Veteran Chat Project
Veteran Chat Project
From Army Tanker to Online Guardian: A Veteran's Fight Against Child Exploitation
Join us for a profound journey with our guest, Mike, who takes us from his days as an Army tanker to becoming a real-life hero in the fight against child exploitation online. Raised in a tough neighborhood, Mike's path to heroism was far from easy. We dive into his early struggles, his deployment to Iraq, and his transition into a family man. In a powerful conversation, he takes us through his recruitment into the Hero Child Rescue Corps and shares a heart-wrenching story of a student who fell victim to an online predator.
Imagine a world where the front lines of protecting children from online predators are manned by an Army veteran. Mike, a former Army tanker, now uses his skills as a computer forensics specialist to fight the dark side of technology. We discuss the chilling reality of child exploitation online, the importance of monitoring children's online activity and the role technology plays in catching predators. Mike's tales from the trenches of online safety will leave you on the edge of your seat.
Finally, we follow Mike's journey of personal struggle and triumphant recovery. From battling depression to becoming a beacon of hope for children, Mike's story is both harrowing and inspiring. We venture into his life beyond the army, his remarkable transition into acting, and his impactful journey teaching children about online safety. We also wander into the scenic landscapes of Reno, Nevada and get a glimpse into Mike's life post-retirement from the army. Join us for a truly compelling exploration of Mike's journey from a troubled childhood to becoming a real-world hero.
I'll just jump out and stay out Just by then. Hurr NOT THE BOYO. Hurr NOT THE BOYO. Hey everybody, what's up? Kyle and KZ.
Speaker 2:More people get their voice out there and I think they'll realize that we're all the same. We're all the same. KZ decided to f*** and do it.
Speaker 1:Took the bait, so we were ready Challenge, challenge, challenge, chat project, words encouraged to not be okay all the time. Hey, what's up everybody, it's Kyle. Hey, what's up everybody, it's Kyle And KZ. And we have the Veteran Chat Project. It's easy Cutting out.
Speaker 2:You there? Yeah, i'm here. Sorry, yeah, freaking lagged. I'm here. What's up everybody? Another motivational Monday. I got an awesome guest today. Whether you know it or not, he's a hero for all of us, especially his parents. Mike, what's up? We're going to have him explain what he does here in a minute, but it's not to have you on, dude How you doing.
Speaker 4:Man, i am honored to be on. I appreciate it. I'm doing fantastic man.
Speaker 1:Awesome, so he actually. So you heard from us, heard about us through Alder, right, James, yeah, yeah, skip-o. Yeah, he's actually. If I had to hand out like a top badge, it would be to him like a top fan badge, oh man.
Speaker 4:I love me some skip. Yeah, i was a tanker with Skip back in the early 2000s, deployed to Iraq with him Nice. So last time I saw him was when I left Iraq. Actually, i ETSed out the army for a little bit, so back in 2003. Oh, dang it. Yeah, i'm an old man 43. So you were a badass tanker right there.
Speaker 2:dude, That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, what um? I'm losing train of thought here already. Dude, no worries, you're in a different environment. Yeah, i know The new spaces got me out dude. Why the army?
Speaker 4:Why the army?
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's start there.
Speaker 4:Yeah well, so I grew up in a very poor area. I grew up without a dad. I was the only white kid in all Puerto Rican neighborhood and with all black and Puerto Rican schools, and just kind of went through a bunch of hell growing up. You know, as I grew up I just I hung out with a bunch of thugs, did a bunch of stupid stuff breaking into cars and stealing stuff and really had no direction in life. None of my friends had a good job. When I was I think when I was 18, my big aspiration in life was to work in a factory and make nine bucks an hour, and if I can do that, i would know I'd made it.
Speaker 4:But you know as time went on, the more and more I looked around I was like man, this isn't, this isn't what I want. And so I actually went to broadcasting school, and so I was. I was doing overnight stuff at an oldie station, you know. So here's Mike, you know, here's Mike from the hood. Listen to the gangster rapping stuff. And I'm working over nights listening to, like the Beatles and Chubby Checker and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:And I just hated it, man, i hated it. And so I remember, i remember the first non-trashy girlfriend I ever had. She had both parents, she lived in a nice house, had a car that was from that same decade, which I didn't know was a thing you know. Before I met her And knowing her dad, her dad told me that he was an Army And he worked at the Springfield Massachusetts MEP station, and so he told me some stuff about the Army. And so one night, when I was at the radio station and I was making 750 an hour, 24 hours a week, just just hating it, and I remembered some of the stuff that he told me And I was like you know what, let me check out this Army stuff. And so I went on a website And as soon as I went on an Army website. The first thing I saw was an M1 tank And I said do you want? yeah, got, me, got me yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I said do you want to explore an M1 tank? I said yes. I do, and so I hit up the recruiter.
Speaker 4:I was like, hey man, my name is Mike, i want to join Army, i want to be a tanker. He was like, all right, bet, i'll be at your house at 6.30. So he came over. So he came over my house the next night and showed me like a little motivational video. I don't know if you guys see that one. It's like it's really old. It's like a tank. It's like. It's like everyone's seen the video.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like you know, you don't want to as a tanker I know all the torsion bars are just busted after that, but it looked cool.
Speaker 1:It looked cool, it gets a lot of people to sign up.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and so I joined Army man And so I did that for four years And, like I said, i went to OIF1 with Skip Alder And you know. But at that time I was starting a family. You know, i had a daughter. I left for Iraq, my daughter was one, my then wife was eight months pregnant, and so I was in my tank and we were going up to Mosul and outskirting, like Baghdad and stuff like that, and Red Cross message never came, you know. So I was just stressing, you know, my son was going to be born anytime. And eventually, you know, i found out my son was born and I say, you know what? I just I need to get out and be a family man.
Speaker 4:Well, so while I was in Iraq, i went to the little makeshift MWR, you know, the movie theater, and so we were in there watching a movie and this guy came in and he said, hey, the Green Berets are here now. They need this building for a mission. Everybody needs to get out. And so I, yeah, so then I left the MWR and I saw the helicopter land and the Green Berets got out and I was like, wow, got the freaking rock stars, yeah. And so I eventually did get out of the Army for a few years just doing like stupid stuff, just trying to be a regular guy, and I freaking hated it. Well, the Green Beret thing always stuck in my head And so eventually I was like man, i need to get back into this, i need to get back into the Army, i need to try this Green Beret thing before I get too old. And so that's what I did. I went to, i went to 82nd Airborne as infantry, had to go to infantry based training And like, and then maybe like a month, month and a half after I got to 82nd Airborne, i went to Special Forces Recruiter. I told him what was up and I went to selection. Three weeks later I got selected. Yeah, i got selected. And you know, after maybe a little less than a year and a half, i put my Green Beret on and my MOS was a 18 Charlie Special Forces Engineer Sergeant, and so I did that up until 2014.
Speaker 4:My last deployment I came back home and my body just shut down on me And after all the MRIs and stuff, like I was in just tremendous pain, man, tremendous pain. And after all the MRIs, my doc, who actually used to be a Green Beret until he went over and became a PA. He was like Mike dude, you can't do that stuff anymore. So you have two options We can either attempt to hide you out and you can do paperwork for the rest of your career, or you can take a full medical retirement. So I was like I'm not a paperwork guy, man, so give me that retirement. So I took that full retirement and then, while I was retiring, i got recruited into what I do now And so this guy came up to me and he worked for the. It's called the Care Coalition Care Coalition. What they do is they help. Green Beret is transitioning to the real world because in reality, special Forces Engineer, like what do I do? Explosives, demolitions, breaching, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Not a lot of real world applications. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:That doesn't work. if I'm managing Taco Bell, i can't work.
Speaker 4:So he came to me and was like hey man, they just started this program and it's called the Hero Child Rescue Corps. It stands for Human Exploitation Rescue Operatives. He said what it is is they take wounded and disabled special operations guys like itself and they train them at computer forensics to help take down pedophiles and save kids. Are you in? Yes, and I saw the recruiting video and then I thought about it because, because of what I did in the army, when we get out we're throwing that big money jobs. You know you go make $200, $300k a year, you know, being like a mercenary or contract and stuff like that, and then for this thing to take down pedophiles at the time it was an unpaid 10 month internship Oh, yeah, yeah. So I was like all right, make buttloads of money real quick over here being a mercenary or get next to no pay, but take down pedophiles and serve a better purpose. Let me go do that. Yeah, And so because I knew I wouldn't get paid jacket first, and then, when I got brought on full time at the end of 10 months, if you do good at people like you, you get offered a position with Homeland Security Investigations, but then when you start you're still starting at the low level.
Speaker 4:So I knew, even when I got brought on full time I would still be struggling money wise. It wasn't a lot of money, but I knew in the end it would pay off because in the end, you know, it's really good money, great benefits and stuff like that. And, like I said, you serve a better purpose. You know, and that's me. I always I feel like I need to serve a better purpose. Yeah.
Speaker 4:So that's what I did, and I've been doing that for nine years now. Move to Reno, reno, nevada. Aside from that, aside from doing the forensics, taking down pedos and saving kids, i'll go to schools. I'll go to people's houses, i'll do online presentations and all on events, online safety. You know, i'll talk about ways to protect yourself, ways to protect your kids and all this other stuff. I give a lifeline. I give a lifeline to the kids in schools. You know, when I go to schools, i tell them hey guys, if, if you're ever being sexually extorted because you sent a picture that you shouldn't have, or something like that, yeah, i get it. You're embarrassed, you're scared, stuff like that. But if you think you don't have anybody to reach out to, you can always reach out to me, and so I leave my business cards, i put my business cards in an office you know stuff like that and and kids come to me. Man, Oh good dude.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they send me emails talking about stuff that's going on and you know, even not right away, you know I get emails months down the road. You know kids need help or parents. Parents will reach out. You know educators will reach out. They'll hear something and they'll be like, hey, you know what I got a guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fuck yeah, dude.
Speaker 4:And then they reach out to me and then we get a case started and, you know, sometimes we get the bad guys, but overall, you know, we let the kids know that, hey, you're safe now, like you're not in trouble, you didn't do anything illegal. It's your fault, you know, because these guys, man, these guys that sexually extorted these kids and adults as well, bro, this is what they do. You know, this is what they do every single day, from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. They work on manipulation. So, yes, doing this stuff they're going to be smarter than your typical 12 year old kid, than a cell phone, right? so it's not your fault reach out.
Speaker 2:We're going to help you out within the 9 years you've done this because, like you know, technology is advanced. So far do you find it.
Speaker 1:Is it harder now?
Speaker 2:is it getting harder to catch these pedophiles or is it getting easier on your end because of the evolution of technology?
Speaker 4:you know it's it's actually a bit of both. It's actually a bit of both. I know that sounds kind of weird, but so because of the advancement of technology, there's more pedophiles out there doing their thing, so with that you have more people doing their thing, and so some of these guys are just dumb as a bag of rocks. They're going on a regular website and trying to Google pictures of naked kids, like literally putting that pictures of naked kids search and stuff like that and it just gives you an email.
Speaker 1:It's like Billy over in Nebraska was talking about Googling kids and you're like, alright. Billy shut it down, billy yeah, yeah, exactly so we do get those guys, yeah.
Speaker 4:So we call those guys low hanging fruit and guys who are not really tech savvy, but because, with the advances of technology and going online and all the apps and stuff like that, they're just out there doing their thing, yeah. But then you have guys that are actually very smart at hiding this stuff and those guys are a lot harder to catch.
Speaker 4:But we do catch those guys though and I of course, i'm sure you guys realize that you can't go over the ways that these guys no, yeah, yeah, but yeah, but we do still catch these guys. You heard of Dark Web yeah. Dark Web is just filled with child pornography and we've caught some major players on the Dark Web because a lot of these guys they're smart, but they'll mess up just one time.
