2406: The Real Life Grinch

Javier: Hey everyone. It's me, Javier Eva with the Pretend Podcast, and I'm joined today by Kristen with the Murder She Told Podcast. And Sean with the Sins and Survivors podcast. What are we doing this again? We are doing this

Kristen: again.

Javier: We got such great feedback from our last episode that we figured, hey, why not?

Speaker: Let's do this again, right? But this time it's Christmas and we should do a Christmas episode, right?

Kristen: Yes. Agreed.

Javier: Yeah. So today we are gonna talk about real life Grinches. Okay? These are stories of Christmas gone wrong, and boy do we have a doozy. Kristen, kind of give us a preview. Of the main story that we're gonna talk about, which is just wild.

Kristen: So this actually happened in Bangor, Maine, which is very, very close to me. Um, and it's a recent, it was over Thanksgiving and I had no, I have not heard about this before you brought it to me. Um, by the way, I'm sick. This is not what I normally sound like, so thank you for bearing with me. But I mean, both of my stories are kind of home invasion stories.

Speaker: With a Grinch twist, and I just think it's fascinating and a little bit terrifying.

Javier: Let me add a little bit to your tease, because after we found this story, and, and like you said, it just happened, like just just happened, and I quickly whipped up an email to the Bangor Police Department asking for a records request, not knowing what I was gonna get.

Speaker: I was just like, Hey, here's the suspect, here's the the case file, like. Give me whatever you got. And like Christmas morning, I got the files and it is, it is crazy. You guys haven't seen it yet? No. No.

Jose Harvey: In here. Um, some in here.

Javier: Oh my God. I got body cam footage of the incident.

Jose Harvey: Oh my

Javier: God. And so we'll talk about this.

Speaker: We're gonna save this story for last because it is a banger of a story.

Kristen: Oh my God. But I love though that this is so on brand for you. Like I didn't even think to do that. And the fact that you were like, I'm gonna go get that body cam footage, like I'm so excited. Yeah. Was there,

Shaun: was there a dog dressed as a, uh, a reindeer in it in any of the footage or,

Javier: uh, no, but there is a pet involved.

Speaker: There is a pet involved. Okay. And we're gonna get to that. It's such a crazy story. I can't wait. All right. So why don't we just jump in there. Kristen, why don't you tell us about the first story that we're gonna talk about today?

Kristen: So the first one that I have for you is, uh, it's in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio.

Speaker: Um, it's, please, I, I might be butchering this, but Vandalia, Vandalia, Ohio

Javier: sounds good to me. I

Kristen: usually look up the names and I'm very meticulous about it. I'm gonna say that I did not do that. But, um, Vandalia, Ohio, it's a suburb of Dayton, and this is in 2011. And there was a resident who discovered somebody putting up Christmas decorations that broke into their home.

Speaker: So police said that the man was allegedly a high on bath salts, and he entered this home and began hanging Christmas decor, which I kind of love him for that like. I mean, if you're gonna break into a house on bath salts, like the best thing that you could do is just be like, I'm gonna go decorate for Christmas. Um,

Javier: I don't, can I be honest with you guys? What? I don't even know what bath salts are. It just sounds like something you get at Bath Bed Bath and Beyond or something. Yeah. But then the first time I ever heard about bath salts was that guy in Miami that ate the guy's face under the bridge. Remember? Yeah.

Speaker: The real, that story. And then I was like, oh, Baals, they're a lot. More menacing than I realized.

Kristen: It's also kind of like a little time capsule because this case happens in 2011, but I feel like back in, you know, 20 10, 20 11, 20 12 bath salts were like the high, the go-to high, and it was like a huge news thing where people were talking about bath salts and it's a cheap way to get high and I don't know, it was a, it was a trend for 2011.

Shaun: It made him be like a interior decorator,

Kristen: apparently. And like turned him into like a little Christmas elf. I mean like I feel like with bath salts, you never know what you're gonna get. Like you might eat someone's face off like a zombie or you might get into the Christmas spirit.

