Latest / Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement / #030- "It's More Than Just a Chair"

Transcript

#030- "It's More Than Just a Chair" · Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: This episode of BlueGrip Podcast is sponsored by Sons and Liberty Gun Works, proud law enforcement supporters.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: And so I was asked by someone who knew I did the working as a hobby if I would build a chair similar to one of those for an SAPD officer that was killed that he knew I built that chair and gave it to him.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize what he was going to mean to that sub station.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Hey listeners, it's BlueGrip Podcast.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: We're back, got a cool guest, selfless servant guest on today, your host, clint McNeer, and Tyler Owen.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: To what's up?
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: How are you TO Going good, you look nice, thank you.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: You look like a nice little tan living on the San Marcos River.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no kidding man.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You look like you've been in Kent Kent.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been nice for sure.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Appreciate everybody that tunes in Hit subscribe like.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Tell somebody about the show.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Comment down below what you like, what you don't like about Tyler.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Be nice.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Or about the show.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: You can tell us what you like or don't like about the show.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: If you don't want to talk about TO, you can talk about the show and what you like or don't like.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Hit us up at BlueGrip, at tmpaorg in contact.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Like we said, we'll go.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: We've got a very selfless servant on saving a hero's place, founder Tommy Capel, Thank you.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Hey man, how are you Good yeah.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: We're good Welcome back to Texas.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a little bit.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: He took a show on the road yeah.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: So saving a hero's place and we'll dive way deep into it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: But they've taken their show on the road and been up to Maine and back and stood a building chairs here and shipping them out there, building them there for the fallen.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Let's dive in first.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Who's Tommy?
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Who the hell's Tommy?
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Where are you born?
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Tell us about who Tommy is.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I know you're going to do that.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: He said nothing's off limits.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: We're going deep, deep.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I take that back.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Born in San Antonio, lived there most of my life until I got talked into moving to Rosenberg.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: But yeah, born, raised in San Antonio, my whole life Worked.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: I changed jobs a lot.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: It seems like now they look back because I started at a high school, worked at Frostbank for 13 years before I became a teacher.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, no, kidding.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: So then I became a cop with San Antonio.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I was there almost 10 years before I started doing this full time, so we'll see how long I lasted.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Any background?
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Your family law enforcement?
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: What made you leave Frostbank going to Popo?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my dad retired from San Antonio after 33 years.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I always wanted to do it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: I got a good job at the bank and it was kind of like man, do I want to leave this?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: And then finally I just did it before I got too much older.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: How old were you when you became a cop 32.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's fairly old for getting into law enforcement.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Is that a good thing or is it interesting?
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I think it was a good thing.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I guess, growing up law enforcement my dad was a cop, you kind of know.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you have a good idea of what you're getting yourself into.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: A lot of rich history of San Antonio Police Department, for sure.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Got out of the Academy.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: San Antonio put their own Academy on.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: And went to patrol, I guess from there.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then, two months after he graduated, my classmate was killed in line of duty.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: So I had drunk driver, so ultimately I ended up going to our DWI task force.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I kind of had.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: You know, I just I wanted to do that.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: After that I was only on patrol like three years and then I went to the DWI task force and I was there the rest of the time until I left.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Losing Academy mate to that DWI accident.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Right Is that I always tell young people you always figure out what your niche is in law enforcement, whether it's chasing dope or stolen cars or DWI's.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Is that specifically what kind of steered you into your passion to?
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I don't think I would have went there had that not happen.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: It wasn't something I you know, when I graduated I'm going to go to, you know, dwi.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: I really didn't even know they had that when I graduated.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I didn't know what it was.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually went.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I was in aining, I was being questioned, oh, but I, I was only in ease until I be.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: You know when that happened.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: It kind of stays in the back of your mind like man, had you had that envision whenever you were.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Did I mean?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Obviously you said, did you just say that you didn't know that that existed?
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: But, I mean, was that your focus?
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Did you have envisions to go to it?
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: might be like dope or Canine or anything when you graduate with.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Not really, I didn't really have my options to you know.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Centon, right, yeah, okay.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: How many in Academy, in your Academy?
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: We started about, I think, with like 41 and graduated 31, 32, something like that.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: It's pretty good 25% drop in drop rate.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, how long is Academy in San Antonio now?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Do y'all run it in house?
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's in house like eight months, so it was January to August when I started.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what year was that?
