From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A production of iHeartRadio.
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my name is Noah.
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our super producer Alexis code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly, you are you. You are here that makes this the stuff they don't want you to know. It is finally becoming a little autumnal here in our fair metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia, and we cannot wait to explore strange news with you.
Up.
We've got a couple of things at the top. I gotta say every time I hear a story about someone getting in trouble for handing out free water, I cannot help but roll my eyes.
It just makes me think of Larry David right now, and then the recent curve he took that issue to prime time or voting.
You know, you also, at least in Georgia, you can't give people water if they're waiting in line as the poles right which informed you know, curb your enthusiasm So shout out to David Martin, who is, as we record, fighting his HOA because he hands out water. Also shout out to hoa's but not in a complimentary way.
Wait, like at his house he hands out water to like people walking down the street.
Yeah, similar to how we had the free fridges here in Atlanta. What he was doing is leaving a cooler outside of his home to provide free water to anybody in the neighborhood.
And the HOA is saying that's against their terms or something, because it's like a liability because perhaps he's poisoning the water or something.
I'm curious.
Sorry, I know this isn't your main story, but oh geez, may choice.
I just want to point it out because the idea that you can't share share free water with people. Maybe it's a liability issue and something we'll look into later, but it reminds me of it feels like a lifetime ago when I almost got arrested for giving out free bread in Peapont Park. You also can't do.
That, monster, but you can feed pigeons bread, not people, though not people, right right. Sorry, It just makes me think of like how like in a lot of other countries, food that is thrown out is given to less fortunate folks, but here it's illegal. It's like they literally are required by law to throw in the dumpster.
Unless we be funny duddies about it, we should note that there are obviously valid concerns about food safety. Like my thing in Peapont Park was not an above board operation. I was working in a bakery and I had, you know, like a trash bag of fkasha and stuff like that. I'm just saying, not a legal pop up. Anyway, We're going to get to so many things we wanted to share with you, folks. One thing I think we should tease we're talking off air about a lot of AI stuff.
We were also talking about a grand debate between regarding mobile technology and its possible effects on the brain. There is a very strange true crime story we're going to get to. What do you think, guys, what if we take a quick break and return to repair the reputation of a friend of ours from far away in the ocean. Folks, if you are tuning in tonight the time strange news airs, then you, like us, have got to be excited for Monday night football. It's the forty nine Ers and the Jets.
Oh, man, bet, do you really think Benny and the Jets is an objectively bad song?
By Sir Elton? Be biased? But that's fair.
But but but why would you think that.
He's got electric boots?
Ben?
Well, maybe I'll reevaluate my opinion of Beny and the Jets.
But depending on who wins the football contest, right.
You guys, there's all that Elton John like the biopic I guess that came out and everything. I have this weird thing where I want to see Will Ferrell play every historical character as he should. Did you guys see that video of him. He's like on a porch and there are a ton of wind shimes and he starts playing music. It's freaking hilarious. I think it might be a PayPal ad.
I don't know what a goofball watch Will Ferrell do anything? And he's at peak Farrell right now.
He's America's goofball.
PayPal does seem to be popping up everywhere, though, and I hear they might be taking part of the game tonight.
Oh yeah, it's funds like a little televisual scavenger.
So tune in on ESPN tonight. And see for yourself during the big game.
Wait, do you think Will Ferrell's going to be in this one?
Who knows that guy pops up straight places? I hope so.
And we have returned. Do you guys remember our previous episodes on the ideas of animals as spies non human animals?
Yeah, the concepts often well, I remember, like cetaceans, dolphins in particular, maybe killer whales. I don't know.
There was a cat situation as well, if I'm not mistaken, Yeah, an attempt.
There were also what we've seen different countries try some pretty out there ideas using animals exploiting their natural tendencies or proclivities as a vector of surveillance, sometimes as a weapon of war, like bat bombs and so on. You can check out our earlier episodes on Ridiculous History for some of those stories, as well as stuff they don't want you to know. I'm thinking in particular of our
exploration regarding the conspiracies. They're very popular in the Middle East, even now that animals have been have been weaponized, and you gotta feel terrible for the animals because what happens is someone catches a bird and the bird might have a little tag, you know, one of its little legs, which is super common biologists or tracking or ornithologists or tracking those populations. And then someone will see it and
they'll go, oh, it's a spy from insert nation. I don't like you know what I mean?