Javier: It's a either way.

Speaker: Great HGTV concept. Right?

Kristen: Right. Yeah, true. Yeah. Decorating with bath salts, you know. Um, so Terry Trent, he's 44 and he was arrested on a burglary charge, and there was an 11-year-old boy who found Trent sitting on the couch after he had decorated parts of the house. And police said that Trent entered through a back door and just made himself comfortable in the house.

Speaker: He lit candles on the coffee table, on the kitchen table. He turned on the tv. I really wanna know what he was watching. I'm like, are we, this is a real

Javier: story.

Kristen: This is a real story. I'm like, or are we watching Elf? Were we watching? It's a Wonderful Life. Are we crying at the end of home alone? Two, when he gives her the ornament, like, what are, where are we?

Speaker: Um, he also hung up a Christmas wreath on the back. Garage door. He's going all out like he is full on baths, all interior decorating. We're

Javier: all envisioning Will Ferrell, right? Like this is all Yes. Yeah, definitely.

Kristen: In the, uh, in the department store. Yeah.

Javier: Hey guys,

Speaker: Victim 1: have you seen the place? Mm-hmm. It's pretty good. It's a little too good. Corporate must have sent in a profess.

Kristen: Um, so then when the boy came in, he saw him watching TV and playing with his toys. And then he called his mom, who was next door at the neighbor's house. And the boy's mother told the police that he tried to apologize and he was polite and he was sorry that he scared the, the kid.

Speaker: Um, and he was arrested without incidents, even though police did find that he was carrying a pocket knife.

Javier: Oh, wow. But that's, you know, to decorate with, right?

Shaun: Yeah. And no explanation. Like it wasn't like he was like, oh, I thought this was my brother's house, or any, anything like that. It was just totally, totally random.

Speaker: Not that I'm aware of. Swept up and just possessed by the Christmas spirit

Kristen: through these

Shaun: basketballs. Wow.

Kristen: He did, he did. Um, a coworker did describe him as normally a very caring person. He's involved with Boy Scouts, he's involved with the local church program and it just seems like he had, um, an off day.

Speaker: Or like a really on day. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I love, I love Christmas decorating, so, yeah.

Shaun: Yeah. So he was like, here we go. Let's just, let's just make it happen for this family. I wanna know if

Kristen: it looked good. Like that's my question. So we should probably file a FOIA for the footage for that. I'll actually, yeah, for some pic, some pictures of

Shaun: the crime scene.

Javier: I might, I might actually do this

Kristen: because you should, it's gonna be like 2011, like digital camera photos probably. And not like body cam footage.

Javier: So Sean, what do you got? You have a story for us.

Shaun: I do, I actually, I just came back from New York yesterday morning, so I actually have a New York City story for everyone. Uh, yeah, it was a really great trip. I mean, New York is just so much hustle and bustle at the holidays, people just running around the lights, the tree, all the shopping.

Speaker: The story I have is actually from a part of town that I didn't get a chance to visit, which is the Upper East side of Manhattan. So this happened in December of 2022. The NYPD had already been tracking SSA Vilas. A woman that they knew was a serial burglar. So they saw her and she was going through the neighborhood and I guess trying doors. And she found one that was unlocked. So they kind of, you know, followed her to see what townhouse she was going in. And this was completely coincidental. This was totally random, but it was Robert de Niro's townhouse. So according to the police, she just walked in the door, wasn't locked, no alarm, there's no security, and then she just began taking the wrapped Christmas presents from underneath his tree, and I guess playing with his iPad. Meanwhile. Robert De Niro is upstairs in the house asleep and his daughter was at the house as well. And I just think, to me that is the most bizarre part of the story, I guess. 'cause he's such a famous Alister that he was just in New York City with his door. Unlocked. I mean, it's, it's not, it's not unsafe, but it's definitely not one of those, um, you know, communities where people say, we just leave our doors unlocked 'cause it's so safe. So it's just that he was, he was home and the tree is lit and she just walks in and starts taking his gifts. But the police were like basically right behind her. The, thankfully because the cops were there, the story ends peacefully. I don't know how it could have gone if he had come downstairs or heard something. I mean, I think we're all lucky, although, um, maybe she just would've been shocked and ran away, or it would've turned into some silly Christmas movie cape, or, but yeah, it just ends peacefully. I don't know how they managed to sleep through everything that happened, but she was arrested without incident. No one was hurt. And Christmas continued on as planned. And I just was thinking, I don't know who the person was who left his door unlocked, but I am glad it wasn't me. 'cause I wouldn't have wanted to be yelled at by Robert DeNiro. Well, you know,

