The Sisi Star Snatcher w/ Jay Ellis

Lacey Mosley
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Got it. What's Poppin congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, aka scam goddess, with the podcast all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Sometimes we love them. Sometimes we hate them.

We will see along the ride again, y'all. Five year anniversary show at the LA region, September 22. My book comes out September 10. Get into the scam goddess things. I also have an announcement for y'all that they won't let me do yet.

But when I do, y'all are gonna be gagged. Cause it's just for you. But let's get into the show. Today we have an amazing actor author baddie on the show. He got his start on BET's series.

The game went on to play Lawrence in the groundbreaking show insecure. And y'all know I have been collecting my insecure Infinity Stones. We had Prentice Penny. We've had Amanda Seals. We had the girlies from rap.

Shit. We're collecting the stones like thanos. Okay, so, Issa, you're next. You know you produced me. Come on over here.

So back into our guest today. He's also joined the big screen with Tom Cruise in Top Gun Maverick. Okay, Top Gun Maverick. That's serious shit. Now he's got a new book out entitled did everyone have an imaginary friend or just me?

It's a joyful coming of age story where he details how he coped through adolescence as a military kid. The book is on sale beginning July 30. You heard that? Did everyone have an imaginary friend or just me? The book is on sale July 30.

Pick it up, pre order it. Get him on the best seller list like I told y'all to do me. Congregation, please welcome Jay Ellis to the show. Let's go. Let's go.

Hi, Jay. I feel like that was one of the longest intros I've ever done. There were so many tangential moments in there. I also wanted to tell you, Jay, on air, that. So I was on a black lady sketch show.

So Issa was my boss as well. Love her down. And then when I did one season, and then I went to do iCarly, and then we had press at, like, HBO had some Emmy after party, and we had to do a bunch of press photos. And it's me and Issa sitting next to each other, and there's a bunch of photos of us clapping at each other and, like, yelling. And it's so funny.

Cause she was like, hey, miss iCarly. Hey, Carly. How you doing, Carly? You left the black ladies for Carly? I love it.

I love her. She is so fun. The best. Yes. But I'm so happy to have you on the show.

I actually have met you before. You will not remember where when. Okay, so this was back in the day, I think, at the time you were on the game, I was in New York City, and I went to some celebrity basketball game with my friend. Okay. And you were playing basketball there?

There were, like, some radio personalities and some other people playing basketball. What's up? In Harlem? Yeah. Oh, my God.

Jay Ellis
Joe Budden played in that game. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, we took a picture. I don't know if I can find it.

Lacey Mosley
Maybe I can dig through facebook or something, but if I find it, I'll post it on the instagram. But we took a picture together, and you were so sweet, and I don't think. And I knew it was not a moment that you would remember. I take pictures with people, and then I'd be like, hey, good to see you again. But I remembered that, and I was like, he's so lovely.

Jay Ellis
I think we played that at Morningstar. It was definitely. It was definitely on the west side of Harlem. I think we played that at Morningstar. I fully remember that game.

Fully remember that game. It was giving. Terrell Owens played in that game. It was like a high school gym. Yeah.

Yeah. That was wild. That's crazy. I didn't know you could ball. Come on, man.

I played in college. I could hoop. Okay. Come on. All right.

Don't do me like that. Was you a four one? Don't do me like that. What was you? I was a two guard.

I had a little shot. Okay, okay. You know what I'm saying? A little weddy. Okay.

Lacey Mosley
You had the money. Money. Okay. Steph Curry. Okay, I see you.

We always ask on this podcast, what is your relationship to scams? Do you love them? Do you hate them? Have you ever been scammed? Are there any scams you could talk about that are past the statute of limitations?

We don't want the f. To be in the eye knocking at your door. All right, I'm gonna tell you a scam that's actually, like, the start of my book. It's actually how my imaginary friend came into my life. So there was a stretch where we lived in Tampa, Florida, and my dad had bought a tv out the back of a dude's trunk.

Oh, okay. He opened it up, he saw the tv, and he was like, bet how much? Harry Bruh man. Bruh man. Cashed him out, and we went home.

Jay Ellis
When we got home, my pops opened up the box, and it was just the glass front of the tv and a bunch of bricks. No. That night, my parents get in an argument, and it's actually a storm, like Florida does. It starts raining, and literally, that's the night that, like, my imaginary friend came into my life. And that's literally how this whole book are.

You got started. Are you a child? I'm an only. Are you an only? I am not.

Lacey Mosley
I was for a while. I have five siblings, okay? And technically, I'm the second oldest, but I've never met my oldest sister. Okay, I know. That's wild.

It's like, my stepdad's daughter, and apparently she lives in LA. I just learned that. So I was like, that's crazy. But I have a younger sister who's 13 years younger, and then I have a younger brother and a younger sister. So you got 13 years by yourself?

Yeah, technically. You my only child. That's. You a only child? Yeah.

I mean, I was thinking. Cause at 13, you ain't caring about no baby. No, I was talking to myself a lot. Okay. I've had many a conversation with me.

That's probably why I do podcasting now. It's like I was entertaining myself. So, did everyone have an imaginary friend or just me? The title of your book like, this started with a scam. It started with a scam.

Jay Ellis
It started with a scam. It started with my pops getting scammed for. For a tv. Tampa, Florida. Now how Trump's even like, okay, so Florida, land of the scams.

Lacey Mosley
Even though Atlanta, Georgia, is the biggest scam state per capita. Really? Yes. Mm hmm. That's where the most fraud happens.

Everybody's driving around their mortgages and doing fraud. But I kind of love it. It was kind of camp. But how did your dad encounter this bruh man who had the tv in his car? Was he at the barbershop?

Jay Ellis
This was back in the eighties. I literally think old boy just pulled up and was like, hey, I got a tv for something if you're trying to get one. And so my dad just walked over to the car, like, yeah, I mean, what you got? I think he just walked over there with a deal. And my pops was like, yeah, let's get it.

Lacey Mosley
I love that. And, you know, my mom was probably sitting there, like, don't buy that tv. Don't buy that tv. Just don't. Why would you?

Jay Ellis
We don't even need the tv. Or at least look at it. I've got a tv off Facebook marketplace that still works. Really? But I went there.

Lacey Mosley
Probably not wise. I went there and looked at the tv, plugged the tv in to make sure that it worked. It had a remote. Yep, had the remote. And then I bought it.

Jay Ellis
You did better than what he did. He just opened the box and saw a screen and then dipped out. Okay, so he did at least open the box. Opened the box. The dude showed him the screen.

I think that was part of dude's, like, plan. Like, that's part of the scam. Like, I'm gonna show you that it's a glass screen here. Cause this is the old school. This is like.

This is the tv that had the booty on it. Oh, that had the booty on it. This is the tv that had the booty on it, not the flashback. Did you ever get on punishment and you couldn't watch tv? And then your parents weren't home, so you would watch tv anyway, but then the booty would be hot.

Lacey Mosley
Like, why do black parents check the booty? Oh, my God. They gonna put their hand on the top of it. They put their hand on the booty of the tv. They be like, I know you was watching tv.

You all punish me. You not supposed to be doing that. Oh, man. Yeah, the kids will never know. The kids will never know.

They have flat screens. But the tv booty used to tell on you. Oh, my God. And these leds don't get hot either. Like, these kids will never know.

They'll never know. That booty used to be sizzling. I couldn't even hide. Sometimes I be trying to fan it off. When I hear the garage door open.

I'm like, first of all, I gotta get the chicken out. The freezer was supposed to do that earlier. Thaw it out, right? Thaw it out. But you could sit on top of the booty, actually.

Jay Ellis
Cause the booty would get so hot, it could thaw something out. Oh, damn. I should have put the chicken on the tv. Cause I used to put my pop tarts on it. Damn.

With a little piece of foil. A little piece of foil that I put my pop tarts on. And that's how I used to warm up my pop tarts so I could watch tv and get the toaster. I can get entertained and warm my food up at the same time. Cause I don't wanna stand in the kitchen waiting for a toaster.

