Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - America’s Greatest JEWEL THIEF Reveals His SECRETS | Punch Stanimirovic

Episode Date: March 16, 2024

America’s Greatest JEWEL THIEF Reveals His SECRETS | Punch Stanimirovic

We opened two safes back to back. We took $1.5 million each. It's $3 million in diamonds and sapphires and jeweled. It's amazing. Your father was basically a jewel thief. He and your mother were a team. And he kind of started the original group that was considered the Pink Panthers. Like at what point do you start getting involved in this whole thing?

Yeah. me more when I was younger like five six seven eight my father's friends he's like hey you want to learn how to pick a lock so he shows me a lot you know and I'm like you know six seven years old and I'm like of course so you show me how to pick a lock at six seven eight and I got interested he gave me my first pick clock you know my set right he'd show me one you know what to pick how to pick it what barrel to choose and you know what to click and what to turn and the tension bar and all that so I figured it out I figured he showed me the inside the mechanics of the system, you know? And he's the guy that I used to go to when I needed something like, you know, something, information about a safe, you know, how to open it, you know, because every safe is different. There's hundreds of safes. So, I mean, I can name them, I could name probably 20, 30 off the top of my head, you know,

because, you know, this is what I do, right? Guys like me, I go to the conventions, I go to the locksmith shows, but we had something better. This is going to interest people to jump, to dive into a, our story into stealing Manhattan because we had the biggest safe guy working with us right in the fucking world the biggest safe guy the guy that owns the biggest best safes in the world is working with us how crazy is that that's going to come out in part two but do you understand the magnitude of this the guy that builds the safes that sells the safes to the companies that

need to be insured for a hundred million dollars works with us right he comes to us he comes to my father he's like this fucking cock suck a motherfucker didn't pay us he didn't want to pay us for the vault this cheap fucking money i'm sorry to per cursing but you know this guy oh yeah we can curse on this show yeah of course excellent oh fuck it then let's go what i mean is he he comes into the to our company we have a jewelry company an office on 47th street right you said that That's how you guys were, you know, I guess not breaking through. Right. You were basically working on the diamonds through your parents.

Yes, yes. Look, watch this, Matt. The office was not only a place where we fenced the stuff, but was also a point where I can get into the backyard at nighttime. Right. Because, okay, let me explain something to you. These are all buildings on 47th Street. If I can get into the backyard, 47th Street, the Diamond District.

Right, what did you say? There are what? Buildings. Oh, buildings, okay, sorry. Yeah, tall buildings. I think like five stories and up. Five stories is the smallest, right? And I'm in one of these buildings that are five stories.

And I go to the roof of this building, and that's how I break out to the backyard. And if I'm in the back, you're not supposed to be in the backyard. It's a 47th Street. If I can get into the backyard, this is the nucleus of 47th Street and 48th Street, these two streets. So now I'm inside of these blocks where there's nobody. There's only air conditioning units, electrical, you know, things, gizmos, you know, stuff that they have for the building, you know. And it's very dangerous back there.

It's not made for people to walk, you know. it's not made, it's, it's a backyard. I have to, I have to describe it a little bit better. We need to get some pictures because this diagram is in Manhattan, you know. So picture, Rockefeller Center, right, the block next to Rockefeller Center, that street right there. And there's hundreds of jewelry diamond stores, okay, hundreds. Each store is worth, you know, a million dollars, 10 million, five million.

You know, each one of these. Each one of these companies has a value. And this is where we broke in into this nucleus, this stem. It's like we found, you know, when you find a diamond mine or a gold vein or something, there you go. We found a vein, a vein, a golden mine on these streets. And I was the only one that was going out at nighttime, you know, looking through the windows of these companies.

and I would immediately see a punch safe, the safe that I could open in 16 seconds. So Matt, you think I wouldn't do it immediately? You don't think I would stretch those bars? You know, if there's any bars on the window, I would use a jack, like a BMW car jack, and I would change the bars. And then I would open the window with a screwdriver,

heavy-duty screwdriver, crowbar, you know. And the alarms would be running. The alarms would be running. These guys are not going to get there in five minutes. I'm in and out in a minute. Right. And this is in a resident. residential area so nobody's going to come out of their house no it's not a residential area that's

it's commercial area that's what i forgot to tell you it's all commercial here's no residence nobody lives there it's a desert desolate nobody lives in this in this in this on these streets this is all commercial so when was the first time when was your first heist when did you first get you know i was like 15 years old 15 i became a multi i made a million dollars no my first So I became a millionaire officially like 15 years old. So how did it, how did that work? How did you find the place? How'd you?

Yeah. Yeah, this was something that I was already, uh, my father and I, we already spoke about what I was, I was going to do and he wanted to put me down on one of his jobs, you know, to work with,

with his guys. And I was like, all right, let's do that. My mom was totally adamant, uh, that, you know, she didn't want me to be with these guys.

Something could happen. Like one day. up in jail, I can get killed, you know, I could be in a trunk of a car. Who the fuck knows? Anything. This life is crazy. Right. Um, you're dealing with psychopaths and you're dealing with crazy people, you know, in this, in this, in this, uh, this world, right?

You know, so she was scared and she says, let me show you something. Come with me, you know, uh, to New York, to the city. Uh, I was living at that time in New Jersey. Okay. So my mom takes me to, to New York City. And, uh, you know, I go with her. And she's in a mint coat, you know, always in a mint coat, beautiful blonde, green eyes, like gorgeous, gorgeous woman. And here am I, you know, this young, 15-year-old, you know, sprouting, you know, I'm playing tennis, good-looking kid, you know, nice everything, you know, and I'm there with my mom.

And that truly puts people at ease because we're not criminals. Right. So we can go anywhere. So I go to this company and it's an Indian company. my mom goes there to buy some gems and she didn't see anything to me she just showed me in this place she already knew what I was thinking so as soon as I went there because I was already scoping out jobs for my dad I was already going with my mom you know and that's what I was doing probably yeah for like as soon as I came back from Europe I came back from Europe uh 15 so this is like maybe like five

six months later you know down the road because I didn't get to do what I wanted, so like five, six months, so I'm like 15 and a half. But during that time, during that time, because I just came back from Europe, we just moved back from Europe. We moved to New Jersey. So from New Jersey, we're going to New York. And during this time, I was helping my mom scope out jobs. It was easier for her to go, you know, with me, all us together. So my mom was showing me the district, and that's how I got familiar with 40th Street. They had an office there. Not one. They had six offices at one time, six different offices.

So like two, three on 47th Street, one on 46th Street, one on 45th, one on 48 or something, you know. So these were all offices that we use, not to resell out of, but to use to burglarize, you know, to steal from, from other commercial companies. Right. So that whole district is commercial. I was the only one that would stay there overnight. I would sleep in my office. Okay. I would stay there.

And at night, I would go out and I would know. where every cockroach would sleep because I'm the only one that knows that terrain. Nobody knew that terrain better than me. That's why, you see, this is why I did like over 300 heists in my life because I was not only doing my cruise. I was working with Albanians. I was working with Italian. I was working with everybody, Russians.

Whoever wanted to do a heist, they needed me to get into the 47th Street. So the first heist? Yeah, the first heist was India, India Gem Company. India Gem Company and it was like 45th between 45th and 46th Street and and I do it with this guy named Peco

another guy, young guy that was in college a professional soccer player and he was a good athlete my father puts this crew together it was just us four that's it and I do this job it was pretty heavy because there were stones and I had to go back and forth like

you know two three times you know and the cops got involved How'd you get into the place? Oh, through one of the offices that we had keys. We didn't have a, yeah, we had keys. This was a different office, but we had keys to the, to the, I'm sorry, to the front building. The adjacent office, the one next to it? Yeah, no, well, we got into the backyard from 46th Street, okay?

And from 46th Street, this is like the way we go in and go out. This is our exit and entry point. This is maybe like 15 buildings down. This is 15 buildings, 20 buildings down. So it's in the middle of the block. This is where I leave. This is where I come out and this is where I go in. Now, I have to make my way all the way to 5th Avenue.

