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This message ruined his life... · Crime and Horror

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  Speaker 1: On a summer night in twenty twenty, a young man
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  Speaker 1: received a notification on his cellphone.
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  Speaker 2: When he read it, he realized his life was over.
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  Speaker 1: But before we get into his story, if you're a
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• 0:31
  Speaker 2: All right, let's get into today's stories. In the spring of.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty, right when the COVID nineteen pandemic was really
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  Speaker 1: kicking into high gear, students at the University of Nebraska
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  Speaker 1: were told to move out of their dorms and move
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  Speaker 1: back home with their families to prevent the spread of
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  Speaker 1: the virus. One student, twenty year old Alex Kerns, who
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  Speaker 1: was enrolled at Nebraska on an ROTC scholarship, was just
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  Speaker 1: as shocked as everybody else at how quickly this pandemic
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  Speaker 1: had turned their life upside down, but in terms of
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  Speaker 1: going back home again, he wasn't that upset about it
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  Speaker 1: because he was close with his family and he figured
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  Speaker 1: some unexpected time with them would be nice. Once he
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  Speaker 1: got back to his hometown of Naperville, Illinois, which is
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  Speaker 1: an affluent suburb outside of Chicago, he quickly fell into
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  Speaker 1: a quarantine routine, which consisted mostly of screen time and
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  Speaker 1: lounging around. But in the evenings, he would put his
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  Speaker 1: screens away and he would go into the kitchen with
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  Speaker 1: his mother, Dorothy, and the two of them would chat
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  Speaker 1: for hours about all sorts of things. One night, he
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  Speaker 1: told his mom that he was feeling kind of nervous
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  Speaker 1: about what he was going to do with his life
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  Speaker 1: after college. That even though he was studying business out
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  Speaker 1: at the University of Nebraska, he.
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  Speaker 2: Didn't really know what he was going to do with that.
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  Speaker 1: All he knew was that he wanted to find a
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  Speaker 1: way to help people, and his mother and everybody that
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  Speaker 1: knew Alex would say that.
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  Speaker 2: That's just Alex.
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  Speaker 1: He was this really gentle, nice, awesome person that everybody
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  Speaker 1: just adored. After being home for a few weeks, Alex
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  Speaker 1: was starting to get bored of his quarantine routine and
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  Speaker 1: he began looking for other things to do. He had
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  Speaker 1: seen a number of ads for a new brokerage app
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  Speaker 1: called Robinhood that was becoming increasingly popular amongst people his age.
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  Speaker 1: Unlike other trading platforms, Robinhood was designed for the common person.
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  Speaker 2: There was not huge fees that needed to.
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  Speaker 1: Be paid by the investor as soon as they logged on,
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  Speaker 1: and the app was very sleek and it turned trading
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  Speaker 1: kind of into a game. On the app, Alex had
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  Speaker 1: a few thousand dollars in his bank account, and so
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  Speaker 1: he figured, you know, what the heck, I'll download Robinhood
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  Speaker 1: and see what I can do. What's the worst that
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  Speaker 1: can happen. After trading on robin Hood for a couple
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  Speaker 1: of days, Alex was hooked, and he showed his family
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  Speaker 1: that he was actually making a little bit of money
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  Speaker 1: and he was learning about the stock market.
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  Speaker 2: His parents would later recall when.
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  Speaker 1: They found out he was using Robinhood, they weren't concerned
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  Speaker 1: because Alex had always been incredibly careful with his money,
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  Speaker 1: saving most of it and very rarely spending much of it,
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  Speaker 1: and so they figured, you know, he might lose his savings,
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  Speaker 1: but he's certainly not going to fall into significant debt.
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  Speaker 2: Not Alex.
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  Speaker 1: Also, there was a safety mechanism in basic accounts on
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  Speaker 1: Robinhood that protected first time users from going above ten
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars in debt, so even if Alex tried to
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  Speaker 1: lose more than that, the app wouldn't allow him so
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  Speaker 1: long as he was using a basic account. As the
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  Speaker 1: weeks went on, Alex got more and more confident in
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  Speaker 1: his trading ability, and he got really familiar with the
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  Speaker 1: Robinhood app, and one day he noticed there was one
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  Speaker 1: function he had not tried on the app called options trading.
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  Speaker 1: For context, traditional trading goes like this. Somebody identifies a
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  Speaker 1: stock that they like and then.
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  Speaker 2: They gamble on it. And the way they gamble on
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  Speaker 2: it is they.
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  Speaker 1: Buy shares of that stock, and if the stock increases
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  Speaker 1: in value, they make more money.
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  Speaker 2: If the stock loses value, they lose money. Very simple.
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  Speaker 2: But some people either can't afford.
