Episode 17
1986 Miami Shootout, Plane Crash Premonition, Escaping a Wildfire (Halloween Special)
What happens when an FBI agent’s ordinary morning becomes the 1986 Miami shootout, a woman escapes a burning plane she believes she has already seen in her dreams, and a school board president must keep moving children to safety as a wildfire closes in on his own family?
On Episode 17 of I Used To Work There, Kelly Kennedy welcomes you to our first Halloween Special. Seven true workplace stories take us from a California prison and an unexpected encounter with Britney Spears to a devastating workplace injury, a raging wildfire, a burning aircraft and a fight for survival that made history.
We start on the Day Shift and get progressively darker as the episode unfolds. Every story you hear happened to someone just like you. Stay until the end for former FBI Special Agent Ed Mireles’ firsthand account of surviving the 1986 Miami shootout.
Day Shift opens with Wendi, a California corrections officer who has just joined her prison’s emergency response team. A routine equipment check goes wrong in front of two shifts of colleagues, earning her an unfortunate nickname. Then comes a late-night training exercise, a shotgun she has never fired and a phone call nobody wants to make at one in the morning.
Sheila follows with a boss who has a few things to say about her tattoos and smoke breaks. Sheila has a few things to say right back. When he challenges her break schedule, she asks him a question about his sales department that brings the conversation to a quick conclusion.
Then Michelle takes us to a Los Angeles grocery store where celebrity sightings are part of the job. While she is putting up sale signs, a misunderstanding with Britney Spears and Kevin Federline turns into an unexpected rescue from the paparazzi. Behind the scenes, Michelle discovers just how much a little kindness can mean to someone who rarely gets a moment of privacy.
When Night Shift begins, Dan recalls hearing screams over the radio at a countertop manufacturer. Down in the warehouse, a granite slab has broken and fallen onto his friend, causing a devastating leg injury. Dan accompanies him to the hospital, translating between Spanish and English through a frightening experience neither of them will forget.
Tom Pratt shares the day a California wildfire turned the sky orange and sent him racing home to his wife and young children. As president of the local school board, he is also helping coordinate school evacuations. Each time the children move, the fire threatens their next location. With burning embers falling on his own home, Tom must help get the students to safety while deciding when his family needs to leave.
Donna Hartley was travelling to Hawaii for a work assignment when she boarded Continental Airlines Flight 603 on March 1, 1978. Before boarding, an overwhelming sense of dread led her to demand a different seat. When the aircraft crashed during an aborted takeoff and caught fire, Donna found herself fighting to escape a scene she says she had already dreamed about. Her story feels like something out of Final Destination, but the disaster and her fight to survive were real. What happened afterward gave her another reason to find her voice.
Finally, Ed Mireles, calling from Virginia, takes us back to April 11, 1986. A morning of FBI surveillance in Miami becomes a violent confrontation that leaves two agents dead and five others injured. Ed describes the moments that nearly killed him, the friends he lost and the years he spent asking whether he could have done anything differently. It is a deeply personal account of an event that helped reshape police weapons, tactics and training across America.
Episode Chapters
00:00:00 Cold Open
00:00:41 Welcome to Our First Halloween Special
00:02:00 Wendi: Misfire at the Prison
00:05:42 Sheila: Tattoos, Smoke Breaks and Sales
00:08:19 Michelle: Helping Britney Spears Escape the Paparazzi
00:13:46 Entering the Night Shift
00:16:23 Dan: A Granite Slab and a Devastating Injury
00:21:23 Tom Pratt: Escaping a Wildfire
00:27:59 Donna Hartley: Plane Crash Premonition
00:42:17 Ed Mireles: The 1986 Miami Shootout
01:08:00 Clocking Out
Featured Storytellers
Ed Mireles
Read more of Ed’s firsthand account in FBI Miami Firefight: Five Minutes That Changed the Bureau, written with his wife and fellow retired FBI agent, Elizabeth Mireles.
You can also explore Hostage: Seven Days in Captivity and LALO: Undercover Tales of Money, Drugs, and Lies through his official website.
Donna Hartley
Learn more about Donna’s story, speaking and personal development work through her official website.
Visit Donna Hartley’s website.
Tom Pratt — Delos Insurance Solutions
Tom’s experience with wildfire helped shape his commitment to supporting homeowners and affected communities. Learn more about his work with Delos Insurance Solutions, which uses wildfire science and technology to help provide homeowners insurance in California.
Learn more about Delos Insurance Solutions.
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Listen Next
Keep your Night Shift going with Episode 14: Held Hostage for 31 Months, Revenge on a Magician, Haunted Hospital.
Or discover Trapped in a Car Vending Machine, Haunted Hotel, Runaway CEO.
Have a Story? You Can Submit It Two Ways.
I Used To Work There is your show, your stories. Wild, funny, terrifying or unexplainable, if it happened at work and it’s true, we want to hear it.
Pull out your phone, open the Voice Memos app, tell us what happened, and email your recording to HR@IUsedToWorkThere.com.
Prefer to be interviewed? Complete our guest intake form.
You can share your story openly or remain completely anonymous.
Employee of the Month Night Shift Story Competition
What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you at work?
Presented by Edmonton’s Best Hotels, the Night Shift Story Competition closes October 31, 2026.
Submit and record your true scary workplace story by October 31 for your chance to win a $1,000 USD cash prize. We’ll crown our Employee of the Month during the first episode of November.
Ghosts, monsters, terrifying customers, dangerous situations or something you still cannot explain. Your story does not have to involve a ghost or happen at night. It just needs to be a frightening experience connected to work.
Voice memo and interview submissions are both welcome, and you may share your story anonymously. Submit using the email address or guest intake form above.
If you’re sitting on a scary workplace story, our next Employee of the Month could be you.
Night Shift Story Competition Sponsor
The Employee of the Month Night Shift Story Competition is proudly presented by Edmonton’s Best Hotels.
Plan a fall getaway to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. From exploring the river valley to live music, theatre, restaurants and seasonal attractions, there is plenty to build a weekend around.
Discover things to do and book your stay through Edmonton’s Best Hotels.
Support Foxx’s Fight
If you have been looking for a way to support Foxx, Shelby, Kelly and their family, sharing their GoFundMe is a meaningful way to help. Every share helps their story reach someone new and means more than words can express.
Support Foxx’s Fight and share their story.
Title Sponsor
I Used To Work There is proudly brought to you by Atlas Elite Lifts.
Building car lifts so cool they would make Batman jealous, Atlas Elite Lifts delivers premium automotive lifting solutions for home garages, professional shops and serious automotive enthusiasts across North America.
Whether you are restoring classics, wrenching on weekend projects, or running a professional service facility, Atlas Elite Lifts has a lift built for the job.
Learn more at www.atlaselitelifts.com.
Transcript
You really are looking at a dead guy.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I mean, I should have could have been shot and killed seven or eight or nine different times during that gunfight.
Speaker B:Welcome back to I Used to Work There.
Speaker B:I'm your host, Kelly Kennedy, and welcome to our first Halloween special.
Speaker B:We've just crossed 10,000 followers on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker B:Whether you're new or have been with us from the very beginning, thank you.
Speaker B:This show is about your stories, and every story you hear today is true and happened to somebody just like you.
Speaker B:If something happened to you at work, I want to hear it.
Speaker B:Submit your story to hr.
Speaker B:Used to work there.
Speaker B:Dot com.
Speaker B: s ever from a survivor of the: Speaker B:Grab your punch cards, people.
Speaker B:It's time to clock in for the day shift.
Speaker B:Our first story of the day comes from Wendy in Los Angeles, California.
Speaker B:Wendy worked as a corrections officer and had just joined the prison's emergency response team, their version of swat.
Speaker B:But before she could put her new training to the test, a routine equipment check earned her a nickname she would not soon forget.
Speaker B:Wende.
Speaker B:Welcome to the show.
Speaker B:Tell us what happened.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I was a young woman working as a corrections officer in a prison in California, and I had just earned the honorable distinction of becoming a cert member, which is like swat, but it's for the jail.
Speaker C:And when you are a cert member, you get to do all kinds of cool things.
Speaker C:One thing we got to have was a Taser.
Speaker C:Wow, that's exciting.
Speaker C:And one thing that you do with a Taser when you're about to begin your shift is there's a little tip on the end of it that you take off and you do a little dry run to make sure it works properly for your shift.
Speaker C:Well, I had worked a few shifts in a row, a few too many shifts in a row, and did not take off.
Speaker C:The end the tip of the Taser before I did my dry run.
Speaker C:Thankfully, I had good habits.
Speaker C:And I pointed it down to the ground and discharged it.
Speaker C:And when I did, it shot the ground.
Speaker C:And there was a little concrete sort of flying around where it hit, and everybody stopped.
Speaker C:There were two shifts coming on, coming off in the break room, everybody stopped and stared at me.
Speaker C:And I thought to myself, wow, I'm so glad I tested this.
Speaker C:It's not working right.
Speaker C:And then it really sunk in.
Speaker C:What I had done was actually just Shoot the break room floor with the tapir.
Speaker C:My sergeant called me into his office.
Speaker C:I had to explain to him how this transpired.
Speaker C:It wasn't the best first day on the job as a cert member, but, you know, I did get a nickname, misfire.
Speaker C:So that's a nice.
Speaker C:It was a nice distinction.
