route I decided to take. You know, I don't know. That's a good question. I just knew, like once I found out she was pregnant, my mindset went to, all right, we got to find a way to make sure to make this work and get money. How much money were you making?
Starting point is 00:13:39 So we were getting, I was getting pounds for 800 and selling them for 12. So I was making 400. each one, but I could do like three or four of those a day. I mean, 2,000 profit a day, easily, up just marijuana. And we're living at Jenny's mom's house. We don't have really any bills. So I'm saving money. Like I had $15,000 put up in a shoebox underneath our bed. And, you know, things were going great. And I thought this was going to go on for a while. And then two years into it, Nick ended up getting busted. His house got rated. They found, I think it was
Starting point is 00:14:14 like 11 pounds, a pound of mushrooms, 7, 8, 10 ounces of cocaine. And it was over. Like, that was the person I was getting everything from. Once I seen him get in trouble and he ended him getting a four-year prison sentence, I told myself, it was like, I'm done. I'm done selling drugs. I got to be here for my kid. I can't go to prison. So I stopped doing everything. And I said, Jenny, we're just going to live off this money and we'll be good forever. It was my thought at the time. that 15k was gone by the end of the summer we were taking we me and her both were eating percocets like they were candy taking 512s i was taken probably 20 to 30 a day jenny was taking 20 to 30 a day um it just kept progressing and then oxy cotton 80 milligram oxy cotton came around
Starting point is 00:15:03 um that's when it got really bad i mean that's when it got basically we were on oxy 80s and they became so expensive they were like 50 to 60 dollars a piece that it just we started doing heroin a guy called me one day he had um he had a 20 bag of heroin and I snorted this little tiny line and I felt 10 times higher than I did from all them pills and I was like amazed I was like I can just do this little tiny bit save all this money and I can like in my mind I was doing something positive because I was going to do just just spend a little bit of money on heroin and then I would have all this extra money. So I started snorting. We started snort an H. Me and Jenny both. We're still raising
Starting point is 00:15:49 Alina at her house. And all the money's gone. And at this point, you know, I don't know what to do. I no longer have the connections. We're broke. We're sitting in her mom's house. Jenny's three, or Alina's three at this time. So my mom at this time, she moved to Missouri. Her, my stepdad had got, he was working for Ford Motor Company. And he got a buyout and they moved to Missouri. She was out there for a year and called me and said, Devin, you know, you can come out here to change your life and try to get sober. And I tried to convince Jenny to go.
Starting point is 00:16:25 I wanted Jenny and my daughter to come with me and go to Missouri. She wasn't 18. Her mom wouldn't let her go. Her mom wasn't never going to let that baby, Alina, go out of state. So I ended up leaving by myself. And then that changed the course of everything by me going out to Missouri. to get sober. Jenny then met the guy who she's still with today.
Starting point is 00:16:48 She's married to. His name is Shane. She met him. Those four months I was gone. Her family looked at it like, you know, we told you, Devin, the only thing we wanted was for you to be here for Alina and you're going to just up and go. I mean, little did they know I had like $2,000 worth of debt on the streets. I had people looking for me.
Starting point is 00:17:04 I had just got beaten up. And I didn't want to bring them problems in that drama to her house where my daughter was. You know, I really was thinking about her in the big picture. And it just sucks because, like I said, even though she's 18 today, she still has so much hatred towards me because of the stories that were told to her when she was little from her mom, from Shane, about me. That wasn't even true, man. You know what I mean? And she took that stuff to heart. And still to this day, like she'll talk to me and we have a conversation. I love my daughter to death and would do anything for her. But she just, the way she acts towards me, it's almost like she still has that hatred of the things I did from when I was younger. This episode is sponsored by Blue Chew. Guys, enter the room Dick first. Blue Chew isn't just a service providing chewable tablets. It's a cheat code for your crotch. We're talking confidence, presence, and giving your lower half the kind of pep talk that turns it into the star of the show. Blue Chew is the original brand offering chewable tablets for better sex, delivered discreetly to your door. And let me just say my experience was, let's call it transformative. Last time I used one, my downstairs started acting like it. had a sponsorship deal with an energy drink brand. It refused to do missionary because apparently that was bad for the brand. This man was pulling out professional wrestling finishing moves and I'm just stand there like,
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Starting point is 00:19:09 That's it. Join Blue Chew's mission to upgrade humanity. one thrust at a time, had to bluechoo.com for details and safety info. And big thanks to Bluetooth for sponsoring the podcast. What's something that you did during that time that you're not proud of, that you know you actually didn't, wasn't just him saying that you did that? Oh, so, well, I mean, the nodding out and stuff, I mean, getting Jenny addicted. She had never did drugs. And she wouldn't have been become an addict if I wasn't on pills. I mean, she would have never did anything. She only did it because she was with me.
Starting point is 00:19:42 And so while I was out in Missouri, you know, I would video call Jenny every day to see my daughter and we would still communicate. And I thought everything was fine. I thought I was going out there to change and get clean. I was going to come back a sober man, get a job, and be there and take care of my family. That was the plan. Jenny agreed. We were all on board with it. But while I was out there, her sister, Mandy, she has four sisters.
Starting point is 00:20:05 And they all wanted Jenny to leave me. Her other three sisters wanted Jenny to leave me. they would bring Jenny over to her house. They would bring guys around to hang out with Jenny while I was gone to just to get her to meet other people, to meet other guys because they just seen, they thought if she stayed with me, it was going to turn into, you know, we'd lose Alina. CSB would get involved. They just seen what the future could be for her if she stayed with me.
Starting point is 00:20:30 And it just sucks that I was never given like an opportunity, you know, let Devin go to rehab and get sober. Then he can come back and raise his daughter. Let him give him a chance to change. It was never, I was never given that option. It was just once I was messed up, it was push him out. She met Shane. She started talking to him.
Starting point is 00:20:48 So then December of 2009, I come back. I go from Missouri to Philly. I'm in Philly with my cousin for a month. And then I come back. I miss my family. I want to see Alina. I want to see Jenny. So I come back in December.
Starting point is 00:21:03 And while I was gone, Jenny stayed getting high. She was still getting high with her sister. And so the night I got back, I relapsed. Of course I did. Jenny was still using. First down, I got back. She wanted to get high. And I had money.
Starting point is 00:21:18 And we got high and I relapsed. 30 days from that day, she broke up with me. On January 1st, 2010, when my daughter was three and a half, Jenny said, I can't do this anymore. I want to be with Shane. He was 18. He had his life together. It was never on drugs.
