Locked In with Ian Bick - Shocking Tale: Drugs, Amputation, & Unbelievable Crime Accusations | David Riggins' True Crime Story

Episode Date: June 16, 2024

David Riggins Shares his harrowing journey of losing a leg due to drug use and the shocking events that followed. Not only did he endure the physical and emotional trauma of addiction, but he also faced a wild and unexpected criminal accusation. Tune in to hear how he navigated these extreme challenges and emerged on the other side. This is a story of resilience, redemption, and the shocking twists life can take. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with David Riggins: https://heal-family.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@heal-family https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559549341422&mibextid=LQQJ4d https://www.tiktok.com/@david_riggins?_t=8nEQfgwzPGZ&_r=1 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 - Intro 00:03:56 - Growing Up with Army Parents 00:07:35 - Airplanes vs Cars: A Statistical Analysis 00:11:25 - Dependable and Loyal to a Fault 00:15:35 - From Soldier to Homeless IV Addict 00:19:56 - Recovery and Hope 00:24:05 - Overcoming Challenges 00:28:12 - Grateful for Avoiding Harsh Consequences 00:32:00 - Overcoming Addiction and Supporting Others 00:36:26 - The Code in the Streets 00:40:20 - A Troublesome Turn of Events 00:44:21 - The Challenges of Testifying in Court 00:48:32 - Overcoming Challenges and Changing Mindsets 00:52:37 - Overcoming Trials and Tribulations 00:56:35 - The Last Sober Har Jump Mission 01:00:51 - Turning This into a Business and the Importance of Followers 01:04:34 - Grinding Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

December 20 of 2022, I got so intoxicated on a list of that while nodded out for six hours, kerosene space heater fell on my leg. Burned. I have skin grafts that go all the way to the top here. 85% of my left leg was third degree burns. We're talking bone and ligament exposed. So I spent 56 days in a burn unit ICU. Hey guys and welcome back to Lockton with Ian Bick.

On today's episode, we have an extremely emotional. and traumatic story for you. David Riggins is on the show to share his struggles with addiction, what ultimately ends up happening to David because of his addiction, and how he was able to overcome these obstacles, turn his life around, and how he was able to create purpose for his life. David is giving back to his community in an amazing way, and I'm so excited to share today's episode with you guys. As always, thank you all for the love and support. If you have to haven't already. Make sure you check out the Lockton giveaway. We're going to be announcing the winner soon. We put it out there a couple episodes ago, and those winners will be picked shortly,

and an email will be sent to them. Now, without further ado, sit back, relax, and get ready to lock in with David Regins. David, welcome to Lockton, man. Pleasure having you here today. It's an honor to get the opportunity to come and sit down with you brother. Thank you, man. I really appreciate it. I always see you hyping up doing the interview on Facebook. and I saw the enthusiasm that you wanted to come on the show and thank you for the t-shirts too. Always love when guests bring merch to wear and we hang it up kind of around the office and put it on display because it's kind of cool. It tells like each person's story. And we also have like a little, I don't know if anyone that listens knew this, but we're building like this thumbnail wall of Polaroids.

So every guest that comes, we take a Polaroid of them and we put it on the wall. So the studio is going to be filled because we do three episodes a week. And in a year, I've done like 150 interviews, so it'll build up pretty quickly. Yeah, that's awesome. You know, kind of like giving you a step-by-step, you know, viewpoint of it. Exactly. Where did you come from today? I've come from a little town in North Carolina in Caswell County.

Did you drive? I flew up. Oh, okay. And then you got a rental car? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I flew in yesterday afternoon and got a rental. I'm flying back home on Sunday. Okay, spending a couple days in the area.

packing in some interviews. Awesome. Where do you go to after this? Next, I'm going to New York City to do one with Dave from Dopey podcast. Okay. Is that dopy podcast? Have I talked to them before? Possibly.

And I saw your friends with Jared, who was on the show. Yeah, actually, Jared just texted me not even two minutes ago. Awesome. I'm actually going to Jared's house this evening. Oh, okay. I'm actually staying the night with him and Brianna. We're going to do a fentanyl rally together tomorrow morning. That's incredible.

He's all the way up in like Buffalo Oh so you got a ton of driving to do Yeah Well leaving Buffalo then going to Albany And then coming all the way back to White Plains To fly back home Oh you flew into White Plains? Yeah

You probably should have flew into the city If you were doing all that Oh well So you grew up in Carolina, North Carolina Well I grew up in Virginia Right on the North Carolina Virginia line In a little town called Danville

Danville So you're like the small towns Yeah yeah It's like 40, 50,000 something like that 40, 50,000 people? Yeah. Oh, that is small. Yeah, it is.

What was childhood like? Did you have a big family, mom, dad? I was one of the kind of people from the outside. People might have thought unlucky, but honestly, I was very lucky. My mother was 16 and my dad was 17 when she got pregnant with me. Two days after they found out she was pregnant, they got married. Wow. They had their 41st wedding anniversary back on February of the 9th.

Wow. That's awesome. Were they forced into marriage or that's what they wanted to do? No, that was their choice. I mean, actually, some people was against it. And, you know, it'll never make it. It'll never last and this and that. But yet my parents being ninth grade dropouts, they have turned their life around

and have shown me and proven to me that it doesn't matter circumstances. You can overcome. My dad's a car dealer. My mom runs a pawn shop. Oh, wow. I mean, they're not rich, but they have done very well for their self. and considering coming from no education to flip it to that point, it's pretty nice. Mother and father were both there.

It was great childhood. I really, I had it lucky, I think. Do you like being that close in age to your parents? I've always thought about that because my dad's a lot older. He had me at 50, so there's a huge age gap. I wonder if it's kind of like cool to be that close. I've always said that me and my parents grew up together. and my sister is only 10 months and five days younger than me.

Oh, wow. Yeah, same mom, same dad. She goes in for the six-week checkup. They told her she was already pregnant again. Holy shit. So before she was 18, my mom had two kids. Wow. And are you and your sister the only kids or are there more?

No, there's one more. I got a younger brother that's five years younger me. Okay. So they waited a little bit for that one. Yeah. Dad was in the Army by the time they had him. Oh, he was in the Army? Yeah.