Speaker 4:They'll mess up just one time that's all it takes that's all it takes, man, and they'll send that signal to law enforcement. And then we'll go, man, we'll go. I'm on a team, so my team is called ICAC Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and that is comprised of, you know, homeland Security Investigations, local PD, sheriff's Office, fbi, attorney General's Office, so we all work together. Each of our agents, you know, we'll build cases and then, when we have enough evidence in that person, we'll go knock on that guy's door. You know, hey, what's up? heard you like naked kids. And then yeah, and so they'll go in and clear the building. Yeah, yeah, so they go in and clear the building.
Speaker 4:And it is funny too, right, because when I first started, i'm actually the only guy that's not armed, it's like so, the the most trained guy, the guy that did this shit for a living yeah, just thinking that so at first everybody was like alright, guys, we're gonna stack up on this door, protect the green beret, make sure he's safe but don't worry, I got my cell phone yeah, I'm good.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so they're sitting there with the lawnmills and have like thumb drive, like alright, I'm ready, you know about to throw my laps out like a Captain America shield or something yeah, do what you gotta do yeah, and so when a site is safe, i'll go in with my little nerd tech, my nerd wizardry stuff, and I'll determine if that's the pedophile, if he has child pornography on his computer, on his cell phone, on his hard drives you know stuff like that And if it's, if it's determined that he does, then I'll take all that stuff back to my lab and I'll process it and I'll go through everything with a fine tooth comb. Yeah, and, and I see, like every every day I work, bro I see I see the worst of the worst that humanity has to offer as far as child sexual exploitation, and we're talking about all the way up to, you know, 17 year olds, all the way down to Literally just got back from the hospital and they still have their vocal cord attached, you know. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I just made me, so I have to see all this stuff, yeah, i know.
Speaker 4:So I see all this stuff and I get everything. I separate the legal from illegal and then what I do is I take the You know like the four worst pictures and the four worst videos that I could find And that suspects computer phone, and then I write in graphic detail what I'm seeing. So now when the judge reads that and the jury hears, the jury hears that yeah, what, what it's on there? They're like holy cow, this is freaking terrible. You know, cuz, cuz, we want that shotgun on. Yeah, you know, we don't, we don't want to downplay this stuff. You know like, oh, i just, you know, oh, he, he might have come across this stuff on axis.
Speaker 2:I try like humanized this piece of shit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah and so. So that's what I do for work, you know, but to That's definitely got to be the the dark side of it.
Speaker 1:You know, like very fulfilling. Like you were saying before we got on, as long as you can kind of compartmentalize, being able to Repeatedly kind of see the worst. Like you said, he banded. He has to offer like Yeah, it takes a special kind of person. So first of all, i mean like fucking thank you for doing that. I mean I have a kid myself, kz's a father of four, i mean I'm sure a lot of our listeners or parents and yeah, yeah, i have three months. So I mean like that kind of stuff's huge. And even, like we touched on before we started as well, like You know, we were never really given a playbook on how to raise kids with this technology that's available and Like it's like it's also like It's in technology that it's not supposed to be in. Like I heard one was like YouTube kids is like has So many like child predator profiles on there that you just really shouldn't you let your kid get a YouTube kids profile.
Speaker 1:Snap chat, don't let them use snapchat because if they're like locations and it's on, they could come find right where they're at kind of stuff, and yeah, yeah so I'll do snap, snap, test, the worst man That's what. that's what the dad edge says all the time that Larry Hagner, he's a good, he's got a good podcast on his, a lot bigger than ours, but so snapchats like he's got a 17 year old and he's like nope.
Speaker 2:No snapchat, at least you know if it's up to me. But the Yeah, dude, once the internet is crazy and technology is crazy, once they get, once they get a hold of technology, they're open, they're susceptible to the entire world. Dude, and that stuff got my wife and I kind of sit back. I mean I don't know what you do this or not, but you just got monitor them really closely and just make sure you know what your kids are doing. The speaking, i mean go ahead man, and I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:So snapchat, what snapchat does not just for kids, before adults as well, it provides a false Sense of security, right? so so a lot of time people will think, okay, if I set this picture to seven seconds, i Could take a naked picture of myself, i could send this picture out and then it'll disappear forever for seven seconds, you know, after seven seconds, man, this is not the case. I've worked entire cases with stuff on snapchat, right, and I always, i always tell people, man, general rule of thumb once you send it on the internet.
Speaker 1:Like that to be there for us out there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it says it goes away. Tell me right now it doesn't go away. And it's easy.
Speaker 4:It's easy to to record and get, get pictures of whatever somebody said into you without anybody knowing hmm, you know and I'm not gonna go over how that happens, but but it happens and a lot of people's lives get ruined because of it. And then another thing with snapchat and online and stuff like that tiktoks and I tell the kids in schools of stuff too, and it's, it's scary but it's the truth, right, a lot of these people what they'll do is they'll post their location, right. So like, for example, say, a snapchat, you have 3,000 people following you. I guarantee you don't know 3,000 people and I guarantee some of those 3,000 people are looking for the right opportunity to strike. Some of those people want to harm you, right?
Speaker 4:so if I'm a 12 year old girl and I'm posting on snapchat? Oh my god, me and my bestie, are Our parent free this weekend, right, this amazing resort, living life on her own? you know, well now, these pedophiles and these monsters that that are watching this girl's snapchat. Well now, they know what she looks like, they know what her friend looks like, they know that she has no parental supervision.
Speaker 1:That knows exactly where they're at.
Speaker 4:Exactly where the location is. So now they Google, they type up Google Maps All right, where's the set? Oh shoot, you know what's an hour away. I'm gonna go get her now with the quickness. Her and her friend become a victim of sex trafficking Never to be seen again. Right, and these, these sex traffickers. How?
Speaker 1:fucking crazy, it is Yeah.
Speaker 4:Sex traffickers will use these people up and then, when they can't get anything out of them anymore, what do they do? they dispose of them. By that I mean they kill yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And that's and it sucks to say, you know, and when I tell kids this in schools, it shocks them. You know, i have some kids that are getting taken out of my presentations As big as they're crying because they're like, oh my god, i've done this exact same thing. Hmm, you know, and reality hits. Wow, you know. And somebody's kids, dave, has some scares. Yeah, they've had some scares, like almost became a victim of sex trafficking or they become a victim of sex distortion. You know stuff like that And it's terrible, man, it's terrible and it's every single school that I go to, like I've gone to elementary school.
Speaker 2:I was just about to ask that, mike, like, how young is, how young is too young to start these conversations with these kids? You know what?
Speaker 4:It's a good question. Yeah, the youngest girl that I've seen online that made videos of herself, nasty videos of herself, and sent them out Was about six years old.
Speaker 2:Oh my god.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so so was that, like because somebody basically, like you know, talked her into that, or, obviously, like it wasn't like on her own, like doing Hopefully. But, you know, is that That's just what we were saying earlier too is like how easy it is for people to just contact your kids.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's probably what it was. Somebody did what's called grooming. Somebody probably groom that girl. You know, by grooming you gain that kids trust. You know. So, like If you talk to the kid and you're trying to find out about their life and they tell you their mommy and daddy are getting divorced. Man, you know what My parents got divorced. I know how hard that is. You know, here, talk to me about it. You know I'm here for you, right? or? Wow, mom's ordering pizza tonight. Pizza, my favorite food. Wow, pizza is my favorite food. No, and they just, they just do this, right, they just do this. And so grooming, grooming can happen over a couple hours. Groming can happen over many, many months. You know. So, once they gain that kids trust, kids sending that stuff out. Now that specific Six-year-old girl I'm not sure She was actually a unidentified victim, just she was just in some videos that I came across on a guy's computer. So, yes, yeah, so so where they came from, the context behind all that stuff, i'm not even sure.
Speaker 1:So Just present you today.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so. So when I go to the elementary schools My presentation is different than, say, at a high school. Okay, i don't, yeah, i don't. I don't go into graphic detail. Yeah, i still tell a good amount of detail. I kind of vanilla it up, but I still tell some. You know some stuff to make sure that they're safe. Yeah, you know, and if they have any questions they can ask their mom or dad. Educator, you know stuff like that.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, so, depending on their age, i it gets teller for that, like I have, i actually have like three different presentations that I do for the kids and also a presentation that I do For parents and educators.
Speaker 4:So typically when I go to a school, i'll do like, say, i go to a high school, right, so the the first, the first presentation I'll do is say nine and tenth grade, seconds, 10th and 11th and 12th, and they're high school, So it's all the same presentation. And then I'll come back at nighttime, probably about six, six, thirty at night, and I'll give a presentation to the parents and the teachers and the tenants, you know, tell them how to, how to, why That's for the signs, what to watch out for, how to keep the kids safe and also if their kid ever goes up to them and Tells them something To let them know that you, as a parent, are their safe space. Yes, i get it, man. I get it as a parent. You know you don't want to think of your child. You don't want to think of your 13 Child, 13 year old kid, as going online, talking with adult men and doing nasty, nasty stuff on video.
Speaker 1:You don't want to think that man, that's terrible.
Speaker 4:That's terrible. But the reality is, if it happens, they have to know that they can come to you. Hey, mom, dad, look, i messed up, i'm in trouble. I sent some videos. Now They want $500 or they said that they're gonna release it to the world, you know. So Yeah, the parent can be disappointed, parent can be mad, sad stuff like that. But first and foremost the parent has to be there for the kid Because The kids not gonna get the help that they need and if you know, yeah that if something else comes up in the future the kids gonna Like what.
Speaker 4:I can't turn to mom because she's oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she flipped out and yeah yeah, not like. I mean not like, it's not something to flip out about. But you got a, like you said, you got to be that safe space, you got to stay there And then, like, once they go away, you Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:I had a case. You know, i gave a presentation at a high school and two weeks later I get an email. This kid, he was talking to this pretty girl on Instagram and one thing led to another. He sent, he sent a picture that he shouldn't have, and then she's like boom, gotcha.
Speaker 4:And And by that time she had gotten all this information. You know, she knew all the guys, friends where he went to school his parents, name, stuff like that and so she said hey, you need to send me this amount of money or I'm gonna release it to the world, right? So this kid, he sent her the money. He had a job, but he wasn't making much. Well, then she wanted more, and so now he had to go and get all this money from his Friends. He had to burn all these bridges with his friends by taking money from him, hitting up family. You know, hey, i can't really tell you what's going on, but I need this money.
