Credit To Pokémon

Fake cards... From Pokémon to credit.

On this week's episode, we welcome the "Grand Poobah" of the Orange County comedy scene, Daniel Zambrano, and cover two unbelievable but true crime stories:

A man convicted of selling fraudulent Pokémon cards whose criminal background is somehow even more outlandish than the scam itself-- including a brinks truck robbery with an inner tube as the getaway car?!?!

Then we break down the case involving a fake credit card scheme, proving once again that fraudsters never seem to run out of ideas.

We unpack the bizarre details, laugh at the absurdity, and ask the only reasonable question; how did they think they would get away with it???

If you love the combination of true crime and comedy, be sure to subscribe for more content like this and to support the podcast!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Just rock hard at work for the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_03 0:02

I listened to that. And no one gets started.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

This is a podcast when you know what this is hard. This is a podcast for information.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Don't forget to like and subscribe and comment.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Welcome back to another episode. Today we have uh I don't you're not old enough to be like the grandfather, but like you're like the grand poopa, I would say.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

You give grandfather vibes though.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Grandpa grandpooba vibes.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

Yeah, you look like you have a Worthers in your pocket. Worthers. I got like two rocks in my pocket. Crack rocks or what?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Anyways, this week's guest is Daniel Zombrano.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

The motherfucking man himself.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

And you want to give your handle?

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Uh Daniel Zambrano with a three instead of an E. Um at Orange County stand-up for anything Gram Pooh Bye-ish.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yes, he is the one that you want to consult with about your Orange County stand-up needs. Don't talk to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Leave me alone.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

So uh I feel like there's a lot going on for you right now in terms of soccer, right? You're a big soccer fan.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Yeah, big soccer nerd. Uh USA won uh yesterday, uh 2-0 against Australia. So that was yeah, it was just rock hard at work for the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

And that was in Seattle.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Oh, uh yeah, yeah. The crowd was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

And then where does USA play next?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Uh they play in Inglewood next Thursday at Home to Turkey. It's basically a nothing game. The USA already uh finished top of the group, and so it's now USA probably playing like their second string against uh Turkey.

SPEAKER_04 1:50

So I didn't know that they played in stadiums in different states and shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

I I don't know why, but I always thought of it as like just one stadium.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

No, that seems absurd.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Why? There's too so many teams.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, yeah. There's uh 48 teams this year. Oh shit. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so just pockets everywhere. Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Have you been following this Freddie guy? Have you heard about Freddie?

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Freddie, the American guy who uh tried to like virally is like, oh, I'm gonna try out for the US team some shit like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

No, Freddie from Germany.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Freddie from Germany, no.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Okay, so there's this guy named Freddie from Germany who's been doing, I think, like, I don't know if it's like uh threads or uh uh tweeting, I don't know, Xing, I don't know what what the kids call it these days, but Instagramming. Um his he so he's from Germany, he's a f soccer fan, and he's uh traveling throughout the United States of America. So he's been like he I think like he was in Tennessee and then he's in Louisiana and he's he's vlog like I don't want to say vlogging, but like more like Instagramming, yeah, you know, like a diary of all the places he've been, and he's talking about all of his experiences, and the guy's getting hooked up like left and right. He got to go to uh is it Ella Langley, the country singer that's like he's from or she's from Texas, I can tell you. You lost me. Do you know that song? Oh, it's a really good song. Just gorgeous, gorgeous. Anyways, he's like he keeps hearing her song on the radio, he posts about it, and all of a sudden he's now backstage meeting her. Wow. And then, like, yeah, LSU took him on a tour of Death Valley. Like, so he's getting to see all the different places up close and personal because everybody's just falling in love with Freddie. He's like, Oh, midnight, Taco Bell, this place is amazing. So I think there's a lot of uh Europeans that are gonna go back home with type 2 diabetes.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

No, and his defense, if you're at Taco Bell before midnight, you're doing it wrong. Well, you want to do it. Before midnight, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's a 2 a.m. at best. Yeah, you've yeah, you've made awful life choices. If you're at Taco Bell at 6 p.m., which I've done frequently.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Do you have any designs to go to need these games?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Or um desires, plenty of desires. It's just too much money. Yeah, maybe now uh USA Turkey might be a little bit cheaper, but I think my best bet is probably just gone to the fan zone next Thursday in LA and then um just a congregation of uh fans. Um they think they're doing it near LA Union Station, so I can just go take the transit. Oh, that's great. Go there. They're also doing a big uh gathering in uh Long Beach.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

So have you been to that train station?

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Uh LA Union? Yeah, yeah, it's disgusting.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Wait, I thought that's the nice one.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

I nice in what terms? Yeah, like public transit in California in general is dicey. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, I agree. I agree with that, but I'm saying like the afternoon.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Have you been to Union State?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

No, it's the one that's like it's the one that's like next to the Plaza Olivera. Well, I mean, it's like kind of got the 1920s like casita style, right? Like beautiful building.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

And then there's feces outside directly.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

I mean, it's it's culture.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Yeah. I've been at Grand Union Station in New York, so that was tight.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yeah, that is that's a beautiful. It's actually interesting. I saw on Instagram a photo of Grand Central Station before the skyscrapers came in, and you can see like light coming through, and they said you'll you never will see that again because all the skyscrapers have like blocked the windows from light.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

So but it's a beautiful like description. I mean, like you mentioned, even the architecture like in LA is nice. Uh I went to China once and I was at a transit station there, and then I saw somebody actively defecating it like in the transit station. In China. You can see that in LA. Yeah, no, I mean like like they were waiting for their train, they weren't like homeless. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Oh, that's that's aggressive.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, like a child who just popped a squad.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

But then on the alternative, you see like the Japanese uh fans for soccer, they're cleaning up the stands after the games.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

Typical fucking respect for that.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

I an American would never, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I know my husband was like, um, there's a lot of peanut like shells on the ground. That's pretty disgusting. What are they doing with that? I'm like, I hope they're not touching those. That's what I really hope.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

I was just like, I take my trash with me, you know. I usually don't have much, but if I'm somewhere like that and I have, you know, a cup or a popcorn bucket or what, like, I'll take it and throw it away. Yeah, I think that's everyone should.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Right. I think 90% of the time that's what I do too. I think there's like occasionally like you might miss a cup or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

I know. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Um I'm drunk and I'm at your house, I will clean your house.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

You will?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah, yeah. So like you want me to come over and have a drink?

