Fugitive Hunting, Magnum PI and more with Det Scot

Stephen J: (00:12) 

Welcome to behind the ten.com a podcast that introduces you to the H men and women who wear the tin while protecting our community and hearing about the extraordinary things they're doing when they're badged in their locker. I'm Stephen J the good Lieutenant along with Justin, the civilian producer, I'm excited to be here today. We'd like to thank today's sponsors, superior beer technology, superior beer technology offers the best in beverage line, cleaning, installation, and service. For more information, you can call 7 1 8 4 2 9 1 4 1 4. Also, those guys print.com your guys for all your custom and apparel needs. Visit those guys. print.com. We'd like to thank Chris S who is our cocktails over conversation sponsor today's cocktail is Jefferson bourbon, Justin and I will be sampling that during our conversation, mm. Along with our guest today. Got so Chris S thank you so much for your sponsorship. You can visit behind the ten.com to find out how you could be a sponsor for cocktails over conversation.  

Stephen J: (01:12) 

So, Justin, we have a, a guy today that has been in the N Y P D or was in the N Y P D uh, during nine 11, uh, served in a variety of capacities. And I find it interesting that the capacities that he was in and the jobs that he did most people wouldn't think that would transcend to a business. Yeah, of course not. It was, uh, seeing his bio. Um, I can't wait to talk to this guy. It's gonna be really exciting. I mean, a guy that was able to do undercover work and warrant work, fugitive work on a taskforce that you may have seen the TV show, uh, he's able to really use those skills. So we're going to talk to Scott, uh, in depth. So without further ado, yeah. Let's bring him in. Let's talk to Scott Rosenthal. Well, Scott, welcome. Hello. Welcome to behind the tin , uh, we're very excited to have you in your years of experience and what you've transcended, uh, but also about a little about your history with what you've done. You know, I've known you for a while now, and I want other people to get to know you. So talk about your, your start in the N Y P D for  

Scot: (02:18) 

Me start the N Y P D back in, um, 1986 July. When I went to the New York city police academy, uh, transitioned from working in Fort green bed sky into narcotics in Brooklyn, north. And from there, I ended up working into, uh, narcotics in Manhattan, which I predominantly worked in, uh, the Washington Heights area from Washington Heights. I transitioned into, uh, the Warren squad and that's where my career picked up and went another direction.  

Stephen J: (02:48) 

Wow. So this is in the eighties and early night, you must have been bored outta your mind.  

Scot: (02:51) 

yeah. Yeah. There's no busy, very busy.  

Stephen J: (02:54) 

We had Mikey Citron on a couple episodes ago who was a firefighter at the same time. Yeah. And some of the stories that he was able to tell us, and even some that he didn't want us to put on the air were just incredible. I'm sure you have some of the same. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Anything that really sticks out that you're like, there's no way anybody could see this again today.  

Scot: (03:12) 

It was a circus. It was definitely a circus.  

Stephen J: (03:16) 

You say circus. And it reminds me of a story. We used to have this place in the Hudson valley called Zebo S trailer park now Zebo it was Mr. Zebo. He was the owner of the park and he lived there and then it was his trailer park. Uh wasn't too nice. But what was unique about this trailer park is Mr. Zebo raised all the monkeys that were in all the late eighties, early nineties fit owns it's like project X, but the one animal that stood out, he trained Michael Jackson's chimpanzee or monkey from what I remember. But when you're referring to the crazy eighties and nineties of New York city, I wasn't even allowed to go down there as a kid. Like you're, you're talking about the time where people throw stuff on your windshield. Yeah. It was  

Scot: (03:58) 

Pretty across, it was like the craziest, uh, front row seats to the craziest show on earth.  

Stephen J: (04:05) 

Well, when you were doing patrol, I mean, was it like today where people just totally disrespect the cops?  

Scot: (04:11) 

Uh, not really, no, a lot different, you know, a lot different. I remember it was a hot summer day. I was on foot in the middle of a, uh, the Fort green projects and a bunch of kids ran up to me and said, uh, there was a guy with a snake that's walking around scaring the children. So I walked over to this guy who had a, probably about a nine foot white Python wrapped  

Stephen J: (04:37) 

On his neck. Definitely not Justin. No, no.  