Starting point is 00:21:33 Had a car, had an apartment. Had everything I should have had, had I not, chose to run. chose the life I chose. And I, you know, now I understand, I can understand and see why she did it. But it was like, you know, from that day forward, it was like, I never seen my daughter again until she reached out to me in 2022. How old are you at that point? I was 19, a 21. I was 21 when she kicked me out. And I spiraled after that. I started doing heroin every day. I was injecting. in it, I was taking Xanax. Discontinued on for like two years.
Starting point is 00:22:13 I became homeless. These were like some of the darkest times of my life. It got so bad that my aunt, my dad's side of my family reached out to me and said, Devin, you can come live here. Mind you, this is family I've never met before. Had no idea what these people were like, but I was tired of sleeping in the cold.
Starting point is 00:22:35 You know, I would sneak in. My grandparents were living in a cold. retirement center and I would sneak in their complex to sleep at night because it was so cold outside in winter and I would sleep in the hallway of their apartment in their retirement complex and sleep on the floor and my aunt decided to take me in. So I moved into the east side of Toledo in 2013, early 2013 and they were all addicts. She had two daughters, which were my cousins. They were all pill addicts. They were all doing pills. I had progressed to heroin, and they were still doing pills, but it was just, it's still the same thing.
Starting point is 00:23:12 I mean, they were still acting and doing the same type of things I was doing. And moving over there, that's when I caught the first big case and was on the news. What was that first case you got caught for? So my cousin comes to me and she says that I have this heroin dealer who lives in South Liddle, this older black guy, and he's got a safe that's got $10,000 in an ounce of heroin in it. On top of that, he's got all types of gold and jewelry. And in my mind, I'm thinking, this is it. This is the come up of the century. Let's do this.
Starting point is 00:23:44 So we pull into his apartment complex. She calls him for a $100 bag, says, I'll meet you down the street. He says, okay, we're sitting in the parking lot. We watch him come out of his apartment complex, getting his car and leave. And as soon as he leaves, we walk up. She somehow breaks the, like, there's a door that's locked to get actually into the apartment complex. She uses some kind of like key tool and gets that door open and then we walked down the hallway to his room and I just stuck with my foot. One good kick kicked his door
Starting point is 00:24:17 wide open. We went in there. There was a safe. We got the safe out the back. We pushed it out the window. I had Nick with me. I had him pull the car up to the back of the apartment complex. We got the safe out. I got jewelry out. He had like a bottle of pills. It was a bunch of stuff. It was a bunch of stuff. Then we took everything and we loaded it up in my cousin's car and we took it back to my aunt's house. And me and my cousin carried this safe into my aunt's house. And for like five hours, we tried breaking into this safe with different types of hammers and crowbars. And we're banging on this safe and like trying to break it open.
Starting point is 00:24:53 This is a nightmare, man. So like after like five hours like beating on this safe, we get it open. It was empty. Safe was empty, bro. I couldn't believe it. And like, I told her, I was like, where is everything? She's like, I don't know. I just seen him put everything in there.
Starting point is 00:25:08 I don't understand. I don't know why this man had this giant safe in his house and it was empty. I couldn't believe it. I don't know. So we make the little bit of money off the play. And I'm thinking that this is just another lick and go about my day. The area of the next day, breaking news on Fox News. Two Toledo burglary suspects are on the run tonight.
Starting point is 00:25:28 If you have any information, please contact the Toledo Police Department. and there my face was in my cousin's face. She covered her face up. I had my arms like this. You could see my tattoos. No face covering. It was plain as day. It was me.
Starting point is 00:25:45 And then they interview the guy, Darrell. And he goes, yeah, I used to be an addict. I just want them to find these guys and let them, you know, they need to go to jail so they can get help and get the treatment that they need. I just couldn't believe that this like dope boy is on the news. talking about preaching sobriety to me, I was, it was ironic, I guess. It was funny. So I had a friend that was living in Miami at the time. He was running halfway houses down there. In 2014, South Florida was the recovery capital of the world, they called it. There was a halfway house in every corner. There was a treatment center on every corner. He was like, well, look, man,
Starting point is 00:26:24 if you want to come down here and get the heat off of you, he's like, I got a bed for you. He's like, but you've got to stay sober. Mind you with this time, I'm still doing heroin. And I'm going to, I know I'm going to be sick if I go down there, but I don't want to go to jail. So my mom buys me a one-way ticket to South Florida. I get to the airport. I get on the plane. She gets me out of the city. Five days later, the U.S.
Starting point is 00:26:43 Marshalls kicked my aunt's door in and got my cousin. Meanwhile, I was gone. So I get to South Florida. I detoxed on Vinny's couch for like five days. I was very sick, man. Puking and shitting on myself and the cold sweats and the chills. It was one of the hot sweats and the chills. It was one of the hardest detoxes I ever went through, but I knew my circumstances and I knew I had to do it.
Starting point is 00:27:07 So five days of that, mind you, I got to Florida with like $20 in my pocket. Everything I owned was in a book bag. And I went for a job interview, six days sober at a call center called Standard Industries LLC. Mind you, I don't know nothing about this place. I don't know nothing about this job. I've never done sales before phone sales other than being a drug dealer. So I do the interview, I get the job. The job is basically just calling and reading off this script.
Starting point is 00:27:36 And I don't know at the time, like, you know, the whole thing of it, but it was like, it was a scam call center I'm working for. You would call and you would get to know people and become friends with them. And basically what I was trying to do is sell you a box of lights, a box of light bulbs. And then they would charge $7,000 for a case of like $15 light bulbs. this company so you would co-call companies and then they would send the invoices
Starting point is 00:28:06 and then they had this third party company that would call and harass companies until they made the payment and this went on for years I mean this guy bought a private plane so the customers the victims are the customers we're calling
Starting point is 00:28:22 their commercial businesses you guys are after commercial businesses any type of warehouses maintenance houses, any place that I could have called you and asked you for some T8s. Those are T8 lights. You know what I mean? But what's crazy is we would get these people to say yes without ever telling them how much the price was. They didn't even know how much they were paying for it.
Starting point is 00:28:43 And are they giving their credit card over the phone? No, no credit card information. It's straight in they send the invoice with the lights. So you guys are shipping the lights hoping that these people will pay? Right. Well, so then they have this third party company that calls and harasses. these companies. And I don't know what they say to them, but they make them pay. And the companies pay. So the actual scam is that the lights cost more than what they're actually worth.
