Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - My Biggest Regret As a Criminal...

Episode Date: February 11, 2024

My Biggest Regret As a Criminal...

This is all happening in Georgia. We're going to Florida. It's a completely different state. What could go wrong? So I had a assistant, a secretary, that helped me with paperwork and just managing things and dealing with different people. So what happened was We were up and moved We had a place in Salt Lake City, Utah

We had just bought a house Heated floors in the bathroom So that would have made our third house And fully furnished So we had it to where we could go to any one of our houses No suitcases So we didn't have like if we went to our house in Tennessee We could just show up and walk in

All we had to do was get perishables out of the refrigerator You know get milk or bread or stuff other than that it was fully loaded ready to go baby furniture baby swing i mean like almost identical with two cars each house with two cars so we had a um place in it was a rough life it was a rough life we had a ton of money but all right so we we're in um salt lake city and um so i mean i i've been dealing with a girl in prison that told that arrested that told on me So when she told, I guess she brought our information of what we did in Florida to the Florida FBI's attention. Is that the first time the FBI got involved?

No, he was kind of looking for us anyway. That was an escaped arrest, which probably should have been a different tune, where we nearly barely escaped being arrested one time. They were after us, and it was the FBI. Because we were staying in one of the hotels there, and we paid. with somebody else's charge card. No, we had paid with a woman's charge card that we had, right, that came on the FBI's radar. So what happened was while we were in the hotel,

we left. We left out of the hotel for the day. We were out. I can't remember where we went. We went and did something for the entire day. We were gone for the entire day. So when we came back at like 7 p.m., like we left at 8 a.m.

and came back at 7 p.m. So when we came back, the room key would work you know and in the room we've got our laptop and you know all our baby stuff so our daughter is at um my with my mom and so we're like we can't even get in the freaking room what the heck's going on so we go down to the front desk or we call the front desk we leave because i'm like i don't know let's call right so we call and there something like there was a problem with the credit card we couldn't charge the credit card i'm like oh that's nothing we'll give them another credit card didn't i'm like you know what never mind that let's just pay this get our stuff and get out of

here. Right. So we offer, this is an almost arrest, so we offer to pay. So they're telling us the bill, I said, well, how much is the bill? We'll bring cash. She said, it's $1,200. I said, okay, we'll get you $1,200. I think we've been there a night and a half or whatever. So we go and pull $1,200 cash. And so I pull her up front, I say, go in there and pay, keep the phone on, keep your phone on, you know, in your ear. So she goes in and she pays, and I'm sitting there out front waiting and then the sheriff pulls up. I'm like, get the F out of here. So I call her up the wife and I say, hey, go, go, go, go, go.

The sheriff just pulled up. I think the plan was because it's a front and a back. Yeah. So we had circled and I told her, I'm going to let you in the front. If something happens, I'm going to pull around the back and get you. Or we had been there and noticed there was a front and a back. So I don't remember what the plan was, but when I saw the sheriff, I said, so I pull out. when the sheriff pulls up, he's confused.

He's like, what? So I pull out, run around the back, and I tell her, come out of the back door. So she's at the counter, and this is what she tells me. She tells the guy, like, she gave him the $1,200, and he gave her a receipt. So she's like, okay, can you give me the key so I can get back in the room? So he's like, hold on a second. So he's got her holding on. So he's talking to her about something, and she goes, hold on one second, Gary.

I got to take this call. So she's talking to me. And I tell her, I said, the sheriff just pulled out leave. So she just turns around and she just heads toward the back. Meanwhile, the sheriff is coming in the front door. She's coming out the back. So as I pull up, she gets in the car, closes the door. I see the sheriff running down the steps and we pull out of there and go.

So we pull out of the hotel and we're going up the street and six sheriff cars is yeah. It's unbelievable. All for a hotel bill. Once again, because we paid that hotel bill. Right. We didn't get charged, nice. That was the almost arrest.