Speaker 4:And he was paying this girl and, and his life wasn't shambles, you know, he wasn't sleeping on night, he was shaking because he was just so scared of stuff happening and he didn't want to tell his dad because he was scared of how his dad Would take it. So he came to me, we got with him, we got with the school principal because the stuff was happening at school, and Then we called the dad. We had a meeting with the dad and the dad, of course, was disappointed, but first and foremost, the dad wanted to be there for his son. So anything and everything that we needed, the dad was there For us and the dad was there for his son, you know. And so now that kid is, that kid is safe, he doesn't have to worry about getting money and you know stuff like that, so you know. So that's why it's so important to just Calm yourself down, take a deep breath and just be there for your kid when winning if they mess up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's definitely when I feel like cuz, i mean, we were, you know, 13 in a different time. You know, you know it was just you weren't Like. You said you, your little mistake that you made as a 13 year old ain't gonna come back and haunt you like that. You know, it's just it's. It's actually really fucked up to think like I know I like I've heard of it just in listening to like other podcasts and stuff, and only Recently have I like really thought about like how actually much that shit actually happens and it's Yeah, it's alarming. Like another one They said on there was like there's so many Predators or pedophiles or whatever you want to call them, and there's not enough people in your position actually that That are, like you said, it's not a competitive job, there's not enough people doing it to take down the amount of people that are Being like that, are going after kids, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's like What are some ways that people can then can kind of like Like arm themselves against this sort of thing, like prepare themselves like for I mean like Myself or you know, kz? I know we talked about that bar cap. Is that something? that's something like that, or is that specifically, even something you would recommend.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, definitely, so you can. On your kids phone, you can install the bar cap. It's a parental monitoring software and there's there's many different softwares too, so and they're coming out with new stuff all the time. So I would just Google mm-hmm best parental monitoring software. You know 2023 or something. So I know bark most of the schools that I've been to use bark. I know there's one app called mm Guardian and then Guardian it's. So I recommended that app to a friend and she said Mike, my son has been able to defeat all these other parental apps and he freaking hates and I'm guardian because he can't beat it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was gonna be my next question Yeah, yeah, and the thing is, as parents, yeah, we don't, we don't really want to, we don't really want to like be sneaky and spy on our kids, but it's necessary, you know so. So, if you do install that on On your kids phone, maybe hide it, you know, hide it deep inside some folders, maybe create some extra folders and just keep hiding the folders. You know saying like, put one folder in another folder, then another folder in that folder and then hide the app inside there. So it's really hard for them to find right and so. So what these parental apps do is You can set up to where, if the kids sends a text message, it shows exactly what's been sent, to who it's been since.
Speaker 4:If they're trading pictures, it shows that. If they're going online to all these you know different apps and websites and stuff like that They'll show you all that information, pictures, videos. You can do restrictions, you know so. If you don't want your kid accessing apps or websites that are made for people that are, say, 13 years old enough, you could do that. That's dope, yeah, so I remember. I Remember my youngest son messed up in school and he's actually in the kitchen right now, that's So I Remember he messed up in school, right, so I wanted to really restrict his phone, so I installed one of those apps and.
Speaker 4:And and my phone was constantly blowing up, man, he kept trying to. He kept trying to like talk to all these people and trying to access these websites. You know it's like, it's like, oh, christian access, try to access big boobscom. Yeah, stuff like that.
Speaker 4:And so and so this thing is when, when I, when I talk to parents about installing these apps, i always tell him Again, we want to think our kids are innocent and sweet and stuff like that, but the reality is that's not the case, oh yeah. So if the kid, so if the kid is sitting there and talking with his friends and dropping f-bombs, you know, just, dude, just let it go, just just let it go. Kids, kids are gonna be kids. Now, if kids are, if you see a kid is Talking to an adult, or if a kid is saying a bunch of racist stuff, you know, or sexist stuff, You know, stuff like that, like like real hardcore things that are really getting me trouble, yeah, then then step up and be like hey, look, i've seen everything you're doing. You need to cut this crap out, you know, but don't, but, but don't dime yourself out because your kid is Cussing with his friends, you know, especially if the kid doesn't know that that app is on his phone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i'm saying Yeah, for sure, that's. Uh, it's definitely. I know they also. I mean those apps also, like they hunt for keywords too, right, like, like, like it'll trigger you or it'll alarm your phone if, like, it's like suicide or fucking, if they're googling, you know, like you send a picture, like you said, it'll, it'll tell you. So I mean that that kind of stuff's cool. I'll definitely, i'll definitely try to get some of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah like I just know I obviously like I don't have to worry about giving my kid a tablet. I think I think as like well, because my kids too, and I think, as kind of he gets older, it's gonna be kind of less of a thing that people do. Because of what we're talking about now and how dangerous it is. I don't think people are as quick to give a tablet or a device or whatever it is to their kids.
Speaker 4:Well see, the thing is, though, because, because tablets nowadays are so cheap, cell phones are so cheap, a lot of these parents What they're actually doing is, instead of spending time with their kid, or whatever, the tablet has now become the babysitter. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know so.
Speaker 4:I hate it, hate that. Fucking go away. Dad, dad, dad's watching the football game. Here's a tablet. Go freakin have fun. Hmm, you know.
Speaker 4:And then and then you got the freakin six or seven year old Doing whatever you know, and of course the dad doesn't think a seven year old will access that site or whatever. But It's stuff spreading worse and worse. You know it's terrible, man, It's terrible. All you have to do is go into a search bar, misspell one word And hit search and then a whole bunch of you know pornography comes up or something. Now You have that seven year old exposed to freaking hardcore pornography.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's down a rabble, Yeah he's down a rabble, then yeah, and that's not.
Speaker 4:And that's another thing that I tell parents As well. If they do come across this stuff on accident, right, if you have a kid that comes across this stuff And they come to you, don't flip out on them, you know. Explain to them what's going on, explain how to protect themselves. You know, hey, if you come across this stuff, turn it off, press the back button, tell the trust of the adult. Stuff like that. Don't go off on them, right, because you have to think about it, right? So say, say that daddy wants to watch football game. Gives Give this eight or nine year old a tablet. Says here, let me alone, right? Well, now that eight year old accesses some crazy hardcore pornography. Yeah.
Speaker 4:So think about what they're going through. Okay, so so, for example me. I've been doing this job for nine years. I see the worst of the worst every day. I still get shocked, i still get bothered. There's times where I come home and I'm still shaking hell. I had a nightmare about one of my cases. It was last week. I woke up last week And I didn't want to go back to sleep.
Speaker 1:I'm still imagine for that, yeah, so so.
Speaker 4:So imagine this eight year old coming across this stuff for the first time. Imagine what's going through them. Hmm, how, how that's a mentally affecting them. Yeah, how is breaking them down? So that's why you have to be there for the kid and tell them you know, hey, check it out. This is what you do if you come across stuff. But then also, as a parent, you also have the the power to go in there and you can. You can mess around with all the Restrictions, stuff like that on a tablet, on a phone, on a computer, laptop, stuff like that. You could play around with the restrictions. You can't go to this. You know, if you're this age, you can't go to this site. You know stuff like that. Or make the kids only login. You know, just keep them safe. It's not gonna keep them 100% safe, of course, but it will still filter out so much stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my guy got a question for you, the um, it's like you being a parent yourself, like how, how is that, you know, and with the job we do, you know, to come my? you know, growing up, my both my parents were law enforcement. So like, look, you know, as a kid when I girls like me and my parents are super strict, but it was as an adult. Now There's, you know, i understand why they were so strict because they saw, they both saw how you know evil every day. They saw what they were capable of. So of course, when they went home And they parented me, they, you know I was restricted from a lot of stuff just because of the. The stuff They saw is that, does that does? does your work like, affect how you parent your kids?
Speaker 4:You know, with me, not really so my kids so. So I have three kids. Currently, my daughter's 21, i have a 20 year old son and a 17 year old son. So I started this, like I said, nine years ago, when they were much younger. Now what I do is I have taken them, i have sat them down and told them You know what to watch out for, what not to do with, to do, you know, stuff like that. Another thing that I've done is I don't go into graphic, graphic detail, but I have told them about Some of the cases that I've worked on, you know, and the reason for that is I'll tell them Hey, kids, check it out, i'm working this case now. This is how it came to be. You know, this is this is the app that this kid used. This is what this kid sent out. You know this is how the monster trick this kid in the sending this stuff. Mmm.
Speaker 4:So please be careful, don't send this stuff. Yada, yada, yada, you know so, yeah. So so my kids know, then they know if they do get roped up in this stuff They come to me Yeah yeah, and it's not like, it's not like a stay off this app or I'm taking your phone, it's like it looks right Yeah this is what could legitimately happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and yeah, educational standpoint. I think that's a great way to Go about that. I think I would as well, for sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because the thing is you can't Certain apps like really really, really, really bad apps. Yes, okay, don't go on that app. It's nothing much trouble. Okay, but for the most part, if If somebody's friend like if you have a teenage boy or teenage girl and all their friends communicate your snapchat And the only way they communicate, you can't tell that 13 year old girl, look, you are not allowed to go on snapchat. All your friends go on there and they all talk. You are not allowed to go on snapchat. You know, you don't. You don't want to really ban them from going on stuff. Yeah, it's like a. Look, you heard stories about like Girls going to like Catholic schools and our parents be like super strict. Right, as soon as they're 18, man, they go buck wild. Next thing, you know they're making porno and everything like that. You know I'm saying yeah, so you can't, you can't really restrict them, because if you restrict them as soon as they get the chance, you know there's a better chance that they're just gonna go freaking crazy.
Speaker 4:Oh, it's like a spring, You know you know you press the spring, so hard, it's you gotta let go eventually.
Speaker 2:No, that's I mean, that's how I mean I'll be the first to say, i'll admit that myself, like I think that's that's that's why I mean I've take full responsibility for my actions as an 18 year old. But I think that's that's had a lot to do with why I acted out from 18 to 21, just because you know, bro, yeah, i was in his really really strict household. You know, love my, you know, looking back, i understand why my parents did it. I don't I don't hate them for it, but it's like as soon as I, as soon as I joined the army and as soon as I was like that was the first time I was by myself I went fuck, wild dude, feels like I've never done this, this, this, this, this, this. I'm gonna do all that. So, yeah, so yeah, yeah definitely get.
Speaker 2:I definitely understand what you're saying there. Just like that, yeah, like the preacher's daughter, that analogy like yeah, they're always yeah bad.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so, really, man, the best, the best thing you can do, it just educate, you know. and so when I go to these schools, i actually give them Real world, real world example. Oh good, i talked about real world cases. So it's not just some guy going up and saying oh, don't sew your boobs online, because you're gonna get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I give them a real way to do like thanks, see you later, bye Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, yeah. I give them real cases of what happens. You know there was a case where a girl, a guy, got her to show her boobs. Right as These teenagers, they went to the same school girl, showed her boobs. He took the picture and spread around school. Next thing you notice girls get bullied mercilessly and Then not just not just like you're a whore, stuff like that We're talking about like jumped out to school bus and everything like beat up. And so what this girl did was she made a video of herself holding up flashcards describing exactly what happens. Yeah, you know, my name is so, and so I sent a picture. I sent one picture of Of my boobs to one guy. Next flashcard and she's going down. She's going down. Well then, at the end of the video it talks about her more Recent, like pretty soon after that video was made, she ended up killing herself.
Speaker 2:Oh, Shit dude.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, because she just couldn't take it anymore.
Speaker 4:Yeah you know. So this that's real world stuff, you know, so I talked about that. I talked about some of the cases that I've worked on that are now closed, you know, and I talked about like I don't just talk about what happened. I talked about how That person got roped into that stuff. I talked about the grooming, you know what to watch out for, you know stuff like that, and so, and it really hits these kids. It's not so during these presentations, instead of these presentations, you haven't all these kids goofing off and playing around with each other. They're like holy cow. This guy is talking about like real-world stuff. Oh, so, so there all these kids are. They're so focused and I have so many kids coming up to me and asking me questions.
Speaker 1:Yes, what's good that they say.
Speaker 1:Education is the best part. It's good that they see the importance of what you're saying, sure, but I do want to do something real quick that I forgot to do the last two episodes, which is shout out our sponsors mid-show. So I'm gonna take about 30 seconds to Talk about our boys at T House fabrication in Elkmont, alabama. Will Platton was on our show not too long ago actually, so you can catch up on his catch up with him and Everything that he's got going on. He actually showed off one of his projects that they got going in in his personal shop. So Shout out to T House fabrication. If you need anything done a custom sheet metalwork, restorations, custom suspension engine swaps hit them up T House fabrication at gmailcom and also 2567014873. Yeah. So, yeah, i think it's. I think it's great that they, that they're saying like you're saying, like the kids in the grade schools. They're coming up to you and asking these questions and and being very Like, kind of proactive into their own safety.
Speaker 1:I think that's awesome Yeah, and I think that's great that there's already these things in place to kind of educate.