And I don't wanna have to stop what I'm watching to run back in the kitchen. So you were being efficient. I was being very efficient. Cause then also you gotta think, I only got so much time for. They come back in the house and they realize I'm watching tv.

Lacey Mosley
Exactly. So I'm trying to maximize these tv. Right? You're getting your meal and you're getting your hot booty tv to cook it up. Man.

Why were tvs working so hard back in the day? Why were they so hot? So hot. I'm also very curious about how this scammer just had the top of a tv. Very interesting.

Like, it's giving Felicia from Friday. Like, Craig, let me borrow your VCR. Like, why do you have the top of a tv? You know what I think he was doing? My guess is he had to be getting them from, like, a dump or something like that.

Jay Ellis
Like, he had to be going somewhere and getting them where, like, the tv clearly didn't work no more. Right, right. So he had to be going and getting these fronts of tvs somewhere and just, like, finding a way. I don't know how you take it apart, but clearly he was taking them apart with, like, the frame around the glass and dropping it in the box. And also, like, it's not like it's a packaged box.

You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just the tv sitting in the box. It's not like he got it from the store where it's got, like, the styrofoam and the rap. So I think he was just able. To, like, it was like a regular brown box.

Lacey Mosley
It wasn't even. It wasn't the tv box. It wasn't the tv box. Okay. Yeah, he fell for it.

I almost feel like the scammer maybe, like, cut that tv in half, and then he was, like, having another box that just had the booty. Just showing the booty. Showing the booty of the tv and was like, you see, it's a tv. Take it with you. This is where the antenna go right here.

Right. Just the cord. We all know about the booty of the tv, so it's like, oh, that must be legit if it's got the booty on it. No, no. I'm so sad about that.

But also, this makes me think that this scammer, which is kind of the through line of the show, I've been doing this for over five years, and sometimes scammers are so talented and so smart that I'm like, why not use your powers for good? If you can take apart a tv, come on and sell a screen, why couldn't you just go in there and click the blue and the red wire together and fix the tv? Yeah. And put the booty back on and sell a real tv, and you probably. Could have sold it for more.

Mm hmm. A refurbished. That's what we call refurbished. They don't even do refurbished no more. They don't even do refurbished no more.

Jay Ellis
Refurbished no more. Okay. Even if you're buying, like, RCA tvs, right. And even if you're buying, like, if you're thrifting or going to even high end thrift stores to get, like, you know, it's all previously loved. Yeah.

They don't do refurbishment. No more referrals. Nobody want to hear refurbished. Don't nobody want to hear that when I refurbish shit in my house. Like, nobody want to hear that I wore previously loved.

Lacey Mosley
That's the new scam. They said refurbished is out. That sounds too ghetto scams. Do you have an unemployed roommate at home? You know who I'm talking about.

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God. So I need a fake name for you for this next segment. I'll give you a second to think. Okay, we're moving into what's hot in fraud. This is where we warn our listeners about popping scams in the zeitgeist.

Or more often than not, we get a letter from you all. So snitch on your friends, your family, your enemies@scamgottispodmail.com. dot. Just make sure your scam is retired, because we don't want to. What?

Yes. Fuck up your bag. Amen. And so I just need a fake name from you. Jay.

Gender doesn't matter on this show. It is a construct, so it could be anything. Ronell. Ronell. Okay, Ronel sounds like the person who sold your daddy that fake tv.

Ronelle was like, come on over here. I got something for you. I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got you. I got it, I got it, I got it. It's giving barbershop energy.

Still, sometimes if I go to the hella, like, if I used to go to the hair salon on the west side to get my little weaves done or whatever, eggo wodom put me onto her weave lady. Cause I was like, your bust downs are really busting. Like, where are you getting them? Let me go over there. But now I work too much, so they come to my house and do my hair.

But back then, even recently in the barbershop, there was somebody who would come in selling food. Somebody coming, selling. Always incense. Incense. Somebody got some incense.

Somebody got some incense. Somebody got some incense, somebody got some. Food, some essential oils, some water. Somebody got water for a dollar? Water for a dollar?

Jay Ellis
I got a water for a dollar to make you holler. Come on. Quarter waters. And those might have a little liquor in them. And they got top gun maverick with you in it already on dvd, okay?

Lacey Mosley
Shot it on the camcorder in the movie theater, and they got it for you. Oh, man. So the culture is still there, the hustle culture. Oh, man, you remember the directv cards? Did you ever.

No. That's another thing my pops used to do. My pops used to buy your pop. Sound like he a little bit of a scammer. I'm putting him out here.

Jay Ellis
I'm putting him out here. I'm gonna tell you two more things that my pops did. One, he would send me, like, if I would go somewhere where you could get cheap phone clips, he'd be like, hey, give me like, $500 worth of phone clips. And I'd be like, all right, bet what I'm gonna do with a bag, a suitcase full of phone clips. He would then sell them at work.

So I go get them for like a dollar a clip, and he go sell them for like $5 a clip. Stop. $10 a clip? Yeah. He would just be like, yeah, I got clips.

Oh, what you got? You got that motor? You got that razor? Oh, I got you car. Oh, he knew his demographic.

Yeah, he knew his demographic because people. Buying phone clips, that is like a Gen x, that's your uncle sitting, is. Sitting right here on the hip, right? By the way, here's the thing. I would buy 500 clips.

He could sell 100. He could buy 100, he could buy 100. I used to get them in Santee Alley, so when I first moved to LA, I used to get them in Santee alley. Cause they would have boxes full of them. And I would just be like, hey, I'll take 500 words.

And they'd be like, just take the box. We're not gonna count these. Like, just take the box. So then I tape up the box, throw it in the back of the car, and I would send him the box. He could only sell 100 of them.

And he made his money back. He still got 400 clips. Oh, my God. He still got 400 clips. He got to get on eBay.

Lacey Mosley
I feel like Gen Z would buy those clips for some reason. They're obsessed with the most embarrassing parts of our lives. I did a photo shoot to promote the book and some other stuff, and I sent it to my family, group chat, and my little sister, she's Gen Z. And she was like, oh, yeah, I love your brows, but, like, you could even make them thinner, like, the thin, skinny brow is in. I was like, why are y'all going back to the struggles that we went through in 2000?

They trying to bring back low rise jeans. I'm not showing my upper coochies to nobody no more. Like, I don't want skinny eyebrows. It's like one line going across my face. You have great eyebrows.

Jay Ellis
Thank you very much. You have to use them. You should let me borrow them. You gotta use them low rise pictures for your book tour. I ain't putting my upper cooch nowhere no more.

Lacey Mosley
I suffered enough, okay? I wore stomach belts. I did it all, and I'm not doing it. I went into urban outfitters the other day, and they were selling outfits like a shirt that had a belt on it. I said, how dare you?

This is so Kmart of you. Except for Urban outfitters sponsored the show. And then I love y'all stomach belt shirts. I think they're great. Actually.

I'm wearing one right now. It's really lovely. Thank you so much. It's really doing something for my stomach. Yes.

So what was the name? Ronnell. Ronnell. Ronell. So Ronell says, hi, Lacey.

Oh, Ronel has a request. Congregation. Y'all are getting a little too demanding, okay? Because this is my show. I do what I want, but I will just say what you said.

But I'm gonna call you Ronel. It says, hi, Lacey. Please use the name Amani for me. So I know that you're doing our story. So, Amani, it is your story, but now you are Ronell.

Okay. So for legal purposes. So it says, I wanted to send this when my husband sent me the screenshots, but he's dragging his feet. We were home chilling this past weekend, minding our black owned business, and he was starting dinner. I know.

That's right. He was starting dinner. That's what I'm talking about. And then her husband was getting these messages from. I'm not gonna say this at, because, again, we cannot get sued.

But it's like, at playlist. I'm not gonna say the rest of it. But they're getting these messages, right? And so Ronel says, I think he changed it to King Freddy playlist. I'm not saying the rest of the at because we're not getting sued as of 04:00 p.m.

eastern. So they're talking, and then in the middle of this conversation, this person changes their at. So I'm assuming that they're talking on an app because there's an at sign in front of it. So this is giving Instagram or Twitter, you know what I mean? So they're talking about how talented her husband is as a lyricist.

