Welcome to the French press podcast. It is episode 486. And it's Tuesday, something something 07/02/2024. And it's just me and Reuben today. Nobody else. Kidding. We have a guest. We do. I think first time on the podcast. Is that right? Not quite. I have been Florence Sn nightingale, probably 7 years ago. Hold up my Wow, I don't know if so we can go back that far the archives are not to find that 7 years ago. Probably your based now. Yeah. That is lost what you say? This is Sarah Miller. She's a a friend of both of us. Yeah. Live nearby up in Elk carte. And she's got a story today about an undercover drug bust. But first, but first, and she was... She involved She's involved. I don't know how much. In the drugs or the busting I'm not sure. Yeah. Was something. We have some coffee from Main Street roast, So thank you. You want 10 percent off your next order from Main Street Roast. Mh. Use coupon code French, press 10 at checkout, and we're drinking the coconut dream today. We are. Yep. And we... Last time we give it a 4. And I don't know reuben what you think. I'm gonna stick with the 4. It's 1 of the better flavors, but I just don't like flavored coffee generally. Mh. What do you think, Sarah? It has coconut in it, and I'm not usually a fan, but I'd actually didn't pick it out in, like, initially. And so I'm I'm on board with it so far. Okay. It is good. I'll I'll stay with 4 as well. And then we've got some edible that traveled all the way from Maryland. Spent Maryland. Spent 2 weeks from of freezer, and today they're are thought and ready for us to try my hands. So this is from Alice Or do. She had tried to send this to us a long time ago. Yeah. And we just spent quite make thick connection. Probably It was probably her fault. She probably couldn't didn't go nothing november. But actually should I say that joking because it was pretty sure pretty sure it was our fault. Well, basically, if I'm... If I... Well, okay. If I don't remember the facts correctly, that just shows how badly we are at doing things like this. So this is what How bad we are, But I was at the coffee shop today meeting someone. Yeah. And I was in line to get coffee, and 1 of the barista said, hey, are you doing the podcast today? I said, yeah. I was expecting her to say or ask, are you ready for the French press coffee right now? Yeah. But it was 10:00 or... Yeah. 10:11 o'clock, which is a few hours before we record. Mh. And she said, k. I have something in the freezer for you. Mh. And I was just I was kinda surprised. I didn't know what to expect. Yeah. And then she went on to explain that her aunt sent it. Yeah. And then I went to the emails, and then I went to the Facebook messenger. And that's where I was re reminded and got more clarity on Alice Or sending us. It looks like a cinnamon twist rolls. Jeff, maybe you can get these out. Yeah. Because at 1 point, she had messaged us saying, hey, I wanna get these to you, but I don't know how let me know how I can get them to. I think maybe I can't remember if we even responded to that. Yeah. I feel bad. But they have. Thankfully, they're no hands. We're gonna try them. And Nicholas is the big cinnamon rule leonardo. So I'm gonna drop these off for him to to try. But Alice said she got this recipe 35 years ago, from a friend, and she spent, oh, from a friend in Oregon. And she said I have made a few adaptations to how I make them today. Does practice make perfect. You decide. And then she said she's been listening to the podcast for over a year and and is catching up through her many hours of house work and gardening and sewing. So thank you, Alice. I'm not tasted this yet, but I'm just about to Jeff, you've been n for a while. Maybe you can give your your thoughts on it... These are these are delectable. The caramel frosting is really, really good. Yeah. It is. That caramel frosting is on point. It's just cinnamon roll, but a little bit easier to eat maybe. It's interesting take on a sin cinnamon roll. Because that you can kinda hold it like a doughnut. Mh. This would be perfect with coffee. Dunk in your coffee. It is very good. I'm gonna... It tastes like homemade bread to me. Do you think so? Yeah. The bread has, like, that sweet a little sweet flavor to it. Yeah. It's not as, like, softest bread. Like, it still has a firm of a cinnamon in. And I like the holding thing because could drive while, you're on... Drive... While you drive? Do another 1, Jeff? Sure. Why not. Save at least 1 for Lay and 1 for Nicholas. Alright. Oh, man. This is a this is dangerous territory reaching this spire into the bag. But, yeah, Thank you very much. Alice, I don't know if we've gotten something like this before on the French press podcast. But, honestly, we we have to stop talking about it because we wanna give Sarah, plenty time and tell her story. It's a it's a it's a 11 out of 10. It it is really good. You just want more cinnamon rolls. I guess this could be the challenge. Who can out do Alice? Mh. We'll decide. Send your note donations to Jeff Miller. Okay Street. Okay, Sarah. So I kind of opened up the episode saying that you were involved... I don't know what to what point, but in a undercover drug bust. So you start where you want to, and we'll probably ask some questions along the way. Yeah. Feel free to interrupt me because I think... In the longevity of this story. I can get sometimes a little bit like, turned around. But basically, this is through the Baker's note cafe. I don't know if you remember. We had a woman fall and break her ankle. Go ahead. Sorry. Make sure it get a little bit closer