Where in the military? Well, he was stationed down in Alabama. That was actually the whole three years he was in. He actually came Fort Dix, New Jersey. That's where I was in prison. Yeah, I remember you talking about Fort Dix, and it's what it clicked to me with that. But that's where he done his basic and all that,

because he was an 88 mic, which is a truck driver. What year was this? Late 80s. So he was probably at the barracks that later became the prison. Oh, really? Yeah, they built a new side. for the barracks and we were in the old army barracks. I had no idea about that.

So more than likely, yeah, you was in the same barracks that he had been in basic training in 25, 30 years before. Wow, incredible. Did you guys move around a lot because he was in the military? No, no. And that's the reason why he only did a three-year stint. My mother at the time was hell bent on being terrified to get an airplane. And he got station orders to go to Germany.

They offered him his E-5, which was your sergeant rank, and transferred to Germany. if he reenlisted. And my mom told him, well, you can go Germany if you want. We'll be here when you get back. And so that's why he got out of the Army. Oh, he didn't want to go after that. Well, no, I mean, he wanted to go, but where she wouldn't go, so we wouldn't go.

She wouldn't go. So he wouldn't go. You ever think about how life would have been different if maybe you went to Germany? I don't, but I'll tell you what my dad does. I mean, and then later years, he finally got her to be willing to get on an airplane. Now you can't get her out of one. Actually, funny story, my dad went up to her. He said, me and your sister, because my aunt had just got divorced from her husband,

he said, me and your sister are going to the Bahamas. Huh? He said, well, you're more than welcome to come, but I didn't figure you'd want to fly. She got her ass on that plane. Yeah, my dad doesn't want to fly either. Well, I mean, sometimes what you got to do, you kind of got to pull the rug out from under room and give them a choice. I saw a video recently.

Someone was saying like airplanes are safer than cars. I could believe that. In a sense. Statistically, you know, I could believe that. Yeah, I guess because of less people are dying in planes than there are in cars. Yeah, I 100% can believe that. But according to the traffic that I seen a little while ago, it was a bunch of people in cars. Yeah, there are a ton of people in cars, but there's accidents.

And it's never really you. It's always other people on the road. You know, that's what they always say. 100%. I agree with that wholeheartedly. That's why I hate driving at night like now because there's always. just someone's out, either they're out drinking or anything. Like, I have no business being out past like 11 o'clock anymore.

I'm in bed. I turn a dope old guy. I fully get that right there, you know. When we're living the wildlife, you know, it was just go, go, go, go. But now it's like, it's time to sit your ass down. Yeah. That's where I tell myself, you know, sometimes it's time to sit down. Yeah, remember in like middle school and stuff?

You'd be the cool kid to stay up until 2 or 3 a.m. I don't know how people do that now. I can't. Like, I'm miserable when I'm up. past like 11. Yeah. And then in the morning, you know, like six or seven, it's rough. Exactly, exactly.

It's like that restart button doesn't quite do what he used to do. Yeah, exactly. So did you graduate high school? I did. Public high school? Actually, I was a senior in high school when 9-11 happened. Okay. And so that imputed that patriotism into us.

So I went to signed up for the Army. You signed up for the Army? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm a service-connected veteran. Wow. And did you get inspired by your dad for that? Or that was 9-11 that inspired you?

I would go with both. My dad was in the Army. His dad was in the Army. My mom's dad was in the Navy. My dad's brother was in the Army. So, you know, it was kind of a thing understood, you know, that my dad's one that's one that's very, very adamant on, like, over in Israel, where if you are a man that is physically able, you are going to serve in the military unless you have a reason.

you know, to exclude you, albeit a special business you're in, a training that you're in, what have you, or a physical element, whatever. Otherwise, every man is going to serve a stint in the military in Israel. And my dad's always said that he believes

because the the ways that it puts into you, you know, they're a good character, they build you down to, they, you know, they break you down to build you up. And it truly does impute something into your character that is undone by the civilian sector. So if you had to describe your child that up until you went to the military, would you say

it's pretty normal, average? Do you have any, like, trauma or anything before then? No, it was pretty straightforward for the youth portion. My parents were, I mean, obviously, as we said, they were young, too. So they were learning how to raise a child as they were raising a child. I mean, you know, that is what it is. I'll tell you what, they did a pretty damn good job to not know what they were doing. Yeah.

Oh, sometimes you've got to learn by just jumping right in. Well, they're getting a whole repeat on it right now. They have custody of four of my brother's children. So they're doing a rerun right now. Four of them. Yeah. Wow. A five-year-old boy, a seven-year-old girl, a nine-year-old boy, and a 12-year-old girl.

Well, at least they have the experience. Yeah. So if we had, like, one of your friends here with us today from back then, How would they describe you in high school before you went to the military? Dependent. I've always, always tried very hard to be low. Loyal T is one of the key factors in life to me. And that's something I would, I mean, I hate to say, describe myself as,

but I honestly believe that that's what somebody would say about me is he is a dependable individual. If he tells you he's going to do something, it's already done. That's a great trait to have. I don't think that's a negative thing to call yourself, you know? Well, I was more meaning that I don't want to boast as if saying this is what I am, you know what I'm saying? But I believe that that's what somebody would say about me because that is one of the core factors to how I try to live my life. I think it's better to say that than people that say I was rich or I was this or I am, you know, I think loyal is, that's a non-cocky term, you know? Like if you said, I'm successful or this and that, that's different.

But just saying I'm loyal. I'm a loyal person or hardworking those terms. Yeah. I think that's great. I always say real, recognize, real. Mm-hmm. You know, that's one of those little cliche sayings that I believe is true. I'm glad I made the cut.

Me too. So you go off to the service right fresh out of high school. Yes. Did you have any dreams of going to college? No. Okay. Well, see, because obviously I signed up, you know, when 9-11 happened, but I didn't actually graduate until June of 02. So, you know, I leave for the military soon after that.

I went to basic training at Fort Benin, Georgia, finished that, went to AIT at Fort Gordon, Georgia, which is your schooling. My MOS was what they called a 31-POP-1 Oscar, which means microwave systems, line of sight communication, radio technician, satellite communications technician, and computer networking techniques. Looking to start 2026 with an unforgettable getaway. Fiji Airways sale is on now.