Javier: I, I could imagine if Robert Dero would've been there, he would've been there.

Jose Harvey: You talking to me? Yeah, right. Talking to me.

Kristen: I will say that, um, the Upper East Side is, uh, a fairly safe. Neighborhood. Um, I lived in New York City for a really long time, um, and it's obviously of a very wealthy zip code. Mm-hmm. Zip codes. Mm-hmm. It's interesting, like who you might stumble on if you just like randomly pick a house.

Speaker: 'cause yeah, it's all, it's all rich people. Like somebody is somebody. But it's funny that it's Robert De Niro just because he's so well known as opposed to like some, you know, hedge fund guy who, who you don't know.

Shaun: Yeah. And I wonder if she ever, um, brags about that. You know, people love to tell their, like, celebrity sighting stories.

Speaker: Like, I wonder if she's ever like, Hey, guess what I did one time I Victim 1: broke into, I mean, I

Shaun: would

Speaker: Victim 1: Yeah. Right. Like, I

Shaun: would brag about that. Yeah. So it's, uh, like, again, like I can't, I can't believe the, um, the guts of some people at the, at the holidays, they really are like grinches and they're just. Collecting people's Christmas gifts right from under their tree.

Speaker: But, um, thankfully, like I said, it, it is I guess technically a home invasion, but you know, one where no one was hurt, thank goodness.

Javier: But apparently this is not her first time doing this, right? No. Like you said, she is a serial burglar. Yeah. And this was just another gig for her, I'm sure.

Shaun: Mm-hmm. And it's, uh, it's interesting that they were, they were already tracking her.

Speaker: I think that probably prevented it from being something way more dramatic that they were right there. Who knows. Popped out, who knows? I

Kristen: kind of wanna know what was on his iPad.

Shaun: Yeah, I know. Yeah. What, what was she doing playing Candy Crush, or who knows?

Javier: All right, so my story is next, and this is about. Three postal workers that really are just like the scum of the earth of what they're saying about these people, of what their alleged crimes are. True. I mean, they're just sick. They are stealing from underprivileged kids during Christmas. So I'll tell you how this worked.

Speaker: So you got three postal workers who are real grinches, right? They were working in cahoots, I guess, making multiple copies of fake letters to Santa. So they could get picked up by Secret Santa in Operation Santa Program. Do you guys know about the Operation Santa program by the US Postal Service? I don't. I don't know.

Kristen: I feel like I've heard of it, but I, I don't actually know.

Javier: So Operation Santa is basically a program by the US Postal Service where they match up individuals, businesses, charities with children in need who write letters to Santa. And the whole idea is that, you know, these kids can get gifts right during the holidays, but instead you have these three postal workers who are basically intercepting these letters.

Speaker: They're either writing the letters themselves or. They are actually printing out new labels with their address so that they could receive the gifts. So all of this happened during the 2013 holiday season. One of the postal workers who was involved in this scheme received a printer, two laptop computers, two tablets, clothing, bedding, gift cards, and other items, and. One other guy got an iPad, laptop, headphones, boots. All of this is documented in court docs, by the way, and it is just. Crazy to believe that during this time period when there's kids who really need gifts, that there are some people in the post office thinking, Hey, I know how to intercept this. I could make a couple bucks or get a bunch of free stuff if I could just steal gifts from underprivileged kids. I mean, there's just so gross.

