The Christmas Tree Mafia - Snap Classic

Story. Every year, right around the start of the holidays, we have a Alright kids, we're off to Target. Pick up one of those prefab Christmas trees that got in the box there. And you don't have to worry, it comes. decorated in everything. No! No! You can't get a fake shot! I just spray a bottle of some of that pine smell stuff for Roma. It's just like the real thing. No needles all over the floor, no mess. It's not right!

There's no such thing as a We holler and argue all the way to the Christmas tree lot, where they run about. They pick up the perfect real tree, Daddy, and they insist I pay some burly fellow an enormous sum of money in cash. Card's not accepted. What's that about? And they played. Christmas on the radio again and again. Not from an air. And sitting under the Watching. Yeah. I truly wouldn't have it any other way.

Rudolph has worked his spell once more, but I've recently learned that it's not exactly magic, and it certainly isn't reindeer that make all of this possible. You see, at the North Pole. As in life, Somebody's gotta do the dirty work. And so today on the first time. Christmas tree.

It's a chilly New York City afternoon. A few weeks before Christmas, the producer Alana Strauss. It's the Rolls Royce Earth. manager. window to buy trees. Same time he's making a cup of coffee. There may be a bit of Ho ho ho! This is a family show, not to worry. That's nice. Yeah, hello, this is Scott. Soho Tree is here. Okay, why don't you like the tree?

That's a horrible thing to say. Ripped off? What do you mean ripped off? You got a gorgeous tree. 139 is not much for a nice tree in Manhattan, I'll tell you. That's average. In Manhattan, there's this lot just packed with Christmas trees. There's an RV in the middle of it, where there's this guy on the phone. It's okay. Don't worry, nobody wants your money. You can have it back. That's Scott Lechner. What was her problem?

Yeah, that's nothing to this. You have to deal with it. It's part of the game. And in this game, Scott's a legend. We're talking trees! It's Christmas! My name is Scott Lechner and I'm the manager of South. And Barak and six they have. Scott's the short guide. And he runs the most exclusive colour. A vendor in Soho is selling what is likely the city's own. Trees, brace yourself. And celebrities show up all the time. Spectra, the whole staff of million dollar listings.

Um and Scott'll do pretty much anything to keep customers happy. Well we did have a gentleman two years ago, year before last, who wanted forty different Christmas trees in assorted sizes, all hung upside down and decorated from the ceiling of his loft.

Tiny piece of Christmas magic is actually part of a long and dangerous tango between Scott and the New York Mafia. This stand, and quite possibly Scott's life, all came down to this one decision, one choice between light and dark. And to understand that choice, we gotta go back to Brooklyn in the nineteen eighties. Yeah. Dug down, if you know what I mean. For a while, Scott rolled around into Cadillac selling microphone. completely changed his life.

Some friends of ours had purchased a bowling act. And they said, why don't you put some Christmas trees in front of our bowling alley and sell them to our customers? He opened up a stand on the street and he started selling Christmas. And Scott did what other street businesses did. He paid the mafia tax. Scott said in his neighborhood lots of businesses either paid off the mob or were being run by them.

The Mop's Christmas tree involvement was so well known that the cappa rumored to control the Christmas tree industry, he was nicknamed Piney. We didn't know what we were getting into. We didn't know if it was a lucrative business, if it was a good business, if it wasn't a big thing. Scott didn't know how things were gonna turn out.

So one of Scott's first employees was this guy called Little Scott. Because I started with him when I was a kid. He was known as Big Scott and I was known as Little Scott. They grew up in Sheep's Head Bay in Brooklyn. He was Best day five six So little scat was the muscle and big scat was the brain.

And they had this really short amount of You're one snowstorm away. Yeah. So how much they made during the last Determine how they look. So they could not leave trees unguarded at night. Cause if they did, other stands would just rob them. You know, and it's just the business. It's a cutthroat business. You gotta make all of your money in a very small window.