I'm between 5th and 6th Avenue, 45th and 46th Street. So I'm in this backyard and I have to make my way to the building that I entered into a window, like a bathroom window. And I open the window. and I got into the hallway, an interior staircase, and I got up to the top floor where the India Gem place was.

And next door there was an empty office. And I opened the door because there was no alarms in empty office. And I immediately started making a hole in the street rock to the adjacent place next door, you know, to the India Star Gem. And we made a hole. And the hole that I made, actually I put my head,

I made a hole in their showcase. because there was glass and I was like oh shit but there was gems and stuff there so I started pulling out the emeralds and shit

you know already loading up the bags and then I moved this a lot of you know it was messy my first one was messy I'm over there you know

scooping all these gems and stuff out to showcase and I moved the showcase it was messy it's my first heist you know it's not it doesn't look glamorous

so anything like that a lot of messy glasses broken I probably got cut you know like you know things are happening you know

I got my tools and shit you know um with this other kid peckle but I'm the one that's doing it like I'm the one that's working I open the hole you know he started

opening the hole with a hammer like very messy very you know she rockets all over the place it was a I don't know if it was a two by fours or whatever but you gotta you know move to you know get through the get to the other side and stuff like that and I put my head in the showcase right

so it's messy it's messy we had to kick that out and it's just like a lot of dust and it looks like demolition, basically, right? Right. So, you know, I run right to the vault. There's a vault. It's like a door with a dial and a handle. And I already knew that because I seen it, you know, a couple of days before, right?

And when I was playing it. And I immediately put the punch. I take the hammer. I open the vault. And this is a walking vault. And it was within 16 seconds, 17 seconds, I was in. One day, maybe we can do an episode about, you know, I can demonstrate to exactly what I did because it's exciting, you know, how I open a fucking vault, right? And I'm not promoting crime or anything.

I don't want people to, you know, to imitate me or to redo this or whatever. But, you know, yeah, so I open the vault and it's the most amazing feeling in the world. This is my first vault, you know, I open it, my first heist, and it went so smooth. This is why my name is Punch, because it was a Punch Vault, you know? And I opened this, and as I said, it wasn't that, it wasn't diamonds, diamonds, no, no, no, it was more semi-precious. Aquamarine, citrine, paroddott, blue topaz, amethyst, tons of that shit. And really nice ones, purple amethyst, you know, African amitist. And so we're picking rocks.

So, you know, we load up two, three bags each, you know, as many as we can carry. I think I had two bags at that time. And the way I do it is I put it around my neck. the handle part and I open it like this and I'm dumping I'm dumping everything out of the safe you know out of the vault and everything is in like the little containers and shit packets and then when we're taking you know gems we're taking gems and he's looking at me he's like is this worth a lot and I'm like yeah I thought you know I thought we were taking a hundred million dollars you know just think about it because you know I you know I thought it was all mostly

rubies and sapphires and diamonds you know but it was it was like maybe 15% of that and then you know the rest was all semi-precious but that's how we started gemstone trading so here we are with six bags six big duffel bags filled with uh with gems and we have a company on 45 west 47 street that's a perfect front for this for this merchandise because we we already had a company on 33 West 47th Street in Alley's Exchange. And we kept that and we get this other office and this is what starts part two and this whole excitement and this whole the billion dollar heist and all that started from there because we we had this gemstone straight in front and we started with that merchandise from my first highest. You know, it came from me.

Not my dad, it came from me. And my mom and dad started selling, and me also, you know, I started selling gems to all the manufacturers on 47th Street. And that was my first heist. My second heist was probably like seven months after that, you know. But I was doing other things, assisting people with their heist. You know, I was working other jobs. But I was actually, you know, until like six, seven months later because I had all this money.

And I had a fight with my dad. I try to give some gifts to my girlfriend, you know, and he wasn't having it. You know, he was like, no. And I couldn't get the money for my father, basically, because I was still a young punk kid, right? Right. And I'm living at home, so now I move out. Now I'm on the run. I'm on the run, you know.

And I'm on the run, and I'm in New York City. I'm in Manhattan. I leave. I have a fight with my dad. That's why I didn't do a house for like six, seven months. because my dad and I, we had a fight because I couldn't get paid. I'm like, can I get my equal share

like everybody else is getting? Right. He's like, fuck, no. He's like, you're a fucking 15-old kid. What the fuck? You're going to do with millions of dollars? Are you fucking stupid? We're going to fucking bury us all?

Like, you know, he's like, what are you going to buy a fucking Ferrari? Like, what was wrong with you? You know, he wanted Loki. Me, I wanted to show off. I wanted to be somebody with my friends, you know, and hey, look what I did. So I had all a bunch of these,

you know, these guys from South Hackensack and stuff. It's like sopranos and shit. know growing up in that area and they were doing credit card for it back then you know so i was like i'm already a criminal i do fucking gem heist but they didn't believe me you know that's something that people can't fucking fathom until you get arrested right you know so there you go uh i started getting arrested and i started becoming a real criminal and i started going against my dad me and my dad were like enemies at one point i had my own crew and we wanted to kill each other yeah like like really like we were really like he had my money you know and i had this guy that was

influencing me a really bad character in the book his name is momo and he brainwashed me to go against my father and it's like it's a fucking crazy story man and this guy kidnapped me and all this shit but you know yeah yeah so i broke away from my crew from my father's crew and i go with this guy momo and and we're just going crazy you know doing heist how old were you then robin i was uh i was what I was like I was 18, 19, yeah, yeah, 18, 19, yeah, 16, 17, wait, hold on, 16, 16, 16, 17, 18, like that, 17 18, 17 18, yeah, with this fucking guy. And he was a gangster, you know, he was somebody that people, like, looked up to my father, pulled him in when he was, when he had problems and he was in my house, you know, like, before I went to Switzerland to school and stuff like that. and he was just a bad influence

and, you know, he was like, you know, he made me go against my father. He was like, go get your fucking money. Tell your father you want your shit. Don't let your father, you know. And I thought the grass was greener on the other side. Right. And family's always the best.

You know, they always have the best intentions, but I didn't understand that back then because I was a kid during heist and I'm thinking that, hey, I brought you this money. You know, I brought you this money. you these millions. I mean, it's millions of dollars because if you resell it, you know, imagine, you know, we're getting full fucking retail for this shit. Right. So it's not like, you know, you understand what I'm saying? We're paying, I'm paying the criminals that are

working with me. I'm giving them peanuts. You know, they're getting 20, 30,000, 50,000, you know, whatever. But we're, we're making all the money. So all the highest have been happening that we're going on, like it all goes to my dad, it goes to us and we sell it all. But, Um, yeah, that my first ice was exciting that it's enough to, to do one movie, just from that one hike, you know. Um, so I had a lot of like beef with my dad. Me and my dad were, you know, bumping heads, man, you know. Um, so what happened with this guy that you said you went off with when you were roughly 17, 18 years old? You, what were you guys doing? Same thing or smaller heist? Like, how were those working? No, we were doing, we were stealing hikes for my dad and like,

We were scumbags, yeah. We were fucking, like, like, you were bad, really bad. Like, we were the bad version of what things were going on because we, you know, we used guns. We, you know, this guy would hurt people. He used violence. You know, he was just a bad character.

And I didn't know what I was getting myself involved because I was a young kid, you know? Yeah, 17, man. You know, I just turned 16, 16, 17, yeah, yeah, 17, 18, yeah. You know, he was like, you know, like, you remember I told you I didn't do drugs or anything until I was like, 23.

Right. He was heavily in drugs. He was involved with cocaine with stuff. I can see everything, but I never did it, you know? And he was just a bad influence, you know, a bad influence on it. So, you know, I started, I left my family. I left my dad.

I left to be with this fucking person, right? And we're running around doing scores and robbing drug dealers and all the scumbag shit. Like he was a scumbag criminal. He was nobody. My father made him into somebody, you know? So he was a purse-natcher from California. you know what i mean you know in and out of la county jail and stuff like you could imagine you know thug you know so my father kicked them out the crew and it was bad it was bad because he didn't

like that you know my father threw him out like a piece of garbage that he was you know and he didn't have any respect he didn't have any respect for us so how long did that go on before you went kind of got back in with your with your dad's crew not long I got, yeah, not long, not long at all. He had disappeared on us, this guy, because everybody was looking for him. Everybody wanted to fucking whack him. You know, they wanted to fucking kill this guy. He was so bad.