SPEAKER_00 6:33

I wonder if that's a thing. Like, I'm not Italian, but I've a lot of Italian friends. I wonder if that's a similar cultural trait. Because like my my Italian friends, like their family members are either like they're cooking or they're cleaning. There's no, it's like, and you stay out of the kitchen, I'm doing it. And and is that similar?

SPEAKER_01 6:49

I'm Mexican.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Well, I know, right, yeah, yeah. But I'm saying, is it similar culturally?

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Or um I think it's just like doing it like out of anxiety of like I don't know what to do. I'm not super social, but I'm fucking blasted. So let me just let me do this so I don't have to talk to people.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Got it. I understand. Makes sense. Makes sense. Um, so one of the other things that I know you're passionate about is Pokemon.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Big Pokemon fan. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

And and I don't know anything about Pokemon. Can you can you give me like a little backstory on Pokemon? Like, why is it such a big deal?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Um, well, educate yourself for one. Been around since since the 90s. No, uh the it's the the highest uh grossing, I think, uh franchise in the world, even more so than Disney, I want to say. Uh it just yeah. I it just being a kid growing up with it, uh playing the games, nostalgia. It's continuously been going on, played all the games. Um, I only recently just got into like collecting the cards now because I have like adult money. Yeah. Some people genuinely treat it like stocks. Um, a friend of mine watched uh this uh stock guy in uh YouTube. He mentioned um once you have everything covered from the long-term uh gain type of deal, uh, you have your IRA, you have uh these accounts that you're consistently putting money into. These types of collectibles are actually ideal uh because you buy at a certain rate, and because these collectibles tend to grow really high, yeah, uh even though they're volatile, like it's reasonable to invest in. So I'm not an investor. I I just do it for the they look nice. I do I did have a folder in my car. Uh I was like, maybe I should bring this, and I'm like, dude, we're not, this isn't that type of show.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

But it sounds like it is that type of show.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

I should have brought it. If we if you want to do 45 minutes on Pokemon, he can just give me some weed and then I have my my folder and then we can do this. We can do so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I just want to put on the record that Daniel really came alive when we started talking about Pokemon. Is it just me?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

I only get alive about things I care about. Who's your favorite? Uh Gengar.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Yeah. That's a that's my solid number three. Coughing and wheezing are my favorite for obvious reasons.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

What does he look like? Like what's his color?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Uh Gengar? He's purple. Uh think of like um kind of like a like a like a short, stubby like um like bear almost. Uh, but he's not like a bear, just a ghost. Purple. Purple. Big smile.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

I was I was imagining green, so okay, purple. Like a Barney situation.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Educate yourself.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

How do you value the card though? Like, is there a certain like sticker that tells you what it is? All right.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Uh so so yeah, based off of like uh there's there's certain rarities. There's a double rare, which is like not, it's like 50 cents to like a dollar. If it's playable, it's more. Uh there's uh full art rare, which is just like a background. Um, and then again, if it's playable, it's worth more. It tends to be like $1.50 to $2. And then you have like your illustration rare where there's like a pretty background. I have a folder that's just a bunch of pretty background ones. And then there's um another one, the rarest, um special art rare, which has like little texture, and then a nice illustration. Those are sought after because most of the collectors are autistic, and so when they touch it, it comes.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

So what I'm trying to do is I'm actually asking you questions I know the answers to. Yeah. I don't know the answers to any of this, but I do know there's something called the professional sports authenticator. Have you heard of this? Uh yeah, PSA. PSA.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

I don't send anything too. Is that what PSA stands for? I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 10:24

Yeah, I I guess so. I never looked into it. I didn't either. I always just took it at face value.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Educate yourself. But that's a way to value the cards, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah. Um but the thing with that is that uh just like anything, it only holds out value if other people see it in that. So say you can uh take this illustration uh card to get um graded, graded at 10, and then you ask on eBay to sell it for $500, and then maybe you get low balled, you sell it at $300, and then everyone else starts selling their stuff at $300. So even though you initially put it up for like $500, everyone's buying at $300, so the value is like $300. I think that's kind of like the idea. Um, and then it's based off of like scarcity. So if there's only like 10 10s and those 10 tens happen to be priced at like 10,000, then the assumption is that your illustration at 10 is worth 10,000 because there's only 10 of these available in a 10, and people just happen to have that up for 10,000. Doesn't necessarily mean anybody's actually bought it. I think ideally you want to buy it at that, and then it becomes that, but and you can get these all like in a regular pack. Yeah, yeah. It's just gambling with extra steps, really. I see.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Uh and they do the same for uh sports cards as well, correct? Right.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

Same concept. They've broken it down into a science though, where like you can have a pack and you'll know like the percentage of the what's the word I'm looking for, the chance or whatever. Yeah, the percent. Yeah, the statistics, the percent chance that there's gonna be a good card in that pack or the the box or whatever that it comes in.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Well, back in the day, yeah when I was a child, which was a long time ago.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

We know.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

I have older brothers and my brothers were into baseball cards, one especially, right? And he there was this place called uh the Price Club. It was before Costco. Children gather around. I'm just kidding. Anyways, he bought um baseball cards in boxes, they would sell like packs in a box, and you can just get them from Costco. And I think or I'm sorry, price price club. And I think he has a couple from like 1985, which would be like the the possible I think Mark McGuire like Rookier era, and he hasn't opened them, so but and yeah, but yeah, yeah, yeah. But um I don't know where those are, don't come looking for me. So I'm sure he's not hard up for money, so um yeah, no, he he's he's he's he's doing okay. He's a he's a physician. But you know, doing okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:10

But anyways, life choices.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Yes, that's true. Yeah, a different kind of drug dealer, I guess you could say. Anyways, well, today's crime that I wanted to talk about was about Pokemon and sports cards. So um, and this recently happened where someone was uh found guilty of forgery of Pokemon cards. Wow, oh yeah, so Anthony Curcio, as I believe, his name, and he is based in Washington State, and he was with another guy named Iosef Bonderchuk. Right. Uh say that three times fast. Anyways, um, they were charged with wire fraud stemming from allegations of fraudulently raiding trading cards, and they and the listed charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. And Curso was found guilty of these charges in January of this year, and I believe Iosef uh pled guilty to them. And they get they each have two charges against them. Each charge carries with it 20 years, and they were one of them was supposed to get sentenced in May, one was supposed to be sentenced last week or two weeks ago. Uh, but I I'm unable to find out what their sentencing is.