Now, as an avid listener to this pod, I immediately was skeptical, but I didn't say anything. He showed me the messages, and I noticed no blue check and that his handle started with playlist. More skeptical. He had happened across my man's music on Spotify. He's been rapping since before we met during our junior year of high school, 2000, 2003.

Just trying to do what he loves. I'm biased, but I believe he's extremely talented. But in my opinion, unless you identify as the liga bigga tigga, plus, another cisgender straight man isn't gonna be hyping another cisgender straight man like this. So she's saying, like, unless the wrist is bent, why are you gassing my man up like this? Like, do you want my man?

This is funny to me right now to pause on Ronell Amani because you didn't say anything to your man about this weird conversation that's happening on Instagram. Clearly, he's probably excited about it. This man is complimenting his music, his art, something he's passionate about. Right? You don't want to bring your man down.

You like, my man, my man, my man. So you lifted him up, you let. Him have his moment, right? But you're also curious. Cause you're like, why is this person so interested?

But I feel like I understand why Ronelle didn't immediately say something to her husband. Because I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my shit. You're an artist. I'm sensitive about my shit. Right.

So I wouldn't be like, oh, Jay, this person hit you up. It doesn't look legit, because I think you're legit. So why would I. What would you do in that moment? Would you hold off a little bit?

Jay Ellis
I don't know. First of all, the blue check is a scam. Yeah. You can buy a blue check. You can buy a blue check.

So that's a scam already. Right, right. But they didn't even buy one. But they didn't even buy one. No, but I ain't bought one.

Lacey Mosley
I haven't bought one either. I ain't bought one. No, I got them through the network and through the publicist. They just appeared. It appeared.

Yeah. All right. So I don't know. I mean, I think you gotta say something. You gotta ask if it's a bot, you gotta ask.

Jay Ellis
If it's like. I think you gotta say something. Okay. Cause I'm like, I don't know. What's your sign?

Well, here's the difference. But here's the difference. What's your sign? I'm a Capricorn. You?

Lacey Mosley
I'm a cancer. Oh, you. All the emotions, all the fears. Okay. Okay.

I'm so tired of that basic ass analysis about cancer. Well, then tell me something different with your response. Yeah, listen. Not all of that sass, okay? Look, we are caretakers.

Yes. We are emotional. I do love to cry. Get in, bitch. We're going crying.

Yeah. In my privacy, you have to, like, there's a shell. We're crabs. So you're not gonna see all of that immediately. I'm also an Aries moon, so I'm a boss, bitch.

And I'm a Leo. And I'm a Libra rising. So I'm all over the place. You know? All of them.

Yes. I think that's why this works. I can talk to anybody. It's fucking crazy. But I will say, like, as a cancer, I wanna be, like, supportive.

And so I would have held off just a little bit. Especially if they're excited about it. I would let it go for a day. Here's the thing. If you get it the next day.

Yeah. If playlist, whoever is still hitting you the next day. Right. You know what I'm saying? Then I'd be like, hey, something might not be right.

Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, something feels a little off. That playlist is still trying to. And you know what?

There's a way to spend that. To be like, you're so talented. There's always gonna be people trying to take advantage of you. So I just want you to be careful. Yes.

Jay Ellis
That's a real powerful. That's not how I would have said it, but that is a very eloquence. You would have been like, they robbing all business. All business. All business.

Lacey Mosley
You would have been like, they robbing you. And you need to stop right now. Right now. I'm about to fight them. Where are they?

Let's slash their tires. So anyway, Ronell says he was hyping my man up, talking about how he dj's for 179 in Atlanta, and he was playing his music on air at that very moment. He was saying that he was going to try to make my man popular out there. Then the scam came. Ronelle says that her husband was continuing to engage with this person.

And she said, that the playlist man continued to play her man's music for $100. And now alarms are blaring in my head. I was thinking to myself, I knew it. But I also knew my man had it, like, had the money. And he may fall prey because his Despo meter, that's what we call this on the show.

Like, where's your desperation? What's your Despo meter? And we all have a despo meter. Like, you might be lonely and really need love, and then your despo meter goes up. Or like, maybe you need housing and your despo meter goes up.

And now you're living with a weirdo squatter or something. You know what I mean? It's like timing, urgency, right? So his decimal meter is high. Cause he's like, oh, my music's getting played.

I'm getting out there on Atlanta, 107.9. Right, right. Also, payola is a real thing. It's a real thing. Like, artists do pay to have their music played on the radio.

So to me, I'm not really feeling like if I was an artist, I wouldn't be, like, alarmed by him being like, throw me some cash to play my song. I wouldn't. Cause I don't know how you get on, right? I mean, if you don't go viral, then how else do you get on? Like, you gotta, right?

Jay Ellis
You gotta pay people. It's a version of marketing. Exactly. Honestly, entertainment. I paid for so many classes.

Lacey Mosley
I performed and produced shows and sold them out and didn't make a dime from them. That's just kind of a part of it. So I'm still like, but Ronel was like, my scam flags are going off. This shit is weird. So Ronnell says, I knew my man had the money, and he may fall prey because of the Despo meter being high, to say the least.

As I think he's paying, he was googling. He found an instagram post from the radio station saying, they do not ask for money for spins in all caps. So the radio station itself was like. We don't do payola. We don't do payola.

Now, they probably do for bigger arguments, but they probably put this warning out to be like, playlist guy, don't pay. Playlist guy. Yeah. Cause we not getting that bag. They're like, if you wanna pay all of us, pay all of us.

Jay Ellis
1079 atl.com. Hit@Gmail.Com. Hit us direct. Right? Okay.

Lacey Mosley
Sell us and then we will do it. Cash app. But playlist man is stealing our bag. So they were like, we have to end this. So I was the proudest wife when he showed me that.

So she was proud that he googled that. So Ronel says, I told my man I would have been petty and I would have sent the post that he did from, like, the playlist man post to 107. His response was simply for show. Oh, y'all so black. So that's why I think he changed his Instagram handle when, like.

So remember, like, he was playlist something, and then he became playlist something else. I think once he knew the man had caught on to the scam, he changed his handle so he could keep doing his grift. Because she. She says, amani says, imani Ronnell says, I couldn't find it when I looked it up. Then he tried to call my man on Instagram, and I'm like, you've been caught.

Get off my man's dick. I thank you for keeping me skeptical and him for checking and not blindly spending money. Cause we don't have disposable income. I think he's picked up some stuff from YouTube because sometimes. And I think she's talking about me because sometimes I listen to you on my speaker while doing chores so he can't ignore you.

Lol. Okay, so she's saying that she listens to the podcast on speaker and that her man heard it. So when the playlist man tried to call her Boo on Instagram, she cussed him out and, like, got in his shit. I thought she was listening to the playlist man on speaker. That's what I thought, too.

I was confusion. Imani Ronell. Great story. We gonna work on the arrangement, but great story. Robbery.

Jay Ellis
One morning, you just walk in with a bag of everyone's faves from McDonald's, drop it on the counter and say, breakfast is on me. Boom. That's the power of saving money on the McDonald's app. Hope you can handle all that save money. With the app and participating, McDonald's must opt into rewards.

Lacey Mosley
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Quince.com goddess and fraud. Okay, so let's get into my favorite segment here of the podcast historic hoodwings. Okay, so this is where we talk about a scam that may be recent, maybe in the past. Group of criminals, single assailant. We don't know.

Maybe we like them. Maybe we hate them. I don't know. We'll get your opinions throughout. So, for almost 20 years, Gerald Blanchard orchestrated one of the most complex and sophisticated bank heists across three continents that Canada had ever seen.

First of all, Canada, y'all. Too nice over there. So I feel like, eh, bacon. Canadian bacon. Oh.

Drake BPL jersey. That's all I know about the six. The Canadian doing a bank heist is already very interesting. I just. I didn't know they had it in them.

Right. I feel like it's a very polite heist. It's a very polite. Excuse me, I'm here to take your money. Right?

Hello. Eh? Like, they wait in line. They wait in the queue, and then they get up to the teller, and they're like, oh, I'm here. They went jamaican real quick.