Speaker C:And that was only the first time that I earned a nickname while I was working there.
Speaker C:And the second time, somewhat related, but different.
Speaker C:My sergeant thought it would be a great idea to do a call out in the middle of the night at 1am and bring us into the jail and clear out one of the pods full of people and put them somewhere else so that we could practice in an actual unit.
Speaker C:And I had never held a shotgun in my hand before, only handguns.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I had no experience.
Speaker C:And there's a bit of a difference between them.
Speaker C:If anybody here knows about those differences.
Speaker C:I explained I'd never had one.
Speaker C:He said, no problem.
Speaker C:You've got this.
Speaker C:And my job was to point the 12 gauge at an upper level tier door and discharge it with a beanbag munition.
Speaker C:A less lethal munition.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I went just a little bit higher to where I was supposed to and I shot out a cell window.
Speaker C:It was mortifying.
Speaker C:And my sergeant said, okay, well, you're the one who has to call the commander because you're the one who shot out the window at 1am she was not that happy.
Speaker C:We had a great relationship.
Speaker C:But she didn't sound happy when I called her.
Speaker C:And I had to explain to her that I needed maintenance sent out at 1am to repair a cell window because I shot it out.
Speaker C:That was my special day at work.
Speaker C:I'm glad after 20 years I can talk about it.
Speaker C:I think there's a few years when I didn't even tell anyone this story.
Speaker B:Well, thank you for sharing it with us.
Speaker B:It's an incredible story.
Speaker B:And honestly, I kind of feel like it's your sergeant's fault.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like, who just is.
Speaker B:Like, here, you'll do fine.
Speaker B:Here's a 12 gauge.
Speaker C:Exactly right.
Speaker C:I appreciate that, Kelly.
Speaker C:I feel validated and this was part of my healing journey.
Speaker C:I appreciate you.
Speaker B:Thank you so much, Wendy, and very much.
Speaker B:Look forward to future stories.
Speaker C:Thank you, Kelly.
Speaker C:Have a great day.
Speaker B:Who gives someone a shotgun and just hopes for the best?
Speaker B:Anyways, thank you again, Wendy from a prison in California.
Speaker B:We're heading to Alberta, Canada.
Speaker B:Please welcome our next caller, Sheila.
Speaker B:Her boss had a few things to say about her tattoos and smoke breaks.
Speaker B:And Sheila had a few Things to say right back.
Speaker B:Sheila, welcome to the show.
Speaker B:Tell us what happened.
Speaker D:Well, I had been recently hired to this, one of the first laser cartridge recycling companies.
Speaker D:So we go to this barbecue, and I was a lot younger then, wearing shorts and a tank top and whatever.
Speaker D:So we're in the 90s.
Speaker D:Back then, things were a little different than now.
Speaker D:I have tattoos.
Speaker D:I have four of them.
Speaker D:That was a rebel.
Speaker D:Now it's kind of an artistic license with your body.
Speaker D:So anyways, my poor boss comes up to me and he says, I didn't know you had tattoos.
Speaker D:And I went, I didn't know it was a job requirement.
Speaker D:So he was kind of like, yeah, a little different.
Speaker D:So anyways, the poor guy, I really threw him through a loop on more than one occasion.
Speaker D:I had a lot of different roles in this company, including this is before WI Fi.
Speaker D:So I recall sitting in the office going, like, anybody think this is actually going to work?
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker D:Obviously it did, because we're here today.
Speaker D:But, yeah, in amongst being a computer person and setting up policies and procedures, I was in sales, and I was good at it because I'm personable, I like talking to people.
Speaker D:So I was also a smoker.
Speaker D:So a lot of breaks.
Speaker D:Every hour I'd go outside and have my smoke, and Bob comes out to me one day and he said, do you know that your breaks are supposed to be at 10?
Speaker D:One for lunch and one at 2:30?
Speaker D:And I went, yeah.
Speaker D:He's like, it's 9 o'.
Speaker D:Clock.
Speaker D:And I went, bob, how many people do you have in your sales department?
Speaker D:And he went, four.
Speaker D:I said, could you tell me who sells more than the other three combined?
Speaker D:Well, you do.
Speaker D:Okay, well, if it's not broke, do you want to fix it?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:The poor guy just went again, turned around and walked away.
Speaker D:And nothing was ever said.
Speaker D:Whenever I wanted to go, have a.
Speaker B:Break, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Speaker B:Sheila, that's a great story.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for coming and sharing it with us.
Speaker D:You bet.
Speaker D:You have an awesome day.
Speaker B:Turns out when you're outselling the rest of your team combined, you've actually got a pretty good argument for that smoke break.
Speaker B:Our next caller is Michelle from San Diego.
Speaker B:Working at a grocery store in Los Angeles meant seeing a few famous faces.
Speaker B:But one encounter with Britney Spears turned into a workday she'll never forget.
Speaker B:Michelle, welcome back to the show.
Speaker B:Tell us what happened.
Speaker F:Oh, it's my pleasure.
Speaker F:Thank you for having me.
Speaker F:The first one.
Speaker F:So, a little backstory.
Speaker F:I worked at Whole Foods Market.
Speaker F:I worked there for 14 years, and the beginning of my career was in Los Angeles, and I worked in Brentwood, so it was the celebrity mecca.
Speaker F:Every Thursday was sales changeover, and I helped out the grocery department with my putting up their sales signs because they had a ton of sales signs for ads week.
Speaker F:And I also was seven, eight months pregnant with my firstborn son, who is now 20 years old.
Speaker F:So I'm on the floor, I'm wearing half apron because I'm also overwhelmingly pregnant.
Speaker F:And I'm just putting up sale signs, minding my own business, enjoying the day.
Speaker F:The next thing I hear is a bunch of noises.
Speaker F:And with this particular location, there are a lot of celebrities that come in.
Speaker F:And we have this rule where we do not let paparazzi into the store.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker F:We let everybody, customers as well as celebrities, come in and shop, you know, without any issues with that, without any distractions.
Speaker F:So we hear a lot of noises.
Speaker F:And I'm thinking, oh, somebody just came into the store, not realizing who it was because I was on the sales floor.
Speaker F:Now I'm on my knees on a pad, very much safe within, you know, regulation of being somebody who's pregnant.
Speaker F:And this gentleman just comes blasting by me, and I'm like, okay, what the heck?
Speaker F:Like, is this the person that is trying to run from the paparazzi?
Speaker G:Yeah.
Speaker F:And then all of a sudden, I'm, like, looking down the AIs at him, and all of a sudden, they hear Kevin, oh, my gosh, I can't believe you knocked over this old.
Speaker F:This lady.
Speaker F:She's pregnant.
Speaker F:Kevin, come back and help her.
Speaker F:All of a sudden, this lady is, like, picking, like, grabbing my arm and helping me up.
Speaker F:And I'm holding up the paper signs.
Speaker F:I'm holding up the sign holders that I use.
Speaker F:And I turn around, and there's Britney Spears.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker F:And I'm like, I'm totally fine.
Speaker F:I'm totally okay.
Speaker F:I work here.
Speaker F:Name tag.
Speaker F:She sees my name tag.
Speaker F:She's like, oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker F:If there's anything I can do.
Speaker F:Let me give you my lawyer's information.
Speaker F:We will happy to pay for all the medical bills.
Speaker F:And I'm like, you didn't do anything.
Speaker F:Like, he didn't do anything.
Speaker F:He just ran past me.
Speaker F:Like, it's okay.
Speaker F:Like, you can.
Speaker F:You can just tell that she always is on the defensive.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker F:You know, especially when she interacts with people in public.
Speaker F:And so I was like, no, no, no.
Speaker F:Everything is okay.
Speaker F:And of course, Kevin comes running back down the aisle, he apologizes And I'm like, you guys, it's totally okay.
Speaker F:Like, don't even worry about it.
Speaker F:And finally, I just looked at them and said, are you guys okay?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker F:And they're like, all we're trying to do is get back to our driver.
Speaker F:You know, we just went in real quick to grab something to eat and go back to the house, and all this paparazzi found us, and they've been following us.
Speaker F:We can't get back to our car.
Speaker F:And they're just.
Speaker F:They're standing outside the door because security won't let them in.
Speaker F:And I go, okay, well, we have a game plan.
Speaker F:We have a plan for when the situation happens.
Speaker F:And so we have a code word that we used to use.
Speaker F:I don't remember said code word, but I had my walkie talkie, and I said that code word.
Speaker F:And my boss came downstairs.
Speaker F:He managed the paparazzi.
Speaker F:I took Brittany and Kevin to the back room, and I'm walking through the back room with Britney Spears and Kevin Federline.
Speaker F:Everybody's looking at me going, what the heck is going on?
Speaker F:And we're standing there, and I get them some cold water.
Speaker F:Kevin uses the bathroom.
Speaker F:And in the meantime, I tell Brittany, call your driver.
Speaker F:Because we have, like, this roundabout driveway with four delivery trucks.
Speaker F:They go in one driveway, drop off to delivery, they leave another driveway, and they're on their way.
Speaker F:And I said, tell your driver to come through the back, and we'll get you out of here safe and sound.
Speaker F:And so for those few minutes that we're waiting for her driver to get back to the back door, we're just chatting.
Speaker F:Nothing crazy, nothing.
Speaker F:But you could tell she was visibly.