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  Speaker 1: The shares or don't want to buy the shares, but
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  Speaker 1: they still want to get in on the action of
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  Speaker 1: the stock market. And for those people, they can use
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  Speaker 1: something called options trading. Instead of buying shares, options trade
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  Speaker 1: will basically sell an insurance policy to other traders who
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  Speaker 1: have already purchased shares, and this insurance policy they're offering
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  Speaker 1: is known as an option. These option traders will go
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  Speaker 1: up to these shareholders and they'll say, for example, I'll
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  Speaker 1: give you five hundred dollars in exchange.
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  Speaker 2: If your stock.
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  Speaker 1: Tanks and you're losing a ton of money, you can
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  Speaker 1: exercise your option, i e. Cash in your insurance policy,
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  Speaker 1: and I the option holder, will cover all of your losses.
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  Speaker 1: But if your stock stays steady or gains in value,
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  Speaker 1: I still get to keep.
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  Speaker 2: Your five hundred dollars. That's non refundable.
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  Speaker 1: Naturally, these options traders, they need to be savvy about
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  Speaker 1: which stocks they're prepared to cover with their option, because
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  Speaker 1: if that stock tanks and the shareholder decides to sell, sell, sell,
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  Speaker 1: i E. Exercise their option, then the option holder is
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  Speaker 1: obligated to immediately buy all of the shares at a premium.
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  Speaker 1: And if that shareholder has let's say hundreds of thousands
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  Speaker 1: of the airs, well, too bad.
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  Speaker 2: The option holder is buying all of them.
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  Speaker 1: So when Alex clicked on the options trading button inside
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  Speaker 1: of his robin Hood app it brought him immediately to
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  Speaker 1: an application because Robinhood had to make sure anybody on
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  Speaker 1: their app that was going to be buying or selling
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  Speaker 1: options they needed to be an experienced trader, and they
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  Speaker 1: needed to understand the risks because they were much higher
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  Speaker 1: than a basic account. There was no limit to how
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  Speaker 1: much debt someone could fall into in trading options.
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  Speaker 2: Alex was a smart guy and a motivated trader, but he.
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  Speaker 1: Knew nothing about options trading, and so when he saw
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  Speaker 1: this application, I'm sure he thought to himself, Yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: know nothing about options trading.
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  Speaker 2: There's no way I could possibly get into this.
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  Speaker 1: But he decided, you know what the heck, I will
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  Speaker 1: apply to go on to their options trading side, just
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  Speaker 1: to see if they'll accept me. And so he fills
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  Speaker 1: out the application and almost immediately he is accepted onto
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  Speaker 1: that side of the platform. It would later turn out
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  Speaker 1: that application was kind of a sham. It did not
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  Speaker 1: really do very much to restrict access to that side.
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  Speaker 1: Alex was surprised at his acceptance, but he was also
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  Speaker 1: very excited, and right away he started trading options and
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  Speaker 1: he was pretty good at it, and pretty quickly he
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  Speaker 1: was making a little bit of money. But then on
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  Speaker 1: June eleventh, he got a notification on his phone from Robinhood,
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  Speaker 1: and so he pulled his phone up. He opened the app,
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  Speaker 1: and he saw his account was restricted. He couldn't make
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  Speaker 1: any new trades, and he couldn't make any withdraws. And
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  Speaker 1: so as he looked at it, he strolled down to
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of the page and he saw his current
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  Speaker 1: balance and it read negative seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 1: A trader that Alex had sold an option to was
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  Speaker 1: exercising his option because his stock had tanked and he
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  Speaker 1: owned over seven hundred thousand dollars worth of shares that
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  Speaker 1: now Alex was obligated to buy. Alex couldn't believe what
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  Speaker 1: he was looking at, and he immediately fired off an
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  Speaker 1: email to Robinhood customer support, saying there had to have
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  Speaker 1: been a mistake that he had done the math before
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  Speaker 1: he had sold that option, and he thought at most
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  Speaker 1: he was exposed to losing maybe ten thousand dollars, certainly
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  Speaker 1: not seven hundred thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 2: And so after he sent.
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  Speaker 1: This email, a couple of minutes later, he got a
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  Speaker 1: message back from Robinhood, but it was just an automated
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  Speaker 1: response that just said, hey, you know we got your
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  Speaker 1: email and we're busy and we'll be sure to be
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  Speaker 1: in touch with you as soon as we possibly can.
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  Speaker 1: And so at this point Alex is starting to panic
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  Speaker 1: a little bit because he's looking at his phone and
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  Speaker 1: this looks real. He's trying to go through his phone
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  Speaker 1: to find someplace that would show him this was a mistake,
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  Speaker 1: but there's nothing that indicates this is a mistake.
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  Speaker 2: And so after a.
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  Speaker 1: Couple of hours, Alex is just laying in his bed
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  Speaker 1: he can't sleep, and he sends another message to the
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  Speaker 1: customer support team at Robinhood, pleading with them to please
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  Speaker 1: check his account. There has to have been a mistake.
