WEBVTT - Ep. 236: Bonus - Apalachicola Tree Bandits 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:07.000 I pulled in. He was there at the store and 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:09.239 I got out, and as I got out, there was 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:11.680 an arrest team took him and he said, what's going on? 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:13.560 I said, I don't know what I'm getting out of here. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.680 I got far, I left, drove on down the road. 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:18.840 The next one. They said, hey, what happened Old So 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.000 and So? I said, hey, didn't show then come out 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.080 and they rest him. So we went all the way 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.800 down the line and I'd make an excuse at each 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:27.880 stop of why nobody was with me. 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:34.320 Welcome to Bear Grease's first bonus episode. We interviewed so 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.560 many people each year and aren't able to tell all 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.800 the stories in our regular episodes, so we're trying to 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.920 remedy that. And as many of our regular listeners know, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.559 the Bear Grease podcast has two kinds of shows. We 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.839 have our premium documentary style like True Bear Grease episodes, 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.240 where we dive deep to uncover some of those wild, 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.360 gritty American stories that we love. But we also have 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.480 our Bear Grease's Render podcast, which comes out every other week, 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.200 where we gather up a group of five or six 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.000 folks instead around and have a conversation about the last 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:10.800 Bear Grease. It's a lot of fun, it's a lot 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:15.320 more informal. Well, what you're listening to today is different, 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:20.319 it's bonus content. It's shorter but highly relevant. We've spent 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.720 the last two Beargrease episodes listening to two stories from 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:28.360 United States Forest Service Special Agent Russ Arthur from Tennessee. 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.360 In the first episode, called runt Over, he told of 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.720 citing a man for illegal squirrel hunting and how later 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.040 in retribution, the man tried to kill him and ended 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:43.280 up in prison. Later, Russ would work an unrelated marijuana 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.560 grow case in the National Forest and sent the man 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.120 to prison for the second time. Truly a wild story 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.440 with every type of twist and turn. In the last 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:58.360 episode about Yellowstone, Russ found himself working undercover in Montana 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.640 trying to bust an illegal outfittering gun thief. Truly and 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.400 unbelievable story as well. Well, what you're about to hear 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:12.480 is a story of timber theft, arson, rattlesnakes, and barefoot 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.040 criminals in the swamps of Florida. I really doubt that 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.480 you're going to want to miss this one, and let 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:24.720 us know what you think of this episode on social media. 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.000 My name is Clay Knukem and this is the Bear 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:38.040 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.799 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.959 story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:52.320 Presented by FHF gear, American made purpose built hunting and 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.160 fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as the place. 0:02:56.160 --> 0:03:08.600 As we explore, well, they all got different different flavors 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:13.840 and favorites, but probably one of my first undercover was 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.720 one of the most interesting and nerve wracking and kind 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.960 of had it all. There was a group of guys 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:28.359 on the Appalacha Cola River that was stealing Atlantic white 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.720 cedar juniper, and that's a tree species that kind of 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.720 grows between the swamps and what they call the ridges 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:40.200 the hills, and it was highly sought after for decking 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.040 wood for cutting up, and it was very resilient and 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.960 highly sought after him. And there was a meal down 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:52.680 there that they were selling it to, and the and 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.080 these guys were all friends. There was four or five 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.000 of them. It turned out Bend and the agent down 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.320 there had done a lot of background on on the 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:06.080 best way to infiltrate this ground. But Uh. I went 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.440 down and UH basically hired on as a sawyer for 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.840 and I portrayed a guy that was down his luck. 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.000 I just needed I needed a job. I was from 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.120 Tennessee and uh and uh they took me in and 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:24.719 you know, told me not, you know, obviously, not to 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:26.680 tell anybody, and they could get me a little bit 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.680 of a little bit of money and it would all 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:34.040 be based on what all we sold. And that was 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.320 early years of technology were wearing a wire was very 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:41.960 hard to do, and especially in an environment of cutting wood, 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.800 and there's a lot of legal you know, sideboards on 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.240 when you can turn a tape recorder on, when you 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.719 can turn it off, do you run it continuously? Do 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.440 you just run it for you know, a few minutes 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.320 or you'd being selective of you know, you turn it 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.599 on and off. There was a lot of pressure on 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:03.800 a young kid. I was still in my twenties. Then, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.360 so U hired on with them. And then they would 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.919 cut timber all at night, really in the dark, in 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.880 the dark, in the swamps, and. 