Scot: (04:39) 

And I, I remember being a kid, my, uh, my uncles who were a little bit, uh, older than me had snakes and I was always scared of snakes. I walked up to, uh, the gentleman and I told the gentleman, uh, you know, that he, you know, causing fear to the community, put the snake in the bag. Otherwise I was gonna take the snake.  

Stephen J: (04:59) 

Oh, you mean a real snake? Oh  

Scot: (05:01) 

Yeah. Real snake. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Real snake. And, uh, while I was telling this to the gentleman simultaneously, the snake perched and came about within six inches of my face. Oh Jesus. Oh, well, I'm in uniform. And, uh, I was pooped in my pants and, uh, snake back and put the snake in a sack and brought it back upstairs to his apartment. And I walked on my Merry way thinking to myself, man, how I just hated that hole.  

Stephen J: (05:33) 

Yeah. Dodged the bullet on that one. Right? Yeah. So you become a warrant guy. Yeah. And all you're hunting is, is fugitives.  

Scot: (05:41) 

I was a man hunter, all we did predominantly in, um, let me see. This is, you're talking about. The nineties was, uh, pretty much violent felonies now. Uh, they do every little bit of everything. Pretty much. Nobody goes after misdemeanors because of the city's protocol. And, um, we pretty much went after, uh, the seven majors and that's all I did from there is tracking people throughout Manhattan and, uh, uh, joining boroughs counties for, uh, violent felonies.  

Stephen J: (06:13) 

Now, you know, in my career, I found people hiding in addicts, under clothes. What's the craziest place you found somebody hiding  

Scot: (06:22) 

In floors, in floors, in ceilings. Wow. Uh, positioned as a table, an end table with a blanket over them, like perfectly symmetrical , uh, fake, fake closets. When you walk in and you stick your hand into the closet and stuff and you grab somebody's face, it was pretty, pretty crazy. Refrigerators, freezers honed out mattresses, uh,  

Stephen J: (06:48) 

Well foot out places that spur the moment places. Yeah, no,  

Scot: (06:51) 

No. The real deal. The real deal. Trap floors. That's I mean, within a, like a, like in like a, a coffin of a floor empty purges. Wow. Yeah. Some crazy stuff.  

Stephen J: (07:03) 

A and you were able to travel because of this  

Scot: (07:04) 

Gig? No, that wasn't the unit I did predominantly travel. I traveled when I, uh, transitioned in, um, I think it was 99. I went to the future of task force. Okay. Which was, uh, in conjunction with the us marshals. I was one of the originals seven that track people around the world.  

Stephen J: (07:21) 

So your, your experience from patrol to narcotics to the warrants led you to that position.  

Scot: (07:27) 

Absolutely. Yeah. So you had a path. Yeah. I was a path. I lucky, lucky. Yeah. To get what I  

Stephen J: (07:33) 

Got. I mean, to, to me, it's always important for guys to pick their path if they can. And sometimes it's not your original path you thought.  

Scot: (07:39) 

Right. Well, you know, what's ironic is, is when I was a child and stuff, I would turn around and play hide and go seek with everybody. My close friends in a, a one room would a bed. And I couldn't find you now I'm looking for a needle and a haystack around the world and you really have to hone your skills. I learned a lot from being a, a future of a investigator a lot. You, you learn a lot about people, um, mannerisms, because I've walked into people's houses where I've walked out earlier when I was the Warren division and I missed them, they were hiding above me. They were SPRA on, uh, ceilings, people hiding the most craziest places. But if you're not looking above you, you wouldn't know that they were sure around on  

Stephen J: (08:19) 

You. Yeah. I mean, a, body's a hard thing to hide when you're actually looking for it. People  

Scot: (08:23) 

Are creative, they sure are. People are creative.  