Speaker F:Visibly stressed out, and her anxiety was through the roof.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker F:And so driver pulls up, he gets out, opens the door for Brittany.
Speaker F:Kevin hops in, and then Brittany gives me this hug, says, thank you so much.
Speaker F:I appreciate your kindness.
Speaker F:And she hops in the car, and she leaves.
Speaker F:And I never see her again.
Speaker F:But that, to me, just showed me how human celebrities are absolutely anxiety they go through, and the fact that we were able to just kind of give her some, you know, sanctuary for that brief amount of time, it's just.
Speaker F:That's why we do what we did at that particular store, because they just.
Speaker F:Paparazzi are ruthless, and celebrities are just trying to live their lives and enjoy things.
Speaker F:So I was very much like, did that just happen?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, it's pretty cool that you got to save the day for Britney Spears.
Speaker F:It was.
Speaker F:It's.
Speaker F:I.
Speaker F:It's not the first time it's happened for a celebrity.
Speaker F:But for me, I just.
Speaker F:You know what?
Speaker F:Yeah, it was a very surreal situation considering that you hear about these celebrities, you see them on tabloids and then all of a sudden like you work in a place where they congregate on a regular basis.
Speaker F:It was a very, very surreal.
Speaker F:I mean, that isn't the first of my celebrity interactions with people working at that store, but it was definitely the most memorable considering that I wasn't expecting that.
Speaker B:No kidding.
Speaker B:Well, thank you for an absolutely incredible story, michelle.
Speaker F:Absolutely.
Speaker F:Thanks.
Speaker B:It's not every day that you get to save the day for britney spears.
Speaker B:Super cool story, michelle.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
Speaker B:And with that, things are about to get a little bit darker.
Speaker B:Turn off the lights, grab your flashlights.
Speaker B:It's time to enter the night shift after a quick sponsor break.
Speaker B:Welcome to the night shift.
Speaker B:Before we get into our first story, our night shift story competition presented by edmonton's Best Hotels closes October 31.
Speaker B:There is US$1,000 up for grabs and and we'll announce the winning story on our first episode of november.
Speaker B:If something scary, dark or unexplained happened to you at work, now is the time to send it in.
Speaker B:And beyond the competition, this show is listener driven in every way.
Speaker B:If something happened to you at work or because of your work, I want to Hear it.
Speaker B:Email HR used to work there.com or use the story submission form in our show notes.
Speaker B:You don't need a polished script.
Speaker B:Start with one day at work and tell me what happened.
Speaker B:You're also welcome to remain anonymous.
Speaker B:Names are never required.
Speaker B:A huge thank you to edmonton's best hotels for making this competition possible.
Speaker B:Fall is a great time to visit alberta, canada and their autumn in edmonton campaign gives you plenty to build a getaway around.
Speaker B:Think arena, concerts, theater, incredible food and if you're up for it, championship bull riding.
Speaker B:The PBR Canadian National Finals returns to Rogers Place November 13th and 14th.
Speaker B:Also presented by edmonton's best hotels.
Speaker B:Come for the action.
Speaker B:Explore west edmonton mall and find a new favorite restaurant.
Speaker B:And if you're up for it, head on to Jasper and make a weekend of it for our american listeners.
Speaker B: a connection starting in June: Speaker B:Check out the edmonton's best hotel's link in the show notes to explore what's happening and find your place to stay.
Speaker B:It is my pleasure to welcome dan from wisconsin.
Speaker B:He was working for a countertop manufacturer with when loud screaming came over the radio down in the warehouse, something had gone terribly wrong.
Speaker B:Dan, welcome to the show.
Speaker B:Tell us what happened.
Speaker E:Kelly, thanks for the opportunity to join you again.
Speaker E:I'm 23 at this point.
Speaker E:I am working for a countertop manufacturer.
Speaker E:And, and I, I started in the business in the warehouse and I was one of the only native English speakers at this company and everyone else was a Spanish speaker.
Speaker E:And so I double majored in marketing in Spanish.
Speaker E:And I started with some customer service and social media for this company, and then they moved me into warehousing and quality control and some other roles of the kind.
Speaker E:It's a small family business and so when you're in small family business, you take on a lot of roles, you wear a lot of hats and do whatever you need to in the moment.
Speaker E:And I'll never forget this moment as a young man when I've got the radio sitting next to me.
Speaker E:I'm getting some office work done, logging, logging, just some mundane office stuff and just start screaming through the radio.
Speaker E:And I swear I flew from the second store of the building all the way down out into the warehouse.
Speaker E:A stone slab.
Speaker E:We had these granite countertops.
Speaker E:Have you ever had a countertop made?
Speaker B:I have never had a countertop made, but I have seen many granite countertops.
Speaker E:You've seen many granite countertops?
Speaker E:Well, they come out of these giant slabs that they then draw with with CAD or different imaging devices.
Speaker E:They draw out what it's going to look like and they color match them and make sure that the veins of all the granite are going to, you know, intersect just the right way so the seams look good.
Speaker E:And some of my guys, some of my team, they were down in the warehouse color matching some of this granite.
Speaker E:And one of the veins must have been weak because when they put it down on an A frame with a forklift, it broke in half.
Speaker E:And it fell on this trip gentleman and broke his femur in half.
Speaker E:You can imagine the kind of pressure that has to happen to fall on a guy and break his femur in half.
Speaker B:Can't even imagine.
Speaker E:And again, I'm a young man, so I'm running out into this warehouse and I see two guys there.
Speaker E:The guy that's off the forklift standing over him and the guy that's underneath the stone slab just in immense amounts of pain and just screaming.
Speaker E:And it's still right here forever in my mind.
Speaker E:And he's a good buddy and I love him very much.
Speaker E:And because he didn't speak English, I then rode with him in the ambulance all the way down over an hour to Madison, Wisconsin and spent overnight in the hospital with him and was there for that entire experience.
Speaker E:So again, as a 23 year old, to witness that, to ever see something like that on the workplace, and I know anybody that's listening, if they've seen a workplace injury that was serious, they can relate.
Speaker E:You never forget something to that effect, have you, have you ever experienced somebody getting seriously injured?
Speaker B:I've never seen anybody severely injured.
Speaker B:I don't know how.
Speaker E:Okay, well, that is a blessing, my friend, because when it happens, when it happens, you never forget.
Speaker E:And I'm grateful it didn't happen to me.
Speaker E:At the same time, he was a close buddy and then unfortunately they messed up the dosages with the medications and the pain pills and everything else.
Speaker E:And so that was really detrimental to him.
Speaker E:Over time he did recover.
Speaker E:He still can work and he's okay now.
Speaker E:But that was a very interesting experience, a very traumatic one for him mostly.
Speaker E:And then, yeah, that overnight, riding down to the hospital, trying to translate back and forth medical terms that I never learned.
Speaker E:Even with a Spanish major, we weren't taught these medical terms.
Speaker E:And they come from Latin and Spanish comes from Latin.
Speaker E:Some of it correlates at the same time.
Speaker E:It was very, very difficult.
Speaker E:And then I remember sleeping in the chair next to him because I rode in the ambulance.
Speaker E:I didn't have a vehicle to get home.
Speaker E:And this was before Ubers or anything like that.
Speaker E:And, and he needed somebody there with him.
Speaker E:It was just again, an experience you'll never forget.
Speaker E:And, and I'm very grateful he's okay.
Speaker E:It was just quite something.
Speaker B:Did it have an effect on you long term?
Speaker E:Not necessarily.
Speaker E:I didn't have any.
Speaker E:Anything long term from that.
Speaker E:I'll never forget where I was.
Speaker E:I'll never forget that day.
Speaker E:I'll never forget a lot of moments from it at the same time.
Speaker E:It wasn't like I'd walk through the warehouse after that and think, oh, I wonder if this one's going to break in half because we had moved so many different slabs for so many years, for so many times.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker E:It was just, it was a freak accident.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, well, there's lots of freak accidents out there.
Speaker B:If one happened to you, call in, let us know about it.
Speaker B:Thank you, Dan, for another incredible story.
Speaker E:Absolutely, Kelly, thanks.
Speaker B:Thank you, Dan, for another incredible story.
Speaker B:And I can tell you, my friend, you were absolutely an angel for your friend that day and he was lucky to have you.
Speaker B:Our next caller is Tom from Carmel, California.
Speaker B:A fishing trip with his brother took a frightening turn when the sky changed color.
Speaker B:And as the president of the local school board, Tom soon found himself helping evacuate school children While trying to get his own family out of the path of a wildfire.
Speaker B:Tom, welcome to.
Speaker B:I used to work there.
Speaker B:Tell us what happened.
Speaker H: Well, Kelly, back in, like,: Speaker H:I was fishing with my brother on our annual fishing trip.
Speaker H:And then all of a sudden, the blue skies totally changed into this eerie and weird orange color.
Speaker H:And we both looked at each other, dropped a beautiful trout that we had caught, and said, this is a wildfire.
Speaker H:We got to go.
Speaker H:So I lived at that time up in the Sierra foothills of California, where we were fishing was about an hour away down the hill.
Speaker H:My brother and I jumped in the car, packed up as much as we could, and then we headed down the hill.
Speaker H:And then again, that orange, eerie gray.
Speaker H:I mean, just unbelievable smoke was coming and marching towards us so fast.
Speaker H:And so then what we did was we.
