Methamphetamine and Identity Theft Crimes - George Jackson's Story (Part 2)

George continues his story and shares about his transition from Crack to Meth and tells some crazy stories about how easy it was to commit identity theft crimes...until he got caught.

Transcript

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Phil Shuler 0:00

HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the Safe House Ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. Safe House Ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been affected by addiction, homelessness, and incarceration. I'm your host, Phil Shuler, the Director of Development for Safe House Ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safe House serves over 1, 100 people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services including 213 beds for homeless individuals and families, case management for obtaining job skills and long term employment. Over 300 hot meals every day, free clothing, and so much more. One of the most incredible services that Safe House provides is our free 9 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program, which is state licensed, CARF accredited, and has no wait list. Almost 100 percent of individuals staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program become fully employed within a few months. And 68 percent of individuals who stay at least one night with us End up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.

George 1:12

When I got paid, I stayed out all night. Didn't know my mother had passed. Wow. No, no, no, no. Didn't know. I came home to my, I came over there, back to the house. My, the only way I know I had just came off my house, headed home, got to the house, and didn't have the key. My nephew came down there and he said, uncle Boot. I said, what? He said, you didn't heard? Heard what grandma passed? I said, boy, you tripping. I said, I just left her. He said, no, everybody's at the hospital or now they looking for you. Oh yes, I was the last one to know. Yeah, but did you thought that stopped my addiction? No. No it didn't. Just right after the funeral. Same addiction. But she had always talked to my sister and my baby brother and my oldest brother. 'cause they had good jobs. My sister, my oldest sister worked for the Department of Defense. She worked for the Pentagon. She was in the Air Force for 18 years and she told her, make sure you take care of him.

Phil 2:09

Yeah. Wow. That's who killing. She was looking out for you even after she was gone.

George 2:14

Oh, after she was gone. My sister was still there. That's why I called her. Was the house paid

Phil 2:18

off? Did you, were you able No, that was my

George 2:20

mother house. Dad been got paid off.

Phil 2:22

So is that where you stayed then? Or what hap Where'd you live now?

George 2:25

No. I moved up here with my sister, so we decided to sell part of the land. We still had land in seal. Okay. We decided to sell the house because it was getting run down because that was too far for me to come back and forth and I didn't have a car.

Phil 2:39

Yeah.

George 2:40

So I moved in Phoenix City with my sister so I can be closer to work. So me and the rest of the sibling got together to decided to stay at the house down there and seal. But we still have land. Yeah. Yeah. We sold the house where the land at, but we still have land in seal sold after we sold that got my little lump sum still in my addiction. See, my sister wasn't going for that. I'm serious. My sister said, if you come here smelling like that stuff again, I'm gonna put you out. And that's when I met the street. That's when I started getting homeless. Wow. Wow. In 2009.

Phil 3:12

Now it's got real serious. Yes. I didn't know what homeless was. You had a lot of people that I had a lot kind carried you through a long time.

George 3:20

Yes. They carried me through a long time until I went to prison.

Phil 3:24

Yes. So you, so you got kicked outta your sister's house. Yes. You living on the streets? Yes. What was that time period like? Wow,

George 3:31

man.

Phil 3:31

Scary.

George 3:32

But I didn't feel, I, I I wasn't too scary.

Phil 3:35

cause you were high all the time.

George 3:37

I was high most of the time.

Phil 3:38

What were some of the scariest things that happened?

George 3:40

Wow. I say being over people house and me not knowing them. Getting high thinking what may happen. I can remember a couple of times I was over at people houses where the narcotic, a guy knocked the door down. That was scary. For like the police. Yes. Yes. I can busted in. Oh yes,

Phil 3:58

I

George 3:59

done

Phil 3:59

been in them raids. And did you like run away? Couldn't go. You got caught up in it.

George 4:03

Went to jail. Yep. For lottery. Yep. Never for drugs, but for lottery.

Phil 4:09

For lottery, yeah.