I don't know. Oh, they went to Jamaican Wagwan. What is a canadian accent? I just know, like O and E. Like, I'm here to rob you.

I don't know. Canadian bacon. Help, y'all. Oh, my God. It's one of my worst accents, that.

And y'all know my australian laserdisc. That's all I got. So who is Gerald Blanchard? This is who he is right here. He looked like he would rob a.

Jay Ellis
Bang very nicely, very eloquently, like, he's gonna hit you with some pros when he does it. He got on layers. A haiku when he does it. Right. What was he drinking?

Lacey Mosley
It's empty. And he's, like, posed at this bar. Like, I don't know. He looks like a white man who has money, but, like, doesn't spend it on clothes. Does his undershirt look like it came from the king's wardrobe in 1832?

Jay Ellis
But he's wearing a jacket. The layers are killing him from h. And m. Like, I'm very confused. Yeah, the jacket is definitely given, like, H and M.

Lacey Mosley
Or, like, what's that one store that all the guys like to shop in? But it's like, oh, Uniqlo. Yeah, Uniqlo's are hard. That's where I get my underwear from. Uniqlo.

Yeah, Uniqlo. If you wanna do an underwear ad, holler at me. Yes, Uniqlo. I'll do one too. I will put on your panties.

Actually, I already do skin skims. I love you. I have on your panties now. And your bras. They're so good.

Skims actually is really good. Like, Kim did her big one. Are they still doing that NBA joint? Weren't they, like, doing something with the NBA? Yeah, like, the panties, the bras, the everything.

It actually goes really hard. I wear it a lot. That's dope. Yeah. So thanks, Kim.

Thanks, Kimmy. So this is Gerald Blanchard, and he's wearing layers and giving. I don't know what type of energy right now, but he was born in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1972. He lived a wealthy lifestyle until the age of eight, when he moved to Omaha. Oh, no, not Nebraska.

Jay Ellis
Nebraska. Omaha, Nebraska. With his mother, where they were, in quotes, really poor. So y'all was rich when y'all were in Canada? They lose the money.

Lacey Mosley
And then how did you lose the money? Because Omaha, Nebraska, isn't giving, like, expenses. I feel like you could get a cornfield out there real cheap. You know? Warren Buffet still owns the first house he ever bought there.

Jay Ellis
I don't think he lives in it, but he still owns the first house he ever bought in Omaha, Nebraska. That's where he's from. Wow. Imagine being nostalgic about a house and. You could just keep it.

Lacey Mosley
Like, I own a sweatshirt that my mom gave me. I own a dress my mom gave me. But being like, oh, I own a house. Just to think about it, I never go there. Billionaire, right?

That's why they don't need that much damn money. They're like, I just have it to think about it. Sometimes I don't go there. Thinking about it keeps me humble. That's what keeps me regular.

You know what? I want to get to that point where I just have a house that I never go to that I'm like, ugh. I just think about it sometimes. I look at a picture of it.

So he claims that his addiction to thievery came from having to steal food from stores and watching the bank foreclose on his house. As a child, he was mad at the bank because they stole his house. I don't know. It looks like he was well fed to me. I mean, he does still look kind of rich, even though he said that immediately.

He was poor when he left Canada. But I do love that he was like, I have beef with bank of America, and, like, I had to get my lick back. Or, like, bank of Canada. They took my house back, so now I had to rob them. I like that.

Like, he had a vendetta. He did. Yeah. It's very hella hot water. You seen the movie hella high water?

No. That's what they do in hella hot water. The bank is gonna take their house. So they decide to hit a bunch of banks in their area that are all connected to this bank, and then they gonna give the money back to the bank for the house. Wow.

But then they go get the money back because they gotta pay the mortgage. Not robbing the bank to pay the bank. I said, hold on, real quick. We gotta rob a few banks, and then we will pay the mortgage. Don't worry about that.

Jay Ellis
How many days we got? All right. Right? Okay. No, we gonna rob y'all, and then we gonna give you your money back.

Lacey Mosley
Hilarious. So that's. He has a whole pathology that he's like, look, I was mad at the bank. The bank did me dirty, okay? So that's why I had to rob them.

So as a teenager, he even recorded his thefts on handheld cameras. So we have some still images from his handheld cameras where he was doing robbery. And he was like, let me get it on film. This is so he also thought he was sexy, right? Why is he sitting there counting his money with his shirt off?

Jay Ellis
He thought he was sexy. This is the version. Oh, okay. Yo, you like that? Now you like it?

Lacey Mosley
He kind of. You like that? Yeah, he kind of. Give it a little bit. Okay.

Jay Ellis
He got the chain on, like, the square glasses. He got a little taco meat out of the square glasses, the haircut. And I love that he has a hand horn. Like, a handheld camera in the mirror. Like, this is so.

Lacey Mosley
I remember as a kid, like, having a digital camera and getting, like, climbing on the counter in my bathroom and taking pictures of myself in the mirror. I'm not even that old, but, like, that's how we did it back in the day. And it was cute. He kind of given to me right. Now, what's his name.

His name is Gerald. Gerald Blashard. This Gerald blashard, and with this gold chain on his taco meat and this other Gerald Blashard are not the same person. They're not the same person at all. At all.

Jay Ellis
Like, they look like wildly different people. It's crazy. This Gerald Blanchard shirtless. Like, he looks like he is in a rap video. Like, all I'm waiting for is him to hold the money up to his ear.

Yeah. Hello. Hello. And give me a money phone. His white boy Rick, right?

Lacey Mosley
He was like, let me count my stacks up. And also, this is funny, too. Look at this couch. Look at the leather couch. And you see how it's so worn.

Jay Ellis
Oh, no, that's not leather. That's one of them joints that's printed on. On. That's, like, where the hell he gets. It's like, the paint.

Like, the abstract paint blotches on the couch. So this must be, like, the night. This is, like, 87. Okay, so this is when the first. Oh, yeah, look at the brick.

He got the brick phone. Wow. You got the Zack Morris. He has the Zack Morris phone. He has the Will Smith brick phone.

Lacey Mosley
The one that came with the purse. Wow. He had money. Cause that phone was, like, a money thing back in the day. Okay.

He said, I got the bag. I kind of love this right now. Like, I'm kind of into him also. I love that he was doing something that, like, is currently popular where, like, people do crime, and then they get on TikTok, and they be like, this is how I did my crime. And it's like, why are you doing that?

Like, you made the job so easy for the cops. They know where to go, right? They just scroll, and they get your ad, and then they come to your house. Like, we saw that bank fraud that you were doing. Now you remember your TikTok?

Jay Ellis
We saw the TikTok challenge. Time to start the robbery challenge. The robbery challenge. I saw one that was like, oh, if you want to get your credit card limit up, make circular payments. So start an LLC, and then start paying your own LLC with other credit cards so that you can get your limit up.

Lacey Mosley
And we were like, this is a crime. Take this down. Like, you don't need to share every piece of information, so. But he was doing it back in the day. Like, he's an innovator and shirtless.

I'm kind of living for Gerald right now. Like, I kind of like him. So he was arrested for the first time Easter Sunday in 1987. He and several friends cleared out a radio shack. Damn.

Radio Shack is out of business right now. Like, are you responsible, Gerald? He took him down, and he took a photo. He took. He took a video.

Jay Ellis
He was like, I'm recording all this, all of it. He said, hey, y'all, what's up? It's me, Gerald. Today we robbing Radio shack. Omaha, Nebraska.

Lacey Mosley
Stand up. I wish I knew their area code. Like, I feel like that's his energy. So a SWAT team showed up to his house several hours later to arrest him. So he had been robbing so much that they had the people kick down the doors.

They came in with that little boomstick and was like, okay, he doesn't look the same here either. Who is he? Like, the boy on the right with the. Yeah, the boy on the right with the jean jacket. Right, with the.

Jay Ellis
And he's holding the. Yeah, he's holding the prison thingy. That looks like the boy with the glasses. Yes. Right.

Lacey Mosley
But the boy in the middle with these frosted tips, like, who is he? It's giving, like, boy band reject. He didn't make it. It was like he was almost. He moved to Orlando, and he did the tryout, and he didn't make it.