Speaker H:We tried to.
Speaker H:To get there down the hill.
Speaker H:All the power was out.
Speaker H:All the.
Speaker H:The one stop sign in the entire county.
Speaker H:When I was trying to get home to my wife and my kids was not working.
Speaker H:People were running around, and all I could visualize was.
Speaker H:Was 911 when we saw the video of all the people running from that big plume of smoke.
Speaker H:And this is exactly what was happening to me.
Speaker H:I tried to look over towards where the fire was.
Speaker H:It was just getting bigger and bigger and closer and closer.
Speaker H:I was also the president of the local school board, and school was in session at.
Speaker H:On that day.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker H:And I got called by cal fire, which is the agency that handled this particular, you know, incident.
Speaker H:And they called me and says, what do you want to do?
Speaker H:The fire's going towards the one school up towards the top of the hill where I was fishing.
Speaker H:I said, get him out.
Speaker H:Get him out now.
Speaker H:Notify the parents.
Speaker H:Let's put, you know, notes on the door, and let's move the children.
Speaker H:And so as I tried to get through the pandemonium to get to my own home, then I got another call from Cal fire, saying, now it's marching to where you just moved those kids.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker H:And so then I had parents screaming and yelling at me and telling me, you know, what are you doing?
Speaker H:I says, I'm getting your kids out.
Speaker H:And then I finally.
Speaker H:And then also during that time, well, now I had that happening.
Speaker H:Cal fire called me again for the third time.
Speaker H:I had to move them down to another school.
Speaker H:I couldn't get there.
Speaker H:But I Wanted to make sure that the kids could get.
Speaker H:Get in the staff.
Speaker H:We were safe.
Speaker H:My house was, you know, being bombarded by these fiery embers the size of softballs.
Speaker E:Holy cow.
Speaker H:Spot fires everywhere I could see.
Speaker H:My brother and I looked at each other and looked at my.
Speaker H:My wife and my.
Speaker H:My kids at that time were just infants.
Speaker H:And we just said, you know what?
Speaker H:We got to go on the roof.
Speaker H:So we basically took all the patio furniture, threw it off the deck, started up on the roof, hosing it down and getting.
Speaker H:Clearing out the gutters, because Cal fire told me that's the number one place where fires start.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker H:So we were hosing down the deck, doing that, and I get another call because the fire is coming towards my house and where the school was.
Speaker H:I had to move the kids again.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker H:And so I finally got the kids to a safe place, to the county fairgrounds.
Speaker H:And, I mean, I couldn't believe the.
Speaker H:The rancor and all the yelling and screaming at me about the kids.
Speaker H:And I just said, look, I had to go on instinct.
Speaker H:I'm not a trained, you know, you know, personnel that handle these type of situations.
Speaker H:I'm doing the best I can.
Speaker H:And I said, are your children safe?
Speaker H:And they said, yes.
Speaker H:I said, isn't that all that matters?
Speaker H:I understand your frustration and your anger, but don't take it out on me.
Speaker H:You know, I'm trying to do the right thing.
Speaker H:So I got the kids safe, the staff, everybody was safe, away from the fire.
Speaker H:And then as the fire still.
Speaker H:And I'm up there hosing while I'm on the phone, trying to get this.
Speaker H:Then it just became a point where there was just too many of these embers flying, hitting the roof that I just.
Speaker H:My brother and I said, okay, it's time to evacuate.
Speaker H:And so went downstairs.
Speaker H:I just, you know, made sure I grabbed all the important papers, told my wife to grab the.
Speaker H:You know, grab everything that she could that was valuable or that was important.
Speaker H:I picked up both the kids under my arms, got in the car, and we hauled down away from.
Speaker H:From the community.
Speaker H:And then not knowing what we were going to come back to, oh, my gosh.
Speaker H:Because it was just.
Speaker H:And again, trying to get through this one little road to get out of that area was that the roads were blocked.
Speaker H:I mean, everybody was being evacuated.
Speaker H:Like, again, the sky was this eerie, eerie orange.
Speaker H:And so we left and we were able to get out and go to the California coast and stay there for.
Speaker H:For a few days and just, you know, wondering what we were going to come back to.
Speaker H:But all the lines were down, cell phones, you couldn't get anybody.
Speaker H:And just worried about the community and how, you know, what was going to happen.
Speaker H:Because Cal Fire told me all indications were it was going to take out our little town, march to where we lived, and go like 20 miles up the hill because of the wind and everything that was happening, my home was one of the few that survived.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker H:Yeah, Big wow.
Speaker H:After the fire, it became my.
Speaker H:My passion and my mission to basically to make sure that people didn't go through what I went through.
Speaker B:Tom, I can't imagine trying to get those school children to safety while your own family was in the path of the fire.
Speaker B:I can't imagine the pressure of making those decisions.
Speaker B:And I am so glad that the children, the staff, and your family made it safely and, of course, that you had a home to come back to.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
Speaker H:Well, thank you, Kelly.
Speaker H:I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker B:Our next caller is Donna Hartley calling from Tahoe City, California.
Speaker B:Donna was traveling to Hawaii for work when an overwhelming feeling told her something was incredibly wrong.
Speaker B:What happens next sounds like something right out of Final Destination, including a dream that she had had before the day.
Speaker B:Donna, you had an incredibly wild day at work.
Speaker B:Tell us what happened.
Speaker G: ,: Speaker G:I will always remember that day.
Speaker G:Now, first, let's start on.
Speaker G:I'm an actress in Hollywood, but let me.
Speaker G:Let me describe that.
Speaker G:Struggling is the word.
Speaker G: ,: Speaker G:I am a former Miss Hawaii.
Speaker G: Miss Hawaii USA,: Speaker G:I thought, this day will change my life.
Speaker G:I was so excited.
Speaker G:I'll get out of all the things that are happening in LA and the negativity and the rejections and the lies and all that happens there.
Speaker G:But that morning when I woke up, there's this fear that entrenched me.
Speaker G:I even called a girlfriend and she goes, oh, no.
Speaker G:It's just, you know, your anxiety.
Speaker G:You know, you're leaving here, you're gonna go to Hawaii, where it always works out for you.
Speaker G:You lived there for a long time.
Speaker G:You went to college there.
Speaker G:So I put it behind me.
Speaker G:I went to the airport, but still that feeling was there.
Speaker G:Now, a guy that I was dating drove me to the airport.
Speaker G:We broke up.
Speaker G:I mean, let's add more energy to this.
Speaker G:You know what I mean?
Speaker G:They want my apartment building.
Speaker G:Take over and sell it.
Speaker G:I'm not getting any acting.
Speaker G:I don't have any money.
Speaker G:I don't really have a boyfriend now.
Speaker G:It was on the ranks anyway.
Speaker G:And I said, this flight will change my life.
Speaker G:So the exact words were, let my life change.
Speaker G:Let it never be the same, or let me die.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker G:So I was at that moment, and I know some of your listeners have been there.
Speaker G:We are ready to give up on ourselves because we don't see a way out.
Speaker G:I check into the counter and I looked at the guy and it just came out of me.
Speaker G:I said, change my seat to the other side.
Speaker G:I looked around and I go, who said that?
Speaker G:It was me.
Speaker G:It was me.
Speaker G:It came out of me.
Speaker G:And I was kind of rude about it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker G:But something told me I couldn't sit on that one side of the planet.
Speaker G:I can't even tell you why.
Speaker G:So I went to go down the Jetway, and I stopped.
Speaker G:I couldn't walk, so I moved to the side.
Speaker G:People are walking past me.
Speaker G:I am the very last person to board that plane.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker G:When they shut that door, I jumped.
Speaker G:And I know all of us have intuition, and sometimes we listen and sometimes we don't.
Speaker G:So I. I can't tell you exactly what was going on, but something was not working in me.
Speaker G:I took my seat.
Speaker G:It was an aisle one.
Speaker G:Now I put on the belt.
Speaker G:I'm counting the rows and counting the exit.
Speaker G:I mean, I'm doing all those things when they're.
Speaker G:You know, the flight attendants are saying it.
Speaker G:Everybody else is looking at books and stuff.
Speaker G:But I'm, like, so intense.
Speaker G:And I said.
Speaker G:I just prayed and I said, let my life change, because I was on the verge of suicide.
Speaker G:And I was praying that this flight to Hawaii, this assignment, this work job in Hawaii would change my life.
Speaker G:We took off at 167 miles per hour.
Speaker G:Pow.
Speaker G:Pow, pow.
Speaker G:I heard three loud sounds, and then we tilted.
Speaker G:Then the flight attendant screamed, you know, tighten your seatbelts.
Speaker G:Tighten your seatbelts.
Speaker G:I yanked mine.
Speaker G:And then they screamed, put your head down.
Speaker G:Head between your knees.
Speaker G:Head between your knees.
Speaker G:The plane is shaking.
Speaker G:The pilot's trying to stop.
Speaker G:It is dead silent in that plane.
Speaker G:You think when you're about to die, because that's what it felt like, you felt like you were being compressed, that people would be screaming.
Speaker G:But I do really know when you're at death's door.
Speaker G:Nothing.
Speaker G:Nothing.
Speaker G:See, when I went down to grab my knees, I saw Sepulveda Boulevard, which is the big highway.
Speaker G:I saw the car rentals.