Yeah, well, it's suspicious animals with stuff on them that shouldn't be there, and I want to know what they're doing.
The sharks have freaking lasers strapped to them. Is it like that kind of thing to their heads?
Yeah, it's similar.
Lasers can be microphones too, they can be listening devices long range mm hmm.
Yeah.
And this brings us to the story A tragic story of our good friend Valdemir or that's what that's what this guy was called in the media. He made news in Norway starting in twenty nineteen of April because he was coming up and hanging out with human mariners. He was doing things like rubbing against boats, not the way that a cat would rub on you to scent mark, but because he was trying to get his harness off.
And most beluga whales in the wild don't have harnesses, but this guy had a harness with what looked to be a mount for a camera and on the plastic tabs of his harness was the label equipment Saint Petersburg.
That seems on the nose, doesn't it for a spy.
It's like Vladimir was here, you know, property of the I mean, give me a break.
That's kind of amazing. What's the latest though.
Ah yeah, we'll build to that. Because first, I love the point of Voldemir being somehow a very bad spy, because you're right, you wouldn't want attribution to this kind of thing. But because of the nature of his discovery, because of his familiarity with humans, the fact that he would do things like retrieve objects lost in the ocean or play with people just for fun, all of these things persuaded observers that he was who was definitely familiar with human beings. He had probably been in a human
run facility of some sort. And of course, with the literal Saint Petersburg branded harness, people assumed that he was a Russian spy and that's where he got his name because it's a portmanteau, right, vall Hval is this word that translates to whale, and then Demir like the last you like Vladimir Putin. So Voldemir was a mysterious character and since twenty nineteen he was monitored. He would swim
around the area do cute little beluga things. It was kind of like a labrador or a Golden retriever in the wild. You know how those are just great, super friendly dogs.
Oh yeah, yeah, boys.
There the I have only just met you, but I love you.
So much unconditionally. Ben so is is a beluga? Will? Is it in the dolphin range? Is it a cetacean as well? Yes? Okay, it sure.
Looks like we've got two beautiful belugas here in Atlanta at the Atlanta Aquarium that were actually rescues from I believe it was like a weird condemned amusement park or something, and they were found like in a tank.
Under a ferris wheel? Was it?
They've found in a tank under some sort of decommissioned ride. So they do act similarly to dolphins, And I asking that too because dolphins also are kind of notorious for how horny they are, and speaking of rubbing up against things and being familiar with humans, I'm just wondering if that answered into the equation at all.
We haven't found anything indicating an amorous nature of that regard to Voldemort. Yeah, for this guy, but we have seen, we have seen proven military cetacean training programs. So this idea, this speculation, didn't come from out the briny blue and
there were real life things to base this on. But to that earlier point, while Russia has never officially responded to the idea of this poor guy being a spy, there was a funny quote back in the day from a guy named Colonel Victor Baronets who said, this is a translation. If we were using this animal for spine, do you think we would attach a mobile phone number with the message please call this number.
If found police call Johnny. Yeah.
It's like this isn't like a freaking textbook, you know.
That's oh my god.
And here's where we get to our unfortunate turn. Voldemir was found dead recently in the Bay of Rizavika on August thirty first, twenty twenty four. The investigation is ongoing. Some of the NGOs involved, including one whale, have filed a police complaint and they're alleging, like the official reports didn't determine a cause of death, but the people who watched this guy on a regular basis says that he died due to gunshot wounds.
Holy crap, you assassinated. He was taken out. He knew too much.
This just adds this story to and thinking back to thinking back to our earlier example, which I loved. I love animals just like a golden retree in the wild, hanging out, just running around, like doing tricks, bringing people random tennis balls and stuff. That's the kind of vibe this poor beluga had. So everybody was pretty heartbroken. No one was dancing on this poor guy's watery grave. But the speculation continued, and so we did just a little bit of diggate, and I think we can say it.