Then we went and stayed at another hotel, but anyway, the arrest, I got arrested getting off the airplane here in Tampa. So somebody told on me that I had committed to fraud here in Tampa, so they were looking for me in Tampa. We were living in Salt Lake, and we had made an agreement that we weren't going back to Tampa. It's like, look, under no circumstances did we go back to Tampa? Right.

So we violated that agreement because we're going to get our deal. daughter baptized so we decided to go back which was like Colby's like this is insane it's it's so far from Colby's life I know except for the baptism he's like that's like this whole thing that's the only thing he's like oh that's nice and that's worth the arrest that was worth the arrest so I do have something in something I do have something in common with these two scumbags. It's amazing to me because like I set the standard

and then I just go against it. I'm saying to her, I'm telling my wife, if we go to Florida, we don't fly in, we'll just drive in. So we can't be detected. And we get a direct flight from Salt Lake City right into Tampa, which is where they're waiting for us. So what happened is

that morning, we were dealing with a girl in prison that I guess had told on us or joined the investigation. And she told on our secretary, So like the girl in prison knew that I was collecting people's prisoners information and using their identity. So she told our secretary, this is the most bizarre thing, she said, I have a girl in here's social security number. Let me give it to you. So she gives it to our secretary, the girl's social security number, right?

And then the next morning they kick in her door and say, hey, you have a social security number of another inmate in jail. That's what they take her to jail for. I'm saying to myself like how could you give me something somebody social and then arrest me for having it that doesn't even make it. Well you know what's even funnier now is like now used to be if you just had their information it was identity theft right now it's not no it's not now it's like it never should have been like if if you have someone's like it doesn't mean I was going to do something with it

doesn't mean anything I just have it in my possession somebody gave it to me somebody wrote it down on something wrote it down and I grab it like you write it on yours on a piece of paper and I grabbed the paper and I write something else and then I have the paper and you're like, hey, this is a social security number. Right. Well, I didn't know that. Like, if I have 50 social security numbers, what if I'm only going to commit a crime with these two and I never do anything with the other ones?

They're saying, no, no, all 50. You could have. What do you mean? I could have. That's like going into the bank and slipping the cashier a note and getting $3,000, but you charge me with everything that's in the vault. But you could have gone in the vault. But I didn't, and I didn't intend to.

You remember we and John Gordon, you started arguing about that, intended loss? Yeah. Like, John goes like, you intended to get all that money. You said, the bank has 50 billion when you intended to get all of it. You know what I'm saying? Ridiculous. So, so what happened then? All right.

So, so, so, um, she gave, they arrest, they arrest the secretary. That's who, because when my wife and I traveled, we traveled under different identities. Which agent? What was his name? Lavender. Yes. So I traveled under a separate identity. So they wanted to know if we were coming to town.

So if they told the, the, the. flights coming in, they wouldn't see our names. So they had to know what our names was. So they arrested our secretary for possession of a person's social security number so that our secretary would give them the names that we flew in under. Right. So that next morning, we get up at 6 a.m. And a person we deal with called up and said that our secretary name was Jojo had been

arrested that night. And I'm like, what? That doesn't make sense. She never, this woman never committed any crimes. All she ever did was book rental cars, book hotels. That's it. That's all she did was set appointments and book flights and trips. So I'm like, how could she be arrested?

So that was the day we were flying in. So we were on Salt Lake City time. So we were flying out at noon. No, we were flying out at 10 a.m. and arriving at like 5 or 6 p.m. Florida time because they were like three hours back. So my wife, we go into a full planet because they call us like 5 in the morning. We go into a full panic.

My wife tells me 50 times, I don't think we should go to Tampa. I don't think we should go to Tampa. I don't think we should go to Tampa. And I'm like, wait a minute, what are you talking about? Jojo, our secretary, is in Georgia. This is all happening in Georgia. We're going to Florida.