Starting point is 00:29:09 Well, right. Well, yeah, that's the biggest thing of it. I mean, the lights are like $20 and they're charging $7,000 for a box of them. It's insane. So what are they saying that they're like the special type of light? I don't know. I really don't know that end of it. So my part of the job was basically just, you know, getting the guy on the phone, getting him. him to like you and he would just he would like you and become your friend within in that 15 minute conversation that he will oh sure i don't mind buying a box of lights from you guy like and is what's what's messed up is i had i used to give out my personal cell phone number when i would close because i wanted that sale so bad i mean my paycheck's even worth 3,000 ready or not summer is
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Starting point is 00:30:54 Like when I, well, after a couple months into it, I had got a phone call from a guy who, like I said, I was giving out my personal number. And he goes, you know, I lost my job today from purchasing these lights from you. He's like, I've been at this, I've been a foreman at this company for 15 years. He's like, I'm married. I have kids. He's like, I don't know what I'm going to do. He's like, is there any way you could please cancel this order? I just hung up on him. Like, I didn't know what to say or what to do. But once I, like, mind you, I'm in recovery. months clean at this time and I'm starting to live right and try to like have morals and
Starting point is 00:31:30 and I realized that what I was doing was you know very scammy so I was there for over a year man I went to the NBA finals seeing LeBron play for the heat you know white hot parties on top of the Miami heat building driving down there white drop top BMWs just like where I had came from this all had like in a six-month period I fly down there I have nothing of $20 in my pocket. Now all of a sudden I got $10,000 in my pocket. And we're going to the beach every night. We're going these high-rise hotels and eating at these fancy steakhouses.
Starting point is 00:32:07 And it was just a rush, man. It was a rush for like, I did that for like a whole year. Didn't save any money. I would get these big paychecks and I'm broke and spending it all. So one day in 2014, I think it was in May, the building gets surrounded. So mind you, I'm Toledo's Most Wanted at this point. I've been on the run almost a year now in the back of the Soledal Blade on every Wednesday. They released Toledo's Most Wounded and it's got every person in it.
Starting point is 00:32:36 And they had a whole little story about me, how I broke into this house, occupied dwelling, that I was a very dangerous person. And they really wanted me, man. And of course, my baby mama was one of the first, Jenny, was one of the first people to comment on the Toledo Post and say, that's Devin Price. I know it is for sure. Of course, you know, she'd be the one to, I mean, it was obvious it was me, but it was just kind of ironic that she was the first one to tell them who it was. So the building gets surrounded and I think they're there for me, you know, I'm like, man, the jig is up.
Starting point is 00:33:11 The marshals are here for me. They come in, bro, like 20 deep with badges on and they're there for the company. They're not there for me. It's the FCC. They're there to shut the company down. They finally got so many complaints and so many things from people that the FCC got involved, bro, and then they shut the company down. The owner of the company ended up committing suicide. So they didn't catch you that day.
Starting point is 00:33:35 They didn't catch me that day. So they surrounded the building. I think they're there for me. They basically just say, they tell us just to leave everything at your desk and then just get out of here. So we ended up leaving, man. And I was like, it was like a brush or fret there. I thought they were there for me. I couldn't believe I got away.
Starting point is 00:33:54 But I was out of that job, though, now. So that job was gone. I had met a girl at this time. I'm dating this girl, Laney. And so we, you know, I'm Googling my name constantly to see, like, if they're looking for me. We had seen a post in northern Fort Myers, Florida, where they had shared my Toledo burglary post because I was posting pictures of me on the beach on Facebook. Like, I wasn't hiding it. I went in time and it on the police thing.
Starting point is 00:34:25 I said, that's not me. Y'all are wrong. That's not me. And obviously it was me. So I'm like taunting the police thinking it's a joke. And her grandparents lived in Marion, Virginia, this small town. So I'm out of this good job now. And they're looking for me now in Florida.
Starting point is 00:34:42 Okay, it's time to relocate. So we pack up and move and drive. I think it was like 14 hours from Miami to Marion, Virginia. and just start over. We're in the mountains of Virginia now with the population of like 40 people going from like a population of 2 million to this little town.
Starting point is 00:35:01 It was definitely a culture shock. We went from warm weather to cold weather. It was just a lot, man. I was starting to be stressed out and tired, man. Being on the run is a lot. It's very tiring. The life you have to live, it sucks. You know, working for that job.
Starting point is 00:35:20 job. It was all like off the books. You know, they didn't use my social security number. So there was like no tracking for them to track me. That's how I was able to work that job. So we're in Virginia. She gets a job for the income tax, an income tax agency in Abingdon, Virginia. So we get an apartment and move from Marion to Abingdon. That's where she meets Martha, who Martha is her, they become really close friends. Well, Martha's family is. is John, John Farmer, is the person I get hooked up with who I start selling meth with. Operation leaving Las Vegas is what the Fed case is called, that him, my girlfriend, and 30 other people are a part of. That by the grace of God, I wasn't a part of, had I been out, I would have been a part of it.
Starting point is 00:36:09 I would have went to the feds instead of the state. So I got pulled over. We started basically, we started doing meth with John. he was getting three kilos in a thousand oxy thirties sent from las vegas to him every month in the mail vacuum sealed in the mail and i started selling meth for him and started like delivering packages for him and he would come over and hang out of my house and we were doing all doing all this shit and then i got pulled over in april um with like seven and a half ounces of crystal in the car um a whole kit to make meth
Starting point is 00:36:47 they found in the car it was in a book bag and i thought that was basically it man so i didn't know virginia's a commonwealth state which i don't know it's like commonwealth it's like they're like the first states that were like created i guess is that isn't that do you know what a commonwealth what the commonwealth means i couldn't tell you so like they have different laws it's like old law commonwealth i don't know so like basically like what i'm saying is if i would have caught this case in Toledo, I would have probably got like a drug program, maybe a year. I was facing life in prison in Virginia. I got indicted on five felony, one counts, a conspiracy to traffic, distribute, and manufacture crystal meth. Couldn't believe it. I started crying, man. I was,
Starting point is 00:37:29 I was in booking when they're reading these charges off to me. F1. F1. I don't know if you know how felonies work, but one's the worst, five's the least, most states. And it was five F-1s. And I just couldn't believe it. I had enough time to call Lainey while we were pulled over because I knew it was over. While he was running my name, I called her. I said, we're pulled over. It's over. She had enough time to clean the house, get everything out of the house.
Starting point is 00:37:57 It wasn't 20 minutes and they kicked them doors in. They didn't find nothing. Thank God. I was able to make that call. So I'm sitting in the county jail. I go to a judge the next day. He gives me a bond. It's weird, though, how Virginia does it.