This guy is not a spy. It wasn't a spy. It's kind of unfair to call it. He definitely came from some sort of human run facility. There are guesses that he was something called a therapy animal. I've never heard of a therapy beluga, but this this was a guess. Yeah.
I was gonna ask because the harness, I mean, you often see sorry not meaning, but that just the harness immediately kind of made me think, is this a service beluga of some kind m hm.
Yeah, is this the kind of service animal you can take on the plane with you?
Exactly?
Please, I'm sorry, Tsa, this is my service.
Beluka is just right in your lap.
Seriously, how many seats do you think that would take?
He's got to splash him with you, got to get more than one bottle of water. It just can keep him kind of moistened during.
The At this point, now you're thinking we have to think in like locks of seats, right.
Was it free Willy? I just had a flash of like a movie where people are they have some kind of whale on a flatbed and they're desperately trying to keep the whale moistened.
Ye buckets of water. That was free Willing the first one. There are more than one and.
Real life, unfortunately. So the idea here that this guy may have been a therapy animal comes from members of former members of Norway's diplomatic class, and one interesting theory that seems much more realistic than the idea of a sea bound spy is that this guy's real name may have been Semyon Semyon, and that he was a rescue because he had been attacked by sea allions and the reason he had a harness was to tow a boat with kids inside, you know, like those little trains in
amusement parks. The kids hop on and then like drunk college students on spring break or whatever.
That's not good.
Well, we know that the institution mentioned there, oh, the Arctic Circle Hotty, Dive Center and Lodge, they no longer use therapy belugas at all. So there aren't any more of these. But we kept digging, and there's a really interesting story of something called the Brush's Whale jail. I'm sorry, Dorsha loves jails man. So you know it's the airplane question again. You can't house them in a regular dolg.
Right, So what are we talking about here?
Yeah, so back in twenty nineteen, there were almost one hundred captured beluga whales and orcas that were just contained at this fishery in Far East Russia. And the guess was that these animals, who had been rounded up, maybe by mistake in some cases during commercial fishing, that they were being detained in hopes of selling them to Chinese aquariums, just like a regular aquarium attraction. But eventually, due to public outcry, these guys were released back into the wild.
So we don't know what happened to all of them, because I believe not all of them were tagged.
I'm just confused, Like, I mean, aren't there better ways to tag wild animals than fitting them with like an unremovable harness?
Yeah, and that's the thing. There definitely was a camera mount on this guy's on this guy's hardness. So question is, and there wasn't a camera attached, the question is, what was that mount for. It's just for a camera. Was it meant to pull, you know, a cute little boat of kids around while someone lectures them about the importance of maritime ecosystems.
I'm sorry, I said that's not good, But that is not good. That's sort of abuse, right, I would say, an animal like that isn't really meant to tow a boat.
Yeah, but it's maybe it's the I agree with you, but you could also argue, because these creatures are so intelligent, you could also argue that's like saying a golden retriever shouldn't be around tennis balls. You know what I mean, A lot of them just dig.
That you really love tennis balls.
I have a hard time believing that a beluga whale loves to tow a.
Boat and just can't get enough of that life.
We got a theory, all right, the thing on the back, it's some kind of psychic powers amplifier. And they were being trained to become psychic soldiers Allah Menu, steric goats, all the Soviet Union's.
Training of Soulsire's Guide to the Galaxy even.
And they're being trained, and that's why they had to be in whale jail for so long. They had to go through the system.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I'm sorry, bet, what what offense is required to earn one of spot in whale jail?
You know what they did? Okay, I'm just gonna keep it that that. No, No, it seems like in this case they were just rounded up and captured the idea that maybe they were subject to different sorts of experiments with communication or cognition or esp. Weirdly enough, that's totally within the realm of possibility, because we know that things got really weird with cognition experiments with cetaceans in the past.
Shout out to dolphin LSD hand jobs, because you know what, the most noble of attents, Sometimes things can go sideways. I love the idea of this possibly being and an escape e, you know, Stranger Things style or fire Starter style.