Shaun: And those are real high ticket, high price items. We're not talking like Barbies and like Lego sets. We're like laptop computers.

Javier: Yeah.

Kristen: Wow. It's really sad. I mean, that's like the lowest of the low. Yeah.

Javier: It, it's horrible. But I'm so glad that a program like this does exist.

Speaker: Right? Yeah.

Shaun: And there's way more, it helps way more people than, you know, than the fraud that, right? Yeah. It's,

Javier: yeah. Well, hopefully the post office caught on to the, to this scheme and is keeping a closer eye on this, but, uh, I say ba humbug to these guys. Yes,

Speaker: Victim 1: seriously.

Javier: Well, I kind of wanna inject a story here that was not in our little prep doc, but this just happened too, just a couple weeks ago, really. But it's about these prisoners. Now, the, the Grinch in this scenario, in this scenario is the actual, like prison because some of these inmates have gotten pretty, pretty clever.

Speaker: And they used in South Carolina, they used drones to deliver. Crab legs. Steaks to the prison. Oh, and weed, oh, let me see, what was it? It was weed. Yeah, I think it was, um, because you know, it goes really well with crab legs, old bay seasonings. Oh, so they were ready. Oh. And cartons and of cigarettes. 'cause you know, after a big meal like that and it, so, uh, yeah, I just thought it was so clever because you hear about, you know, we live in this day and age of drones now and. But everyone knows that people in jail have contraband cell phones and stuff like that, so they're communicating with the outside. So they're just getting their buddies to drop weapons into the prison or like contraband and, and all this stuff. But like these guys, at least they were trying, just trying to have like a little Christmas dinner and. You know, the prison just came in and, uh, and, uh, swept it away and, and it's gonna be a, a bad, bad Christmas for the, those South Carolina prisoners.

Kristen: So, who ordered it? I'm not sure. Like, how, how did this, how did this get started?

Javier: Well, this happens apparently. A lot like the whole drone contraband thing. And, and what I found interesting is that, that the prisons, even if they see the drone coming, they can't shoot it down.

Speaker: Apparently that is like, uh, some gray area, some gray legal area for the prison, and it's becoming like a real big problem, drones and prisons. But this article that I read and I haven't done too much. Research on it. Didn't say who the, who the inmates were, who ordered this, but uh, I would have to buy, but I'm looking at a picture right now. You wanna see, you wanna see a picture of the Yeah, yeah. The goods. Yeah. Let me show you a picture of the goods. 'cause this is, this is pretty awesome. They even vacuum sealed some of it, so, you know, to keep it fresh.

Kristen: I love that there was old Bay with it.

Javier: Yeah, of course. Uh, a bottle of Old Bay, a carton of Marlboro, a a big, big ass bag of weed.

Shaun: Oh, is, that's weed. I thought that was a steak. Oh my God. Oh, now I see the steak. This is a steak. Oh my gosh. That is a big bag of weed. Wow. The,

Javier: the, the bag of weed, just to give the listeners an idea, is bigger than the steak. Okay. Yeah. Bigger than the steak and the crab legs combined. Yes. I thought that was stake too.

Speaker: It's almost as long as

Shaun: that carton of cigarettes, I think.

Javier: Yes, yes.

Shaun: It's the biggest thing in the picture is the weed, I guess.

Kristen: Yeah. Wow. Is awesome. That is so funny. Who ate it? I'm guessing that the, probably the cops ate it and they were like the prison carts. That's diabolical,

Javier: that's wrong. I wonder if they, you know, if they put any like, you know, dry ice with it or, you know, like how did they Yeah.