Not just me. It was everybody, you know. So he was like a ghost. He would come in town, do a heist, leave again. But what happened is he kidnapped me. He kidnapped me. I did a heist with these two other kids, these two other guys I put down. And he walked in the door when we were, when we were splitting the

goods. I couldn't believe it. You know, it was like, yeah, it was like a movie, you know, but, oh, before that, he punches me in the face. I forgot to tell you this shit. Holy fuck. Before that, here, this is the big fallout. He says, I want your son to come to Panarella's

restaurant. He tells my father, my father's like, why? Because your son robbed me. He said that I robbed him. A truck full of silver. But what he did was he actually robbed. my father and his friend Radoz in New Jersey

and he went he knew that this guy was in Europe but in the guy's what is it called garage was was was like a million and a half dollars worth of silver coins I mean you need a truck

you need a whole truck a van to move all this shit it was this coin heist that we just did all silver coins morgans you know you know I'm talking about silver American American Americana coins like the big you know So it was a whole

This guy's cut He had my father's cut His cut and like three cuts there Three parts right So Momo this bad guy He learned about Where this was stashed

He knew that he was in Europe And he knew that his girlfriend Was there alone So what he does He comes there with a bunch of Albanian guys With a truck With a truck right With a white truck

A big white pack wagon Like a big No big truck And he goes to the wife And he scares the shit out of it, says, Hey, Mr. Stan got busted by the FBI. Everybody's in jail. They're going to look for your husband.

I came here to get the shit out the garage. He knew. He knew to say that. And she immediately opened the garage. And he fucking took all the fucking million and a half dollars worth of silver. My father doesn't know this. Rados doesn't know.

Nobody fucking knows. And he calls my father back saying that I stole. stole the silver from him that he stole. But the life knew he did it, right? Yeah, she said, Moma came here and picked up the silver, but my father thought that I was involved. Oh, okay. He put my name in it, like I was involved because he said, your son stole it.

He was my partner. He told me about this. And I screwed him and it was just not true. You know, he just used my name. So he was like, I want to see his son in Ponorellas. Of course, I'm going to come. And so when I came there, but what he did was, he didn't want to pay those, those three Albanian guys that he was with.

So he had He had somebody steal the truck Like they sat down to a restaurant At a restaurant Montezuma And the truck was parked Like where you can see it But you can't run to it Because it's too far, right?

Right And there was this guy with a hat, right? In the hoodie or whatever that got in And just drove away And they were like, oh, who's fucking driving away With the truck? And they're like, it's fucking punch. Motherfucker, it's punched.

So Mama was saying it's me. So now I drove away With a million and a half dollars With a silver and these Albanians need their cut. You know, bad Albanians. Albanians are bad fucking, they're like murderers, you know, so you don't want to have any parts with these guys.

Right. So remember, Momo is a persona non-grata. He has no ground to walk on. So he's using all the bad elements in New York, all these bad people to attach himself to because of who he was and who he ran with. And he's like, yeah, I'll get you paid. Just come with me, hold me, you know, back me up, you know?

So the Albanians were his backup. You know, they paid for the truck. They paid for the rental. They paid for this because this guy's a scumbag. And he organized it like I did it. You know, he always blamed somebody out. He was very McAvellian, very McAvelian. And he would do anything to get revenge on my father, on me, or whatever.

So he calls me to the restaurant, and I'm over there with the homes guys, with these guys that I have from home security, which is very important. And they drive me there, and they drive me off. And Momo sees me there and the three Albanians. And he has a rolled-up newspaper like this, you know, like a sword-off shotgun. You know, like, he had like, you know, one of those Mad Max shotguns, right? Sort of. And, and he had that in there, and he, like, he sees me.

And no, no, not yet. As soon as he sees me, soon as I come on, he's, hey, he punch, how are you? And he punching me right in the fucking nose, right? Right, right here. Like, my lip. Like, right in front of everybody. This is, you know, there's tables outside, seats outside. This is a nice fucking restaurant.

This is between 84th and 85th on Columbus Avenue called Pondorellas. And there's people eating. spaghetti and linguine and fucking calumari and shit, right? And this guy just fucking punches me. Bam! Right in front of everybody. And I'm bleeding and my lips are cut and I'm like, what the fuck? And then he goes and gets the newspaper because I'm going to retaliate.

You know, I had a spider coat, you know, one of those knives, spider coat. And on my clip and I'm going to fucking get him now because he just fucking punched me out of nowhere, you know? And he immediately went for this newspaper thing rolled up like it's a fucking, you know, and I'm like, oh shit, he has a gun. you know I didn't have a gun on me I'm coming there for a meeting I'm not allowed to have a fucking weapon

right there with three fucking Albanians they jump up so I fucking you know maneuver and get the fuck up out of there I'm like why did the fuck did he punch me I don't know what the fuck is going on right this guy just punches me for no reason imagine I just meet you for the first time and I just fucking punch you right in the face

you're gonna be shocked you know and this guy this is what he uses he uses the element of surprise shock you know and I learned a lot from this fucking guy i learned a lot of bad things with him you know but um yeah so that's the last time i seen him until he walked in the door like three months later when i was doing the he and these guys they bring him there they bring my hand in me do you say they brought him here yeah they brought him to this place in new jersey where i was

dipping up like i just did a heist with these guys i put these guys on not knowing that in the background, Momo is planning to fucking get me. So they bring Momo, and I'm over there like, you know, fucking giving up the jewelry, the goods and everything, right? Right. Because we just pulled off

a heist that night. I'm in their place in New Jersey. I'm still having problems with my dad. You know what I mean? Because of Momo, I'm still like halfway here, halfway there, right? And and, and what happens is that, uh, yeah, these guys, nana, these two, uh, one guy's a karate dude, one guy's a boxer, right?

So I put these two guys down with me because they're strong, I need strong guys, you know? So, uh, I need strong guys to fucking lift bags, you know, jewelry, you know, to take with, you know, the stronger the guy, the more money I take, basically. I don't need a weak fucking guy because what he's going to take, you know? You know, fill his pockets, you know, I need guys that can fucking, you know, I need steroid fucking guys. I need guys that can fucking live like a fucking, you know, like

gonties, like, you know, that can carry a load, you know? Inhous, Anheuser-Bush horses, Clydesdales, that's what I need. Fucking Belgian horses. That's what I hire. Belgian horses only. And,

so these guys were the top of the cream. These guys are athletes. You know, they're fucking six foot two, six foot four. They're strong as fuck, you know, and I don't need anybody else. I said, I got my fucking crew. These two guys right here, you know?

One guy's a martial arts expert, the other guys are fucking boxer, right? And I'm over there. And I'm there with one of the guys, right? And this other guy, he walks in with like lunch and Momo. And I'm like,

what the fuck? The last time he punched me in the face, right? He wanted to kill me. And he's blaming me, you know, to my dad that I'm doing all this shit and it's him. And Momo sees me, and he's like, Hey, don't worry, I'm sorry, I punched you.

I had to do that because the guy had to put a show on. I don't want to fucking pay down, you know, I apologize. I didn't hit you too hard, did I? Well, that makes it okay. Yeah, and I'm like, and he's laughing, and he's like, come on, I love you. You're my brother. And he hugs me. He hugs me.

And me, he puts my guard down, and these guys are laughing. And when Mama hugs me, he puts me in a yoke and chokes me to fuck out. And these guys are duct-taping me and putting handcuffs on me. And they're laying plastic out on the fucking floor. Why? They're ready to fucking kill me. They're ready to trap me to fuck up. They got hacksawls out.