And I did many a night shift where I was on duty by myself. It was only me and a hatchet. Some really disgusting riffraff out there. One year y our night guy fell asleep. And uh he woke up and we would light forty trees. Not only that, people used to like light each other's trees on fire, right? Oh yeah. Urine. That was a big one too. And they walk by and spoke. Urine Pungent Urine. No one's gonna buy a Christmas. Normally with sabotage. But one day it just gets... Joe and his employees.

Scott's guys run out, and they start yelling, and then the other guys start. goes into full taekwondo mode and like Wap After this, the guys wanted more. It wasn't just about surviving anymore. They wanted to be big. You know, we weren't looking to hurt anybody, but we were expanding and threatening everyone around us. Every Christmas, Scott's Christmas tree stands were growing all over Brooklyn.

Everybody in the neighborhood was buying trees from Scott, including the mafia. We used we used to love when the connected guys came because they would spend tons of money. They gave you a twenty dollar tip for just, you know, giving them rope. You know, it was it was like, hey, this is you you saw a pinky ring? You know, hey, this is good. And he started to think he could right down the street from this other Christmas tree stand. And this stand was run by an out of town Yeah, yeah.

They were trying to drive him out of business. The Missouri Sheriff didn't like that, obviously. So right away the It was almost like being in a war. us now. What are we gonna do to them? One day Scott's sitting in a trailer, probably smoking a cigarette, wearing his fedora.

And the Missouri sheriff shows up outside and starts yelling. So I'm gonna you, I'm gonna get you and me, I'm gonna rip you into pieces with my bare hands. I ain't gonna need nothing. Scott refuses to come out, so the sheriff storms off. And then Scott hears him. come right up to the trailer door. The Missouri Sheriff pulls out his axe and he hacks it through the front door of Scott's trailer. Is it the next one's going through your head when I can't see I need it?

Six of my friends could have taken it. We need artillery to bring him down. That's how scary it was. And he was all attitude. He was a sheriff. Yeah. So the guy lost it and he jumped in his white pickup truck. And he drives straight into 30 of Scott's trees. And he crashes through a bunch of wooden horses and he keeps driving around Scott's lot. Little Scott's standing close by. You know, I could see him behind the wheel if he's.

truck and uh one of the guys had to dive out of the way of the truck. Then the sheriff heads straight for the Christmas tree booth and he just demolishes it. And ran him over and popped his tire and drove away like a maniac.

Now they could have killed somebody and they didn't mind if they had. Yeah. At that point is when action had to be taken. Alright, so things are getting way out of control. And Scott needed to do Every year he'd been paying the mafia tax, and now he needed to call in the favour. What did you do? I instructed some people to let them know that they had to leave town tonight. That tomorrow wouldn't be accepted. And if they were town by tomorrow night Nobody would find them.

We got a tree's cut. Oh, what a scare. Hi. Hey, how are ya? Open it up for you. Can we show you some nobles? Did you see them open and how magnificent they are? So please do enjoy it. And have the most wonderful Christmas ever. Thanks. Yeah. Street fighting over areas that I felt we deserved, that we had properly annexed, and that others didn't. So there they helped me. The help wasn't free, of course, but Anne favors his own.

So the Christmas tree mafia wanted to know what's going on. And um half Hebrew like So they really liked that though, because in their lexicon. means I'm an R and U. Of course I knew what to say. I was a wise guy. You know, you go with numbers, I'd be like, uh-huh. Are you very good with numbers? In the off season, when he wasn't selling Christmas trees, Scott started working for them as a pit boss.

Between that and the trees, his relationship with the modern They started paying him visits, asking questions. I got severely interviewed. to see if I was gonna be loyal and good and what they wanted and I passed those tests. Scott wasn't sure why they were questioning him. He didn't know they were making big plans for him. But what are you gonna do? Say no to the mafia? All right, so it was the early nineties and New York started

City. People who could afford to pay big bucks for Christmas trees.