Speaker 1:And It's important to educate, like you said, like through real world, because, like you said, you're not just someone sitting up there Barking off some stories. You're just not another adult talking at them. You're someone that's there and, like you, identified yourself as like I'm here to help you And I will be. And you know, this is. This is what kind of danger that you had no idea you were in. Yeah, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:I mean, like I guess I always thought about like oh yeah, that's you know, you, i, i've scrolled through tick tock and every once in a while There's like you know, there's these apps you stay away from And then like, if I see something like that, i was just like maybe I won't let my kid use that app, but like, who knows, in 10 years it might not be there. One thing I don't want let him watch his cocoa melon. Just, i've seen so many people like, don't let him watch cocoa melon. It's like a brainwashing thing. And I'm like, yeah, sure, i still let him watch it for like one day, and then he's like in a trance. I'm like, oh god, i think it's real. But another thing, too, is like I guess when they're looking on like that YouTube kids and, like you said, if you missed, if you missed, type one thing Though, like be like watching like a Peppa Pig right, but it'll it won't be Peppa Pig, it'll be like a, like an off-brand version of her, like shooting up bleach or something like that.
Speaker 1:Or yeah like telling you how to like go get your mom's credit card and send me your information and all that kind of shit. I guess it's just so much the depths that people go to Exactly to get your kids attention, and I think that that's something that more parents need to pay attention to. Instead of like their own phones and their own devices, they need to be paying more attention on, like everybody else is doing.
Speaker 2:All right, Kyle kill out.
Speaker 1:Okay, i'm only got my two-year-old. I'm like my phone. I'm like I'm currently like I'm on like a vandetta and screens in my house I'm like screens gotta go. I'll put my shit away, put my phone as far away from me as I can. Because another thing I heard on that so I listen that a podcast, like once a week when I'm cutting grass And I'll catch up on like a week, like a couple episodes. But he said like 86% of the time you pick up your phone and this is off topic a little bit But like 86% of the time you pick up your phone, it's like a personal, like personal serving. You're not like doing anything of any importance except for scrolling. So like every time I pick up my phone, I'm like god damn it.
Speaker 1:I'm doing it again. Yeah, but this week it's just all waiting for this damn job, fucking job. Yeah, man. Um, that Is a crazy Mike. And you said you were recruited to do that, right? So you weren't just like yeah, you were just I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go and fight pedos.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, man. So yeah, the thing is, i Was recruited to this job and the thing is I hate computers. I forget, hate computers, but I hate pedophiles even more. Hmm. So let me go take care of the pedophile. Yeah Yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt. What was the question?
Speaker 1:Oh, you're good. I saw Alder. He said as we're watching on this live on a tablet.
Speaker 2:That's me, that, um, the the whole, the whole recruiting thing mean cheer. I mean that's, that's good to hear, that, that At least that that phase of your transition, well would you at least from what I heard, it sounded like it went well transitioning out of the army the second time into into the Yeah, well, you know what I?
Speaker 4:uh, i Struggle, man, i okay, so, yeah. So so when I was Going through a whole retirement process, man, it hit me hard. I went to like deep depression because my body wasn't so much pain. Yeah, i got told I couldn't do my green beret stuff anymore, right? So because of that, i got taken off my team. I was non-deployable. I Was going through all this stuff and I was popping pills like candy. You know, i got addicted to the narcs And it was. I turned into a monster. You know, life was hell and then I got, i secured this job and for a while It was cool. You know.
Speaker 4:I came out here and I did this job and I was taking out pet Oh, saving kids. But I Went from Being a door kick, an action guy Yeah litter To literally sitting on a computer all day watching babies get raked. So That freaking destroyed me really fast. Okay, so I went to depression again and I started. When I would get home I would hold myself up in my room for a good hour, not talk to anybody. Keep a mind, at the time I was just. I was a Single dad, my kids were young, so I had three kids at home and I wouldn't pay attention. I would just hold myself up by in my room and decompress and I was having all these anger issues right, a fight, people at the drop of a hat, and so How that? how I got out of that was I Found this organization called go ruck and go ruck. It started off as a backpack company love go ruck dude, you know, go right, yes, okay, yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker 4:So I became a cadre for go ruck. That's awesome, dude. Yeah, i was one of the guys that that was running the events. Okay, and so because I saw go ruck was started by a green beret, yeah, so I was like, well, shoot, i'm one of those guys. And so I sent them an email like guys, i don't know what y'all are about, but I want in. They can't be too many of us in Reno, so what's up? And then so I sent them all the verification to show I was actually legit. Yeah, they brought me on.
Speaker 4:I started wearing these events, right, and so these events, it's endurance, military, endurance-based events. So what I was doing, i was taking a bunch of civilians and I was taking them on real long hikes under you know 100 pounds sandbags. But I was also teaching them stuff I learned as a green beret. You know military tactics and spy craft, military history, you know stuff like that. And so I was seeing what it was doing to the people and it was taking people who really haven't to them, at least, they hadn't accomplished much in real life or they didn't have a lot of self-confidence. Well, now they were getting beat down by this guy for 12 hours and learning all this cool stuff and making new friends and I would see would change all these people for the better.
Speaker 4:So then in turn, it was changing me for the better, right so now. So now I have this stuff over here taking down pedophiles, but now I also get to use what I learned in the military to help better civilians. So really quickly. That gave me my balance. So I went from up here, brought me back down level, and so that changed my world. And then from there, that's when I really stepped back and I just had a new outlook on life. Ever since then I looked back in my life and I thought about all the really bad things that have happened in my life, but then I also thought about where it led to.
Speaker 4:Yeah you know. So like if I didn't go down with injuries because of all the work I did in Afghanistan, well, i wouldn't have got recruited into my job now, so I wouldn't be taking down pedophiles, i wouldn't be saving kids, i wouldn't have been able to come to Reno and get my kids full-time. You know, i wouldn't have been able to help civilians. I've had civilians come up to me and tell me that if it wasn't for me you know, because they they've talked to me and messaged me and stuff like that I've met with people offline, just one-on-one, go to breakfast and stuff like that I've had people come up and tell me you know, mike, if you didn't meet me for breakfast the other morning, i was actually gonna kill myself.
Speaker 4:I didn't want to tell you, i was in that deep of depression, but if it wasn't for you I would have killed myself, and so I wouldn't have been there if I didn't go down with all those injuries in Afghanistan. So that's how I live life now. It's like, yeah, if something bad happens, recognize it. You know it's things for a little bit, but eventually you got to get up, you got to rub some dirt. Keep moving forward, because if you keep on moving forward and doing good in the world. Well, it's gonna reveal itself why that happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm sorry to sound like super preachy guys, but no- It reminded me of a story I shared earlier in the show the the horse, the guy, the farmer and the horse that I can't call it, guys, i can't remember it off the top of my head. I mean, the moral story is basically this farmer loses his horse and all is lost. and you know those dads, just like you know I can't call it, you know, because he's got that mentality of, just like you know, is it, is it the end of the world? or you know it, will something better come out of it? and I mean, that's where we grow from, that's where humans grow the most in those uncomfortable situations. Yeah, and yeah, i think it's great.
Speaker 4:Yeah, man. So for me the big thing was finding that balance. That's how I lasted nine years. I assume some of the people, some of my class, didn't last that long. I assume it's because they couldn't find that balance. You know, because a lot of people what they do is they have a hard day at work. What do they do? they come home? they pop a beer. Yeah, they sit on a couch.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know that's not really balancing yourself out, you know that's that's, that's masking the issue by altering your mind state for a little bit. Exactly. So, yeah, so I found Goruck, but my body was just so destroyed, like like six weeks ago I just had spinal fusion. So so eventually, from doing Goruck cadre for five years, i had to retire from that, but from there I took up acting. So that's so. That's what I do now to balance myself out. Right, so now, although I'll go take care of pedophile, see all that nasty stuff, and then I'll go act, i'll become a completely different character and make movies and stuff like that and that gives me happiness and that balances me out and it's fantastic and I meet a whole bunch of more people and, yeah, you know, life is great man, life is great.
Speaker 1:That's fucking awesome dude. That's uh, it's, it's good, it's like that's definitely a unique transition, for sure yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:You gotta find something completely different from what you're doing in order to find that balance yeah you know I'm saying, yeah, something that's completely different, you know, like doing my acting stuff.
Speaker 4:For doing that gorex stuff, man, it has nothing to do with baby rape, yeah, yeah. So two totally different sides of the spectrum and that's what gives my balance, you know. So that's what allows me to keep on going, you know, and the fact that I'm doing taking down a pedophile stuff, but I'm also going to schools and teaching kids and also what I do is some people I work knew of my background, knew some of my life story, so again I got recruited to it. Again I also travel the country. When there's a major incident happens like an officer gets killed or like there's a school shooting with my agency or something, they'll ask for volunteers and so I'll go out and I'll be a mental health counselor for people in need. A couple months ago I went to Miami for a week because the officer died. So we were there for the guy's family and stuff like that, went to his office, talked to all the workers, you know, made sure everybody was cool, you know.
Speaker 4:So again, that's completely different from sitting on my computer, you know so. So you, just I have my hands and all this different stuff, so if something becomes too hard, too hardcore for me and it's beat me down a little bit too much, cool, i'll take a break and I'll come over here and do this for a little bit. Yeah, my supplemental break, you know, and that's. That's what you have to do, man. You have to recognize where your limit is. Yeah, and a lot of people can't do that. And sucks, man, because people, people won't recognize where their mental limit is and they'll just keep on going, keep on going and Sally, sometimes at least, that I'm taking a lot yeah, a lot of people don't.
Speaker 1:They don't like to even believe that they have a mental limit you know, they're just like I'm stronger than that, i could push through that, and that's that.
Speaker 1:That's that that stigma. You know that we started this whole thing based around kind of fighting against. You know that stigma like where it's okay to chat, it's okay to talk, it's okay to be like yo, i, i had a shitty day, or I had a shitty week, or I went through a very, very rough time in my life, or you know anything like that, and then just to find strength in that and to let other people find strength to that is I mean, it's, it's fucking beautiful, that's yeah and I really appreciate you like speaking on your transition.
Speaker 2:You know that part of your transition, going to that depression, and you know those. You know taking those pills because I think you know a lot of veterans need to hear that, or just you know everyone needs to hear that. But you know veterans, especially just because you know you. You know I'm speaking for myself here but like you know what I want in the army, looking at the green braids, like those are like the elite, the elite of the elite. You know, and just you know to hear, like you know one of the, you know you being one of them transitioning.
Speaker 2:Like you, you went through tough times also in transitioning out of the military and you know like kind of kind of losing your purpose a little bit, not being on the team anymore, and then, yeah, and then now you know coming through it, you know putting your nose to the ground, going to work and then get having your hand, like you said, your hands are in all these pots because you know that's, that's what gives you balance. I appreciate you sharing that just because everyone needs to hear it, because you know, like you know, like we said in our little promo there in the very beginning, like we're essentially, we're all the same, we all have different, different scars, but we all have scars, so, like you know, so, yeah, that's, that's, that's super dope dude I'm.
Speaker 1:That's why I fucking love Alder right here. This show is a constant reminder to myself that it is okay to be vulnerable helps a lot, dude, we love you for that brother.
Speaker 1:That's why we wanted to have him on very early on. Actually, yeah, he's just he was. He told us he was listening to all the early shows. We're like, dude, fucking get on this thing. And yeah, his show is. His episode was really good and that's one of our earlier ones. So well, and he pops on anytime we I got better for her to put the link on right now. He'll jump on and chat with you.
Speaker 2:Mike, i gotta, i gotta ask one quote. Well, no, i keep saying I gotta ask one question, but why? I asked as many as why? why? I'm sorry, brother, you're frozen right now we lost him you're back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's back now what was the question?