Stephen J: (08:27) 

I'm sorry. Go ahead, Justin. So, so you kind of fell into the global traveling gig that wasn't an original intention that was just led up from the experience. No, I asked,  

Scot: (08:36) 

I, I volunteered to, to turn around transfer to the future, to taskforce, which was at the time, the first task force in the nation, which was based outta New York. Then they turned around and gravitated to, uh, Florida, I believe Chicago and LA. And they followed us suit. That was when, originally when we first turned around and started tracking, we dealt with anything that had to do with, uh, drugs, drug related homicides. And then it ended up going to the seven majors. Then we would've fix it for a lot of different agencies because people would contact our, uh, agency, the N Y P DS, a 35,000 man outfit. You'd have a situation where basically, uh, you go through a lot of doors to get nowhere because it's so many people. But what happened was is our unit ended up being a fix all for other states or other countries that come in. And we started handling all outside future of other authority cases. So if somebody's running live cop shootings, um, any kind of violent crimes, children crimes, we were the ones that went out and looked for you.  

Justin: (09:34) 

And are, were you actually doing the traveling around the world?  

Scot: (09:37) 

Oh, yes. Mm-hmm I was deputized with us Marshalls.  

Justin: (09:40) 

How does that work? Like what, like, what was the, uh, what's the environment like when you're in a, when you're in a different country, that's not your home country and your law enforcement. And I mean, that, that's wild to me. Like, how do you, how are you working with the other local agencies and  

Scot: (09:53) 

A lot, a lot of laughing, some of my best friends, I like, you know, earlier we were talking, I have friends from all around the world who are still actively doing police work. And, uh, in addition, um, it's just me in the private sector. Um, it's, it's the, it's the most bizarre thing. Yeah. Everybody works just  

Justin: (10:13) 

The language barrier alone, right? Yeah. We  

Scot: (10:15) 

Figure that out. I mean, I speak Spanglish, you know, on occasion. Yeah. So, uh I'm okay. But uh, other languages, you have somebody translate or, you know, people pretty, there's a common language in law enforcement. Laughing's laughing, you know, you know, you see funny stuff. It's funny stuff. No matter where you go, everywhere you go in the world, it's pretty much just like the United States. Wow.  

Stephen J: (10:36) 

So when you go to these other countries, it's to your point, you're not law enforcement, correct? No,  

Scot: (10:41) 

I'm actually, uh, and air quotes a, a  

Stephen J: (10:45) 

Civilian. So are you helping them? Are they helping you? Is it kind of a, yeah. They're  

Scot: (10:49) 

Helping effort, you know, they're helping us, but you know, what's funny is I've been told by a good friend of mine who I'll plug. He always says to me, he goes, Scott, where you go, you're always the  

Stephen J: (10:58) 

Police. Have you ever run into an issue where someone didn't wanna help you when you got there, where law enforcement wasn't friendly toward you?  

Scot: (11:04) 

No. I think the majority of stuff that happens with people, uh, some people are skeptical because your problem isn't their problem until you end up on their, on their soil, it, it could be something as simple as traveling from, um, New York city to the Midwest. I could be down in Nashville and like, these guys want to go home to their families. Right. That's why the whole concept of a federal task force is very important in tracking people because you get other people who are like minded.  

Stephen J: (11:34) 

Yeah. You get the best of the best you hope. Yeah. I hope right. It is. It's always, uh, a force multiplier. When you have multiple agencies working together, just the knowledge base that comes with that, I think is a huge asset. Plus the sharing of resources. I mean, yeah. NYP is 35,000, but you take seven guys who are eager, who are hungry. They want to go do that. They're helping everybody,  

Scot: (11:55) 

You know, it, it, it depends, you know, like, uh, I've worked in different areas. One area I worked off the top of my head, which brings to a point is, uh, West Virginia. I got together with a cl of guys. They're the salt of the earth. These are guys who, who, you know, wanna do what you want to do, but they have their own way. It, and now you come in there and you wanna run your program because it's your fugitive. But you know, they have their own idea on how to do it. So at the beginning you start off maybe a little, uh, salty, and then you worked a little bit, you know, on the same road. And when you catch the guy everybody's on the same page, you know?  

