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Speke's first true crime podcast: The House of Theft · Your Mic

• 0:00
  When Chris Richardson was a kid, he had no idea what was happening behind the scenes in his own family.
• 0:07
  Years later, he learned the truth.
• 0:10
  A $3.8 million fraud scheme, convictions, fallout, and a story that still has teeth.
• 0:18
  It's not a name and shame podcast.
• 0:21
  It's a warning label for the red flags people ignore because they're scared, loyal, trapped, or all three.
• 0:28
  Chris is the host of the House of Theft, new to the Speak Originals Network.
• 0:33
  And this is your mic.
• 0:36
  My name is Freddy Cruz.
• 0:38
  Welcome to the show.
• 0:42
  Let's get first off the 30 second summary of what you're going to be talking about.
• 0:48
  So basically, it's my life, not from when I was born, but a young age talking about that going through my parents being entrepreneurs.
• 0:57
  Yeah.
• 0:58
  And then all the things that they were doing and figuring out things from behind the scenes.
• 1:02
  Not as it was happening, but way after the fact is when I figured out what was happening.
• 1:07
  And a whole bunch of drama and a lot of things went down towards the end.
• 1:11
  And there's still lasting effects to it to this day.
• 1:14
  And we're talking about a $3.8 million fraud scheme.
• 1:18
  And the podcast is The House of Theft.
• 1:22
  The story in and of itself is obviously interesting.
• 1:26
  But if you can walk us through the point where you thought, hmm, I want to do this in a podcast form and not just, I don't know, write a book about it or write a blog or journal it for my kids to...
• 1:40
  To learn about one day when they're grown-ups.
• 1:43
  Right.
• 1:43
  So, first off, not a strong writer myself, so therefore a book is out of the question.
• 1:48
  It'd be like, theft, the end.
• 1:53
  So, but when I decided to do this, I was with a buddy of mine, and he was really big into recording and recording.
• 2:00
  not quite doing podcasts for anything else other than his little thing he was doing for a small group.
• 2:06
  And he was like, you know, you should do this.
• 2:08
  And I've known him since the day I was born, like literally.
• 2:11
  His parents were friends with my parents.
• 2:13
  He's six months older than me, went to the same church, da-da-da-da, all of the above.
• 2:17
  So he was like, you need to tell this story, and let's try and record it, and let's do something.
• 2:21
  It's like, okay, so at least we get it down, because again, not a strong writer.
• 2:25
  Let's get it down.
• 2:27
  So we kind of sat down and played with it, but we didn't really have a structure and we're like, eh, whatever.
• 2:32
  And we told a bunch of people about it, that we might do something and it kind of fizzled out and it would come back and forth, whatever.
• 2:38
  And then you and I started chatting about it and you were like, yeah, yeah.
• 2:45
  Tell me more.
• 2:47
  So that's kind of how it sparked and went through that way.
• 2:52
  Yeah.
• 2:52
  And I got to tell you, uh,
• 2:56
  Thank you for recording that episode, that pilot episode with your buddy, because that is really what helped roadmap the entire structure for season one, which is narrated by Chris.
• 3:10
  And so that was the foundation along with all the other documents.
• 3:13
  And we're talking...
• 3:14
  DOJ files, voice messages, things that, you know, that if we're spitballing here about season two, and at the time of this recording, season one hadn't even launched yet, but we've danced around what season two and possibly season three are going to sound like, it's bringing in conversations and possibly even sound recordings because you have all of this source material.
• 3:37
  What would you say would be the most interesting part of, I guess, your presentation?
• 3:40
  podcast hosting journey.
• 3:42
  We've already recorded all these episodes for season one, but what has been one thing that you thought, huh, I didn't know that?
• 3:50
  Honestly, I don't know.
• 3:52
  I mean, obviously I know the story, so there's no surprise in my storytelling until I get with some of my friends and family members that start.
• 4:01
  We kind of go back and forth and you're like either A, I forgot about that or B, I didn't know that.
• 4:07
  There's a time that I was speaking with my sister.
• 4:09
  She brought up a couple of things and I brought up a couple of things.
• 4:11
  We both are like, wait, what are you talking about?
• 4:14
  So I'm sure there's still more of that out there.
• 4:16
  Yeah.
• 4:16
  And I did talk to another buddy of mine in that original recording.
• 4:20
  Yeah.
• 4:20
  He brought up some stuff I didn't know that my dad was doing with him.
• 4:25
  Oh.
• 4:25
  Like teaching and talking about and whatever.
• 4:27
  And I was like, okay, so a little bit more of this area makes sense.
• 4:32
  I'm obviously not going to give any of that away.
• 4:34
  Right.
• 4:35
  Well, because everybody experiences everybody differently.
• 4:39
  True.
• 4:39
  True.
• 4:40
  Which is why it's going to be interesting to see what season two sounds like.
• 4:44
  But as far as season one goes, what do you hope?
• 4:48
  Because this is something that we touched on during the recording and even actually in one of the episodes.
• 4:54
  Is that you're not just naming and shaming the stories out there.
• 4:58
  Your parents were convicted.
• 5:00
  And so there's another story arc to the reason why the House of Theft exists.
• 5:06
  So not again, not the name and shame.
• 5:10
  Yeah.
• 5:10
  Name and shame.
• 5:11
  It's the watch for these red flags, help others who may not recognize it or do, and are scared to say something.
• 5:19
  It's okay.
• 5:20
  Like say something, get help, even though it may be scary.
• 5:24
  Even when my sister had spoken to my mom talking about the scary part, don't know what to do.
• 5:29
  My sister talked to my mom and my mom said that she was scared to leave because my dad was threatening and whatever.
• 5:34
  Yeah.
• 5:35
  And she was afraid that she would lose everything, even us kids.
• 5:40
  And all the family members would go against her and all that.
• 5:43
  Come to find out later, typically what happens probably 95% of the time, a lot of the family members heard her say that and they go, we would have had your back.
• 5:55
  Or we wouldn't have chosen sides, but we still would have helped.
• 5:59
  You get a little bit of that.
• 6:00
  So that's kind of what I want to bring to the table and let people know that it's okay.
• 6:05
  See something, say something, feel something, say something, like go through.
• 6:09
  So I want to help the people go through that part of it.
• 6:11
  Well, the podcast is The House of Theft.
• 6:13
  There are going to be 10 episodes, maybe even a couple of bonus episodes too.
• 6:18
  And definitely a season two.
• 6:20
  We haven't crossed that bridge yet, but there will be a season two.
• 6:23
  And we're going to introduce some different storytelling aspects into that season.
• 6:28
  But for the meantime, season one, you want to look up the trailer.
• 6:32
  Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.
• 6:34
  It's going to be on YouTube as well.
• 6:36
  So subscribe and hit the notification bell.
• 6:41
  of the house of theft.
• 6:42
  Oh yeah, I'm excited and it's going to be fun.