Speaker: How far

Kristen: did they have to travel?

Javier: Yeah. Hmm. Probably not very far, but you know, in my area there used to be like drones that would deliver ice cream. Do you guys have that where you live? No.

Shaun: No, I don't think

Javier: so. Yeah. Yeah. We're, we're drunks, you know, we're, they're, they're getting better and better

Kristen: delivers ice cream.

Speaker: Like you can order ice cream and a drone will just deliver it to you.

Javier: Yeah. It just deliver, it drops it right in front of your door. Look that up.

Shaun: Yeah. That's, that's an important service

Javier: Yeah. That we all

Shaun: need.

Javier: Exactly.

Shaun: Because

Javier: you just never know when you're gonna need a pint of ice cream. Right?

Shaun: Yeah. You don't.

Speaker: It's an emergency. I love how the, it was the South Carolina, uh, department of Corrections that w that put that out in the world. I love, I love that.

Javier: They loved it. Come on. They're like, this is cool. All right, so when we come back, we are going to talk about this case that Kristen is gonna talk about from Bangor, Maine, where she's from, and, well, you're not from Bangor, Maine, but you're from close enough.

Speaker: Close enough, right? And it is a doozy. I can't wait to talk about it. So we're gonna get into it after the break.

Kristen: All right, so this case actually happened a couple weeks ago. It happened over Thanksgiving and it's in Van Gour, Maine. And there's not a lot of details on it that I could find, but that will change. We will get to that. Um, so a man in Bangor was accused of breaking into a family's apartment and opening up all of their Christmas presents, which.

Speaker: I'm actually impressed that they had all of their Christmas presents ready to go on Sunday, November 25th, this year, 2025 when that happened. So apparently they did, and Jose Harvey, who's 50, broke into their house and somebody called and reported that someone had broken into their apartment and was sleeping on their couch and refused to leave.

Javier: But that's all we knew, right? Like that that was it. Yeah.

Kristen: He made himself cozy.

Javier: There was no names. No. Like other than Jose Harvey. We had not idea Jose Harvey's idea.

Kristen: Yeah. So the, the tenant told authorities that they found all of their Christmas presents, unwrapped, and then they see this man sleeping on their couch and he couldn't provide any logical reason why he was in the apartment.

Speaker: And he was charged with aggravated criminal trespassing.

Javier: And unlike Sean's, you know, baths salt guy or what? Who was the bath salt person? Was that you Kristen? That was Kristen.

Kristen: Oh, that was me, yeah. Oh, yeah. That was the Ohio baths salt incident.

Javier: Yeah. Unlike your bath salt guy, he did not decorate the place.

Speaker: Right? He

Kristen: did not. He just took, he did not give. He took,

Javier: yeah.

Kristen: Mm-hmm. Wow.

Javier: Well, I don't know that this story really piqued my interest. I was just intrigued by the lack of detail out there, and so it literally, guys, I know that it seems impressive. It, it took me five minutes to write an email to the Bangor Police Department, and it was a very generic email.

Speaker: Like I, I didn't ask for anything. Specific, but a couple days later it didn't even take that long. Couple days later, I get a zip file with like 21 gigs. Okay. And I'm thinking, what the hell is in this thing?

Kristen: I mean, that's Christmas getting a foil. That was where you have that many gigs.

Javier: Yeah. That was like Christmas morning.

Speaker: And so I want to share with you what I found because you guys have not seen this. I have not.

Kristen: And I love that you did that so much. It's, yeah. Yeah.

Javier: And you know, this is such a silly, it seems like a silly story, but it's about to not get silly because, you know, on the surface we hear about these stories and, and there's no detail and they sound funny.