So for the first time Scott realizes This opportunity to be this big shot that he's always wanted to be. He ventured outside of Brooklyn and started scouting Manhattan. Big Scott called little Scott from Soho. And I remember him calling me up and telling me that. He goes, I found a great location. I said where is it? He said Sixth Avenue in Spring Street. I said

But Scott bet on the right neighborhood. Soho exploded. Business was going well, Scott started to open up more locations, he had to hire more workers. When I met Scott literally all I had was a backpack. That's it. I didn't own anything else. There was nothing else for me. You know, I spent a long time just being a vagabond traveling around doing nothing. That's Russ. I was in a really bad place when I started working there. A really, really bad place.

And a lot of stuff was going on. I was actually homeless at the time. Russ saw this posting on Craigslist about this Christmas tree game. And he went to meet Scott in Scott's apartment on the lower east side. He's a very short person. They all want a job. Mountain climbers, uh hikers, world travelers mixed in with actors and actresses that are in between gigs that gotta make money and they're not barristas, you know,'cause everyone else is a barista.

And then also a lot of people who couldn't hold regular employment. I mean, we had some off the wall people that work for us and of course the crazier they were, they'd come back to work the following year. They always the the crazy ones always wanted to come back, you know? Um, and we didn't care, you know, your background, you know, as long as you were a hard worker except vegans. I hated hiring vegans. Scott really liked to settle the crowd on this Christmas tree job.

He gave them this bigger than life's spirit. We're New York City treemen. Tradition to hold up for not just for us, but for the city. From the second he started speaking, do it. And I was like, so I have the job? And he's like, yes. No. Russ and the other workers, they show up to work their first day. Brisk fall morning and thirty workers there. Like you showed up at six A. stands and we better get start hammering.

They create these elaborate winter wonderland stands at seven different locations. There are red ribbons, wreaths, candy canes, ornaments, lights everywhere, the whole shebang. You're not in New York anymore. You're in the North Pole. During the day, it's madness. There'd be people screaming and I'm screaming at the guys. They build these cats. Everything's lit with the bigger. Yeah. And it's almost like there's so much noise. There's no time to think. And then there'll just be quietness.

Then there's the smell. There's this quiet bliss in the church. And this smell of piney lemons wafting by. all smack in the middle of Manhattan. That means no one's trying to steal Scott's trees or throw hatchets at his head, and no one's running around spraying urine. It means that what Scott's doing, it's working. Ah, the sights of Christmas in New York, a ten-foot tree carted through the busy streets of Soho. This grows to fifteen locations in four of the five boroughs, and Scott makes big.

This Christmas tree industry in New York, it's a half a billion dollar industry, all in only a couple months a year. He's not just selling to mobsters, now he's also selling to the legitimately wealthy, like the Queen of Christmas herself. Mariah Carey was I I was calling her Mary. You know, obviously everybody knows Mariah Carey's our customer. And and she said, what is Mariah? I said, Mary, come over here. And I gave her a uh a couple of shots and she was like, eh.

His new customers like Mariah Carey and Bradley Cooper and Kelly Rippa They can afford to pay premium prices for premium products. Scott was literally the first person, probably in the world, to get more than$100 for a Christmas tree. What we have here is some beautiful Canadian balsams. These are from Anti-Deganish Nova Scotia. One of God's nasty Well some treasure areas that grow the most

It's like how Tiffany sell a bracelet. Right? Like you know it's the best silver in the world. You know it's the best designers in the world. The pontiff, along with his cast of merry men, let's just shake it out and make sure it's good. Everyone else mimics what we started. He set the rules in Manhattan.

But as the pontiff of Soho, Scott's success soon attracts unwanted attention from the boys. So Scott calls me up and he goes, Hey, listen, we may have a little bit of a problem. Yeah. Sky. Snap judgment. episode. Scott. Tree market with Mariah Carey by What could we stay so hard? For so long before the troubles started driven. Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok Now this story does contain explicit language. Sensitive listeners are advised.