They got fucking, because now, Momo and these two fucking guys that I thought that I thought they were going to be my fucking dream team, right? Right. My MPs, Momo takes them and says, we're going to take this fucking guy and just get the jobs from him and we'll do the jobs because I have. all the keys. I had all the fucking keys

to 47th Street. You know, I broke away from my dad. I got my own shit. I got keys to my father's shit. I got keys

to everybody's shit. You know? Not good. So now, so now he, he duct tapes me, he fucking,

you know, he drugs me up, he fucking, it's crazy. It's crazy. And he says, you're going to die. They're going to find you

like a dead junkie in the Hudson River. They're going to find me in the Hudson River. like with needles and shit at me. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And, and, and, and, and, and then, and Mr. Stan's son

is going to be a junkie fucking motherfucker, you know, just really like, you're dead. That's it. This is your life.

You're dead. I'm gonna fucking, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna gut you, like a fucking, like a, like a fish.

And, and this guy, I seen him do shit, that stuff, you know, so, you know, I know what he's capable. Right.

You know, 100% what he's capable. And, that's not one of the that's not one of the people I wanted to see ever he's the last person he's like the devil

to me so this guy you know he's yoking me up I can't do anything I'm fucking losing consciousness you know I can't fight back so I got two I told you one guy's a boxer professional

one guy's a professional martial artist these guys are not regular guy I'm much older now by the way I'm much older now this is like you know 20 something now okay okay yeah so you're not still 17

this has been Yeah, no, no, I'm like 21, 22. Yeah, I'm already like, yeah, I'm already doing my own thing. You know, like, I'm like, no, I'm sorry, I'm like 21, 21 or 21, something like that. So he walks in, he yokes me up. I'm about to die. He had me for three days, for three days there until I got loose because I got loose because, you know, they duct tape me, you know, the sweat, you know, from your body. Right.

Got the duct tape loose, you know, after three days. And I uncucked myself, thank God, because I know about cuffs and I had a paper clip, not a paper clip, a bobby pin or whatever. and I was reversed and that's how I learned how to pick blocks behind my back because it was fucking just I got out thank God miraculously I was saved and I broke out I didn't even go out through the front window I went out to do I'm through the front door I went out to the window everything was locked double locked you know and I finally got out of there I called my mom they had my rental they were driving around my rental car and I escaped and I went right to my mom's a Long Island house I met her on 47th Street and I went to home to get a gun to get a 357 magnum to go kill him. Right. And I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I don't want to give me the gun. I'm like, give me a gun, give me a gun, give me a gun. I got the gun. And I got the gun and I go and wait for him, because he's about to do father's, uh, he's about to do a heist on my father's office on our office. I don't know which one. We have six offices. So I don't know which one, but I go to the one where we have, you know, I know, I know, it's more. I know, you more than a million dollars in the safe, right? Right. And, uh, but there's another safe that we have in another office that has even more money. So I don't know which one he's going to choose, but I'm there on 40th century and I'm waiting

and I'm waiting and I was going to fucking, I was going to do something that I never did before. You know, I was going to kill him in. You know, as soon as I see him, I didn't give a fuck. I was already, I had a plan. I was going to pull the trigger as soon as I see him and just fucking pop them right there. And whoever's with him and whoever's with him. He just had me kidnapped for three days. He was injecting me with drugs

He, you know And he's saying he's going to kill you, right? He was also saying he was going to dump your body Yeah, he was going to pull my teeth down With ply, he was going to torture me He was going to cut my toes off He was going to, oh my God, crazy shit, crazy shit So the stuff that I went through

And these guys are laughing You know, I was dating one of his girlfriends One of the guy's girlfriends Or one of the girls that he thought he could date Whatever, Katarina, that's the daughter of Nicola Rebecca And this guy, he was kicking me in the head And everything

guy, I made him money. This guy asked me, you know, please help us make money. And I was like, all right, come on. And I said, just listen to me. Just listen to what I, you know, and the reason why they did it, because they said I took two cuts. Yeah, I took two fucking cuts. One's for my mom and once for me. Right.

My mom is the one that gave me the job. They didn't like that. They didn't like that. They didn't like that. So, Mom said, oh, no, he's going to rob you. You know, they brainwashed these guys. So on the end of the day, they, Momor robs them also. You know, when I come out of jail, they're begging for me to forgive them for what they did.

You know, that's part two book. Okay, well, when you get out of jail, you said you went and got a gun. What happened? Oh, well, yeah, I got arrested. I get arrested, but not for a body or anything like that. I got arrested because I went after that. I couldn't find him. I was there for a couple hours.

I don't know. I missed him. I did not see him. You know, it was a miss. and I went up town to get some money to collect some money that was old to me and I get arrested with the gun so I have a gunshot

I'm in Rikers Island okay you know and how long were you in jail and maybe just like three days or something like that three four days you know until they found out and I got billed out or whatever because that was on an alias

was I on a yes I was an alias so I had a gun charge with an alias and you know that's serious in new york in manhattan if you have a gun uh it's a felony and it's a violent felony uh this gun was defaced the serial numbers were we're we're off and uh yeah so like you know uh i got i got i got a charge you know uh and that's you know a gun charge so that's one of the the cases that popped up later when i was doing time this gun charge you know it prevented me from doing the shot camp that 50 cent did, you know, yeah. So this is what threw me out. He was getting thrown out the same day I was getting thrown out for the gun,

but he had a pistol, a cap pistol. So he was a lot to do to program. Me, they sent me to big boy prison, you know, so I go to Attica. They'd send me to Attica, you know, we're one to three. But so what, what happened after you got arrested, you got out, the guy still, what was his name? Moma. What was his name? Momo. Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo. He's still out there. Like, what happens with that? Do you go talk to your dad? Do you... Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, of course, everybody's retaliating. He disappears again. Everybody's looking for, you know, so yeah, then I get arrested again. Like, you know, I start doing things. Oh, this is what happened. Then, miraculously, I meet

Carlos Medina, one of the security guards that I wanted to meet since I seen him because he's slow. You know, he's a little chunky. He walks slow. Like, you know, he's a perfect security guard for home security. And I meet him in a bar, in a blarney stone. I see him going into a bloneystone after work. And I'm over there and I'm flush with cash. I just did a heist last night. I got a Rolex with all diamonds and shit, presidential. And I meet him. I'm sitting next to him at the bar, and I'm like, hey, let me get your hyena. Let me get your beer. He's like, sure. You know, it's fucking starving this guy. But what happened? Oh, that night, that night, that night, I did a heist. Listen, oh no, the night, the night

or the night before, I think it was the night before that. And I tell him, I said I got it, I'll pay the cab, you know? So we had like three, four beers already. Okay, three four beers. I'm already fucking blasted because three beers, because three beers, because he's just knocking him back and everything. And I'm like, hey, uh, did you find

the stuff that I left for you? And he turns around. He's like, what? Like, yeah, I left a bunch of stuff on the floor for you. diamonds that were like fucking baboons did you pick them up and he turns around and I said and I even said the company I said Mr. Pearl and he said he turned on he said that's you and I said yeah he paused for a second and turned around and said oh my God I'm shaking he said I've been praying to God that I would meet the guys that do the heist on 47th Street he doesn't know who does them you know he sees that People are doing them, but he doesn't know who. And he would always find shit on the floor because stuff would drop, basically, you know, from the business. You know, it's messy. And, but it looks like I left it for them, basically.

So, you know, people are rushing to the scene. You have cops rushing to the scene. You have firefighters rushing to the scene. You have security guards rushing to the scene. Security guards are the only guys that have keys to the place. You know that, right? The cops can't get in. Commercial place.

ADT. They have the keys, only the security guards. So Carlos is the guy that has the keys that he needs to let the cops are. So if there's a burglary happening on the fifth floor, the first responder is Carlos. He has to come there with the keys to open the door for the police to go in. Remember, it's commercial, so it's very perfect. So I can get away because I'm in the backyard. You know, I'm going into another building from the backyard.