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Conditions apply. I was the technology guy. Okay. So I spent 54 weeks in school. Then I go to try to figure out how to jump out of airplane. Well, a safety harness fails. I fall from 15 foot and I land standing upright, snap both my legs. Holy cow.

Toward my ACL and my MCO and both knees simultaneously at 19 years old. I spent the next 14 months in the physical therapy ward until they, finally came to me and told me that they were going to medically discharge me. This is why I'm service-connected. Wow. So I get discharged in the military with one of the largest narcotic prescriptions you can even fathom as a 19-year-old kid that never took anything stronger than a Tylenol. So guess what happens? I get introduced to my best friend, opiates.

Here I am completely naive. Now, by the end, sure, I was abused. But initially, I'm simply doing what the doctor's telling me to do, and I'm not realizing that that Russia feeling good was me getting high, and I didn't realize it at the time. You know, back in 2003, 2004, the overmedication of narcotics was extreme in the United States. This just happens to be right in the time frame when this happens to me. So for the next seven years, I went to a pain clinic and got them legally. Everything was fine. All of a sudden, the government comes in and says, we're giving out too many narcotics.

So I literally went to my doctor, picked up my prescription. I was getting 360 oxycodone, roxy30s, 240 methadone tens. I went in to get my prescription, and they said, we're going to have to cut you back. The government has said we're giving out too many opias. they gave me 60 Lorotab tens To go from 360 Roxy30s

and 240 methadone tens to 60 Lorotab tens That's it Obviously after seven years And as I said I was abusing them by the end of it Well what happens

You are so physically dependent That that's not going to cover what you need Your buddy over here says Hey man I know somebody that sells those so you start purchasing them on the street that's too expensive to purchase them at a full retail value like that it's inconceivable to be able to keep up

with the amount that my body was used to somebody said well you know heroin does the same thing is just cheaper okay by this point I'm actually breaking down and injecting the roxies before

they cut me off like I said I was I had gotten to the abusing point. I will agree that I shouldn't have been on them. But I had been on them for so long, it was just, it was in there. So injecting heroin comes into play. So literally that trajectory of your life to begin off as a soldier in the United States Army, to all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, you are a homeless, IV added, using streetlights on the side of the road to inject yourself in night, sleeping in abandoning.

houses. Entire family is disowned you. Being invited to a family event. What's that? You know what I'm saying? The extremity that that can get a hold of your life, boy. And then on December 20 of 2022, I got so intoxicated on illicit fentanyl that while nodded out for six hours, A caracine space heater fell on my leg

Burned. I have skin grafts that go all the way to the top here. 85% of my left leg of my left legion was third degree burns. We're talking bone and ligament exposed. So I spent 56 days in a burn unit ICU. I got out of the burn unit on February the 8th last year. I left the hospital as a below the knee amputee. as you see on above the knee amputee now.

Remember the injury from the service. Okay, so what happened was is when they amputated my leg off, my legald up like this because the ligaments where they were not properly repaired at the time, so they had healed incorrectly so they were drenched up some. So it just, and so I've got, of course,

video documentation of everything. thing online. I had to be given a very customized prosthetic called a bent knee syndrome prosthesis. It was actually like the top section. It was like the shape of L.

It was like a hard boot, carbon fiber boot that this part of my leg would slip into and then it had the lower portion for the leg. So February the 8th, I get out of the hospital. Of course, I leave in a wheelchair. By May, you have two bones

that go from your knee to your ankle. You have your fibula and your tibula. The fibula bone, when they done the amputation, they didn't cut it all smooth. So it began cutting me from the inside out. All of a sudden, one day I had a, about here, I had a bump pop up on my end of my stump.

It swallowed to where it got sticking out that far like a big water bluster. All of a sudden, when it burst, there was something white there. My bone is sticking out of the end of my leg. So, of course, I go to the hospital and this and that. We go through, they start pumping me with antibiotics. I go through four different rounds of bone infections before finally in August,

you know, what's seven months ago, they came to me and said, unfortunately, we're going to have to amputate more off or you're not going to make it. The infection has gotten so bad that it's not, we can't stop it at this point. It's ate it up. So that's why we went for an above the knee amputation. One thing before that right there, I'm sitting, this has put me down. I'm trying to figure out, I said, how can I show other people they don't have to go through what I went through? And all of a sudden one day, Heal came into my mind.

Heel is an acronym for help others, empathize for others, accept others, and love others. to me, so I began a Facebook pages, TikTok and all that. I started on August 27th under the direction of let's show people they don't have to do what I did. I express and I tell people the hell that I've went through, the hell that I did to others for the hope that I can keep someone else from having to enter in and have the same crap happening to them that happened to me. Because dude, I should have died. I know I should have died. numerous times, but I'm still alive. So there's a purpose for it.

And I believe the purpose is to show others that we can recover, to show others that you don't need that death, you don't need that crutch that you walk with, because we can do it. So on October the 10th, I went in for an above-the-knee amputation. Well, you've got to realize by this point, I've been off the opiates.

Because the first sick surgeries, I took every narcotic they would give me. You know what I'm saying? Because I literally, I got burned, went to the hospital. So, you know what I'm saying? I was already in the run. But I did not want to continue on that route. So on February the 8th, when I got out of the hospital,

February 9th, I went to the methadone clinic. Went to the methadone clinic for 45 days with their original plan of titrating down from day one. So I had not had a single opiate, narcotic, anything, entered my system at all, even by doctors since May. So this is October, they're fixing to do another surgery. I said, I don't want y'all to use narcotics. That's not an option. I said, yes, it is.

I refuse narcotics. They made me sign a waiver agreeing that they wouldn't use narcotics. So at 8.30 p.m. on October the 10th, I come out of surgery. My whole body was doing like that. My blood pressure hit 240 over 180. They said, we have to give you, they wanted to give me a four milligram injection of Dilaudid. Or you're going to die. I said, you put that in me, I'm going to die.

We finally agreed on a half of a milligram shot of Dilaudid. And it did, it did as job. It brought the blood pressure down. Everything was leveled out. They take me to my post-op room. They informed me, you know, you've got an ad request for morphine and an ad request for Dilaudid. Just say the word. They'll be brought to you.

I can't do it. So around lunchtime on the 11th, you know, 12 hours of so post-surgery, the doctor comes in and says you are continuing to refuse your pain medication. You do realize at this point you are here for pain management. They had me ill IV antibiotics for the first, you know, a few hours or what have you. He says, so all you're going to do from this point forward is sit in that bed. You know, you could be at home if that's all you're going to do. and write to discharge papers.