SPEAKER_04 14:25

20 years for fucking Pokemon cards is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

I know. Yeah. So um, but you know what's interesting is that's not even the craziest part of the story. So Anthony, turns out this is his second time. He's a two-time offender.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

Wow, but he got caught and convicted previously? Yes. Holy shit, what a loser. Yeah, what a dumbass same shit.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Different crime.

SPEAKER_06 14:52

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Oh, here comes the twist. Are you ready for the twist? So as I'm like, I'm like, okay, I I I pride myself in trying to find something that might be of interest to the guest, you know? And so for you, I was like, okay, is there gonna be a soccer crime? Is there gonna be a Pokemon crime? And so I find this little, there's like actually a spattering of Pokemon crimes. It's not this guy's not isolated. This is not an isolated event. But this gentleman here, as I dug a little deeper, it turns out he robbed an uh uh Brinks security armored truck.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Wow, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

So like he pulled it off?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

Did he go to jail for it?

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yeah. Yeah. So so this guy is from Washington State and he is uh he ends up going to University of Idaho to play football and and suffers an ACL tear and and now can't play football anymore. All right, but he gets on to drugs and apparently he liked the benzos. Apparently that was his choice.

SPEAKER_04 15:55

Which is crazy, instead of just perhaps finishing his education in college.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Well, I think he the the painkillers from the surgery, he got addicted to them.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

Oh, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

That makes sense. So that makes more sense.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

And then I guess after he would run out of a prescription, then he would hurt himself again so he could get more prescription. Yeah. So he ends up going to like a you know uh 21-day facility at the instruction of his uh family, and he he gets clean allegedly, right? But he he isn't really clean, I believe. And he's like, I need money for this habit. So I'm gonna I'm gonna rob a armored truck.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

And for some dough is crazy. Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

He I guess um at one point though, before that, he had tried to to uh before going this route of robbing a armored truck, he wanted to try to um have a business where he was selling like or leasing or selling, I don't remember which one, but gaming uh like tables and such. But then somehow there's a guy that was pissed about it, and uh he was like a real estate broker that had been an investor in a casino or something. So somehow he got like the DA involved and like got him shut down. So he was trying to make this is before he does anything illegal, but he's trying to do something legitimate, and the they're like, nah, you can't do it. So then he's trying to figure out like what am I gonna do um for work. He he actually graduated from Washington State University, um, does real estate investment in Seattle, but uh in 2006 he was spending nearly $15,000 a month on his drug habit.

SPEAKER_04 17:39

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Allegedly, yeah, on Benzos.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

That I'm so glad I was broke when I was doing drugs. Like all jokes aside, I would be dead. But if I had money, yeah, like real money like that, I would a hundred percent be in a casket right now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

So in 2008, the economy collapses, his real estate investment business took a heavy downturn, and he has several homes on the verge of foreclosure. And he has vehicles that are nearing repossession, and he has other personal debts. So he decides you know what? I'm gonna go where there's the money. I'm gonna go to a Brinks truck, I'm gonna rob it. But he he's pretty smart about it because what he does is he cases the joint, I think for weeks, maybe even months, and he he's observing the schedules, the timing, everything, right? But then apparently he puts an ad on Craigslist for partners for people to participate in a cleanup in the parking lot of the bank, make sure you wear jeans, work boots, a vest. You're gonna get paid like $28 an hour. So if something like 20 people show up and he wears the same outfit.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

Yeah. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yeah. So then the armored truck, the the the person, the guard, I guess you call them, the guard is pulling the money out on a dolly, and our guy, Curcio, takes a pepper spray, sprays him in the face, the guard takes his hands off to like wipe his eyes, and Curcio takes off with something like $400,000.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

Wow. Damn.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

How does he get away?

SPEAKER_04 19:26

That's uh I mean it's kind of like a where's Waldo situation at that point though, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Well, I mean, do you think what do you think like what would be the best way to get away? Like a with a car, like maybe having somebody like waiting for you in a car?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Ideally like a van. A helicopter would be sick, but that's kind of expensive.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

How about an inner tube?

SPEAKER_01 19:47

An inner tube.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

An inner tube.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Was there a body of water nearby?

SPEAKER_00 19:51

There was a body of water, there's a creek.

SPEAKER_04 19:54

Hold the fucking phone. That's crazy. Hold the motherfucking phone. So you're telling me this motherfucker robbed a fucking Brinks truck at Mace Point and then escaped on an inner tube. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Facts, bro. His nickname was DB Tuber.

SPEAKER_03 20:19

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

And I guess I think he had some kind of like a wire system or something that he had div devised so he could get out fast. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

I'm fucking impressed.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

That's what I'm saying. Like this little Pokemon Go had me going down different tunnels. And I'm like, Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

That's insane.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

So then how did he get how did they find him?

SPEAKER_04 20:44

That was my next question.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Well, I'm gonna answer it for you. So apparently there was a an unhoused individual that had noticed this guy casing the joint in the weeks leading up. And apparently when the when our coo uh Cusio, when he ends up uh being done with his outfit, he took his outfit off and put it behind a uh dumpster or like a trash can. So his DNA was on the outfit, his uniform, his fake uniform, whatever. And the unhoused person was able to identify, I guess, the car that he had been in, and they were able to piece it together. So it was a couple months after the I think it was a couple of things. Don't hold me for this, but I think it was a couple months after, maybe maybe, maybe like several months after that he was found out.

SPEAKER_04 21:33

He could have just worn like two shirts and sunk the shirts in the fucking in the river.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Right. So while he's in prison though, he meets George Young. Do you know who George Young is?

SPEAKER_01 21:51

No.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Do you remember the movie Blow?