So Scott calls me up and he goes, Hey, listen, we may have a little bit of a problem. What happens is there's this guy working on the Christmas slot. We're not gonna use his real name, we'll say John Smith. John tells Scott that this guy Carmine came to their stand in Soho with a little bit of trouble and a whole lot of money. And he's got a message for Scott.

He said that this is his territory and if we want to sell here we gotta give him two thousand dollars and we don't give him dollars we're gonna get shut down or all stuff's gonna get destroyed Your .com. to meet me here And I'll have his two grand. So that night, little Scott meets this guy Carmine in a nearby bar. And this guy's like central cast and he's got the three quarter leather coat, he's got this, he's got that.

And he goes, I'm Carl mine, this is my neighborhood. You know, meanwhile the guy's just like thirty five years old. Carl mine's gonna run. You expect a 55 year old guy to walk in, you know? My life growing up on the streets is I know how to smell in 30 seconds. Okay. Because I grew up in a

tough neighborhood with extremely tough people. So I knew that this there's this something wasn't right here. And I said, Well, I got a problem. I said I'm not gonna pay you. I said I'm not gonna give you any money and nothing's gonna happen and you're not gonna do anything. And he goes, Yeah.

You know, you know, my gang, you know, I said, Well and I pulled out my my my shield and I said, Well I'm in a gang too. Oh yeah, by the way, Little Scott's job not during Christmas season. He's a New York City cop. He shows Carmine his badge. There's about fifty thousand of us. We all wear blue. And uh and you're gonna go meet all of them right now because I'm gonna arrest you.

And the guy starts breaking down hysterical crying, oh no, he he made me John Smith and But acting buddies, they concocted this whole plan to shake us down for two grand. So instead, Carmine and John Smith might have gotten a little bit more. Back in therapy and never works for us again. These guys weren't the real deal. Bull Scots knew that the actual mafia was much scarier.

Remember all those tests? All that questioning when Scott was in Brooklyn? Well, one day the mafia approached him with an offer. One of those offers that could change everything for Scott and his Christmas tree stand. They wanted to capture the entire five borough New York City Christmas tree distribution business and they wanted me to lead it and they told me nobody will ever stand in your way.

Up to that point, Scott had paid the Christmas tree mafia tax, and they'd provided him with protection. And that was true for lots of Christmas tree stands in the city. But now the mafia was telling him he could take all these stands. In Staten Islands, Queens, Spronx, trees on all the corners, trees in the parking lots, they could all be his. They

We assure you, Scott. You grow in the mall, you'll make about ten times what you earn now, which is a young, low middle class guy striving who's very appealing to me. The power that I would have had behind me was very appealing to my Napoleonic ego. And he wanted to be the biggest Christmas tree seller in the in the city. If he took them up on the offer, Scout would have more power than he could ever imagine. So he imagined it.

You know, my ego on one shoulder is like the you know when you see the cartoons, there's the good angel and the bad devil, you know, on each shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. Scott had already tasted a bit of the good life while working at the Mafia's underground casino. So the bad devil was really winning out because I loved Having ten thugs at my back and forth.

Yeah, go get me a coffee and the guy, three hundred and twenty five pounds, no fat, would come back at it, be like, You got it wrong. I said I don't want no sugar They'll be like, boss You know the guy could lift me and throw me like a harpoon, right?

He was seriously considering the opportunity, and he told his dad Yeah, you gotta do it. Because there's no morality to them. Scott's dad knew that if Scott was helping the mafia control the Christmas tree business. he'd actually be helping with a lot less wholesome and jolly work. He understood that the Christmas tree empire doesn't stop. Like drugs. at a tree stand for distribution. So what are we gonna do? We're gonna get into bed with people and they're selling

Christmas tree stands? I mean at you know at what point does it be You know, oh you know, I could do this, I could do that, well you also wind up dead, you know, you got that going for you. You know, so Scott thought about all the different ways it could go down. The FBI or a Justice Department agent could do a crackdown and grill Scott. But the boys wouldn't want him to talk.

