Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Inside Miami’s Nike Theft Ring (How It Really Works)

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Patrick Zottoli, a fast-money hustler behind a Miami Nike theft ring, spirals from fake IDs and pill trafficking to prison time, only to ultimately confront the consequences of his greed and begin turning his life around.⁣ ⁣ Patrick's links - ⁣ https://www.facebook.com/pat.zottoli/⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://www.insidetruecrimepodcast.com/apply-to-be-a-guest⁣ ⁣ Get 10% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. ⁣ ⁣ Go to GoodRanchers.com and use code INSIDE to get a free meat for life plus $100 off your first three orders.⁣ ⁣ Send me an email here: [e-mail]⁣ ⁣ Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content?⁣ Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime ⁣ ⁣ Check out my Dark Docs YouTube channel here -⁣ https://www.youtube.com/@DarkDocsMatthewCox⁣ ⁣ Follow me on all socials!⁣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/⁣ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart⁣ ⁣ Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox ⁣ ⁣ Check out my true crime books! ⁣ Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF⁣ Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM⁣ It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8⁣ Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G⁣ Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438⁣ The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K⁣ Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402⁣ Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1⁣ ⁣ Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!⁣ Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX⁣ ⁣ If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:⁣ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69⁣ Cashapp: $coxcon69 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe with WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. WestJet, where your story takes off. On June 18, 2023, Ocean Gates' Titan submersible imploded during an expedition dive to the Titanic, killing all five on board, including Ocean Gate founder and CEO Stockton Rush. numerous industry experts and employees from within Ocean Gate itself had warned rush of impending doom, citing safety concerns and a lack of testing.

His hubris, ego, and reckless desire for innovation over all else cost him his life and that of four others. The catastrophic destruction of the Titan submersible sent shockwaves through the ocean exploration industry that are still being felt today. The Ocean Gate Titan submersible, a preventable tragedy, a two-part series, a two-part series, is available now on shipwrecks and sea dogs. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Fraud is at an all-time high. There's a lot of guys, NBA, MLB, NFL. We have this great account with Nike,

but he dealt directly with DJ Khalid. My numbers are through the roof because I'm running his game. I was a freshman in college and my buddy. He was great with computers. We're like, what if we can make New York State IDs? What if we can find? a way to get him out there, like just for our crew. Right.

So I don't want to give anyone ideas that's listening. So we did what we had to do. He got the paper and, you know, there's a laminate cover over it. On the back is the barcode. So there was a program that literally was pretty easily accessible at the time. And you type in what the birthday it is, everything. And it rewrites the, yeah, it rewrites the magnet strip on the back. Correct.

And he figured out a way. way to put it all together i said all right i'll be the crash dummy so i use my favorite rapper who i'm not going to name his government name i put it on there birthday everything four of us go out we'll give it or give it a try right we went to the city you know we're we're nervous as shit you know i'm this i'm this gangster but i'm nervous about a freaking id and it we get right in scams and we're like holy shit so people start catching wind of it and then all of a sudden An idea gets sparked. And it's like, this is freshman year of college.

We had so many kids that we went to high school. Well, our grade, I had a few hundred kids. And they're all at great colleges because everyone's got money in that high school member. And everyone went to a pretty big college. All throughout the Northeast, it became people were calling. They're like, we hear you got good IDs. We were, you know, selling for 100 bucks. So we're undercutting the competition.

And I'm thinking, okay, this is the big ticket, you know. And at that point, I'm not thinking, oh, this is, you know, federal or this. I don't care. I'm just doing what I'm doing. It turns into, all right, hey, take a picture. Like, once again, I don't want to give anyone ideas, but, you know, they tell you to take a DMV. Take a picture in a certain way with a certain backdrop and send it over to us, email it, rip it. do what you got to do, do the process, and then get it going. So what started off as what was

just us had now become X amount of people over here that need X amount at one college in, let's say, Connecticut, and then you got kids that were Massachusetts, and you got Rodon, then you got, like, all over. And because New York ID at the time, like, if you had a New York idea and nobody really questioned you like this is when really i was like all right here's my chance to blow up and we do this for about six months and it just gets out of control so now i'm at the point where we're running routes and the money's starting to come in and we're like oh my god this is bigger than we can handle here these IDs are exploding on the scene everywhere calls are coming in nonstop.

It's just he's there like night and day. I'm going out. He just dropped out. I kept going. When I come back, I'm helping him all hours of the night. Plus we're selling bud, and the money started stacking up. So we progressively do this. I totally cut everything off, bring the money to Florida, get a job at Home Depot, as really what was my cover.

Would we come to be my cover job? get into an accident at Home Depot, lawnmower falls on me. Yeah. Lawnmower. So, so, and this is,

I could have sued the hell out of them. Okay. But, so listen, I'm going, you know the step ladders that they have? Yeah. For just the first rack where the chain is supposed,

where the chain is supposed to be. Yeah. Okay. So it's not secured. So I'm trying to take down this, this self-propelled mower. And the whole, like the ladder wasn't, positioned right and that thing's got to weigh about probably like 120 pounds give or take so it's

weighing like almost what i weigh like 30 pounds less than what i weigh at the time i'm pulling it down and like the ladder slides back i fall back the lawnmower falls on but now i get hurt at home depot so doctor prescribes me painkillers um a lower level pain killer i'm not really the type to go into territory with things that i don't know so i'm weary because at this point in time it was the beginning of what would become the Florida pill epidemic eventually

and I thought about it and I said you can sell these right you know why I don't need to you know take them I can sell them to get the job as a DJ I start working over there I'm hearing things in the

I'm hearing whispers. That's just when the doctor shopping and that stuff kind of started. So I've been introduced to a lower level, but then I find out I can be referred to pain management and get a higher level, a much more potent drug. Right. And I can get a large quantity of it. And then somebody tells me, you don't have to go to only one doctor. Right.

So I'm thinking, oh, now I can sell quantity. No, I can go to another. Okay. So I basically just now have made a deal with the devil. And I go to this one pain management clinic. And my insurance had covered everything for it. They go in. They write me.

Like, I know what I'm dealing with. I know what I'm getting. And it's large amounts of two painkillers and a benzodia. diazepine, fanics. And then I say, oh, well, I filled it at this pharmacy next door, which is affiliated with them. So I asked my buddy at the time, who now has passed away, I said, you know, I can go to another doctor, but like, where do I fill it? And he goes, this is, you can fill it anywhere you want. He goes, I go to a bunch of doctors. And my brother has a very, very good connection with a pharmacist in Fort Lauderdale.

So I'm in Palm Coast, North Florida, and this is South Florida, Fort Lauderdale. Right. Now I think in my head, all right. Now I can go to different doctors. I can go to his brother. I can get him for X amount. I can bring him back and I can double the amount. So like basically overnight, it had turned into doing everything that I was doing,

maintaining my life to maintain that image and then just like this inner beast comes out and now I want to be an alpha. So now I'm seeing multiple doctors a month and now I'm purchasing them in large quantities from South Florida when that point South Florida had its own kind of ring of cane clinics and then North Florida had its own ring and Orlando had its own ring. So I said, whoa, I got Palm Coast easy. Everybody in the town was on this drug at the time. And what about St. Augustine? And definitely Daytona.