Speaker G:I knew we were going through that fence and we were going to hit that, you know, and then the flames start to come.
Speaker G:And all of a sudden we tilted to the one side, the opposite side.
Speaker G:Remember the side I gave up, that went down because 1, 2, 3.
Speaker G:Tires exploded on takeoff, and we tilted.
Speaker G:We're on fire.
Speaker G:We can't take off.
Speaker G:We can't stop.
Speaker G:Wow.
Speaker G:We were at V1 speed, which means takeoff.
Speaker G:But when I went down in the knees, I felt this energy field come down.
Speaker G:It's hard to describe unless you've been there.
Speaker G:You know, they talk about that white light.
Speaker G:Well, I didn't see a white light, but I felt this energy of love engulfing me.
Speaker G:And it was like I was on another level or something.
Speaker G:It was just surrounding me.
Speaker G:This flight attendant screamed, then, come to the rear.
Speaker G:As we're on this tilt, you know, come to the rear.
Speaker G:And you get in the island, there's like 20 people, you're jammed so tight.
Speaker G:And I walking down, and then all of a sudden, you turn to go out, but there's no people there.
Speaker G:I fall to the wrong side of the plate.
Speaker G:So now I'm looking at flames and smoke, and, you know, I'm inches from burning to death.
Speaker G:And then I heard this, like, invisible voice.
Speaker G:It's not someone you really hear, but it was something that goes through you, a thought pattern.
Speaker G:And I heard you were given this life.
Speaker G:What have you done with it?
Speaker G:And these were the four questions.
Speaker G:And this is what I always ask my viewers when I travel throughout the world.
Speaker G:Do you honestly love yourself?
Speaker G:Do you love your family and friends?
Speaker G:No.
Speaker G:Tell them.
Speaker G:Show them.
Speaker G:Are you living your goals and dreams right now, today?
Speaker G:And if you die, have you left this planet a better place for being here?
Speaker G:And I screamed, no.
Speaker G:I don't know if anything came out of my voice, you know, or anything, but.
Speaker G:And we heard the roar and the flames, and, you know, now people are screaming to get out.
Speaker G:But there was something inside of me that said, let me live.
Speaker G:Let me make a difference.
Speaker G:So I scrambled up on all fours.
Speaker G:People are piling up at that back door.
Speaker G:Flames are coming in.
Speaker G:Flames are coming underneath the plane.
Speaker G:And so my stomach went along those back metal.
Speaker G:I think it was the bathrooms.
Speaker G:My one foot's caught.
Speaker G:I think I'm going to split.
Speaker G:You know, the foot is caught, the sandal broke, ripped right off.
Speaker G:One foot went down, the other behind me.
Speaker G:And as I'm going down, then I realized I had had the same dream six times.
Speaker G:That coming.
Speaker G:That year, that coming year.
Speaker G:And I always thought, you know, playing burning, exploding people Yelling.
Speaker G:It was just a sign of my life falling apart, because it was.
Speaker G:But I was living it.
Speaker G:And now I didn't know, Kelly, was I alive?
Speaker G:Was I dead?
Speaker G:Was I dreaming?
Speaker G:I didn't know what dimension I was on.
Speaker G:So I hit the bottom of that asphalt, that tarmac, and boom, boom, boom, boom.
Speaker G:I could hear my back just crunch, crunch, crunch.
Speaker G:And I put my hands down.
Speaker G:The flames are probably inches from me now.
Speaker G:The evacuation slide totally burns, falls to the ground.
Speaker G:So the rest of the people are caught.
Speaker G:They've got to run to another door if they're going to get out or jump 20ft to the flames below.
Speaker G:So I get up and I start limping away, dragging that.
Speaker G:And I see the people backed against a fence.
Speaker G:And I went, that's the dream.
Speaker G:It didn't make sense.
Speaker G:People should be trying to get out of the fence, but they're just trying to get away from the plane.
Speaker G:And then I said, I am alive.
Speaker G:And then I heard that invisible voice again and said, you will speak, you will write, and you will help people help themselves.
Speaker G:And I looked around to see who was saying that.
Speaker G:And I knew that was my assignment, but I didn't know how I was gonna do it, what I was gonna do.
Speaker G:You're in a degree of shock here.
Speaker G:You know, how was that actually going to start?
Speaker G:So, you know, sirens came, ambulances came, fire.
Speaker G:Luckily, we exploded right near the fire department at lax.
Speaker G:And so they were there and they were helping people.
Speaker G:And people were getting hit with that white foam, you know, that goes over so you don't burn, you know, and now people are in that panic.
Speaker G:I don't know what to do.
Speaker G:Stage, you're kind of like frozen, you know, as you're watching this 30, you know, million, million multimillion dollar plane get destroyed in seconds and lives change forever.
Speaker G:Three days later, I went on to Hawaii.
Speaker G:Yes, Peak blotches all over me and limping.
Speaker G:And while I was there, they called me for a national commercial with Dick Van Dyke.
Speaker G:And I had been studying and.
Speaker G:And struggling and hadn't really cracked the big time.
Speaker G:And when I went on that interview, there was 50 other people, women that look like me, and I was the last one.
Speaker G:And they said, thank you very much.
Speaker G:And if you've heard that as an actress or on a job interview, you know you're not going to get hired.
Speaker G:And I looked at that casting director and I said, I want to be a working actress.
Speaker G:What do I need to learn?
Speaker G:What do I need to know?
Speaker G:And he said, oh, he said, you're Great.
Speaker G:You read the part.
Speaker G:Great.
Speaker G:You're five years too young.
Speaker G:Okay, Kelly, I would love to hear those words now.
Speaker G:But then I went, what's the wardrobe?
Speaker G:Old fashioned muumu, floppy hat, makeup.
Speaker G:I'm five years older.
Speaker G:Got the part and started, you know, over dozens and dozens of appearances in Hollywood.
Speaker G:But when I got back, that shock sets in.
Speaker G:I understand what men and women go through when they go through traumatic events in their life.
Speaker G:You don't heal it right away, but you have to heal that process.
Speaker G:On top of that, I am slapped with a subpoena and must testify representing all the passengers.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker G:Now I'm time crunching this just a little to get there, but I can't do that.
Speaker G:I've never spoken up, you know, I think I'm a failure.
Speaker G:I can't do anything.
Speaker G:I go to a girlfriend's house, best friend, and she said, if not you, then who's going to make a difference for the people that have been burned or died or safety regulations?
Speaker G:She called the head nurse, a friend of hers.
Speaker G:I went to the hospital and I thought I was strong.
Speaker G:But when I saw the people that I recognized, didn't know them in a burn war with 20, 30, 40% of their body burned on egg cartons with, you know, they keep air underneath and IVs in them.
Speaker G:And a lady saw me and she said, come here.
Speaker G:I looked at the nurse with me and I go.
Speaker G:And she walked me over and she said, I saw you.
Speaker G:I saw you on that plane.
Speaker G:And she said, don't let this happen to anyone else.
Speaker G:And what do you say?
Speaker G:I went out of there, I threw up on the sidewalk.
Speaker G:I was on my knees.
Speaker G:Then I said, I guess I have to make a life change.
Speaker G:So I wavered my right to sue the airline.
Speaker G:I took the stand.
Speaker G:And when I spoke, no matter what, those panels of experts, and there was thousands of people in the room nailed me.
Speaker G:Because who wants to pay millions of dollars worth of lawsuits?
Speaker G:I found my voice.
Speaker G:And so I didn't give them complaints.
Speaker G:I gave them solutions.
Speaker G:Why didn't we have a big visual screen?
Speaker G:Why did the evacuation slides burn?
Speaker G:Why didn't we have a rope?
Speaker G:You know, how comes the crew got out with a rope and we couldn't, you know, how comes the tires?
Speaker G:Why don't we have.
Speaker G:Why were they patched and retreaded?
Speaker G:So what I learned that day at work in one day was that I do not focus on the negative in my life.
Speaker G:I always look for the solution.
Speaker G:There is a solution.
Speaker G:Sometimes I can't find it right away, but if you believe it, I have watched more miracles happen in my life than I could ever believe.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:No, I mean, there's lots I could talk about, but I'm just going to leave it at that.
Speaker B:It's an incredible story.
Speaker B:I'm so thankful you made it out the other side and we greatly appreciate you taking the time with us today.
Speaker G:It was my honor to be here and share my story.
Speaker G:Thank you so much, Donna.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:Four passengers ultimately lost their lives and 29 other people on board suffered serious injuries.
Speaker B:Ten firefighters were also injured responding to the disaster.
Speaker B:Donna described hurting her back as she escaped.
Speaker B:And as we heard, what she carried away from that day went far beyond the physical pain.
Speaker B:The investigation helped bring stronger standards for aircraft tires, stronger and more heat resistant evacuation slides and safer takeoff calculations that account for wet runways and worn brakes.
Speaker B:Changes that help protect us all when we fly today.
Speaker B:Donna, you spoke about asking yourself whether you had left the world a better place than you found it.
Speaker B:I'd say the answer is a resounding yes.
Speaker B:And thank you for finding your voice, sharing it with us, and for leaving the world a much better place than you found it.
Speaker B:Our final story of the night shift comes from former FBI Special agent Ed Morales calling from Virginia.
Speaker B: The: Speaker B:It changed how officers were armed, trained and how they prepared for the moment.