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Of course. Oh Johnny Depp? Yes. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

It all comes back to Johnny Depp. I don't know. You've have you seen My joke about I look like Johnny Dubb, maybe. Yeah, I was just about to say. Yeah, yeah. Well, anyways, so yeah, so he meets George Young in or George Young, sorry, in prison, and George Young encourages him to write a his story into a book. And so that he writes a book, um, something about a heist, I can't remember the title, but a heist book. But then he starts writing children's books, and he writes like something like 20 children's books, and one of the books is Daddy's Gone to Jail. I think that's what it was called. Yeah. It's titled Daddy's in jail. And it's for kids whose parent minority children. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Yeah. For children whose parents are incarcerated. So yeah. And then he gets released from jail and he goes on this wild like tour of just being a do-gooder because he's just, you know, a motivational speaker. He is a children's author. He's a stay-at-home dad. So he's making it work. Like he's doing all the right things. But then he decided, I know I had to get some score some cash on the side. I'm gonna start selling some forged Pokemon cards. Man, yeah. Isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yeah. I this man's kind of a genius. I mean, the the the obviously the plans eventually failed, but the work it took to get there and then continue there. It's like he's he's trying to get by as best as he can.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:24

Well, yeah, and like his progression is like he went from like small time to fucking straight to Robin a Brinks truck. Yeah. And now to forgery, which is probably gonna end up being federal charges. It was federal, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

So so he his his going back to the Pokemon, um, his scheme focused on selling vintage rookie sports cards, particularly Michael Jordan, uh, his rookie card, and Pokemon cards that would sell for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars if they received the PSA score of nine or ten.

SPEAKER_05 23:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Curcio sold ungraded and lower graded cards for more than they were worth by cleaning the rating and serial numbers off of real PSA labels and then printing fake nine or ten grades and serial numbers on PSA labels. And they sold the trading cards with the fake PSA grades online marketplaces and on auction sites such as eBay, as well as person in-person stores, card shows and trade shows. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

And apparently they were good forgeries.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah, they were definitely very good.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

Yeah, and like once you buy that slab, once you get it in the the plastic PSA thing, you're not gonna take it out.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Yeah, but apparently there were customers that would crack it open and be like this isn't correct, and so Curcio would refund them the money, but he would take the card back and then he would resell it to someone else. So yeah, so sustaining economy. Yeah, so I apparently try to sell Michael Jordan's rookie card three times and yeah, each time with different forged grades. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Sports fans are different though. Yeah, sports fans know nah that's a fucking they could look at it for three seconds and be like, that's a fraud. Yeah, this is bullshit.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

Yeah, so I hope I wasn't too distracting with reading it, but I there's just the details are just too many that I could I couldn't jam them all in my brain. So I just like you know, I want to make sure I got it all right. So yeah, pretty, pretty crazy though, huh?

SPEAKER_04 25:24

Yeah, that that's a fucking I had no idea. It's intricate that like obviously wherever there's something like that, someone's gonna try and fake it, but I didn't know that it had happened.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

I I thought the Pokemon stuff was like interesting, okay. I'm not gonna lie, but when I dug deeper in the Brinks truck situation, I mean, so much of it, the planning of it is insane. I mean, to think about getting a cast of characters out there so that way you could blend in and then to escape by an inner two, right?

SPEAKER_04 25:56

Absolute mastermind shit. Yeah, that's that's that's something you would see in a like an action comedy. Yeah, yeah, this is fucking genius.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

It seems unbelievable.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Yeah, because while people are probably like scattering, well, he was wearing a vest and jeans, it's like, well, so is everybody else, and it's like he's just running over and I got yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Nobody ever suspects a guy with a wheelbarrow full of money.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Well, also, like a lot of times it seems as though like grocery stores that get robbed, they're close to a freeway, right? Like anything that's close to a freeway because then they can get away quickly, right? I wonder if uh whatever bank this was or brinks are like we need to rethink the plan when it's next to a crick.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

So yeah, nobody ever expects the inner tube inquisition. Yes. How how how big would 400 grand be?

SPEAKER_00 26:46

I honestly don't think it'd be that like if it's if it's in hundreds, it's probably not terribly big.

SPEAKER_04 26:52

I guess so. I guess that's only like 40 stacks of 10,000, huh? I mean, I've never seen a hundred dollar bill.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

So I mean, if we're talking quarters, then we're gonna have some problems. You're gonna have an anchor.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

I can't believe you know what's funny to me is that like in every movie where you see somebody robbing a Brinks truck, yeah, it's like a whole team of like trained assassins with like ARs and fucking shysties and shit, and this dude fucking robbed him in jeans and a t-shirt with some maze.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Right.

SPEAKER_04 27:25

That's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

I think that'd be a very scary job to be a brink, like an armored armored truck driver.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Yeah, fuck that.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

It'd be so scary.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

I'm a felon, they ain't gonna let me do that shit anyways.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

They should though, for you. I agree. I mean, the you understand the consequences of getting caught, but uh you think like a criminal. Allegedly. I mean in terms of like safety, you'll know uh you're maybe going down a couple of streets.

SPEAKER_04 27:53

I like what you're saying now. Yeah, I'm gonna like that show where they have the the dude that used to do the same shit I did break into people's houses to show them, hey, your security's not that great. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Well, just like the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio that um right, Leonardo DiCaprio, that's his name, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:11

The pilot, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Yeah, where's the pilot and uh he is in Catch Me If You Can. Yeah, and he I love that movie. Yeah, so good, but he ends up, I think, working for the FBI to help with uh forgeries of Frank Abignale.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

That's right. They do that with the Nazis too. They're like, hey, come work, come work for NASA. We'll build NASA. Do you know the same thing? Let me ask you this.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Do you know don't say it because I know, I know, you know. Do you know what the name of the Nazi Air Force is?

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Um uh uh no, I wasn't it just like the same acronym, like NASA? No? The Nazi Air Force? Oh, uh, yeah, it started with N and N. I know it. Um I'm big into German history. Well it's called the Luftwaffe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Do you know why he knows that?

SPEAKER_01 29:00

He's white.

SPEAKER_04 29:03

It has nothing to do with my last name being Reichert, I promise. I've said it before. Oh, he's got a his great grandpa.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

I'm just gonna I this is where you everybody Tony O has joined the chat. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Tell us about your past.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Uh no, he he'll explain to you how he knows it.

SPEAKER_04 29:23

Yeah. Dude, so uh you're a gamer, right? Yeah, yeah. So, and you're about my age. Did you ever play uh Call of Duty Finest Hour? Finest Hour, yeah, dabbled. Yeah, it was like the I think it was like the second or third one that came out. Um like the eighth mission or whatever, you have to shoot down Luftwaffe planes, and it's fucking impossible. Yeah. And I fucking I dude, I mean, for days on end, I was trying to beat this one mission. Yeah. So like it was beat into my fucking brain. Yeah. A lot of things have been beat into my brain. I have no ram space left. Can't remember shit anymore. Which has nothing to do with the weed, I swear.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Criminal mastermind right here.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

I would have thought to change my shirt and throw the other ones in the goddamn river. Shit. Fucking dumbass.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:24

Smart ass and a dumbass all at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Yeah, pretty wild. I mean, that's the thing that's crazy too, where you think about a person like him, like if he would have applied himself to just something else. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Didn't you say he graduated from Washington State University? He could have been a politician and done the crime correctly. Right. And got away with it on TV.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Right. And actually uh had interest, like you know what I mean? Like if it was uh accrued interest on on the crime, so they just keep racking up more money.