They might put a bullet in my head so I don't get them indicted. Yeah. Even though I was at their house the other night for possible. And their wife knows just how I like the extra sauce on there with the extra grated cheese. Yeah. But now they're gonna put a bullet in my head and say sorry. It's creepy. Well they killed one of my friends. Seriously? Yeah, not about Christmas trees, about other things. This was the guy that ratted on the mafia.

And he was in my group of friends. He wasn't my best friend or anything, thank God. I still shed tears for him. They killed him. That's right. Because he was a rat. Look, you don't go into partnerships with those people. You work for them. It's different. You think you're partners, you're not. You're not partners with these people because you're not in their world. So you're just working for them. It's a devil's deal and eventually the devil gets paid.

Scott thought about the offer and the world he'd enter. He decided that his business shouldn't be involved with the mafia anymore. Like at all. The next time they asked him for his regular dues, Scott said no. It seemed like it was Scott's way of saying no to their offer, too. Because I felt that kept us in some sort of association and connection with them. Yeah. And who the hell wants to pay off? Illegal graph.

A little while later, the mafia invited him to a meeting. I'm trying to imagine like that the you're invited to like that meeting. I wasn't invited to the meeting, I was mandated. I was told to show up. Scott's friends were way too scared to go, so It was actually at a shopping center. A major shopping center, but they had a big conference. Scott came into the conference room, and there were people sitting around a table, deep in discussion. He looked around.

Local mafiosos and And I was like, you're a someone in Elected politician. The conversation took a turn when Scout walked in the room. They asked him, What's the deal? Where's the money? I threw my best polka bluff in and I said, I can't be paying you no more and they said, Well you know, I think you better rethink about that and I said, Well, I did. You know, I've I've been in this business for quite some years, but I'm willing to

not be in the business anymore if that's what it takes. And you know, as easily as they were enamored by my my sharp mathematical skills and my sharp tongue, they could have easily turned to me and said, You're Someone's gonna hit you know the baseball bat one night, you know, at two o'clock in the morning. Who's gonna know who, why, or what?

Right? Yeah. So I said, I can't afford to be paying you guys anymore, I'm so sorry. And I said, I really think that we're just a small little tree company, just a couple of guys selling some trees. Yeah. Without friends, we can't really afford any of this involvement. They looked at me like I had some gumption and

They kinda went tacitly like, all right, one more year, you know. And I think they looked at me like, oh, so you now you're you're playing schmuck, right? God, play schmuck. Get out of here. But Vinny and his family get a tree. We all get trees. Yeah, you all get trees. You know. You know, I had a personal uh moral epiphany about it. Yeah.

much stronger man that derives his power from love. The guy who's feared, his life is miserable. His death would be an inconvenience financially to some and a blessing to others. A man who's loved takes all that with him. And just because you're powerful, it doesn't validate really It's a line from the movie called The Bronx Tale. If Denise tell him you're wrong, you'd rather be feared. They'd sit in a tree.

They kept up the debate for over a decade. But this kind of pontification just feels different when you get a diagnosis. You know, it was you know and when he got sick, when he got sick, um he got sick really, really bad really fast. At first Scott reassured everyone that things would be okay. But he was diagnosed with cancer. The people at the stand were pretty shocked. Little Scott remembers the last time they talked on the phone.

And I knew he was dying, and I knew it was probably gonna be the last time I spoke to him. And that was very hard because he was a good person. But see Scott is what what Scott doesn't want to admit is that Scott's life is like It's a beautiful In December 2020, Scott passed away. He was 64 years old. Scott was You know what do you want if you heard the expression Okay.

the year. He hated when it was over. Like the rest of us were like, we're tired, we want to go home. I'm so done with Christmas. And he was like, no, I would do this all year if they let me. You know? And and and he really, really just loved everything about it. What is it? Aromatherapies. Christmas trees is absolutely a natural one. Put people around a Christmas tree in their home, they feel better. Case closed. They're just happier, nicer.