Stephen J: (12:29) 

Yeah. I went down to North Carolina once to looking for a fugitive and, uh, very rural community way out there. And the sheriff was the uncle of the fugitives brother and everybody was related. And we, you know, we told him where we were going and I'll have a deputy go by. Like, no, no, no, we don't need you to have a deputy go by. We're just letting you know, we're in town. And if you have any information and they did things a little bit slower and a little bit more overt, then we like to do, you know, we wanted to just, as you probably know, we surprise them. So there, yeah.  

Scot: (12:58) 

Yeah. Well, what happened was in my situation, the person who happened to be assigned to the task force, who was a, we called a TFO, uh, task force officer, which can be a local state or federal agent, you know, TFOs. And, uh, basically what happened was, is the individual I happened to be dealing with was a guy of rank. I believe he was a captain. He was a sharp guy, but he wanted to do it his way because he's a supervisor, you know, just, you know, investigators, aren't supervisors, supervisors, aren't investigators,  

Stephen J: (13:28) 

As he speaks to the good Lieutenant. Absolutely. so you're doing this manhunt, uh, fugitive task force. It's going really well. You're coming to the end of your career. And you're saying, Hey, how can I use my skills? And, and where, where does the business start? Cause to me, this is intriguing.  

Scot: (13:45) 

I always wanted to do private investigative work when I retired. Um,  

Stephen J: (13:49) 

Cause a Magnum PI like back in the day watching, nah,  

Scot: (13:52) 

Nah. When I tried to Ferrari nah, nah of that.  

Stephen J: (13:55) 

That's what I picture, right? That's  

Scot: (13:57) 

No, it's funny. I don't have either of those, I drive a 2010 pickup truck um, I, I get, it is what it is. I, I, you know, is, I don't know if that's what it was. I think that, uh, my passion to help people didn't go away and with today's climate, uh, law, enforcement's been pretty much shunned, which it shouldn't because without law enforcement, you couldn't have, you know, simple things as far as walking, outta your house, being safe. And I think a lot of people take that for granted, for sure. Um, amen. Um, I, I, I believe that I'm doing a lot of work. Believe it or not, that ties into law enforcement criminal work because what's happening is I build cases for individual people and then they turn around, take the case and they might turn around and pursue it by going through a, a prosecutor.  

Scot: (14:42) 

They pick up where I left off and they hand it to either, you know, city, state, or federal investigators on some occasions. I also do all the work where I'm involved in, uh, defense work, probably about 25 to 30% of my work is defense work, maybe a little bit more. And I represent people that have been arrested by the police. So it's on the other side of the spectrum where people like have a concept, you know, if you do that, oh, everybody's innocent. There are people that are innocent. There are a lot of people that are, what,  

Justin: (15:09) 

What does that look like? Uh, on the, on the prosecution side, you you're building this case and then you're handing off to someone else. Uh, what, what is that? How does that process kind of play out? What does that  

Scot: (15:19) 

Resistant, resistant resistant? It's not a, they don't look at me necessarily as a, a welcome Matt. They  

Justin: (15:27) 

Don't because they've, they like law enforcement has decided to reject this case for, or one reason or another. And now someone's hiring someone to prove that it is a legitimate case or on,  

Scot: (15:36) 

On all occasion. Not necessarily. Sometimes what happens is, is basically in my opinion, in my opinion, um, you're just generating more work. The, the, the, the, the system is already overloaded. I'm bringing more to the, to the  

Justin: (15:49) 

Table. Like what, what's a scenario where one comes to you?  

Scot: (15:53) 

Oh, well, a lot of white collar crimes aren't being pursued. So if you happen to be somebody who's been, you know, cheated out of a lot, a lot, a lot of money,  

Justin: (15:59) 

Like a black male situation,  

Scot: (16:01) 

A black male, or, or it might be, you know, commercial. I do a lot of commercial and corporate work too, which probably makes up about another 30% of my work, 40%  

Justin: (16:09) 

Of my work. Right? So this is something where like, someone from JP Morgan calls, you know, local police and says, Hey, someone stole some money. And they're just like, yeah,  

Scot: (16:16) 

Whatever, we'll get to most of that. Most of that stuff, they don't want, they don't want any of that kind of attention. So you go with a, they go with one guy like me, because they want somebody to do it on a discreet level. They don't want it blown up in the media that they've been that've, they've been preyed on. Sometimes being preyed on is by people within the company who are involved in, uh, upper management.  