SPEAKER_04 30:54

I wonder how he came across the idea to forge these cards.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

He probably just saw that market of like, this is something to like tap into because a lot of them are worth a crazy amount. I was at a trade show a couple weeks ago. I took my sister's boyfriend for the first time, saw one card and a PSA 10 that just happened to be a very exclusive one from Japan, and in attendance worth $16,000. So Pikachu with a Rayquaza hat. Fire. Yeah. So that's it.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

It's basically a you're speaking a different language.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

It's a little electric mouse with a dragon mascot head on it. Amazing. Yeah. But that's worth like a car. Yeah. Again, only if somebody pays for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But uh it's absurd. It it it makes you understand why someone would want to forge.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

So I heard an interesting, I don't know that this is true, but I heard an interesting thing about Wayne Gratsky that apparently whenever he signed a player's card, he would bend the corner.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

And the only un unbent cards are in his children's possession.

SPEAKER_04 32:03

Love that.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Like as a investment, I guess. I don't know. Who knows if that's true? I don't I mean, I've never met Mr.

SPEAKER_04 32:09

Gratzki, so I kind of like that idea though. So then like once people start realizing you do that, you're only gonna get requests from like actual fans instead of like people who are trying to scalp you for money.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Also kind of a dick move if you're it's like a child handing you a card and just and then this kid just pulled this card.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

You could also say it's an authenticator, too, though, right? Like a true collector would know that that's what he does, right? They know probably exactly which corner he folds. I mean I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

If I met Gengar in real life and he bent the corner of my card, I would be I I would cry. Devastated. Facts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

So this has been Pokemon Talk.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Yeah, oh yeah. I we have another 45 minutes left and explain to you guys everything.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

I think we need some B-roll of the uh the card catalog that you have.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

So oh, I mean it's not my good one. Okay. I have my my $2,500 folder at home. That's what I've accrued. Uh not what I paid for it. It's um yeah. I love net worth. Take that out. I don't want people to know. Don't find me at home.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

It's in a Brinks armored truck.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Bring your inner tubes.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

And a change of clothing.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Pepper spray.

SPEAKER_04 33:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

So, Tony, what do you have for us this week?

SPEAKER_04 33:35

Uh, so I would like to talk about a man named Frank Grapponi. Okay. I think that's how you pronounce it. I'm assuming it's Italian. So it's either Grappone or Grapponi.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Grappone.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

Yeah, there you go. Mars Capone, Grappone. You know. That's where we're at with it. But in the 1980s, this man was a manufacturer of fake credit cards. So he would make the blank credit cards, but they would have like legit like Visa or MasterCard logos on them, and then he would send them to somewhere else who would stamp them with the the numbers and the names and and link them to an account and all that.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Can I stop you really quick?

SPEAKER_04 34:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

Do you remember credit cards in the 80s at all or no?

SPEAKER_04 34:25

In the 80s?

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Yeah. I don't know if I I I apologize. I don't know if you like Do you remember how they were?

SPEAKER_01 34:30

I was born in 1990.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Oh, well, okay. Then you don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

They would take like uh like a mold of it kind of, right? Or just like a sh like it with ink? Gather round children. Grandma has a story for you.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

So the credit cards, the numbers were like perforated, they were just like raised up. And then they would have these bulky machine, these like machines, and they go, it would like it'd be a racket, it would rack back and forth, and then that would make an a copy, like a carbon copy of the imprint of your card. And then a copy would go to you and the store would keep a copy. And the reason why this is ingrained in my brain is my mom had a Nordstrom's credit card, and then when they switched to having the magnetic back of it, my mom refused. She's like, No, you will use my original card. And they were like, and they were like, no, we want to use the magnetic. She's like, no. So then they she would like literally have to go to like I don't know, client services to have them rack it. And then like and then finally the card like fell apart because at a certain point you can only rack it so many times, you know. So so then she had to, you know, get get a normal card. My mom also doesn't use an ATM. Okay, so let's just like I'm just you know, she will be the lady in the grocery store writing a check. Well, just like putting you in perspective of like what we're dealing with, but yeah, so anyways, that I just will never forget being like, oh my god, we're really doing this right now. So, but that's that's how the credit cards were. So that's what they probably did have to like imprint it. And I and it's crazy because if you think about it, you're racking it, you're trusting that this card is correct while you're there, you know, and and you're giving an item and then you're inputting the information later.

SPEAKER_04 36:17

So I didn't think about it like that.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

So it's not like an instant, like it would tell you, hey, this is declined.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

I don't think so. I mean, I don't remember it like that, but I think I feel like it was just like they would rack it, they'd get the information and release the information, like release, yeah. Yeah. Because they're assuming that the numbers are accurate, right? I don't I don't know. I I don't think that but because then I think later is when the magnetic strip is when you start to be told, like, oh, your cards declined.

SPEAKER_04 36:48

I guess at that time people were still taking personal checks, which is I mean, you could write somebody a bad check, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Oh, yeah, for sure. So I I assume it's like a similar Well, and then full full circle, I worked at Nordstrom and I remember there was I remember that I don't remember. There was something about you we weren't allowed to take um, I think checks from out of state. So like if you had someone who had an out-of-state credit card, I'm sorry, out of out-of-state ID, you weren't allowed to take their check because there was like some scam situation going on there. But uh, and I was always like sweating it when someone would write a check. I was like, oh god. Like I'm like, I don't want to be in this, like I just a summer associate, like I'm not trying to, you know, cause a ruckus here, you know. Like, sir, your Arizona idea is not allowed here. Go back to where you came from.

SPEAKER_04 37:36

Yeah, we don't like your kind around here, Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Yeah, yeah. Idaho, Utah, get out of here.

SPEAKER_04 37:44

I love Arizona, it's fucking beautiful there.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

Hot as hell.

SPEAKER_04 37:47

Love it. I love Arizona, New Mexico, like that whole little it's fucking gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

In the winter. In the summer, it's Satan's playground.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

That's fair. I drove through there in the winter, so like I I couldn't say anything about the summer. I think even when I went to the Grand Canyon, it was in the winter time. Also fucking beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Yeah. What what are your thoughts on the Grand Canyon?

