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Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
2024: Ranked #1 Law Podcast
Host: Tyler Owen and Clint McNear discussing topics, issues, and stories within the law enforcement community. TMPA is the voice of Texas Law Enforcement, focused on protecting those who serve. Since 1950, we have been defending the rights and interests of Texas Peace Officers by providing the best legal assistance in the country, effective lobbying at state and local levels, affordable training, and exemplary member support. As the largest law enforcement association in Texas, TMPA is proud to represent 33,000 local, county and state law enforcement officers.
Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
#096 - "A Mother's Fight: Advocacy Against Fentanyl"
Stephanie Rowe turned personal tragedy into a mission of hope and change after her son Tucker nearly died from fentanyl-laced pills. Her heartbreak inspired the creation of The Tucker Project and Texas Against Fentanyl. With support from Hays County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Mark Andrews, this episode explores their efforts to educate youth about fentanyl’s dangers and the challenges law enforcement faces in this fight.
Stephanie shares her journey, revealing missed warning signs and urging parents to stay vigilant. We tackle misconceptions about addiction, barriers to treatment, and the stigma that prevents progress. From officers administering Narcan to families uniting for change, this episode highlights the importance of empathy, awareness, and community action.
Join us for a powerful call to action, emphasizing mental health support and resources for those impacted by the fentanyl crisis.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
Two days after his 19th birthday I woke up and I heard a gurgling noise upstairs in my bedroom. Did not sound like a normal noise and I walked up and found him seconds away from death. Like his organs were shutting down, he was in a seizure state. I mean, it really was as close to a corpse as you could imagine. I could not even open his mouth to do CPR.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome back. Viewers, watchers, listeners. I'm your host. Tyler Owen Got a co-host today. Joey Setapovita from the San Antonio Hill Country area. Man, I appreciate you jumping in.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Appreciate it Love coming back over here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's going on in your area, wow.
Speaker 3:What can I tell you? Last night prayers go out to seven SAPD officers that were injured in an active shooting call yesterday, but hopefully they all come out of it. But yeah, that's what's going on there, also dealing still with the politics of the big city, metropolitan city of Balcony Heights. Yeah, balcony Heights, yes, yeah, you know, unfortunately still dealing with a tyrant mayor, but nevertheless.
Speaker 2:Well, it is what it is, but for those that don't know, we're recording this on Thursday, the 24th. It sounds good.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Last night, san Antonio responded to a call of a suicidal subject and ultimately seven officers were shot in San Antonio responded to a call of a suicidal subject and ultimately seven officers were shot in San Antonio. None of them are listed as critical, but our hearts and our thoughts and prayers go out to San Antonio PD for a speedy recovery. So just another testament to the ongoing war against cops and, quite honestly, enough's enough, absolutely. Anyway, got some guests on today, one from Hayes County and another one heavily involved with the fentanyl crisis, and this is going to be a good episode. I think the contrast of how a tragedy can turn into, how someone can take a tragedy and turn it into something positive, which is hard to do for those that have ever lost a loved one. But my hat's off go to you. Would you want to introduce our guests and I'll introduce mine.
Speaker 3:Okay, this is Stephanie Rowe, loved one, uh, but my hat's off go to you. We don't want you to introduce our guests and I'll introduce mine. Okay, uh, this is stephanie rowe. Uh, she is, uh, the founder of the tucker project and it's help me out.
Speaker 1:There is texas against fentanyl. Yes, in texas against fentanyl.
Speaker 3:Yep, they're both 501c3s so, uh, yeah, she's, uh, she's here, she's gonna uh give us a little bit of her story.
Speaker 2:Which is phenomenal.
Speaker 3:Yes, and also, too, what she has been doing lately for everybody, all the law enforcement officers in the state of Texas, to help combat this evil.
Speaker 2:And speaking of law enforcement, we have a representative from Hayes County Sheriff's Office, mark Andrews. Welcome to Blue Grit man. Thank you, sir, glad to be here. So, speaking of fentanyl, y'all obviously popped up Me being recently moving to Hayes County now I'm a resident of Hayes County I'm kind of aware of y'all's involvement, y'all's phenomenal outreach that you guys do for the youth there about fentanyl.
Speaker 2:And, to my knowledge I don't remember being in east texas that there's a lot of law enforcement officers that, uh, law enforcement agencies that did that. And so I wanted you guys to kind of come on, uh and discuss kind of what y'all's involvement has been up until this point. And then her story is going to be uh, joey called me one day I was coming home from traveling somewhere and he said, man, I got to get this girl on the podcast and was like he started telling me about it and I was like, oh, my gosh. So, but yeah, I think we should start off kind of, uh, how we got here, where'd you grow up? Uh, talk about your son Tucker, and then talk about the events that happened and then talk about kind of where we are today.
Speaker 1:Okay, um well, I'm Stephanie Rowe and I'm originally from Michigan. I moved to Texas in 2009 with my family. I was a mom of four kids my oldest was Tucker, my firstborn and only son and I have three daughters. So I was doing life here and I guess I would say ever since I was a little girl, I always just wanted to be a mom. That was my biggest mission in life. I was just wanting to be a mom and I was the mom who read the books and did the groups and homeschooled the kids and did everything I could to keep my kids safe and raise them in a loving home and a community with family and friends around.
Speaker 1:And in 2021, my 18-year-old son, tucker, was offered a pill at a New Year's Eve party. And if you think back in 2021, we had just came out of COVID, we were getting life back to normal and I had never heard of illicit fentanyl. I would say that I'm a young mom. I was aware of drugs. I understand that. I understand people experimenting with drugs. I knew about cocaine and heroin, ecstasy I think that's typical drugs that we all grew up learning about, or people experimenting with, and I thought you were here.
Speaker 1:And um. So when he came home from that New Year's Eve party, he told me about a pill that he was given at the party and I said what was it? And he told me it was Xanax. During that time he had had a broken hand so he was off work and, unbeknownst to me, he continued to get Xanax from up here on social media and those were fentanyl-laced pills and the other component behind it that I didn't understand is social media, and I grew up on pay phones and pagers. So during that time we're just hitting that generation of parents who did not have social media.
Speaker 2:MySpace was probably the first kickoff. Looking at it now, it's changed significantly.
Speaker 1:In fast and it continues to change. So we're kind of all of us in this age group, we're on the front lines of this, where now we're having to raise children in a generation that we know nothing about and like we can't relate to them, and they're having to figure it out and they're having access to things faster than than we even understand. And then you talk about apps and you know, snapchat kind of came when tucker was in middle school. That was kind of coming and really watching my kids progression as the years change and just the evolving. My youngest now is 10, so I've, so I've been a mom for 23 years and I've watched a lot of it 12 years difference between my first and last and it's definitely changing. But with Tucker's story, for 10 weeks he's taking highly addictive pills that I have no knowledge of.