He's trying to entice me to say, no, I need to be here where the narcotics are available. I call it his bluff. So on October the 11th, at 5 p.m. Remember, I came out of surgery at 8.30 p.m. on October 10th,

at 5 p.m. on October 11th, I've got a video of me and my dad sitting in the car with me holding my nub up saying, guess who's already out? They discharged me from the hospital with catharized nerve blocks installed. That's the only reason why I was able to do what I did.

There was two bags that I had to carry off my shoulder that were like these balls. They were pressurized balls that once the pressure equalized to the, whatever, to the atmosphere, then they would stop. But so long as it had more, it would, through that feed, the slowly drip this numb and agent onto your nerves. So for the first three days post-surgery, I had that. and on Friday night. So this happened on Tuesday. On Friday night, the nerve catheter here got to hurting some. It was at its end.

That's actually what I was telling Matt out there. That was actually my first million view video that I got on Facebook was me removing my own nerve catheters from post-surgery. Did that hurt? No. Surprisingly enough. Well, you think about it, it's the nomination. And so like the catheter or whatever, it was basically like this wire. I mean, when I pulled it out, it was like this far in me.

You know, one on the front, one on the back. And it was like his really, really small, gauged wire that was hollow in the center. So basically they took like a pen, a needle that was hollowed. They shoved it in, they pushed this thing in, and then they pulled the needle back, and that's how that stayed in. Then it was just like taped on or whatever. That thing saved my ass. That catheterized nerve block. If it wasn't for that, there is no way early possible.

I would have been able to physically manage what I did. That's one of the videos I made three days post-op where I was saying, look, you know, for all, everyone out there that is saying you need the crutch that you're using, trust me, you're stronger than you realize you are. You are a warrior if you buckle down and fight to it. man, I know that what I'd done, I could have took every narcotic they wanted to give me. I could have went to the methadone clinic, dose it. I know that. I could have managed to not let it get back control of my life. That's not why I denied them.

Absolutely not. I denied them because, see, this is the kind of man I am. I gave myself a personal challenge. I said, if you can manage to get your damn leg cut off, without narcotics. Ain't a thing life can ever throw at you for you to question your sobriety again. So it was a personal challenge to myself.

They sent me home with five oxycodone fives. They wanted to send me home with morphine. I was like, nope, I can't do that. They called it the oh shit script. And, you know, because I could fall. Anything could happen and busts the sutures over. I mean, it was true that anything could happen. Here we are, what, seven months postdoc?

I still have two of them in the cabinet. Sure, I took three of them. And originally I beat myself up so bad because I lost my personal challenge. And then I come to the realization, screw that to sit there and say that you had your leg cut off. And the only thing that you consumed was three oxycodone fives and one half a milligram shot allotted for the whole healing thing. Come on now.

So even though I personally felt, I had been defeated. I realized I hadn't. So, man, I got into a little spilet. But that right there, to me, is like, not toot my own horn, but that's pretty damn strong to sit there and overcome something like that. So that's why my mission is to show others and tell others. You know what? All you got to do is fight. You can do a lot more than you ever realized. I think a huge part of your story, too, and this is a huge theme on our show that I like to show about the guests that come on

is the cause and effect. Yes. You literally went and joined the military for all the right reasons. You had a set plan. You had a career. You came from a good family. You had the heart to do it.

And that accident, that wasn't your fault, that the universe or God or whatever you believe in or think caused that and then the rest of your life was affected by that from that one incident. 100%. And there's so many,

like there's people out in the world that are just like, oh, is it a buildup where they were born into it or this or that? And, you know, fuck all those people. They don't realize that we're all just one thing, whether we make the mistake or the universe puts us in that away.

Like look at car accidents, look at everything, all the crazy shit that happens in the world. That could happen to anyone. What, you're standing here, and it makes me feel grateful because that could have happened to me.

Yeah. Maybe not in the military, because I had no desire to join the military, but anything, anything could happen. Life could happen. have happened. Yeah, we're all suspectable or whatever the

correct word is to addiction or to going to prison. And people don't realize that. Yes. They want to outcast individuals like you or me or ever because of that, but they don't realize that that could have easily happened. 100%. Yeah, it's crazy. I can't

agree more. I mean, because honestly at any point, any one of us, not to say, but for the most part, everybody has done something that could have led them to life in prison. And we're not talking about serial killers. We're not talking about people that are born evil, you know?

Simplistic mistakes. I went to prison because I was ambitious, and I had a goal, and I went into it with the best intentions. Yes. You ended up in your position, both physically and mentally traumatic to you, because you had good intentions going into it, and that's what people don't see. That's actually something that me and Matt was talking about before we came in,

was the reason why I'm on probation right now is, for having good intentions, trying to be a good guy. So before we get into that, I'm curious about the kerosene incident, and I'm sure our viewers and was the kerosene or with the propane heater. Why was that next to you? Well, I was just high. I just fell into it and it fell over on me, and I'm unconscious, so I don't realize it. Were you like in an abandoned house or something?

I was at a buddy of mine's trailer. And he had the kerosen heater? Yeah. Okay. And is that normal to have a kerosene heater like that? Yeah, I mean, he didn't have a furnace in the house. That was his means of heating the little trailer we were in. Okay.

And how does that work with like insurance and whatnot? Well, seeing as how I'm a service-connected veteran, the VA covers everything. Right now we're sitting about 1.8 million that they've covered 1.8 million. Yeah, between the seven surgeries, two months in ICU. This is my fifth leg right here. So, I mean, that's like something I always look at. at when you look at cause and effect, you're like, well, you know, this happened for this reason. And because of that, you got the medical coverage.

But at the same time, if you never joined the military, that wouldn't have happened. But what if you had the accident without the military, you know? Like, what if you stumbled upon addiction, didn't do that time in the service? And then that happened to you and didn't have the insurance. So you could, like, I focus on going back in time to see how one thing could have changed another, but you really just never know. Yeah. And it could drive you crazy thinking about it, but everything brings you to where exactly you're supposed to be.