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Uh I've never been. I kind of want to go to Sedona just for the vibes. Um Sedona for the what? For the vibes. Oh. The apparently um not a culty vibes, but like the spiritual vibes in Sedona. Uh-huh. Maybe died. You know, go over there, do some uh mushrooms. Ayahuasca. Yeah. Get lost in the desert.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Uh I one time went to Savannah, Georgia, and I was telling someone I was going to Savannah, and I think that they thought I met Sedona, and they're like, oh, and that's how it's like, yeah, Savannah, Sedona, Sonoma. I mean, all very different vibes.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

God, that's funny.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

They all start with us, though. So I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

And they say Americans aren't good with geography.

SPEAKER_04 38:58

Isn't that the study of rocks?

SPEAKER_00 39:00

What is nothing.

SPEAKER_04 39:01

Never. Oh, geography? It was a joke. It was a dumb joke. Geology. It was a dumb joke. And uh, if you guys will excuse me, I'll go fuck myself. You go grab my Pokemon cards. Might be a while.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Tony getting rocked. Anyway, so that thing with the Muscar Pony? Yeah. Yes. Let's go back to so he made the cards.

SPEAKER_04 39:29

Yeah. And he had a partner, his distributor, and his distributor's name was Fiorentino Zambrano. Hey, hey.

SPEAKER_06 39:40

Any relation?

SPEAKER_01 39:42

Uh probably not. I have no clue. When I looked up uh my last name, I was just told it was like Basque. But literally everyone says Italian because it sounds Italian. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:51

It very much does. And I just have to assume this guy was with a name like Fiorentino. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

Fior, Fjord sounds a little different. A little uh axis of evil here. I mean, think about it. German, yeah, Italian, and Japanese. We've talked about today. We have the Axis of Evil going back to World War II.

SPEAKER_04 40:13

We're on the same side, huh?

SPEAKER_00 40:15

World War II talk, folks. That's what we're here for.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

Yeah, history and poking it back.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

One more time. We need uh remasters of uh the Call of Duty scene. They're working on it right now.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Pretty sure it's we're yeah, we're in the throes of it right now. Sort of, maybe, maybe not. Yes, no, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 40:38

Okay, so the way that they got caught. Uh people were caught using the fake credit cards at this bike shop.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Like when you say bike, do you mean bicycle or do you mean motorcycle?

SPEAKER_04 40:49

Bicycle. Okay. Or maybe it was a bike.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Are we talking about Vespas?

SPEAKER_04 40:52

It just said a bike shop. Yeah. I didn't inquire any further. It could have been a motorcycle shop. Yeah. Don't quote me. I guess in the 1980s, it could have been either or.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Uh Unicycle?

SPEAKER_04 41:05

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

Big wheel? Big wheels were big in the 80s. I should know.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

I'm getting tired of these jokes. Oh, one for the pun counter.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

I just like to cycle through my puns. Wow. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

She's here all week, guys. If I could ride a bike, it'd be way more engaged.

SPEAKER_04 41:34

As you can see, I haven't ridden a bike in a very long time.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

Fun fact, I can't ride a bike.

SPEAKER_04 41:41

Oh wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Like, I legitimately can't ride a bike.

SPEAKER_04 41:44

You mean like you can like hold on? You can't just like pedal. Really?

SPEAKER_00 41:53

So sorry to go on this other tangent, but yeah, no, um, the last time Marscapone.

SPEAKER_04 41:59

The last time I rode a bike.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

So going back to my brother who's a doctor, he was in town and he was like, let's go for a ride from Sunset Beach to Main Street, Huntington Beach. It's an easy bike path. Yeah. You can do it. I'm like, you know, so we rent these bikes, and the pedals are just far enough away where I'm like, I feel uncomfortable, or if I move my seat down, they're too like my my knees are by my ears. You know, how old were you? Um, probably 30.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

So I'm picturing like 12.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

So I'm like, and my brother's wife is a physician's assistant. These people are in the medical field, right? They see trauma. And I'm like, hey, do you think we should get helmets? My brother's like, uh, no, it's a bike path. Like, relax, you're gonna be fine. I like, I don't know. I mean, like, I need a helmet. No. So I'm white knuckling it all the way to Main Street to the to the pier, and we have lunch. And and I I'm fine. Like, I get to the pier. I mean, I there's a couple close calls because I'm like trying to navigate people, you know, people are on the path and on the strand or whatever. Get there, everything's fine, everything's great. We have lunch, we're good. We make it all the way back to Sunset Beach, which I don't know if you're familiar with how Sunset Beach is set up, but the parking lot is kind of a little bit funky. And we'd rented the bikes in Sunset Beach, so we're almost back to where we rented the bikes. And my brother's in front, my sister-in-law's behind me, and I was upset with my brother because he was going like towards traffic, but the way that the uh cars were parked, you wouldn't be able to tell if a car was backing out or not. So I was like, you need to go on the other side of the parking lot where we could see the if the car is gonna back out, we could see it. So he's like, Okay. So he does this like gentle right turn, gentle left turn, and he's on his way. Everything's good. I do a gentle right turn, I start to make my gentle left turn, but I can't see if it Cars coming, I spaz out, I overcorrect, I crash into a uh Prius, slam into the Prius, and I fall down. My sister-in-law thinks I just went like to the Prius just to be funny. You know what I mean? Shout out to my sister-in-law, she actually watches these episodes. So you remember, you remember this. So we get to uh she so she stopped, and brother's like, what just happened? And I had pants on, and I'm like, oh my god, I'm like, I hit my leg on the car, and I hit my hem. I don't know, I don't know. And my brother's like, Are you okay? I'm like, um I think I'm gonna pass out or I'm gonna throw up. I'm just gonna pass out or I'm gonna throw up. And my brother was like, Well, take a seat, like let's sit down and see like what happens. I sit down and I pass out, and I like come back convulsing. My brother's like, I've never my brother's a doctor. He's like, I've never seen this before.

SPEAKER_04 44:51

You hit your head?

SPEAKER_00 44:52

No, I hit my hip.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_00 44:54

I know. Did you break it?

SPEAKER_01 44:56

No, did you cry?