And then, oh, wait, I'm now DJing. So I can use that as a platform to deal out of the club. And then I'm not going to do it myself. I'll just give one of the security guys, X, Y, and Z to hold and give him a cut. So now I start figuring out the system of routes. So I go back to the IDs and think about how I ran my routes and calculated everything and set something up that eventually what would become the route from South Florida to North Florida.

Now it extended to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, which is the bottom state. These are just the clinics that you're hitting? These are, no, this is, this is my buddy's brother that I'm hitting that's getting them because he's got like, he's got a pharmacist that he knows. Right. So I'll give you the example. I walk into the house the first time and the literal table this size has not the tanks of like a thousand. I'll just say that, but big bottles. The whole table is filled in them and the price was so low.

So I just found the plug. You know, I just found the connect. And I'm in. And I can still go to the doctors. Right. So I was like, jackpot. He's in Fort Lauderdale. But now we got to make this trip down there.

We're already making trips to places like, you know, the land, which is, you know, almost like kind of on its way to Orlando. And then Daytona, because, you know, you don't got, you know, six, eight doctors in Daytona Beach. You might have to go to Orlando for one or the land for one or San Augustine for whatever. As America turns 250 this year, it has me thinking about the people that really help build this country. Not the ones in history books. I'm talking about American ranchers. The men and women who wake up before the sun work long days and keep food on our tables year after year. That's exactly why I like good ranchers.

Good ranchers honors that legacy by only sourcing their meat from local American farmers and ranchers. Everything from the pasture to the final seal on the box is done right here in America. I'm actually a good rancher's subscriber myself. In fact, my wife and I had the chicken nuggets last night and they were amazing. And that's not the only thing they have. They have steak, chicken, seafood, and more. And all of it is amazing quality. If you want to support American ranchers and get great meat at the same time,

now's the time to try it. Subscribe today and get free meat plus $100 off your first three orders. That's $40 off your first. order and $30 off your next to. Just use my code inside. That's good ranchers.com American Meat delivered. So it was easier to just get him from his brother. And then, you know, we didn't like the ride, but we loved the money.

So we didn't care. It's three and a half hours down there. So we started taking that trip, what went to once a week and still running all around, you know, our circles with the doctors, what became like three times a week. week. And then the money started rolling in big, big, big time. So I got my car, got an S-500 Mercedes, $11,300 cash for Suzuki GSXR 750, went from the one friend's house that I was living at to moving in with him. So obviously that influence is just fantastic. You know, let's just make this thing go nuts. Yeah. Then a Toyota Avalon and a Pontiac Grand Prix because you need your, what we call

sliders, which are not hot cars. You don't want to drive my loud car that's, you know, super tinted out and you want to drive a Toyota Avalon. Right. Or you want to drive a Pontiac Grand Prix. Yeah. Keep a low profile. Low profile. So we're making these runs nonstop. Where are you selling these pills to? Everybody's doing them. Everybody's hooked on them. So I'm giving them to security. on credit. Right.

Or just for the night, you know, bringing X amount. But it was a lot. And the demand got to grow, go, go, where, grow. So security in the nightclub would be getting rid of them for me. Then I had in Palm Coast alone at least five guys that were taking large quantities. So, and then they went to street level. So I kind of just skipped the corner guy thing. Even the middle guy.

Now is the top guy. Right. So, you know, it's like I really climbed the ladder. super fast. And that's how that's how it started. And then what do you do? You get greedy. You want more money. That's all I saw at that time was money. That's when the beast was released. It was all about money. You know, no regard for the law, no regard for anything. You know, my record's good. You know, no one's ever going to pull me over. But, you know, I wound up getting pulled over by troopers. I got everything now because you're buying the same drug that's that's from this gentleman.

Yeah. And I already have prescriptions for it. Right. So I can carry as many bottles as I want. It's just, at that time, it was wide open. It was an endless supply. And now you start going to the clinic and you start to Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. The tags, their tags. The license plates.

Pillbillies. They call the hillbilly heroin up there. So now everybody in the country is coming to Florida. So it starts off as. what i said a north florida thing and to sum it up it spreads down now i got guys in orlando i'll give you i will give you a name blue martini um attached to the millennium mall yeah but well in the millennium marr yeah it was it was like where is that tampa no orlando oh okay yeah i was gonna say no more blue martini but you know you know i think there's blue martini

in the international mall on tampa so but anyway it's a chain anyway yes correct because there's one in west palm beach that just go down So one of my gigs, because now I'm DJing, so now I'm getting booked at different gigs. Right. So this is perfect. I'm going different places in state and then eventually what would be out of state. Building clientele. So now it's become like, I want to say national, like, because you're talking about people from the Ohio area.

You know, they can only get X amount. They're coming down for one doctor. Some of these people don't know any better criminally to shop. These people weren't thinking. They were just happy with their, you know, lower amount. Yeah. It was barely enough for their habit, you know. So they, they, okay, yeah, we're paying, you know, that we're getting them for X price.

Let's just say it was $15 and you're undercutting that by 33% and or even higher sometimes because we had such massive quantity and we were paying such a low price that we can set the price we wanted. But now we're controlling the market. And it's like it got out of control. So everything is just booming. Business is booming. You know, I have a gentleman who is still a police officer that more or less I knew what was going on. And at this time, it was the height of the pill epidemic. It was just no one was thinking to go outside of their town or their city.

I want to take over the country, you know, at this point. That's where that's where my head was at. Not think of any repercussions. So everything's going good. And then what starts to happen is people get really sloppy because these guys and girls from Virginia and all that and Tennessee. Now you got cops driving by and they see all these out of plate. There's lines down the block at the doctor and there's people getting thrown out by security. And now you got security in a doctor's office.

I mean, I don't ever see security in a doctor's office. only during that time. So it started to get out of control. And then what had happened was in 2009, it was Congress trying to push to integrate all the pharmacies together and they wanted to make it like one database. That way you can only go for one prescription and go for one, and that's it. So there's no more doctor shopping.

That's it. You guys lose out. we still had the pharmacy connect because it's my plugs buddy literally had owned the pharmacies. So that was still consistent. Even if we lost out on the couple doctors, we still were okay. All right. So that's that's all starting to happen. People are starting it's sloppy.

It gets really, really ugly. They're finding people in the cars passed out, this and that. And then that's when law enforcement starts to catch on during that time. So an add-a-character thing for me was to sell small quantities. So there's a kid not to be named. He's in prison still today, and he's actually a snitch that stole a bunch of stuff from my house

prior to, or I'm sorry, after what I'm about to tell you happen. The kid calls me and he goes, I got a friend I want you to meet who I had heard the name before, but I heard that she was like smoking harder drugs and, you know, she just wasn't a good girl to be around, but me not being on point like I normally am, I go, all right, what does she need?

And he's like four pills. And I'm like, dude, I don't do that. Like, that's a complete waste of my time. He's like, you're right here, though. Like, you can't do this for me as a favor? And I'm like, bro, like, come on. I'm like, I'll just give me. No, no, no, no.

Meet me over here. We are in a public's parking lot. lot and she comes in the car he's wearing like a train conductor hat and it later turned out that the button was there's a button right here right and the four pills and then i have my container you know that i'm taking them out of i give her the four pills she leaves but the button on the hat kind of like threw me off a little and some the vibe just wasn't right he's the one who basically called her so he facilitated it So I'm like, this is shady.