We're probably gonna have one night where we go to Valeska's, we eat matzo ball soup with pierogies and latkas, like we did every year with Scott, We're all gonna be holding back tears. Case closed. They're just happier, nicer, and you know, they feel better. They don't know why. They think it's just a holiday rebel, but it's also the old factory system, making them feel ah r r uh reminding them, reminiscent of their childhood, their youth growing up, and the people they chaired Christmas with.

Yeah. It's funny. It's just yeah. Damn. I'm uh I'm gonna miss him. You know. Thank you. Alright, I gotta uh deep breaths. Russ came back to Soho Trees every year, and now he's the foreman. The same speech to new employees, the same. And I tell my guys this every year. the wood. You are New York City treaman from this point forward and that is. You are you do not get cold, you do not get tired, and you're gonna do everything with a smile because we're selling. For the memory of Scott.

The pontifying. Emperor of the New York City. Big thanks as well to Russ and Little Scott for holding down Christmas for the original score. By Alana Strauss, John Fasil. And Snappers, it is not over. When we return, a covert operation goes horribly wrong when Snap Judgment, the Christmas Tree Mafia Special returns. Stay.

Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the Christmas tree mafia episode. My name is Glenn Washington, and our next story comes from a man with real secrets. From a covert operative named Mike Ramsdale. And our story starts when Mike was assigned to go into Soviet Russia to extract a high-level target. I really do think I had a death wish. I was just uh going through some very, very difficult times. And so when states uh uh contacted me

and uh asked me to consider this mission. I just thought, you know, bring it on. I'm your man. Bring it on. No matter what happens. I can live with it. If I make it back, that's fine. If I don't, who's gonna care? It truly was escapism. I wanted just to get out.

It was very important for us to find some informants, and we did find three individuals, what we call in the spy world assets, and these three Russian individuals worked for the target, the man that we were after. But when it was all said and done, just as the mission was to conclude and we were gonna extract the target out of the country, one of the informants betrayed us.

been told uh the target who we were and what we were about to do. And that's when the mission My orders were to sanitize the mission and what that means in spooklingo is to get rid of anything and everything so if the KGB or the Soviet secret police came into our apartments They would not be able to find anything. I was instructed. You will not have your weapon, you will not have your communication device.

I threw away my weapon and uh my radio into the river. In the middle of the night, I was definitely on my own. I would have to use all my training and resources to survive. My orders were clean those apartments, do my work, and then get out of town as quick as possible.

The last apartment that I was to sterilize was on the sixth floor. There was something that told To look outside and I walked across the hallway to the kitchen, pulled back the drapes, I looked down, and there I saw two mafia goons waiting for me. People think that uh you know, double oh seven he never shows uh his true emotions, but that's not true at all.

I knew I was in big trouble because I'd already disposed of my weapon and my communication device. I couldn't confront them. I had nothing and suddenly I heard the crowbar break the front door of the apartment. The fear and the panic was just even retelling the story right now, my heart's beating. I heard the crowbar start to break the front door and uh all I could do was I had no other choice. I had to confront them.

I pulled on my gloves, I zipped up my jacket, I walked towards the front door and uh said a prayer, and then the uh the splinters and the door came open. Yeah. there. I had a maneuver worked out with a certain blow to his temple. I had nothing and he he had a pair of brass knuckles.

Within a short time I looked like a big red wedge of Swiss cheese. Somehow we ended up in this stairwell. In one hand he has these bloody brass knuckles, in the other he pulled out a stiletto knife and was jousting Just as he was ready to carve me up, by the grace of God, there was the building drunk on the stairwell underneath us, and he reached up through the stairwell and grabbed the mafia goons pant leg.

and pulled on it. And in that saving moment, when that mafia goon looked down, I flew around him and over him.