Speaker B:An ordinary day became a fight for their lives.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:A day two of his fellow agents would never come home.
Speaker B:You may have heard about this shootout.
Speaker B:You may have even seen it recreated on television.
Speaker B:Tonight, you're going to hear it from the man who survived it.
Speaker B:Ed, welcome to I used to work there.
Speaker B:It is an honor and a privilege to have you here.
Speaker B:Take us back to that morning.
Speaker B:Tell us what happened.
Speaker A:Thank you for inviting me, Kelly.
Speaker A:Well, April 11th, when I think back on it, it's just a regular old day.
Speaker A:I mean, it's just another day in paradise.
Speaker A:You know, as they say, get into Florida.
Speaker A:April in Florida is glorious.
Speaker A:I mean, cool mornings, you know, clear skies, you know, ocean breeze coming in, you know.
Speaker A:And I mean, it started out like a regular day.
Speaker A:You know, my wife had to get up at like 2 or 3 in the morning to go.
Speaker A:Go do something for her squad.
Speaker A:So she left early at like, three in the morning.
Speaker A:And, you know, I. I said, bye, babe.
Speaker A:You know, I just rolled over and went back to sleep.
Speaker A:Good husband, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Gotta get your sleep.
Speaker A:So anyway, I got up and, you know, got dressed and went to the office.
Speaker A:I got to the office about seven, you know, and everybody was in.
Speaker A:You know, everybody was in a hurry because we were.
Speaker A:We had planned a surveillance for that morning, and out of a squad of 18 guys, only 11 of us could go.
Speaker A:And then we were augmented by the three agents out of the Homestead satellite office.
Speaker A:It's called the Resident Agency.
Speaker A:So we had a total of 14 agents on surveillance that morning.
Speaker A:And the.
Speaker A:The balance, you know, everybody, you know, some guys had court, other guys were on leave, other guys had, you know, other appointments and so on.
Speaker A:So I can tell you with absolute certainty, the guys that were not able to go, they were so heartbroken, you know, at the end of the day, you know, obviously.
Speaker A:But who can predict the future, right?
Speaker B:Of course, of course.
Speaker A:So we went and met at the.
Speaker A:At a Home Depot parking lot in.
Speaker A:On South Dixie highway, which is way, way South Miami.
Speaker A:And we had a briefing.
Speaker A:We had some information.
Speaker A:Some of it was good, some of it was sketchy.
Speaker A:We had a stolen Monte Carlo, FL tag, NTJ891, that was solid.
Speaker A:And then we had the descriptions of two white males, and we had a general description of a white pickup truck.
Speaker A:And our job on that particular day was to be in the area.
Speaker A:These guys had a pattern.
Speaker A:It wasn't a solid pattern, you know, but it was like.
Speaker A:Like an ammo, you know, they.
Speaker A:They hit between 9 and 12 on average.
Speaker A:You know, I mean, it could be 1 in the afternoon, but generally from 9 to 12.
Speaker A:And there's some confusions.
Speaker A:They didn't always hit on Fridays.
Speaker A:They.
Speaker A:The majority of the time they hit on a Friday.
Speaker A:But that doesn't mean that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday weren't open, obviously.
Speaker A:But, you know, Our supervisor, Gordon McNeil, I guess you'd call it intuitive policing, he said, hey, you know what, though?
Speaker A:The last time they hit was three weeks ago.
Speaker A:The last time they hit, they only got about $8,000.
Speaker A:And he said, hey, normally when they hit, they got 40, $50,000.
Speaker A:So he said, I don't think that's enough money to hold them over.
Speaker A:I think in his words, quote, unquote, I think they're due.
Speaker A:You know, it's time.
Speaker A:People get paid on Fridays.
Speaker A:You know, they go to the bank and they cash Their checks for the weekend and stuff, you know, so we figured, hey, banks always used to gear up for payday Friday.
Speaker A:They used to have more cash on hand than normal.
Speaker A:So he said, hey, you know, they're due.
Speaker A:The last time they hit, they only got $8,000.
Speaker A:Tomorrow's payday Friday.
Speaker A:I think we should go out there and, and be in place.
Speaker A:Our office from the area of the bank robberies where, where they were centered was South Dixie highway and 136th Street.
Speaker A:From our office to that address was, God, 30 miles.
Speaker A:Imagine trying to.
Speaker A:Trying to navigate 30 miles through City traffic.
Speaker A:I mean, if someone says, hey, I'm being.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:I'm being robbed, help me.
Speaker A:It would take me with my license irons.
Speaker A:It would still take me 30, 40 minutes to get to you.
Speaker A:Yeah, so the idea was to be there in case something happened.
Speaker A:You know, we would be in the area, it would be like two minutes away, or maybe we would even be witnesses to something happening.
Speaker A:And as it turned out, we were.
Speaker A:We were the witnesses, you know, that, that saw something happening.
Speaker A:So I was excited.
Speaker A:I was also, you know, apprehensive.
Speaker A:I mean, anytime you do anything like that with, with robbers, assault weapons, and, you know, they've shot and killed four people.
Speaker A:I mean, on one side it's exciting.
Speaker A:On the other side it's like, well, maybe I should be careful, you know.
Speaker B:Fair enough.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:So you have to balance the two, you know.
Speaker A:As it turns out, Gordon was right.
Speaker A:I can't say it was a prediction, you know, but again, intuitive policing.
Speaker A:I mean, he put all the pieces together, looked at him and assessed it and said, hey, listen, we should be there.
Speaker A:As it turned out, we said we had a fixed surveillance of four major areas along South Dixie Highway.
Speaker A:I was in the northernmost position.
Speaker A:And I have to be honest with your listeners, I wasn't sure anything would happen, you know, I mean, you know, I hate to say it, but that's called complacency.
Speaker A:Complacency is, hey, you know what?
Speaker A:Nothing ever happens here, you know, nothing ever happens.
Speaker A:And then the other side of the complacency is I always do it this way.
Speaker A:Nothing ever goes, you know what?
Speaker A:Nothing ever happens.
Speaker A:I always do it this way, you know, so.
Speaker A:And I mean, I wasn't negligent, you know, complacent, but I was like, eh, I'm out here with the team, you know, I'm supporting the team, you know, and I really, truly didn't think in my mind that anything was going to happen.
Speaker A:And about five minutes after the Meeting broke up.
Speaker A:Ben Grogan calls out on the radio.
Speaker A:Attention all units, we're behind a black Chevy, two door, Florida tag NTJ891.
Speaker A:And it was the, the color and description of the.
Speaker A:Of a car that had been that stolen about three weeks earlier.
Speaker A:The owner of the car was shot and left dead.
Speaker A:And we, we were lucky he survived.
Speaker A:And he was our first real live witness because everybody else was either dead or, you know, everybody, you know, they were a ski mask.
Speaker A:So he was our first live witness, a real good witness.
Speaker A:And when he called that out, Kelly, I was like, what the heck?
Speaker A:I always had a cup of styrofoam, cup of coffee in my hand.
Speaker A:I was like, what?
Speaker A:And I threw the cup out the window.
Speaker A:I was littering, you know, I admitted I littered the floor.
Speaker B:It was the 80s.
Speaker A:So John Hanlon, who was driving, puts the cigar in drive.
Speaker A:And we were asking for directions, you know, he was headed north on South Dixie Highway.
Speaker A:He had already gone past our, our position by four blocks, you know, so I'm thinking, holy cow, you know, so John whips the car into the traffic and we're trying to play catch up.
Speaker A:And I grabbed the shotgun from the back seat.
Speaker A:I had loaded it up, grabbed the shotgun, and then I looked at my body armor, which is white.
Speaker A:You know, it's supposed to be neutral.
Speaker A:That's white color.
Speaker A:And I'm thinking, okay, if I try to put my body armor on now, you know, I had my shirt on and I had my jacket, a windbreaker to cover my revolver.
Speaker A:I'm thinking, well, I have to strip everything off to put the body armor off, you know, because you put on a big white piece of cloth, you know, on your body, you know, you're trying to be discreet.
Speaker A:I figure, forget it, I'll just leave the body armor there.
Speaker A:So we caught up with them after about three minutes and verified the tag.
Speaker A:Ben Grook is trying to vector the other units into, you know, the surveillance location.
Speaker A:You know, we're following.
Speaker A:It was a moving surveillance and Ben had another agent from the Homestead RA try to vector in the Metro Dade County PD units.
Speaker A:Okay, they knew we were out there, but they didn't know exactly where we were.
Speaker A:Okay, so he was vectoring in the, the, the Metro units.
Speaker A:And so we had agents vectoring in and units vectoring in, you know, so.
Speaker A:And then after about three minutes, Ben made the call.
Speaker A:He said, hey, listen, they're, they're not going onto the big highway.
Speaker A:They're going into a residential area.
Speaker A:And it was behind a strip Mall which had a, the back of it had a concrete wall that ran almost like two blocks.
Speaker A:So we said, hey, this is, this is a perfect spot to do a car stop.
Speaker A:Because as good guys, you know, we have to be careful where we're shooting.
Speaker A:I mean, if you're standing behind a bad guy and I'm shooting in your direction, I have to be very cautious because you're standing back there.
Speaker A:Bad guys don't give a crap, you know, they'll just shoot everything, you know.
Speaker A:So great spot, good backdrop, you know.
Speaker A:But unfortunately, as I tell people, you know, bad guys have a vote.