And he didn't make it. He robbed all them banks to go to Orlando for them tryouts. He frosted his tips. Oh, man. He just missing.

Jay Ellis
All he missing is some diamonds in his ear. He was like, I want it that way. In tens and twenties at the bank. Cause he couldn't get what he wanted. Oh, man.

Lacey Mosley
So that was the first time he got arrested. So at age 15, Gerald was charged with grand theft and released three months later. His probation officer, upon learning his past, asked Gerald, can I have some stuff from radio Shaq, his probation officer? Yeah, they did. Come on.

Jay Ellis
Huh? You supposed to be probating. You're supposed to be. But that's not how this system work. That's not how this work.

Lacey Mosley
He said, you got any leftover dvd players? I know you know how to get it. You got a blu ray? I know you know how to get it. If you don't get it, if you.

Jay Ellis
Don'T get it, I'm a bust your ass. That's what he said. Do you want to go back to jail, or do you want to give me a blu ray? Okay. Cause it's my girlfriend's birthday, and my wife don't know.

I can't buy it on a credit card. Cause my wife gonna find out. So I need you to go get it for my girlfriend. It's my girlfriend's birthday and my wife don't know about it. That's what it was.

Lacey Mosley
Oh, lord. I've been in those situations. I was not the girlfriend. I was not the mistress. I was not the cheetah, okay?

I just was there with a cheater and a girlfriend and a younger girlfriend at Club lynch. And that night, Todd Dollase was performing. And of course he did two of my bitches in the club, and they don't know about each other. So I'm sitting here like this rich ass man. His girlfriend, his wife is in Pittsburgh.

And then my homegirl is the younger girlfriend. And I'm just over here, like, in the section. Like, I think these pictures trying to set me up.

Yo, people really live wild lives. Oh, wild. Like, they get down. I'm just like a boy here next to me. Hey, can you be over here with her?

Jay Ellis
No, just be over here with her. I'm gonna go over here and talk to her for a minute. All right? And then I'm gonna come back. But just don't let her come over here while I'm talking to her.

Lacey Mosley
No, it was like the girlfriend was on one. Standing on one side of the couch. And then we, the young, we were in college, we were over on the other side, just bopping around, sipping our terrible alcohol. Cause bottle, sexual alcohol is fucking horrible. And I don't know why we don't talk about it.

It's just they bring you a bottle liquor and some cranberry juice and some sprite and some soda water, and they're like, and $50,000. $50,000. And we gonna give you a sparkler. They used to make it a show. Now that you get one sparkler.

Damn, the recession got em. Cause they used to have, like, fake cars that they were. The girls were riding and all the sparklers and fire and knives and shit. And they would have the sign that would be like, happy birthday, Betty. Or inflation.

Oh, damn. Not they coming out with one roman candle. They about to be coming out with a single lighter. Hey, be careful. The wax is hot.

Jay Ellis
Be careful. Don't burn. Nobody with the wax. They went to bath at body works. They smell good.

Is somebody. Is that patchouli? What is that? Is that lavender in the club? That smells amazing.

Lacey Mosley
Is that cinnamon apple?

Jay Ellis
You remember, like the bark that would smell. Like you would get the wood chips that would smell. And you put them, like, in a little bowl somewhere in your house. Cinnamon apple. Listen, they about to come out with incense straight from the man at the barbershop with your bottle.

Lacey Mosley
Hell, no. So, you know, Gerald got arrested. His parole officer was like, can you hook me up? Which. What's going on, parole officer?

You supposed to be upholding the law. But you know what? I also think that's funny. Do that. That's his scam.

That's his scam. He's like, I know all the criminals. Cause I'm their parole officer, so I have access to all the crime. So Gerald abandoned his brief life of theft so he could, like, basically do celibacy from theft. Oh, yeah.

Jay Ellis
Okay. But it was only to return stronger than ever. He began stealing parts off of a cash, like, off cash registers to fabricate receipts that looked real. The stores and even the police officers couldn't tell that they were. So he would, like, go steal parts off of cash registers, fabricate receipts that looked real, and no one could tell that they were fake.

Lacey Mosley
So he soon began making six figures during holiday months by returning stolen merchandise back to the stores that he stole from. So low key, like, you were saying that movie where the criminal. Yeah, we robbed the banks to pay the bank. Oh, that one. Hella high water.

Jay Ellis
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was robbing the stores, making fake receipts, coming back, and returning it. I like it. And it's smart. Cause he did it during holiday season.

Lacey Mosley
That's when everybody's buying so much stuff for gifts for their girlfriends and their wives and their other girlfriends. And their other girlfriends. Yes. Man. This man is genius.

At age 16, Gerald bought him and his mother a house. So he did all this before the. Age of 16, and his mama wasn't questioning it, or she was like, hey, go get it. Go get it. Listen, she knew he went to jail for three months.

She know he doing crime. Go get it, Gerald. Gerald, listen, don't come back in here without a down payment. Make it enough.

Gerald would leave the house. They left the bank trying to get the mortgage for the house. She was like, make it enough, Gerald. Go make it enough, Gerald. Mama the boss.

And also shout out to Gerald mama for supporting her son's gift and his dreams. That's true. Like, if your son wanna do crime and he's talented at it, like, you gotta support your children. That's a good mama. You right.

Yeah, that's true. I always say on this podcast, if your child starts a lemonade stand, if they want to start making money as a child, they might be good at crime. That's true. So maybe redirect them into something not illegal or support their dreams of crime. That's true.

Jay Ellis
She needed to plate that goal out there for him, so he could achieve. So there's an escape. As Gerald's criminal career grew, so did his belief that he'd never be caught. Cause once you don't get caught, a lot. Like, you start going bigger and bigger and bigger, because why wouldn't you?

Lacey Mosley
So during one incident, was helping his friend dispose of a stolen car by setting it on fire when he ran into a parked police officer. So, first of all, this ain't. I'm sorry, can you say it one more time? What did he do? So he.

He was helping his friend dispose of a stolen car by setting it on fire when he ran into a parked police officer who just happened to be nearby. So this ain't even his crime. He was just like, I'm so good at crime. Let me help the homies. Right, right?

Jay Ellis
They called them. They was like, hey, man, you the best at crime. You do all the crime real good, so you do all the crime great, and I need you right now. I wouldn't mind if you came and just helped me with a crime real quick. Like, you know, our friends.

If you do a crime today, nah. Come help me out then. You know, our friends might be, like, asking you to move like hell. Can you help me pack up and move with him? They like, hey, can you help me burn this car real quick?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. On Thursday, it's like going to the airport. It's like taking somebody to the airport on Thursday. I gotta get rid of this car. You good?

You good? Yeah. You got like, an hour? Yeah, you got an hour and some matches. Okay, great.

Lacey Mosley
This is perfect. I'll bring pizza for us. We'll have pizza. It's so good. So the cop arrested him, but Gerald escaped by hiding in the ceiling of the police department when he was brought in for questioning, so he was arrested.

Jay Ellis
Gerald is a genius. He's a genius. Gerald is a g, right? Is this blue streak, you climbing through the. Through the air duct like, bro, what even makes you think when you go into.

Lacey Mosley
Cause I've been. Y'all know I've been talking about. I'm rewatching law and SVU right now and realizing that it was pure propaganda. And I just love Mariska Hargitay and that man with the booty so much that I didn't notice that they were a menace to society. Like, they literally were the worst ever.

Like, they would be like, oh, come be a witness for this crime, and we'll protect you. And then they'd be like, chunk. Chunk. And then they'd be dead.

Jay Ellis
Every time. Or, like, they'd be trying to catch a criminal so bad that they would catch somebody and they wouldn't actually be the criminal. They put them in Rikers. They in Rikers getting their ass beat every single day. And then they actually find out through DNA it was somebody else.

Lacey Mosley
And then they go to Rikers and just walk them out the prison, and they're like, my bad, I'm sorry, but. You a free man now. Also, we ruined your life in the press, so everyone does think you are a monster. My bad. Like, they were the worst people ever.

So to sit in an interrogation room and then look up at the ceiling and be like, let me get up in there. I get out of here. I got somewhere to go. I got somewhere to be. And I gotta exit when I leave and depart when I go.