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: You started, uh, 2010.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: And did 10 years.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: You said, yeah.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: How far into your career um did you start saving the He-Rest place?
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Uh, we started that in 2013.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: So pretty, pretty early.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Was there something or was it related to your academy mate?
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: What manifested that idea in?
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: you, it wasn't really related to that initially, um, because we he got killed two months after we graduated, like I said, and in San Antonio we lost an officer every year for the first four years I was on Wow, so it's like a continuous thing, you know, and um, and there's, there's chairs in San Antonio, one of the substations that somebody did years ago, um, and so I was asked by someone who knew I did we're working as a hobby if I would build a chair similar, you know, to one of those for for an SAPD officer that that was killed, that he knew I didn't know him, I never worked with him or anything, so I didn't.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: I built that chair and gave it to him.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize what it was going to mean to that substation, I didn't know anybody there, I didn't know him, um, but what ultimately started is right after I gave him that chair is when the Boston Marathon bombing happened.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Um, an officer car was sitting in a patrol car and he was shot and killed for whatever reason.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: That bothered me.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: I couldn't sleep, I was angry, um, and I had just done that that chair.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: So I was like, man, I'm going to send them an email, see if I can build them a chair.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: So I I sent him an email and not really expecting to get response.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Really, it was just you know what I'm going to offer this.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: I want to do something for them, cause I know it was going to be tragic for for MIT.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: They should never experience anything like that.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: So you said it to, I guess, like MIT PD to his agency.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just sent it to.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I believe it was like info or something.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I didn't have any contacts there or anything, never been there.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know why that.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: I still don't know why that one bothered me so much.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I think it was just the way it happened, you know you never want you never want to be just sitting in your patrol car.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: You know you want to go out fighting, so I.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: They replied like quick.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: They were like oh yeah we definitely need something, you know.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Then I'm like whoa, you know, looking on a map and seeing that it's 2000 miles away, you know what do I get myself into?
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: So I told my wife, hey, you know, I might have, I might have sent an email to this place, like 2000 miles away, and she was on board.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: She's like, all right, let's do it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: So she started raising money, we built the chair and we drove it all the way up there.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: And man, that's when we saw, like, like what?
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it meant to have it Right.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: So the the, the chairs that you currently build was it almost is exactly what replica of what you saw at the substation.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I mean the, the idea.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: It's different, the one at one substations.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I believe it's like a chair.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: They went and got and they put like a metal plaque on it.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, I believe that's like the original chair that was placed in San Antonio and then there was four others that were done.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: It kind of resembled those, but then we've we've changed it quite a bit over the years and now we have pretty much a set chair that we do almost every time.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: The name?
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Was that something that evolved, or it was just natural that that's what it was?
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Or was that something that just dawned on you guys one day, that this is what we're doing, this is what we're building?
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we were.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: We didn't have a name.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: When we first started, we didn't even know we were going to keep doing this.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: When we first started, it, Um yeah, and just kind of you know, came to us like you know, this is what we're doing.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: We're we're saving their place at the, at the agency, and that's how the name came about.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: And when they initially reached out to you, had you dabbled in woodworking before.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Was that a hobby?
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: or yeah, I've been woodworking since I was a kid, so I've always done it um as a hobby.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it was that part, wasn't?
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: new to the ability and the skill you have now?
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Or is it?
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Is it improved?
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: No, I would say definitely improved now doing this yeah.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Who, who who intro'd you that my dad's always done woodworking.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: I always took it in school.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: I've just always yeah, always been involved in that.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Started out when I first started getting big into it.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: I would make fish aquarium stands.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Um, that's how I got started into it Like a lot.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: So let's go back to wherever you you you've made the initial first chair, uh, for the MIT guy, the officer, uh, kind of explain that process, the emotions going behind it, the travel up there, the initial arrival and kind of what that experience, because that's really what really drove you to begin this process and the response that you got from that.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely we.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Like I said, my wife just started raising money because we knew it was going to be a long drive.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Um, we drove nonstop, we didn't, we just switched drivers.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, we just drove straight through there.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: It was like 30 something hours and, um, when we gave him that chair, and so many of them were in the lobby and at the small department, um, just seeing the emotion and the silence, and you know they're thinking back about him and all that, and it, we knew, um, I think we knew then, like man, we got to keep doing this.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Um, once we saw that emotion, uh, we're still very close with them.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: We talked to him all the time, text back and forth, um, so, and I think that's what what triggered, like man, we, we got to keep doing this.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: This is a big deal.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: You know, we just weren't expecting that.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Even when we got there, they were like, what do y'all want to say?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: And we're like we don't want to say anything, we just want to give you this chair.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: You know, we didn't know what we were doing and um, but it, yeah, it meant a lot to them.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: They actually had it pushed up to where he sat.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: So it, you, know we're like yeah, we're like whoa, this is a, this is a roll call thing for for all, because ultimately, that's what it was for.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: It was for the department.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: It wasn't for the family.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: It wasn't for um, it was for the department.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: A lot of stuff's done for the family, as it should be, um, does not a lot done for the, for the department?