to the mic. Just lift it up a little bit more. There you go. The It's not very rotating, but it's lift. Okay. It's lift. Is this better? Yeah. Yeah. That's much better. About... I think 7 years ago, a woman fell in front of our baker's nook and broke her leg. That's what I was on with long ago. So this is, like, returning to Baker's nook in Elk cart with all of the stories and drama that we experienced. Because it's a public place. So I've been there about 10 years. It's on Jackson Street. It's across from Hacienda. Every day. We have the same people come in and we'd have just become kind of a family in many ways. And it's people from every walk in life that we have, like, scientists and engineers and lawyers and cops. And judges, and we know them all by name, and we're just great friends, and we always catch up every morning on who's doing what. So this happened, probably 5 years ago when I lived yet with And Kendra on Laurel Street and we we would go on walks every now and then, and after about a week of know, doing our normal life, We started talking to each other about this vehicle that we were noticing sitting outside in front of our house. Jeff, I have you heard this 1, You I think I have Yeah. You have heard this 1. And we start talking to each other about it and and asking, you know, have you noticed this vehicle. It has really dark windows? The windows are eyes cracked a little bit. It's always turned on, and there's clearly people sitting inside. Even though you can't see them, their shapes. And so when we would walk past, we would... You know, covert if that's even possible because they probably were watching us, we would look inside to see kind of just less on. Hands, and hands, you know, bent blind. Yeah. Right Chris glass. Trying to see what it was. Are you? Exactly. Well, and it was... Like, we started to feel unsafe because it was always in front of our house that they would park. And we didn't know what was going on. And this had been... It just kept happening. So, finally, we started talking to each other in 1 afternoon, Linda and I were talking about it again, and they're were like, okay. We don't feel good about this. Let's call mine 1 on and just say this is happening and see if if there's anything going on, maybe someone can come out and just check it out for us because the neighbors likely weren't noticing as much because it wasn't of their house. It might look just like 1 of our vehicles, but it was it was just almost every day, not quite but almost. Was it like, obviously running? Yeah. Yeah. It was obviously running. If you weren't looking inside, you probably would've have thought it was, like, an empty vehicle just because the windows were that dark. And you had to kinda... You said the windows were cracked. Just cracked a little bit. Yeah. I think so. I think in my 1 walk, I did take that into account. So we called 911I don't remember if it was. We called 911, and we were just like, hey. There's this vehicle sitting here. It's been here over and over. We don't know what's going on. Don't feel very safe with it, can someone just come and check it out for us. And the operators, you know, asking us where we live, what streamer on and we told her and she's immediately like, oh, that's actually part of an undercover operation happening in your neighborhood, so you don't have to worry about that. They're probably just out there know, doing their investigations and watching. And we're like, oh, okay. So so stop dealing drugs. Well, Thanks for the heads up. And they don't even know if we were supposed to feel better at that point because we didn't really. And so then we start watching what they're watching. You know, what are they what are they facing? And we live right by a really big park and then across the park, we thought, you know, we came our own little investigators. We thought, you know, there's there is a house over there that's people in and out of it all the time. The the pork shall has people on it. It looks really run down. It doesn't look like a just a great place and it looks like they may be watching this house. So I think a few days went by again, And at the baker's nook, there, I am 1 morning serving the coffee and in walks Johnny Mo. He is head of undercover up there. And we're always, you know, asking each other how the day is going and catching up each other's lives whatever. It's just 1 of the family. And so... And did you know this before that he was in charge of undercover? Yeah. Yeah. 3 3 of the men came in, John Mark and Rich with their names, and they were all, like, in charge of some kind of operation and Elk car. And they all were in an office building that they would always get breakfast in the morning. So I knew he was, and so that the next few days went by night. I told him, hey, you know, funny story, but this vehicles in front of our house and so we were kinda weird it out about it, So we called 911, and we told them that there is a vehicle And then the lady told us, oh, don't worry. There's, you know, an undercover operation going on. He just, like stops, and he just starts looking at me. And he's like, what did they tell you? And Johnny has a stare, he... When he looks at you, it's like he looking through you, and I'm I'm not kidding. You can just really scrub even if he's ordering just like, you know, wasted eggs and toast. Like, I every 1 of us goals would always just like, almost freeze a little bit because He's awesome. We love him to death, but he has this definite like presence. Mh. And he's just like... He's made a made a muscle. So the