Speaker A:You know, when we tried to, the porcing was stopped.
Speaker A:You know, we did the old cop thing, you know, lights, sirens, you know, you know, pull them over.
Speaker A:Of course they said no.
Speaker A:So it's called a non compliant stop, you know.
Speaker A:So then we turned into a bumper cars, you know, for, I'd say about three blocks.
Speaker A:Went from a slow surveillance to a high speed chase.
Speaker A:But it was a short high speed chase, three blocks.
Speaker A:And then everybody crashed.
Speaker A:I mean, everybody crashed in different areas, you know, and there was absolutely no control where you ended up.
Speaker A:You see on TV now these police chases where they do a pit maneuver, you know, they hit the car and the car spins and you have absolutely no control over that.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:You know, once you bump them and he starts spinning, you have no control.
Speaker A:What's going to happen to that car spinning around?
Speaker A:Okay, it could flip over, whatever, you know, so.
Speaker A:So once we started do playing bumper cars on, on 82nd Avenue, I mean, nobody had any idea where, where the cars were going to end up.
Speaker A:So as it turned out, the stop ended up being pretty good because the bad guy car that stolen the car was pinned between a car in the driveway, a tree, and then an FBI unit.
Speaker A:So it basically was boxed in.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And then Gordon Ben Grogan pulled up behind him and totally boxed him in on four sides.
Speaker A:And being the good guys, I hate it.
Speaker A:You know, we have rules and regulations.
Speaker A:I hate that.
Speaker A:I'm joking, guys, so don't rat me out.
Speaker A:No, but being the good guys, we are required to say, FBI, identify ourselves, Police, FBI, come out with your hands up.
Speaker A:As opposed to we know who these guys are.
Speaker A:They're suspected bank robbers that suspected of killing poor people.
Speaker A:They're in a stolen car where they shot and left the owner for dead three weeks earlier.
Speaker A:We still have to give them the courtesy of saying, hey, FBI, put your hands up.
Speaker A:Come up with your hands up.
Speaker A:Yeah, they responded with gunfire.
Speaker A:I think they were saying, no, you know, so.
Speaker A:Oh, responded with, with gunfire.
Speaker A:It was, it was, that's a, I mean, you've stepped across the line, you know.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:So then it turned out to be a real, an incredible gunfight.
Speaker A:I mean this as honestly as it was my first gunfight, but man, it was intense.
Speaker A:What followed was about four minutes of gunfire between two bank robbers and six, eight FBI agents.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:And there were an estimated 140 to 150 shots fired.
Speaker A:And people say, well, what do you mean estimated?
Speaker A:I mean, didn't they do a crime scene?
Speaker A:I said, yeah, they did a crime scene.
Speaker A:But the problem was when the medevac units, you know, the ambulances and some of my colleagues and some of my squad mates were injured so badly that they actually had to fly a helicopter into the crime scene, landing on the street.
Speaker A:So I mean, if you've ever, ever been around a helicopter, the, the, the down downdraft, you know, the downwash, it spreads everything out, you know.
Speaker A:So we know for a fact that like ron Reisner fired 22 shots.
Speaker A:They only found about seven or eight of his casings.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:For example, Jerry Dove fired 30 shots and they only fired about 12 or 15, 15 of his casings, you know, so that's why, you know, the, the, the number is an estimated 140 to 150 shots fired because, you know, they only found like 120 casings.
Speaker A:I mean, it's hard to describe, you know, without using props and, and the slides and stuff.
Speaker A:But it was pretty intense.
Speaker A:You know, the, the bad guys had an assault rifle and they had a shotgun.
Speaker A:We had revolvers, which was a standard issue weapon for, for that era.
Speaker A:We had three SWAT guys, you know, that were involved in the shooting.
Speaker A:They had the, the, what we call the SWAT weapons.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I had to carry a revolver because that's the only thing I was officially issued.
Speaker A:The SWAT guys could carry nine millimeter pistols.
Speaker A:They had 15 round magazines.
Speaker A:I had a six, six shot revolver.
Speaker A:So these SWAT guys were the ones that were laying down the most fire.
Speaker A:You know, however, the guy with the rifle, I mean, when a man with a gun meets a man with a rifle, you know, the man with a, with handgun is at a terrible disadvantage.
Speaker A:So what followed was about four minutes of gunfight gunfire, okay?
Speaker A:And there were like I said, 10 men moving around, you know, running and gunning, you know.
Speaker A:So at the end, Gordon McNeil, no, Richard Manowski was wounded first in the car.
Speaker A:Gordon McNeil was shot second.
Speaker A:I was shot third.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I took a hit, rifle hit right through my arm, right here.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And just for the audience, you know, my sons laugh at me.
Speaker A:When they were younger, I used to drive home, you know, and they'd be in the parking lot waiting for me, you know, hey, kids.
Speaker A:They were young, you know, so I'd drive my car home and I'd park, you know, and, hey, dad, Dad, I said, there's something wrong with your car, I said.
Speaker A:And I'd look around and say, what's wrong with my car?
Speaker A:My sons have a terrible, wicked sense of humor.
Speaker A:They have my sense of humor.
Speaker A:They said, there's a dead guy in it, you know, Because I know the history.
Speaker A:I mean, because you really are looking at a dead guy.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I mean, I should have could have been shot and killed seven or eight or nine different times during that gunfight.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I mean, really literally.
Speaker A:Okay, let me give you two hard examples.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Right here.
Speaker A:I was running across the street with a shotgun at port arms.
Speaker A:I came around the car, and I looked forward.
Speaker A:I see my supervisor, Gordon McNeil, in front of me about, I don't know, 12, 15ft.
Speaker A:He was behind the engine block of an FBI car.
Speaker A:And I had the shotgun pointed forward.
Speaker A:And I'm thinking, oh, you know, safety, you know, training, training, training.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:And I brought the muzzle of the weapon up like this.
Speaker A:And when I brought the muzzle of the weapon up like this is when I was hit with a rifle round right here.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:If I had not hit.
Speaker A:I mean, think about it.
Speaker A:You're running, you're.
Speaker A:You're jumping, and, you know, your arms moving.
Speaker A:You know, everybody.
Speaker A:Anybody who's ever jogged knows that when you jog, your.
Speaker A:Your body's moving like that.
Speaker A:And for.
Speaker A:For my arm to be in the exact.
Speaker A:That spot, to deflect a rifle round is incredible.
Speaker A:I mean, if you're.
Speaker A:When I come up like this, that's exactly the time that the rifle round hits me right here.
Speaker B:And for our listeners, his hand is right over his heart.
Speaker A:Exactly right.
Speaker A:If.
Speaker A:If my arm hadn't been here, the round would have hit me right here dead center.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So, I mean, that's a miracle of miracles.
Speaker A:I mean, everybody knows it.
Speaker A:I mean, my family, you know, we're.
Speaker A:We're Mexican Catholics.
Speaker A:I mean, my family was like, oh, God, Saint.
Speaker A:The saints in heaven.
Speaker A:I mean, I don't look a gift horse in the mouth, you know?
Speaker A:I mean, it is a miracle.
Speaker A:The round hits me here, and I start falling back, you know, I mean, I had no idea what happened.
Speaker A:I just reacted as I'm falling back.
Speaker A:A second round hits me right here.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:As I'm falling back, like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's just the side.
Speaker B:It's right at the edge of his head.
Speaker A:It hit me in the.
Speaker A:In the forehead, you know, like this.
Speaker A:But it went down the side of my head, you know.
Speaker A:So, anyway, like I said, my.
Speaker A:My sons have a.
Speaker A:Have it correct.
Speaker A:You're looking at a dead guy.
Speaker A:Wow, There's a dead guy.
Speaker A:Anyway, I went down and I'm thinking, what.
Speaker A:I had no idea what happened.
Speaker A:People say, hey, what's it feel like to get shot?
Speaker A:And, you know, I kind of make a joke of it.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I mean, I don't know what happened.
Speaker A:I mean, that's the honest to God truth.
Speaker A:I felt no pain.
Speaker A:There was no sensation, you know, other than it felt like a blunt force.
Speaker A:Like I really ran into a wall and bounced back.
Speaker A:There was no pain at all.
Speaker A:I didn't feel pain at all for about five or eight minutes, because that was the adrenaline was what's going.
Speaker A:You know, I was fighting, you know, fighting to survive.
Speaker A:So I went down and I'm disoriented.
Speaker A:My.
Speaker A:My hearing was gone because the rifle round hit me like this.
Speaker A:You know, it kind of.
Speaker A:The old saying, it kind of rung his bell.
Speaker B:Rung the bell?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:In my case, it was real.
Speaker A:So I'm down.
Speaker A:I'm trying to, you know, reorient, you know.
Speaker A:And at the same time, the gunfight's still going on.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:The individual with the rifle was Platt.
Speaker A:He shot Minowski, shot McNeil, shot Morellis.
Speaker A:He goes out, escapes the stolen car, goes around the side, and he lays down suppressing fire.
Speaker A:He will wound Jerry Dove.
Speaker A:He will wound John Hanlon.
Speaker A:He will wound Ben Grogan.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:And then he continues to fight, and he will eventually shoot Gordon McNeil a second time, and then he will continue to fight, and he will shoot and kill Jerry Dove, and I think will shoot and kill Ben Grogan.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Now when I say this, they were also getting hit, okay.