And Matt's theories are the best, and.
The idea here also sets us up for a great conversation in a future episode on psychic countermeasures if such exist. So, guys, anything else on this before we move on?
No, but it does just make me think of the story. Why I say no?
And then I say a thing about like how all these attacks, these whale attacks, you know, on yachts and such New York and yeah, exactly the orc And recently there have been quite a few reports of kind of rogue dolphins attacking humans. And it's just this idea that nature is sort of like rebelling against its human oppressors.
I do find kind of interesting.
Oh yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up. People believe, at least the the lone dolphin attacks off of a Japan They believe the dolphin's doing it because it's lonely and or Roldemir never really did find a pod in the wild that he could jibe with, kind of like that whale that to swam the world singing slightly out of tune.
Strange news I've ever heard.
Yeah, going through it, going through it, guys, But we're going to turn it around after a quick word from our sponsors, shout out to the ocean.
And we've returned with another piece of strange news. Ben, you mentioned turning it around. I think you were correct, because this is one could argue a little bit of good news. According to a study commissioned by the World Health Organization published recently in the journal Environment International, the previously existing notion that the radio waves and other types of radiation that are emitted by cellular to telephones are likely not giving you cancer.
Skeptical.
Oh no, Mat, wait wait, wait, wait, but we have good Yeah, we have nice things.
I know, Matt skeptical too.
I understand because it's non ionizing radiation. Is that we're saying, well.
Right, yeah, it's a type of non ionizing radio radiation. Basically, what has been done is a much more in depth study of previous studies. Essentially, there have been reports that have classified radio wave exposure as a possible source of
carcinogens to humans. Specifically, in twenty eleven, the International Agency for Human Research on Cancer did categorize radio waves in this way This led to other reports sorts and perhaps a pretty widespread concern about using these devices that were kind of glued to Probably had certainly kept some people from making as many phone calls.
But the fact of the matter is that these waves are everywhere.
They're outside, you know, they're being emitted from all kinds of devices, and it's pretty hard to completely cut them out of your life. So I would argue that this is pretty good news for a lot of people. But let's do go into what exactly has been kind of reassessed. There is a really good kind of breakdown of the findings on CNN Health, and I'm going to kind of go into how they describe this new investigation and the
data associated with it. They describe it as a new systematic review of human observational studies that's based on a much larger data set compared to what was published in twenty eleven by the IARC, which is what put these types of waves in the category of carcinogenic.
So like a meta study, it is a study of study exactly, It's a study of studies.
But so was this Essentially so was the twenty eleven study by the IARC. This one is just saying there's been new studies, new data, new scientific observations that have been published on the subject that are adding to this data set and creating a much larger and more detailed
data set. So they go into this and saying that it includes more recent and comprehensive studies, which means that they can be a bit more confident on the data and on the find things that they say exposure to radio waves for mobile phones or wireless technology is not associated with an increased risk specifically of brain cancer.
This new review is part of a series of.
These kinds of systematic reviews that were commissioned by the World Health Organization to take a much closer look at other possible adverse health effects associated with technology and specifically expos to radio waves. Thus far, it seems that this is the strongest evidence that radio waves from wireless tech
are not in fact a hazard to human beings. It's described as being the most comprehensive review on the subject, consisting of more than five thousand studies, and there are some studies that were excluded by way of being determined to be irrelevant, which is apparently quite normal, but it did trigger a little bit of a red flag with me. The idea of excluding things that don't necessarily fit the outcome that you are seeking.
The no scientists ever.
Supposed to seek a particular outcome in a scientific experiment or study.
So I don't know this to be the case.
It does seem to be quite normal, but I just wanted to point that out.
That kind of tricked my spidey sense a little bit. And I am certainly no research scientists.
But I don't know, guys, I know this is a bit of a thing that we've talked about over the years, and it's certainly something that people do worry about. And I think of the three of us, some of us are in that set right.
Right, But thirty eight years or excuse me, twenty eight years worth of study that gives a lot of opportunity to prove an increase.