Starting point is 00:38:12 Like in Toledo, I would have got a bond on each charge. And I thought they would have been like $100,000 on each one. And I would have never got out. It was like 50K on all five put together. And it was only like, I only had to pay $5 grand to get out. So Lainey post bond for me. I get out of jail. I swear to God, I'm out of jail for seven days.
Starting point is 00:38:30 The seventh day the U.S. Marshals came to my apartment and kicked our door in for me for the Ohio warrant for the robbery in Toledo. How did not come up in the system when they arrested you? Chris, so Matt asked me the same question. So I don't know. I don't know how Ohio and Virginia, they didn't have it linked. I guess it takes time when you get booked, I guess, and they process you in the system for whatever reason. It took Ohio a week to catch it.
Starting point is 00:38:54 Wow. So I posted that bond. And then after seven days, I was picked up by Ohio on a fugitive warrant and was taken back to the same jail I had just bonded out of. Now, do you get that bond money back? No. Because you got, why wouldn't you technically, you didn't run? Well, I don't know how that was.
Starting point is 00:39:11 works but no she definitely didn't get the money back um so was it only 10% it was 10% I think that's why of the when you pay it to a bondsman you only have to pay 10% and they keep that money so they keep the 10 as a fee that you the risk of you running or not running I guess but they probably got their whole 50 back that's how the bond yeah for sure they did for sure they did that makes sense so I'm back in the county it sucks man like in 2000 it was like like beginning to 15 and I didn't think I was that that we're going to come home from prison. I'm fighting all these cases,
Starting point is 00:39:44 and then I got to fight more cases in Ohio, and I'm just, I don't know, I'm thinking, like, what am I going to do? I sit in the county jail. They come with my first plea offer. Seven to 50 years. It's a big stretch. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:01 Seven on the low end, 50 on the high end, if I were to get in trouble. So obviously, I turned that down. And then what I ended up signing was three to 35. So it's like they sentenced you to 35, five years. Then they like, I guess it's suspended time. So technically, because I was on the other podcast talking about the parole and people were calling me out like, Virginia doesn't have parole. I know Virginia doesn't have parole. But when you file an interstate compact and go to a state
Starting point is 00:40:28 that does have parole, you have to follow the parole procedures of that state. So I still had to go and see, we went into the counselor's office in Virginia while I was in prison and we had to sit in front of the parole board in Ohio to make sure all my shit was right and I could come and leave Virginia and go to Ohio. That's so, you know, that's how I was able to do that. While I'm in prison, I filed an interstate compact. Basically, it forces Ohio, gives them 180 days to come get you. If they don't come get you on the 180th day, then they have to drop the case. So I'm in prison and I'm waiting for this time. I'm waiting for them to come get me. Bro, months started to go by, four months went by, five months went by.
Starting point is 00:41:10 I'm on the last day. I wake up on day 180 and I think I'm like, man, I'm about to beat this Ohio case. Day 180, the Ohio, was it the whatever, they came and got me. That's crazy. They make you wait that long.
Starting point is 00:41:24 The 180th day, they came and got me, bro. And transported me, had me handcuffed from my feet to my ankles, had me in the back of a van, and drove me nine hours from Virginia to Salito in the back of this van.
Starting point is 00:41:36 Did they stop for food? They stopped at McDonald's and got me McDouble. I like my McDonald's playing though without catch up and he wouldn't do it. I was so mad. Anyways, yeah, I got to have a McDouble and a fry and a water. So when you get transferred back, what happens to the Virginia charges? So, I mean, I'm still, the Virginia charges, I'm still at, the time is still running, basically. So I get to Toledo and I end up sitting in that county jail for six months, man, and it sucks from going from prison where you're on the yard and you're outside. You have a job. You have your TV. You know, just like the back into the county jail,
Starting point is 00:42:12 we have nothing, dude. The county sucks, like compared to prison. So I'm fighting the case for six months while the victim, Daryl, while I was in prison, um, had a heart attack and died. The guy that you robbed. The guy that I robbed. Had a heart attack and passed away while I was in Virginia. So Toledo still wanted to pick it up and try to proceed. That's why it took six, That's why it took six months because they had me on video, but they didn't have me on video coming out with nothing. We went out of a back window where there was no cameras. Thank God, we didn't even know that.
Starting point is 00:42:44 And so they didn't have us coming out with anything, so they ended up dropping the case. And there was no victim to testify what was lost. There was no victim to testify what was lost. Wow. I know. Isn't that crazy, man? I was facing like 10 years on that case.
Starting point is 00:42:55 When they dropped the case, do they ship you back to Virginia? Yeah, I went back that night. On the same van? On the same van. They took me back. Oh, man. Nine hours back to Virginia. I get back to Virginia.
Starting point is 00:43:07 I had a big bag of commissary waiting for me. I didn't even know I had ordered. They gave me my J player back and all my stuff back. You know, in Virginia, so I was in like a higher level. So because of being an out-of-state fugitive when I went to, so you go to like receiving first, I went up near Washington, D.C. Paltan. It's like one of the first prisons ever in Virginia.
Starting point is 00:43:30 It's crazy, man. it felt like that movie Shawshank Redemption I swear to God when you walk in it's just levels five levels open cells old school bars people just screaming and yelling it was it was like a it was a shock bro it was my first time
Starting point is 00:43:45 how are the politics in Virginia prison um so up in up near DC it's very gang politics every phone is a gang phone if you're not a part of that gang um you're not using the phone I had a buddy who was a Crip so I got to use the Crip phone um
Starting point is 00:44:00 So, but down in, so I did, I got my, uh, receiving papers and got sent to Pocahontas, which was a level three, four. Wait, that's the actual name of the prison? Pocahontas, yeah. In Pocahontas, Virginia. They, I'm probably, they're going to change the name of that pretty soon. That's funny. So Pocahontas prison, man, I'm thinking I'm going to a camp, Ian, I got these drug charges. I've never been in trouble. Send me to a level one. Like, what do you, like, that's what I'm thinking, right? They're like, no, you're an out of state fugitive. So it's shoot your points up, you're going to a three, four close. And I'm like, nervous is, I'm not, I can't believe this.
Starting point is 00:44:38 Like, I'm thinking I'm going to go to a work camp. So I get sent to a three, four where everybody's doing life, basically, 20 years, 50 years, 90 years, my cellie was doing life. I couldn't believe that. That's the prison they sent me to. Cells, you know, I was in 246. You had a bunky. We had TV, we had cable TV, though, in our cell.