Down those stairs I bounded. I told myself, Mike, get to the train station. I'd lost so much blood from the beating. I stopped by a vacant building and turned around to see how close they were behind me, and uh the only movement on the street that night was the falling snow, the very first snow of the oncoming Russian winter. Why did I choose to do this? I didn't have to accept this assignment. But I don't do any type of stuff, but not here.

that trained for several days until I got to the village of Potevka where indeed we did have a safe house. I am so thankful to be on the train and to be alive. At the same time, I'm constantly looking over my shoulder, thinking that the mafia or the KGB are on the train with me. with me. I'm in terrible, terrible condition. The only sustenance I had in those five days was the awful Russian black tea that was available to everyone on the train.

I cannot tell you how hungry and starved I was, but I knew if I could hang on long enough, it is policy that every safe house is equipped with seven days MREs, meals ready to eat. It was late at night, it was dark, blizzard, snowy. I got to this dilapidated train station. I made my way, trudging through the heavy snow, about a mile to the cabin.

I walked to the cupboard, opened the doors, there are no boxes of MREs. Went to the back of the cabin to the closet, looked in the floorboards, up in the rafters of the cabin and again no MREs. I was so spent. I pulled probably a dozen blankets over me and uh crawled in a straw bed fully dressed. in the morning, trudged into the village, to the marketplace, and I convinced myself there you lucky cuss you will be able to get some cabbage, whoopee, some potatoes.

And strange as it sounds, as I walked I saw I saw no one. Uh I saw no tracks in the snow. When I finally approached the marketplace and uh pushed open the big oak doors, uh and that's when I realized uh the village had basically been abandoned. I I was hoping to see a light on or a candle burning and to find someone, and I did. I was able to talk to two old couples and I took out a fistful of rubles in exchange for a potato.

and they would not do it. The conditions in Russia were awful. I had more rubles than than those old couples w would ever have seen in their life. And yet, keeping food for themselves to to survive was more important. When the first thoughts came to my mind that, Mike, you might not make it. How am I gonna survive? Where is the food going to come from? Get back to the cabin, I was almost obsessed with the idea of dying, and I thought There I am.

Isolated in this little village in the middle of Russia and that's how I was going to die. Why can't it be a gun battle on the streets of Moscow so that the people can read about h this hero? cabin possibly three days. Mid morning. Sorry, but I get a little emotional in the middle. I'm at a table writing letters of goodbye because I'm not going to make it. And when any one of us writes a letter, the first thing we do is put a date.

I had totally lost touch with reality and especially date and time. But when I pulled out my calendar that the moment when I first realized that it is Thanksgiving in America. I heard this loud thump or bang. I thought it could be an explosive and that's when I heard the sound of a vehicle. I hustled to the window, but it was there was so much snow I could not identify the vehicle, but it sounded like the engine of a Jeep.

Knowing about one or two of our agents losing their hands or their face, I panicked, waiting for the explosion to happen. I ran to the back of the cabin Probably waited fifteen, twenty minutes and nothing happened. I pulled the cabin door open six, eight, ten inches, and there on the stone steps of the cabin was a package about the size of a normal shoebox. There's no turning back now. I w grab the package, my heart is pounding, and I pull the string off the package.

There the first thing a box of macaroni and cheese, a little small box of frosted flakes. A jar of artichoke arts and there I see the Thanksgiving card and I recognize the handwriting of my sister Karen and then I prepared my Thanksgiving meal. There was a I remember when I fixed the meal around the outside of the plate. All these little colourful Yeah. Yeah. I made a concentrated effort to find out how the package could have gotten to put it in the world.

Avka and how who brought it there and why, but in our line of work and intelligence there is a cliche that is called the need to know. And I am not privileged to ask any questions about it because Mike, do you have a need to know? When you work in the covert world there are so many unanswered questions you have. I still do not have a definitive answer as to how the pattern. experience, we'll have a link on our website, scapjudgment.org.

That piece was produced by Anna Sussman with sound design by Renzel Gorio. Gift of storytelling. Interesting person ever. And as you know this. Still. Still. Not be a throwaway from the