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.440 One of them using headlamps. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.400 Yep, not even head lamps, it was handhails. I mean 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:25.200 headlamps really hadn't come around on the mid late eighties 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.240 yet and uh, they just using handhad lights and uh. 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.359 And one of them actually lived in the swamps and 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:37.799 no electricity, no plumbing. It was just kind of sad. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.560 But would later find out what he's done with all 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.760 his money. But anyway, he he would always do barefooted 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.920 and uh. And I'll never forget one night we uh, 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.960 we were riding around through there and they had found 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.800 something during the day they wanted to cut, and we 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.400 were just throwing these on the on on the back 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:03.720 of the f two fifty in handload them. I shined 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.080 my light and he was standing facing away from me, 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:11.480 and there was this huge rattlesnake and it was laying 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.960 stretched out about six inches from the back of his heels, 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:21.320 and he was barefooted. And I'll never forget. I called 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:24.279 his name and I said, man, that is a don't move. 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.120 There's the biggest rattlesnake that you've ever seen right behind 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.640 your feet. And I'll never forget. He mumbled, I know 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:33.960 where that one's out. There's usually two of them. I'm 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:40.520 looking for that second one. And I remember thinking, this 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:48.680 pretty rough crowd. What happened? We continued on, Well, I 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:50.920 mean he just stepped away from Yeah, he just stepped 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.200 away from the snake. Now why was he barefoot? He 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.520 never wore shoes. I never seen wear shoes. Just he 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.560 never did wear a pair of shoes. It drank old 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:01.640 mill while he's best, and he never had a cooler 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:03.320 put it in. He'd always drink it. 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:07.200 Hot and just logged barefoot. 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.920 Yeah, right right. They'd get a tree hung, you know, 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.120 with a maker, into the top of another tree, and 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:18.040 he'd climb up at barefooted, limit it till it shook down. 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.480 I mean, it's a wonder they didn't get killed out there. 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:25.400 But uh but I would go down and I'd cut 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:27.560 timber with him, and we'd take it to the meal. 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.720 Uh we'd always get the meal right when it opened, 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:36.400 and uh then we would. I'd do that for like 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:38.560 a month with him, and that I'd tell him I 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.920 was going back to Tennessee and we'd process everything, you know, 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.240 you were recording over a lot of it. I would, 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.920 you know, obviously not when the saws running, but uh then, 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.160 uh then i'd call him and come back, you know, hey, 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:59.920 you got more work. And they were uh that all 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.600 always take me back in and because the rumor had it, 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:07.480 they were setting fires too, and so of course we're 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:12.080 working with our federal prosecutors, and they wanted me to. 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.400 They made it clear one night they wanted me to 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:19.840 go with them to said a wildfire. Well it was 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.960 my job talking out of it. Now that might sound funny, 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.440 but you know, we didn't want to be the ones 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.920 part of setting the wildfire that ended up burning up 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.360 a community, you know. So uh, we never did. 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:34.920 Like you were there to say no, let's not do it, 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:36.559 and then if they did it, it was. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.000 All the wrong. I wasn't going to be there, you know. 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.800 I voted, hey, let's don't do it, you know, and 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.280 that was through guidance from the from our prosecutors. You know, 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.679 we're not going to be involved in setting any of these. 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:50.240 You know, a matter of fact, we need to discourage it, 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.480 you know. So uh uh you know. So, so some 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:56.760 interesting guys and then one of them, there was five 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.320 of them. They lived in five separate four differents separate 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.960 communities up and down the Apple Takota River and uh 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.160 and one of them invited me down to come down 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:10.960 and help him, and I ended up helping him with 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.480 his with his marijuana grow. So you know, went in 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.280 and found out who he was selling it to, and 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.439 it was a lady in Tallahassee, and so that had 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.360 become a spur off of that temper theft case was, 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.840 you know, the marijuana grow case, and so it was 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.760 that was an interesting case and we had all successful prosecutions, 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:37.640 and it was kind of funny the day of the takedown. 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:43.200 We had it was five separate arrest warrants for each 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.440 one of them, and we had it all mapped out 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:52.880 where they all lived, and I had contacted the one 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.640 that had a telephone and only one of them had 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:59.400 a telephone at their house and told him said, hey, 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.360 said that if y'all want to help me out on 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:06.480 I think it was Saint George Island, that's out there. 