Of can't think so too, I think so too.
I don't know. I'm just gonna be honest. Even if this is conclusive or as some media is reporting it definitive, I'm still going to be a little careful where I put the phone. Have you ever had a phone in your front pocket and you start to worry about your Australia You know, what I mean just the case.
Well, I don't know if you guys ever have had the experience of a ghost vibration in your pants, like either in your front pocket area or back pocket area where your phone's not in there and you feel you swear you just got a text or an email or something, or your phone's ringing right.
Yeah, Oh and I'm sorry, I said, oh, yeah, that way, it's not like a pleasurable brain.
So, Matt, are you saying that's a symptom of just how tied to these devices psychologically we are.
Well, yes, first of all, but also I think it's that kind of thing that gives me pause when I see some of the reporting that comes out in a one off study that says, yeah, this the radiation coming off of specific models of cell phone or mobile phone when plugged in, give off an intense amount of radiation compared to other phones. So for me, you look at if you look at the entirety of the thing, maybe
it's not so dangerous. I'm just a little more skeptical of an individual model that maybe has some kind of flaw accidentally built into the system that when a bunch of energy is surging through it, specifically you need to be more careful, which is what I thought. I think it was one of the last rounds of iPhones. We were supposed to be careful of it, at least for a while there.
It's one of those.
Things, too, are you know you I certainly see stories of people that rip a pack of smokes a day and live to be one hundred and then some people get lung cancer seemingly no exposure to carcinogens.
So I'm always skeptical.
I always say with this kind of stuff, well, we're all gonna get cancer from something, you know, we especially with what we know about microplastics and how prevalent those are like in our bodies, and how little we can do about it.
So I tend not to lose sleep over this kind of stuff.
And that's because I'm listening to a podcast with my phone speaker shoved right up against the side of my head.
And that's true.
So that brings up AirPods too, wireless of your buds or another concerned.
People, isn't concern.
But they also they slip out of my ears when I sleep and then I lose them.
So I don't do that.
But no, to your appointment, that is still a type of RF you know, connection that is hyped directly into your brain. But for my money, I choose not to lose too much sleep over that, And I would like to think that at the very least this is re assuring news to some degree.
Yeah. Also, you know, if you're hearing this and you feel strongly skeptical of it, you can you can read
the study in depth yourself, I believe. And if that doesn't, you know, a swatch concerns, then there's another I would think, just philosophical therapeutic aspect to this, which is that if you still fundamentally get your spidy sense tripped by the possibility of you know, these devices giving you some kind of damaging health effect, then it's not going to hurt you to be away from your phone for a while, you know what I mean. That's actually a really good
thing for you mentally. So there's no harm in pract and acting as though this stuff could have these health effects, because even at a merely psychological level, you will experience benefits from not always having that bad boy, you know, right next to your all strip.
On your hip.
Yeah, I mean, like no, to Matt's point about the phantom vibrations or whatever. Like I don't know that was a sort of twofold, but like I can relate to that. It's like a phantom limb, you know, when you lose access to that device, you start to kind of, you know,
tweak out a little bit. And it makes me think of a listener that wrote in talking about targeted advertising, about keeping like a diary because of I believe it was some program they were in and doing that on their phone and then all of a sudden being served up with all these ads. And while that freaked them out, it was the impetus that led them to doing a proper journal on paper and separating themselves from their phone,
which they reported as offering splendid mental health benefits. So maybe there's silver lining here, you know, if we do just decide to separate ourselves from our teathers a little.
It's so cool, man. I'm obviously the death of our Beluga associates has me thinking a lot about the days of maritime expansion. But can you imagine how cool this one aspect of life in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds may have been. You're not expected to answer people instantly. No one cares about being left on red. As a matter of fact, you could just you could just freaking disappear for months on end, and when he came back,
people would just be surprised you were alive. They would be like, oh, Hiram, you've survived the troubles.