Speaker: And we're doing this whole special on grin Grinch Christmas, but this is like a real person that this happened to. When you watch this footage, you're gonna see how scary it is because the cops showed up right as the purp was still in the apartment. Okay? And so you're like, they showed up somehow. These people, the victims kept this guy Jose Harvey, in their apartment until the cops came. All right, so let's, let's watch the footage. We start, there's multiple clips, right? And each folder has a different body cam from a different officer who responded, uh, even like the police dashboard. But this clip that we're watching right now is the officer res, like heading to the call, like he's responding to the call. Okay. So he's arriving at the scene, it looks like. Like a townhouse apartment type of situation where there's like a one front door and then when you open up the door, there's multiple different apartments. Okay, so let me, let me stop right here and just kind of explain to the. Listeners who can't see this, what's happening? So basically the officer shows up, he meets the, the woman who lives in the apartment upstairs who made the call, they go upstairs and they walk into the living room and the, the boyfriend is wearing his underwear. I mean, he's just like, you could tell they just woke up and this Jose Harvey guy is just standing in their living room. You could see all the, the Christmas stuff Victim 1: get in here.

Jose Harvey: In here.

Police: Well, you guys live with anybody or no? No, it's just us. Beat it. Let's go.

Javier: Okay. And this is what bothers me the most about this, is that the cop shows up and he says like, Hey, get outta here, scram. Okay, so now we're watching we're we're watching video of them going, the officers following Jose Harvey, you know the prep right here.

Speaker: He's following him downstairs. But I wanted to stop and kind of get your reaction so far.

Kristen: First of all, I love that Jose is wearing red plaid, like buffalo red plaid, because it kind of makes him look like Santa. Yes. Like, like a really creepy santa. And he's also got like something green in his arm.

Javier: Yeah, like a jacket.

Speaker: It's his, it's his jacket. But he's wearing a hood, right? Like that's what kind of gives him the Santa body

Kristen: that, that face. Yeah. He has a, a

Javier: white beard, right?

Kristen: Yes, he does. Oh my God. He kind of looks like Santa.

Javier: I just feel so bad for these people. Look like he trashed the place. Um,

Kristen: yeah,

Javier: like it looks like they have like a nice place, you know?

Speaker: They had the stockings up and everything.

Kristen: If, if, if somebody broke into my house though, and the police were on their way, I might, I might put pants on. I think so. The fact, the fact that this guy is just standing there literally in his underwear.

Javier: But I mean, think about it though, like the fact that they were able to keep this guy in their living room.

Speaker: I don't think the boyfriend had time to go get pants. You know what I mean? At the beach stove, he can't be like, Hey, hey guy who just broke into our house and opened up all of our Christmas gifts, could you just stay right here while I go get dressed? You know?

Kristen: I mean, he seems kind of cozy. He seems like the Jose Guy.

Speaker: He seems kind of cozy, like he wouldn't have left if the police weren't like, all right, buddy. Scram.

Javier: And he's very chill. Like this one. He is very chill as you're about to see. So, all right, let's play the rest of the video.

Police: Hold on, hold on. Who let you in here? Champagne.

Jose Harvey: Who? Champagne. Tell you. Did he?

Javier: He sing champagne. So how

Jose Harvey: did you end up in their apartment? I know, I, I just sleep with everything, I guess. Then said, I said, okay. I just, pain opened the door. Okay. Somebody,

Javier: let me, let me back up here. Clearly this guy, there's something, either he doesn't speak English very well or he's maybe on some kind of substance abuse.

Speaker: I don't know. He's not making himself very clear. He keeps saying, champagne. Champagne, let him in. The cop doesn't really know. So let, let's play the rest.

Jose Harvey: I just left when open the door.

Police: Okay. Somebody invited you in here to drink champagne.

Jose Harvey: No. No, no. His name's Champagne.

Police: Okay, so he invited you into his apartment and you stumbled into somebody else's apartment.

Speaker: Yes. So sir, completely unacceptable.

Javier: And that's the part that just blows my mind. The cop, you know, he's like, why are you here? Who? Who are you wanting to see? He kept saying, champagne. Champagne. And then he hands him his ID and then just sends him off like, he's like, just don't come back here. Yeah, don't come back here.