I believe that right there. There's no such things as coincidences. You know, the happenstance. The way I look at it is, is like everything has a purpose. Some things we may not understand it. But I don't think the things just happen to happen. I really believe that, you know, networking, marketing on the personal side, hustling side, whatever. maybe everything is about, you know, working together and taking your, I can't think of the

word of drugs. And I just genuinely think if you do right by people, you do good and you work hard and you're just nice and do what you can the best you can, like things have a way of working themselves out. Yeah, yeah. I agree with that right there. And see, that centralizes back to what the Hill family is all about. Because, see, I tell people I'm in recovery from drugs.

My family, my community is not about drugs. My community is about everyone has a struggle. And no matter what your struggle is, no matter what your backstory was that led you to that moment, the forefront story, the trying to get better, there are so many crosses in our story,

no matter what your backstory was, if it was, you know, child abuse or DV or SA, you know, whatever mental health stuff. health stuff. I mean, you know, less as long as you're on. But at the end of the day, we all have factors that do correlate to one another. And so we can still be there for each other. Even if you've never done a drug in your life, someone like me, I can still relate to you in trying to deal with outside circumstances. With the RAM declaration of deals, we're pledging our allegiance to the American people with great deals on the RAM 1500. Back with the legendary

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This is trying to deal with life. Exactly. So you, timeline-wise, for our audience from 2001, that happened your incident with your legs or around that time. Yeah, yeah, it was like 0-2-0-3. So that addiction, because you didn't have the latest accident until a few years ago, that addiction was like a 15-year span, maybe more. Yeah, probably close to 20 years. I was an IV addict for like 14 years. What does that mean?

Injecting. Okay. Yes, and that to me became the drug. That's what I was addicted to, was the ritualistic process that is involved with breaking the substance down, putting it into a needle and injecting it. So when you look at your span of addiction and you see the individuals that succumb to their addiction and pass away, how does that make you feel now that you've overcome it and where you're at today? How do you kind of explain that to yourself? Well, I have what they call Survivor's guilt. you know, I beat myself up.

I used to beat myself up a lot. You know, why did I live when I did so much more than this person did? And, you know, and that mentality. And then finally, I come to realization that the best way I can deal with that, the best way I can honor them is by never letting their memory die. By sitting there and doing the best I can to scream from the mountaintops, and we can recover to sit there. And because so long as your memory is remembered,

someone, somebody still speaks your name, you're still not, you're not gone. You may not be here. But you're never gone. Someone someone is lifting up the memory of what you were. You know what I'm saying? No. And that's a big thing for me is communal liftup of ones that have lost. Not three weeks ago, my ex-fiancee passed away.

She relapsed. Two days after she relapsed, I found a poem that she had on Facebook that literally all but called what was going to happen. You know, she went down the list of when, before she tried heroin, somebody told her that it was like a full orgasmic feeling of your body. She said, but then after I tried it, here's my truths. And she went down the list, you know, everything from your family will disown you to, you know, you'll do anything for. for all this whole list, but then at the end of it, that was what got me. She said, for God's sake, any of you and all of you out there, if you must try, remember this. Curiosity killed the cat, and it'll kill you too.

Yeah, it was just that moment right there of, you know, like Christina Jones, that was a beautiful point. I hated to see that she had to go. but I actually I talked to her father and her stepmother and I did everything I could to raise awareness about us her poem I ended up sharing and ended up getting like 35,000 likes but when I shared it around it distributed so hey her words will help someone but I told her father that you know I'm doing that

but I cannot come in person to any funeral service anything like that because at the end of the day even though I loved her I have to protect my recovery So I have to be selfish in my recovery in order to stay alive myself. That's very powerful. Sometimes you have to distance yourself from old memories and people and places and things to not let it affect your future in that sense. Yeah, yeah. And I believe that right there is like, I'm not a 12-steper. I don't knock them.

But that's one of their phrases, the people, places and things. 100%. 100%. Because at the end of the day, even though I have not put a needle in myself in, what, 15, 16 months, whatever it is, if I went to the dope house and I'm sitting there and you sitting beside me and you sitting there doing da-da-da-da-da. Am I going to be looking at you going, man, let me tell you about what God did for me. It's not the time for that. They're not trying to hear that. So why would I risk my life, risk my sobriety, risk what I've got going on?

to try to sink back. Now, don't get me right, I have no hatred towards one. For instance, the man that sold me of stuff when I burnt my leg. I had numerous people asked, I said, come on now, let me explain something to you. Just because I ain't in that life no more, there's still a code. They ain't a damn one of you that will ever get out of me who that was. Why would I destroy someone else because of something I did? Come on.

To me, that has no sense to it. There's still a code out there. I have a lot of people that were ex-customers of mine, ex-dealers of mine, ex-usings of mine, that are still following me online and I still communicate with some of them a little bit. At the end of the day, I have no, there's no hard feelings towards anybody for making a living. I don't knock them, even though it's what I'm against, I'm not going to hurt them. Now, you don't just have a story of addiction. You also have a story of you've had some run-ins with the law that you're sharing with Matt out there.

Yeah. Can you tell us what happened there? Well, there was two things. One we was talking about. I showed him on my website, hill-family.com. I have one of the, one of the, it's a set of pictures there. It's me and my county sheriff and a bishop of a church standing together in a picture. 20 years ago, this man investigated me when I was a drug dealer.

Last year, I ran into him at the courthouse, told him what had happened to me and everything. He told him my hatred from fentanyl because my end goal is I want to build an addiction recovery center in my town, Caswell County, North Carolina. He said, man, I've been waiting on somebody like you. Will you please come to me with me to this church? They've lost three of their members to fentanyl in the last six months. So we went and this man Of course there's videos

That's all on there too By a county sheriff In a small hick town That's the strongest man That's the most powerful man he is You know what I mean He got up and told him people I've known this man of 20 years

I know where he was I see where he is Listen to what he's got to say That's a powerful moment Truly But the running with the law That you was talking about What I'm on probation for now

Being a good guy trying to be the nice guy. All right, here's what happened. This guy beat his girlfriend up. She barricades herself in the bathroom in a little small trailer. She crawls out the little small bathroom window of the trailer. She goes and she goes to the store right there, calls the law. Of course, the law comes.