Bro As recently as the nineties, it did wonders for sitcom gags, none of that stuff would have been possible, and not to mention like murder mysteries. You know, let's just torpedo the plot right away by like having a you know, I device on hand. So yes, there are definitely benefits, and it's something that I'm working on myself
as a admitted device addict. So I had another one those kind of AI related But I think we actually got more than enough meat out of this story for today, So I'm gonna save this one for next week because it is kind of herm irrelevant. So why don't we take a quick break, hear a word from our sponsor, and then come back with a story from Matt.
And we've returned and you're with me now there's no escape. So guys, I'm going to start this one off by going down memory lane, specifically with you Ben do you recall in June twenty sixteen, we got on a plane flew out to California to Van NY's, specifically to a place called Cagle Canyon. I think that's how you say it. I'm sorry, yeah, Cagal Canyon. I don't he a g e l ok.
Yeah, we said it that way on purpose. It's fun.
It's just you know, it's good for women's health.
Kagale. I don't know how to say it. It's that's how it's spelled. But it's specifically to Van Nights, California. It's the first time and only time I've ever been in the place that's called Van Nis, California. Do you remember anything about that? And Nol do you have any experience in that town?
No, I don't know about Kegletown.
I uh, it's Cagletown's a state of mind.
It's a cave.
Yeah, it's a so I think we keep it it all right now. I've never been to Kegletown that it's a state of mind. You can get there now.
Well, I remember it being beautiful. It was really cool. We shot some stuff out there for a pilot. It was really really fun. Got to I think roll down a hill or two like on purpose and look heroic doing it.
Secrets of the Melungeon silver Mines. That was what we were asked to do a pilot on, and I think for the purpose of what we're exploring here, I agree. The vista's the scenery just absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, this is part of the US for anybody unfamiliar, this is part
of California that's increasingly threatened by wildfires. So one thing I remember is we were hanging out in these amazing forested area is and then you would see very strongly worded warnings about how a wildfire could just be coming for you.
Yeah, I mean, oh yeah. And if you want to know where this place is, you can look it up on a map. It is. I don't know. I guess I would say if you go northwest past the Hollywood Sign and just keep going for a while, that's where
this area of California is. And we're talking about this today because in my mind I can't picture the thing that we're about to talk about happening happening here just because of what I experienced when I was there, again, given for a very short amount of time and in a more nature centered area of this part of town. Here it goes. In twenty eighteen, in this part of California, and in several other parts of California, and even in Georgia and several other states, there began a very long
and very frequent string of burglaries, specifically burglaries. There were homes in many very nice neighborhoods in Van Nights, this part of California place called Thousand Oaks, which is, uh, this is another area right over there. Have you heard of that one?
This is Van Nis is where they make all the porno, isn't it.
Oh? Maybe I don't know.
Oh it's Chatsworth.
Well, dang, I didn't see any while I was there.
It is you know what at that time, it's a why it's a widespread industry, right, okay, well widespread?
Come on, Hey, no, I've all right, so sorry.
I haven't even looked at your story. I just saw your headline. I was okay, sorry, this is Born related? Is it not? No? Oh?
Okay, because I just google Van Nis and I got a headline burglar breaks into Van Nights home and watches Born.
Oh no, that's that's a different that's a different story. Inside.
Just to defend the rogues in the audience. There was also recently, I want to say, somewhere in Europe, maybe Germany, there was a guy who broke in to commit a burglary and got caught because he stopped to read a book. So, oh, you know, I also don't burglarize houses. But this is just the beginning of the story.