Justin: (16:37) 

Are, are there situations where someone enlists you and then you end up later on refusing it because you realize for one reason or another, that it's not a legitimate case or no.  

Scot: (16:46) 

Uh, most of the stuff I do deal with is, is it has happened. Um, do I, am I a fact finder? Sure. My fact finder, yeah. The truth is the truth. The truth will set  

Stephen J: (16:55) 

You free, but I'm ventured to guess a lot of the cases that you're working law enforcement either doesn't have the time, or you run into those jurisdictional issues where the cop says, yeah, your credit card was used. That's not my problem. Or I can't do anything about it. And you have the freedom.  

Scot: (17:10) 

Yeah. I do have the freedom. The, the problem here is, is unfortunately you get in a situation where people either are limited on money to turn around and retain my services long term. So I, I end up turning around and volunteering a lot of time. So it's probably not cost effective in me at times, but that's the part of me. That's the retired, you know, detective, I want to help people and I want to give resolution to some people, some and I also, other types of work I do, I do. Um, I do custodial work, which is really a big field. And a lot of people are hurting because the system is taxed. And when I say custodial work, I'm talking, you know, you and your wife go through a separation and your wife or your husband has some kind of substance abuse. And now you're worried about the safety of your child. What's the cost. You'll turn around to get a resolution on that one, ask yourself how you know, you'll go through mountains to protect your child. Unfortunately, the system's not equipped to help people, or, you know, with substance abuse, parents are turning around in housing, young adults who are substance abusers, and they have  

Stephen J: (18:17) 

No way out. I venture to guess, you're seeing more cases come to you in the climate that we're in today, where law enforcement is really being shut down in some communities, the budgets are being cut, defund. The pool lease is happening, you know, are, are, is that the, is that the fold to you is where they're saying, Hey, Scott, help me. I, I just, they don't have the help.  

Scot: (18:37) 

It is. Yeah, absolutely. The problem here is, is I'm just a one man shop. Sure. I'm one person. And you know, when you turn around and you pick and choose what you want to do, it's, it's a blessing. But at the same time, it's tough the times because you have people that are in need of your help and you're limited. Not because I can't do it. It just, there's only so much time in one day. Sure.  

Stephen J: (18:58) 

What's one of the craziest PI requests you've had from a potential client  

Scot: (19:02) 

Or client international work, as far as checking into, uh, real estate issues. But you don't know what you're checking. You don't know if what the people are asking of you is what they're really asking. You know, you only know what they tell you. Sure. So that's another part of the investigation that most people don't realize I'm trying to vet what I'm asked to be, what I'm asked  

Stephen J: (19:23) 

To do. Well, that's kind of what I was asking before. Like, do you ever get into a situation where like you start digging into something and say, whoa, whoa, what am I, what am I doing here? This is absolutely. Or,  

Scot: (19:31) 

Or, or I'm in a situation where somebody wants me to go interview somebody and they want me to walk up to a house and they use, uh, another situation. They sell it to myself as one thing, but it's really another thing. So I have to worry about my safety. You know, I'm, I'm lucky because through the years now, I'm networking with a bunch of other guys who I've known through the years. Now we're all starting to intertwine from interstate. So like there's individuals who are private investigators who ask me, Hey, Scott, I'm going down to the city. Hey, would you come with me? Because you don't know what you're stepping into. I've been in some really crazy situations as a private investigator. If I didn't do undercover work prior, I wouldn't really know how to handle myself. I'd probably be, uh, majorly uncomfortable with the situation because it can go from zero to hundred real fast. And, and remember I'm by myself. I don't have a police radio on me. I'm  

Stephen J: (20:17) 

Solo. Yeah. You're not calling in backup. Oh, no, no, no gets dangerous. Once again, though, we're talking about the network. Yeah. He's got the network of other PIs guys off the job. That's correct. That's a, that's a theme that we hear time and time again is that network. Yep. And that's so, so very important for, for guys throughout their, to remember, to make that network for whatever you do in, in the next step. Yeah.  