They beat on door, he won't come to it. They ask her, was there anywhere we can take you where you would feel safe? I'm friends with her boyfriend. That's the only reason why the girl even knows. knows me. She said, well, I've got this one guy, I know he'd let me crash over at his place. The cops bring her to my house at midnight. I live in the hood. You know what I'm saying? I open up the door. I'm like, what the fuck? There's a cop sitting there. First off, you don't bring no cops to somebody's house in the hood. You don't do that, especially at midnight.

And so I let her in and everything. Well, the next morning we get up and she said, can I use your phone? Steve broke my while we were fighting. I don't think nothing of it. giving him my phone. Everything goes long. She ends up staying over about three or four days. She ends up taking off with some other guy. I'm not thinking anything about the fact that this girl was using my phone. What she done was is she arranged for her now ex-boy from the bidder up,

for her and another guy to come pick him up and take him to go score some drugs. Well, they pick him up and everything. And when they pull on this side road, the guy driving just, stops in the middle of the road. All of a sudden, this car comes flying in, turns like that, and cuts him off. Steve, the guy's named Steve, he's like, what the world? What the world? The girl, Ashley, as soon as the guy runs up to the car, gets to the car door, she goes like

it, and pushes him simultaneously, so he tumbles out. The guy's got a sawed-off shotgun, starts beating him in the head with it, leaves him on the side road to die. Well, he ends up making it to a house right there, calls law, da-da-da-da. So, of course, they pick his girlfriend up. They know it was her. The drug dealer, it was his drug dealer. You know what I'm saying?

We all knew the guy. So they pick him up. When they pick her up, they ask her what happened and everything. She said, David Riggins arranged it all. Holy shit. Huh? They come and pick, they come to my house, pick me up. Take me down there.

They locked me up. They put me, hold me on no bond for conspiracy to come. commit attempted murder and armed robbery. I mean, what the fuck? My sister actually is a clerk at the courthouse. I had her come and testify to a bond hearing for me. She told them that if they would release me on a bond, that I would, I'm in Virginia at this time.

That I would leave Virginia and go to North Carolina out to my family's land and be separated from it. They allotted me a $10,000 bond on those conditions. I wasn't even allowed to go back to my own place to pack my stuff up. My sister and them had to go do that. I lost my house, everything, you know. So, of course, I know this is beat. I'm not guilty.

Come time for the guy that actually, the boyfriend, me and him are buddies, right? I'm still hanging with him and everything in this meantime. The guy that got beat up. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm trying to make sure everything, you know, I'm with everything good with us from court come. preliminary hearing time comes they end up taking me the girlfriend Ashley

and the guy of Trey that beat him up have all three or preliminary hearing simultaneously all three of us stood in front of the judge the guy Steve the guy beat up spent 30 minutes testifying in front of the judge begging him why is David even here this is my friend me and been friends for 25 years his whole testimony was that

the judge said this is too complicated, I'm going to certify the charge on the circuit court figured out. Since all three of us was, he couldn't certify theirs and not, you know, so he just let them deal with it. What a big mess. Dude. So I'm, like I said, I'm charged with

conspiracy to commit attempted murder and armed robbery. They come to me and they said, you realize that she's assigned a paper to testify against you. I'm like, what the fuck? Now she's going to testify against me? They said, yeah.

a couple days later I get a phone call I said well I got some great news I said we mean great news she said well now Trey the drug dealer has signed to testify

against you I'm like what the fuck why how is that good news she said no no no you don't understand they both signed saying that they were testified against you you signed to say the same thing all three nullifies each other and it just goes away holy shit that makes sense

So, Hell yeah. Well, then the guy, Trey, day before court, backs out of his offer. I got a phone call, you need to be in court tomorrow to testify. I'm like, testify. That was the whole point. That's against the code, you know?

So I literally had to go to the courthouse and when since, as I said, I wasn't there or anything else. So the only thing I was able to tell the lady, because they never even called me in the courtroom. Because the only thing I was able to tell her was that I know that guy, but I wasn't there. I didn't, I don't know anything about this stuff being set up. So I don't know what good I am to y'all.

So she agreed, and the state didn't call me. So technically, that was me still doing my deal since I was there. They just chose not to use me. But the deal that they gave me was, we will drop the charge to conspiracy to commit malicious wounding. put you on probation with no jail time. And you took it. Oh, hell yeah. You didn't want to go to trial because you knew you were innocent?

Well, see, you got to remember, I've got a record previous. I had some drug charges, some dealing charges back before. I used to, I wasn't just a user. Exactly. And so because they're talking 25 to life. Yeah, but that's, you know, that's scary. Exactly. And that's all it is.

It's a scare tactic. That they can literally just go there and scare you. and that's just bad police work, man. Well, you got another thing you got to realize, see, I got out of, when I got put on two years of probation, this was on December 16th, 2002. Remember I lost my leg on December 20th, 2022. So it was right around the same time? It was four days after I got out of jail and got put on probation for the two years of probation I'm on right now.

Oh, that you had lost it. Yes. Yeah, so that's why my tolerance was. I wonder if it would have been a different impact if it was reversed. The leg happened first. Most likely. Because I sincerely believe that the reason why I got set down for so long, because I'm so damn hard-headed. God was like, I got to sit him down for a little extra time.

And not a single soul from the street came and visited me. But then on the other end, if you got the prison time, you would have avoided the leg. What would you have taken if it was presented to you right now? This. This. Take my leg. Why? Because it gave me a new purpose in life.

I was the most selfish individual when I used. It was all about me. And now, when I say that the community now run is about helping others, that is what I want to continue my life as from this point forward. It's about everybody else. Because little on me doesn't make. matter. But if I can sit there and I can even possibly open Jimmy's eyes and Susie's eyes and keep them from going down that road that I went through, no. Let me, let me experience

this pain because I can use it to keep others from having to do it. I think people sometimes from the outside when they see someone that's in your position or struggling or, you know, disabled, loses a leg, loses an arm, anything that's bad happened to them. them, they'll say, oh, I wish, you know, that didn't happen to me. Like, I couldn't imagine. So what do you tell those people when they're like that? How do you overcome it? Because people have struggles.

They're not as huge as yours or they could be bigger than yours. What's your method for dealing with the struggle so that mental, the mentality doesn't overtake you? We have a mutual friend, Jimmy McGill. I love Jimmy. Oh, man. I was just with him a couple weeks ago. Yeah, yeah, I've seen that.