Starting point is 00:44:58 So I had my TV up on my bunk. That was pretty cool. But yeah, so the politics in the Pocahontas one is all white, man. It was like 80% white. Arians run the prison. The COs are all Aryan Brotherhood. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari.
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Starting point is 00:46:11 Real California milk by real California farm families. It's wild. It's majority white down there. So when they see a white guy like you coming from another state, how do they treat you? I mean, it was pretty normal. My prison experience was actually pretty good. I got a job right away. I was working in the kitchen, making $0.45 an hour, which is like top level pay, really, in prison systems.
Starting point is 00:46:39 Yeah, the kitchen, that's a great gig. Yeah, man. Five days a week, they would wake you up at 5 a.m. And you would work all day until 6 o'clock at night. And I did that five days a week, man. And I made my time fly by. Not to mention that we cooked. The CEOs had their own restaurant inside the prison.
Starting point is 00:46:56 And we cooked the food for the CEOs, but we also got to eat the food. the CEOs. And I'm talking about eating real burgers, real steaks, pancakes, waffles. Like, bro, it was, it was awesome. Working in the kitchen was like the greatest experience in prison. I had a storebox. I had got, I had my mom make me a profile on write a prisoner. And I had all these girls from across the country reaching out to me wanting to send me money, wanting to talk to me. I couldn't believe it. Yeah. Wait, you actually used write a prisoner? I used right of prisoner. And then once this, People in prison seeing the success that I was getting from it, they started using it.
Starting point is 00:47:34 My buddy Birdman is actually married. He got married to the girl. He met out right of prisoner and he's out. He just did 20 years. He just got out. They got married and they're together to this day. All right. So how does this work?
Starting point is 00:47:44 So it's like a Facebook profile. It's a picture of you and your prison clothes, your charges when you're coming home a little bit about you, like what your plans are going to be when you come home. I was dating this dentist from North Carolina named Ashley. I had this big girl from Chicago named Erica that I was dating. I had a rotation, man. What are these letters saying? Oh, hi, my name is Ashley.
Starting point is 00:48:11 I'm from North Carolina. I was checking out your profile. If you're looking for someone to talk to, I'm very lonely. Just a bunch of lonely girls out there, man, that just want some attention from a guy. They know where the guy's at, so they're not out cheating. I don't know. It's something about a guy being in prison, man. There's girls that really want to date guys in prison.
Starting point is 00:48:28 I can't believe it. And do they leave their number on the first letter they send money? Yeah, they leave their number. They're willing to send money. It's right away they're willing to send money. If you need help, just ask for help. And of course, I'm asking for help. I left with like $4,000 or $4,000 on my books.
Starting point is 00:48:41 So are you reading each one? You're calling each one and just saying, you put some money on my books. And then like actually like being in a relationship and having to call these girls multiple times a day, I had like a rotation and like different times. I had to make sure I was calling these girls. And I love you, baby. Yeah. when I get out, I'm going to be with you.
Starting point is 00:49:00 So is one phone call considered that date? I mean, yeah, you could say that. So how many dates until you guys are in a relationship? Oh, my God. I don't know, probably like three. And how many different girls are you in a relationship with at once? Probably four. That's crazy.
Starting point is 00:49:14 Do they come and visit you? So I had one girl come and visit me. My mom came and visited me. But a lot of them were like far away. So like they couldn't come and visit it. Like Chicago, North Carolina. know this one chick was in Texas. I mean, I couldn't believe it, Ian.
Starting point is 00:49:30 And then like... I mean, it's believable when you have girls writing serial killers doing the same thing. Right. No, for sure. And like, a lot of these girls seemed that I was like, I was coming home. I had a pretty short out date. So like, so the girl Erica, she knows. She learns my out date.
Starting point is 00:49:46 She's married, mind you, with three kids in Chicago with her husband. She leaves her husband the night before I'm being released, takes a Greyhound bus to Cincinnati, calls my mom and says, I know Devin's going to be home tomorrow. I'm in Cincinnati. I need you to come get me. He's going to be with me. Dude, I swear to go.
Starting point is 00:50:06 My mom said, listen, lady, you're out of your mind. My son's not going to be with you. I'm going to pick him up. You need to go back home to your family. And I guess she had her husband come back and pick her up from Cincinnati. I've been watching Love After Lockup with my girlfriend a little bit,
Starting point is 00:50:19 and it's the craziest thing what these guys do. It's crazy, man. Like the guy's just waiting or putting money on the, women's books, buying them whatever, getting their clothes. I know. Weird looking guys. Older men. The whole thing is just crazy to me. It is crazy. It is. It really is.
Starting point is 00:50:37 I feel bad, you know, you're taking advantage of these poor women. But I mean, hey, it's what they want. You're giving it, you know, you're. And then it got to the point in, I'm selling time to inmates. Like five soups, get you five minutes on the phone, get the girl to moan on the phone for them. What do you mean selling time? Tell us about this. So, like, I would get a good. girl, a guy who would want to hear a girl's voice. Like, you gotta think these guys have been in prison fucking, some of these guys don't have no family, don't have no contacts to nobody. So they'll pay
Starting point is 00:51:05 five soups to hear a girl moan on the phone. You know what I mean? And these are your girls that you're talking to. Yeah. Yeah, of course. So I'm like, listen, so I tell the girls like, look, I'm about to give this guy five minutes, just do whatever he says. So this guy gets to the phone, the girls start having phone sex with them. Yeah, like I, dude, I swear to you, they're having phone sex with them. This girl had a vibrator and she would stick it in her ass on the phone. And she was really doing it, bro. I promised you she was really doing it. Don't the guards, though, listening on these calls and know you're not going to swap.
Starting point is 00:51:31 Oh, yeah, I'm sure they do. But I never had nobody say anything to me. And you're not allowed to swap phones though, right? No, of course not. Wow. So I would be on a phone call and then I would just put the phone down and then just quietly, like, walk away from it. And then somebody would just like casually walk up and then just pick the phone up.
Starting point is 00:51:47 Would you see guys put the sock over the phone over there? Yeah, yep. Sock over the phone. I thought that was the weirdest thing. That's, I think it's just like a, like, for like germs, right? Yeah, I don't think that actually works, so. No, the sock over the phone thing's funny. My girlfriend asked me, she, seen there was like a toilet paper hanging out of a cell.