Scot: (20:36) 

I, I've been fortunate. The people that I network with, you know, I've taught me a lot. They've mentored me. Um, they've made me who I am. I'm blessed in that respect of ha being around a good circle. You know, it hasn't been an easy ride. I mean, I've, I've been exposed to a lot of crazy stuff, uh, drama, and it takes this toll. You know, you get, you get cooked after a while. You know, especially being a one man shop, I'm such a, I'm such a intensively into what I do. It's hard for me retain other people to do work with me because I have a certain worth work ethic and I want it getting done my way. Right. So in I respect, I probably would've been a terrible Lieutenant.  

Stephen J: (21:16) 

well, we can't all be the good Lieutenant. Can we . So would you think that this is a field that's growing?  

Scot: (21:22) 

Oh yeah, absolutely. The problem though is, is people don't give it enough time. when they first start. And I guess, um, because of that, they jump out of it. I just, I found my passion. This is what I like doing this. I like, I like, I like doing this type of work. I like doing defense work. I like, you know,  

Stephen J: (21:42) 

How many times do you get hired by a client and what they think they're gonna find out. It's quite the op a sit quite often. How will those conversations go quite  

Scot: (21:51) 

Often? And, and that's something when you're doing defense work, when you find facts to cases, you know, a lot of people want the story to be their story. You know, there's always three sides, every story, right? Sure. There's your side, my side and the truth. The truth. Absolutely.  

Stephen J: (22:03) 

What was the process? I mean, you were getting ready to retire. You wanted to start the business. What, what were the steps that were like you didn't know about or took longer than you than you thought? Well, I  

Scot: (22:13) 

Didn't leave. Um, I was kind of pushed off the PD by, by my, my old Lieutenant who, wasn't a bad Lieutenant who wasn't, who, wasn't a good guy like you, but it's okay. I guess my work ethic was too tenacious. What I didn't expect was the business end of it. I'm not a business guy. I, I, wasn't running a lemonade stand before I left the PD. And that part's very difficult for me. You gotta, you gotta bill for what you do. You know? I mean, a lot of times I get so caught up in it and I'm one guy I'm, I'm the secretary. I'm, I'm the accountant. I'm the, I'm the investigator. You  

Stephen J: (22:44) 

Forget what your time is actually worth.  

Scot: (22:46) 

That's correct. And, and that's an other thing too. I mean, I charge a certain price. I probably should get more because basically how it works and stuff is a lot of the bigger companies. They charge more, but they pay less to the investigator, hiring a guy like me is not easy because I'm one guy. Sure. I can pick and choose what job I wanna do and don't want to do. Yeah, this  

Justin: (23:07) 

Is a, this is a challenge. You know, I like be from the business perspective, this is a challenge that a lot of business owners have in general because a lot of people when they fall into their business, uh it's because they have a passion for a certain thing, not necessarily accounting and, and you know, all this peripheral stuff. So, you know, in your case, it sounds crazy because you've got the, uh, the business side of it that you have to learn. You've got the logistical side of it because now you're essentially performing like a, a quasi law enforcement duty as a civilian in international territories. Right? Sure. Uh, and then you have your actual work, the job in the investigating and the passion that you have. Uh, so it is, I, I, I give you a lot of credit. It's, uh, it's tough to, to put those three things together, uh, is challenging for anyone  

Scot: (23:50) 

It's easy. Any business? Yeah. It's not, it's not only not easy. It's just like, I'm not, I'm not a tech guy. I'm I I've always been blessed. The people I around, I was around some of the best guys in the game, whether it be N Y P D Marshalls. These were the guys, these guys are the guys, these, these are the best, the best. The problem is, is I'm not a tech guy. I'm not even good at operating my iPhone, you know, but I'm good at catching you and  

Justin: (24:13) 

Well, we'll show you the dark web version of this podcast afterwards. and there goes, that can of works.  

Scot: (24:19) 

Thank you, Justin.  