Speaker 4:oh, they don't have audio. No, now shake your head, yes or no? he said this was it? I think it was. You were asking why Reno was in it. You're frozen, so I can't see if you're not gonna give him a boat.
Speaker 1:He's back, kissy face hello am I back now?
Speaker 2:hey there she is dude. Oh my god, i'm so sorry. I was gonna ask why. Why?
Speaker 1:he did, he's like yeah, yeah is that was. Are you trying to ask?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what. That's what people asked me when I went for my interview for my job to. They're like bro, why do you want to go to Reno? nobody was going to Reno. So so I've been all over the country. I was born and raised in Springfield, massachusetts, and then I lived like in Texas and North Carolina, tennessee, stuff like that. I retired out of Fort Campbell, kentucky, this special force group. So what happened was, after I got my beret right, i was in North Carolina, my, my ex-wife, my baby mama. She was living in North Carolina with her second husband and this guy was just complete turd. She's no longer with him. Right? this guy is one of the worst he's ever met, just manipulative and just that. But he was terrified of me. He thought I was gonna take his woman and that's not the case. I was like yo, that ship has sailed long ago.
Speaker 1:There's no way but I am interested in getting her away from you, yeah well.
Speaker 4:So so he gave her ultimatum. He said, hey, we're gonna move to Sacramento, live with your mom, or else I'm leaving you. We need to get away from Mike. And so, again, she was controlled by this guy and so she did. So she took my kids, moved to Sacramento, which is two hours away from Reno, and at the time, yeah, i could have fought it. I could have, i could have won, i could have got my kids parental kidnapping stuff.
Speaker 4:But I knew, in reality, with my job, i'd be gone all the time. My job tempo was was too high, you know. So I couldn't like whatever. And so so when I was retiring, i was like, okay, well, where where do I want to go? where do I want to pick? I want to go someplace close to my kids. Okay, i don't like. I don't like California, too many freaking gun laws. So let me pick Reno. And so I picked Reno and I moved here, sight unseen, okay.
Speaker 4:But the thing is, when I got to Reno the very first day, i looked around and I was like this is it, this is home. I was blown away, right, because all I know, all I knew about Nevada was Las Vegas, casinos, desert and legalized problems. Right, i'm not really into any of that stuff. So that's all I knew about, about Nevada. But when I got to Reno I was surrounded by snow, cat mountain, beautiful lakes, no shit, yeah, yeah. So the thing is living in Reno right on the same day. On the same day I can go hiking. I can go hiking in the desert, i can go chill out at the lake, i can go hiking in a forest, i can go climb a mountain and I can go skiing.
Speaker 4:On the same day, yeah, yeah, when folks from back east when my family and friends from Massachusetts come over here. Every time people come out here to like dude, this is freaking amazing, like people don't want to leave. People don't want to leave once they come out here and see just the absolute beauty that's around here.
Speaker 1:I have the opposite effect when people come here yeah, where you up. Southwest of Fargo, north Dakota oh yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So after being in Reno for a couple days, i was like man, that's it. Man, it's amazing, you know. And and then where I go out and explore like before before my my back got too bad to where I couldn't really hike yeah, that's what I was doing. You know, my, my big activity when I wasn't working or running events and go recommend stuff like that was I was out hiking and exploring and stuff like that you know, which I still do now, but I'm waiting for my back to heal now. So now I'll just I'll drive.
Speaker 4:Nevada is filled with ghost towns and stuff like that, so I'll go check out, like really cool ghost towns and you know, all this other, all these other badass places, man, it is so much, so much around here. California, it's a 30 minute drive. I'm over the border and in California. So it's like California. You have an amazing amount of trees all over the place, beautiful forests, lakes, nevada's desert, so whatever, whatever pulls your trigger that day, you know, if you want to go explore some ghost towns or if you want to go hike a wooded mountain, a forested mountain, you know, it's all around, all around, i love it here, man love it here.
Speaker 1:We lost him. That's dope, though. I had no idea.
Speaker 4:I mean, i guess I never really try it, they never really thought about it either, you know yeah yeah, it's a hidden gem, man, it's a hidden gem Lake Tahoe, one of the most beautiful places in the world. I get there in 45 minutes. Oh yeah, you know, i was actually a lake towel yesterday showing up that's dope.
Speaker 1:I think I can get to Canada in like three hours yeah it's not too bad. I mean, it is cool man.
Speaker 4:I see some beautiful stuff. Canada they have poutine. I miss Poo tea, poo teens amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i've never had poutine yes, i have, yeah yeah. I've been a chef for a real for a while, while I was a chef for a long time. So like poutine, that's actually one of my favorite. Like I make that at home sometimes just put some gravy and some fries and some cheese curds dude yeah, man, yeah dude, i actually ran a goreck event in Canada one time, and in a winnipeg, winnipeg.
Speaker 4:So when I got done running my event I went back to my hotel room and they have something called Door Dash or it's like Door Dash, but it's not Door Dash, it's like skip the dishes or something like that I think it's called. And I ordered a bunch of poutine from this poutineery and, bro, i just put myself in a poutine coma. I was like laid out, laid on my bed, man, that's it. Give me all the gravy cheese and fries, man, i'm good they have like all different, like toppings and shit.
Speaker 1:They did. Yeah, honestly, dude, like if I ever I've been thinking about starting the food truck lately because I'm like I don't know what to do, as far as I can, to start working now. It was like we have a, we have a nanny. That started and I'm like like my wife works and I'm not working right now and I need I need to start pitching in.
Speaker 4:Yeah just make a food truck, make some unique stuff just some poutine a poutine truck yeah, dude, nothing but different style poutine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man poutine. What can I call it? dude Vladimir's poutine? I don't know what people would eat it. I think people up here to two political to eat stuff like that. I don't know but no, it's been wild living up here. It definitely wasn't something I ever thought I'd be fargo North Dakota, but it is what it is. I guess we moved up here for family yeah with a snow plow. Yeah, i wouldn't need a snow plow.
Speaker 4:All their ass of it was real populated there and Reno yeah, so I live, i actually live on the city right next to Reno. It's called sparks, so sparks has about 140,000 people, reno has maybe 250, 300,000 people, something like that. The, if you look, if you look on neighborhood scout, the crime index like so 100 is the safest right. Reno is like a 12 out of 100. So it says Reno is dangerous. But dude, i've been all around Reno, i've been all around sparks. I've never felt, i've never felt in danger. You know, i never felt in days like our, our hoods I grew up in way worse places than our hoods here it's so I've never felt in danger at all, you know. So a lot, of, a lot of the crime is just like petty crime you know, you have a lot of homeless.
Speaker 4:You have a like big meth problem, so you have like meth heads like kind of stealing stuff or whatever. But yeah, i walk around everywhere yeah, i walk.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly, i walk around wherever the vast majority of the crime, robberies and stuff like that happens, like downtown areas, but I live in a nice area so it's all good here, man. Oh yeah, it's pretty expensive, though. Pretty expensive for, for example, it and it is blew up. So we have like a big Tesla plane out here and stuff like that like so I bought my house a little over three years ago, right, so it costs. My house cost 400 grand within three years.
Speaker 4:The house was worth about 650 damn yeah, yeah, it blew up around here, and everywhere you look, man, there's freaking houses and apartments popping up all over the place. You know, because you have all the Californians. All the Californians were like man, screw this state, we're gonna go to Nevada. Yeah, you know, and so so you'll have them and they're gonna go ruin Nevada. Yeah, exactly yeah, they're all moving to Texas.
Speaker 1:They're gonna go fuck Texas up.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah so a lot of times around here man, you'll, you'll, you'll have a house that's on the market for, say, you know, 600 grand or so, and people you know, back in the day you can low balling. You know, oh, it's 600 grand, i'll give you 525 for it, not? not now not now, not now all your house. You're selling your house for 600 grand. Okay, i tell you what. I just moved from California. I sold my expensive ass property and I'll give you cash 650 right now right now, you know yeah, we had a similar situation.
Speaker 1:So my wife had she had bought her house 2017. I want to say, before I met her, she had her house in Colorado and then I moved in and, you know, lived there for a while and then we sold our house there after it had gone up substantially. They sent us an offer and we're just like, yeah, like this is what your house is worth today, and I think I think it was like two or two hundred and fifty thousand dollars more than what she paid for it and she'd already been making payments on it for a long time. Yeah, with a big down payment that you put on it. So we're like, yeah, we put, we put on the market and like within 24 hours. Our first offer was $40,000 over asking and we were just like, yeah, let's just take this one don't even fucking try.
Speaker 2:That's like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're like we got three more offers potentially tomorrow, and I'm just like, mmm, like I don't really care, let's just take the first one like we could. We could have gotten another, however much. I'm sure it started a bidding war, but like I just didn't want to do that. Yeah, i'm not the kind of person to like take advantage. Like first person that sent it was using the VA loans, i think, so I was like you guys got it, yeah well, got one of the boy, got you yeah, yeah yeah, i got mine.
Speaker 2:My house is listed, or they put my house on the market at 9 am, put an offer in at noon and it was closed at6 o'clock the same day. I don't see like we got the offer or we put in the offer, they accepted it and then we were like, okay, let's drive three hours down and see that. Yeah, thank God it worked out, dude yeah, i could have went way different we're going to all off pictures and our realtor was like are you sure you want to? do that?
Speaker 2:yeah, yes, we love it but that's just the top of people. My wife and I are like we, we just.
Speaker 1:I mean you had the gut feeling and you went for it and it all worked out yeah, yeah, yeah right, that's, yeah, that's the basis of your foundation yeah, we went.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we went to the driver's license replaced and we were like, oh, they're closed for lunch, let's go get married.
Speaker 1:I just realized that I'm like I'm logo'd up right now. Dude, look at me, i got the, i got the chest logo, i got the new hat and we got the logo over here. Dude, i got more than too much, too much.
Speaker 4:Veteran chat project shit plug the merch man plug well, i just made this one, i got two more.
Speaker 2:What was the? you're talking about your. You know what you're, what you do to decompress all those your acting stuff. What was, what was the latest project that you were on? if you don't, if you don't mind sharing that?
Speaker 4:yes, so. So latest movie it just it just came out yesterday on a small streaming platform and within probably in two to three weeks or so, it's gonna be on to be. It's called ghost. So so how I did the acting stuff is I started off in plays. So so how I got into that is I did a immense physique competition, right, little bodybuilding competition, yeah.
Speaker 4:And when I stepped up on stage, you know I'm top list and tanned up And cut and I had people next to me, man, they were like shaking, just terrified, terrified. And when I got up on stage, like the crowd was going crazy. I had a bunch of friends in family audience and Regular Mike regular Mike doesn't like the limelight. I just I don't really hang out much people, i'm very quiet, keeping myself, but when I was on stage I was getting all this attention. I Just I fed off it. I was a lot is amazing, right. And then I thought back to Me being a go-ret cadre. Well, when I'm a go-ret cadre, i'm a different character, i'm a different guy, right. So I was like you know what, i'm gonna try, i'm gonna try acting, i'm gonna give this a shot. And then so I went on Facebook Book and I saw they were having an audition for a play in a local playhouse and They were going over the roles and one of the roles was a sarcastic cop and I was like, well shit, i'm kind of like I didn't know,
Speaker 4:that, yeah. So I was like I'm kind of that in real life, let me go apply for this right. So I went there and Everyone's talking about themselves Oh yeah, i was in this play, i was in this movie, i was in this show, stuff like that. I was like I'm like, i'm just some guys. I thought it was pretty cool, yeah. And so I auditioned and then the director came up to me right after she was like hey, look, i want to actually give you the, the lead role for the males. Oh Shit, okay cool. And so I got a much better Part than I I originally applied for and so I loved it.