This ain't right. But I'm stoop. I'm naive because I'm so busy and I'm so consumed with what's going on in Fort Lauderdale and what's going on and, you know, having to keep going on. I got to a point where I would just send other people. Yeah, you're not making as much money at that point. But when you're making it in bulk like that, you just pay them what you want to pay them. And also, I'm not putting myself directly at risk. So it got huge and it got out of control.

And then this, this happens. She drives by the house is on the corner of the street. And she drives by, she's in the passenger seat. And something that I recognized from somewhere was driving the car. And he said, now she wants to buy more. And I'm like, no, man, I'm not doing it. I knew something was off. I don't know how off it would be.

This was in January. Fast forward a couple months. And with my buddy, we're driving. All of a sudden, we get lit up. by like five police cars just lit up. We're on the main strip in Palm Coast. They surround it. It's a tactical unit that they had been building that I had no idea about.

I think it was Operation Blue Out was the name of the whole. It got 27 people in that general area. In the Palm Coast, Daytona area, she had snitched on 27 people. She was a confidential informant. and we get lit up and they come guns drawn. I'm like, what in that is going on here? 27 people.

She ain't doing no time. Dude, she had, it turned out all she had was like a sale, possibly a trafficking, but it was her first, first time offense. But hey, she's scared. Yeah, no. Exactly. She's young. Now, do I, am I angry now about that?

Look back, you know, what would I? I'm not a rat. I don't rap, period. That's the way I grew up. You don't rat. You do your time. But so getting back to this, we get lit up. They searched a car.

Yeah. They find my prescription. That was fine. That's what I had. But I had a warrant. It was a no knock warrant. So at this time, my residence said where my mother lived, I hadn't changed it over. We got pulled over at like 2 or 3 a.m.

They were going to hit the house at like 6 to 8 a.m. I had literally gotten pulled over hours before. Therefore, they were going to knock her door down. And I wouldn't have even been there. Right. So it's like, and then they would have had to, you know, I'm going to turn myself in, but I wouldn't have been there. They would have given the woman a heart attack.

Right. You know, because they don't care. The cops don't care. So I, they put us in handcuffs. And my buddy's like, uh, he's got something on him. And I see him like throw something out the window of the back of the cop car. And we know, whatever. And it's his car.

Thank God it wasn't my car. So they thoroughly searched the car, whatever. car gets impounded. They take us to jail. He's got like a $500 bond. I got a $10,000 bond. It's nothing crazy. I understand that.

But it's significantly more than his. On the way of the police station, I'll never forget this. I had known a couple of the cops, but I don't, wasn't, at the time, wasn't friendly with police. But he played the police by NWA, the whole way there. And I'm like, this is the coolest cop in the world. But I just got a warrant for ourselves schedule too.

And that is serious, serious business, especially state at this time. So why do you have a warrant, though? The warrant was from the confidential informant for selling her the four pittals. So, yeah, it was, it was, I had the warrant out a no-knock warrant. Yeah. From that sale, so I'm sorry, sale of a schedule to second degree in, in the state of Florida sudden grief felony carries 15 years, I believe, in a mandatory minimum of 36 months, I want to say. Okay.

Yeah, could, could, but yeah. I didn't put that together too. That's fine. It's not big. I get booked. And my buddy's out in like two hours. I'm sitting and I'm just thinking, you know, it's county. It's whatever.

Like I'm there a couple days before I get bonded out. It was just a waiting period because at that point with the bondsman, because you pay a thousand. You know, obviously you could put the full 10,000, but if you pay a thousand, you need nine grand in collateral, whatever. So I, my mother, she had put the house as collateral, you know. and just paid the thousand. I don't know why going back. I should have just paid the full thing, and I would have got it back after the case, whatever,

but or not, whatever happens. Anyway, so it's a pattern in the jail, and they're like, who'd you deal with? And they're like, the girl's name, you know, I'm saying, name is Rachel. They're like, Rachel. Rachel. I know Rachel?

Yeah, and I'm like, you're talking about Rachel that goes in Bennell and she's smoking so-and-so with all these other low-lifes. Yeah, same girl. and I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. The one time that I go out of my element to do a favor

for what now that kid, what I'll get to, and I get pot. Because she's wearing that button on her hat was a camera. Yeah. And the wire was up for sure. Now, me, I'm not checking people for wires, but they wired her real good. However, they wired her.

It was warm out. But she wasn't like all bundled up or anything in the car. And it was in my vehicle. Now my vehicle is used in the commission of a felony. They impound my car. They take my car. And this car's got, like I told you, I have tens of thousands of dollars in this car. So that gone.

That car is gone. If I would have made that, if you go back to the day where I said she drove by my house and she wanted to come in, my mother would have lost their house if I would have made that sale that day. Right. Thank God I didn't. So we're in. I get bonded out and I'm looking for a lawyer and I hire the former sheriff thinking that he was a former sheriff and he turned into a lawyer. Yeah, that's kind of weird, right?

Like you would go against like your own county. I mean, that's, no, I mean, the district attorneys do it all the time and cops do it all the time. I've never heard of the actual sheriff. Yeah, he's like going against like his buddies, I guess. But that's fine. But I'm out on bond and I'm thinking, I'm talking to the lawyer and there's really no. like no chatter with the, you know, with the case. And, and during the time, still, still working at the club.

I'm still DJing. Obviously, just being stupid, I'm, I'm just continuing really to do what I was doing. And just kept being in a hard head. You know, luckily, nothing ever came about. Because it dragged out for a while. It had dragged out for, I'd say a good part of 2011. It was January. She wore the wire.

did all the whatever in between and then it had been it had been March and then I got the lawyer and he's like seven is is the number you're going to get seven years yeah now they're coming back with seven years at this point in the summertime

so they're coming back with seven years on a plea deal first offense is an adult right and seven years I'm like no I'm like seven years I was like I'll be out when I'm at this age you know I'll be out when I'm 30 something No, no way. I think they had even had a higher number before that.

They were talking like almost like what it would have gone if I took it to the door, took it to trial. And then he got it down to five years. And then he goes, that's the best I'll get you. I fired his ass and fired him. I fired the sheriff, the ex- sheriff now. And I go out and get a guy by the name of Mike Lambert out of Daytona, who when I was in, when I had been in.

Everybody was talking about, everybody's suggesting. Mike Lambert's a dog. He's a dog. He's the best in court. You know, he's going to get you. Like, he knows, because my judge, Raul, the time machine, Zambrano is what they called him. Because people were getting football numbers, 30 years, 40 years. And I don't think some of these kids were even taking it to trial. It was just, it looked like out of guidelines. So Mike Lambert, I retain. Because I'm not doing five years. I'm just, I'm not doing it for four, freaking pills. I said, I don't deserve that. And, you know, and my other lawyer said, you got to play like you're an addict. And, and, and obviously nobody knows to what extent I

had done anything because they only see four and they see just the one prescription. They don't know that I got these routes running and I'm out of stay all that. They, they don't know. But they know that there's four pills. Right. What they can prove. So he's like, you got to act like you need treatment. You got to do this. You got to do that. Yeah, you're a low level drug dealer trying to support your habit. Exactly. You got to paint that picture. Okay, but you're telling me to paint that picture, but you're still getting me seven years. And then comes down to I believe what was five. So what I wound up going to do was an open plea. He goes, listen, this could go, this is what's going to happen. He goes, you could go really bad. Yeah, it could go really, really south or he could be really

leaning on you because you're a first-time offender. And back then, I, I, you know, you're talking about 15 years ago now. There was still like that little bit of like white privilege where, you know, if you're white, you'll get probation, but everyone else gets banned. I mean, I'm not racial at all. I'm just saying what facts are because that's, that's what they do. You look at the population of, you know, Florida, DOC, Florida State. It's primarily so and so, right? So, he's like, he's like, Like, just play the poor white role of your, you know, this and that. And go in there, answer his questions, honestly. And he had spoken to him on the side.