It's completely different state. What could go wrong? The FBI is not a national law. I have no idea the FBI is looking for us. You think what? It's local cops. I think it's local cops. Do you not even know that it could be,

Are you thinking it's definitely associated with you? Well, I, like, I convinced myself that maybe she was doing something she didn't tell us she was doing to get arrested. Right. Because, like, under no circumstances, should she ever be arrested? If you're, just because you're working for me booking flights and hotels and rental cars, like, there's no reason. It doesn't mean they're committed a crime or know that a crime is even being committed. Right. For them to kick in the door and arrest you.

That doesn't make sense. it doesn't make sense so when we hear from her she's like they arrested me because I had somebody's social security number I'm thinking like that really got far-fledged because I'm like that doesn't even make sense at all

yeah plus it's so trivial too it's trivial it's like that's a minor charge like for them to kick in your door right you know everything seemed up in the air but my wife was insistent that let's not go she goes think about it for one moment this is the thing she said to me that I look back and go oh my God

Like, if I could just go back to those moments in my life, how different everything would be. So she kept, she told me, she says, everybody knows that we're going to Tampa today. Right. Are you sure we should go? Absolutely positive. What could go wrong?

Right. Then as we're boarding the plane, right? We're in the airport. She goes, I just want to say for the record that if something happens, I absolutely did not want to take this trip. It's like everything about her whole being was like, I don't think we should go on this trip. Right.

And I'm like, ah, we're okay, we're okay. You know what it was that I got... It's the emboldened that you keep getting away with everything, so you become emboldened and taking more and more risks that don't seem more and more risky. Right. You know when it was that I got the bad feeling that we shouldn't go? Is when they put the handcuffs on?

Oh, yeah. That was the second bad feeling. When we were putting our overhead baggage on and sitting down, something overcame me, like some dread overcame me. And I'm like, oh, my God. And I remember looking, I'm looking around and there's people getting on the plane. And I told my wife, I said, let's get off the plane. She goes gladly.

So we go to get up and I said, never mind. Never mind. I'm just overreacting. That intuition. Yes. The dread said, get off this plane. Now. And I said, never mind.

So anyway, so we fly to Tampa. And when we land, we land to Tampa. And they're letting people off the plane. So when we get off the plane, they grab me by both sides. They grab my wife. So when we come out of the doorway, you know how you got the tunnel? Yeah. So there's a door right there.

So they grab my wife and take her. She goes first and they grab her and take her out the door. They grab me and they call me by my name. And I said, no. my name is Bob Evans they're like really yeah they go do you have any ID Bob I'm like of course I have ID

so I show him the idea and he looks at it just smiles puts it in his pocket I like nice I know for a fact that you're Mr. Allen let's go so they take me off and and they question me

and of course I pissed the the agent off like royally I, you know, he's telling me, like, I have, I have this, I have that, I have this, I have this, you know, so you might as well go ahead and confess. And I say to him, well, if you have all that, do you really need my confession? He goes, you want to make this easier? You want to make this hard. I said, I kind of want to make it somewhere in the middle.

Okay, you're a smart ass. So they leave. And I go to jail. And they let my wife go. It was nice. So I was arrested. You know what I was arrested for? possession of the ID that I gave.

That you handed them. That's the most, yeah, that's the most obvious thing that they have on you. They have lots of on you, but this is a very clear, there's two years. Well, I have, I'm arrested for that, and then I'm arrested for being on the phone call where my secretary got the social security number. So she gave my secretary the social security number, then they called me three way. So they arrested me for being on that one phone call. So I had a warrant in Georgia and I had a warrant in Florida.

So, I mean, my wife bonded me out, but the next morning, the FBI, they put a hold on me. I couldn't get out before the hold got dropped. That was my most thrilling arrest, like, which I look back at, yes. That's thrilling. I wouldn't describe it as thrilling. But, yeah. But, I mean, it was, in my heart of hearts, I know that absolutely, like, all the warning signs that she's screaming at me, like, never got. me to waver one minute.