George 4:10

Lo loitering lottery, because you can be in the house and if they bust in there and find drugs and you are there, they can get you. For lottery. I never got charged with drugs. Yes. Wow.

Phil 4:20

Yes. So you spent some time in jail then you Yes. You get back out and go back to the streets. Same thing. Still working. Where you, how'd you make money during this time? Oh,

George 4:29

when I got out, caraway Steel. Like I said, I learned how to read them. Blueprint Caraway, steel, I think down to Caraway. Outta Lewisville. They was always there too. Yes.

Phil 4:39

So

George 4:39

they, he would hire me right there. They

Phil 4:40

would hire. So multiple times. Multiple times you would, wow.

George 4:44

Sometimes he'll come and get me outta jail. Yes. Wow.

Phil 4:47

You must have been a really good worker.

George 4:48

I was. I was,

Phil 4:50

man.

George 4:51

I did a lot of work. Yeah. Yeah.

Phil 4:53

Wow. Yeah. Sounds like a merciful boss too. Oh man. He

George 4:57

was a good boss.

Phil 4:58

Wow.

George 4:59

I was very good at what I, Doty Reeb. Wow. Wow. Yes. Very good.

Phil 5:03

But then you was living on the streets again or living on

George 5:05

the street? Getting kicked out. My sister house. Back and forth. Did you have a

Phil 5:08

tent or like what? Did that

George 5:09

work?

Phil 5:09

No

George 5:10

fear that was the bad part. I was living in houses that if that door open, I'm going in it

Phil 5:15

like a, an abandoned house. A bando. You just, yes. They call 'em bandos. Yes, that's right. They called. You find a abandoned empty house and you just go squat in it. Go,

George 5:24

Go in there and think nothing of it. Yes. Live there.

Phil 5:27

Was that, was it scary? Did you ever worry about people coming and no hurting at night or on

George 5:32

drugs? Because it wasn't No sleeping at night.

Phil 5:35

Oh, you was getting high.

George 5:35

No, I was too busy getting high. Yeah. There wasn't no sleeping that night. And then, when my sister got really tired of me. Oh, Phil, I went to Columbus. I'm serious. 'cause it's. In Phoenix City. I didn't know too many abandoned houses, but over across this water. Oh, it was plenty Uptown? Yes, that was my hangout. Uptown Columbus.

Phil 5:58

How often did you go fi look, find an abandoned house and then try to go in there. But someone else was already in there.

George 6:04

No, feel Uhuh When I found mines, I stayed at that. Okay. I would look for one with no sign on it.

Phil 6:10

Huh?

George 6:11

Said if it didn't have no trespassing. Oh, I, I'm going in there. I'm finna get there.

Phil 6:15

Did anybody ever come in on you at any time, like try to start living in your abandoned house?

George 6:20

Well, they can have the back room or the front room. But that middle one was mines. Yeah. That's the way we lived. Wow. Never. So

Phil 6:26

you'd lived there and Yes. Go to work? Yes. How'd you take showers?

George 6:30

I would probably go down by the river.

Phil 6:33

Just

George 6:33

wash in the river. Get some water? No. Get some water. Come back. Yeah. I had me some jugs. See when I was living in the country we grew up with, with, yeah. Know how to go get your water and come back. Learn how to wash clothes on your hand. Yeah, I learned all that. Wow. Yeah. Yes. So I knew how to, how to do all that. Yeah. So I go down there, get me some jug, fill it up, had my soap wash all, put me some clothes on. Going to work. Yeah. Just washing up until I started going back over my sister, how she started. She said, boy, you look rough.

Phil 7:07

Yeah. Feel like, were you getting thin? Ooh, yeah.

George 7:10

Like, ah, man, let's say I get up to about 186 pounds and easily drop to 130. Wow. Yeah. But still working. I feel when I was trying to steal back and forth outta jail, still working. But it got rougher. Like I said, I went to prison in 2017. Prison.

Phil 7:29

That's different from jail.