And he goes, I think this is what he's going to do for you. He's going to offer you two years of house arrest. It's community control. So you're on an ankle monitor. You got the sheet of every day, you know, that you have to, every hour you're accounted for every week. So basically you're arrested in your house. or you can do six in six months in the county and then six months probation and yes and i went into

the court thinking that that's that's what that's what i was probably going to get right but i could have gotten something way higher i'm at the the doors of the courtroom here it's my mom my dad and my girlfriend at the time and i say goodbye to my parents the doors closed behind me little do they know that's the last time they're going to see me for just a little while yeah but um i go and i open pleaded the Raul Zambrano who showed mercy on me. Thank God. He goes, you know, Mr. Satoli, are you under the influence

right now? No, sir. What do you plan on doing with yourself? You know, and the states are right there. And he goes, well, here's what I can do. He goes, I can give you the two years community control. Or six in, six, and the states just having fit. Because they built that whole team. Not for me. Right. But this girl's dropping dimes on everyone.

And she's pointing me out. A lot of these guys weren't arrested for the same charges, but a lot of them were for different, different drugs, like hardcore stuff, you know, but the pills, if you had a charge for pills, they wanted to make an example of you. Yeah. I got lucky to not be made an example of because you really look at it. It's only four pills. The guy that, you know, sold maybe 100 or 200 that got caught for that amount, which is what normally would have happened to me. Right. You know, thank God that day, whatever happened happened. He goes lenient. And I go, sir, I'll take the six in, six out. I've done, you know, at this point, I have been arrested before, you know, I'm Volusia County, Flagler County.

I was arrested in New York, you know, like just little things, you know, weekends, overnight. And it's not even hard time. I didn't get state time. You know, I did it down the road, but not for this. And I was like, you know what? You know, look at this as something to reflect on and, and, and, and, and, and, Maybe you'll change or whatever when you get out. You know, I do the probation. Now I move to South Florida. Now we're going on 2013. And now is when I started a sneaker business.

And I started working at an auto place. And, you know, there's like two months to pass by. I get my own place. I got money. I'm good. You know, no problem. And I'm like, this just isn't working for me. So what I do is I'm like, I want to work in something that has to do with sneakers, you know,

the company that I still have to this day, I have to want to do something with sneakers, but I want to be like more in a store. Because then that way I get the hook up. I can get. So in the market of sneakers, like what it says on the box, say $200,

it could go for a thousand because it's Travis Scott's shoe. Right. Or it's like, you know, a good friend of mine, DJ Khalid's stuff, you know, that's the whole alpha I have on is all DJ Khalid.

So it could go for like so much more because it's coveted. They make less pairs of it, so it's more rare. So now there's a whole market and there's a sneaker market and that's legal. And I'm like, all right, great. So that's legal, but it's not even remotely close to what I was making. So I get, one of my buddies goes, hey, I got a job. I can't give the name of the door away because of what it's about to happen.

We got a tier zero contract, which means we get all the exclusive, the Drake collaborations, the real big money shoes, the things that I'm looking to get. that I really can't get on the street. And then, you know, I had got my, then I got my Nike plug. And they tell us, look, you're allowed to sell the shoes early, which you're not by Nike standards. Right. And you're allowed to sell them to people that you trust,

but you can't give them a receipt. Because if they got a receipt, then that's proof. And then somebody hollers and screams, they go to Nike. They lose their account. Yeah, yeah. They go on Facebook and say, I got the new. Oh, I got the plug. A month early.

Yeah. here's where I got them. Here's a receipt, whatever. And they're done. Then their business will implode. Right. So we call it back-dooring sneakers. Right.

So now fraud is at an all-time high in Roward County at this time. Like rampant credit card fraud. You know, little did I know about like the fraud game. So then I hear once again in the very beginning the whispers. You got a gentleman, his wife, and two kids come in. They want four pairs of early Jordans with an outfit to go with each of them. We have the outfits already because we get everything a month before, six weeks before. Right.

So we're allowed to sell. They don't really like when you sell the clothing early, but you do what you got to do. And, you know, I start to say, because other people were doing it too, that there's a camera behind you. you show me, give me your credit card, and give me your ID on camera. It doesn't necessarily have to match the card, but as long as it looks good for the camera, you buy me a pair.

So I'm swiping the card, and essentially I'm getting a free pair of shoes. So we start getting more and more and more and more people, and now I have a new route. because I have a guy at Nike who's in Memphis who's sending me, like, crazy stuff. Right. So, like, a player exclusive, like UNC, University of North Carolina, Jordan Brand will gift them, you know, team shoes.

And, like, one PE could be worth 20 grand, you know, five grand, 50 grand. I mean, the numbers were crazy. This is at the height of, like, the market got really big in 2020, but it was really big in 2015 all the way up till. So the sneaker market blows up. But I'm doing that, but I'm also the credit card. Right. So everyone was doing it.

Nobody cared. I'm not thinking too much into it. So I'm the assistant manager there. They say, all right, we're opening another store because they were growing so rapidly because they sold everything back door. At this point, I'm taking home 10 pairs of shoes, 12 pairs of shoes. I'm just reselling them. It was like clockwork.

People just walking in. Now I'm opening a. store that's a little more farther south in Broward County and in like a little bit north of the Laudor Hill area and now I'm the store manager so now I'm making schedules now I'm running the whole place the way I see fit so there was 22 23 stores and I opened the next location and it was doing really bad like they brought me into the office the owners of the company He said, we don't care what you do. We just need you to turn this store around.

I said, oh, all right, I got you. First of all, I got this store up into, like, the top five. So they were in love of me. They were just overlooking everything I was doing. And I was just running away with sneakers. Just people at their people come in. You give me your card. Show me your ID.

As long as it's on camera, we're good. You get what you need. I get my pair. Sometimes it would be two pairs. Sometimes it could be, you know, a whole lot more. But at that point, between my side company, I was selling bulk. I'd be going, now you're at like a sneaker con with a sneaker expo. Right.

And I'm selling 50 pairs at a time. You know, I got a thousand pairs of the house and I got hundreds of more pairs in storage. And the unit grows and grows and grows and to the stay, I still have a lot of the shoes. So it's just blowing up. And now the money's rolling in again. And I'm like, all right, good. So this is, this is like, in my mind, I'm thinking this is legal. Like, yeah, this is legal, right?

Like, everyone's doing it. So I'm not doing anything illegal. I'm not, like, risking myself or exposing myself to any, you know, I'm good. Like, everyone's doing it. So I'm at this store for a while. It comes to be like a year now. I'm running this whole thing. Then we have an incident where a guy brings a firearm into the store and literally says,

I'm going to shoot you. if you don't get me a pair of shoes. I didn't have any of the shoes in the back. Right. And he's like, I'm going to shoot you if you don't give me my pair. I'm trying to stall. I'm going in the back. Then I go out the back door.