man like has a bearing. And so he starts just staring me down and he's like, what did they say? And I like start s a little bit and I'm like, well, they said that, you know, we don't have to worry. That's great. You know we have to worry because there's just an operation going with undercover abe operation, and they're likely just watching and and then he said, they're not supposed to tell you that. Shoot And so I said, well, you know, well said it again. Tell me exactly what they said and I'm like, well, I don't like wanna get and you anyone in trouble, and I'm shrinking and my voice is getting softer. I don't wanna get anyone in trouble and, you know, He's like, they won't. We just need to light follow that through because I need to talk them. We just need to eliminate the the mall. That cute eliminate them all. Exactly. Somebody's gonna end up in Basement his. Someone someone's doing. Someone's talking too much. So I told him again, and he said he's gonna go figure out, you know, gonna make sure they know they're not supposed to con communicate that to anybody. Then he tells me just like, you know, don't be talking to your neighbors about this or anything like that. Now you know what it is. Just don't be telling anybody. And so through the course of the conversation, I started asking more questions, and this just like, well, how much longer is this gonna be going on? Is it gonna be a while yet? And he looks at me again? He says, there will not be an undercover operation in your area tonight. And I what did he mean by that? Well, I didn't get it. So I was like, well, what, like, how long then will it be and any he looks against? Like, there will not be a drug bust in your neighborhood tonight. And my boss is standing beside there and she's like, Sarah Come on. Get it. I was like, oh, okay. So went on with the day. And and and what day, like, how long ago is this? Did this happen? You mean from now? Yeah. This is private 5 years. Okay. Yeah. 4 5 So soon aft or the the day you said that... What was this the same conversation... This all happened. 1 conversation? Yes. Okay. Yeah. This all happened, like, basically at the same time. This vehicle had been sitting for about 2 weeks. We had the conversation with the 9I1 operator a few days later John, and then this is all happening. I think on the same day if I remember correctly because he said it won't be happening tonight. And, again, the stairs is happening, okay. And I got it. I caught on now So go on with the day. I tell Kendra and Melinda about this. And I don't know. We just went on with our day. I think we just kind of, like, forgot. And that night, definitely nothing happened in our neighborhood. No. I was laying in bed probably 11:00. And this, like, just bomb goes off. Like, the loudest thing I have ever heard. And I... My windows rattle, like, the whole house just shakes. And I shoot up out of my bed, and me in And kendra. You know, if you're a good neighbor, you're gonna go out Of course. Yeah. Of course. That's a good neighbors do. So everybody in the neighborhood was a good neighbor that night, and we all were outside watching this whole thing and sure enough. It was the house We thought it was across the park by the street, and we're standing by the fence and the park between us is just full of people. Like, everyone's in the shadows under the trees Not police, but, like, neighborhood people. Neighborhood people. I don't know where they came from. Like, I don't know if they'd gathered before the bomb went off that may have been because we were out instant. Like, after that thing went off. And you say bomb went off. Do you know? Yeah. So it was I like a noise bomb is what they called it. I talked to him about it later then, but we were watching the whole process happening and I'm telling them, know Johnny said doesn't gonna have to tonight, And that's what this is. There's cops everywhere and we're just watching the whole thing, And then sure enough I get a text in my phone from him, and it says, did you hear the bomb? I that absolutely heard the bob. You, everybody's out where. All watching this thing, and he's like, yeah, I'd probably come say hi, but I don't really want anyone seeing me walk over over to your house just some reasons again. And so, of course, the next morning, I knew we could kind of catch up on what happened. Wow. And sure enough. He said that typically, they like to cause distraction. And so that's the noise. That's that's what they do. So what they do is when they pull up, the guy who's holding the bomb, will pull the pin out and then simultaneously release it and, like, it triggers and that the noise goes off. Yeah. And they're not supposed to do that until they're ready to, like, go and this house. Yeah. The guy who was holding the bomb. Oh, no. He had pulled the pin, was holding it ready to release it, but when they pulled up, he pulled it too soon. They pulled up to the house. There were people out the porch. And so they lost the element of surprise. Yeah. Everything started happening. But he has this ba and still last to release it. And so Yeah. Maybe things were, like, mostly finished by then. I don't know. I just know like, the bomb went off, and that I alerted everyone to. Whole process. So he told us kind of the ending of the whole thing and how it all went down. And it was just super fascinating and not really what I expect it to be involved in in in the neighborhood. So that's story. Wow. That's that's a great story, Sarah, that you should've have... Yeah. You've asked him to be on the next 1, you know. Yeah. Well, I