George 7:30

Yes. Yes it is. I went to prison. So you,

Phil 7:33

how long was that period of homelessness? That stretch?

George 7:36

Oh, I say from wow. Feel, let's go back from 2012 until recently. Wow. Until Pastor Eric gave me a job.

Phil 7:46

Wow. Yeah. That's a long time.

George 7:49

I know.

Phil 7:50

That's more than 10 years. So 12 years or 13 years almost. I've been

George 7:54

doing drugs over 30 something years, Phil.

Phil 7:56

Wow. So at what point did you go to prison and why did you go to prison?

George 7:59

Okay. I left Columbus in what it was 2010 and went to Atlanta. Oh yeah. I went to Atlanta. Okay. Between, between the year 2010 and 2012 and started living up there. Well, it wasn't no different. I was still in Bandos.

Phil 8:16

Was it for a job you went up there or just No.

George 8:18

Just left.

Phil 8:19

You just like, I'm tired of this place. I'm going to Atlanta.

George 8:21

Yeah. Yeah. And wow. Did I, my habit growed up there? Yes. Fast life. Yes. Got,

Phil 8:28

Did you ever sell drugs? No. No. Just consuming them and

George 8:32

always I put it like this. I always met someone that know who was dealing big. I moved that Miller man, I make sure me and him can talk. Yeah. Yeah. I always got to the big man drugs for a little bit less. Yes. Always here. No. Some see old favors, yeah. That I don't call no names, round and about. Got to meet some people up there.

Phil 8:56

Yes. Bad people.

George 8:58

Uh, you can say that.

Phil 9:00

Doing bad things. Yes.

George 9:01

Met some guys out of Decatur, which I won't say no names.

Phil 9:05

You're homeless up in Atlanta still?

George 9:07

Yes, but I'm doing good.

Phil 9:08

Living on the street, living in Bandos up there, peach Creek and Pine and where's that? You ever heard

George 9:13

of that? Peach Creek and Pine? It was a homeless

Phil 9:15

shelter. Okay. That's,

George 9:16

yeah. Right. Did they

Phil 9:17

let you stay in that shelter even though you were addicted to drugs and doing, still doing drugs? Everybody

George 9:22

was sitting there doing drugs. Peach, Cree, and Pine. Wow. Yeah. You can, you know, pine Peach, pine go down the hill, peach, Cree like that. Here's the homeless shelter right across the street. South Story Hotel, right down at the bottom. They doing drugs. Wow. Yeah. Yep. So I stayed over there about two years. Wow. Met some peoples, so like I said, I met these guys outta Decatur and we was doing stuff like forgery and stuff like that.

Phil 9:49

Yeah. Like stealing checks outta people's mailbox or no, wet, didn't have. What, what did that look like?

George 9:54

No, we didn't steal checks. What I was doing, we had some peoples, like I said, I don't wanna talk too much about it, but the case is over. We was going around doing BB ts.

Phil 10:04

BB ts? What is that? You ever

George 10:06

heard of bb t? Those are banks. They was just starting up. Oh, that's

Phil 10:10

the name of the bank? Yeah, bb t. Okay. They was just starting up.

George 10:12

And what long story short I was the one who got caught.

Phil 10:17

Yeah. So you were, you were creating fake checks or creating No, there wasn't no fake checks. Like just how did you get money from them? You wanted to

George 10:22

know. Okay. I just tell you so much. We know some people that know some people that I can get your account. If you was about the same age as I was, I can go to CVS when this is George. I can go to CVS and get a background or that. Make a license. Make your social security card, make your bank card. Go in that bank, pull money out your account

Phil 10:41

identity, you identity theft. Yes. For the that person. And then you would just go take money out their account. Yes. It was easy. Easy.

George 10:48

Yeah. It

Phil 10:48

was

George 10:48

easy.

Phil 10:49

That's kind of scary.