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: When an officer is killed, you just go back to work, um, and experiencing that ourselves.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I think that's why we wanted to do this.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, y'all's chair now I guess maybe back up even further for our listeners.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Um, we have a lot of non law enforcement and lot of civilian listeners.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Tommy's uh mission is saving a hero's place and the spirit behind that.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: They build these amazing cherry wood.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Now it is yeah.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Cherry wood chairs that beautifully made, handmade, every one of them's handmade, specific for the fallen officer.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: It may have a patch or or challenge coins from that agency or however.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: Um saving a hero's place in in the.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: The fallen department designed that chair but um, and it stays, generally, I guess, in the squad room for most of the agencies and it's to save that person's place.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: So when you come into lineup that person will never be in line up again, but there's a chair there being saved for that hero so that they'll always be in line up.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: Uh, in spirit, with this beautiful, beautiful chair, yeah.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: And I think I think for me, like without when I was with Santana, I don't know how you guys did it, but when, when we got a roll call, you sitting the same chair.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, old habits, every roll call.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: It's like a super.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: You know you walk in superstitious.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: You walk in someone's in your chair.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: You're like you know you got to get out of my chair, like I need to sit in so that and when you're new.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: It's generally front and center on the front row and then kind of as you work your way back, if there's any back there and if a rookie walks in and sits on the back row.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: You might as well have Stolen somebody's beer.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Kiss their wife, because you're going to be told very quickly to get your young rookie ass back up to the front row or wherever it is.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: You belong out of my chair.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: So when an officer is killed now, who sits in that chair?
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: You know, no one's going to want to sit there for a while, so we just wanted to kind of replace that.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: This is his chair, this is his or her spot now, so you can, you know, people could sit there.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: That's ultimately what we hope.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: So this started in 2013.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Obviously, you were working as a full-time cop.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That's a long time, really, for you to be working as a full-time cop and then to take this other really charity.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: At what point did you really stop and go, man?
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I this is, this is becoming a full-time gig and I really want to stop what I'm doing and being a full-time cop and to vote all of my attention and all of my efforts towards this, because I got I got to be honest with you, just like I sent you that text every day.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I woke up at 5 30 in the morning, didn't know that you were three hours behind me or three hours behind me when I sent that it was like 3 am when I sent that text, but I wake up all the time and we follow your pay just to, you know, be us being 10 pa.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: It blows my mind really, the amount of travel that you do and the amount of chairs that you build and the passion and the drive that you've got to wake up every single day and the devotion that you give back to these departments to fall in and to do that day in, day out, week after week, day after day.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Man, it's, it's inspiring and it's awesome really, and that's why we wanted to, you know, for you to come on this podcast and explain that it's, it's, it's admirable and, on behalf of TNPA and you know, God's got 20 years of law enforcement experience it's, it's awesome.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: So at what point did you really just say you know what?
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I love?
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Law enforcement, I love being a cop every day.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: But this is this is more important to me.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Did you realize it was going to?