Jay Ellis
Oh, my God. Through the ceiling. Also, he probably had cuffs on, too. I mean, maybe not an interrogation, because. And he wasn't violent, so.

That's true. Also, he's not a violent dude. And he was kind of adjacent to this crime. Like, it was like, the car's on fire is stolen, but they don't know enough to charge him. Also, y'all, y'all, if you ever get in a situation where you are interrogated by the police, please remember I learned this in philosophy, the prisoner's dilemma, which is if you talk, if you snitch, especially if there's another partner with you, you're actually making it worse for both of you.

Lacey Mosley
Neither of you should ever talk to the police. And if the police are questioning you and threatening you and shit, it means they don't have enough information to charge you. And they can only hold you for about twelve to 24 hours before you can walk right up out that door. And always ask for a lawyer immediately. Like, if you want to do crime, watch law and order SVU.

Cause when they ask for that lawyer, the police be mad as fuck. They be like, damn, he asked for a lawyer, so now we can't even trick him no more. And they be trying to trick you back. That's so good. So he climbing through the ceiling.

Love that for him. So he waited until the department was empty, stole the badge of a cop who arrested him. Let's go, Gerald. And walked back to his mother's house. Let's go, Gerald.

Gerald. Let's go, Gerald. Yeah, glow. Let's go, Gerald. Okay.

Jay Ellis
Should have a statue stop, a little. Pussy and some shells. Ho. Yeah, glow. Burning up cars and making bail.

Lacey Mosley
Ho. Yes. Get him, glow. So police showed up the next morning to find him stark naked in a closet and arrested him again. So they went to his house, and he.

Gerald, now, why would you go back to your place of residence after you escaped? You know they gonna come looking for you. No, but why is he butt naked in the closet? I don't know. Gerald, what's happening?

Jay Ellis
Here's what I know. Clearly, Gerald didn't know how to get away. He knew how to get out, but he didn't know how to get away. Cause he was butt naked in the closet at his mama house. Of course, don't go back to the known residence.

Also, Gerald's not the getaway driver. He's not. He's not the getaway driver. He can escape. He's not the getaway driver.

Lacey Mosley
Also, like, Jared, why were you butt naked in this closet? We need answers. Were you getting dressed in the closet and it was like, pre dressing? Did you think that they wasn't gonna see you cause you was naked? Like, what was the.

What was the reason, lord? So, during his arrest, the officers at one point left his keys in the car while checking into the police station. Gerald hopped into the front seat, put the car in drive, and drove through the doors of the station garage, grazing the officer on his way out. So Gerald said, you don't know. Gerald said, clearly, you ain't learned.

I'm different. You ain't learned. Gerald took his butt naked ass and climbed through the squad car, got the keys, drove out of the police, booty. Off, all in the seat, raw booty. Hole in the seat, and clipped the officer on the way out.

Got his look back. How you gonna hit the police officer on your way out to Gerald? Gerald, I love you. So he was caught once more when he waved to another officer directing traffic at an accident, who took notice of the naked handcuffed teenager driving a police car and gave a chase. So Gerald is so cocky that he.

Butt naked. Butt naked, waving like he on a float, like he on a parade, just waving. He's handcuffed in a stolen police car. And he saw another officer, was like, what's up? Hey, what up now?

Jay Ellis
I'm good. I'm one of them. I'm one of you. Yeah, what's up, homie? We friends.

Lacey Mosley
I'm doing the same thing you doing. And we knew he was gonna get caught. Cause he can't drive. Cause that's how he got here in the first place, with the other car they was trying to get rid of. So we know he can't drive.

And also, you butt naked still ain't got no clothes. Still ain't went to go get clothes. Yeah, you could have made a stop. You could have made a stop to get some clothes. And you know how to steal clothes, clearly.

Cause you were doing that and returning, like, why take your naked ass to uniqlo and get you a fit? Also, when you pull up to your mama house, I can't even, like, when you pull up to your mama's house. Oh, my God. Was she like, hey, go get in there. Go take your clothes off before they come in that.

Jay Ellis
Take your clothes off. Cause they gonna be here. Yeah. If you naked, they can't arrest you legally. Legally, they can't arrest you if you naked.

Lacey Mosley
Obviously. That's not true. That's not true. Also, the cops couldn't let him get dressed real quick before they arrested him. That's why they fucked up.

Cause the cop was like, I got a naked dude in my car, so let me hop out real quick and tell the homies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why would you leave your keys in the car with this naked dude? So he's caught once more. Cause he done waved naked and handcuffed in a cop car he stole.

This time the arrest stuck, and Gerald was sentenced to seven years in prison. He became eligible for parole four years later and was deported to Canada in 1997. With no money. Like, you gotta go back to Canada. You were a menace to american society.

But also, I love it. So during his first day back, he made several hundred dollars by returning stolen cameras with a receipt that he forged as staples. So he got to Canada, he got right back to his employments of crime. He was like, let me get right back to work. I'm the good at this, right?

He was like, let me get on indeed.com, put my resume up of thievery, and get employed. So with his growing fortune, Gerald began traveling the world, and he met his wife, Ramona. So Ramona was a german woman whose family were wealthy real estate tycoon. One day, Gerald and his wife and father in law were touring the Schutenbronn palace in Austria when he saw the Cc star on display for the first time. Now, this.

It's beautiful. It's a beautiful place to. Is that a brooch? It's a hairpiece. Oh, wow.

That's gorgeous. Right? And this is at the Schonbrunn palace. And they were touring it, so they're just on a tour, walking by, you know, looking at the nice thing as museums do, like, look at all the shit we stole. And we put it under lights.

So he sees the cc star, right in the mid 18 hundreds, Empress Cc of Austria, aka Empress Elizabeth, was known to decorate her hair with diamond stars. After her assassination, all but one of the 27 disappeared. So they assassinated her. And then they stole her hair jewelry. Melted them down, took the diamonds, and they kept.

And they kept it pushing after the assassination. So Gerald couldn't resist stealing it. Gerald, you are in a museum, Gerald. And Gerald was like, I can't. Like, this is not my fault.

He said, I got an addiction. Gerald just keep calling me. It's calling me and calling me. And I pick him up. They texting me, and I got my reverencies on, and I'm responding.

So according to his version of a, he parachuted out of a plane above the castle and landed on the roof. I know, I know, I know, Jay. I know. And we're getting to the end of this story. I know you got to get someplace else, but yes, now he's parachuting.

I don't know where he done got a parachute. Gerald got a parachute. He probably stole the plane and a parachute. You know he did. Yeah.

You know, he walked right onto the tarmac and stole the plane and stole the parachute. And so this is according to him. So he parachuted out of a plane above the castle and landed on the roof. He then scaled down the side of the building. And I kind of believe this because he did hop in that air duct in the police ceiling, and he did climb over a police car and drive naked in a handcuff.

Jay Ellis
I don't know. So I feel like he's got agility. He should have been an olympic athlete. I feel like he could have pole vaulted. He could have been a gymnast, long jumped gymnast.

Lacey Mosley
He could be on a pommel horse for sure. Cause he had the talent. So he scaled down the side of the building, hopped through the window display, removed the cage, and replaced the star with a souvenir purchased at a gift shop. So as not to trigger the pressure plate. He went full ocean's eleven.

It wasn't until several weeks later that the theft was even discovered, and the thief would remain a mystery for almost a decade. So he got away with that for almost a decade. They just. It was a fake star. He put a bootleg in.

Jay Ellis
Oh, yeah, the cubic zirconium. Yeah, the zirconiums. The zirconias. Yes. He put a zirconium in, and, like, they didn't notice.

Lacey Mosley
Like, diamonds and rocks are a scam anyway. There's so many of them. And the diamond industry just like, withholds them so that they're more precious. Like, it's a rock, y'all. I do like them, though, and I do have some on, but it is a rock.