Speaker 4:I love stepping on stage and I did more plays. I was so that that role was. I was a, a womanizing owner of a speakeasy, a womanizing Woman abusing owner of a speakeasy Right. So I got the slap lady in the face, i got me in the balls and all sort of stuff in his wealth. And then my next play I was family man Bob Cratchett in the Christmas Carol. So I had tiny tam on my shoulder and I'm sitting there singing Christmas songs. And then oh yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And then my final play because The plays was was awesome, like I had a wonderful time doing it, so much fun, but it also took up a lot of time, right. So it's like it's like four hours out of my day, three times a week For practice, rehearsals and stuff like that. So I decided to do one more play. Well, the director of this next play she actually made a part like specifically for me, with me in mind, because she knew I did bodybuilding competitions and stuff. So I went from the owner of a womanizing woman, abusing owner of a speakeasy to family man Bob Cratchett, to a male burlesque dancer. So so my last play I was a male burlesque dancer, right, and it was an amazing part. It was an amazing part, so I had a great time. I got, i got to a little number and everything like that and I got to do my own back story and a lot of my Lions are just me just speaking and it was so much fun And so I decided You know it took up too much time. So I was like you know what, i'm gonna try movies. And then so again I saw I went on this the Reno Actors Guild, and I saw that there was an audition for this movie called the flock and they needed The role of a mercenary named ghost. I was like a mercenary, i was pretty much that real life. So let me go try that again, and it's so. So I went to the audition and I landed the role right And I remember one of the girls there I shoot Is a female mercenary.
Speaker 4:She asked the director. She was like hey, were you in a military thing? like are you gonna be teaching us tactics or how to act and stuff? and he was like well, i know some airsoft guys, so some airsoft guys will come to teach you. And normally I don't I don't put it out there, i was a green beret. I mean, this is different, of course. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, normally I just kind of keep it to myself. But I was like okay, airsoft guys. No, like I raised my hand, i was like, hey, i was, i'm a retired green beret. He was like, oh okay, well, that's the guy.
Speaker 1:So I just got raised you right during the gunfights.
Speaker 4:I will just follow you around with a camera. And so me and the director, we hit it off right because all the other actors were like from theaters and stuff like that. And then here's me like I was super professional, always on time, had a good vision, really sort of work with, and so after that That movie was called the flock and so after that he asked me. He was like dude, i loved working with you so much. I Had this other project that I've been wanting to do. I want you to come in with it with me and I want you to actually co-direct with me. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. And so this movie it was called it's called Tahoe Joe And it would actually went pretty freaking viral on to be. The thing is we made it for 800 bucks is about a total Yo. It's a basically a bigfoot legend and it's Sierra Nevada mountains, so bigfoot out here, you're supposed to be a bigfoot like in this area. And so We made we made a movie called Tahoe Joe It's on to be and it went wild. We're actually doing part two. That's no dude, and it was just so freaking amazing. And so because this guy, my buddy, dylan Brown, he's with a horror nerd productions. This is his own production company. He had so much trust in me and he loved me so much that If I wanted something like I got it right. So we needed all these roles. And So I was like, hey, i got a guy, hey, i got a girl right, and so I started. I started bringing in like my real life friends and family to fill all these roles. He so, so one of the main parts is one of my co-workers Who is also a marine veteran, he and so he comes in and so he's with us. And then for other movies down the road And for Tahoe Joe too, i got my cousin out of DC. My cousin Flew out from DC. He's an Air Force veteran, so he was in a movie, you know So. So now that that's what we do, like we have all these roles for veterans in our movies and stuff. And so, yeah, tahoe Joe, that went viral.
Speaker 4:I was in a bunch of other movies. Like I'm on IMDB If you look up Michael rock and IMDB, like you'll see all my stuff on it. And then so This movie it was a spin-off from the flock. It just got released on a smaller streamer and it's gonna hit to be in a few weeks. It's called ghost and so it stars me and So it's like it's low budget, kind of found footage stuff. Well, so ghost, what it is is a It talks about there's all this like demonic activity and the Catholic Church fund these mercenaries to Go take care of like evil cults and all sort of stuff.
Speaker 4:And what it is is They assign it. They assign a scribe, like a cameraman to these mercenaries, because now what they're Doing is they're making like a new Bible. You know, because back in the day you didn't have video cameras, so it's all written down and stuff. Yeah, now you have video cameras, so now we're making a new Bible with these mercenaries and these, these cameraman, and so that's what it is. So I go around and you know, me and my buddies or I have a partner We're going out taking out evil and stuff like that and it's just fun, man, it's like way different.
Speaker 1:We even have a you ever need help, let me know man. Yeah, i got those shit about acting, but yeah, i'm a goofy mother fucker bro.
Speaker 4:No, you're one of my friends now, man.
Speaker 4:You're in, Yeah and so what's cool is the guy that plays my dad in the movie. His name is Vernon Wells And he was actually the main bad guy, the guy with the chain mail shirt in commando. So the guy that fall Arnold Schwarzenegger in the man though He's my dad. Yeah, he also fought mad max and in or Mel Gibson in mad max too. He's like to do it as big-ass Mohawk and he was in a also weird sign. So that guy plays my dad is super cool, dude, that's fucking bad.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, and so all this stuff is really taken off, man, and so I'm just getting like well-known, so I'm being hit up from all over the place and people want me to come in. And You know, i just got asked to write and direct a horror short you know, part of a horror Pathology and I got asked if I want to go to Georgia to be the star of this other movie. You know, it's just amazing man.
Speaker 4:Dude yeah yeah, and it's just from having a good time like I wanted to get into movies, but I want to have fun with it. You know I don't want to be like. You know you hear all these horror stories about actors acting like Assholes, the right to second like assholes When it, when it starts to feel like a job. That's what I'm gonna retire from acting, you know. But But I'm having so much fun. You know, me and my buddy, dylan Brown, man, we're just, we're going out there. We are having so much fun with these movies and people see it. You know, people see how well we get along on screen and yeah, You know, it really trained, it really translates to on screen, you know, like our friendship and stuff. So, yeah, so, so again, man, when, when one door closes, another one opens up. You know I Had to get out of the gorex stuff and now I'm in acting. What's that? I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Does that stuff ever Cross your mind or freak you out a little bit, like you know, being so well-known versus the job you do?
Speaker 4:No, no, because the thing is, i Use all these platforms, all these, yeah, to talk about what I do. You know all right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, whether whether my agency likes it or not, i'm telling you, bro, i don't give a shit if they like it or not. I'm gonna talk about what I do, because the more I talk about what I do, the more people see how big of a problem all this stuff is and the more people They know who to reach out to. So I've been off work for six weeks recovering from my from my spinal fusion, and I've been hit up a bunch of times From from random people, from buddies who their kids gotten themselves into some hot water, to people that just heard of me, you know, people that just heard of what I do. So hey, mike, you don't know me, but this happened. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:You know. So I like putting myself out there, I like. I like people knowing The problem that child pornography is. You know of the problem that sex distortion is, and not just for kids, for adults as well. Adults are, get, you know, sex stored all the time. You know It's sex distortion, for anybody doesn't know it basically extortion, but with a sexual-related material. You know, if you send out a, take a picture of yourself and somebody says, hey, i'm a post-design to internet, unless you give me 200 bucks, that sex distortion. Okay.
Speaker 4:So now, with me blowing up, starting to blow up as an actor, i'm getting more and more known out there, you know. So when people go to like my, my Instagram page you know I have a little tiny bio myself in there So we can actually see. You know I put like it's like fighter of child exploitation or something. So now to get people intrigued and People will watch stuff like like this, like this podcast, yeah, and they really know about me and what I do and so they can reach out to me. And if they're in another state, well, that's cool too.
Speaker 4:I could still help them, because I'll reach out to Other agents in other states to get them to help that they need, you know. So that's, that's what it is, man, again, the real mic. The real mic is very quiet, doesn't talk to anybody, but I also realize I'm gonna, i'm in a very unique position Where I can help a lot of people. Yes, so I, just I, just I put myself out there, you know, and I've Provide as much help as possible, you know, again, serving that purpose.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and what? what do you? What do you think about or feel about, like those? You know, those got certain certain individuals on social media that kind of Attempt to do what you do for a living. I don't know if you've seen it on like YouTube or whatever, but these, these guys that are often YouTube, they'll try it, they'll pretend to be, you know, they'll pretend to be a kid.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's stuff. Sorry, let my dogs off, you give me. So that's stuff. And you know, i've had other people reach out to me. You know, hey, i'm with this organization, i do this and this and that Because I am A federal law enforcement. Yeah, i have to have to stay away from all that stuff Got. You have to stay away from all those organizations. Now, if people want to go and try to take stuff into their own hands, do that vigilante stuff. That's the wrong frog prerogative. And, of course, as long as they're doing it lawfully, yeah, and I don't have a problem with that, you know, and because they're trying to make the world a better place, of course. So I support that, i support that. But again, they have to be real careful on what they're doing.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah yeah, you know, because if they're getting stuff, if If they're trying to rope in these pedophiles by giving these pedophiles Chow pornography or something, then they just can.
Speaker 2:They just can know the felony they just distributed.
Speaker 1:That's why I want to ask just having it alone on your shit to give, having a low in possession of chopper night.
Speaker 4:Yeah Yeah. So you need to be real freaking careful with that stuff. Yeah yeah, now, now, if you're talking to somebody and you're posing as a kid and you're not giving anything bad And and a person is just trying to meet up with you and stuff like that, cool, that's one thing. And then you could turn that over to to law enforcement, you know, like, like, don't be, don't be trying to be freaking Batman, you know.
Speaker 1:Go out there and somebody and beat them up, because once again, yeah, that's now you're gonna commit a film, you know, i guess now let's just say you beat the shit out of this dude or woman. Why is it's not always a dude, but so you beat shit of this person that you it you basically called To meet up with. And I mean, what does it change? the degree of the murderer, the assault doesn't it like if it's premeditated at that point, like you?
Speaker 2:plan to beat this?
Speaker 1:dude's ass when he got there. Yeah, if you crack his head open on the concrete or something and like dude, it ain't worth it Exactly. But if you're gonna do it, yeah, do it right Definitely because, like like like mentioned earlier, there's not enough people out there Doing it and I think I have seen some of those people you're talking about KZ that they do it on, do it on, they just kind of do it on their own YouTube channels and they share like short TikTok, like one minute videos of them, just to get you to their page to see like I Just I hate watching that shit, dude, cuz, like just like every day, looking people are the people that are like meeting up to Do sexual shit with kids, dude, and it's just like you never fucking know Who's around you and who's really into what, and it's fucking. It scares the shit out of me.
Speaker 2:Kyle, did you look, did you look up for? did you look up?
Speaker 1:No, i live in a town of 800 and I figure it's the kind of place that people talk. So, oh yeah, i haven't heard of anything. I've lived here two years. I have still haven't even looked it up, but I'm I probably will after tonight.
Speaker 2:We made the mistake of forgetting to do that Because, i mean, this is our first house we've ever owned. So, like we, we talked about it and then, like you know, like I described earlier, like Moving in was so fast and furious, and then it wasn't until after we moved in, like, oh fuck, we didn't even look at the neighborhood dude. And so we, like we looked it up and no shit, man, we found one. How?
Speaker 1:close to your house.
Speaker 2:We're in our neighborhood, yeah, man. And what's crazy, dude, is like we. There's a high school like across the street from our neighborhood, so I don't know how that shit works.
Speaker 1:It might be like a certain degree or something.