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: grow as quick as it did.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: No, when we got back from from MIT, we we built a chair for my class, me, we built several more chairs for San Antonio and we started getting emails like in, indeed, with emails back in Massachusetts, because people I guess they did stories because it didn't do like a story while we're there, but people started seeing what we had done and we got more emails from Massachusetts on on officers that were killed prior years and it just took off.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: That's like 14 2014.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Right, you know, our vision when we first started was we'll reach out and, you know, do all these chairs, and that rarely happens just because we get too many requests.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: But you know, I guess a couple of years into it, maybe two or three years into it, we had, we were upwards, upwards of 80 chair requests on the list and we didn't.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: We didn't anticipate that.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: You know we've 80 and Q to be built and I started burning on my time.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I had a lot of time saved up.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: You can bank a lot of time with the department between CT and vacation time and holiday.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: There's all this different time you can bank, you know, and I just started burning all that time building chairs and traveling to present them.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Before I knew it, I had like sick time left and I was really it, and that's when you kind of start making a decision like man.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: I either got to stop burning my time and just, you know, do this as I can, or I got to spend all my time on this, and it was.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: It was Slater, who you know, we met one day and he's like man, you, you could make this huge, if you know, if you, if you quit, and at the time I'm like you're crazy, like easy for you to say Slater San Antonio Like there's no way, like I never, initially never thought, and it was at your conference, I think, in 2015,.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: When we met him, it was at the team PA conference.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: We were sitting there talking to him and when he said that and we were like yeah, no.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Then we met him, probably at another conference.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: We wouldn't see him all the time, we'd see him at your conferences and then I think it was 20, probably the 2019 conference.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: And Houston.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Houston, we were sitting in the lobby and he's like, man, you really should resign and do this full time.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh my.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: God, that's scary yeah and our boards there, our wife's there and they're like, yeah, you know you should, and I'm like there's supposed to be the reasoning.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: You know my wife's supposed to be the reasoning behind it.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so it was 2019 when I left the department in October and it's been scary, but the support we received has helped us.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: We have some die-hard supporters, but you guys and Realist Fender and OnSiteDecals they're just constantly supporting us and it's what's kept us afloat, especially through 2020, because we couldn't do fundraising and I had just left the department and I'm like, oh man, I'm going back Timing of you even, and then COVID hitting.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Oh, I didn't think about that.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: So, I'm like I think there was a couple of times where we're like man, I think we're about to go back, like because you could go back within like a year, and that's kind of why I was like you know what I can leave?
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Try this, I can always go back.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: But our support grew in 2020, and it got us through even without doing fundraisers, and that was a huge, huge help.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it was really scary.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I guess, probably like the first year was when it was the scariest.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: You know, we didn't have health insurance for like a year, and so that part was scary.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: So when you left SAPD, did you guys stayed remote for a bit, working before you moved out to relentless defender, or did you guys move out there pretty quick after?
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we moved really quick after, and initially we rented a house there because we still were like man, I hope this works, let's not buy a house, and that's you know.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: We don't want to commit to too much and so.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: But we had sold our house in the Santana area and moved there, and we were working out of RDA or since, I guess, early 2020.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Almost three years two and a half three years Wow, God, I didn't realize y'all were there that long.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: It was like yesterday.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it seemed like y'all were there just a short period, so since inception 2013,.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: do you know a rough number of chairs you've built so far?
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're like at 252, I believe how many in Q.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: We usually maintain about 30 all the time.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: We'll, you know, we'll go some represented chair and we'll get a request on our way home or on our way back, and so we pretty much maintain about a queue of around 30 chairs now all the time In a chair.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I know initially a chair used to take quite some time to put together and you guys are at some point when you chose to leave RDA I guess before we dove into the chair what was the shift in having a big, big shop and what was that decision internally look like for you guys to go on the road?
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Well, we, you know, having that shop was amazing to us, having all being able to get all that more equipment and all that and we had.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: So we had a department come to our shop from Georgia.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: To the officers in the department came dad's two brothers.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: They all came to our shop and they built a chair with us over like three days and it was totally different than what we were used to.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: That you know, that experience we're still very I was actually just texting the dad yesterday.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: We're still very close with them too.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: We say we were used to building a chair, take it, drop it off, leave most of the time.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: Without as much involvement of officers and family Correct.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: So when they came and they spent three days with us, you know, building this chair, we're like whoa.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: This is completely different.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: You know, we really got to know, them got to know the officer right Became really good friends.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: They really had the hands on in doing that chair.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: They did a lot of that chair and so we continued building the shop.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: But in the background mine were like man, that was so cool.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: We tried to get more departments to come to where we were at.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: But officers can't take off, they just can't do it.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: They don't want to pay for travel.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: The department is just everyone shorthanded.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: So we were just I think we were about to go to sleep one night and I'm like man, I wish we could just go to the department and build it so they don't have to come to us and then you say that out loud and you're like man, maybe we can get that to work, and so we just started trying to figure out what we would need to make that happen and how we could do it, and we started working on it and we did it.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: We started here in Texas and it's been awesome doing it like that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: It's just so different.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: It's different because the family is seeing the chair and the officers are seeing the chair while being built, which was different to us because no one saw the chair until we presented it.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: So that part's been kind of weird, but it's been an amazing experience doing it at the departments themselves.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: So what does that look like?