Speaker 2:Could you tell that something was off?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I noticed a change in his behavior and you know that season as a kid is coming out of high school like everyone asks what are you going to do when you grow up? And he's trying to figure out what do I want to do. His friends are off at college. His dad owned a construction company, so he's working there, but really just trying to find himself. And I noticed a change I would say like depression recluse, like being recluse, like going to sleeping more, being more moody. We talked about it like what's going on. I was like are you smoking marijuana?
Speaker 1:I was worried about him using like smoking dab, cause I'm like what is going on, like I'm trying to figure this out, and he's like no, like just you know, I'm taking some Xanax. I remember one time he came to my house and he was really sleepy. I like made him breakfast and was like go to bed, like you need to like get some rest. Really he could have went to bed and died that day. I did not have any knowledge of it. So so many warning signs I missed. And really a warning sign for a parent, I would say, is a change in behavior. Sometimes people say their kids start behaving, they start going to bed at a decent time.
Speaker 1:And the thing with fentanyl that we have to understand is it doesn't impact people like other drugs. It's not like, oh, they're drinking and acting silly, they take something, they go to sleep. This isn't like a party social drug. This is a downer something that people are doing. Social drug, this is a downer something that people are doing.
Speaker 1:And now, knowing what I know, people are not looking for fentanyl. They are maybe using something that has fentanyl in it before they even know the impact that it has on the body. And, unlike any other drugs, fentanyl, the impact on the, if you look at it's not just a brain response, it's a body response. So if someone has been regularly using and they're in withdrawals, their body is hurting, they're in like flu-like symptoms restless legs, sweating, diarrhea, vomiting, like the impact of the brain, which is where we're looking at why people use. Well, they don't usually start looking for fentanyl. People don't start like that.
Speaker 1:But people I mean think about why do people drink alcohol? Why do people you know have sex? Why do people do anything? It's a chemical response in the brain and fentanyl is so strong. It impacts the brain in such a way that I and I didn't know any of this going into it, I didn't understand. It impacts all the opioid receptors throughout our whole body that it causes this mass amount of dopamine to flood into the brain. It changes the chemical makeup of a brain and if you're looking at an adolescent brain that doesn't develop before the ages of 25, so you have a prefrontal cortex that's our ability to make decisions that's not fully developed until they're age 25. Kids are going to make decisions and we're supposed to learn from our mistakes. Kids are going to make decisions and we're supposed to learn from our learn from our mistakes and we all have made mistakes and we grow up and talk about it, and talk about the crazy things we did as a kid that we would never do as an adult.
Speaker 2:Talk about his. You mentioned he was on Xanax. Was that just a cause you know as a parent and as a cop you want to get? I have that trust with your kids and I think it's and, mark, you can chime in whenever you want to. You want to be the blanket of security for your kids and you want them to be open. Did y'all have that relationship where he was like, yeah, I'm doing this, I know it's wrong, but and then you just kind of trusted his instinct? Is that what happened?
Speaker 1:You know, tucker and I have always been really close and I'll say that I raised Tucker with three other moms and we all had firstborn boys and between those four boys we knew more about what teenage boys were doing than us mamas wanted to know. So, yes, he, he would tell me about a lot of things. So we had that, that trust and that that friendship where he can tell me and we were working through stuff and obviously working through like, okay, well, why are we taking these anxiety pills? And he did struggle with anxiety and just really kind of figuring out what do I want to do in school was not public school model was hard for him. He really is a brilliant mind, a deep thinker, and I think when you try to, I remember meeting with a counselor with him and they said, stephanie, sometimes square pegs can't be put in round holes. And you know, tucker was that boy who just was a deep thinker and I think school was hard, like kind of took a lot of his gusto out of him.
Speaker 1:I don't think public schools are really made for teenage boys really well, honestly. But that's a different topic. But I will say we did walk through that journey and seeing that change in his behavior, and so I'll kind of go into. The real sad part of the story was two days after his 19th birthday I woke up and I heard a gurgling noise upstairs in my bedroom or in the media room, and it was early in the morning and I just that did not sound like a normal noise and I walked up and found him seconds away from death. Like his organs were shutting down. He was in a seizure state. I mean, it really was as close to a corpse as you could imagine. I could not even open his mouth to do CPR because it was like tensed up, like his organs were. It was bad. So that was where I called 911 and paramedics came and had given him Narcan. And that's when him and I were sitting in an ICU hospital room learning what illicit fentanyl was and learning that this is something 50 times stronger than heroin and you have a problem and we need to get a treatment center. And we couldn't even find a bed to take him because treatment centers were so overloaded with people. Now, mind you, this kid is insured and has covered in insurance. Think about those who don't have, families who can provide that don't have insurance, texas being one of the states that does not have very good coverage, especially for kids. So we did find a bed in Houston and so he was at treatment there and then he got out and he said Mom, I'm still kind of struggling, I want to go back to another treatment. He was at treatment there and then he got out and he said Mom, I'm still kind of struggling, I need another, I want to go back to another treatment. We found another treatment center for him and he was there.
Speaker 1:So now he had been in recovery for four months and he was living his. He got out and he was living his best life. He was working full-time, living on his own and, as a mom, you're still trying to raise your kid, you're still trying to set boundaries. You're still, like you know, I had to say, like you can't, you can't live in my home because I can't risk that your sisters can see something. Like you know, like you're still trying. But I didn't know and I didn't know that 80% of people relapse within one year of treatment and I look at us like two treatment centers, $20,000 later and I still was clueless as to really the impact that it has on the brain.
Speaker 1:So Tucker was training for a triathlon with his dad. On the surface it looked like he was living his best life. Him and I went on a vacation together to visit some family in Vegas. Then he went on a vacation together to visit some family in Vegas. Then he went on a trip with his dad. You know really, just as a mom, I felt like, whew, we're finally out of that bad time.
Speaker 1:And it was a Wednesday night a few days before his triathlon, and he had talked to me that he was feeling anxious that week and so we were.