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  Speaker 1: There's no way I would have exposed myself to seven
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars of debt. But again, all he gets
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  Speaker 1: is an automated response that says we're busy and we'll
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  Speaker 1: be in touch with you soon. A couple hours later,
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  Speaker 1: at three twenty six am, Alex is still awake, probably
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  Speaker 1: pacing around his room, totally panic stricken, and he looks
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  Speaker 1: at his phone and there's another email from Robinhood and
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  Speaker 1: he's thinking, oh my goodness, thank you. Someone's gotten in
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  Speaker 1: touch with me to tell me, this has been a
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  Speaker 1: horrible mistake, and so he opens his email and the
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  Speaker 1: header of the email is immediate action required, And what
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  Speaker 1: it was was a notice for him to make his
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  Speaker 1: first payment on this enormous debt.
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  Speaker 2: It was going to be about one hundred and seventy
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  Speaker 2: thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 1: That he had to pay in the next couple of days,
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  Speaker 1: and if he didn't make this first payment, they would
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  Speaker 1: seek legal action against him. Alex was probably terrified, and
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  Speaker 1: also he was ashamed and didn't want to tell his parents,
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  Speaker 1: and so all alone in his room, he writes a
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  Speaker 1: third email to Robinhood now straight up begging them, someone
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  Speaker 1: please look at my account.
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  Speaker 2: This has got to be wrong. But again he just
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  Speaker 2: got the automated message, and so for.
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  Speaker 1: The rest of the night, Alex probably laid on his
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  Speaker 1: bed thinking the world was just crashing.
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  Speaker 2: In on him.
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  Speaker 1: He knew there was no way he could pay this
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  Speaker 1: enormous bill, and if he didn't pay it, he would
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  Speaker 1: either go to jail or hand it off to his family,
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  Speaker 1: which would financially ruin them, and just the idea of
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  Speaker 1: doing that to the people he loved made him sick.
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  Speaker 1: He just could not face that as one of his options,
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  Speaker 1: and so by the time the sun came up the
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  Speaker 1: next morning, Alex had come to a conclusion about what
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  Speaker 1: he was going to do. He started by pulling out
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  Speaker 1: his phone and pulling up the Robinhood app and screenshotting
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  Speaker 1: the dashboard that showed his enormous negative balance. And then
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  Speaker 1: he went on his laptop and he wrote a long
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  Speaker 1: letter to his family and he put it on his desktops.
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  Speaker 1: They would understand why he did what he was about
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  Speaker 1: to do, and then he left the house, hopped in
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  Speaker 1: his bike and pedaled away. A couple hours later, a
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  Speaker 1: police officer arrived at the Kurrns' household and he told
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  Speaker 1: them that their son, their brother, Alex, was unfortunately deceased.
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  Speaker 1: He had thrown himself in front of a train. The
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  Speaker 1: family was beyond devastated. This caught them so completely off guard.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't make any sense. Alex was a happy, funny
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  Speaker 1: guy with plans for the future. He had shown no
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  Speaker 1: indications that he wanted to harm himself. It really just
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  Speaker 1: didn't make any sense. And so at some point that
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  Speaker 1: day they went to his laptop. They opened it up
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  Speaker 1: and there was that note he wrote, and in this
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  Speaker 1: letter he explains to his family how he had fallen
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  Speaker 1: into this enormous debt on Robinhood.
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  Speaker 2: He attaches the screenshot that showed his.
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  Speaker 1: Huge negative balance, and he said it was just crazy
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  Speaker 1: that this company would allow a twenty year old with
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  Speaker 1: no income to be exposed to over seven hundred thousand
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  Speaker 1: dollars of debt.
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  Speaker 2: He thought that was crazy.
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  Speaker 1: But he admits he didn't know that much about options
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  Speaker 1: trading and probably shouldn't have been accepted into their program
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  Speaker 1: to begin with. And then he tells his family that
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  Speaker 1: he did want to live, but unfortunately this was the
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  Speaker 1: only way he could get out of this problem without
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: inflicting enormous financial penalties on his family, and so he
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  Speaker 1: believed he was protecting his family when he took his life.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty four hours later, Robinhood sent Alex another email and
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  Speaker 1: it said, oh, that's seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars
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  Speaker 1: debt that we said you owed.
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  Speaker 2: That was a mistake. You don't know anybody any money.
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  Speaker 1: Alex's family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against
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  Speaker 1: robin Hood, saying that had they just had a person
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  Speaker 1: working their customer service desk, they could have talked to
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  Speaker 1: Alex and immediately seen that this was a mistake and
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  Speaker 1: it would have saved Alex's life.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Their case is still ongoing, so that's going to do it. Guys.
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  Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
• 10:47
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• 10:50
  Speaker 1: found it. So give us the timestamp, and if you're
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  Speaker 1: top of.
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  Speaker 2: The comments section.
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