I'm not even on the street. Meanwhile, I have my father and other lookouts with walkie-talkies. telling me the security guards coming, the walk, you know, the cops coming, you know, the police are there, you know, they're letting me know what's happening. The SWAT team's coming. ESU, you know, emergency service unit, whatever it is. And, and I would, I would know, and to be quiet or to, you know, to hide or wherever the fuck it is that I need to do, you know. Um, so, so I would have eyes and ears, uh, always a walkie talkie, right? And always, you know, a guy with me, either one guy or two guys, you know, that's how I work. And these two guys, they would just come and give me tools,

you know, going to flashlight, give me the screwdriver, open the bag, you know, that's it. I do everything. You don't have to do shit. Matt, if you want to make a million dollars with me, we can do that very easily. All you got to do is just fucking come with me in 15 minutes with rich. Like, it's so easy. I'll do a break in and entering. I'll open the fucking safe. I'll take out the diamonds. And we split the shit. And that's it. You're fucking rich. I'm rich. You know, we go separate ways. Nobody knows nothing. They're never going to catch this because I disconnect alarms. You know, I do a runaway. I don't have to disconnect alarms. I can play games with them. I'll take a slingshot and break the windows. That's what we used to do in Manhattan. I break

the window or fucking Sacks Fifth Avenue. What do they have to do? They have to send a home security guard to stay there until they put out of board. If not, it's going to get looted. So that's one guard out of a commission. I would do that three, four times. Now, all the guards are out. So I would break into the home security office, go on a computer while they're all out. They have their gun racked there. They got their computer. Why would I go there?

Because I'm there with the manager of home security. He knows all the fucking codes. You know, he's a dispatcher. So he would log in and shut off fucking alarms. Like a list of 10 of them for next month. For the next month. 30 days from tonight. At Friday, 8 o'clock, this one is going down.

And what do you do? You just pay him? No, no, he's part of the crew. He's part of the crew, weren't you? This is one of the guys that I was working with. He's a guy that I brought to my father. My father never hooked up with these guys because my father's not American. You know, I'm American.

I'm born here. My father's born in the kingdom of Yugoslavia. You understand what I mean? Yeah. He speaks with an accent. He could never connect with these guys. you know, they would never be a connection like that. Me, I was the nucleus that made it all happen

because I brought a fucking home security guard to my father. You know, and that was the biggest gift that I brought him. And that caused us to disconnect alarms, to have information, to get keys, to duplicate keys, and to pillage. And we did what we wanted to on 47th Street. We're the kings of 47th Street. not only that we had a safe guy the guy that creates vaults and safes on 47 street

if you're going to make a safe or a vault you're going to buy from him so he's able to he's able to um he's able to basically what get into the safes or he has the keys he has a combination like you would give me the schematics the schematics on how to open the save okay he's the guy if you If it's a combination, you hire him. He would open it for you. Okay. The best safe craftsman in the world was with us. And he's Albanian.

We're all familiar with Albanians when it comes to crime, right? They're prolific. You know, whatever they do, they're prolific. Me, I come from a Serbian background. Whatever they do, they're prolific. I mean, just look at Novak Djokovic, the tennis player. That's called Enok. That's what my father does.

Just look at the basketball player from the Nuggets. Nikola Yokic, he's the MVP. He's Serbian. He's from my country. He's from my town. That's what he has. Enough. So just picture guys like that on my crew.

So. I got boxers. I got wrestlers. I got karate guys. I got guys that are athletes, gymnasts, guys that are physically, I got ex-military guys. Ex-military. Now I got 100. ex-military guys that were in military and they know when when I tell them that I need

this this and this done I can shout at them and scream at them and they got it they program that they're not going to fuck it up they know what to do so what this was perfect it was a perfect storm what is what was the most audacious one that you pulled off the one that I did and I left like 15 million dollars in cash 20 million 23 million dollars in cash so shit front page page on the paper. It said, stupid burglars leave, take one million, two million, leave 13 or 23 million behind or something like that. 1993.

We robbed 55 exchange, the world's largest exchange. I'm going to give you two stories. Yeah. How did you get in? How did you get into that one? How did you come across that job? Okay. This one guy gave us this job, the guy that does the safes.

Okay. He went to them and he was like, you need to upgrade. you need to upgrade your vault. And he went to a bunch of times. And they said they were going to do it. They didn't do it. They were going to do it. They didn't do it.

So in the end, they didn't do it. Okay? There was a bunch of bullshit that was happening. And he was very mad. And he comes to me and my dad with the schematics, which is a file. He was like,

you'll go check these guys out. They have some fucking big jewelry. They're always in and out. They're always doing something. You know? So I was like, all right, fine. this was funny.

You're going to fucking love this, Matt. Matt, wake up. This is going to be fucking amazing. Listen to this shit. Right across the street, right across the street from this place, the FBI was watching them for three months. They were recording them for three months. And the FBI has the recording of me going to the front of the building because I'm on,

this is the seventh floor. So there's a ledge on the building. So I got to the ledge from the back and I'm on the front of the building. It's front of 47th Street. I'm walking in, open the window. and I get into the window of this place. This is a huge place. It's like 3,000 square feet.

And I find money bags, but wait, I didn't know there were money bags because I didn't take them. Obviously, if I knew there were money bags, I would took them, took them, right? But what we do is me and this other guy, Edo, we opened two safes back to back. We took $1.5 million each.

It's $3 million in diamonds and sapphires and jewel. It's fucking amazing. I mean, I was so happy. I couldn't believe it. But when I went to go look at the place, I went into one of the rooms and there was these money bags, these draft bags, right? draft bags, like U.S. mail bags, big ones. Yeah, yeah. Each one had $5 million in cash.

Colombian drug lords were laundering their money through these Macedo Jews. They all get arrested the next day. The next day, 13, 14 people get arrested. They all get taken out in handcuffs or Hasidics, Hasidics. okay and in the papers they were laundering money for the cold and drug dealers

so this is money there was like $23 million there that we left behind that the feds took that I didn't know imagine I took one of those bags and I went there and I kicked it I was like what the fuck is this shit

I'm kicking these bags and the reason why I went into the room because I had to use the torch the oxyacetamine well that's a manufacturing firm so they have their own bottles you know the big bottles of oxyacetylene oxygen bottles

and I would just put my gear on it so I dragged it out of that room you know because my shit ran out I had a little arc kit you know with a little bit in it you know

and the shit fucking ran out so I needed so I had to do is put my gear on to their fucking oxyacetylidling you know for the porch because I opened a safe

with a torch and I had to cut a hole with a porch first and then then I had a healthy nail gun with attachment that I shot

and it broke the inside Tumblr and it opened a stake. It was genius. This is the type of safe that I opened them in there. But look, I did this fast, man, and they didn't have alarms for some reason. Or I found out that their alarm situation was not working, you know, like it wasn't responding. Because I tried them again. Like, I tried something. I tried a window.

I tried something a couple of days before that. And it didn't go off. Like, it didn't register, you know. I tried to send a zone one. our zone two to the company to home security to see if they got it but home security told me they're not even in the in the registry meaning they didn't pay their bill for months so something is going on so i do the job with edel i open one safe this way he opens the safe this way we're fucking happy as fuck i'm fucking celebrating but uh and the way we left is through another way we went

through the back fire escape okay interior fire escape of the building and that's how i got you know to my office but I went in through the front. So the feds clearly see us going in. And they have a camera pointing because there's a hotel. And they have a hotel room for two months watching these people. They're investigating them for fucking finish shit. And they have to arrest them all of them because why we did a burglary.

So, you know, they had to come in. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like they didn't want to fucking arrest them. They arrested them all. And I didn't know this because I'm now hiding in my, now watch what happens. Me and Edo is just two of us. two of us and like two three guys on the street and I'm in my office now

what I used to do is I used to lock myself in the office because it's nighttime right three four o'clock at night and I have to wait for like eight nine o'clock for people to start moving you know so I can come out normal and look normal I don't want to be out there at three o'clock in the morning because I'm going to be the only one there right

so now so I'm there with my fucking we're going through the shit and I'm like oh my god we got so much fucking money this is a huge fucking score this is amazing holy fuck like we did it I'm going through these pieces I'm looking at everything I'm like yeah this is worth 7,500 this is worth 15,000 this is worth 15,000

this is worth $27,000 and then we're just adding it up and I'm like we did very good we did very good and he's happy because I know the value of stuff you know he doesn't you know because he's not in the business like I was so so I'm telling him hey man we made we made a lot of money here

you know we have to split at five ways me my dad the guy that gave us the job you know and lookouts and stuff, right? So now, we're there, and my father calls me in the morning, like, like, 9 o'clock, 8, 8.30, he's like, he's bringing coffee, right? And he's like, he's like, do not come outside. What the fuck did you do?