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, so what equipment do you have?
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: You have a fifth wheel or a trailer, or they'll kind of bounce hotel to hotel.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Kind of explain that.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we just bounce hotel to hotel or some departments have gotten us an Airbnb.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so we're just pulling truck and cargo trailer and our trailer is basically our shop.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: We just downsized everything, tried to find as much stuff as we could that was battery operated instead of electric and we got solar generators for it to run.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: The stuff that they don't make, like the CNC, it's got to be plugged in, so we had to get power.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: We didn't really want to gas generator out there.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: You know all the time trying to work on that.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: So we started looking into the solar generators.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: But yeah, most it's been weird working.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: I'm used to like big commercial equipment when I was in that shop, but now everything's in that old trailer.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so we basically set up over two days and build a chair and then we present it on the third day that we're there.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: So far, listeners.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: They were at RDA Relentless Defender with Slater and had a beautiful shop, amazing shop, and him and his partner in crime, robbie, decided to take the show on the road.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: They downsized the shop into a box trailer, wood size, 16 16 foot box trailer.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: They have a full woodworking shop that they can roll up, plop down can't pull out and build a chair in two days.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: And to your point about being connected, I got to be in Carrollton when you guys were building a chair for Officer Nothelman.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: The direct emotional engagement that you guys have with the family caught me off guard because I mean, it's a piece of wood but it means the world.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: In watching the officers come up and I was watching you like because I know nothing about woodworking, so I could relate to some of the officers coming up and you had to show them like how to sand or, you know, do whatever, and they were getting emotional working on a chair and I thought, man, these may be a chair, it may be a piece of wood, but this is a connection that means a whole lot.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: And it all put into perspective of why I chose to go on the road rather than manufacture a chair, like Walmart would, and ship it out and drop it off.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Here you go.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: This should mean a lot to you and watching the sweat equity and the tears that family and coworkers got to put into it, I was like OK, now that all makes sense to my small brain.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: That's incredible.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: We didn't even think of all that because when we did the first chair and Burnett, texas, you know the family showed up and his young daughter was there and we were like oh man, this and I guess we weren't expecting expecting that.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: So right away we were like whoa this is going to be different, you know, and it's tough because we, when we present a chair, we don't know anyone.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little bit easier to stand up there and talk when you know when you've met these families and officers over the over two days and now we have to present the chair, I'm like man, it's it's tougher to present it.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: In huge kudos to Robbie your wife, because usually opposites attract or, like you said, voice a reason.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: Her mission, her passion for the mission is as strong as yours, and every idea you guys come up with, she's all in 100 percent.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: And what a cool support system to have an ambitious goal of.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Let's go on the road.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Hey, we're going to get in a trailer and head to Maine and build a chair.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Cool, let's roll.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when we're sitting there and talking about it and she's like, yeah, I think that I'm like dang, here we go again.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: You know you're supposed to stop me.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she is diehard involved in her.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Her passion is definitely minor or greater.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: That's cool.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: And your kids?
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: I mean it's a family affair.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, our son's been doing most of the video work when we, when we go on the.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Since we started going on the road it's been, you know, mailing out merchandise and so it's been tough.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: So our middle daughter has actually taken that over.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: So it's like a family thing in our oldest daughters in North Carolina.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: She took our our big CNC that we had in the shop.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: We gave it to her so that we'd have it there if we needed it, and she's been making auction items for us to throw up online and stuff like that because we don't have as much time.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Nice, yeah, so it's.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: You know, they've been doing this for 10 years.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: It's all they all they've known.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, For all of our listeners.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: Y'all's mission is a nonprofit and, to your point about it was it was a scary leap to jump out of the police department, um, but you guys are supported by donations, contributions that come in Um, and I forget the word you use for um repeat.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Or take our membership.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah Membership membership.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: Guardian angels Yep, um, how would somebody, if they were interested in making a contribution to saving here's place or becoming a guardian angel, to make a monthly, whether it's $100 a month or a dollar a month, whatever it is if somebody wanted to be a guardian angel, make a repeating contribution or make a single one time, what would be the easiest way for people to do that?