Then I go down where I know that they got a guy who's a security guard. We get him. He comes through the front. I'm out the bound. I'm like, listen, I'm going to go get him for you, whatever. Run out the back door, jet down there. I mean, I'm not getting shot over a pair of shoes. Right.

You're crazy. People who didn't care. That area was so violent and insane. If you look up Lauder Hill, in Brower, it's wild. It's a jungle. So now, like, things are starting to happen. But the district managers are telling me I'm doing a great job. You know, everyone's telling me I'm doing a great job. My numbers are through the roof. The only reason they're through the roof is because I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm running a scam. And, you know, it shows, but there's no chargebacks. And I'm like, this is,

this is it. And so I run with it, run with it, run with it. They move me. to the number two store in the company. And they said, look, we want you to team up with the kid that actually got me hired in the beginning. Right. And they put us together and we just become a goon squad. Because now I'm in the second biggest store. So I come to that store.

I start doing all that. Now there's a security guard in this store. Because now I'm in actual, like, an area that's extremely violent. And they're lining up because it's way bigger and twice as many people, three times. as many people. You know, so it's just this whole scheme, and it's every day, and I'm leaving with so many pairs. I got literally to the point where I had to get a storage unit, and the storage unit was almost full.

That was a 10 by 10. I got a 10 by 20, and I had started to fill that up. I got my living room. They're piled up in the closet everywhere, clothing, just everything. And I'm getting rid of it through a ton of people. I got clients on the street. You know, I got my business. But I wanted to get bigger.

That's the problem. It's always bigger. And then there's consequences. So we get to a point where it gets way too out of control. There's firearms in the parking lot. There's shots let off in the parking lot. It just starts getting crazy. It starts getting violent.

People are getting violent over the shoes. It's starting to the point where it'll start to hurt business for the store. You know, people are scared to shop there. They don't want to go in because, you know, They heard that two weeks ago, there was a, you know, a gun let off in the parking lot. So. Yeah. What, when is this?

So, so this, now, now this is, this is a timeframe of 2013, late, like late 13 into 14, 15, and 16. So that's, that's that time period right there. This whole time, I'm running, I'm running this whole scheme here. Right. staying under the radar, not getting arrested, trying to stay, you know, out of the, you know, because at this point, now I have something bad on my record. I have a sale charge. But now, I mean, it's not like they do with, I don't know if they do or not.

Like in feds, you know, they have like enhancement points from the priors. I don't know if it goes like that would state. But I got a really bad charge that I was convicted of, you know. So now, now I'm a felon. Right. So that's one thing that, like, I was just so messed up over that. like I was a felon, lo and behold, they become a predicate felon. But at the time, I was like, damn, I'm a frigging felon.

So I was like, there's no other way to do it. There's no way to do it the legit way. We just kept stacking money. So we're running this whole thing. 2016 comes around. It's, uh, what happens is there's a mall right behind here and Foot Locker calls in. So and so, you know, the store, they're selling things early. There's this going on and there's a lot of activity.

And they get their Nike license yanked. And it's over with. So at the exact same time, my mother has cancer, breast cancer. I leave. I abruptly had my dad pick me up. I say I'm sick in the middle of my shift. leave the company, turn around and never go back. This is May of 2016.

I'll never forget it. I got all these shoes. I got, I got money. I got everything going on. I'm running this whole thing thinking that it's never going to end. And I'm eventually going to get to the celebrities. I'm going to get to, you know, rub elbows and get to, you know, and I'm just starting to get there.

And then now my mom's got cancer. She's asking me to move back to Palm Coast, the place that every cop hates me now where I have a reputation in county and I'm like man well you know what do I do now I got all these shoes I got to unload so I start selling them for like lower more like towards box price whatever cash out make it make a lot of money but now I'm at the point where I'm just so irresponsible with money I'm just blowing it I move back to north Florida now I leave the company I leave my apartment um have a girlfriend at the time she from from down there she comes with me so she comes back to palm coast helps takes care of my mom

i got all these shoes still in storage down south i have no way to move them up so i'm selling i got a guy broker in for me right now so i just start doing whatever it is that i can any type of hustle there is selling shoes you know i'm DJing um i'm dealing other things out you know now now it Now it had been different types of drugs, the party supplies, and then drinking. So it was really just the alcohol and that kind of stuff. I got into it. You know, like I'd always partied here and there. But at this point, we had started to get into it.

And I'm like, look, I never was like a big, I drank, but I never was like a big, big on like, you never get high on your own supply, Biggie, the 10 crack commandments. Everybody knows that. Find a guy, ironically, in Tampa who had what I had needed and in large quantities. And it was very easy to move because now I got the club back as my distribution. I'm driving in Daytona. At this point, now I have, you know, because I have everything. I have prescription medication, you know, on me that I got, that I wound up finding a plug for to sell.

And I want to, you know, other stuff. So I have a donut on my car and I'm driving on it was Route 1 going north back home. The donut goes flat and I'm like about to pull over in the parking lot and there's a cop on the other side of the median and he sees me. And he's like, for some reason I was like this isn't going to end up. I just knew it wasn't going to end up good. I had the pills on the, on the passenger seat, but when I turned, they fell on the floor. So he pulls you over? He pulls me over.

He asks for consent to search the vehicle. Why does he pull you over? Because I'm driving with a flat donut. And apparently that's suspicious. The car was, had dark, dark tints. Yeah. At this point, these guys don't care. and yeah, they know my car

because this is Volusia, but Volusia and Flager, they know me, and they know my record. So cop mighta know me, cop mighta, maybe bad luck, but I'm on a donut that's flat. Maybe he's pulling me out. You didn't know it was flat? No, no, I knew it was flat, but I was turning and maybe he pulled me over for help.

But the first thing he sees when he opens the window is he sees the pills on the ground. Oh, okay. Yeah, great. So I get arrested for that. Luckily, it was a possession. It wasn't possession with intent. It wasn't sale, none of that.

So I, I say, yeah, you can search the car. I know what's going to happen right. I got to go in. I got to go in. I got to eat this. It's going to be a possession. I'll beat the case. I'll get Mike Lambert.

Whatever. Fine. Go in. Get out ROR. You know, no big deal. So it's possession. So that's third degree felony. You know, it's not going to get me.

You're not going to go to state for that. You might get some gouty time. So I'm fighting that. And then two months later. I get pulled over again because now I start profiling me and I get another possession charge but I'm already ROR'd out fighting on one right so I get my clamor okay and I'm like all right I'm going to go back I'm gonna you know because I'm doing all the same stuff I'm doing everything that I was doing I'm recreating like basically everything that I could to the extent that I could

I didn't have the same resources so I just used different drugs and it's to the point where it's like all right these guys are singling me out they know know who I am. They, they, you know, it's just become, you know, just a mess, a complete mess. And I go in in March. And she R-O-Rs me. So I'm like, all right, I got another possession charge. And now I'm fighting that. And I get Mike Lambert on the case. His son, Brian, takes the case. And they get me on probation. So I just get, it's just two possessions. They're like, all right, you haven't been in trouble. in like six years, whatever, and now it becomes June. So it's time to go in front of the judge.

Gets me two years probation. My mom beats cancer, right? So I'm like, I need to get back to South Florida. I still got shoes in storage, mind you, that I'm still trying to move. And all that type of stuff. So I go back to South Florida. You know, I got shoes and storage. I got, like I said, I'm now back.