SPEAKER_00 44:58

No, but I was shaky. And so at that point, no, I really didn't. I literally was like more focused on like trying not to throw up than crying.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

I would have boohooed like a bitch. I ain't even gonna lie. But nothing was broken.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Like I literally had a scratch on my leg from the puddle. That's it.

SPEAKER_04 45:11

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Yeah, and and so um, but I think it was because I was so panicked that I wasn't sure if a car was coming that I and all I was thinking is like, I don't want to be splattered and I don't want to hit my head.

SPEAKER_04 45:22

And so is there a car coming?

SPEAKER_00 45:24

I don't think so. But I couldn't see, right? So yeah, so that that yeah, and then the original time when I tried to learn how to ride a bike when I was younger, my dad, we were at um a high school parking lot area, and my dad was like, just whatever you do, don't get near the wall. And I'm like, Okay, let's see how close I can get to the wall. Of course, yeah. So then I and then I hit my handlebar on the wall, and then I fell and like scraped my face, and like my dad's like, That's it, we're not doing this again.

SPEAKER_04 45:51

So what did we learn?

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Yeah, so I'm a stationary bike girl. Anyways, I digress. You please continue. So the bicycle shop, we don't know what kind of bicycle shop.

SPEAKER_04 46:01

Yeah, it's something with tires uh and handlebars, probably.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Um, but people got caught there using fake credit cards, and uh the government caught wind of it, and they sent I don't know the FBI or whatever in there to become undercovers to accept the fake credit cards. Um and so they did their little sting operation or whatever and eventually caught them. Uh they got both of them, uh Grappone and Zambrano, uh red-handed basically. And this is my favorite part. Their defense in court was that they weren't doing anything illegal by creating and distributing the fake cards because there was it was just little cards. There was no nay other people were putting the accounts and names and numbers on them. And the judge was like, no, bitch. You you know what the fuck they were about to be used for. Like a lawyer came up with that. I feel like.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Was this in Italy? Sorry if I if I missed that.

SPEAKER_04 47:14

No, no, no, no. Uh it was here.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 47:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:18

Did I did I miss that? Where where is it? Where did it happen? And when did it happen?

SPEAKER_04 47:21

Oh 1980s, New York.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

Oh, that's right, 80s. Oh, it was New York, okay.

SPEAKER_04 47:25

Yeah, I did leave that part out. That's okay. I forgot.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

I forgot you you said 80s because I went on a tangent, but anyways, go on.

SPEAKER_04 47:32

Yeah, we've been a little all over the place, but it's fine. It's been fun. Yeah. It's been a good time so far.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

We've been on a Tour de France, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

Does that does that word, that phrase scare you?

SPEAKER_00 47:44

Tour de France.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Tour de France. Anything bike related?

SPEAKER_00 47:47

No, no.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

I mean, yeah, it's it's actually pee when you hear a ring ring.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

No, but it is embarrassing. Like when I go out, like we were I was in Vancouver with some friends, and they're like, let's go for a bike ride. I'm like, well, you see, the problem is I am not well Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Maybe if you just tell them like they'll understand.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

It's like a bike touch you when you were younger, they'll they'll never I was like, I if there's a um if there's a scooter, I'll scoot.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:13

Have half scooter will scoot, you know. But yeah, I I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

I wish I could yeah, yeah. I scootered around uh Oahu was fucking fire. Yeah, hell yeah. That's one of my favorite things I did in Hawaii, just fucking scootered around the city for like 45 minutes or so.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Like on a bird or like an actual like where you had to like pedal yourself.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

No, no, no, it was electric.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:34

Yeah, that bitch went like 20 miles an hour. Oh yeah, it was fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

Do you see those things anymore? Like the birds, do you remember? Like they were like everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

I felt like not around here, they were everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

I well, I lived in San Diego for a minute, and San Diego they were everywhere. It was crazy. Yeah, and it was just sad because people just like leave them like trash almost like on the side of the road, not any, you know. But the real aggressive ones were the people that were actually riding in the middle of the road because San Diego, I would lived in downtown, and there's a lot of one-ways, and and the people on the bird or whatever they were called, they didn't care if it was one way or not. You'd all of a sudden just see like somebody just hauling, you know, down scooting. They'd be scooting down the street, heading right towards you. You're like, Where am I supposed to go?

SPEAKER_01 49:16

You know, like now I gotta watch out for bird scooters and homeless people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:22

The homeless people are pretty good in San Diego. They stay on the sidewalk, so but yeah, they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

Um, and it's only like a certain area. I what is it closer to like the police station, like east, uh in between uh Barrio Logan and like downtown uh gas lamp area? There's like that pocket where it's like, holy shit, this is scary.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Yeah, so I would say like uh north gas lamp area was pretty bad, but I lived in Little Italy, and it was still there was still definitely the one of the craziest uh things I witnessed, it's it it's it's just like it's kind of I mean like a heartwarming as a heartwarming unhoused person story could be. Uh we lived near salt and straw ice cream, and it would be like a Wednesday morning. I maybe we were walk my husband and I were walking to work or walking our dog either way, it was early in the morning and they were getting their new shipment in for ice cream, but they had their old like barrels of ice cream out for trash, right? Because I mean they're probably still good, it's just not as fresh, right? Because they probably get them weekly. And there were like two or three homeless dudes that were having an ice cream party. I mean, they were just eating it, like and it was it was actually like I it sounds like weird, but it was actually like cute because they were just so happy, and it's probably like not a bad meal as a home, you know, assuming you're not lactose intolerant, but as an unhoused person, because like that's a lot of calories, calorie dense, you know, um and and delicious, might I would add.

SPEAKER_04 50:51

I've been homeless and hungry, dude. I would fuck some ice cream up. Yeah, damn, right.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

Although I have no no shade to salt and straw, but some other some of their flavors are a little curious. Like they have some like, you know, I don't know, I like lavender.

SPEAKER_04 51:05

I like lavender flavored shit. I don't I love floral flavored things. Pistachio. Let me pistachio.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Pistachio's delicious. That's not floral though, but I love a pistachio.

SPEAKER_04 51:14

But when I go to my favorite uh Indian food restaurant, I always get this. They have this rose black tea top tier.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

I'm not opposed to a maybe a rose tea, but like lavender, I a lot of times the rut the lavender and the rose kind of tell taste like soapy to me. So I just I don't I don't mind the smell of it. I just don't want to ingest it. I like that problem with cilantro. You like soap? Yeah. Did you use a lot of curse words when you were a child and you gotta get washed out with soap? No. No.