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they would go to our website, savingherosplaceorg, and then you would see where it where it has either a donate or or it has information on becoming a guardian angel.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Um, when I talked about 2020, you know people supporting us the guardian angel membership program is what got us through 2020.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Ultimately, um, we have people that donate $3 a month.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: We have people that donate $200 a month.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: We didn't want to set an amount because I know everybody's financial situation is different.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: So, we didn't set.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Like you know, you have to donate this much Um, and we're up to probably 280 members.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: I think that donate to us, and a lot of them are three, five dollars, but it adds up and that's how we tell people.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Like you know, $3 doesn't seem like a lot to someone, but it does one a lot of people.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, and to provide an agency equality product takes, you know, for cherry wood, and again, I know less than zero about woodworking, but the beautiful woods you guys use and and um, the items that you use and the equipment CNC machine you guys just had to replace because it broke down and um, it takes those finances to do that and you could turn out something that would look like I build screw into two buffers together, which wouldn't look well and um, I think it speaks a lot to the mission you guys have that you have so many guardian angels willing to continue to support the mission.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: Uh, and keep you guys on the road, taking care of others.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, you know we always talk about their the greatest people like when we need something and someone donates.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: It's one of them like, and they're already donating monthly.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: They're just.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: It's just a group of of amazing people that have that have gotten us to where we're at basically.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: If somebody's wanting to send in a request also, how would they do that Same way?
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Same website, right, and then there's a.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: There's like a little image of a chair and it has chair request form.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: They can fill it out online and they hit submit and it comes directly to us.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: And this is separate from TNPA charity.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Tts, tnpa does support you guys, uh, but it's completely separate, you know, from TNPA charities.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I just want to make that clear, to make the listeners you know aware of it.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: It's separate from the TNPA charities.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: So anyway, but man, it's a, it's a.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Uh, it's a huge mission and a huge take on that you've done and uh, it's a, it's a phenomenal story.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: So kudos to you for doing it.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: Oh, I appreciate it.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: Tell us about your partnership with Ranger Creek.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: How'd that come about?
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Uh, I was somewhere and I saw a bottle.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: I had like a law enforcement type label on it and, um, man, I want to do something like that, that'd be cool, you know.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: And so I, I basically sent an email to every distillery I could Google, you know and and they answered me and their local in Santana on there, like, yeah, you know what Can you?
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Can you come in?
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: We'd like to hear more about what you do.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: So we have a wife one in there and talk to them, and they, they were on board.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: They're like, yeah, that's you know, we definitely want to do this, this would be cool.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: And then, and so they've, I think we skipped a year, um, but then they're doing another one this year.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: So that'll, that'll be cool.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: They're going to do 300 bottles this year, tell our listeners a little bit about that, if you don't mind.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: So it's a Ranger Creek distilleries in San Antonio.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: So what they do is they?
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: They do a limited run of of a whiskey bottle that has our our logo on it.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Basically, they they changed their their label at the bottom to blue and then they put our logo at the top and they sell 300 bottles of the bourbon whiskey and they donate $30 per bottle back to us.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: That's cool yeah.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: So it's a good fundraiser for them?
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Where can they get?
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: those up.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Uh, they're going to release the actual release party in San Antonio at the distilleries July 29th.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Um, they'll start a pre-sale 30 days before that, so we'll we'll post it on our on our website when they start pre-selling the bottles.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: So pre-sale you guys will post about in the releases at the distillery, july 29th, 29th.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Make a trip to Fill trip.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: You see that on my it's a fill trip and that's a beautiful bottle.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Uh, I know last year's bottle was beautiful looking bottle too, and onsite decals prints the label.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: So they're like the reflective, like labels that would be on a emergency vehicle, so that's super cool.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: That's a shout out to onsite, because they've been a huge supporter to a lot of missions.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, um, and.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: And they wrap all of our trucks.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, do incredible work.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: And um, I'd we'd be remiss too If we don't hit up.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: You guys have a uh Gaila coming up.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: Can you share with the listeners a little bit about that?
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so our Gaila will be September 23rd and uh, this year being Biloxi, mississippi, at the Bo-Ravage casino.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: I love Biloxi.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: Can you say the word of that hotel again?