Starting point is 00:52:04 Like, she's like, do you know what that means? I'm like, yeah, he was probably taking a shit or jacking off. That's what it means. Like, if somebody puts like a piece of toilet paper on the, like, the little window. Yeah, we would just, I think, put like a t-shirt over the door. Yeah. So, I mean, the feds, you don't have, like, TVs in your cells or, like, you have to, like, politic for TVs and stuff, don't you?
Starting point is 00:52:23 There's TV rooms, so there would be, like, five or six. TVs. You have like a sports one, a Spanish one, a movie one. But anybody can watch them though, or you have to be part of like that's pretty much not sex. This is for the low. You can't be a sex offender or you have to sit in the back of the room. That's good. You'd see that the sex offenders would watch it like early morning or while everyone's at work. And then at the camp, it's, there's no sex offenders there. The sex offenders are so protected, especially where I was. It was such a Chomo prison, man. It's so disgusting. And they have them just in there with you. They don't keep them separated.
Starting point is 00:52:55 They got their own little click. It's messed up. It's messed up. So yeah, I had this kitchen job. And so like, we're at a three, four. There's no drugs on the compound. There's no tobacco on the compound because when you go to visit, they zip you up from the back.
Starting point is 00:53:09 And like, we're at a three, four, man. It's pretty like 17 hours in the cell a day. I mean, it's pretty, you know, secured. So it was really hard to get anything in. One of the guys that had been there, he had been there 28 years. he got in real close to one of the gay guys that was one of working in the kitchen and he had him bring in a whole fucking pouch of tobacco
Starting point is 00:53:28 and I bought it off him for $40 with the phone time I made $500 off of tobacco. I'm the only person to this day to ever get tobacco in Pocahontas prison unless somebody has from the time I got out till now but swear to you and it's crazy I took it back to the cell me and my boy Vic we broke him up
Starting point is 00:53:46 and we sold them for $10 for like a little tiny like three little pieces it was crazy man So yeah, I didn't get in no fights. I didn't have to carry a knife. I had a storebox running. People would come to me for food, and then I would get their state check every month.
Starting point is 00:54:04 I had that going on. Like, I'd be telling my girlfriend, I'm like, man, I miss prison sometimes. I don't think I'm just crazy. I don't actually miss it, but like, I had met a lot of good people, man, and I did my thing while I was there. How long did you end up doing?
Starting point is 00:54:19 But three years. And then what happens did you get out after the 30 years? We had to go in front of the parole board to go to Ohio. And so I got out. My mom picked me up. We go back to Toledo. I had a check-in with parole. I'm then on parole.
Starting point is 00:54:35 This is in 2018. My grandparents both passed away while I was in prison. 90 days before I was coming home, my grandmother passed away. You know, they both raised me. It was hard, man. It was hard losing both of them. I ended up getting my grandma's apartment. when I caught out and all her stuff was still in there.
Starting point is 00:54:56 I had a huge breakdown, man. When I, you know, first coming home, seeing all my grandma's stuff, you know, she was supposed to be there to see me. She wanted, all she wanted to do was see me. She would tell me, I can't wait, do you come home, Devin? Like, first two years, like, she was sending me money like crazy. My grandmother was. It just sucks that she didn't get to see me come home, you know. But checking in with parole was tough.
Starting point is 00:55:18 Jamie was my parole officer, man. And she was tough on me. she didn't want me on Suboxin. She wanted me dropping every week. She wanted me to have a job. She wanted me to do this. She wanted me to do that. So I got a job as a car salesman coming out of prison.
Starting point is 00:55:35 It was selling used cars. I liked it. I was making really good money. It was my first job out of prison. Conviction for felony convictions and still able to get a decent, like, normal person job. It was a good feeling. What was going on with your addiction? Did you kick that in prison?
Starting point is 00:55:50 So, yeah, with there not being any. prison really helps me man as far as staying clean I mean with there being hardly any there was never no drugs I did Suboxone one time in the jail other than that there was no drugs so yeah I stayed clean for three years I got out and was doing good
Starting point is 00:56:06 and then I met this girl named Ashley and she was so pretty and beautiful man and I was a blonde hair girl and she was a drug addict and the first night hanging out with her I relapsed snorting powder with her and I swear man that was all always my downfall was these pretty girls that got drugs in her pocket, man. It was always hard for me.
Starting point is 00:56:27 That was that's always one thing that, like, I had to really, really work on, you know. So I saw, so I relapsed and, you know, I got 31 years over my head. And one 30 urine is five years back. And I was really playing with fire there. Really playing with fire, man. What's going through your mind when you try drugs after being cleaned for three years? So, like, honestly, what's the crazy thing is there was, there was. There's no true thought to it. Like, it was just like the instant, my instincts and instant reaction was just do the line with her.
Starting point is 00:57:00 And that's what's the crazy thing about addiction, man, is it can sneak up on you. If you're not careful, that's why they say you got to watch who surround yourself with. It's all about the people you surround yourself with because, you know, you can really fall back real, real easy. And I fell back hard. And my parole officer found out. And she basically gave me an ultimatum and said, you know, you can either go to detox or or go back to prison.
Starting point is 00:57:28 She gave me out of my. She said, I'm giving you 24 hours to either be in detox or I'm going to fill out the violation papers. And that was enough, Ian, and I went to detox. This was in 2019, I went to detox and got clean. So that's when I met, I met Heather. We have the son together. I have Logan.
Starting point is 00:57:56 I met her during this time. And we got together, we stayed clean, we got our own apartment together, but then we ended up relapsed together. So this addiction stuff has been a thing, you know, I'm sitting here today with five years clean. It's been a battle my whole life from childhood, through adulthood and, you know, through all the things I've been through. But yeah, during COVID is when July of 2020, me and Heather both went to the flower hospital, checked our into the psych ward. And we've, I've been clean since then. And I went back from like nothing, you know, having things and being successful,
Starting point is 00:58:36 to having nothing. And then we got clean in 2020. And that's when I got involved with Terrence. He's in federal prison right now. He, uh, stole $8 million of COVID relief money during COVID for the, you remember the COVID money that everybody was getting? Yeah. A million dollars is what he ended up getting.
Starting point is 00:58:54 He opened up five smoke shops. in Toledo. I was running them for them. With the stolen money. With the stolen money. So look, every time you owe it would open up a new business, you'd get a $50,000 loan for new businesses, PPP loan. So boom, open up a business, get $50K. It would cost him $10K to open it, 50K back. He kept doing that. He opened up five stores,
Starting point is 00:59:15 and then he would pretend to open up stores, and then he would say he owned all these churches, and they just kept sending checks, $7.7 million worth of checks. And, you know, he, I mean, he was a good boss, man. He gave me some free Bitcoin. He was paying me very well. I mean, for the millions, I mean, I'm going to say this, though, for the millions he was getting, he was really giving us crumbs. I mean, we were getting like an hourly rate.