Justin: (24:20) 

Well, the one thing, I mean, you bring up tech, I mean, that's a, that's a whole nother tool you, uh, that police and law enforcement are using, but we we've that like, I used to get in trouble all the time in elementary school, middle school. Cause I am a tech guy and I was always doing, you know, stupid and was always getting in trouble for it. But like back then, you know, there was no, they, no adults didn't know, like they literally had no idea. Like if you called the cops and said someone, uh, Jack my AOL account, they just laugh at and be like, yeah, what are we gonna do about it? And it is weird to see how that has, you know, in my lifetime has evolved into, you know, people go to school now and get degrees in cybersecurity, network security and just the forensic app of everything that we're touching. That's electronic. Now I know for a fact law enforcement and isn't keeping up with the technology and that's a huge void. Yeah. So I see PI work or may just be contracted work, coming to a head where they're gonna offer that service. Yeah. At  

Scot: (25:17) 

A whole nother level, 100% I think to, yeah, well, what's gonna happen here is, is, is if the PD doesn't turn around and recruit more because obviously it's not the flavor of the day to become a cop. Hopefully the pendulum swings back and it is, um, that's the problem that I think we're gonna have, not just nationwide, worldwide, it has a bigger effect on people than people think a hundred percent, you know? I mean, and, and, and that's the one thing I kind of like caught working in third world countries is that when I was in their world countries, I think people, when they're walking around, even though it looks safe, it really isn't safe. And even if they didn't, you know, they had that one cop, they see, who's probably making a nickel on a dollar compared to us. They welcome that nickel on a dollar because they know it's less likely that they're gonna be a victim.  

Justin: (26:06) 

Yeah. I mean, we we've had this discussion, you know, as the, as the civilian producer, uh, I go down to New York city back in the day. Well, you know, three years ago back in the day, uh, you know, you'd see an N Y P D on every corner. I, I always felt safe there. Uh, but I I've told you this, uh, like, you know, go to, uh, Philadelphia for example. And I would be there for two or three days. I, I wouldn't see a single cop any, anywhere in the city. And it was terrifying at night. That's actually,  

Scot: (26:30) 

That's actually the, both of us because I, I did a lot of work in Philadelphia. Yeah. I never, I never, I never, the only Philadelphia guys, I saw the guys in the group and the task force. Right.  

Justin: (26:38) 

And I don't know if it actually, you know, does that mean, is it really safer? It sure felt safer when I was, uh, you know, a yellow way from law enforcement versus looking around saying, oh my God,  

Scot: (26:49) 

There's nobody around. I think, I think prior management of the city of New York did a better job at managing. Yeah. I think, uh, the, the current administration dropped the ball and giving an appearance is pretty much important than no appearance.  

Stephen J: (27:04) 

Deterrence is a huge factor in law enforcement, right? Mere presence is a deterrence. Yeah. Not many crimes. There's certain crimes that still will be committed in, in front of law enforcement. Most criminals see a cop and go the other way, mere facts, you see a police car, you drive the other way. If you were about to commit a crime, it's just the mere presence in. And right now in, in our society, the cops are becoming victims just by being out there in their uniform for what they wear, not for who they are. And that's the problem.  

Scot: (27:33) 

Well, more than you, more than you think. I mean, it only takes one time for something to go wrong somewhere in the United States for somebody to acknowledge it. And it becomes news. The question is, is, is the media really showing that story? Maybe that's not a narrative that the media wants you to see. Of course  

Stephen J: (27:50) 

Not. Of course not. Scott, you can go back and talk to your 21 year old self or someone who's 21 now and wants to get to where you've you are. You've been, what, what would you say to that, that 21 year old Scott out  

Scot: (28:02) 

There retain better writing skills? Because I think, uh, as, uh, an investigator, it's important to be able to write, um, I think, uh, maybe not as combative, I think start off with a softer foot. Literally I learned, I learned, I learned a lot from being around investigators that were, uh, older than me and those guys back in a day, were all guys seven, eight years older than me. They were really knowledgeable. One of them told me back in the day we walked out, we walked out doing an interview and I just came out in our into the future of taskforce. I'll never forget this. And he said to me, he goes, uh, so I said to him, Hey, how do you think I did? And like I thought I was on top bit of world, man. I'm a, I'm an ex N Y P D uh, narcotics investigator. You know, I'm on top of the world in the federal task force. And I thought I did a pretty good interview. Now this take it. This guy would sit down and drink coffee with people for like 10 hours just to get one little bit of piece of information was gonna take him to the promised land. So I turned around. So, you know, how do you think I did? And he goes, want the truth. He goes, you sucked. And that, from that day on, I worked on becoming a better investigator.  