George 10:49

No, it wasn't because I had a man. No, it's

Phil 10:51

scary for me to think. It's so easy that people can do that. I know what I thought. I know. It was like, man, it was,

George 10:56

we couldn't do, we couldn't do for F Fargo 'cause they was well up to par, but bb and t was just starting up. It was easier.

Phil 11:02

So other banks maybe would've had more stringent. I went to jail protections and, and guard things that could help keep from that happening. Yes. But this, 'cause this was a new startup bank. Yes. Yes. They were kind of slack with their, there we go. Yes. Oh

George 11:14

man. Yes. I did that for a while and when I went up to I think my last run was when I went to, um, McDonald's. Yeah. Henry County. I was up there and we had made, they had made me the id, everybody was doing everything. I had a man that could make your signature look just like he can sign it. Just like you

Phil 11:36

see.

George 11:36

I, I, I wasn't doing the signature. We'll go to the bank, pull up, get a withdraw slip, pull off. He's doing his job. We had a job that day to go up and I'll never forget Phil, to get $3,200 out this man account. Yes. And the only thing that messed up when they made me a two year license instead of a four, I would, yeah. Oh. They made me

Phil 11:56

a two year license and someone caught it. That it was

George 11:58

the guy, the guy at the bank Yeah. Got caught right there.

Phil 12:01

And then he, he called the police right there on the spot.

George 12:04

I didn't run, I didn't run the arrogancy in me for doing that. You know how you get that rush?

Phil 12:09

Yeah.

George 12:09

From doing it. I didn't

Phil 12:11

even know. So you just kind of sat in the lobby and waited for the police to come? No, I snapped right there. You sat at the counter?

George 12:16

I snapped right at the counter

Phil 12:17

and he said, I'm calling the police.

George 12:18

No, he didn't call. He said, stay right there. I'll be right back. I got 3000 right here. He said, I gotta get rest in the back. Ah. Before I know the police was there. I didn't run.

Phil 12:27

No. And he came back and he got the police and brought 'em back.

George 12:29

Yeah. So when the police came in, he said, what's the problem? He said, look at that. Look at that license. That police just glanced at it. He said, what's wrong with it? He said, whenever Georgia made a two year license, you know what I said? I said, Phil, I said, come on, let's go. That ain't even get handcuffed in the prison, in the jail. In the, you knew it. Yeah, I knew it. So when he went out there, he said, not going tell me your name. I told him, and you know, that's what I went to prison for. They was gonna gimme, I got went for financial fraud, identity theft, and false information. Each one of those carried 10 years.

Phil 12:57

Wow. So you got a 30 year sentence. Yes. But

George 13:00

by the grace of God first offender act, they gave me five years Prob. So

Phil 13:03

you

George 13:04

didn't,

Phil 13:04

you didn't, did you go to prison for five years? No, no. They gave

George 13:07

me five years probation. So you didn't even go to prison? No. What I was going to do, I was gonna do two two, two I had to, I had to how do you do that? Three non-report and two report, yeah. Two years report and three years non report. That's what I had on the first offender act. Wow. Wow. But yeah, they transport it back down to fourth. That

Phil 13:26

it feels like, it seems like you got off really easy. I know, I did. God was just,

George 13:30

it was there. That

Phil 13:31

was Mercy.

George 13:32

Didn't know. Wow. But, um, so

Phil 13:36

five years probation? Yeah. So, okay. And

George 13:39

then they transferred it back down to Fulton County and when I got back down there, I left and came back to Russell County. Yeah. Just left it.

Phil 13:47

So you skipped out. Skipped out on them. No, they didn't allow you to do that. You just skipped out. No,

George 13:52

I just skipped out. I said I'm going back home. Oh. But look, 2017, it came back. Yeah, I was in Lee County. Oh my god.

Phil 14:01

Still back to the drugs. No, my DOC

George 14:03

gonna change now. From crack to ice.

Phil 14:06

Yeah. What is it? What is ice?

George 14:07

Ice?

Phil 14:08

Uh, methamphetamine.