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.439 You want to help me out on Saint George Island, 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.520 I've got a deck to building, y'all. We all make 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.280 some good money. Because during that it was a year 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.960 and a half spread out, I had kind of established 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.640 that I had this this little construction thing going, and 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.600 actually the agent that was overseeing the case was seen 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.760 out there as kind of a builder. So they all 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.600 bet hoo, hookline, sinker on, we're gonna we're gonna meet 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.760 this guy Tennessee and we're gonna we're gonna eat, make 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.520 us a couple hundred bucks in a day to build 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.600 this deck. And I told him i'd pick him up, 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.079 and I said, let so and so no, I'll pick 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.520 him up at eight at that store. And I identified 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:56.400 these five different areas that I was gonna pick them up, 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.960 and they were all, you know, relative to the time. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.160 Said what it would take us to drive between them 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.480 from north to south? As we were going to go, 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.960 I told him I drive. And the first one we met, 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:14.640 I pulled in. He was there at the store and 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:16.880 I got out, and as I got out, there was 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.040 an arrest team took him and he said, what's going on? 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:21.880 I said, I don't know what I'm getting out of here. 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.480 I got in the car and I left, drove on 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:26.920 down the road. The next one they said, hey, what happened? 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:28.640 Oh so, and so I said I he didn't show 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:30.880 get and then they'd come out and they had rest him. 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.440 So we went all the way down the line and 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.040 I'd make an excuse at each stop of why why 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:40.439 nobody was with me? And of course this was back 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:42.160 in the day where they didn't have cell phones and 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.960 communications so stuff like that work back then. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.560 You were in your twenties. Yeah, what what does it 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.160 take to be able to hold your cover? I mean 0:11:57.440 --> 0:11:59.920 you work up with these guys that are so rough 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:04.840 and man, you you you had to be believable or 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.040 it could have been a dangerous situation. How did you 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.240 Can you describe what it's like to be deep undercover? 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:17.320 Well, you know, if if you're going to go undercover 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.520 for any length of time, you have to have what's 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.319 called a good backstop. A good backstop in today's world 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.439 is a social media profile. It's it's the whole nine 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:33.840 yards through the world of electronics. A good backstop. Back 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.840 when I was doing it was you had you had 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.560 an identification and maybe a little bit of criminal record 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:44.160 that was created by the state for you, and there's 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.800 a process to go through with that. And you had 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.600 an ID, you had a social Security number, and there's 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.520 a process to go through that, and you set up yourself. 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.719 You have a phone line at your residence if you're 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.200 going to use your residence, and most of the time 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:06.400 you'll do undercover and you'll stay in a temporary quarters 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:11.320 and that's what you would do sometimes is like rent, 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.640 like an apartment or something under that same name. Uh. 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.760 And but you the biggest thing is is to have 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:26.840 knowledge of don't be somebody or not. And I was 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.880 very lucky in that. You know, I worked constructions for 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.200 so many years. I could talk to talk of of 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.760 of a brick layer, you know, I could talk to 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.480 talk of a land mountain stone, you know, some some 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:44.080 some of the construction work. So you want to tell 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.439 people your profession is something that you can talk about, 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.560 first of all. And back in the day, they didn't 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:55.000 have Facebook they could check you. The only thing they 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:56.600 could check you on is maybe if they had a 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.520 friend in the police department, they could They may figure 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:01.360 out a way to get your driver's license and run 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.800 your driver's license, you know in some of these small communities. 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.240 You know, even though it's illegal, somebody might could do 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.760 that and or run your tag number. You know, I 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.000 haven't run your tag number, make sure so you'd always 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.000 want to have that vehicle tied back to that driver's license. 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.240 So so it wasn't that complicated back in the day. 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.320 And especially if you set it up to where I'm 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.920 not from this area, I'm just down here looking for work. 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.800 I'm actually from a state or two a way, you know, 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:38.080 and it seemed it seemed to work. You know, Yeah, 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.680 you can be compromised, and if you are, you've got 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:45.040 to recognize the way out. One time I thought I 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.520 was compromised before I even left, and I pulled out. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.920 It turns out I wasn't compromised. But the way the 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:56.080 guy was talking to me. We had a case in 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.720 Alaska that I was going to be a part of 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.480 on a brown bear hunt. I hadn't paid the down 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.960 on the hunt yet. We were just communicating. Something came 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:13.120 up to where he he was questioning me, and I 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.120 just did just didn't feel right. And it was going 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.960 to be me and another undercover agent, because when you're 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.000 going into a remote area you need to you really 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:28.320 need two people. And this was actually an agent from 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.320 Arkansas was going to go with me, and I called 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.280 him up. I said, look, I don't feel good about 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.040 this guy. He said, well, I'm not getting that failing Well, 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.280 I told my boss. I said, I'm just not failing it. 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.720 So he got somebody else and he and the other 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.920 agent went and it turned out that that it was 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:52.440 it was legit. He just was really intrigued about my background. 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.560 He did he didn't. Oh, so this guy was quizzing, right, 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.480 he was quizzing, quizzing me. And it turned out they 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:00.160 went ahead and worked the case and they made the 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.360 case and it was a good case. And he said, man, 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.560 you missed it. It was some beautiful country. And uh, 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:10.040 but the thing about it is we he he wasn't 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:14.120 on to me, and but it was my own gut feeling, 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.800 which you know, that's just that's just the way it goes. 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.520 And a lot of people have a misconception. You know. 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:23.920 Some of my friends all talk to him, and you know, 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.360 and and I don't talk that much, even to my 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:29.560 close friends about some of the work I've done. I'm just, 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:34.240 you know, just don't. But the ones that really don't 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.320 know me, they'll hear about it. They say, man, you've 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:38.920 got it made. You've got to see the bitter roots, 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:43.280 say away wilderness area, you've got to see Yellowstone, You've 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:49.640 got to see all this going on undercover. It is 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:55.200 not fun because normally the only fun part about it 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.480 is seeing country that you probably normally wouldn't see. And 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:04.920 and that intrigues me. I love love that. But being 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:10.439 with somebody that you know, it's been violating for a 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.720 long time. You may or may not know a lot 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.000 more about the resources than they do, and you having 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.640 to listen to them and do what they tell you. 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:26.920 It's not funny that there is. There's no glory in that, 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.280 because nine times out of ten, the people that do 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.280 that are slots, And it's just not the type of 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:38.600 people that you would enjoy hanging around around. You know, uh, 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.160 you know. Do I want to hang around a guy 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:46.640 that you know in the swamps of Florida that uses 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.520 a hole in the Florida to do his business into 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:51.720 the swamp because he don't have a toilet. You know, 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:53.239 that's not the type of people I want to hang 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.080 around with. Do I want to hang around the guy 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.800 that's guided me twenty two miles in the back country 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:02.440 that I know is getting ready to try to steal 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.560 my pre sixty four Winchester because he's running guns too. 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:08.600 You know, that's not the kind of guy I want 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.240 to Yeah, I see what you're saying, hang out with? 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.280 Do I want to wake up at five point thirty 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:15.960 in the morning over there in some of the most 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.439 pressed in country that God put on this earth and 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:23.399 set there by the fire, drinking coffee listening to Elk 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:27.280 bugle all around me and the guides in there snoring 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.920 because he stayed up drunk all night. That's not the 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.800 kind of guy I want to hang out with. And 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.240 that stuff happens. Yeah, that has happened. 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:46.119 Yeah, the level of stress on an undercover agent is 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.520 hard to comprehend. If you haven't listened to our Secret 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.800 Agent Man series we did with Rtie Stewart out of 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:57.000 Ohio in twenty twenty two. Those are episodes seventy eight 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:01.240 through eighty four. You probably should really some wild stories 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.040 in there. And I mean, I guess we talked to 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.760 an undercover agent almost every week. Brent reeves. You know 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.119 he's working me. I think we all do. I can't 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.960 thank Russ enough for opening up with us about these stories. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.680 Like was said before, he doesn't talk about this often 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:21.120 and I had to twist his arm to get him 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.359 to tell these stories. I hope you enjoyed this extra 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:28.160 drop and we'll see you on the next episode. Thanks 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.439 a ton for listening to Bear Grease and Brent's This 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.639 Country Life podcast. Be sure to leave us a review 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:38.120 on iTunes and share this podcast with you friends. Thank 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:42.200 you