Yeah. I actually, I have, it's a say in of his. It's my mantra. It's what I say to myself every single morning. I've told Jimmy this numerous times. So long as you still have breath in your lungs, you can become a productive member of society. You sounded exactly like Jimmy just now, even his voice too.

I literally, I have that road on my mirror. It's every single morning. When I get up, I say it's not too late. You still got breath in your lungs. Boy, you can do it. Let's get it. As I said, that's my daily mantra. And that's what I tell people is, look, we're not disabled.

Trust me when I tell you, I'm in the best physical shape of my entire life. Four days after I had this amputation done, I got a video of me doing pull-ups and leg lifts with a cinder block tied to the damn stunt. You'll fuck someone up, man. I mean, but you know what? It's all about perception. It really is. It's all about perception. Life's about perception.

100%. You know, like someone's downfall could be someone else's, you know, windfall. And that's when you look at cases like us where you're literally turning the worst thing that could ever happen to you into the best thing. People don't realize that. That you literally have, that's what I tell everyone. Like you, especially in today's world, this might not have been applicable 20 years. years ago, but with the power of technology, you can literally go on a platform and share something that was horrific to you and turn it into some type of entertainment. And it could be the best thing

that could ever happen to you. That's our story right there. In a nutshell. And see, that's that correlation of even though the backstories are so different, the forefront one has crosspoints. Yeah. Like I read comments and I saw one last night. They were like, oh, you're making fun of people. that are in prison. And it's like... No, I'm giving them a voice. Yeah. And it's also like you're turning this entertainment.

And, you know, it is entertainment, but it's also how you raise awareness. You need the entertainment to raise awareness. That wow point. Because I guarantee you if you take two videos, one is someone talking about how horrific the prisons are and a crazy story that happened in prison. And then you could pair it next to another video

where it's like, we need reform, we need change in the prison system, and this is why. The one with the entertainment is going to perform way better than the one that's about the reform and re-entry. But when you put the two together, they both have the same meaning and the same cause. Yes. People are just blindside because this way is the old way of thinking. And this way is the new modern hip way of thinking. This is how you get people engaged. This is how you get people to listen.

I was at a reentry fair last week in Danbury. And it was very low attendance. And that's just the old way of thinking. People that are coming out of prison, they don't want to go to a job fair where someone may or may not help them and they're held to this standard. These are the only jobs you can get.

The sky's the limit. You can do so much more. You don't need to be secluded to these five people that showed up to this job fair. or these five employers, you know. Yeah. There's this canvas of people. And that's what I want to push to people, you know?

I agree completely. It's all about changing mindset right there. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. That, you know, if we stay stuck in the woe was me, that's one thing I tell people, you know, that when this happened, I had two choices. Going to the woe was me, oh, sad. Or buckle down beast mode and fight through.

I choose the latter. And I choose to show other people that, hey, if you fall, don't worry. The only way I'm ever going to look down at you is if I'm helping pull you back up. You feel me? That's my mindset. I will pull you back up. I will stop my progress just to help make sure that you don't fall anymore. I'll help you walk, man.

So that mentality, do you think people are born with it, or do you think that you have to grow into that through trials and tribulations? and do you think if you're not born with it or if it's not in you, you can never have that? I believe it's a little bit. There's some gray areas there. I sincerely believe, like, as the military training and stuff like that, it does imputes, but you already got to have that monster in you, I believe. You know what I'm saying?

Like, everybody has the capability to be more than what they are. It's just a matter of whether or not they buckled to it. I think that, yes, people are born with the tendencies, like addictive tendencies, things like in their characterist, in their character. But I also believe that trials and tribulations of life can alter a person's way of thinking and way of being. So I think it's some gray area between the two. Yeah, like me, like I was just born with this mentality. Like I will never give up. Like I'll always, that's just who I am.

And even it put even more of a fire on it when I did face my trials and tribulations too. But I had that from the get-go. Yeah. And I guess that ties into the entrepreneurial sense because I know that part you get kind of born with too. And it's kind of hard to grow into that. And there's nothing wrong with people who aren't entrepreneurial. My mother is someone who's not entrepreneurial in the least bit. And my father is someone who is everything entrepreneurial.

Yeah. So I get a little bit of both. You know, I always say I get my emotions from my mom. and I got the work ethic for my dad. So it's just fascinating how it's shaped and how it comes. And I love learning that about people. Because, you know, everyone always sees in the world how the celebrities are made or what they came into, but we don't spend the time on just your average everyday people.

Yeah. Did you hear about the skydiving event that I hosted on March 2nd? No, tell me about it. Oh, wow. Did you jump out of the plane? Oh, yeah. That's what me and that was, that's the videos me and him was watching. Right before I came back to the videos, me and we were watching. I have all on my website and all that, of course.

How dangerous is it? No more dangerous than the drive here, in my opinion. So accident-wise, what are the odds of something? Statistically, very low. Okay. Very low. It's a tandem jump. You know, of course, I was affixed to a professional jumper, and they didn't let me wear my legs.

so because the worry of it coming off midair and you could imagine the trauma that that could cause so I understood I understood this thing weighs like 30 pounds that thing weighs 30 pounds it goes all the way to it goes all the way to here wow um it's carbon fiber and titanium I mean it's actually pretty heavy wow yeah um but so remember this was my full circle in life okay yeah I got hurt training to learn how to jump out of a plane. Mid-February, you know, a couple months ago, it hit me. I was like, it's time to jump out of that plane. I'm ready. So I put a post on Facebook. I said, I may have lost my leg, but didn't lose my balls. Who wants to jump out of plane with me? Of course, they were flying in at that point, you know? Yeah. Well, then Melissa Williams, we call her

Me-Ma, she sent me a private message. She said, when you go and do that jump, would you do me a favor? If I send you a picture of my daughter, her daughter was lost to fentanyl poison. If I sent you a picture of my daughter, would you have it in your pocket when you jump? I said, holy

shit, that's what I'm supposed to do. That's what this is about. So I put the word out there. If any of you have lost any of your family members, any of your loved ones, to overdose, send me their picture. And I'll take a moment, one of the last sober hurrah.