So in the meantime, while he's gotten away with this for ten years, his wife Ramona and him divorced, and Gerald began casing banks. In 2004, he stole $750,000 from the ATM's of a Canadian Imperial bank of Commerce, the CIBC, still in construction in Winnipeg, in Canada. So he went over there, he got the ATM, he cracked it open, he got 750k. He discovered that while CIBCB banks were known to be some of the most secure, there was no security during the building of them. So remember I said that it was still in construction in Winnipeg, Canada.

So he was like, once they build it, once they like, zing, zhoom. Put the screws in. You not getting that, bitch. But when they're building the bank. But what I don't understand is, if.

Jay Ellis
You'Re building it, why is there money? Why is there money? Why is there money in there? Why is there money? Confusion.

Lacey Mosley
But this is Canada, so in America, we would never do that. We never want to give people money. My bank don't want to give people my money. We put all our money in warehouses in the valley. That's what we do here.

Literally, I swipe my car to buy a slim Jim. Bank of America's like, you ain't never bought a slim jim in your life, bitch. We said no. If you want us to say yes, you could try again. But we said no, like, so, moving on.

Disguised as a construction worker, he walked onto the build site of the future CIBC, which is the canadian bank, to build back doors for himself as the bank was being built. So he now is faking being a construction worker while the bank is being built, so that when it's. He has a way in. So nobody. This is blue streak, literally.

He watched blue streak and was like, Martin Lawrence, say less. This is blue street. Literally. Like, also, why is nobody on the construction site? Like, who is the new dude?

Jay Ellis
Who the new dude? Oh, he a specialty. He a specialist, right? Why he keep bringing doors and little traps? That's what he do.

That's. He just bring doors, traps inside. They don't really talk about it. I'm looking at the. What are those called?

The plans, the construction plans. I'm looking at the blueprint, and I don't see anything about trapdoors. And he keep building them. What is going on? So Gerald was able to implant a $50 toys r us baby monitor into one of the walls of the bank, which let him listen into the contractor's conversations and learn when the ATM's were being brought on.

Lacey Mosley
Rip toys R us and also rip radio shack. Like, Gerald, is this your fault? Are you robbing all the places? And now they're going out of business. So, he was also able to alter the motion detectors for the ATM so that he could turn them off when the time came.

I don't know where he learned all these skills. He learned all of it. He's just in a warehouse learning all the. He done learned how to jump from a plane. He didn't learn how to.

Jay Ellis
He clearly had the schematics at a police station when he crawled up in the ceiling. Now he got computer skills. I like Gerald. Police cars also normally have, like, a barricade between the driving part. How did he get through the barricade naked and handcuffed?

You've seen how skinny he was. I mean, chow. You've seen how skinny he was. Yeah. He was like, listen, I'm a little twink.

Lacey Mosley
I can just climb through. So, to get into the ATM's themselves, which could hold $100,000 each, Jared sawed through 80% of the screws that had held their very complicated locks in position so that he would be able to break them effortless. So, on the night of the robbery. So he sawed them up first. That was like, pre saw them up, and then he was like, I'm gonna come back later and do the robbery.

Okay, so, on the night of the robbery, jared and an accomplice. So now you got a homie enter through the roof, as he likes to do, via the air vent that he had pre cut when he was the construction worker. He pre cut securing steel bars on it so they could get in and, like, then crawl through the air vent, drop into the ATM room, and activate the wires he had manipulated months earlier to turn off the motion detector. I wish I could see Jay right now. He has his hand on his head.

Jay Ellis
Gerald is a legend. Gerald is Blanchard. He's a legend. Gerald. I'm getting tired.

Lacey Mosley
Let's get to the end of this. Damn it. How many people did you rob? So, meanwhile, so he manipulated this. Months earlier, in just 30 seconds, Gerald and his friend had emptied all the atmosphere because he had, like, pre cut them the day before.

He was a construction worker, so he had his way in. He had the baby monitors, so he knew how to turn off the wires. In 30 seconds, they cleared out 100k. They cleared all the atm's actually. Meanwhile, police responded, but saw no signs of force of entry because he made his own entryway.

And so the call was cleared and Gerald left with the money undetected. So the police came. This is in Canada. They looked around like, oh, canadian bacon. No, no broken windows.

No, like doors, you know, BBl, Jersey six. God, the four things, you know, I got. Yeah, literally, the four things. They thought about maple syrup or nothing. But this is the six.

They were like, nah, we don't see nothing. Okay. Me and my woes, we don't see nothing. So we leave. So he only became a person of interest when police found a nearby Walmart greeter who had been checking plates in the parking lot.

And they were able to tie a license plate to one of the parked cars to Gerald, who was already a known. So they didn't know who was, like, the person. But then this Walmart Greeter going way. Above and beyond the call of duty. Why are you remembering what plates?

Jay Ellis
Ain't you supposed to say hello? You're just supposed to need a basket. You just supposed to wait for canadian. Bacon on sale today, right? Are you way above and beyond the call of duty?

Lacey Mosley
You supposed to be like, we got blue light special on maple syrup and that's it. We rolling back prices, right? We rolling them back. We not rolling back license plates like you a hater Walmart greeter. Cause why are you checking license plates?

So because Jared's surveillance equipment was still in place. He learned that the investigators were catching on. Cause he's still got that baby monitor in there. What kind of batteries do you have in this toys r us baby monitor? The range.

Jay Ellis
The range is also. I got a baby monitor. My range. I can't go 8ft without it working. Yes.

Lacey Mosley
Like, tell us, like, you need to get a new one towards our range. I need Gerald to holler, tell me what he was using so you can. Hear your baby better. Because he hearing everything. So he called in.

So Gerald called in an anonymous tip threatening an armed bank robbery, which diverted police while he fled. So once he heard they were onto him, he called in and was like, hey, I'm about to rob a bank armed with lots of guns. And then the police were like, let's scramble. So he went on a string of familiar bank robberies across Canada. One night, Gerald was cutting through an ATM on the street when he was surrounded by police.

He got way too cocky. Now, you couldn't just also, what you. Doing with the money? Don't you got enough, Gerald? Right?

You got 750k earlier. You got hundreds of thousands of dollars from these ATM's. And now you just cutting up ATM's on the street. And what'd he do with Katherine Starr? Like, he.

Jay Ellis
Did he sell Kathryn Starr? Or he's just looking at it every day, kissing it before he go. Before he go. Like, it's his good luck charm. It's his good luck charm before his robberies, like, sir, what are you doing?

Lacey Mosley
So he gets surrounded by police. He tried to get away by dropping smoke grenades, but was caught and arrested. Why he had smoke grenades, I don't know. We are now at the end of this. So he used an alias during his arrest.

So the officers didn't tie him to his other robberies, and he was released on $2,000 bail. So they just saw him trying to, like, saw open an ATM on the street corner, and he was like, smoke bomb. Like, he a goddamn magician. Like, he was gonna throw the smoke bomb and then disappear. Poof.

Poof. It did not be gone. It, like, reminds me of, like, in horror films where you. Where, like, the murderer or the stalker is always across the street, and then a bus drive by, and they gone. They gone.

Jay Ellis
Poof. He tried to do that. He tried to do it, and it did not work. And they saw him rush. Damn.

Lacey Mosley
So Gerald became so cocky, he began taunting investigators and sent them photos of him committing crimes abroad. Why? I don't know. So in 2006, 2006, mind you, in 1997, he got deported from doing crimes. He's been in jail a hell of.

Jay Ellis
Times on a run. 2006, Gerald was. This is him getting caught. He was contracted by a mob boss for an ATM debit card fraud job in Cairo, Egypt. So somebody else is now calling him like, hey, we know you're good at crime.

Lacey Mosley
Will you help us out? Trying to get the pharaoh money, right? We try to get the pharaoh money. We want the pyramids. Okay.

No Frank Ocean, but also maybe some Frank Ocean, maybe. Okay. If his money in there, we gonna take it, too. So along with his girlfriend and another accomplice. So he got a new boob.

They wore burqas and stole hundreds of thousands from ATM's in the city. Damn. Things were going well until one of his accomplices stole several of their debit cards and bought a number of diamonds and fled to Paris. So one of the accomplices went rogue, stole debit cards from the mob boss. You don't steal from the mob.