Who the fuck did you kill? I mean, what are you talking about? He says, the place is crawling with feds. I said, what do you mean? He's like, just don't, just stay there. Just stay there. I'll bring you lunch. I'll bring you food.

So we're not going anywhere. The guy that gave us the job comes there. He's like, what? the fuck happened what happened what's going on the feds are everywhere i mean they're crawling they take these people out in handcuffs women uh old lady uh guys old men were hecithics you know the no yeah curls too people yeah 12 13 people get arrested like this they took out uh all those bags of money all those bags of money this was a front page 23 million dollars that i left behind okay in my father found out it came out in the second late edition the late edition paper

it was afternoon they did another printout not the morning this the afternoon edition right and my father comes there and he hits me in the head he's like you didn't look in the bag you you fucking idiot you know and he hits me with the paper and he's like look stupid burglars leave $23 million behind I don't know if it was 23 or 15 I just can't remember the fucking number if it was 23 or 15, but it was like, it was up there. I don't know how the paper labeled it, but that's a, that was a front paper that, that stands out. Same building, same building. I did another job.

And this person that allegedly, well, the only person that lived in this area with his son, uh, got killed by his son. And the guy did some drugs, LSD or something. he went on in the street naked but what he did was he killed the cat he killed the father i think he cut the the father's head off and he threw it out the window where we were working well we were doing a job there that's murphy's law me and jamie shaffer this olympian that worked at the whiskey bar for uh for for that's why i met him at the whiskey bar he worked for for Randy Gerber and Paul Montana.

And he was the host. He was six foot six, six foot seven. He was an Olympic rower for a Canadian rowing team. He has a silver medal. Okay, so I now have an Olympian on my crew. And we're about to do, we're about to pull off this most amazing highest also given to us by the same guy, okay, that does the safes, right? And this is, uh, yeah, 55th street between, uh, fifth and, 6th Avenue and we get arrested by homicide.

I get arrested by homicide division because they went out there to find the head and they see us to jerkoffs opening a fucking vault on the ceiling of, I mean, on the, on the, on the, I call it, on the roof going into, we already, we're in, we're in the vault. Right. And we, all I did is make the hole, right, cut the hole. And, and I'm going to go and get two other. guys to come in to help me because it's a lot of fucking that we had the we just opened the vault for the whole entire 55 exchange the world's largest exchange not the world's large

listen to this the world's largest jewelry exchange in the world we just opened the vault for the world's largest jewelry exchange and you get arrested by homicide I'm getting by homicide by homicide because there was a this guy the only guy that lives there lost his fucking shit and killed his dad and threw the head out the window and the homicide detectives are coming in there to fucking retrieve the head. And they fucking bust us. And I had the article for you. It says head, cat, and bird, found dead in the backyard, burglars get arrested.

It was a crazy fucking story. But that's that Murphy's law that I was telling you about. And the reason why, because I was too cocky, I had an ego problem, you know, edging got out when you think you're like God because you're doing all these things. Remember, I could open a safe like that. so you have a hundred million dollars and not safe it's not safe for a guy like me you know what i mean right and and that's how i felt i felt like you know i was one of these guys that the same guys that that that that have like 150 000 bitcoins you know today you know they they feel like

you can do whatever they want because they did something in your life they bought it cheap you know they got it for for pennies you know and uh and that's how i felt like i felt like um this little king of New York, you know, that I used to do whatever I wanted to do because I had the diamonds, I had the goods. I made the money. I made things move. What did the homicide detectives say? They fucking couldn't believe it. Like, they, you know, they just, they just could not believe that we were fucking doing a fucking heist during this murder. Now, like, what, you guys didn't see us? And the, and the thing is that, because I said I was, I had an ego problem, I had to go get another walkie talkie but I was lazy my father said you better have that walkie talking

because that covers that 6th Avenue street that lookout and I forgot to get it it was in charged like I didn't charge it or something so it wasn't working a Motorola you have to charge it right right and I didn't have eyes on that on that side so I didn't know that these guys were fucking there and and I thought you see because I was there with Jamie get james shafid the Olympian and we just we just fucking completed a hole on the roof of this exchange right and we're inside the fucking ball. All we've got to do now is get the stuff is go there, you know,

go inside the vault and grab the shit and, right? And I see that, I have one of those, you know, the battery packs with the light on it? The battery, like a big, big 12-bolt, 13-ball, I don't know what it's like a big battery pack with a spotlight. I have that shining into the hole.

And I turn around and I see somebody pop their fucking head out from behind the air conditioning. Like this, you know, like, I'm like, what the fuck? That scared the shit out of me. I'm like, you know, somebody's playing games. I'm thinking it's one of my father's friends playing games with me.

I'm thinking it's Zoran, you know. And it wasn't a fucking 13 cops jump up. 13 cops, man. One here, dude. I mean, they had fucking, like, it was an assault team. It was a homicide division. You know, I'm sorry, emergency service unit is the SWAT team. Okay.

So when I got arrested by the SWAT team, I got beat up by them, really bad. I thought I was going to die back there, you know. And my friend, Jane Schaefer, the Olympian, he got attacked by the dog. and he gets a flashlight, a maglight in his back. They broke his vertebrae or some shit. They messed them up, man. You know, they really messed them up. And I thought, yeah, they pulled us up by our ears and they threw us over a fucking ledge.

And I thought we were going to die. These guys were not playing games with us, you know? And not friendly at all, not friendly at all. But you ever get arrested by violent cops? No. But you've seen it, right? You've seen people. Yes.

Yeah, you're lucky, man. Yeah. So I got my ass handed to me by them. But my friend got worse, because he got a sick by, you know, you got to touch by a dog. And that's, those are two highlight stories that I got to tell you because, you know, one is a murder mystery, right? You know, while we're doing one of the biggest jobs in history, right, a multi-million dollar job. And the other one was something that we left behind, you know, millions of dollars in cash that belong to the cartel, right?

Right. And I could have tucked this shit. I was kicking. I was like, what the fuck? What is this dirty line? like who the fuck brings this in the fucking like what do i i didn't understand what it was just imagine you seeing 14 15 bags you know huge you know those big u.s nail bags with with the you know sealed like you know they had to goop around it you know and and you know what the fuck it was

i was kicking it how do you i never would suspect it was cash how do you ultimately get uh get caught this top major case squad he came to my office and caught me um when i did one of the this is how he caught me uh i used to wear i wore blackface to look dark right to change my appearance and when i broke into home security with with munchy with my partner i had a detona diesel vest a lot of best extensive vest like you know detona diesel a racing it's a detona diesel florida and uh look like mickey rock or something would wear it you know one of those and i had that on

stupidly ego during the heist. And they had a video of that. The face, they can't tell because I have a hat, glasses, you know. I got dark, dark, I got black face on. You know, I look Spanish or black, right? I don't look like me. And, uh, and, and, and my partner, Monchy, he put on white face. You know, he changed his appearance like he's, you know, uh, anyway.

And he put a hat on and a wig, you know, so we look very different. Because we know we were going to be on video. We're going into, we're breaking into home security. You know, home security office on 585 Fifth Avenue, on 585 Fifth Avenue. And the way we did that, I told you, we get a fling shot and we break the windows. So all the security guards and dispatchers would have to leave, you know, to secure the fucking, you know, a place where we damaged on purpose so we can get in there. So that video damaged me because he's seen the Daytona, Florida, Diesel, Red,

had the red vest like it was black with gray and it had like red in the back and if you see it one time and you're a cop you're gonna fucking remember it and i walked past him on 47th street he was walking into my building into my building right in 45 west 47th street where my father's at upstairs he's walking it and i'm walking up and i bump into him and this is just by coincidence coincidence coincidence and i bump into him on the street right But he's there investigating us, basically. He's coming into, you know. And I bump into him, and he turns around.