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: Is that common spelling?
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Bo-Ravage.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Bo-ravage.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if I want to spell it.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: It's common spelling.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: It's Bo-Ravage.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: It's common spelling B-E-A-U.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: And I went last year in San Antonio.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: If you don't mind, just if people are interested or thinking about um heading to it, just a little snapshot of what the Gaila looks like or what it is.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's, it's our biggest funders of the year.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Um, we usually have, uh, guest speakers there.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: We have live auction sign auction, um, but it's our.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Besides the Ranger Creek bottle, it's our.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: It's our only fundraiser of the year because we we can't spend a lot of time doing fundraisers because we have to build chairs.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: So many chairs.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: So I mean if we didn't have to have the Gaila, we probably wouldn't, because that that probably takes away 10 or 12 chairs out of the year that we that we could do Um, because when that gets close that takes a.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, you guys put on events.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: You know how much time it takes to to put these events on, so that's it takes months um away from us that we could be doing chairs.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: So that's why we we try to just do the one big fundraiser and it gets us through the year.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Make it find more information out on the website, right.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: What was the date on that again?
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Uh, september, 23rd September 23rd Travel to Mississippi.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Let your wife get dressed up fancy and go to the.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Saviour's Place, gaila.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: It's a good time.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Ranger Creek is probably sponsoring.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: It's a joke.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I'm kidding.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: TNPA is though.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, we are, we are, don't be mad that it's not Angel's envy.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Oh, here we go, here comes the jokes, I'm sure.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Well, hey, we always end every podcast episode with three rapid fire questions.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, I got faith in you.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: Got faith.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: All right, you ready.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Favorite cop movie or line from a cop movie, favorite cop car and favorite drink of choice Ranger Creek.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, here you go.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: Great, great, great, a great date.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Probably have to be the Crown Vic.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's right, Thank you.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they need to bring him back.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they do, ford, if you're listening.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Best car ever made Favorite cop movie or line from a cop movie.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Line from a cop movie.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Damn Tough one.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: What do you think on that?
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: We will give Ford a shout out.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: Saviour's Place did just switch to afford to pull that, but to pull that box trailer.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ford strong, ford strong, no doubt, I think.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Clancy, obsessed with the Chevy Caprice, but he drives a Ford now.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Stolen it out there.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: But in retrospect I'm no longer angry about it.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: Vice President Gardner shared with me the people that are in love with the Crown Vic are too young to have driven a Caprice and so they're not speaking.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: It's just speaking out of ignorance.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's just because they didn't know.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: And it's not the fault.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: The Crown Vic was working then too.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, caprice was in there early.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: But it was gone before you had the chance to drive it and see what real muscles were.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: This is true.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: This is true.
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: So it's not personal, it's okay.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: Thank you, vice President Gardner, for enlightening me on that and helping me find some peace of mind with Tyler's answers.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: It was like the size of an F-250.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was yeah.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: The.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Crown Vic's the workhorse All right.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Well, it's about wraps up everything Again, man, we can't, we can't thank you enough for not only what you do, but thanks, thanks for coming on the show.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: We appreciate the CEO Robbie.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Lettness Barrow?
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: No doubt Lettness.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Barrow Tommy.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: And for a little bit this morning.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: Yep, it was awesome.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: Where are you off to next?
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: Iowa.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Iowa Little bit cooler weather, hopefully yeah.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: And then I saw you guys may have a West Coast or maybe on the horizon.
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: Head not West.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're on the works of doing something for California.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very nice, very nice.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: Please stay safe traveling.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: It's cool to watch the mission and we talked to last last episode.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: We have some folks on and a lot of people can do a lot of things that don't mean anything and go through life in a job or a role or make money Without passion and I admire the hell out of y'all for the passion that you have.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: And watching you guys in Carrollton with an awesome family and all his co-workers and if that didn't pull your heart strings and see that you guys care and truly believe in the commitment of what you're doing is awesome and it is awesome to watch.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: We appreciate TMP.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: You guys have been supporting us.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: We tell about a sense of very beginning before we were a team PA, so we know we really appreciate that.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: We just want to be involved with Ranger Craig.
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: We're just one of your close k-girls.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: I just don't want to say it.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: We love you guys.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: Please please stay safe on the road.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: You guys stay safe out there.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Hit that like and subscribe button.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: God bless all of you and, as always, may God bless Texas.