George 14:09

You never heard of it?

Phil 14:10

Uh, yeah. I just didn't know what ICE was. Yes. So, so after you skipped out on probation Yeah. Then you started doing meth. Yes. Is it different? They like, I don't know the difference. Like are, did they do something different in the way they make you feel?

George 14:24

Whoa. Yes. It's totally different. Methamphetamine is a speed. Crack cocaine is a high, the speed where I override the high anytime, and it, and by my partner, uh, had me doing it. It got me off crack cocaine.

Phil 14:39

So yes, the meth got you hooked on meth and you didn't even care about the crack anymore.

George 14:44

No, no. The taste you want, you not, that taste is nasty. Yeah. So I got hooked. I got round, started doing ice and then I, I figured out I found the big man doing that. So my prices was much cheaper. Mm. So when I go and get it, I make sure I was getting quality, but no. So I'm up in Lee County, I never forget it. In 2017, I was up in Lee County in a hotel in them little rank or bank hotels. And a friend of mine came by and I was getting ready to leave out of town the next day. Long as I was in Russell County and Barbara County Henry County didn't want it, man. I didn't know nothing about Lee County. I didn't know you had to be a certain range that can come and get you. I'm thinking I'm safe. So I was up in there, man, I never forget that day. I had a saucer full. Ice just laying there. Yeah. The friend came over. Who we kicking it, huh? Because I'm getting ready to go out of town. I'm trying to get rid of it. 'cause when I buy it, I buy quality.

Phil 15:40

Yeah.

George 15:41

So I'm sitting there, man, and everybody just in there just having a good time and all of a sudden these two guys want to get into it. Huh? So I told him, go out the door.

Phil 15:50

This was you, like a your hotel room? Hotel? Yeah. Okay. I told him,

George 15:54

go outside 'cause we ain't gonna have that here. You know, they got out, went out there and got the Tesla. One guy didn't like it, so the other guy came back in. I said, what other guy? He left, man. Come to find out he called the police. Yeah. So they came right to the room. But they didn't see that. 'cause when they came, I stopped right there in front of the door. I said, can I help you? He said there was a fight here. Now remind you I got a warrant. Yeah. From way left county in Henry County. I said, uh, here he is. He said, can you come to the door? I said, yeah. Hey, come to the door. I moved to the side 'cause I'm kind of sure this, he walked out, closed the door, hide it. Police came back. He said, I need everybody. Id Guess what? I'm the only one there without id. Oh my God. Now they gonna run me. That's suspicious. Yeah. When they ran me, they said, you got a warrant? I said, from where? He said, Henry County, do you know anything about it? I said, yeah, they ain't going. They don't want me. They don't want me. I said, they didn't want me in barber. They didn't want me in Russell. I know they ain't gonna want me here man. Look at here. Did you know you can be a certain distance out and they would not come and get you because it's too far out of their jurisdiction really. But yes. But in Lee County, I was right there. Lee County put them cuffs on me. Took me to jail. I went and signed them. Expedition paper. I went to jail that that Sunday, that Monday night, Henry County came and got me. I'll never forget my judge up there, judge Maria Marias. That was him. I went back in front of the same man,

Phil 17:14

the same judge. The same judge. So did he remember you?

George 17:17

Oh no. 'cause he told me if I came back he was gonna gimme them 10 years. But that DA up there. Oh my, I was up in Henry County for about four months and they took me to court. So I'm telling my, I'm telling my my public defender, you know, listen to the guys and them, which is true. I said, Hey man. I said, what's she talking about? He said, well, Mr. Jackson, she's talking about two years. You know those two years that you supposed been reported? I said, yeah. He said, she thinking about getting you them two years. She said, talking about getting them two years. I said, look, do me a favor. He say what? I said, go over there and ask her can she give 24 months? See, it's a different cause see if you get 24 months, you can do 'em in jail. But if you get two years, you gotta go to prison.

Phil 17:57

Yeah. Why? Even though it's the same timeframe.