And now I got to come up with something besides. that because I can't move them fast enough. You know, kids are buying them at the events, but now, now it's getting a little bit to the point where the sneaker games escalating, but at the same time, people aren't paying the same market price. They're paying a little bit closer to box. So you're making a little bit less money. I'm like, we can't do this.

I'm just going to do whatever I have to do at this point. I just was totally reckless. I get into a car accident. with a hit and run. So I get, a truck hits me and it causes a four car pile up. Now I have no car. And I'm like, all right. Now, so this is now like July.

This is about four weeks out of what's about to be something insane. So we're, me and her are coming up with, with different schemes, different ways. We're getting money. We're moving the sneakers. We're starting to stack. I'm just about to buy, like, buy my first big purchase, you know, of like a dope car and get everything right. But let me backtrack.

I was hanging out with a friend in Fort Lauderdale. And I spent the night there. Something had happened. One thing led to another. She asked me to do a favor for her. Whatever had happened had happened. And I come back home, think nothing of it. And that's August 17th, August 18th.

So at this point, I'm like, you know what? This kid, the kid that's four houses down, I'd been dealing with now. I've been getting product from him. And he owes me a lot of money. So I go to his, it's a Sunday, I believe it was a Sunday morning. So I'm like, he should be at church or whatever because he was dealing like some serious stuff and like serious weight, serious. But still going to church. But still going to church.

Yeah. Because you got to go to church. because that's a good cover up, you know. And I go to the house and the car's there. So I knock on the door. And I'm, I need to get my money. And then I need to get product for me. We got to keep this moving, you know?

And he's not there. So I get aggressive. I get super aggressive. Little do I know in the state of Florida that there's no attempted breaking and entering. Nothing like that. It's either, do you get a burglary? or like nothing.

So I get so angry. I'm standing out there. I'm screaming. I'm thinking he's ducking me that he's in the house. I walk around the back of the house. In Florida, it's, and then correct me with the word, when you break the curtilage of the dwelling, it becomes a burglary. Right.

So if you intrude. Yeah, if you step into the part. If you step into. Whether it's instructed or not, or you open the door or not, the moment you step in, Correct. So I punch the back window out. I don't know why. I didn't even climb in the house, but I'm so angry. I'm thinking maybe he's here. Maybe he's got my money. Maybe he's trying to rip me, whatever. So as I do that, the front door opens. And it's like about eye level here. So I'm looking in and the place is rather small. So I can see the front door, the brother walks in, which makes it now occupied. So now that's, so now that's, you know, That's a burglary of an occupied dwelling. Right. When there's a human, that's damn near a home invasion.

Yeah. So I didn't, I personally didn't go in, but he said I went in the house. I didn't go in the house. Right. I wasn't attempting to burglarize him and steals TV. What about your DVD rack? No, man. I want my money.

And I was pissed and I just punched through the window. But, of course, brothers are rat. Like, dimes me out. Cool. I was dead to right still. I was wrong. Yeah, I was going to say, you're punching fucking holes and you're looking at the back, you're walked around the back of it.

Like, you're not in a good spot. No, I was fine, like financially and everything, but mentally, I'm a hot head. Like, you know, because I'm used to being the guy in charge. Now, I'm thinking this guy's trying to, you know, take my money, whatever. I'm not thinking, I'm not thinking about the law and that, like, you know, oh, you got to break the cartilage and then he walks in it so it becomes occupied. Like, I'm not thinking that. Man, tell me.

So the brother walks in, he calls the police. I'm like, oh, shit. So I go to my house. I go, I'm like, the cops are already on the way. I was like, I'm going to get caught. So I get a hoodie. It's the middle of August in Florida, like thousand degrees outside. Great idea.

Zip it up. So this is my brilliant idea. I go to the next door neighbor's property, but now I'm on another property. And I'm laying low, like, laying to the point where they can't see me. So I figure they'll just go there. They'll get a statement, whatever. and, you know, that'll be the end of it. Like, they won't catch me.

Nothing will happen. Real smart idea. What happens is I'm laying there. I hear the cops. They sound like they're coming closer, closer, closer, closer. I hear the branches, like, start breaking, you know, like twigs snapping and all that. Because now it's like, this guy had a little house in the front, and it's like a woodsy area in the back. And it was a fence, so I climbed over the fence.

because I just want to hide. So I'm like, all right, I got to get out or just like walk to the gas station. Either way, they had me and they had a witness. And if it would have gone to, whatever, it doesn't matter. So a female officer comes around and she's got, I believe there should have, she had a Glock 22 pointed at my head. And I'm laying on the ground and I'm looking at her like literally like caught dead in the water. in a hoodie, she doesn't know what I have on me.

Right. I'm getting shot. And she draws her gun, pulls it out. Remain on the ground and put your hands on the back of your head. And she's like, move slow, move slow. And by then there's like three more cops behind her. So they're acting like, I just like, well, I did commit a burglary, but they're acting like I just like kidnap somebody. And there's like, well, they wound up being like eight patrol cars.

And this is a Lake Worth area. And it's Palm Springs. brings. So it's, it's like, not, it's like kind of quietish, but I mean, it is what it is. And there's like three, four more cops behind her. And, and, you know, then there's like two sergeants and there, she's got a gun drawn in my head with her, with her finger on the trigger. Like, they don't care. They, they, I'm like, I'm going to get shot for nothing, for absolutely nothing. Mind you, I'm still on probation in Volusia County. I'm done. I get, I get booked, but I only get booked for the one as a burglary.

I'm like, I'm not a burglar. I just made a mistake. And that was the fatal mistake. That was the nail in the coffin. That was it. It was just over something so dumb and my anger just overtaking me. So what happened? How much time they give you?

All right. So this is what happened. I went in. So I'm on a VOP. So I got a no bond. So I sit in the county and they offer me, what was their first offer? I want to say three years.

I'm like, yeah, take it. I don't have a lawyer. at this point. I've been committing crime for so many years. Right. I got maybe, or maybe I don't have money somewhere. And I got a lot of shoes still. Right. So I'm like, I'm good when I get out, like no matter how much time I get. And I'm just going to have to take this lick. In the back of the cop car, I'm not going to lie to you. I was kind of relieved in a way because I knew I was going away. And I, and I knew it wasn't going to be an incredible amount of time and it wasn't going to be a life sentence or anything like that. But, but.

but I know I was going to prison. And I was there about, I think it was 86 days. It was 86 days. They kept coming at me with three years. Then they came down. They said, all right, look, we're really supposed to give you two years. I had a public defender. And if it got serious enough, I would have got a lawyer.

I had a lucky feeling because they were starting low. So it wound up only being 15 months. but it's still state time. Yeah. So now this is serious. There's a lot of people out there that are like, oh, you know, I've done more time in the shower

than you've done on the yard and da-da-da-da-da. It don't stay prison. And when I'm about to get into about where I went, was a jungle and it was wild. So I get 15 months is what it turns out being.

Now it's like things are starting to fall apart, right? And I'm about to go to state prison where there are some extremely violent prisons. Most, I believe there's 143 prisons in the state of Florida. And what the crazy part is, is I wanted to wait to share this, but I think it's 97,000 inmates. I looked it up last night. We have the most lifers in this state. I think it's 13,100 to 14,000 lifers out of 97,000 people.