Oh, no, he's leaving the building. I'm coming in the building. That's what it was. He was leaving our building. I'm coming in. I'm with money. I'm with money, Mike, one of my guys. Michael, Mike Jones.

The only guy, the only American, pure blood American guy that was on our crew, Mike Jones. He has like a German background. and he was he was down with me he was my guy and i'm walking in building and i tell mike i bump into him and i'm like mike that guy that's a cop i know him i'm telling him that's a fucking cop man those guys are cops and they left so they left so i go upstairs to my father and and to my mother no my mom's not there my father and some other and my yeah my father and me and i don't know who else and mike and i go up there and i tell my

dad, hey, I just bumped into fucking two cops. As soon as I'm saying that, they're fucking opening the door. They're breaking open in the fucking door. And they pull out the gun. You know, the little 38th special, the way they do it, and they pull out the badge. And I'm over there. I fucking, I turn white, I think almost, you know? My fucking heart went down to my ass, but I was like, what the fuck? I knew I was getting arrested. And you know,

that's the worst feeling, right? If you had plans that night, it was my girlfriend's birthday or whatever. Well, I was planning to do a heist, but after that, but after But, you know, so I had all these plans, and I'm like, holy shit, I'm going to fucking jail. And this guy arrest me, you know, and that's how I got caught by Major Case Squad, Joseph Keenan. And you couldn't Google this guy. This guy's a legend.

I mean, he only arrests people that do Pink Panther type shit, you know, crimes, you know, expensive paintings, you know, $12, $15 million artifacts and shit. Like, this guy's, he's pretty equal. Joe Keenan, Major Case Squad. this is one police plaza they have their own division they had a division for me they basically made a division just for us so what was one of their biggest ice in that right so he called you for just one of the burglaries no no i got a stackload of for everything they blame me for everything okay he wanted to put at least like 20 30 uh yeah ice on me so what happened

what what what do they say to you they come Oh, I was fighting. I was fighting. No, I was fighting. I had Ronald Rubenstein and Nick Carrasso, you know, and then, you know, I was fighting it. I was going to trial, you know, and I told you. I got a one to three for a bunch for like five, six of them put together, you know, and I copped out. I got to one to three. Actually, I wasn't supposed to do one to three. I was only supposed to do two months. Two months. But I did what you did, and I caught a charge while I was on probation. So I caught a, that gun charge. That gun charge? Right. When I just told you. That's the one. That's the one that that that was right in my case. It's from 89 to 94. I go to jail 94. Okay, so I was on a run the whole time.

So you took a plea. So you took a plea because I understand that we've spoken before, but people that are listening to this or watching this don't know what you got. Right. So you. My plea. Yeah. Right.

Go ahead. What was your? plea and how did it fall apart my plea yeah my plea was six months five years probation was ridiculous right okay great attorney six months i already had three months in with all that time that i had like going in and out so i only had to do like two months and i would have probably got a time cut yeah 60 days i would have been off county easy easy and i messed that up because momo kidnapped me and all this all the stuff and that's how I get that gun charge during while I'm on probation.

Yeah. For the cases, for Joe Keenan's case and all that, everything came together. And you went to that, what happened with the shock? The shock, well, that's, I went to jail. I went to jail in 94 and then I went to shock. And then the gun charge popped up. They took me out of shock.

And then, you know, I thought I was going to. Yeah, it was first, I'm sorry, six months, six months, five years probation, right? I messed that up with the gun charge that I caught while I was on on parole like during not parole probation waiting to do my trial the judge wasn't having it and she was like

look I have you out here on bail and you mess up again so now she took back the six months five years and gave me a one to three mandatory upstate meaning I have to go up north they're going to shave my head you know and I didn't want to do that who wants to go upstate

you know they shave your head do they do that everywhere or no No. Not, not in the beds. I mean, I've never been to state prison, so. Oh, you haven't visited this. Oh, you're lucky. You're lucky, lucky.

No. Of course, well, oh, you skated, man. You're lucky, man. You're so fucking lucky. You haven't seen the dungeons that I've been in, man. Holy crap. Well, we'll leave that for another day. But, yeah, they shave your head.

They delouse you. They do all that crap, you know, and they put you in downstate, from downstate. They reclassify you. And he sent me with 50 cents to shotgun. So I'm like, I still got it good. I'm still going to be out in six months. I do five months out of that, you know, and I'm going to be out in one month

and all of a sudden a gunshot pops up and now I have to do my time, my official one to three. During that time, feds came, got me, New Jersey came to pick me up. In New Jersey, I blew trial. I was going back and forth. I got six years in New Jersey

consecutive or concurrent. Concurrent with my time in New York. and the feds pick me up. And in the feds, I'm facing life because they have me for some arm trafficking. Sheriff laws, rockets, rocket laws, L-A-Ws, you know what that is? Rocket launchers.

Oh, rocket launchers. Yeah, a whole container with my fingerprints on it, which is bullshit for the war, because, you know, there's a war that started in Serbia, in Yugoslavia, and they said that I sent these from the proceeds from the, from the highest, that I was buying weapons and sending, that's their charge.

Just fucking crazy. So I got Robert Wolf, you know. That was my second lawyer, Robert Wolf. Robert S. Wolf is the best federal law you can get. You know who he is. Robert S. Wolf. Yeah. Very, very, very, very important.

I saved my life. Do you get the charges dropped from the feds or what? What, how does that work? Statue limitations. Oh, okay. I beat on statute limitations. They didn't have enough time to prosecute me on this. So that was good.

But I still caught another violent cutting in a note as well. I was facing 30 years for that because the guy was an informant, he got cut, and you know how that works. So, you know, I beat the case, and now I'm facing a cutting, a violent cutting in Augustville, you know, that happened in 1997. And in 1997, every mobster, everybody that was doing any kind of crime in New York on a large, large level was arrested in 1987. Giuliani had his reign in campaign, and he arrested everybody that was in the organized crime, gangs, drug gangs. that's when Rico started heavy how much time did you end up doing 16 years and five years for all so 21 years out of my life i go i gave it to the system 21 years when did you get out 16 inside 2010 2010 okay 2010 i finished parole 2015 i had a full supervision uh intense parole

supervision in New York, I transferred it immediately because there's no such thing as parole in Florida. They only have probation. So I was living the life here, man. Since 2010, oh my God. It was a dream. Like, it's another movie. That's another book. That's part four, basically. But you're going to love that part because I get big things. I did huge things. And I retired. I retired crying in 2012, 13. 2013, I was out of it. Like, I was still doing

crime while I was on parole. Right. I wasn't a goody, goody until like 2013. So 2013, so I've been 10 years, free of crime. Like nothing. I can cross the line. And what do you do now?

Today, I'm a visual artist, like the way you said, you chose your path when you came out. Right. But I sold my first painting for $4,000. Oh, yeah. Yeah. My painting would go for $4,000. I'm in a gallery.

Well, I'm a gallery artist, and thanks to a layer cake, New York. There's another guy that I'm going to introduce you to. His name is Layer Cake, New York. He's an artist, Sean Sullivan. He was also in the feds, Sean Burbich, good friend, brother, partner, you know. And he's the guy that got me in the gallery scene, you know, with the gallery people and stuff like that. So he's doing huge things. Yeah.

So Layer Cake, New York, on Instagram, you could find him. Me, Punch approved. you could find me you know and I'm an artist today I do murals I do freestyle art I'm a freestyle artist

so yeah I do exhibits I did a bunch of stuff in Dallas you know for the Mavericks for you know for like the stadium over there and yeah I love doing this

this is my speed I like anything I like to create I do that and I sell baseball cards, Metazoo cards and the sports collectibles and stuff like that.