We had over 40 submissions of individuals that had been lost to overdose that we took up in the plane and we did a jump with. That's amazing. I set this whole thing up in two weeks. I literally, I came up with the idea, and the full fruition to getting in that plane was a two-week time period. I had beyond amazement for the microscopic platform that I have for some of the allotments that I was given. this guy named Mike Meadows and his wife Sober Jess, they drove six hours to come speak. There's a lady named Rachel Palante.

She drove eight hours to come speak. As a guy named Joe Stan, he was lucky when he lives in Raleigh. So he was already hung. And I had to go two hours to get there. And so, of course, we have all the streams of everybody giving their testimony and this and that. You know, but for those, each of them have 100, 250,000 followers a piece. For me sitting there across all platforms, I got like 20,000. You know what I'm saying?

For somebody that small to sit there and have people like that came and they believed in what I was trying to do, all set up in a two-week period. I literally, that's what me and Matt was looking at the video, But when I landed, the guy, the videographer guy, because I had the full videography package done so that, you know, his camera angles everywhere. Why not? You know, I was thinking content, content, content, content. And he asked me, said, what was, what did you like about it? Or how did you enjoy your experience?

I said, I'll be honest with you. About halfway down, I started trying to think how we was going to make next year's better. That's awesome. That's how I think. But I'm in the moment I'm always thinking about what's that. That's what the merch stuff is honestly. That's where this all transpired from.

Because as I said, I'm a service-connected veteran. I spent $2,600 out of my own pocket to finance that event. I got a total of $140 to donate it to me. You know what I'm saying? So I walked away, you know, 24 and some change out of my pocket. And I'm on disability, man. So somebody told me they were like, you know, I had a few friends, Patrick Lycahn, he made the designs that I have on the shirts.

And then actually marketing teacher from high school, Ms. Joe Page says she drew up the one that has the rainbow flames for me. And they said, look, let the Hill community finance the Hill community. Shit, that makes sense. So I have, that's how I got my website. I had, you know, Heal-Family.com. And on there, we've got a store that's got all, our shirts are $20. And it's $5 for shipping. And then if somebody buys three, if you spend $60, then it's free shipping.

It's $35 for a hoodie. And at the end of the day, every single penny that ever comes in is going to finance doing future things like Hill 24 was. That's awesome. Hill 25 is going to be a beast, I'm telling you. Yeah, let me know when it is, man. I'll see if I could come to. I don't know if I'll jump out of the plane, but I could be there out of the ground for Woody Lynn.

Hey, I mean, you know. And we'll have your description in the bio of all your links and whatnot where people could buy merchandise and support your cause. Absolutely. I mean, because at the end of the day, like I tell people, and I mean, this ain't bragging whatsoever, but I don't need. this for the monetary portions. I literally, we're registering

Hill family as an LLC in the state of North Carolina. That's one of the things we're in the process of, you know, turning this into an actual business. That way we'll keep Uncle Sam happy with the taxes. I don't want the tax fraud stuff to come hit me next. Hey, why you point it out me? I haven't gone to prison for tax

fraud. I may have heard the story at a time. But, you know, I don't, we've got to keep Uncle Sam happy. And I'm sure nowadays you make sure you do. I'm very on top of things. I do all my record keeping and stuff myself. You kind of learn through years of trauma of not doing it correctly. Because when I was running those businesses, I didn't fucking keep notes or I didn't do anything. I did it when it was too late. So now I'm very organized, very meticulous. I keep detailed notes. And in this business,

it's not a cash business. Everything's on the books. Like you get paid from advertisers, YouTubers. They're not handing you cash. It's all traceable. It's all income. You know, it's all legitimate. Yeah. So it can't go wrong. But one thing I wanted to chime in on is you had said, you know, your small platform followers. And, you know, I just wanted to say to everyone out there, we're in the day and age where followers do not matter. Exactly.

Like, you could literally post a video. Like, I don't want people to get discouraged by sharing their story because they have no followers. When I started, I had one video. I did four videos. And on that fifth video, it went viral about me talking about prison. I had less than 1,000 followers on that TikTok. That's what social media does. And I was reading an article.

Instagram is now changing their algorithm to prioritize pushing your content, videos and stuff out to more people. So anyone that's listening that wants to share their story doesn't know where to start. Just start telling videos. Start sharing stories. And it doesn't matter if you have one follower or 100,000 followers. And diversification is another thing that's a huge advantage to be able to get, yourself. You know, get yourself cross platforms. I mean, you need a YouTube, you need an Instagram,

you need a TikTok, you need a Facebook. Put that same video on every platform. Exactly. That's where I stream yard. I don't know if you've ever used stream yard. When other people have me on their show, I personally don't like doing like remote interviews. That's why everyone comes in the studio. Yeah. Well, I use it not even, not just for having a secondary person on there, but even to even just for a video to a multi-platform stream. Oh, okay. Because, you know, I, I use it. Not even, not just for, not just for a You know, you can record and then post later is how it says. And you can, if you have the paid platform, I think I can do like, I can do five simultaneous. So I can put one video up and then it puts it on five different platforms.

Live. Well, yeah, you can do live or you can do pre-recorded. That's actually pretty cool. I think I pay like $15 a month for service. So if you go live on Stream Yard, hypothetically, it'll go to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. Not TikTok. Okay. TikTok doesn't work with them.

Okay. But all the rest. It'll go to Facebook. Yes. So I can do a Facebook live and a YouTube live. Yes, that's the way I do mine. Like I have a Facebook group that is just David Riggin podcast appearances. It's like everybody that I've been on with da da da da da da da da.

You know I put it right there. So do I make the cut now? You already know you'll be on the list. Awesome. After this weekend, it's going to be a few on there. Yeah. Well, David, thank you so much, man, for coming. This was an incredible conversation.

And I'm glad to have met you. And if you need anything, reach out. And like I said, we'll have your description to links and whatnot in the bio for people to check you out and follow you to on social media. Yeah, I mean, that's what it's all about. Like you said, following numbers don't matter. But at the end of the day, they also do matter because that's how you reach and get that message of the ear that needs to hear it. Exactly. That's what grinding is about.

Exactly. Well, keep grinding and enjoy your weekend in New York and say out of Jared. I will. I will. That's actually my, I've been feeling all this vibrating. I literally, he said, let me know when you're through over at Ian's, I texted back. I said, actually, we're setting up right now. Cool.

I never give a call. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Awesome.