Starting point is 00:59:45 But yeah, the feds ended up shutting him down. He got nine and a half years in prison. Did they take away all the shops? Yeah, so there's one shop still open, one that wasn't involved. The other four, he had, man, he had. had three in our big mall in Toledo. All them got shut down. He had one. They all got shut down except for one. They have new owners now. It's just crazy to think, man, he had all this stuff, all these shops. So that's what I met. So Nick Popoff is the true owner of higher thoughts,
Starting point is 01:00:12 smoke shop and more. He opened it in 2022. It's like my brother, man. We grew up together. I've known him since I was 16. And, you know, he's seen the success. I was the top sales guy, top performer at War, vapor world, and he was, he wanted somebody like me. He had like four other employees at the time, but they were, they were, they were decent, but like they didn't really know too much about, like, you know, vapes and the smoke industry and the weed industry and all, and all that. He brought me aboard part-time in 2023, and from that, and since then, man, I worked my way up from, you know, I was just part-time, the full-time to his manager, then I became the general manager, and then, you know, he's seriously going to, you know, talks about me being, you know,
Starting point is 01:00:54 part owner with him he's the he's the true owner but like i run it for him i run it with him um and it's just great man the success we've had there um we're right by a college and you know i love my job i'm there seven days a week uh i took you know some time away from the shop to come here and do this with you i'm i'm happy you know life is great i got my kids logan's four um The thing, you know, I have issues with seeing him. So, you know, me and the mom broke up and we went to, she made me have a trial for visitation. We had a whole trial for visitation. And I was only granted Saturday, every other Saturday for six hours.
Starting point is 01:01:37 And that's currently what we're doing. I was getting overnights this past year, almost every Saturday night when her and her boyfriend broke up because she was willingly giving them to me. And then she changed her mind like a week ago. And then like today was my visit with him And I asked her like hey Could we do it like a different day? No she won't she won't budge for me It's just unfortunate man like I Still got a lot of love for Heather and wish you know
Starting point is 01:02:03 She would get it together as far as like the relationship that me and her have like I wish we could just get along For Logan we don't have to date we don't have to pee together But if we could just get along for Logan and raise Logan together like I asked I wanted to be there to trick or treat with him That was a problem It's just unfortunate, man. It really is. You know, I have a house, a nice house in West Toledo. You know, prior to moving, we had another house with my son.
Starting point is 01:02:31 And the landlord was a good friend of mine. Her boyfriend, Brian, is in federal prison for seven years. And I had his house. He gave me his house. He's like, Devin, I trust you. You're the only person I trust to have my house. he was the godfather of Logan and I was supposed to have the house until he came home
Starting point is 01:02:50 this past July I get a message from him on his prison app and he goes we want our house back now mind you Ian I got I got evictions on my record I'm a convicted felon you know what it's like for me to go try to rent a house from like a real place a realtor they're going to look at me like I'm insane they're not going to rent to me so like and they knew all that they knew the circumstances and the things I faced and their issues was
Starting point is 01:03:12 I got two pit bulls and they were they were just destroying their house. You know, I just felt like, you know, the friendship, the bond that me and Brian had, the things I used to do for him, they would have gave me at least a chance to fix the issues. Hey, get rid of your dogs or you're going to lose this house. Hey, I need you to fix up this house or this or this is going to happen. That was never talked about. It was just, we want you out. And I was going to fight her on it. I was going to say, I was going to go to court. I was going to fight her on it because, like, I didn't know where else to go. And my visitations depended on this house and and I didn't know what I was going to do and luckily I talked to like this
Starting point is 01:03:49 there's this guy Juan he's huge in recovery in Toledo he's very well known he made a Facebook post and you know he's got tens of thousands of followers and that Facebook post this lady reached out to me because of his post and rented a house to me with my circumstances and I was able to get this nice house in West Toledo 10 times better than one I had in a better location and it's just amazing how Things work out in life and you keep doing the right thing. Put your foot one foot in front of the other, man. Things just work out. I mean, I used to be a homeless junkie.
Starting point is 01:04:23 And I see. Ready to buy a car, a home, or just want to take control of your money? Your FICO score matters and 90% of top lenders use it to make decisions. Check your FICO score for free today without hurting your credit score. Visit myfico.com slash free or download the MyFICO app today. My FICO gives you the score lenders use most, plus credit reports and real-time alerts to help keep you on top of your credit. Visit myfico.com slash free and take the mystery out of your FICO score. I sit here on this couch with you telling my story and it just feels good, man.
Starting point is 01:04:59 You mentioned earlier that gambling's still a big part of your life. Are you worried that kind of leads you down a path to drugs at all? Not so much drugs, but like I do get angry. I mean, I guess I can talk about it. I had this parlay. I needed like one leg to hit. It missed by one yard. And I threw something and broke my windshield of my car.
Starting point is 01:05:24 And I have to see that every day I drive my car. It's cracked now because my dumb ass threw something at it. Yeah, the anger, sometimes I scream and get mad at my girlfriend. It's just, it's crazy. My girlfriend, Taylor, we've been together three years now. She works full-time at FedEx, you know, and we've built a great life together. She's got a daughter that she sees, and my girlfriend doesn't approve of her and doesn't want Logan around her. But, like, you know, that's just something that's going to have to just with come within time, man, you know.
Starting point is 01:05:59 Do you think you have a gambling issue at all? Yeah, no, for sure I do. I mean, I bet. I gamble every day, football, on football. NFL. I was actually sitting in the parking lot putting my parlay together before I walked in here. Oh yeah, today's a big day for you. It's a football Sunday. Eagles Patriots, man. That's my picks for today. Yeah. So last weekend we were watching the game and I think it was the Giants versus someone and
Starting point is 01:06:27 Matt was like, oh, you should definitely take the other person. I didn't bet. But he was like, you should take that team. And I was like, look at I, he was like, look, I told you that the Giants are getting crushed or someone or the Giants are crushing the other team. And then the other team came back, they were down like 20-something points. Yeah. And then they came back at the end and won. Yeah, that was the Giants and the Broncos. Okay.
Starting point is 01:06:46 And he said, I think he said, take the Giants over the Broncos. That's what everybody was doing. And the Broncos ended up winning at the end. That's what it was. And on like the fourth quarter, Giants were up. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:55 Like, they were up by 21 or something. Something crazy. And then he looked at it after and he's like, wow, they lost. Big Cowboys fan. You can see the hat. Yeah. Why the Cowboys if you're from Ohio?