George 18:00

Yeah, you can do 24 months. See, that's not prison time. No. If you get it 24 months, I could have did it right there in Henry County. And Henry County was getting four for one. 'cause I was on trustee. I could have did six months and came out. That's

Phil 18:12

so that was

George 18:13

a little loophole. Yeah. Just loophole. A technical

Phil 18:15

way that they worded it.

George 18:16

Yes. But she said no. Tell him I'm again, two years she going to prison.

Phil 18:20

Yep.

George 18:20

I said, okay. Suck it up. Oh man. For real prison, two years in prison, clean time, everything.

Phil 18:27

So when you was in prison, you didn't do drugs? No. Were they, could

George 18:31

you

Phil 18:31

have

George 18:31

Yes. Seen plenty.

Phil 18:32

So you made a decision to say that I'm, I don't wanna do this anymore.

George 18:36

It was all around me in prison. You see all that,

Phil 18:39

so what made you want to stop doing drugs then in pri during that time? Because

George 18:43

I didn't want it, none.

Phil 18:44

I

George 18:44

wanted to stay, cry, to stay clean.

Phil 18:46

You realized it was messing up your life?

George 18:47

Yeah, man, it had to mess my life up. For real.

Phil 18:51

Wow,

George 18:51

for real. So

Phil 18:52

what was, what was that time in prison like then? Well, was it super hard to like the withdrawal to get off the drugs?

George 18:59

No. 'cause every time I went to jail nor prison, I would sleep for about two days. Oh. And then after that I'm finna work out and start back to my Bible. It looked like every time he sat me down, tried to make me say, Hey, this is the way.

Phil 19:12

Wow.

George 19:13

Yeah. Came outta prison two years.

Phil 19:15

So did you stay away from the wrong crowd in prison then? You, you tried to kind of keep to yourself or?

George 19:20

Mm-hmm.

Phil 19:20

It was all around. You can see him selling it. I

George 19:23

just didn't want it. You know what I'm saying?

Phil 19:24

Yeah. You just kept your head down and didn't worry, bother with anybody. I didn't. Did anybody bother with you?

George 19:29

No. Yeah. No. I got into it,

Phil 19:30

oh yeah. It happened.

George 19:31

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You will be tried up in prison. Trust me.

Phil 19:35

Was it, were there some pretty scary scenarios?

George 19:38

No, I wasn't scared at all. Oh man, I was way bigger than this one. I was in prison.

Phil 19:42

Yeah. Yeah. So that, those people didn't wanna mess with you?

George 19:45

No, because I know some peoples, I got hooked up with the right peoples, you know what I'm saying? So I went too much. I went too much concern. Then they sent me outta Jackson to up there to where you call Alberta's, you know Alberta's, that's the police academy.

Phil 20:00

Okay.

George 20:00

Yeah. I was wake up at the print shop. Thank you Mr. Glen. He was at the print shop, so I was like, minimum security. Yeah. And it was real nice. So I didn't, you know, when I went to my job, I didn't have a guard with me 'cause I was minimum security trust, like they trust me. So I walked around the police academy delivering all the books that we print for. Really? Yeah. Police academy sheriff department, GBI, fire department, uh, gma, fema. We, I printed all those books. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Learned a lot in prison. Got outta there two years, went straight back to the same thing,

Phil 20:38

To back to the drugs again. Yes. Yes. So you, you wanted to be clean in prison. Yes. But then you're, you just didn't care anymore when you got out,

George 20:46

man. No. Went back to the same people.

Phil 20:49

The, the draw was too strong.

George 20:50

Didn't renew the mine.

Phil 20:52

Oh, see.

George 20:53

Never would've renewed the mine. No. Just went straight back. Oh man. Hey, what's up? How you doing? Come on in. There it is. Rock on at. That was 2019 when I got out. Now. Now. Wow. God introduced me to the Safe House. I never forget it. I was on the street. When was this? Oh man, it was 2019.