Correct, Yes, this is the beginning of the story. This is twenty eighteen. There's a string of burglary is in Thousand Oaks and several other what is described here at least by the Ventura County Star as nice neighborhoods, really expensive homes. The Ventura County Sheriff's Office begins an investigation at that point because they realize there are similarities in
these burglaries. First, if they ever caught anyone, they noticed that the suspects involved were foreign nationals, mostly from the country of Chile, and they were in the US on very short term visas. And this is an interesting thing because Chile, Chile, it's one of the only countries that as a citizen of that country, you can come and visit the United States and automatically get a short term visa. I think it's like sixty to ninety days. I think
it is ninety day Visa. And they noticed that the specific homes that were targeted backed up into some kind of open space like where you could park a car, probably that the break ins occurred in sliding glass windows that were on the backs of those very nice houses, and that all of the cars that were driven by these suspects were rented from the same place, a place in I think you say this Pacoima, Pacoima, maybe a
place in Pacoima that was called Driver Power Rental. That was the title of the company, but really it was just a lot that had some cars on it. Weird thing, guys, These cars that were on that lot were like luxury cars, really nice looking, well maintained luxury cars that fit perfectly in the neighborhoods where these burglaries were happening. So they began an undercover investigation. They had an undercover officer go
and attempt to rent a vehicle from this place. And since this undercover officer had an actual driver's like ID card that was, you know, a real name, a real person, he was turned away, at least according to the undercover investigation. And it's found out after several attempts of trying to get into this place, that only people with fake IDs were allowed to rent from this place, and only specific
people who were referrals were allowed to rent. So you had to be a referral and have a fake ID then you could get a freaking Corvette or whatever and ride around. Doesn't that feel a little weird just at first before we get into the rest of this.
Definitely a red flag level set up for a front company of some sort, you know, like if you've ever and look, they're fronts in every large town or city. Think about the Think about the store that you pass by every day and you always think, how is that guy still open? You know what I mean?
Oh, dude, absolutely.
And then you walk in and they say, oh, we don't take walkins. You go for a TV repair store?
Yeah? Are you sure, right, Matt?
I gotta ask, did these cars come with ghetaway drivers?
No?
You go to this rental place and you get a car and you go do whatever you want to do in that car, except for I think we have to just keep going down the path here, guys. Yeah, yeah, except for in some cases you were told where to go, you were given a target essentially by the people who are running that rental car service. Okay, let's jump to August twenty eighth. That's a Wednesday. Just happened. This is from ABC News, written by Josh Haskell. Title is six
arrested in crime Tourism bust. Group allegedly ran La based car rental company for thieves, and it is the owners to owners of this Van Nuy's car rental agency that we just mentioned, Driver Power Rental, have been accused of running this thing and specifically for bringing in This is according to ABC News, quote criminals from South America to steal millions of dollars in cash and property from southern
California businesses and homes. Specifically, this group is accused of or and charged with, let's say, wirefraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and structuring transactions to avoid financial reporting requirements. Which guess what that means. Guys, we've talked about this before. All their financial transactions were less than ten thousand dollars, which meant that the what's that federal agency?
Yeah, you don't have to, it doesn't immediately get reported to the authorities. Oh gosh, it's not FDIC FDIC.
Yeah, Matt, this sounds like a mission in Grand Theft Auto five.
Really no, it just sounds.
Like I mean, maybe it's something that'll be in Grand Thefought of six if that ever comes out, but doesn't. I mean, this is wild. It's pretty enterprising. Yeah, gotta give them that.
Oh yeah for sure.
Uh.
The reason why I think it is so fascinating is I love an undercover investigation. We talked about those on the show a lot. This was a six year investigation that just ended this past Wednesday. As we're recording.
This also just a housekeeping note to go down in front of the email. Banks have to report to the US Treasury Department.
That's it, the Treasury Department.
The FDICE is the insurance outfit. The Treasury deposit is ensured up to right right, and the Treasury Department, Uh, they run the money and weirdly enough, the Secret Service. Nothing strange there. Moving on this undercover investigation though, I love that you're pointing this out. Man, I'm a sucker for these stories too. Oh, it's how do you so? They've already kind of tried to protect themselves with this sort of international targeting, right, They've separated a lot of
their pieces. You can't just rock up there without a referral, right, So how would someone theoretically, I don't know, how would they theoretically start to infiltrate through these different barriers.
Well, see, I don't know. There's so much information that we don't know yet. All we know comes from a press release that was put out by the US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, released on Wednesday, August twenty eighth, and it just says indictment charges Santa Clarita Man and six others with facilitating crimeterism group that took in more than five million dollars and illicit proceeds.