They're giving out the craziest senses down here. I managed to get another, like, pretty much unscathes. but it's present now. Now it's real. So I'm in a pod. Mind you, the whole time I'm in county, I'm in a pod with all guys I got bodies. There's no classification.

They don't classify you any. Throw you in with the wolves. Throw you in with whoever. Luckily, like, I can, I can fight. I can stand up for myself. I'm good. But it's like my buddy who was in there, he was downstairs and they were extorting him.

So he's like, hey, can I come up in and stay with you? I'm like, yeah, listen. look, I'm good. But that guy over there, he's got the keys to the, you know, the dorm. And he might charge you. I don't know. I said, do you want you go and offer him, you know, offer him a bag of coffee or whatever?

You know how it works. And he had come up. But that's just to show you how crazy that county jail was. And it's like you just want to get out of there, waiting for my name to be called. They call my name. They say, pack it up. You know, this is at 4 o'clock a.m.

like they do with everything else. I go downstairs and it really hits me. I'm like, oh, shit, I'm going to prison now. Like, this isn't in county jail anymore. But what I'm about to find out about Florida State prison is how wild it can get in two ways. One, the violence and two, what you can get while you're in there. So I get in the room. We're standing in a square.

and we're all but naked, you know, it's degrading. If you put your hands over you, they're going to put hands on you. And then we're there for about 40 minutes. It was just awkward at that point. Like, I've heard other people tell their stories, but like this went on forever. And then once it's over, you're like, all right, great. Like, I'm already in prison. Now I'm humiliated.

Now I'm nobody. Now your ego is gone. now your pride's gone and now you're thinking what everyone else thinks i'm going to go punch the first guy i see right i go in they give me the whole shaved head patches all over the place and i'm like oh lord and you get you don't they don't even let you shower right there they give you one set of new clothes one set of old clothes a roll up and they give you your schedule of what you got to do for the week as you being in reception. I take the roll up, I walk out the door,

and I look on, and it's the first time I see the compound. I got my roll up. I'm walking out of the side of the building. All I hear is like the quintessential prison yelling of fresh meat, you know, new fish, you know. So you hear these guys screaming, and they're looking out their windows, and they're looking at me, and I'm like,

what the did I get into? Yeah. I happen to go to J-Dorm, which is at the end of the yard. So I got the farthest walk possible. And then they start calling out names and your bunk. And I don't know how it is in the feds. I'm sure it's the same way. You can't, like, in county, you could switch top-bottom. Right.

You got to stay bottom bunk or top-bunk. For whatever reason, they gave me a bottom bunk pass. So I was always on a bottom bunk. So I get to the cell. And I'm like, oh, yeah. I hope there's not a honey bun on my pillow, a Snickers bar. I hope there's not a, you know, like, you know, all the stories that you hear. Nothing.

Normal. I walking in the cell. He's down the bottom for whatever reason. I don't know. They must have let him slide. Maybe he was just there temporarily or whatever. I said, hey, what's going on, man? A guy that was not the same race as me.

So I'm thinking I got to stick to my race. Like, this is all the stuff you hear. And he was cool. He was cool. He was, he was, he was, he had a boatload of time, but he was getting out. He hadn't been on the street since the 70. So he had years. So he had to, you know, he'd been down forever.

What did you? Uh, he was in jail for murder. Yeah. Yeah. He, but I think he had, I think he might have two bodies on him. But he had a ton of time. So I'm in jail with a murderer. My first night, I'm there for breaking a freaking window in my mind.

Right. You know, I can't be accountable for myself at this point yet. And so you, you did burglarize a house. I wasn't a, burglar, I wasn't stealing out of necessity. I was just pissed off. But you did it. You're the idiot.

Now you're in here with the murderer. And he's sleeping on top of you nonetheless. I'm like, are you sure you don't want to stay on the bottom? You know, da-da-da-da. And I'm thinking, let me just, maybe if I get on the top, I got a better, you know, edge on him, whatever. He's a little older. But if he tries to kill me in my sleep,

that's what I'm thinking. I have no idea what's going on. If you sleep hot at night, you know how disruptive that can be. When you're not resting well, everything else feels harder. Your focus, your mood, even your recovery. Ghostbed is here to help you fix that. They've spent decades perfecting how to build a bed that's comfortable, durable, and designed to actually help you rest.

Every ghost bed mattress features premier materials, proven cooling technology, and their exclusive pro-core layer, a targeted support system that reinforces the center of the mattress, where the body is heaviest. It helps keep your spine aligned and your back supported. So you can wake up ready for anything 2026 throws at you. Each mattress comes with a 101 night sleep trial and a 20 to 25 year warranty. So you can try it risk-free, knowing it's built to last. Shipping is fast and free.

Most orders arrive in two to five days. Ghostbed has great prices to begin with, up to 50% off comparable brands. and inside true crime listeners can get an extra 10% off sitewide for a limited time. Just go to ghostbed.com slash Cox and use promo code Cox at checkout. That's ghostbed.com slash Cox, promo code Cox. Upgrade your sleep with Ghostbed, the makers of the coolest bed in the world. Some exclusions apply. See site for details.

He's a nice guy in the world. You know, schools me. tells me, you know, like, what's going on, the rules, like, you know, how things work, where he's been. I'm there. I lock in. And all of a sudden, you know, it's count time. And then it's dinner. So I hear, all I hear is like, quick, quick, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack.

I'm like, yo, what the hell's going on out there? It goes, the locks to the doors. So green. And our door pops eventually. But you hear the, because I'm on the bottom, I'm on the bottom tier. And them in the corner. So, you know, hear it all. And I'm thinking the guy's going to laugh at it.

You know, like, but you don't know any better. I'm so lucky to, you know, I've had the situation. When do you get out? So my out date at that point, so it's 15 months. So you do 13 on 15. Okay. So that's, that's my 13 months. But I want to tell you what went on when I was in there.

Things that I saw in there were nuts. There was inmates in there that were having sex with officers for X amount of money on the wire, Western Union, whatever it might have been. I think there was Zell back then, but you had Bacardi. You had full bottles of Bacardi in water bottles. They were bringing it by like boatloads. You know, obviously you got clippers, which you've probably seen, the brown boys. They break down into five pieces. We didn't have those.

I had new ports with filters, full packs that I would just stick under. under my designated spot in my cell, smoking in the cell. When they do a round, they didn't care if you were smoking. It was completely loose and laid back in there. And that's the whole thing. People talk about how wild and crazy it was. Yes, it was if you got yourself involved in those situations. And no, like, I have three bullet holes in me and a stab wound in the back,

which I never told the story that happened at the club when I worked as security. but I didn't have a scratch on my body from prison, thank God. Like, it's insane. The things that went on in there, like, yes, it is prison. Yes, there was violence. Yes, the young ins were next door, always asking for tobacco. Yeah, they would fight, but people portrayed it as like they were killing each other. And it was this and that.

I don't know what was going on to other institutions, but they were acting completely normal where we were at. Everyone's talking about, I want to go to adult prison. No, you don't want to go to adult prison. It's the things that I saw, yes, there were men with breast implants in there that were in my dorm that you just don't talk to. The things that I saw that were done that you could get for like the littlest amount of money. Like one, like I said, having, I was in two men's and it was just showers, but, you know, like in the open dorm, there you got to shower the bunch of, you know, it wasn't like that. I thought I was going to be, you know, something crazy happening in the shower or something, you know, no, it wasn't like that.