Speaker 1:We were talking about some things and I said how can I support you? And he said I just don't think I'm eating enough. So he came over and I loaded him up with some food, um, as the last person that he hugged, the last person he saw, and he left my house that day, um, loaded up with his healthy food that he needed to get ready to do this triathlon. And I remember kind of tearing up, watching him walk away, thinking man. Six months ago I didn't even know if he was going to be alive and now he's about to complete his first triathlon and he's thriving. And unbeknownst to me, he had picked up a pill and his roommate was out of town and he hadn't been sleeping well and he went home and he took one more pill and he never woke up, so that next morning I mean, my last words to him were I love you so much, I'm proud of you and I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1:And if you asked me if I would have been the parent who would have lost a child to fentanyl poisoning or to a drug, I would have told you no way, not my kid. And when I talk to other parents, that's what they think, because when you're raising your kids, you never think that's going to happen to my child. You know our job is to protect them and keep them safe and teach them about the dangers of life. And I didn't know anything about fentanyl. And then from there I just told Tucker's story, because the fentanyl crisis is really sneaky. It comes in, it muzzles people with guilt and shame and they don't want to talk about it in judgment. People who think they understand and they just don't know. You don't know until you're in it and it's through stories and living authentically, telling my story and being honest about it. So people can be like, wow, I can relate to that. I can be the mom who wanted to raise good kids to be successful, and now that's what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 2:So that means it could happen to law enforcement as a partner, to say this is the situation that I'm in because, I'll be honest with you, being on the streets sometimes we get parents that call and say my kid's acting bad. This wasn't a situation there with you, but do you think if you had reached out to your local police department or sheriff's office and said I need help, do you think you would have gotten the support that you needed then and do you think it would have made a difference?
Speaker 1:I do, Knowing what I know now I work with Cedar Park police a lot and I see their heart and in this matter and they do understand it. I think people who put themselves in it to understand it better and I'm sure you can you can see it differently as well. You show up with more compassion because you see how it's impacting people and really have to look at this crisis different than anything ever before, because it is different. Fennel is so different and I'm sure can you attest to that yeah, so hindsight's 2020, right.
Speaker 4:So when this pandemic started happening in hayes county specifically, uh, in 2022, I'd been off the streets for six years.
Speaker 4:I didn't even know what fentanyl was me either yeah, and I I talked to a lot of kids. I've probably done 300 plus presentations. One thing kids don't want to do is listen to a police officer stand there and talk to them, absolutely. So, um, I I try to approach them and then I let them in on a little secret. My brother is addicted to methamphetamines. So I started, I start my presentation off with a picture of him when he got out of prison. He looked great, looked healthy, and then I show a current picture of him right now, very obvious that he's gone back to methamphetamines.
Speaker 4:So I approached them, not as a police officer, but as somebody who loves yeah, I love and care about somebody who suffers from addiction and I tell the kids that when I was in middle school, we knew who the druggies were. Right, we knew that group. It's not like that anymore, you know, and I remember being a kid and my parents saying hey, when I was your age I walked uphill in the snow to school both ways and they had it so tough right. And I tell the kids I'm here to tell you that we have never Experienced stress like you guys experience stress. It's completely different and so they deal with that in different ways. And that's you know. I think that's a big part of the issue is is they're reaching out for something to deal with their anxieties and and all that Kind of stuff. There is no druggie group anymore.
Speaker 2:Well, and to be completely transparent and honest, kudos to your old Hayes County command staff for recognizing when you got the call and identifying someone that could take the torch and lead it. Listen, we all know that you've got hammers out there, and what I mean by hammers, steph, is you've got guys that when hell itself has surfaced in your jurisdiction and you need somebody to be there to be the thunder, call that guy. You're not going to call that guy to go give a death notification. You're not going to call that guy to deal with a situation such as you were tasked with or to respond to a situation like that and show that compassion. Just being honest, it's just the way it is. But kudos to them for identifying you and kudos to you for taking that torch and carrying it on and kind of starting off Again.
Speaker 2:I'll say it. I mean five years ago we had no idea what fendled We've got officers passing out and it hit us like a ton of bricks. And so no idea what fendel we've got officers passing out and it hit us like a ton of bricks. And so now we have to evolve and that's what law enforcement is evolving to the communities that you serve and you guys have done that and continue to do that yeah, prior to 2022, an overdose was an ems call I mean law enforcement wouldn't even show up
Speaker 4:and um. In this job, sometimes it's easy to become jaded, right, it's. It's easy to write that off, as you know, an addict, or you know. Then, now, doing what I've done since 2022, the compassion has changed so much and you realize that could be me getting that phone call from my brother you know that is and to see people like yourself, stephanie, that is strong enough to stand there and tell the story, because that's what makes the difference. Not a police officer, not a principal, not a teacher. It's hearing those stories.
Speaker 3:Somebody that's gone through it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it's astounding what you guys are doing.
Speaker 1:It is interesting the stigma behind it, but also how people's responses are. So when Tucker first passed away now, mind you, I had been in it for nine months, from start to finish, from the first time he tried a pill to his death was nine months, and I learned a lot during that time. And after he died, I just wanted to tell people, I wanted to warn others of the dangers, and when I did that, everyone started reaching out to me. Warn others of the dangers. And when I did that, everyone started reaching out to me and I was like, oh shit, we're in a problem because there's a lot of people who are struggling, who are struggling silently.
Speaker 1:No one's talking about it. And, um, I just wanted my, my, my school to talk about it, like let's, let's warn the community that there's a problem here. I talked to law enforcement they're getting calls right and left and our school district, leander ISD. They didn't want to do anything, they didn't want to talk about it, they wanted to say there's no problem here, and that really made me mad.
Speaker 2:Well, pause real quick because I think it's important to highlight this At that moment in time. Leander ISD I would make the argument that Leander ISD is most likely the largest, if not the second or third largest, compared to Round Rock or Georgetown in the Austin area. At that point in time they weren't and they were continuing to grow Agreed.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I think that identifying?
Speaker 2:oh, we can't have that, leander. Yeah, and you didn't want people to move in there, and so kudos to you for going timeout. This is bullshit and we're going to call bullshit when it needs to be called out and then taking the fight.
Speaker 1:And then I'm on the front lines. I'm talking to law enforcement and we're seeing what's happening in our community. So now law enforcement's also kind of like hey, leander, we do have a problem here. Students are dying and they continue to die, and when a school's ego is bigger than the safety of my child, I have a problem. And that was where the rubber hit the road and I wasn't going to stop.