And according to that, basically thirty five million dollars roughly worth of stuff was stolen over the course of all these years since twenty eighteen. And then this group appears to have profited around five million dollars from fencing all that stuff. And you know the various I guess things that they offered to potential clients to come in and then steal stuff. Well, I guess we can give you the names. There's a fifty seven year old man named Juan Carlos Fula Duran who was arrested he was one
of the owners of this company, the rental company. And then Anna Maria are Gada, I think is how you'd say her name. She's forty one years old. They lived together in the quote Canyon Country area of Santa Clarita. I don't know all these places in California, guys, but I've heard the Californians say them for sure.
Four five, yes, exactly, the five exactly to the five. What are you, Trevor, He's a California.
That's how they acted when you walked into drive Power Rentals without a referral?
Oh, what do you do?
You do?
But there are four other people who were also involved who are also indicted. There are I think a total of forty six federal felony counts that are involved in this stuff, and I think each of them has a sentence of like twenty years. Not minimal, but the Senates of twenty years. The wire fraud and money laundering charges carry sentences of twenty years, so yikes, and there are a lot of those. The other thing is there are a couple other companies that were also involved, including that
rental company. It also got indicted, so I guess the company is in trouble and then whatever proceeds the company has are now subject to being just taken. I don't know, there's a lot more to this story, you guys. It just seems really really creepy to know that something like that exists, and it's just went on for years and years that the rental company was even able to get a bunch of the Remember the COVID money that you could.
Get PP loans.
Yeah, yeah, think out like two hundred and twenty something, two hundred and thirty thousand dollars worth of those loans, and maybe even more than that. It's it's in the indictment somewhere. You can check it out and find the exact number. Two hundred and seventy four nine and ninety eight dollars. Good god, it's a lot of money just to, you know, help some people rob really nice houses. I
don't know. I don't have a ton else to say about this one, guys, But besides, read the entire story if you want to, there are one hundred and twenty thefts that were connected directly to this group of people. That's crazy. One hundred and twenty different instances of theft.
And like we always say, with operations of this magnitude and longevity. It makes you think, how many haven't been caught?
Oh my gosh, I know. Well, and let's just go ahead and say this. We mentioned at the top A lot of these were in nice neighborhoods in California, some were in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, Missouri, and Colorado.
So working through this group specifically this group of people, folks were able to come in again I imagine, like we're going on a quick theft vacation, I guess or something, because you had to be connected in some way to this group of criminals to then even get a car to then go and do the thing you're trying to do.
Right, Yeah, what's the language these in the indictment crime tourism.
Yes, Matt, I saw a really interesting I guess it was a TikTok video, but it was somebody who was driving around the interstate I think it was in California and was like it was taking a video from passenger seat, I believe, and it was this like hot rod kind of souped up sports car with tinted windows and no license plate, and it was just zinging around in and out of traffic and also had what it apparently has
called a three hundred and sixty degree camera. And the guy was just commenting on that as a guy that will never be pulled over by the police.
And then it did a next.
Time and it was a news report of that exact car being boxed in by police. And it was just the coolest, like little video like that because it actually had kind of a story, a trajectory to the story. But I gotta wonder if these cars were equipped with stuff like that, like were they properly registered, did they have, you know, legal plates?
I got a wonder. Maybe that information hasn't been released yet, but it does make you wonder.
Yeah, it makes you wonder for sure. As part of the endictment and investigation, as we said, the human beings and the companies are in trouble, there was a bunch of property that was taken or has been seized, as well as several cars, I think twenty five cars and guys quote some horses.
Cool anyway, in case you want to knock over a stagecoach or something while you're at it.
I don't know, Well, it just makes you whatever, what else is going on out there? So if you hear anything, don't let us know. I guess because we can't start a cool undercover investigation yet.
Well, don't you know, make it hypothetical.
Let's phrase things and hypotheticals, just like when you're fooling shotrosis large language models. Reach out and touch faith folks. As always, we're so excited that you have joined us in the dark this evening. We can't wait to hear your thoughts on all of the above. And hey, if you're listening and you're involved in cetacean espionage, definitely reach out to us. Don't make it hypothetical. We've got some thoughts that we didn't share on air, but we try to be easy to find online.
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