You know, I'm living the life. I'm living the dream, man. I love it. Author of a book, you know? The next one's coming out. It's coming out at the end of the year. You know, movies coming. I mean, so much potential. I'm going to have a part in this

in this movie if this comes out. I'm going to be Tugentani. The character from Joe Pesci from Bufels. I'm going to be the real Tugentong. if I get the part. Well, I got the part. I just, if they do the movie, you see there's a lot of things happening in Hollywood right now that

are not, you know, the writers stuff that's happening. Yeah. Yeah. We're going back to the 70s again. It's going to be a lot of game shows and, you know, reality stuff. So it's going to be like that for a while, you know. But they're taking a lot of independent, a lot of

independent people, which is good. So another person I want to connect you with is Steve Daniels, a former cop. A former cop that was a Chippendale dancer, a jiggleau, like a Chippendale. Right. The Shield, and what was it, Sex and the Shield. That's his story.

But he's a director and a producer. Sorry. Okay. This guy makes movies. He makes movies. You know, he makes movies and he's a phenomenal guy, man. He's another person I want to, I want you to put in your rollobecks of people that we choose to, listen, our platform is amazing.

You have an amazing platform. So I thank you for having me. guest. Thank you so much, but you're your sweetheart. I really like you a lot. Your voice, you're passionate, you're a movie star man. And I told you that I'm going to cast you in my, in my project. Did I say that? Yeah, you told me that. I want you to be a, yeah, I want to be a bartender or I'll be the door man, something, something. I'll be one of the security guards that will be walking around. Would you be a cop? Sure. Do you be a cop, make a great cop. I think, I think you'd be a great cop. No, seriously, because you have the

blue eyes and you got the hair, you got everything. You got the, you got, you got all the goods. But I want us to promote, listen, I want us to do our projects. I want us to promote each other. Our platforms are important. I think your voices, you're a beacon of light for everyone. And as I said, I commended you. You hit the ground running.

Me, I waited, I had to finish my parole because that's just how it was, but I was doing phenomenal on parole. I need to write a book on how to survive parole, you know, parole or things like that. This is something we need to do. but yeah so what did we get today we got the first heist right we got the two intense heists

that happened that stand out from the rest of the crowd you know that make it pretty unique you know and as I said this is something Hollywood loves to eat they love this type of stuff

you know especially elusive characters and guys that go through those doors that we're not supposed to go through so I just love our lives and I love that we fucked up our lives and we're not today. We're completely opposite of what we used to be. You know, like today, me, I just want to be a better version than I was yesterday.

And that's what I thrive every single day is just wake up, give thanks to God. And then I'm still alive and still here breathing because many of my cohorts, many of my people, many of my associates, they're no longer here, you know. I lost my father recently last year, you know. I lost maybe five, six good guys in the past of, yeah, five, six years, you know. And it's very hard on me because I'm like the last one left. So listen, I have a question for you. Yeah, Gerald Blanchard was a Canadian.

He was a Canadian that was, he was doing credit cards, but he was also breaking into, breaking into vaults, breaking into banks. and he actually I don't know where he was I mean I'm going to say he was in I don't know whatever it was like it was like a Belgium or something but it wasn't Belgium but it was one of these Eastern European

or you know European countries smaller countries and he was on vacation and he goes through he went through a museum now the museum was you know it was a former castle

because you know in Europe, a lot of the castles they've turned into museums. So he's going through the museum and they show an exhibit of the, it's called the cyst, I want to say diamond or something like that. It was this diamond, a huge diamond with a bunch of larger diamonds around it. It was like a pendant, right? And it was loaded onto a little spring that you're inside of a case. Well, he sees it and he think, man, that.

That would be, like he immediately looked at it and said the only thing that the only alarm system is obviously it's a spring. You could tell it was on a, like if you moved it, it would spring up and it set the alarm. And it's something that was put together probably in the 1970s or 80s. And he thought, I'll bet you I could steal that. And he's on vacation. So he goes out and he finds someone. Now, he also is a skydiver. you know, one of the things he does.

Because as I'm sure you know, you know, crime is not. What? Go ahead. No, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Crime is not a full-time job. So, you know, it doesn't take 40, 50 hours a week. So you usually have other stuff you're doing, right?

Like, you know, I'm committing bank fraud, but I'm also doing sculptors and painting. You know, this guy, you know, I'm working out. Like, I have plenty of time on my hand. So he also skydives. But what he does is he gets a pilot to take him out in the middle of the night, drop him over the museum he parachutes down in the middle of the night lands on the top of the museum

goes in the side window super glues the little thing the little spring mechanism super glues it takes the diamond replaces it with a replica that he bought in the in the gift shop downstairs

it takes them about three or four days before they even realize that it's been stolen. They find the parachute that he used in a garbage can across a street. And it was several years later when he gets busted for something else in Canada. He was breaking into a bank at night. And even his bank jobs were ingenious. He would find banks that were being built.

He would go in before the alarm systems were set. He would cut in all of these fake holes and things. And then the night before they went live, he would go in through the ventilation system and take all of the motion detectors. And he would black out sections of the motion detectors so he could drop through the roof and walk through the lobby to the back of the ATM machines. He had already ordered duplicate keys of the ATM machines using the, using the serial numbers. Because they weren't loaded so they're not locked. So if you go in before the bank, all the alarm system were set, he could get the codes, order the keys, and just wait.

So he drops down, he would open up the backs of all the, all the ATM machines and pull all the money out, you know, whatever it was, 50 or 100,000, 200,000. The back on, yeah, sure, sure. Oh, they're loaded. Right. So he gets caught for that one day because the cops know he's doing something and they're following him.

And one day they follow him there and they arrest him. When they arrest them, they're like, yeah, you're looking at like 10 years. and he says, what if I could solve a mystery in another country? They're like, what do you mean? Like, what if I could tell you where this diamond was? And he actually had stolen the diamond, had taken it, and it was in his grandmother's basement hidden away. And he said, and he had done it knowing someday I may need this. Like, he didn't need the money.

So he ends up getting, he ends up getting like two years, two years in prison, but two years in prison for a nonviolent crime in Canada is basically you end up doing three months house arrest. And that was it. And then you're on probation. It's a slap and arrest. This is amazing. I'm not familiar with the story.

It's very much, for some reason, your story really reminds me of that story. Very cool. He's got these. Can you say the guy's name is again? His name was... Art of the Steel. I know the... Gerald Blancher.

Yeah. I was... It's one of those movies... One of those stories that when you read the article, the whole time, all I could think of is this has to be a movie. And it's the same thing with your... The whole time you're explaining this, it's like, this has to be a movie. Yeah, it's something that if I could tell you, like, authors, any author that, that here's a story, I mean, it's very hard to explain in one hour. I mean, we have 50.

years worth of, you know, heist and stories like this. It's not just one. Most people only have one heist or two heist and they make a movie or a book about it, you know, which is okay. Me, I did this day in, day out. This is my full-time job. I woke up in the morning doing a heist and I went to sleep doing heist. And it doesn't matter if I was in jail for all these years, even the three years that I was out, I did more in my three years than people were doing their lifetime because I worked every day. And people can understand how I did that many, you know, because you're like how many, I did, I've lost count. Okay.

It's something that I love to do. It's something that was done when, when, when, when, when, you know, from wake up tonight and then the planning of what my week was going to look like, you know, this was, this was a phenomenal time. And it just, it's a small period of my life because I did get arrested. Other people weren't in jail. They didn't get arrested, you know, and they got lazy. me. I had to do the time. And then that time that, okay, my bid was broken up twice,

two bids, the first one I did seven years out of that one to three. Okay. And I came home to no parole. And that's when I really turned it up with everything, not just burglaries, credit card fraud and selling of narcotics and all that other stuff. Like, you know, anything to make money. I got involved. I was enthralled and trenched into that lifestyle. that's part two of the book hey i appreciate you guys checking out the interview and if you are interested in punches books or any of his uh social media accounts i'm going to leave them in the description box so check them out and i really do appreciate you guys appreciate you guys uh watching watching the interview thanks for watching the channel do me a favor hit the subscribe button

hit the bell so you get notified. Leave me a comment in the comments section. And also share the video with your friends and family. That really does help. I really do appreciate it. Also, I have a Patreon account. I would appreciate it if anybody interested in supporting the channel wants to join. It's like 10 bucks a month. That's not a lot of money. Anyway, I really do appreciate you guys watching. Thank you very much. See you.