Speaker 1:So I took it up with the sheriff Williamson County Sheriff at the time I'm Sheriff Gleason then and we started working together and that was powerful. And then I also took it up with the lawmakers at the Capitol and we were one of the first of four states to get an education law passed. And I think, like that's the other part of the fentanyl crisis, is recovery centers are having to figure it out. Law enforcement you know, in 2017, law enforcement was given Narcan and it sat in your closets where you didn't know how to identify a fentanyl poisoning. And I know angel parents who have lost kids because law enforcement showed up on the scene and didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1:They have Narcan in their pocket with no training. And that's where the state has failed us, because you're not getting the training on the front lines. And when I started, the more I started working and then I was getting invited to talk to law enforcement. I always thought, like, why am I talking to law enforcement? Certainly you guys know more and no offense, but you don't, because you weren't given the training. Like how can you possibly understand that? How can you really realize what's going on if you're not given that? And that's, um, that's a broken system. If you ask me, I can tell you.
Speaker 3:I can tell you a lot of uh departments in my area when I was still when I was still active is yeah, everybody, Narcan was given to for for free. Narcan was given to for free, right, but like you said, it'd be in a closet and like well, what is that?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's Narcan.
Speaker 3:When are we going to get that issued? Oh well, we're going to get training. Nobody ever went to that point of hey, you know what we got? This we're going to train next week.
Speaker 2:Even more on top of that, in the police academy I think we all can agree we go through CPR training. I can count on a handful of times how many times I've actually administered CPR.
Speaker 2:We've never had Narcan training, but we deal with addicts and people who deal with drugs every single day, and that's the contrast and I'm trying to like okay. Well, yeah, there's a significant problem here, but it kind of goes back to the mental health crisis, which is a whole separate topic. Now it's not. We in law enforcement have not done a good job of communicating to state lawmakers. These are problems, and I think that's where TMPA and other organizations kind of come in and we've done a better job over the last 15, 20 years of kind of communicating that to them. But training we're always going to be for training always going to be. That's true.
Speaker 1:And that's my commitment to y'all is that's what my mission and my heartbeat is working hand in hand with you guys and being at the Capitol to represent and saying, okay, what does this look like? Where can we help you? What needs to? What laws need to change? And so we did get the education law House Bill 3908, tucker's law passed in Texas requiring fentanyl education for students. But that was once again the same thing that happened with y'all, with Narcan. That's what happened with the education. It was an unfunded mandate. Schools are in a deficit, so they weren't able to bring in. So you get the law passed. But then what's next? How do we support the schools? And that's where the Tucker project was birthed from of let's get curriculum, let's train the teachers, because the same thing teachers, how can they teach about fentanyl? They, they don't know.
Speaker 1:The only people who know are the people on the front lines of this and we have to start using our voices. And when I first started telling Tucker's story, a lot of people's story or what parents were willing to say was they took a pill one time and they didn't know, and that sounds much more sexy. You have a little more compassion when you're like poor kid, he didn't know. But then when you find out wait, he did know and he took it anyways then it's kind of like well, that's his bad, stupid kid, like stupid choices, stupid consequences. That's where the compassion has to change and we have to understand the drug a little bit better and then we can show up a little bit better in the world and have to start living more authentic.
Speaker 2:You had mentioned something off camera about egos, and jurisdictional is not communicating Speaking of egos. We're again, we're fortunate in Hays County. Y'all do a really good job of communicating with Kyle Buda, San Marcos PD, Talk about your experience with the defining line of jurisdictions and not communicating the overdoses.
Speaker 1:Well, in Hayes County, schools did a really good job allowing you guys the opportunity to come in, and that's the difference between what we're dealing with in Williamson County. Our schools are not letting anyone in Not me, not law enforcement. Schools are not letting anyone in Not me, not law enforcement. They are not open.
Speaker 2:Do they teach the sex ed?
Speaker 1:I don't know, yeah, they do they teach sex ed?
Speaker 2:but we're not going to talk about fentanyl crisis. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:I think Hayes County did a good job, because they lost five students in a matter of a few weeks over the summer of 2022. At that point, how can you not?
Speaker 1:Obviously, we were the ender was losing students too, and they just weren't talking about it Maybe, yeah, maybe, so yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Talk about that, because that's what kicked off the Sheriff Cutler at the time, identifying a need that his people needed to be educated on this, and teach people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so that that summer happened 2022. Um, I'm doing my outreach stuff, you know, citizens Academy, junior deputy Academy, all the fun stuff, right and Sheriff Cutler called myself up and said you know, we've lost five students. We have got to do something. So you go learn everything you can possibly learn about fentanyl and tell as many people as you can that that became my job. And, um, uh, we had a joint press conference with kyle and be the police department. We'd made an arrest, recent arrest, and and that's which was not.
Speaker 2:That's not, that's not common for law enforcement to do uh with a drug overdose either.
Speaker 4:No, no, no and that's like, like I said before, it was just an EMS call and now immediately we're taking phones, we're doing, you know, we, we kind of know more about what it might be. But we started with that press conference. I met with another mother that lost her son and Janelle Rodriguez with the Forever 15 project, and we we travel around and tell everything we can. I'm a lay person, like I don't know much about it. All I know is to go tell people the facts about Fentanyl and this is what it is and talk about, you know, family issues and I'm a parent, I have two daughters that I'm not so good to say that it couldn't happen to me, it can.
Speaker 4:And, uh, I'm scared to death as a dad, yeah, you know, as a parent, and and we don't get owner's manuals when we have children like you, you learn all this on your own. And you were talking about the change of you know, showing signs of depression or something. Yeah, a lot of parents that's easy to chalk up to puberty, their lifestyle changes or whatever, bullying, yeah, and being able to pay attention to that and understand that, okay, well, that's not normal. You don't know that until you know that. So parenting is very difficult.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can I kind of explain a little bit of like how I got into learning about the drug dealers. I think this is a I've not gone into detail with this, but it's different talking to law enforcement Cause you guys understand this. But kind of backstory, I didn't tell you guys this, this part off, off camera. But you know Tucker's first treatment center. He wouldn't tell me who I want to know, who'd you get the pill from, like who's giving you these?
Speaker 2:crazy mom and then find out he's, he's afraid you're going to get on.
Speaker 1:And I was working with law enforcement. You know they wanted to know. I'm like, I'm trying to figure it out, but I will say what I did was like no, I live right on the edge of Leander and Cedar Park. My front yard's in Leander, my backyard's in Cedar Park. So really I'm right in the middle of Williamson and Travis County, I'm right on the edge of the line there. But I will say so, this was March 13th of 2021. And my dates.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to go into details, but that was the first time Tucker had FNL poisoning, when I called 911 and Leander PD showed up. Well, fast forward, you know he goes to the hospital. I'm trying to get who's selling me these pills. Well, two weeks after Tucker's in treatment and he calls me and he said Mom, you know I don't want to tell you who was, who was giving me those pills, but he's really messed up. He's. He's posting these pills, he's selling on social media. And then he's at his friend's funeral and he said rest in peace. And the very next picture are the pills he has for sale. So I told him he's advertising his pills for something. They're not and they're they're killing people and it almost killed me.