Speaker: Like, hello? He was breaking and entering, but. I don't know what, what are your thoughts so far before we continue?

Kristen: It's kind of like, like the circumstances are really funny, but then like you said, when you see it, it's a little bit sobering like this. Yeah. I mean, I would be fully alarmed if there was, if this man was just in my house, I.

Speaker: And especially if they woke up in the morning, which it kind of like, this is, it looks like the timestamp is 8:45 AM Um, so like he was probably sleeping in the apartment with them, sleeping in it, and that's like kind of my worst nightmare.

Shaun: Yeah. Do you get the impression the cops know him or he has some kind of reputation with them?

Javier: You know, it's unclear to me. Almost sounded like that. Right? Like he's like Jose Harvey, almost like he knew who this guy was. Yeah. Like

Shaun: he knew who he was like, you're on Har, you're on Jose. Like, or whatever he said. There he goes

Javier: again. Jose Harvey. Yeah. I couldn't

Kristen: tell if he was like calling in to see what you know, the station had on him.

Speaker: Um, or if it was something like he was familiar.

Javier: Yeah, I don't know, but there's a lot more, like now the officer, you know, the, the one that responded that we were listening to, he hands over Jose Harvey to a, a female officer and Jose Harvey goes out with their her right. But now he goes back upstairs to check on the victims.

Speaker: So let's play the rest of this.

Police: What time did you guys go to bed last night?

Speaker: Victim 1: We went bed pretty

Police: late. So

Speaker: Victim 1: 1:00 AM There's a video. I didn't show you the camera.

Police: What time does he come in here?

Speaker: Victim 1: There's no video of him entering, but there's a video of him walking around at seven, so I don't know how he got in.

Kristen: Was your door locked or,

Speaker: Victim 1: yeah. Yeah, but there's no video of him entering. I get notifications on my camera. Mm-hmm. For every movement.

Police: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Victim 1: There's a video at 1:00 AM. And then

Police: there's where, where was he when you woke up?

Speaker: Victim 1: Uh, just he was just laying on the couch. I came out to go to the bathroom and he was Oh,

Police: she guys her in there?

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. As Victim 1: far

Police: as

Speaker: Victim 1: we know. And then the next thing was at 7 56, he's just walking around. Oh my gosh.

Javier: There's a lot going on here. Like, what, what are you picking up from that last club?

Shaun: Like, I think they're terrified. Yeah. Yeah. They, it really hit them like that, that could have been dangerous. They feel really violated.

Speaker: They have, they're so confused too. Like she keeps saying like, I, I don't understand how he got in.

Javier: Right. And that's really scary. So like, it sounds like she has cameras everywhere. Like she could tell when she went to bed and he wasn't there. So that means he must have come in after they went to bed. But she's not sure how he came in.

Speaker: 'cause there's no footage of him coming in. And at this point the boyfriend is fully dressed obviously because the situation seems to be under control. Right. But she is shaken to the core. I mean, and, and understand. So everything, Victim 1: all of these Christmas presents were wrapped. Now they're all open and use in the bathroom has been destroyed. And he moved things around and put things in storage containers in the bathroom that were empty.

Police: Yeah. So do you think he had any idea you guys were even home?

Speaker: Victim 1: I don't think so. I,

Police: I don't know, because I don't think he got it. Like he

Speaker: Victim 1: went through everything.

Javier: So she's just trying to figure this whole thing out.

Speaker: It looks like something's going on in the bathroom, like the crawlspace door was open and one of the cats got out and sh this is like just made a really bad situation worse. It's chaos. And so now they're, now they're looking for their cat. I mean, I just felt so bad. But again, there's like this mystery of like, how did this guy get in?

Police: Gonna

Speaker: Victim 1: what? This wasn't open

Police: the window, so that's open now.