Starting point is 01:07:06 So I've been a Cowboys fan since I was five. I'm not sure. I think maybe there was a guy that was around my mom who was a Cowboys fan who was from Texas, I think. And that's where I started wearing Cowboys because there's pictures of me wearing Cowboys when I'm like five or six years old. And then just growing up, I always just like Emmett Smith.
Starting point is 01:07:26 That was a huge Emmett Smith fan as a kid. Did you sports gamble in prison? I did. It's harder in prison because they make you do four picks. So on prison parlayes, I don't know where you were, but where I was, you had to do a four pick. Like to bet? Like to bet.
Starting point is 01:07:40 You couldn't like parlay two teams. You had to do a four teamer. It was mandatory. You know how hard it is to hit a four pick in a parlay? Like the casinos make their money off parlayes. Like you know what I mean? But could you do an individual one bet? No, you couldn't.
Starting point is 01:07:54 You could only, you were able to do individuals? Yeah, like if you wanted to say, I want this person straight up or whatever. Really? Like if you wanted to just do like a hundred on the cowboys or worth of food or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. See, they would pass out tickets and you had to pick four teams. It was mandatory.
Starting point is 01:08:08 That's how the whole prison did it. But it was pick four teams and it was crazy. One soup or $1 paid $30. Wait, so if it says pick four teams and you pick four and three teams win and one you lose. You lose the whole thing. So when you say pick four, it's just two games? No, it's four games.
Starting point is 01:08:28 Oh, you have to pick four. You have to pick four games against the spread in order to hit. That's, but it pays 30 to one. How does anyone ever win? Well, that's the thing. But when you do get smashed. I remember, man, there was a week where like every game that was supposed to hit hit and the half the yard hit this guy for like, it was like 17,000. Could you imagine having to pay that much in prison?
Starting point is 01:08:49 Could you take the team straight up or you have to play the spread? You got to take them against the spreads. Yeah, I know. It was tough. I hit so I only, I hit two tickets the entire season, played every week, hit two tickets the entire season, first year. Second year, no ticket. It's hard to hit a four pick, man. What do you bet on now?
Starting point is 01:09:05 Two picks. Two picks? Yeah. So last week I killed it. I took the Browns and the Patriots with the spreads. This week I like the Patriots again, Patriots and the Bills. I also like the Eagles. You ever try prize picks?
Starting point is 01:09:19 No. No. I don't think prize picks is legal in Ohio. That's where you pick player props, right? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. So Ohio, I love it here because you can play blackjack and slots on draft kings.
Starting point is 01:09:33 In Ohio, they have that band where you can only sports bet. I think you do that in New York too. Yeah. So while you pass it through New York. We passed through New York on the way here. We thought about going to Times Square was only like 90 minutes from here. Yeah, yeah, it's close.
Starting point is 01:09:48 We thought about stopping there, but we got a long drive back. So do you trust like those blackjack games and stuff on? My boss was like, man, I think them games are rigged. I was like, I don't know. I've actually hit, I hit 1,800 on a slot machine online on my phone. And playing double diamond. It came double diamond, double diamond red seven for 1800. on $5 bet.
Starting point is 01:10:08 I think the problem is with like some of those apps is that you can, not the sports ones, but like the actual like gambling ones is that you lose money so quickly. Yeah, for sure. Like you lose, it resets and you lose it faster than you couldn't in a casino. Oh my God. I was betting $250 a hand online blackjack while working in Michigan at Vapor World.
Starting point is 01:10:28 Went into losing. So I did the biggest hand I ever had. I hit Trip Queens. I had pocket pair of queens and I played the pocket pair of queens. and I played the pocket pair and I played the poker hand and the dealer showed a queen so I had pocket pair
Starting point is 01:10:41 queens with trip queens so I hit the pocket pair I hit the poker hand and then I had a 20 showing and I hit the hand so it was like 800 bucks off of one hand of blackjack
Starting point is 01:10:52 that's most of the ever head I know and then like I said I hit that slot machine for 1800 I try to stay out of the casino my girlfriend gets on me she hates it she gets mad when I gamble because she knows I get mad
Starting point is 01:11:06 when I lose, but she still lets me do it. Like I said, I'm up 600 on the season. We're in week seven, man. I'm up 600 bucks right now. It's tough. Do you do it? I'll do sports. You do sports?
Starting point is 01:11:19 Yeah, I'll do sports. Yeah, for sure. And then we were in Vegas last weekend. Were you? Or two weekends ago for my girlfriend's birthday. I played a little blackjack. Nothing major. Not like what I used to be.
Starting point is 01:11:29 Like back in the day, I would bet a lot. This is like a couple hundred bucks. Where'd you stay out in Vegas? MGM. Nice. Yeah, Vegas. is crazy. No, I was out there, we went out there for the big smoke show they have. It's called champs. And they get a bunch of celebrities to come out. And it's like all the weed vendors. And I met
Starting point is 01:11:47 Tyson. I met Rick Flair. You probably met the Tyson 2.0 team because that's their, that's a brand. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, because he came out with like cones and blood wraps. So he was there supporting that, promoting that. What would you say is the biggest lesson you take away from your story. Man. Don't sell drugs. Don't become a, don't try. So I was always, you know, I would see drug dealers with nice, fancy cars and lots of money.
Starting point is 01:12:21 And I just always fantasized that that's the life I wanted. But I never realized, you know, the consequences that can come from, you know, living that lifestyle. You know, I work a job today. We work at a shop and we do things legally and I don't have to look over my shoulder anymore. And I don't have to worry. I have a house to come home to and a car to drive. My kids call me dad today and I can come home and I can see them.
Starting point is 01:12:50 And it's just a great feeling, man, you know. Like I said, there was a time where I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison. Everyone counted me out. You know, my mom took life insurance out on me when I was 22 because I was shooting fentanyl every day and heroin. And I just turned 37 last week. Getting old, man. It's not old.
Starting point is 01:13:15 You still got a long life. I still got a long life to live for sure. But just, you know, stay positive, put one foot in front of the other, you know. And I've been judged. A lot of people judged me from my past because of, you know, my cases were so high profile and being on the news. And I don't know. I'm just
Starting point is 01:13:36 It's a great feeling sobriety is an amazing thing And I owe it to all the God And the people around me Well, Dev and I appreciate You coming on the show today All right man, thank you Thank you
Starting point is 01:13:46 All right

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