Speaker 1:So Tucker had that like dude, like you told me there was Xanax, they're not Xanax. And now you're at a friend's funeral I almost died two weeks ago and this is really messed up and so he said I'll tell you a Snapchat. And I was like, call Leander, this is a Snapchat. This is what my son said. Well, what I didn't realize is the kid who died so fast forward to June. And I see a lady do a news story and Becky Stewart. She did a news story talking about her son's death in March. So I reach out to her like my son is struggling with fentanyl addiction and your son died, let's meet up. So I took her to lunch and she's telling me the story and she's telling me the dates of what kind of happened in Cameron's life that led up to his death. And I remember pulling out my phone and looking at the calendar.
Speaker 1:And I was like was Juan Soria at your son's funeral? And she's like I don't know? And she went and asked a family if this kid was. We found a picture of him and they were like, yeah, I remember seeing him.
Speaker 1:So this was a situation where within a span of a week or two, we had a 19 year old dead and a 19 year old overdose within a mile of each other and those departments didn't communicate with that. So I start following Juan on social media and I'm watching him like appalled, like holy crap, this is a 19 year old kid who's selling all kinds of drugs. He's got guns and money and like posted up in, leander hit me up doing good numbers. Like you know, he'd post Feds are on my ass and I'm still getting paid. You know things like this. And so I'm sending all of this to my law enforcement. Pictures of this is what's going on. So this is Leander that I'm working with. This is just the start of it.
Speaker 1:Leander really wasn't working these cases, but Cedar Park had kind of been aware of what was happening. So when I showed up at the front of Tucker's house knowing that my son was dead inside, I remember screaming to those law enforcement like go get him. Like this is where he lives, like why can't you get him off the street? And I just remember being so mad Like why can't you get him off the street? And I just remember being so mad. And Cedar Park they were in Arizona working a case that they had tracked back to Arizona at that time and that was kind of when they were like we got to get this, we got to get this and they did an amazing job and he was arrested six months later and they did charge him federally and he was linked back to the death of Cameron Stewart. But they weren't able to get charges on him just because time and things had happened. And then two months after that he had given pills to someone that resulted in an overdose of a 17-year-old.
Speaker 1:So the point being that these drug dealers are going to continue to sell.
Speaker 1:We don't have people run around with machine guns shooting people, and so we can't just like discount it, like oh, that's another drug addict, we're not going to not work these cases.
Speaker 1:And I really appreciate working with Cedar park and then since then we've expanded and so I go on the dust scene and I support the parents and help law enforcement be that liaison Cause I remember when I showed up they looked at me like I don't know what to do with this lady and I was rolling around on the ground Like you guys aren't trying to handle a parent who is in that state no offense, and I mean like nor should you. Your job is to go figure out how do we get these drugs off the street. So that's where I try to help out with Texas against fentanyl and supporting law enforcement and really just working together, being on the front lines of this and trying to come up with solutions and get the training where training is due and continue to try to fight this crisis head on. And if we can't identify where the problem is, then we can't find solutions.
Speaker 2:Are you guys going through establishing different regional representatives for your project?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Texas Against Fentanyl has five directors throughout the state. So when we first started we were focused on education legislation, supporting angel families who have lost. And then it's kind of shifted. Other states got interested in the Tucker Project, which is our cross-curricular curriculum, and they didn't want Texas Against Fentanyl curriculum. So we pulled the Tucker Project off from Texas Against Fentanyl. So that's our education part and we're working in a total of 15 states right now in some form or fashion getting the Tucker Project in as well as passing laws in those states to support it.
Speaker 1:And then now Texas Against Fentanyl has kind of evolved where we really try to support angel families who have lost and drive change.
Speaker 1:That way, what mad moms did is they got mad and they organized and they assembled and they're able to drive change because they're voting. And that's what my goal with Texas Against Fentanyl is. Let's all band together, let's let our politicians and lawmakers know, let's let the comptroller's office, who is in charge of all of the opioid settlement money, know that we're pissed off and we're following this and we're giving the money and let's give it to the right places to drive change. And when we can do that right, then our voice has more power and so we can support what you guys are doing and we can go to the Capitol and we can testify on behalf. That's what, mad moms. People showed up, they testified and they drove drunk driving charges totally different, you know, even when in my childhood, police officers would pull someone over drunk and follow them home or, like you know, they would go home. That has changed and that's what we have to do on the fentanyl crisis and that is my mission and what I want to spearhead and continue to do.
Speaker 2:And I was. We, we and Joey were in the Valley. Uh, last two weeks ago, two weeks ago, uh, we were down there and Mark, I was telling you this Hidalgo County's DA's office has started a task force. Pretty cool office, it's in like an old El Chapo type house. Uh, but I was negligent, I didn't know.
Speaker 2:You know, I think fentanyl it's a pill, right, and I think some of the Hays County cases or the THC didn't know this. The stuff coming across the border are now THC vapes and the fentanyl is being laced inside in the vapes. And what was really irritating to me is the DA investigator we were talking to was showing me and Joey and some of the evidence that they had come across and it was all targeted for kids. It was Froot Loops, fruity Pebbles, packaged exactly for kids, and that's what's the scary thing as a dad. It's just getting worse and worse. They started off with one gram Now then they went to two gram and now they're at three grams and I think one gram of one of those THC vapes get like 800 puffs. So you're looking at 2,400 puffs off one little vape pen and they're coming across.
Speaker 1:I'm heading to a school next week. That kid was on the bus at a sporting event, hit a vape and had to be given Narcan. That's the reality. Of this is what's happening.
Speaker 2:And I'll be honest, when I was on the street I didn't really fool with the THC vape pens because I looked at it like you know, this is just a Class C marijuana I'm not going to pull off. You have to think. Right now in law enforcement, the retention and recruitment crisis is also going on. So you have officers that make that they're a little seasoned. That aren't the I call them the Class C Nazis, the one that you know they. Every time time somebody messes up, we take them to jail for a Class C warrant. Guys that are a little bit seasoned look at it like. I'm not going to waste my time on an arrest for a minor offense like this, when I can just send them a ticket and go on and keep the evidence right. And I look back and, man, what a mistake on my part, what a huge mistake on my part, you know, talking about vapes and the fact that now those vapes are containing fentanyl.
Speaker 4:60% of kids in school vape. Yeah, I mean it's one of the largest, most used thing by kids. Now they may not take opioids, they may not take, you know, Oxy's and Xanax's and stuff, but they are vaping 60%.