Speaker 2:He's like certain certain law where you gotta stay. Yeah, they didn't do big. Oh, yeah, i think it's like. It's literally like maybe fire and firing yards, like, oh, like That. That person is like literally on the edge of the like what's legal and I'm like, yeah, Fuck, you're not shooting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fucking nuts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they tried to that that, that certain individual tried to like run, help, run each away and my wife is on the board And she's like fuck no yeah, yeah, there's there certain apps that you can pull up.
Speaker 4:Let's see. You know what? let's see, i will show you.
Speaker 1:Type in Kendrick, North Dakota. We're putting you on blast Kendrick. Kendrick yeah yeah, k I N D R ED Well he's looking at Marie.
Speaker 2:What James wrote here. I forgot who the convict was, but he was confessing to murdering a pedophile in court. He was oh, i've seen that, dude. Have you seen that shit, kyle?
Speaker 1:No, i've seen a lot of that shit though. We're like inmates kill these guys that go to prison and then like everyone's just like, yeah, that's cool, no worries. He's looking well, repeatedly, 600 times.
Speaker 2:Oh, i know who you're talking about, because I've seen that video before. He's got There's all slicked back or and I think he's got glasses and tattoos. But yeah, i know exactly what video you're talking about.
Speaker 1:He did that, dude was all the guy that like hunted down pedophiles and actually killing them and then like got caught. Yeah, i think I heard of that, i don't know, i just remember he was yeah.
Speaker 2:What he said to the. What to the judge? Yeah, he's like, yeah, he's, he's a pedophile. So I fucking killed him and I was like, oh shit.
Speaker 1:Like you like it. Well, i still gotta put you in prison. Yeah, i guess It's like he's taken too long to answer. I feel like I live in a shitty town so I Don't probably can't see it, cuz they're freaking glare hasn't focused yet.
Speaker 2:I saw some dots.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so that right there, that is a three mile radius Kindred's not even three miles. No, this is between West Fargo and Horace.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's the whole bunch of dots And I have them here too. And this, this app is NSOPW NSOPW And you can download that app and it's wild man, like I remember I was this. I was sitting on my couch one day and I was like, let me see what's around here. Yeah and dude, there's With them, like a half mile my place, there's a house with three convicted pedophile, like they're all living together like having a party, like we'll let y'all have a house together what's crazy, yeah, but so these are just the guys that have big clock.
Speaker 4:You know, that's just a very, very Tiny, tiny portion of actual pedophiles. Oh.
Speaker 1:I heard.
Speaker 4:I heard a statistic one day Staying at if you have 10 people, one of them's a petto. Do that. One of them likes kids will look too much Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty fucking scary. Definitely something. Yeah, what's it called NSOPW?
Speaker 4:Yeah, nsopw, and there's a website NSOPW dot gov.
Speaker 2:That might be what used to look. I might be the same thing that we used to look it up. I Think looks crazy is like that. Those websites will tell you exactly what they were convicted for sometimes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll talk about like like what tier level? Yeah, yeah, stuff like that. you know, like like Uh-huh, like satany with a child under 12 or something, you know stuff like that. Yeah, exactly, yeah, well, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, we look the the person in the neighborhood ever just like what the fuck? and we. Now all the info and I was just like, holy shit, yeah, it's crazy. People are fucking evil man Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the thing is, though, when you do look up this stuff, it's it's very important to look up what they were convicted over, right? Yeah, because so one of these like a sex offender convicted? Yes, they're both sex offenders, but a person that is convicted of saying, say, raping a seven-year-old kid, is much different than Somebody that was convicted because they went to a college party and they had sex with a girl Who snuck into the college party that said she was, you know, a freshman at the school, but really she's 15. Yeah, and then she got pissed off and and Rated the guy out, which I've actually met girls in real life that have Would straight up do this stuff. I was gonna say that sounded like something that you know personally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, i'm it, witness that, My dirt, my friends, my travels. I met one girl who had got, who got three guys sent the prison. Oh, she went out as as a young, as a teenager said she was older than she was. What adults got pissed off at them. Got them in prison.
Speaker 1:So isn't that illegal? But she's a child, so I mean obviously, obviously that's illegal too, but like I Don't know, like where's the, where's the line drawn for? like yeah, yeah, as far as if someone's truly tricked and like doesn't you know, but like yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, that's a fine line.
Speaker 4:That's hard to say. You know It's like at that point, who is Who's that fault? You know it becomes like he said, she said, but the bottom line is he said, she said, but the bottom line is That underage girl has that adults DNA. Hmm. You know saying yeah. Looks like. Yeah it's, it's a scary world, man, scary world, yeah. So keep that in mind, listeners that are going to college parties. Before you have sex with a girl or a guy, ask for their ID, show me the birthday.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah well, you um, i'm like looking up pet-os around here. Oh my god, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Let for for real. Last question like, like, because you brought up statistics earlier, like in your And you don't have to say if you don't want to, but like, when it comes to like catching these pet-o files, men versus women, i mean it doesn't really matter, but just I find it intriguing. Like what is it? Is it more males versus females or is it kind of yeah, way?
Speaker 4:more, way more, way more. I have actually You know what. I take that back. I've worked very, very few cases where female, adult females were the offender. I worked one case with a female but and this case is done they're guys in prison. I worked one case with a female that she was married to a guy the guy sent to prison. The female had some stuff on there. But the thing is the female, she had some mental disabilities And so she got let off because it was pretty much she was doing that stuff, not because she liked it but as a way of I need to keep my husband around.
Speaker 2:Okay, I get that.
Speaker 4:Because I can't make it on my own. you know what I'm saying, yeah, but with that said, though, there are some females that just do terrible things. Like I haven't worked the cases, but I know of cases where women were basically selling their children, doing stuff with their children, like on Skype, and everything like that. People would pay them money and they would do terrible things to these babies and stuff like that. Yeah, terrible, yeah. so the vast majority is adult men, the vast majority is white men. that's the way it is. But with that said, i've also had all walks of life. So, from the homeless person who's just kind of like, hanging out of a location tapping into somebody's wifi, downloading all this nasty stuff, to a millionaire in a bougie house with a beautiful family, beautiful wife, kids, everything, yeah, all walks of life. Well, as you guys should know, you know pet a while you know for getting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's just fucking crazy dude. That's just. Those names are still popping out Like every once in a while. We're like, oh, this dude was there too. You're like what? Like like your whole childhood is ruined because of that list.
Speaker 1:That could possibly come out Like I can't support people that were there, but apparently I don't know. Apparently that's how you get famous too. It's like, yes, that's like a whole. That's like a whole thing too that TikTok will run you down that rabbit hole. It's like you know, to get famous, you got to do all that kind of shit, and I don't even want to go down there on this show. But it's just a fucked up world that we live in And it's awesome to know that there's still good people out there like yourself to help us and stuff like that. And then, with that like let's, i mean, i'll ask one more. I don't usually ask a whole lot of questions, but I do got one just for like for the listeners and for parents, like just what are some like final ways you could probably say to just some things to look out for for our like as parents to be kind of yeah, to be kind of helpful, like proactive on the situation with our kids if there's something that come up.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so one thing is know your child's friends list, all right. So so instruct and tell the kids again. Education is the key here. Tell the kid about the horrors of online stuff. You know what could happen. Do some research, right, google search. You know stuff that's happened and talk about real world cases You know. So they know this stuff actually happened. Go through their friends right. So say again on Instagram okay, how do you know this person? How do you know that person You know? and if they don't know that person in real life, or if, like one of their good friends, doesn't know that person in real life?
Speaker 1:the later. Yeah, that's how I still am to this day on.
Speaker 4:Facebook Yeah yeah, yeah, i have like 750 people in limbo for my Facebook friend request. Oh, yeah, because? yeah, because I go on most of these profiles and most of them are fake profiles, right? Yeah, i click on them and they're obviously stolen. Okay one. It's supposed to be like some pretty white girl from like Eastern States And she is definitely not talking. You know, grammatically correct you know Hey. Yeah. And, oh, my God, I love you. Am American, am searching for love, Oh am have credit card send it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, stupid stuff like that And it has like three pictures or something, you know.
Speaker 4:It's like, okay, Yeah, so because all these people, man, these scammers, they'll sit there and they'll just start spending a bunch of people. So what happens is a lot of these kids, a lot of these adults too, they'll see somebody and it'll be like oh, wow, Okay, Jenny Smith has 25 mutual friends with me. Oh, she's friends with this guy. Oh, so she must be pretty cool. Well, Jenny Smith is freaking fake. Jenny Smith is some Nigerian guy who's a scammer and just friends that, a whole bunch of people. And so, as Jenny Smith gets that friend, well, now they're going to that friends list and friending up more people, you know. So they're looking to scam people that way.
Speaker 4:So again, unless your kid knows that person, or they act or like somebody close to them actually knows that person in real life, delete them, you know whatever. Put their accounts on private. Yes, So bad guys can't go and steal their pictures or you know whatever. Yes, stuff like that Watch out, for if your kid is on their cell phone or their computer and you walk by them and it goes black, You need to find out what's going on. Oh Yeah, I'm not saying they're talking to somebody that's grooming them. You know it could be something not totally bad. You know, maybe they're down all dropping F-bombs with their friend about a video game or something that they got beating or something you know like F you I can't believe you've beaten in freaking Fortnatter, you know.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 4:It could be something as simple as that. You know, but still find out. You know because in my experience you know, walking by people and they, their screen goes black. It's for a reason.
Speaker 3:Yeah, especially yeah, They're doing something not supposed to. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Kids and adults Right, stuff like that. Again, if you want to install parental monitoring apps, see what your kid's doing, use parental restrictions. You know maybe have a blackout period. You know, like a cell phone provider, you know you could completely shut down a cell phone or so from like, say, the hours of midnight to 7am.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is like kids not up at 3 o'clock to the morning talking to somebody in the middle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uncompletely unsupervised, you know, because you're asleep, yeah, and that's a huge time. they said too on that show is like that. they, the BART people, said like it's a big time they're out. you know, trying to get your kids to is they know you're asleep, they know you're not paying attention, and that's huge. I'm just like man, fuck Tab, let's fuck a screen. I'm going to get rid of all the screens. Every screen in my house is about to get you all gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, that's also not the way to live either, you know.
Speaker 4:But yeah, also, another big thing is watch cameras in your house. Ok, so like if your kid has their laptop and the laptop is open and it's like facing their bed or something you know, or facing anything but like a wall in their room, you need to slide the little privacy filter over their camera or put a piece of black tape over it or something, because these guys are extremely good at what they do. I've been on apps that had live feeds to baby monitors. So facing a baby's bed you know a baby's bed where the mom and dad changed the baby, and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Is that so we have one that's like a closed network one. Is that even in those two Like? not even like, not one that uses Wi-Fi, but one that only like this one here? it only, it only goes to the camera and to this screen. Yeah, they can get into that?
Speaker 4:I, yeah, that's scary. Yeah, man, yeah, it's freaking scary dude.
Speaker 1:It's scary, scary, scary Yeah because I don't, because I know that I've thought of that And I've always been paranoid of that. Yeah, so like we don't have I mean like I don't have a ring, i don't have like cameras inside my house, like I don't have none of that shit, just because, like I worry about, you know, people being able to just sneak in Not that I'm like doing anything, i'm trying to hide, just I just don't.
Speaker 1:I just that's a, that's a weird, weird fucking feeling to me especially, because I've seen videos of like, like in probably this you probably seen this shit in plenty in your work but like we're like, let's just say, young girl lives alone, has like a ring or like I think it was. It was the one that feeds treats to your dog that you can. You can video chat with your dog feed, treats.