Speaker: Victim 1: So that's open.

Police: Is that, that is why,

Speaker: Victim 1: I think that's why it's not on the camera. And I think that's why that

Javier: was broken.

Speaker: Victim 1: I dunno.

Javier: So that explains how he came in undetected, right? Like he, he just snuck in through the window. So what ended up happening was that Jose Harvey wasn't like he was waiting for them to go to bed.

Speaker: He must have, they must have gotten home late at. She said around one o'clock in the morning they went to bed, everything was fine. He wasn't there. And sometime after one o'clock in the morning he snuck in through the window, must have fallen asleep. And it wasn't, it wasn't until the morning when he started, you know, opening up all the gifts and just messing up their living room. I think that once the cop realized like, how messed up this was, he, lemme see if I could find this. He, he realizes, okay, well we gotta take this guy in, but I don't know why he didn't do that to begin with.

Police: Yeah. Stop and hold him. I think I'm gonna take him on burglary.

Javier: Yeah. Duh.

Police: Three, two.

Javier: So anyway, in another body cam footage, you get to see where they apprehend him.

Speaker: They, they take him to, to the jail and eventually he was charged. Yeah, but it, it is just wild, you know? Because at at face value, this story just seemed kind of funny, right? Like, now that we get this intimate look into what happened, and not only like after it happened, we were watching it happen in real time. It it's just, it, it hits differently, I guess.

Kristen: Yeah, it does. I mean, when you only have so many details like. It, it kind of is like a funny story, like someone's in your house and opened up your presence and then reorganized your storage stuff in the bathroom, but then you like see the people and you see the impact and it, it definitely changes it a little bit.

Shaun: Yeah, for sure. And the way the officer's side, when he got in the car, like you could tell that he even, he was like, I can't even believe this is happening. Like, I, I think he even, he really felt for them too, and had knew to take it seriously.

Police: So I'm gonna read you your rights. I need to say yes or no after each one.

Speaker: Okay.

Kristen: I just love that he, he's handcuffed and he's standing there with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, like answering these questions. Yeah.

Javier: So that's it guys. I don't know if this, uh, made you, um, less or more in the holiday spirit after next year.

Kristen: Definitely more. Yes. Well,

Javier: thank you so much. This was so much fun.

Speaker: I'm glad we were able to make this happen.

Shaun: Yeah, me too. I look forward to more of this in 26.

Kristen: Yeah, I have, um, an episode, I'll, I'll plug this. I have a, a Christmas crime episode that's a two part, it came out last year. It is, um, about Bertha Cody on the murder of Renee Cody, and it is a true Christmas murder.

Speaker: If you want something that's a little bit, um. Deeper dive and not as a little bit more nefarious Yeah. Than, uh, breaking and entering. But, um mm-hmm. It's a, it's a very interesting story. It's from the forties. It's got showgirls, it's got affairs, it's got, um, everything it. So go listen to that if you want. She want some more Christmas.

Javier: That's right. Murder she told. All right. How about you, Sean? What? What's going on with you and the rest of the year? What should people look out for?

Shaun: John and I are going to release our annual missing at the holidays episode. 'cause during the typical time on our podcast, we focus on stories out of Las Vegas.

Speaker: But once a year around the holidays. We share, um, five or six missing person stories from outside of Las Vegas that either, um, some of our, uh, friends in the podcasting world have told us about that we wanna highlight and continue to keep their names out there in hopes that the families have answers in the new year. So we have, we'll have our annual missing at the holidays episode. Um, I think probably the 30th, December 30th, I think this year.

Javier: So everyone go check out, uh, sins and Survivors and Murder she Told. And of course pretend if you're listening to, uh, yes. Um, on the other feeds. And we hope you know that you guys have a wonderful holiday and, uh, happy New Year and just take.

Speaker: Time to relax and start all over again in 2026. So thank you for listening, and go and check out all of our shows.