Speaker 3:And the sad part about it even from that interview that we had that it's now hitting the elementaries. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And vaping crosses the blood-brain barrier. It's one of the few things that can cross that barrier and if we're talking about brain development, thc concentrate is higher than ever before. It used to be two to 4%, now it's anywhere 80 to 100% if it's DAB. And you have kids that have access to THC. And now what they're finding? Studies are showing that THC impacts the prefrontal cortex. Back to what I was talking about the ability to make decisions. So you have children who have access to THC. That's talking about the ability to make decisions. So you have children who have access to THC. That's impacting their brain's ability to make decisions on an adolescent brain and they're more inclined to try other things, to do other things. It's a. It's a downward spiral in our kids. Parents don't know about it, our kids don't know about it, law enforcement doesn't know about it. I mean, this is a. You know, sometimes it can be overwhelming and it feels like the more I learn, the more I'm just like shit. We're in trouble.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I just have to believe that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. And we're just going to keep on tackling it and we're going to keep talking about it and we're going to keep using our voices.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, speaking of one bite at a time, Mark, you want to dive off into kind of you know, we heard about what you guys were doing in 2022, leading up to 2024, kind of what's the mission now setting forward, of kind of where this program is going to be and maybe what some objectives that the new sheriff has kind of set forward of education, not only the kids but the general public.
Speaker 4:You know, I'm fortunate that our new sheriff, Anthony Hippolito, was my partner for a couple years before, and he and I were the two that traveled around and talked about this Globally Globally yeah, we went to Mexico City, so we decided to call ourselves international.
Speaker 2:I guess I should say international yes, internationally. Sorry. Guess I should say international yes, internationally. Sorry, I got ahead of myself.
Speaker 4:Listen to Joe Rogan the other day. So I'm very lucky that he's now leading us and has handed me the opportunity to continue doing what I'm doing. We kind of have a two-prong approach, right. One part of that is education, the other part is enforcement, because you can't let either one of them go. So I really don't have any idea what our enforcement is side does. I don't want to cross the two right. I specifically stay on education. That's my, that's my forte is to is to talk to kids and and share my family history and and have Janelle share hers or whoever. I'm with Um and that's what I want to keep doing. Obviously, hayes County is my priority. That's that's who pays my, my paycheck. But we haven't said no to anybody yet and I got involved with Tall Cop Says Stop. So if you know those guys, we get to speak at their conferences. I just my passion is telling people about fentanyl. I love to do that more than anything. It's my favorite job I've ever had in my life and it's not a fun topic.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's an ugly topic.
Speaker 4:It's an ugly topic, but when I, when we finish a presentation and there is a line of kids to talk to an angel parent or somebody who's been through that, it is eye opening, it's mind blowing, because the kids are not talking to anyone else other than their peers. They're not telling their parents, they're not telling a counselor, they're telling each other. And you know a big thing I want to mention before we get too far. You mentioned social media. When I do parent presentations, I tell them that if you pay your kid's cell phone bill, that is not your kid's cell phone, that's your cell phone. And if you knew, things like Telegram are out there, what they're doing on Signal and Roblox and Snapchat. I can open telegram right now and find anything you want to find within four minutes from here delivered instantly and, uh, if parents saw that it would blow your, it would blow your mind.
Speaker 4:so if your child has a cell phone, a hundred percent, a hundred percent of everything illegal is bought and sold through social media. Yeah, all of it. And if you have, if your kids have a cell phone, you need to know what's on it and how they communicate.
Speaker 4:And I just I think that's so, so important. So we're going to keep doing what we've been doing. Our enforcement's going to keep doing their enforcement. We've got a couple manslaughter charges through the DA's office, now some homicide charges, so I'm sure our enforcement's great. They're going to keep doing it and I'm going to keep educating as much as I'm allowed to do it and that's what's so frustrating.
Speaker 2:is that? Back to your point about? I guarantee you that Leander or and or Cedar Park, they probably knew who the drug dealer was. It's just building that case. And listen, I get it, I'm a cop, but now I'm a private citizen. So I get the fact that we have civil rights that obviously law enforcement can't violate. But it just seems like the more red tape that lawmakers in DC and Texas, the more red tape that they put on you know, securing a search warrant and the parameters because of mistakes that have been made in the past, it prolongs our ability to have that enforcement save lives. So it's just it's frustrating.
Speaker 1:If there is something that you guys see that you're dealing with that can help you work better, a law that needs change, I encourage you to please reach out. We have a political consultant that we work with with Texas Against Fentanyl, jennifer Stevens. She's our educational political consultant, she's a lobbyist and we're committed to driving change. And one of the laws you know, when House Bill 4, the murder law got passed, the only thing listed in that is fentanyl. The murder law got passed, the only thing listed in that is fentanyl. And so one of our missions this legislative session is we need to add in cocaine and meth, because having these cases where parents are lost their child and maybe it doesn't come back fentanyl, it's cocaine or it's meth and the parent is like so that's a murder charge, right? No, it's not, because it's not fentanyl. So we have to kind of like right?
Speaker 2:No, it's not, because it's not fentanyl, so we have to kind of like.
Speaker 1:You know, we're having to be cleaned up a little bit. We have, we have some bills, and then hospital 1319, the OD mapping bill If law enforcement doesn't sign up to do that and we can't track that and so like that's that's a good resource, yeah. Yeah, um, so we work with. We work with a lot of people on a lot, of, a lot of laws.
Speaker 2:This is a personal question, but I think it's important for the listener of you out there to hear your response to it. Do you think that if, by chance, law enforcement would have come across Tucker before his death and been in possession of his annex and enforcement been taken against him legally, do you think that it would have changed the outcome, or do you think it would have spiraled him more downward into the downward path?
Speaker 1:You know I have thought about. I have thought about that and I would say that the legal system if you're looking at jail and support and mental health, all of that, and then not understanding fentanyl addiction, I don't know that that would have saved him. You know that's just the reality of it. We have to support after and if we can't fully understand what that addiction looks like, what's that community? You know I work with Dan Hobson, with Rise Recovery, and one thing that they do so well is having a support of those who are in active recovery working together and supporting each other. But you know what? The network that doesn't have groups of people are teenagers. You know teenagers don't have that support of. How do we find that peer-based group where we can grow together?