Speaker A:They were also getting wounded, okay?
Speaker A:And by the end of the gunfight, they were.
Speaker A:They were shot to pieces.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:I mean, it just.
Speaker A:It just tells you how the human spirit and the human body.
Speaker A:That's what I tell people.
Speaker A:I said, the human body is a fantastic machine.
Speaker A:You know, you see professional athletes, you see, you know, just regular old people like me, you know, I mean, I'm not a professional.
Speaker A:I mean, I was fit.
Speaker A:Get me wrong.
Speaker A:I mean, I ran and I lifted weights and so on and so.
Speaker A:But I was nowhere near a professional athlete.
Speaker A:But the human body is a fantastic machine.
Speaker A:Okay, These guys, Platt was shot 12 times.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:And Maddox, I mean, this was at the end of the gunfight, okay?
Speaker A:We counted, you know, obviously, the crime.
Speaker B:Scene, and for our listeners, these are the bad guys, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Platt and Mattis were robbers.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:They were former army buddies, 101st Airborne born, you know, so.
Speaker G:Okay.
Speaker A:I don't know why, you know.
Speaker A:Well, it must have been economics or.
Speaker A:I have no idea.
Speaker A:But they went from the military to robbing people, you know, so I guess it's.
Speaker A:It's a career.
Speaker A:Career change.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But like I said, at the end of the day, Platt was shot 12 times and Maddox shot six.
Speaker A:Now you're going to say, hey, how come one guy dies?
Speaker A:It's with six rounds, and one guy doesn't, you know, he dies after 12?
Speaker A:Well, Maddox was shot four times in the face, one time in the neck, and then one time in the shoulder.
Speaker A:So different.
Speaker A:Different shot placement, you know, so.
Speaker A:But, you know, I mean, hey, you know, I don't know of anybody that could take Porsche poor bullet hits to the head, you know, that would be impressive to survive, you know, so.
Speaker A:But at the end.
Speaker A:At the end of the.
Speaker A:At the end of the day, I mean, it was.
Speaker A:It was absolute carnage.
Speaker A:I mean, 10 participants, eight agents and two bank robbers.
Speaker A:Out of the 10 participants, nine men were shot and wounded.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Only one individual, Ron Reiser, the FBI agent, one of my squad mates, was.
Speaker A:He was not wounded at all.
Speaker A:Everybody else was either wounded or killed, you know, so it was pretty intense.
Speaker A:It was a very intense gunfight, you know?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:You know, I have one final question before we wrap it up today.
Speaker B:Ed.
Speaker B:You know, one of the things I wanted to ask you was how did this event change the trajectory of your life?
Speaker B:I can't imagine, you know, what your life was like after this.
Speaker A:Oh, wow.
Speaker A:I felt so lucky, you know, and it's called survivor guilt, okay?
Speaker A:It's ptsd, survivor guilt.
Speaker A:You know, I felt lucky that I survived and other people died, you know, And I'm thinking, well, should I feel happy that I survived, but other people die?
Speaker A:It's kind of like a.
Speaker A:You're caught in a trap, you know?
Speaker A:Yeah, they died.
Speaker A:I'm sad, but I. I lived and I'm happy.
Speaker A:You know, it's like cognitive dissonance.
Speaker A:It's like, which way do you go?
Speaker A:You know?
Speaker A:You know, so you kind of start going crazy, you know, So I did have some ptsd.
Speaker A:Not, not so much about, you know, and I don't want your audience to think I'm a cold blooded killer, but, I mean, I am, but, you know, not, you know, I mean, I don't.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:I don't lose any sleep over killing the bank robbers.
Speaker A:Not one.
Speaker A:I never lost a wake of sleep, okay?
Speaker A:They were bank robbers.
Speaker A:They killed poor people, you know, they robbed and killed and pillaged, you know, I mean, your standard, you know, bad guy, you know, my.
Speaker A:My PTSD issues came from losing two friends, okay?
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And I went for several years, probably seven years, I think it was.
Speaker A:And I kept asking myself that one question over and over and over again, okay?
Speaker A:Is there anything I could have done better or anything that I could have done different to save Ben and Jerry, okay?
Speaker A:And I struggled with that question for seven years, and it got really bad when it came to the anniversary date of the gunfight, okay?
Speaker A:I mean, obviously you have to think about that, you know, because.
Speaker A:Especially in the beginning, I mean, because it was so fresh.
Speaker A:Of course, so.
Speaker A:And I kept thinking to myself, you know, I couldn't accept it.
Speaker A:I kept thinking I should have done something better.
Speaker A:I should have done something different, you know, And I talked to my friends, I talked to my wife as they kept saying, hey, Ed, you did everything humanly possible.
Speaker A:I mean, what.
Speaker A:What else can you ask for?
Speaker A:And everybody saw that, and everybody kept trying to tell me it's okay, you know, I'm the only one that wouldn't accept it, okay?
Speaker A:And I went.
Speaker A:I think it was like seven years.
Speaker A:And on the anniversary, I think, of the 70th year anniversary, you know, I'm sitting someplace, you know, you know, contemplating, and I came to the realization that everybody was right, okay?
Speaker A:And my biggest issue was, you know, I couldn't get across that threshold, you know, and when I finally said, hey, you know what, though?
Speaker A:Everybody's right, you know, I did do everything humanly possible, and I did do everything, you know, that I could do to try to save Ben and Jerry, you know, and I couldn't, you know, it just.
Speaker A:That's just the way it turned out.
Speaker A:And when I thought to myself, I said, you know what?
Speaker A:I think Ben and Jerry, who are looking down at me from heaven, you know, would agree with me, okay?
Speaker A:And it was at that point, it was almost.
Speaker A:It was amazing.
Speaker A:It was at that point when I said, I think Ben and Jerry, who are looking down at me from heaven, would agree with my assessment, with that assessment.
Speaker A:And I said, it's okay.
Speaker A:And, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker A:I just, poof.
Speaker A:I didn't have any more PTSD after that because the only one who wouldn't accept it, the only one who wouldn't forgive himself was me, okay?
Speaker A:And I'm thinking, you know, but my whole point is, you know, ptsd, PTSD is real, okay?
Speaker A:And, you know, anybody can suffer from it, you know, but it.
Speaker A:I mean, you never forget.
Speaker A:I mean, you accept that you did everything you could and you move forward, but you never forget.
Speaker A:I mean, I just went through.
Speaker A:We had the 40 year anniversary in Miami this year.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:In Miami, Florida.
Speaker A:We had a big, big memorial service down there.
Speaker A:And then they had a 40 year anniversary for Jerry Dove.
Speaker A:He was.
Speaker A:His hometown is in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
Speaker A:The FBI building down to the identification unit down there.
Speaker A:The street in front of the building is called Jerry Dove Boulevard.
Speaker A:So they asked me to go speak to them, you know, so it's like we never forget, you know, so.
Speaker A:But obviously it changed my life, you know, you know, my arm is screwed up, you know, and I became more involved in firearms training and street survival and, you know, motivational speaker.
Speaker A:My motivations, I motivate people very badly, you know, because I'm a former Marine, you know.
Speaker A:No, but I mean, I try to impart, you know, lessons learned, you know, and I was, you know, and one of the biggest lessons that I tell people is, hey, you never give up.
Speaker A:Never ever give up.
Speaker A:You know, you keep fighting until your last breath.
Speaker A:If you, if you're going to lose, you're going to lose, okay?
Speaker A:If you're going to win, you got to keep fighting, you know, I mean, it's like, you never give up, you know, so.
Speaker A:And, you know, and getting back to one of the.
Speaker A:One of the first things I said during our conversation, but I'm lucky.
Speaker A:I'm a lucky man, you know, And I tell people, I say, you're looking at a dead man, you know, But I also tell people, I said, hey, never give up, you know, and you can't plan.
Speaker A:You can't plan your life.
Speaker A:You can't plan a job interview.
Speaker A:You can't plan a plan a car stop or an arrest.
Speaker A:On luck, okay?
Speaker A:You have to have training and you have to have tactics and you have to have a plan, but it never hurts to be lucky.
Speaker B:It never hurts to be lucky.
Speaker B:Ed, thank you so much for sharing that day with us and for speaking so honestly about everything you carried afterward.
Speaker B: The: Speaker B:It helped reshape the weapons that officers carried, how ammunition was tested, and how the FBI and police departments across America trained for violent confrontations.
Speaker B:But behind those changes were people FBI agents Ben grogan and Jerry dove never came home.
Speaker B:Ed, it's been an honor to hear your story and also to remember the friends with you.
Speaker B:And thank you for spending our first Halloween special with us.
Speaker B:Every story you heard today came from somebody who went to work without knowing what that day would bring.
Speaker B:This show exists because of people just like you who choose to share these moments with us.
Speaker B:If something happened to you at work that you've never forgotten, I want to Hear it.
Speaker B:Email hristoworkthere.com thank you to our title sponsor, atlas elite autolifts, and to Edmonton's best hotels for helping us bring these stories to you.
Speaker B:If this was your very first shift with us, welcome.
Speaker B:Please follow.
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Speaker B:And please share this episode with somebody who loves a great story.
Speaker B:I'm Kelly Kennedy.
Speaker B:Have a safe Halloween.
Speaker B:Look after each other and we'll see you on the next shift.