Speaker 1:Somebody hacked that thing and when, like, she was like walking by where it was and she had just gotten out of the shower, so she had her towel on and then dude was like yo, you look good as fuck, or something like that. And then she's like that's like excuse me. And she's like you and you blonde in the towel, like yeah, and like she finally figured out it was coming from the dog thing. It was like yo, like you know, so, yeah, like people need to understand, like even if you're like you know, just because it's on your Wi-Fi network, and like you know like it's not safe, so like still, you know, do as much as you can to keep information off of shit. And yeah, like that would just be. Like I went, when that wasn't even me. I had that feeling of just like complete and total, like invasion of privacy. Like you're just like nothing is sacred.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it's bro. It's a scary freaking world, man. It's a terrible thing, is especially with you. Know, babies and stuff like that, young kids I'm not saying don't have cameras inside your house.
Speaker 4:Right But you need to be cognizant of, like, what's going on, what is shown on that camera. Yeah, you know, make sure you're not walking around naked in front of camera, make sure you're not changing the baby in front of camera. You know, maybe only activate the camera at night, when you put your baby down, for, you know, to go to sleep. you know stuff like that. Then, as soon as the baby wakes up and you're going to do daily activities, get the baby dressed, change the baby. Now you flip the camera around or unplug the camera. complete.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i was just saying because yeah, Same thing with your house.
Speaker 1:You can still activate it too.
Speaker 4:Huh Like, if it's plugged in, they can still get to it too right If it's plugged in yeah, yeah Yeah, that's a bullsh**t If you have cameras in the house, like facing your living room, or some people have cameras in their bedroom, you know, oh, people got their whole houses wired up now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, every day It's being on, i'm not doing that, yeah.
Speaker 4:So when you're home, when you're home, just disconnect everything, ok. Now, if you're going to leave for the day, now plug it in. Ok, because it is good to know if something's going on in your house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, i definitely want to get one, not like a ring, but I definitely want to find one that's like the most secure that I can. I don't know Like, because I know there's making a show off a ring right now. Like that people's. It's like America's Funnies Home Video Wanda Sykes is about to host this thing. It's like the funniest ring videos of whatever. And it's like shit that they're harvesting off of ring because you agreed to let them have your fucking ring. That they can just be like oh that was funny, let's put it on and make them famous for it, you know so like you don't even remember.
Speaker 1:Now you're embarrassed as fuck on national TV. You didn't even get any money off it because you agreed not to get paid, yeah. So I mean, yeah, like I don't want to stay away from that, yeah be careful too, kyle.
Speaker 2:I mean because you're. I mean it happened because nowadays, school on day one, dude, they're issued laptops with web. So yeah, just yeah, he cognizant stuff, dude, It's wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes me even want to just sleep with my phone in the other room, charging in the kitchen. That's just scary, scary world, man Scary world.
Speaker 4:You know the main thing, though, as far as like tips and stuff for kids, i always tell the parents the number one thing communication. Exactly, have an open line of communication with kids, because technology is changing all the time. Okay, if you give your kids some kind of technology like a new phone or video game system or whatever, use it first. All right, do some research, see its capability, See what it does. Okay, because you might be handing your kid a portable video game system. It's not a cell phone, right? You're handing your kid a portable video game system, thinking that it can't access all this bad stuff. It can't have live browser.
Speaker 4:But in reality, your kid could talk to all these people. The kid could go on all these websites. So figure out what stuff is going on, You know. So do the research on the device that you're giving the kid. Have an open line of communication. Tell them about the horror stories, the real world stuff. Show them real examples instead of like don't do this or you're getting in trouble. No, Show them real world examples of this stuff happening and the repercussions of sending out nasty messages.
Speaker 4:Talk to them about grooming You know about. Hey, dude, listen, if you're 12 years old and some 25 year old is chatting you up, that is not your soulmate, That's a pedophile. You need to report this person. Okay, Tell them, go on the apps and the websites that your kids go on to and figure out how to report people. Okay, All these apps and websites. There's a way to report a user.
Speaker 4:You know, like somebody's saying something that's supposed to, sending something that they're supposed to, You can report that person. You can report that image or whatever You know. Ensure your kids know how to do all that stuff You know. So if something bad comes up, they can take care of it before it becomes a major issue. You know, just stuff like that man, Just communication. Let them know that they can turn you in their time of need and you're not going to flip out and you're not going to, you're not going to hit them or not going to nuke their world, take all their like shocks away from them, make them have no friends, you know, because then if they get into some deep water, they're not going to come, They're going to hide it and then they're going to turn to somebody else who's going to give like a freaking, like a teenager who's going to give them some terrible advice, and they're going to get themselves in deeper water. Yeah, You know, because.
Speaker 4:Imagine like if, if your kid sent out and make a picture to somebody and now they're being sex-storted, you know that monster wants $300 or they're going to spread it out to the world. Well, your kid knows, man, if I go to dad, he's going to go eight crap on me and nuke my world. Let me ask my friend what I should do. And then little Jimmy over here says dude, just give him the money so he doesn't spread it out. But now you're getting that monster, 300 bucks. Now the monster is going to want more money, more money. You know what I'm saying. So communication is the key man.
Speaker 1:Be there for your kids. That's fucking nuts dude. I just it's like a hard. It's a hard episode to have, but it's like definitely one I wanted to have, especially when you told me that's what you do. It's definitely something I want, yeah, i want to have on our platform forever, forever, forever for people to reference and hear, and then we'll definitely watch you back on again and again and again just to always talk about this kind of stuff because, like there's not enough I don't know there's not enough way people talking about the dangers there is.
Speaker 1:I mean and how common? Because I feel like when people, when it happens to someone, they're like not super quick to talk about it because they might feel judged for like not being you know, not, i wasn't watching my kids enough and this happened to them and it's my fault, and you know what would you say to that parent? I know I said one last question, but that, just that was. That's one last question.
Speaker 4:All right. So I get it. When this, when this stuff happens, it's scary, it's embarrassing, you know and I get it. But if you don't get the help you need, if you don't reach out to the right person, your mental health is going to suffer. You're going to dig yourself in a deeper, deeper hole. Your personal connection are going to get severed. You know, like like that kid I told you about, you know he ran into some issues. He kept asking his friends for money. He burned bridges because of that. You know some of those friends will never come back because of him taking money from them. You know so I know it's, it's embarrassing and you're scared and stuff like that. But you have to reach out to the right person because if you don't get help right away, it's just going to get worse and worse and worse. Then you're going to lose sleep, mental health is going to suffer. Some people commit suicide over this stuff. You know some people get divorced. Some people disown their kids, some kids disown their parents, stuff like that.
Speaker 4:So just just find out. You know, help somebody out. If you reach out to somebody and they don't help you out, reach out to somebody else. Yes, keep trying, whoever's on this man, you can, you can hit me up. You know, send me a message on Facebook, michael Rock, on Facebook. On Instagram, cadre Mike Rock, cadre Mike Rock. You know, send me some stuff there. Then from there I can give you my, my actual official work email And then, once, once you send me like an official work email, then I can get you to help you me. You know, i can pass you off. You know, no matter what state you're in, i can find somebody to help you out.
Speaker 4:That's awesome dude, i, yeah, i find someone to help you out, help out your kid, help out your love one. You know stuff like that. That's fucking awesome, yeah, and so that's, that's that's why I put myself out there, man, you know somebody's lifeline And I'm telling you right now, no matter what you say to me, no matter what you say to me, no matter what has been done, you will never, ever shock me, right? You will never scare me away. I have seen, i've seen it all. I've seen just countless, my, my, my life, my daily life is nightmare fuel. All right, i'm not gonna scare me away. All right, i just want to help. So hell yeah man.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah, mike, dude, i do. I really appreciate you coming on and like chat with us tonight. Man, you're welcome, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Hey, one more thing, guys. So if, if you ever want like an online safety presentation for like parents and educators, yeah, if, if you get people and if you host like a like a zoom, like a zoom or something like that, yeah, like I can do that for you guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I can just pick like a date and time. I have a, i have a presentation, i can go over. you know, get parents tips, again I go, i go over like real world examples and stuff like that, you know. so that's just that would definitely.
Speaker 1:I wonder if that would be something that would be something that could set up here in town. I mean, just as I'm sure I'm sure people just aren't even aware, or like what to do or like how to how to combat it. So I mean, like just I think that would be great Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and then it's like we can do it online. or even if you wanted to grab, like you know, a bunch of friends and family or something parents at your house or whatever you know you can put me on on the computer and broadcast me on a TV. whatever, man you know, whatever I'm, just use me. I'm, i'm your tool. man, use me however you need. you know, dude.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, man, appreciate it. We, we, i appreciate that, dude, we really, i guarantee you one of us, either Collar and I, are both of us are going to take you up on that offer because it's mean, like you said, like education is a is the tool, and you know, i appreciate that, you know. So we're going to go ahead and sign up for the night.
Speaker 2:Micah, i appreciate you coming on telling your story. You know, for you know, former badass tanker, not former badass tanker, turn green beret, you know, just I love your story, dude, you just you're moral compass where it led you to where you're at today, and just you know, you know, fighting that fight. That you know me as a parent especially love, i love that you do what you do And I really, out of my heart, i appreciate it. I appreciate you doing what you do for for our kids. So thank you for that. And you know, on a lighter note, for for our guests out there that are listening or that are going to listen, you know, Mike, you know when's, when's your when's, when's the ghost coming out on TV.
Speaker 4:So ghosts will be released on 2B. They never they never give us an actual date, but it's. It's been picked up by 2B, so probably two or three weeks. Ghost is currently on some apps and website right now called POV horror. Okay, pov horror and then wicked horror TVcom. You can go on there. You can do like a like a free seven day trial and just cancel right away. You'll still have seven days and then you can watch it there. Like we say, it's like it's like a completely new spin on found footage, you know, like Blair Witch project, completely new spin on found footage, like it's like what we did with ghost man, like it's never been done before. For found footage and people that have watched it, people that are in the found footage, they watch it and they freaking love it. I had a. I had a big premiere at the at a local theater here in Reno. People went crazy for it. So it just it's something very different, very different.
Speaker 1:I'll have to check it out. Dude, it sounds dope, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Now, now, now keep in mind So how I like role I mean my buddy Dylan from horror nerd productions. the way we we work together. we work better with no script. So when you're watching this movie, keep in mind like there's no script. If you watch Tahoe Joe on Tubi, keep in mind there's no script, we just go that's how this is.
Speaker 4:Yeah, So again it's fun, dude, it's fun, it's fun, you know. So that's that's me, gentlemen, you know. So, uh, mike, or I. I'm Mike, mike Rock, you know, tanker, green, beret, pedophile, hunter, bodybuilder, actor, that's typical shit, typical, typical.
Speaker 2:That's a hell of a resume. Congratulations for that.
Speaker 2:That's all Thank you All listeners out there. If you want to be on, you know, want to be on the podcast, just like. Just like Mike tonight. Mike tonight, email us better in chat project at gmailcom. We're on all the platforms. Just you know, like we tell, like we tell everybody before we sign off, you're not alone in your mental health fight, you know. Share your story with us. If you think you're alone, let me prove it to you. Come on the podcast and we'll have a chat. I guarantee you you're not alone. So, mike, thanks. Can we get anything else for the night? I do not. Awesome, right, awesome dude. Thanks for chatting with this man, yeah. Guys.
Speaker 2:I love you. It's been an honor. We can stick around, for we're just going to hit, hit and on the record.
Speaker 4:Yeah, So uh, skip Oh, skip Alder.
Speaker 1:I don't think I ended it yet. You're good?
Speaker 4:No, you're good, yeah, hey, skip Alder man. I appreciate you guys linking me up with these gentlemen. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's like I said he's our dude, he's definitely he. He leans, he watches, he's like our main right. He's the only one still watching. Yeah, man, later, alder, you should get your patches real soon. I mailed them out Saturday, so yeah, later, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