Stephen J: (29:14) 

It's definitely the old school guys that will take you under your wing. And it could be simple as you sucked that, opens it up and makes you pay more attention. So how do I, how do I do it better? What skills can I learn from from you? I learned a lot means  

Scot: (29:26) 

A lot. I learned, I learned a lot. I think, I think though, a lot of the guys after me didn't want to hear what I had to say, where I was the other way around. I was, I was, I would've listened to anybody. Tell me, you know, it only takes a few bad times of learning something. That's misinformation, not bad information, but misinformation, you go to court and you know, you're testifying on something that wasn't proper protocol and you get embarrassed and you wake up. That's not the way you do it. Stay within the lines and it's gonna work out better. And only that you're gonna get a positive result either way  

Stephen J: (30:01) 

Percent. And Scott, tell me, how do you define hero?  

Scot: (30:07) 

Oh, there's heroes every day, the guys who, uh, quest to do the job, I believe anybody has the potential of being a hero. If they put aside their own. I, I, I, I think you need to really want to quest working. If you don't have a good work ethic. Anybody who goes to work with a work ethic in law enforcement is usually a hero one way or another. It might not be hero where you're seen in front of thousands of people on a television, but that one person who gives you a thank you, I've had those one, people give, those are more that make more to me of a, a humility issue than anything.  

Stephen J: (30:46) 

Well, Scott, everybody that comes on this podcast so far, and I, I venture to say in the future, including yourself, is a hero to us. We appreciate what you're doing, what you've done. There's countless amount of people that you've probably saved and kept safe by hunting those bad guys and getting them off the street worldwide. So thank you for being a hero. We appreciate everything you done. Yeah. Thank you so much,  

Justin: (31:07) 

Man. It's been an absolute honor meeting you and talking to you today. You're  

Scot: (31:09) 

Welcome. Thank you.  

Stephen J: (31:13) 

Once again, an amazing guest  

Justin: (31:15) 

That was unbelievable. That was really wild to, to hear this guy's story and all the places he's been and all the things that is done. And I  

Stephen J: (31:23) 

Don't even think we scratched the surface with the amount of travel he did. We talked about international travel, but I know that he traveled throughout just the United States man hunting. Yeah.  

Justin: (31:32) 

My guess is we only got 1% of the whole story  

Stephen J: (31:35) 

And knowing Scott, we could probably bring him back in a couple more stories. Uh, and Scott has already led us onto many more guests as well.  

Justin: (31:41) 

Oh yeah. He had an impress of lists of contacts and I'm, I'm sure his network is gonna be awesome for this podcast.  

Stephen J: (31:47) 

So once again, here's a guy that takes his skills from his job. And I think it was again, like, I think I said in the beginning skills that normally people would think of about making a business and he had to educate himself more on the business aspect then really on, uh, the man hunting and being able to work as that pro I have an investigator. Yeah.  

Justin: (32:04) 

And, and basically use all those police skills in the private sector for profit. It's amazing.  

Stephen J: (32:09) 

And if you wanna hire Scott or you have questions that maybe Scott can help, Justin's gonna throw you the information. Yeah.  

Justin: (32:16) 

It's gear hire investigations. Uh, you can contact Scott via email at PI gear, hire.net.  

Stephen J: (32:25) 

Well, once again, thank you for listening to behind the tin and hearing about our heroes and what they do when the tin is off. Please make sure you like follow us, share us subscribe. Uh, if you know someone else that should be on our show, feel free to contact us@behindthetenatgmail.com. Visit behind the ten.com for more information about being a cocktail over conversation sponsor, whether you buy us a drink or around they're both on there. Uh, take care of one another. God bless you.