Phil 21:12

So 2019 was your first introduction to the Safe House Ministries. That's

George 21:15

when I got introduced to the Safe. I didn't know Pastor Eric, pastor Paul, Chad, none of them. I was coming there just to eat. Okay. Yeah, just to eat. This guy said, Hey man, where we can go around here to eat? He said, man, you can go there to the say house. He said, well, you know, I already got a safe id. I'm gonna take you up there. You gonna have to get, say Id safe house ID to get in. I said, what a safe house ID to get something to eat. He said, yeah. And I was sneaking down on the concrete. Damn.

Phil 21:41

So you were literally on the literally like, no bando this time, no bando

George 21:44

out, down that concrete. He took me up there. I got the idea. I went in there, ate, I said, this is all right. So then what I started doing, I said, when can I go back? He said, you can go back 5, 5, 7 days a week. I said, what? He said, yeah. So I started going there, started going there and then I got me a little job with this guy named Reggie. Come through morning, I mow the grass and I was working with him. I was doing pretty good, but I was still in

Phil 22:10

the streets, still on the concrete. Now

George 22:11

here where it's Finn to get rough, I had moved over Panama. This guy had met, so he said, I can move anyhow, so I'm going back and forth to the safe house e then it rock on. I'm doing all right, yeah. I haven't met Pastor Eric yet. Yeah. So look, met around 2020. 2020. That's the year. Yeah, man. 2020 came through. I'm still working. I'll never forget the day I got shot. Yeah, I got shot twice. Yeah. It was 20, 20. October the 26th. 2020 at 9 45 it was a Monday night. I got off from work. Okay. Yes, I got off. I got off by eight 15, got in the store, got me some dope, went in, but prior back me and this guy had got into it and um,

Phil 22:57

this is the guy you're living with?

George 22:58

No, no. There was a young man, the one who shot me in the leg.

Phil 23:02

Just somebody on the street?

George 23:03

No. I had met him. You know, we had been talking, you know, he's from East Side. I'm uptown, I'm Phoenix city. See we call it different. He east side. That's uptown. I'm pc. I'm across that muddy water. So, um, what happened? He got to talking. We got to talking, he said, and he asked me, he said, where you from? I said, across that water. He said, well, what you doing uptown? I said, I've been uptown before you were born just like that. He said, really? I said, yeah. I said, but what? I can't understand you east side. What you doing up here? Just like that. I said, you running just like that. So we had to squabble about that. And uh, the next day when I got in, I don't know, was he, how what? But I was scrap and man, he started running off at the mouth and we got into it, you know, whoop, whoop, whoop. He started running in mouth. He walked outside and I walked behind. He spit in my face. I went and grabbed the knife mouth and killed me. If it had to been for cab, oh yeah, he'd be mines. But Cabby told me, you gotta think about your kid. You, you stab him. Who now who told you that? My friend of mine, Kevin. He tried, when he grabbed me, he told me, think about your kids. Yeah. Okay. You been, you've been socializing with 'em. If you stab him, you gone. Wow. I told him, Hey, thank God that's a God. So he came back, man, I walked back over there. The next day he came back. He said, you know, I'm sorry. Wow. When he came back and apologized, he said, I was hijacked. I said, okay man, I accept your apology, but I have, you have to understand, did he go to God first or did he come to me? He came to me. He didn't go to God, so I accepted his apology. So I said, okay. I'm thinking it's cool.

24:32

And that is the end of part two of George's story. Next week we'll be back and find out that things were not cool between him and that other fella. In fact, that other fella comes back and finds George in his house and essentially busts into the bathroom and shoots him. He will tell you that story next week, and he'll also tell you how God finally. It gets him to the place where he wants to get rid of the drugs and get clean forever. Come back next week. We look forward to being back with you, and thanks for being with us again today.

06-21-23 SAFEHOUSE-CH2 25:06

We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus, Georgia, 31,904. You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.

Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-2 25:43

Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.