Speaker 1:And when you were talking about the responses at schools and the lines of people around, so when I end my presentation, I always tell them I'll be at the door. Like I give fist bumps, high fives, hugs, you know whatever you want, and they're all hugging me Like they're talking. So many kids are saying I lost my parent. I know my uncle died, I lost my brother. Like I got a message. This little girl found me and she said I haven't talked to my aunt in five years because she was a drug addict. And after talking to you, I reached out to her today and she said she's trying to get help. This was a family who quit talking to a family member for five years because of her drug use.
Speaker 2:Hey, listen, we're cops. We're guilty of it too. I'm guilty of it and I think, moving down to hayes county and being in wimberley, uh, from east texas, I think it was just uh, it's an eye-opening experience when you take off the badge because you look at all the missed opportunities that you had. Uh, the reason I asked you that question is typically, like any profession, you have the 21 to 32 year old I'll say one to five years experience as a cop. They, they're the go-getters, right. They don't look at the after effects of man putting this kid 17, 18 year old kid in jail for Xanax. Is it really going to like? Not, what good is it going to do? How is it going to impact him? Now he's got to deal with.
Speaker 2:We want to help people. That's what we signed up to do. We want to help people. That's what we signed up to do. And I think now, as I'm older and a dad, I look at the after effects of okay, if we truly want change, if we truly want to change this part, this individual's life, is this the best option? And I think that we, as a law enforcement, having those situations where we can make a difference, stop and think and not rush into just booking. And you know, cuff them and stuff them.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So it's just a. I wanted to hear your perspective.
Speaker 1:So so I think it is case by case situation. If you take the teenage drug dealer that was selling the pills to my son and the other ones who had died, he's taken 25 pills a day and he's a a wrecking ball. He's selling pills faster than ever. I met a girl recently. She was 19. She's been in recovery for over a year. She's telling me her story and when I mentioned the drug dealer who sold to Tucker, she was like wait, that's the first person who gave me a pill when I was 14. So it's weird how that one person can be a spider web to so many and that's hard in law enforcement identifying. I imagine I mean I'm. I can't act like I'm a cop cause I'm not, but I could imagine like where do we say this person needs to be taken off the streets and this person just doesn't know. And then what's the support and follow up with that? I don't.
Speaker 4:I wish I knew a solution or what that is, and I don't. I agree we, there isn't a solution. I mean it's hard to determine who needs to go, who needs this type of help. I'll tell you as far as after action goes, you know my brother did four years of an eight year sentence. When he, when he got out, he was super gung ho. Obviously he'd been without the. He was fully recovered. You know he's been without it for for four years. Um, but it was his friend group. Yeah, you know, he, he, he called his old buddies and he's like I would tell him you don't, you can't, you can't talk to them. They're fine, they're changed, they're. You know they're doing this and they're doing that.
Speaker 4:And it was instant, just instant, going back to his peer group.
Speaker 1:And, like with Tucker, that wasn't his peer group, those weren't the kids he ran with and he was isolated. He didn't have people who understood to support and I think he really was down on himself Like why can't?
Speaker 2:how can I shake this?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, and that, and that just goes to show that there's not answers. I mean, it's my brother is, is older, you know, he's in our age group.
Speaker 2:So easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3:I'm getting up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:But but our, our teenagers, like I said, they're not in the druggie group.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 4:That's not the peer group. I mean these, these kids are smart, they are you know, they're, they're bookworms, they're you know, getting good grades, they're athletes, they're all of these things that it just. It's a loss for answers.
Speaker 1:I'm going to speak on behalf of all of our angel families with Texas against fennel. So many of us have almost the same kid. When you listen to them describe their kid, they say they love nature, they loved others, they were super empathetic. They um, you know it's wild and I'm like man. We all have these like brilliant. They're super smart. You hear that a lot. They're really smart and some of the most smartest, wildest people who have the most brilliant ideas are people who do struggle it is true.
Speaker 1:But I'm like man. You see all these bright lights in this world that are taken out. I was just in Washington DC for the inauguration and I went to the DEA Museum. I was just in Washington DC for the inauguration and I went to the DEA Museum and it's just lined with faces where you have to type in your kid's name on a computer screen and they'll tell you Wall 8, row B, line 2. You know like you're finding your kid on a wall. There's so many people that you have to type in on a computer screen to even find them and now there's not enough room for them to be displayed anymore.
Speaker 1:You know to think that we lose a whole, and these are some stats that people I don't know. If you don't know, you need to know. But every single week in America since 2021 I believe might have been 2022 we're losing a whole classroom of adolescents ages 14 to 18. That's comparable to a Uvalde school shooting happening every single week in America. And go back to what I said about 80% of people relapsing. What about that statistic? How many more kids are using that? Maybe they drop out of school? Maybe you know they die like Tucker rate the year after he gets out of school.
Speaker 2:But it goes back to that stigma of I'll speak on personal experience. We had a situation in the little community that I live in where a young man made the comment and I'm talking about society, I'm not talking about law enforcement he made a comment about a firearm at the local school. Of course the school district had to do their part to protect other students, but there were some parents within our little football group that were going to turn their back on this kid and I say that for this reason. It made me stop and think. Like man, they're kids. They don't realize the seriousness of some things. They say Imagine the seriousness of taking a pill, right, yeah. And so we're going to kick them out of this football program.
Speaker 2:And I was like, guys, if you kick them out of the football program, you're taking his everything right. And so it made me stop and think and go wait a minute. There's a better way to handle this. And that was his support. His teammates Even some of his teammates were going to turn their back on him. And so it just made me stop and and realize, man, you can't be so judgmental so quickly and so, um, you know, they say you get wiser with age, and I guess it's somewhat true it is true, I love your empathy.
Speaker 1:That's. That's a a really good um skill, it's a gift. I think, and I think we all need to lean in with a little more grace and empathy and understand each other, and when we do that, we can show up better for one another.
Speaker 2:That's what this world needs a little more grace.
Speaker 4:Yeah for sure Did we hit everything, I think so I mean, we're all going to keep doing what we're doing, right? Yeah, I think a big takeaway from this is is especially for those younger officers that you know come out and their their goal is to kick ass and take names. Right, we all were there. It's just to slow down a little bit. Yeah, have a little compassion and understand that that these kids may not necessarily be your trouble, your, your trouble causer. They just need a little help, a little hand up, that's right. Cause or they just need a little help, a little hand up, that's right. And just having that compassion for our communities, you know, I think that'll go a long way with some of the stigma that law enforcement has or we've suffered over the last couple of years is being a little bit more compassionate.