It was different. It wasn't. Yes, there was violence. Yes, you did have to hold your own. Yes, they did T-O-H you, but the things that they brought in, like I know in the feds, they talk about iPhones cost thousands of dollars. It was like 800 bucks you can have like, it wouldn't be the newest model, but it's an iPhone in there, go on FaceTime, you know, and then cheaper. You got thumb phones. it bones the size of your thumb.

Guys would smuggle in, you know, where, you know, and a couple hundred bucks, two, three hundred bucks. Things were so cheap. And then the cigarettes, they were going for five bucks, you know, but you can get a pack. Like a single pack you'd pay 40, but you get a couple, you pay 20. Like, it was wide open. I know, once again, like I said, you got different jobs. You got different crews. I was in the kitchen.

You got a tool cart. And I just had to survive. And that was my thing. I just had to survive with what was going on with, you know, there were politics. There was gang on the yard. There was one time a guy that worked in TNR, a kid, Kit was coming into the prison. He gave the phone to a kid on our side. The kid was supposed to give it back to him.

I walk out of my dorm and there's like 20 kings and 20 blood. They run together on the compound. And they're like, do you know so-and-so? And I'm like, yeah, he's four cells down for me. Let me guess what he did. I had already know. We heard what he had done. Small area, where he gets around.

I said, dude, if I can come out with your stuff, this guy was that he's been down. He had been down for like 10 to 12 years on like 20 or more. Like he's an enforcer. He said, if you can just go retrieve it, he's like, I'll pay. he even offered me his watch he must have had multiple watches but that's a big thing in there you know those things are g-shock yeah and it was the the yellow and black colors which is their colors so you know for someone to offer you their watch which think about how much that cost on the street in there god you can't even get it in so i said no i don't need anything i said i just want there

to be peace i just don't want people coming over here and and starting that you know so that's when I started to kind of turn things around. And that's like when I really just started taking accountability from myself. That's when I found God. I know it sounds quintessential, but it was like, that was my only option. You had to have some sort of faith in there. I know it wasn't the longest time. And I get that. But it was a crazy time. There was always something going on. It was always something being stolen from somewhere. I can go on for days with stories, but that doesn't matter.

It's just the whole concept is when you just do the right thing in general. And I did the right thing. I helped others in there, like people that couldn't read, that couldn't write. I just extended my whatever knowledge that I had. I did great in high school.

Like I told you, I did great. Father, math teacher, mother's an English teacher. It makes for great SATs. So, you know, I did what I could. they offered programs for people that were there longer there were there were guys in my dorm that were lifers you know i had tons of guys i had tons of time in there there was like i think

six lifers in my actual a dorm so they don't you know it's the same thing there you i mean look you get one of them angry they got four life sentences they might go give one back but you still got three more right they don't give a damn they're going to do whatever they want to you know so you just got to get out of their way or you get in their way or you get in their way you got to try and get them out of yours. But I just try to fly into the radar. You know, there was also Mosquito Squad, they called them. They came in at night.

If you were looking at a female, because there was a lot of female officers there that were good looking, if you looked at a female officer wrong, 3 a.m., 2 a.m., you hear a door click, like the masks that cover your face, just not like the whole thing, but this and then the DOC hats they have and dudes would get dragged down on laundry

and then you just wouldn't see him for like two months, three months, and they would, they basically beat him until they healed and they were in confinement because they're behind the door, so who's going to see them? Right. Nobody. So they got away with it, you know, and they wound up getting fired and, you know,

I mean, everyone in the end pretty much they did, after I left, they had done a clean, up. But yeah, it was, it was out of control. There was nothing you couldn't get in there. Right. It wasn't just like in your general prison, you know, you might have two, three, four guys on the compound, or I'm sorry, in the unit on the unit that have a phone. Like everyone had a phone. I didn't have a phone because I'm short time. I get called. That's introducing contraband to a correctional facility. No. That's where I shape shifted, helped others, read a lot of books. But yeah, It was just, it was an experience.

It was very humbling. But in there, it was some of the worst things I've ever seen, like screams that I hear that will never leave me. And, and, you know, just got to deal with it. And I'm, I'm in therapy now. I got out in the fall of 2018. And then I moved to Boko Ritone. But now I'm coming out. And now, since I've been away longer than just a little slap on the wrist, it's, uh,

no car it's no money it's nobody to back you but i got a lot of shoes so there's the there's the shoe thing so i had sold x amount of pairs and that paid for my first last insecurity and um that's that's how i was able to get on my feet and then i started working at a restaurant worked at this restaurant for 14 months and then while i was there i would say the last four months or so i started detailing and that had escalated now I have a detailing business then obviously I still sell shoes and then clothes as well I actually did do some DJing after you know I got out of prison and you know it was the nightlife so it's a risk it's it's it's always a gamble you know life's a gamble no matter how you look at it and um I just got lucky you know I got really lucky

there was one incident because you have PRR in Florida the prison really release reoffender act that's three years you sign a form the day you get out you cannot get a violent felony there's serious enhancements on it where they'll throw you under the jail right so a guy had you know talked to one of the bartenders in a way i didn't like then he threw coffee and he called her a bad word and i happened to be throwing the garbage out he happened to be walking by me and he happened to swing on me first and I happened to fend myself and that was well I was under the PRR and self-defense though so there's nothing they can do but that was like the only thing you know and I'm telling to everybody out there if you got discipline structure and routine

then you got it all I mean if you can do that and you could just keep on pushing through pushing through pushing through. It was just so many years of doing things illegally, not doing them right, getting caught, getting caught for something stupid, so dumb that could have been avoided. And if you push through all that, I mean, you know, it's it. But the community itself, every Christmas time, I have a lot of sneakers. I donate 30 to 40 pairs, all brand new Jordans, don't care how much they are. And just clothing, all clothing, like I said, with tags and, you know, to the community. That way, it's so many more kids can get, you know, nice gifts that might not have gotten any gifts. I've cut kids' hair. I've gone to institutions to speak. You know,

I'm trying, and now I'm trying, I like this platform. I would love to get into this type of work as well. I can still keep all that going, but if life takes me this way, then that's more important because I did a lot of the damage. I did a lot of destruction and I did a lot of wrong. And yes, I did not get caught for a lot of the things I did. But, you know, it's just I want to help, man. And it's just when you go through something like that, it's a prison. And once again, it just shapeshifted my whole mind. I see these guys that are never getting out. They're never going home. Like there's no out date. There's no parole. There's no,

you might not go home at 60. You know, you're not going home, period. And when I get out, I'm going to make things right. That's what I've been doing now. Now, my parents did everything they could. I was just a maniac. I just ran wild. I did, you know, whatever I needed to do. I just always

did what I needed to do. Disregarded the law. But now that I'm a law-abiding citizen, it feels so much better to know that when I leave here, I can pull out of the parking lot and I'm not going to be targeted or pulled over. You know, and it's just great. Hey, you guys, I appreciate you watching. Do me favor. Hit the subscribe button at the bell so you get notified of videos just like this. Also, we're going to leave all of Patrick's, all of his social media links in the description box so you can go there, follow him, and check out his stuff. Really do appreciate you guys watching. Thank you very much. See you.