Jay Ellis
This never goes well. This never goes well. It never ends well. Like, the mob has a very strong reputation of murder. They're like, you take from us, we take your life.

That's what we do. And we made that very clear. Like, that's in the brochure. That's it. That's literally the front of the brochure.

Steal from us, we kill you, right? You steal from us, we steal your soul. What do you mean? So this is where it gets complicated. Cause the accomplice fucking up the bag.

Lacey Mosley
So Gerald was forced to find a solution to pay the mob boss back. So he flew to Vancouver and found a bank being built. He gotta go back to robbing banks being built. Damn. I know Gerald was pissed.

Jay Ellis
Construction. Gerald is back on the job, clocking in. Let me go get this reflective vest in this goddamn hat. Bringing his hard hat and his lunch pail every day with his steel tower. I know he tired.

Gerald Cardi stole all that. Gerald. And this ain't even his money. He gotta give this back to the mob boss. Cause his homie fucked up, bro.

Lacey Mosley
This. I'm sorry, Gerald. I feel for you. So authorities had been bugging his phone since the CIBC robbery and were able to track the call to his location. Just before the bank's opening day, Gerald and 20 of his accomplices were arrested across Canada.

The final linchpin was the hundreds of videotapes Gerald has stashed in his home. Gerald was indicted on 16 counts of theft and fraud and faced a maximum sentence of 164 years in prison. They were like, we gonna add extra years to make sure you really die up in here. Like, this is a death sentence. They were like, we're gonna send the coffin with you.

Just know it. Almost ten years after the theft of the CC star, he told authorities he had stolen it and kept it at his grandmother's house as a bargaining chest. After giving full account of his crimes, returning the CC star and paying full restitution to the CIBC bank, he was sentenced to just eight years in prison. So you were asking why he held onto that star and he was kissing it and he was holding it so he could. So he could get out.

Get out of jail. Freestar. He went from 164 to eight years. That's a good. That's crazy.

That's crazy. And I know he was like, I got that star, but I ain't gonna tell y'all. And so y'all, like, make a deal. Let's make a deal. As a condition of his plea, none of his accomplices received prison sentences over Kathryn Starr, over robbing the banks.

Jay Ellis
Yeah, because he gave up the star. Like, he was able to get 20 people off. Plus him. Yes. It's the only star that they have left in the world.

Lacey Mosley
And I know I don't give a fuck about this star, but it's also. A whole nother country. Kathler. Not even really giving like that. For real?

Jay Ellis
Yeah. Elizabeth. I've been calling her Katherine. I'm sorry. Oh, it's a CC star.

Lacey Mosley
I did that, too. So the CC star, Elizabeth really ain't even giving that hard to me. Like, it's not giving for me. But this last star in the world, things mean things to people. Everything is made up.

So I guess, like, you know, that's true. You have to put value in something that's true. There's things that I have that I value, that I don't think somebody else would value. You know what I mean? Right.

I need a star of my own. I need a cc star. So he got his sentence down and he got the homies out. I fucked with Gerald. Cause he also was like, don't put my homies in jail.

Even the one who stole from the mob and got you in the shit in the first place. That's true. That one you should have put in the car. Shout out to Gerald. Shout out to Gerald.

Jay Ellis
Yeah, he's holding homies down. He ain't say nothing to the judge. He ain't say, ooh. He ain't say nothing to the judge. He was like, gucci, man.

He was like, gucci, man. He said Gucci. He's like Gucci, man. Right? Gucci, man.

Lacey Mosley
I ain't saying nothing. Nothing. I know nothing. I've heard nothing. So I'm Stevie wonder to the crimes.

Okay? I ain't seen nothing. I'm Helen Kelly to the crimes. I ain't heard shit. All right, so this is the very end.

As a condition of his plea, he got the homies out, right? He was released on April 23, 2012. In 2017, he was back at it. Let's go. Gerald's like.

Jay Ellis
They keep calling me. They keep calling me. Something keeps calling me back. Me back. I need that fraud in my life.

Lacey Mosley
No. He was arrested for stealing PlayStations from an Ontario best buy and pleaded guilty to one charge. Playstations? For real? How do you even.

Jay Ellis
You done sold CC star and now you still in places. Come on, bro. Like, you're going down. You parachuted into a museum to steal cece star. Come on, bro.

Lacey Mosley
And now you still at playstations? Come on, bruh. He was sentenced to six months in prison with a three year probation period, which I'm just like. Also, Canada's legal system is very interesting because I love it. He'd have been in jail multiple times, and all he got was six months.

Jay Ellis
Cause here, that's not how it go down. No. They're like, you're in prison forever. You're now a slave to the state. You will be making hand sanitizer and license plate for the rest of your life.

Lacey Mosley
For the rest of your life. From Canada's like, we'll give you another chance. A. You're one of our woes in the six. This is the end of this episode.

Thank you so much for being here, Jay. Lastly, shout out to Gerald. This is a career criminal, a serial entrepreneur, and an icon for the homies. He is an icon, right? Athletic as hell.

Jay Ellis
Just an icon living. I love you. And so we always ask at the end of the podcast, Jay, where would you like to be found? Any socials, any upcoming projects, anything you want to plug? Obviously, y'all need to get out there and get.

Lacey Mosley
Did everyone have an imaginary friend, or was it just me? The book. I'mma post a picture of me with the book, too, so y'all can see it. It's cute. You can pre order it so we can get that bestseller.

Let's go to times list. Yes. Yeah. Ellis. J a y r e l.

Jay Ellis
I don't know how to spell my name. I don't know how to spell my name. I think I got a real name. I got scammed out of my own name. We gonna try Jr.

Lacey Mosley
Ellis. You want me to do it at J r. Ellis? Jayrellis. Instagram, Twitter, all of above.

Okay, did we, did I get it? You do it. Just in case. Jayrellis@instagram.com. There we go.

He's a very beautiful man. Get over there and look at him and his beautiful family and him being beautiful all the time. As always, y'all can find me at d I b a l a c I d baleace on all platforms for my personal shenanigans. And if you want to see the photos from the show, I know I've been lying, y'all. Y'all.

When I tell y'all, I'm in production deep, real bad right now and promoting this book and doing photo shoots. They trying to kill me. I will post the photo episodes today. I will post them all. And I'll post these when this episode comes out.

And you can see all of those@scamgoddespodmail.com. and if you would like to continue yelling at me and talking to me, scam goddess pod on Twitter. Also live show five year anniversary of the La region theater, September 22. The tickets go on sale on Live Nation June 27. Y'all get those tickets early because y'all are not gonna be in.

My DM's talking about it sold out and trying to get comps. I've been doing my best for y'all, but this show, y'all gonna have to just get them. I'm gonna turn it out. It's gonna be. I'm a freak.

Jay Ellis
It. So come have fun and celebrate the book. Yes, congregation. Y'all get out there. And y'all started brushard.

Lacey Mosley
Okay, stay scheming, gab. Got it.

This has been an earwolf production in association with Team Coco, scammed by the stars, and is hosted by me, Lacey Moseley, aka scam goddess. Our producer is Judith Kargbo, and our audio engineer is rich Garcia. Research for the show is done by Kalin Brandt. Stay scheming.

Every day, our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human. Thank you for calling Amica insurance. Hey, uh, I was just in an accident. Don't worry.

We'll get you taken care of. At Amica, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new. Were groundbreaking. It's human. Amika.

Empathy is our best policy. All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T mobile, headphones.

Wait, T mobile? You bet. Free in flight wi Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T Mobile.

Same goes from a water bottle, chewing gum, nail clipper. Okay, I'm gonna leave. Find out how you can experience travel better@tmobile.com. travel qualifying plan required. Wifi were available on select us airlines.

Jay Ellis
Deposit and Hilton honors membership required for 15% discount. Terms and conditions apply.

The Sisi Star Snatcher w/ Jay Ellis

Primary Topic

Episode Summary

Main Takeaways

Episode Chapters

1: Introduction

2: Jay Ellis's Childhood Scam Story

3: Discussion on Types of Scams

4: Personal Experiences with Scams

5: Closing Thoughts

Actionable Advice

About This Episode

People

Books

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Content Warnings:

Transcript