Speaker 3:So I also think that some of this I mean this is great information for me. I mean you know me and Tyler, and Tyler we're not active anymore, we're not on the streets, but we get to talk to law enforcement all across the state. The other thing, too, is like a young officer. They want to go to the schools, all the cool classes, right, the firearms and this and the tactics, and roll around and do kung fu in the whole nine yards, this and the tactics, and roll around and you know, do Kung Fu and the whole nine yards and uh. But I think, uh, I think this is for everybody out there, even for you know, legislation or or or or or lawmakers and people that are out there is we need to have a little bit more education and training on stuff like this. Cause if you start off the officer by training them at a young, you know, in their first beginning of their career, then they can become what you are now not taking 15, 20 years down the road to become.
Speaker 4:You know, I think it's coming, I think we're, as police academies go, they're evolving, right. Yeah, so when I was in the academy, we didn't have to take a mental health class, you know, but it's required now, um, we didn't have to take, you know, um, hearing impaired class or whatever it was, so, so it's headed in the right direction, it's evolving. I mean, I remember when, the, when the police academy was what? 160 hours to get T-Cole certified, and now we're up to I don't know 800 or something Almost nine.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we're headed that direction. But when you're in the police academy, all that stuff is mandatory, right. It kind of takes away from what you're learning. I think offering classes and getting our officers in these classes and making it something they want to hear and understand is an obstacle.
Speaker 1:And I do do that. I do work with officers and we do T-Call trainings where I'm a part of that and share my story and stuff.
Speaker 1:So anyone who is interested in that happy to reach out. I spoke at the TMPA banquet in Galveston in August and I had some law enforcement connect. So we're working in schools with law enforcement there where we bring in the Angel families and get that partnership going. So that's really kind of what we've done with Texas Against Fennel is try to buddy up with law enforcement and leverage that and bring in what you guys are doing and the personal stories in that area, in that community, in that community, because Tucker's story and Leander is much more powerful than in Georgia. In Georgia I want a Georgia angel family who is going to go in With the Tucker Project. We're running through the Texas Education Agency a pilot right now in Texas and that's been going good.
Speaker 2:So we're excited about that, so we're going to put all your information on the podcast. When this is pushed out for people that need help, we'll put your email address. I know that you're a busy man too, with all the stuff you do across Hays County, so I can't thank you all enough for coming in. I hope that this has been beneficial for you all, I know. It's been damn sure beneficial for me and Joey and I hope the viewer and listener enjoys this episode. It's going to be great.
Speaker 1:Well, awesome. Thank you for having me and giving me an opportunity to work with you guys and continue to save lives.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Yeah, thank you so much. I'd love to come back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, you got an open seat. Mark, let's keep talking.
Speaker 3:Are you willing to come? Back Listen we weren't that bad.
Speaker 2:We always end each podcast show with three rapid-fire questions, and since you haven't watched the show, I'm kind of glad that you didn't, because you can't cheat. So what's your favorite cop car? What's your favorite cop movie and what's your favorite drink of choice whenever you're off the clock? I know you've never driven a cop car. What's your favorite cop car that you like seeing go down the highway? I don't know. We'll start with you. Your favorite cop car ever. It could be a Corvette Mustang Crown Vic.
Speaker 1:Lamborghini, lamborghini, you like that one?
Speaker 3:California. What's your favorite cop?
Speaker 2:movie you've ever watched. Or line from a cop movie.
Speaker 1:Don't have one.
Speaker 2:Don't have one. What about your favorite drink or choice when you're relaxing?
Speaker 1:That's probably bourbon Bourbon.
Speaker 4:I got you, mark man. When I started I had a Caprice.
Speaker 3:I had it. The Shamu, me too, the Shamu, shamu.
Speaker 4:Shamu.
Speaker 1:I know what car you're talking about.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Obviously, everybody loves the Ford Crown Vic. I got a brand new one in 2003 and wrecked it two weeks after I got it, so it's been a progression right so now today, I'm 6'5", 280 pounds.
Speaker 1:Tahoe.
Speaker 4:So Tahoe I love and I'm right now driving an F-150, which I think is amazing, Are awesome.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll say that I dig the trucks, I dig the police trucks.
Speaker 4:I love it think is are awesome, amazing, I'll say that I dig the trucks. I dig. I love it. It's been my favorite v8. Uh, I have the twin turbo v6, so it's it's pretty snappy.
Speaker 2:We'll have to talk to anthony about him him manning up and going to get that v8, because it's worth it I asked for a 250 I don't want to go that far. Settle with the v6, that's fine, what's your favorite cop movie?
Speaker 4:there's a lot. I'm a comedy guy, so Blue Streak was really really funny. Bad Boys was good, the other guys, yeah, all those. Police Academy was good. I don't know that I have a favorite cop movie.
Speaker 2:They're all good. They're all good, yeah, your favorite drink of choice when you're relaxing.
Speaker 4:A classic Chilton which I don't know. If anybody knows what that is. That's how classy I am. Yes, it's simple, it's vodka, soda and lemon juice with a salted rim.
Speaker 1:Glass and classic. Did you name it that? Where'd that name come from? No, chilton.
Speaker 4:I saw somebody order one and I was like I want to try that. It's called a Chilton's. I think it was born around Lubbock somewhere.
Speaker 1:But it's, I'm gonna have to check on that. Yeah, you get you a chilton, it's good. My wife calls it dirty beach water, but it's good. Hey, it's a job done. Yeah, for sure. I just want to say, on behalf of the angel families like these are loved ones who, um, these are parents who have lost their children. So those who um work with with us, um in this and take care and take care of these cases and help to bring our hearts some closure and peace, thank you on behalf of all of those who have lost. I want to represent my network in that space and just. We are grateful for our law enforcement, and there's nothing more painful than having my angel parents call and say man, it's been 15 months, they won't return my call and I don't know what's going on. That's hard. So thank you for those who are taking these cases seriously and working with our families.
Speaker 2:Sure Joey, Sir, what's? Uh? We cover everything you wanted to cover today.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I mean, I could stay here for another hour or two.
Speaker 2:I know we've got to get out of here because you've got tea time here in a couple hours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh sure, if I come to Sidesmere, I'm going to be in here pretty tight oh absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you've got to eat yeah we've got to eat.
Speaker 4:Did I mention I'm 6'5"? We've got to feed Gigantor.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you guys tuning in. Our hearts and prayers are out with the Keller Public Safety. We had an officer suicide this week. Mental illness is a real thing. It takes a phone call. If you guys are struggling out there, we're going to leave information. 1-800-compline is a resource and feel free to reach out to me, tyler Owen, 903-926-4005. There is help. You guys. Take care, stay safe. God bless you and, as always, may.
Speaker 1:God bless Texas. God bless Texas, thank you. Thank you, we'll be right back. Thank you, bye.