SPEAKER_04 51:41

No, I just ran.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

Did you ever get your mom washed out with soap?

SPEAKER_04 51:44

You know what's funny is I was telling my kid the other day because we were having this conversation about how cilantro does taste like soap to me.

SPEAKER_06 51:51

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 51:52

And uh he was like, How do you know what soap tastes like? So I told him that I I cussed a lot when I was a kid, and my mom would fucking stick soap in my mouth. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Did you say it like that? I cussed a lot when I was a kid and then she fucking put soap in my mouth. So it didn't work.

SPEAKER_04 52:09

I don't fucking care. Yeah, it's not hurting nobody. And they understand like time and place. Yes. Like you can cuss in the house. I don't give a fuck what you say as long as it's not hateful.

SPEAKER_00 52:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:18

You know what I mean? But out in public, yeah, don't let other people see me see you say fuck. Like I don't care what you say. You had to be respectful to other adults when we're in public, and like we can banter back and forth, like, fuck you, you're a bitch, dad, like things like that, as long as it's not coming from a place of anger or hate. Yeah. If like I'll I'll be in the kitchen and one of my kids will be in the the living room and I'll be like, hey Eddie, and he'll be like, What? And I'll be like, fuck you.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

It's the tone.

SPEAKER_04 52:53

Yeah, exactly. They they know it's a joke.

SPEAKER_00 52:56

If there's a twinkle in my eye, it's okay. But if there's no if there's if it's a dead eye, then it's not okay.

SPEAKER_04 53:02

Well, they know they're in trouble when I'm not cussing. Yeah, oh because I'm not gonna cuss at them out of anger. Got it. I I will hold myself to the same standard I'd hold them to. You know what I mean? So if I walk in and I'm like, shut the fuck up, they know I'm kidding. But if I just walk in and I'm like, hey, you know what I mean, or something like that, like you're being too loud, then they know like I'm fucking serious. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 53:25

Uh Child Protector Services.

SPEAKER_04 53:32

Fuck CPS, man. You're a good dad. I do my best, bro. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

I don't know how uh young your kids were, but I have a bunch of uh like um Pokemon cards?

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:42

I was I was gonna bring them sometime, but I was like, I don't know how old they are. I'm just a stranger. So three of them are teenagers and one of them is six. Okay, maybe the six-year-old. Nothing hollow. Yeah. Just the commons. Uh we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

Yeah, it's funny. I we were talking earlier, like we don't have kids, and I we like to do stuff for friends' kids or my nieces and whatever, but it seems like it's there's like an age where like all of a sudden Totchkees aren't cool anymore. You know what I mean? Like I like to get some like like a little like trinket, you know. I I'll get like little silly things from like you know, Dollar Tree, like a like a little racer car or something like that. Oh, yeah. And I give it to my friends' kids, like and kids that like have and have not, like it doesn't matter. All the kids love these little like little trinkets, you know.

SPEAKER_05 54:27

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

But then it gets to be, I don't know what age, but it's probably about like 11. I feel like the trinkets are like, oh great. Yeah, depending on what it is, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

Once the advertising starts to set in and the kids get poisoned.

SPEAKER_00 54:39

That's true, that's true. Yeah. Anyways, uh, any shows coming up?

SPEAKER_01 54:45

Uh yeah, uh next uh Friday. Well, every last Friday at Noble, uh, our book show, Comedy on Tap every Thursday. Love it in downtown Santa Ana, 8 p.m.

unknown 54:56

Love it.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

Yeah, so good. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

I have to say that proof is such a cool spot because it's so intimate, and you really get a lot of good people in there that are really wanting to laugh. And so it's a real uh dare I say a hot room, you know.

SPEAKER_04 55:12

It's usually a very giving crowd, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Yeah, I like it.

SPEAKER_04 55:15

It is physically hot in there, it's hot as shit. It smells a bit like a locker room, but like it's nice. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 55:22

My only complaint is it's a little late, and so this grandma's I'm not able to see it now. That's fair.

SPEAKER_04 55:27

But I mean I know, yeah. Most normal people that come out. I had a grand time last time I was there. I fucking I crushed. I did pretty good. Yeah, you really did. Yeah, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 55:37

I know I gotta I gotta go there again. I just I it's like by Thursday night, I'm st I'm dead, dead tired.

SPEAKER_04 55:42

So yeah, I don't want to be there. I have everybody gets it, this guy does, dude.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

I have every intention, yeah. And then it's like as the time gets closer, I'm like, ow.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:55

So but no, it's a s it's a sweet spot for sure. Love it, very good. Um, oh, did you have any crimes you wanted to confess?

SPEAKER_01 56:03

Uh yeah. Um, 1942 as part of this club. You moved to Argentina, and then changed my name to Zambrano.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

You've aged well.

SPEAKER_06 56:23

Very well.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Someone say the scientists helped me out.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

Yeah. Anyways, what do you about you? You have any shows coming up?

SPEAKER_04 56:32

Uh not till August.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:34

Yeah. August 27th. Uh doing a show for uh Dennis Fargus. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

Oh, awesome. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:41

Uh shout out Dennis Vargas. Very funny guy. Um that's it right now. I'm just a starving artist. Do you have any shows?

SPEAKER_00 56:54

Uh yeah, June, I think it was June 13th, uh Gamecraft. Game Craft? Let me say that.

SPEAKER_04 57:01

July 13th.

SPEAKER_00 57:02

Oh, did I say June? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:04

Oh, you know what? I'm doing that too. July 14th. Yeah. Game craft brewery. Yeah. I completely forgot. You need to write that down. Yeah. So that's.

SPEAKER_00 57:17

Yeah, yeah. I I should have prepared properly to have my my tangible.

SPEAKER_04 57:22

It's all music lyrics. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

Yeah, no, that's that's my that's my big shoe coming up, but other than that, yeah. So um, yeah. Anyways. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, well, thank you for coming to our little secret spot here and um doing our show, and we love to have you come back sometime. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 57:41

We'll bring my collection.

SPEAKER_00 57:42

We'll try to find another Zombrano crime for you.

SPEAKER_04 57:45

Uh, for anyone wondering, they got five years and were convicted of making over 21,000 fake cards. Oh, I was wondering. Well, now you're the more you know. Thank you. Do research. Educate yourself.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

Yeah, educate yourself.

SPEAKER_00 58:06

All right, thank you so much. Like and subscribe. See you next time.

SPEAKER_06 58:09

Peace.