know I know they encounter that stuff, you know, every day all the time. Yeah. And a lot of it is super dangerous. He would Yeah. He would often kind of, like, tell me, you know, he'd come in b eyed in the morning, and I be like, how was your night? I was like, well. 4AM is when it started because that's often kinda when they would Mh. Do this element of surprise and do their drug bus because People weren't expecting at that point. Now, everyone is. Now everyone's going to. So watching tonight jeff. So that is interesting because I have heard loud booms going off. Mh. But I'm assuming it's probably usually Yeah Usually, probably at night. Mh. How successful was the bust? Like, did they... I think it was quite successful. I don't think he gave me specifics, but he... When he... When they're successful, he always tells me We got the bad guys. And that's kinda how he ends it without actually explaining anything. So that's what that 1 was too. It definitely had stuff in their house. And I don't think they were really a a danger, like, it never felt unsafe in that regard. It was ironically, the the vehicle the undercover vehicle that was more suspicious than... 1 that was grief. Yeah. Alerting man. But... Yeah. No. He's a great guy. They all... They all are great people, the other thing they will say I just wanted to say it is because it's fine to me Mark as head of homicide investigations. And so 1 thing he's told me over the years is that if they have a crazy person kind of on the loose, they call the person a 10 96. That's, like their code for it. Okay. So that would charge him 10 96, sometimes for his meal and was always just like, wait a minute. You know, that's... It's not right. And then if it's a really crazy person then they say 10 96 with cheese. And It's great fun. Man. That's awesome. Wow. I heard Loud Bang last night actually. It was fireworks work. But wasn't fireworks. It wasn't in L card. It was out in the on the country of my parents. And I knew every I know everyone I'll in like... Yes it's probably a drug bust. Yeah. Where was Nicholas at that point? He wasn't there. At least not when I got out. And he's still not here? Is... Amish neighbors. Well, that's a great story, Sarah. Was it hard to keep this a secret for for so long or how how important was that you didn't really like, share this with with people? I I think that it was just more caution to not be talking to the neighbors about it. And our neighbors weren't super friendly that wasn't a concern. And so being Kendrick Melinda all knew it was going on, and so that, then we were just fine. Like, it wasn't a big deal anymore. It was more just like the unknown of Yeah. Who is sitting in front of her house. But as soon as we knew even that was who they were It was kinda like, okay. We're probably safer than anybody else in his neighborhood right now. That worked out. And they were kind of, like, hidden, like, the vehicle. It probably wasn't too obvious to the house across the street. It was perfect big vantage point because there's was no like, there was a park in between and so they were just sitting in front of the house, worked out. So a couple... I think was probably about 2 weeks ago, You said, hey, I've got a great story about undercover drug bust. What I guess been 5 years or so? Like, what brought it to mind to think about sharing it on the podcast? There's been some, like, weird events. That have happened at Baker's no even in the past month or 2. And I think, like, we're always swapping stories at the Baker's nook. And so I think I was telling 1 about a guy that had come in more recently that looked like a dog. And so I don't know why it just triggered memories of and it's a new crew that works the business so then did 5 years ago. And so I was just telling them that, hey, this this happened, and it was just kind of a cool story And I just like, oh, yeah. I told the Florence And Gay when I wonder if Reuben would be interested in this 1. 0, yeah. So I Yeah. I not about it. Local news. Yeah. No. This is great. This is a great story. So yeah. Thanks for coming on telling us. Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Is there anything you wanna plug baker's nook. Oh, I'll always plug no. Like. If you if you wanna... If you want really good breakfast, I don't... Elk carte kind of out of... I don't know if it's in your listening area or not, you're obviously from Elk carte. And so It's it's within driving range. Definitely within driving. Mean, we're pretty global. So, like, for sure, not not everyone is within driving distance, ma'am. Yeah. We're we're growing. We're we've grown a lot in the last year, especially with just new customers, and there's lots of great baked goods and breakfast foods all day long and at the atmosphere is really good. So you should definitely come and see us and buy our food. And What what would you say is the the thing if someone's one's there for the first time, what's the 1 thing they should try. For breakfast. For breakfast, I think I would say 1 of our specialties is the is a breakfast burrito, and that's made kinda with a special like, taco sour cream sauce. Mh. And it's 1 good. It's 1 of my favorite things. And so I always recommend it. And it's usually really good seller then. So that's what. K. Awesome. That's great. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Thanks for for calling on the podcast. And, I guess listeners out there too, your story doesn't have to be quite this epic. Like, we do enjoy You know, or low key stories. Like, they don't have to be that that don't have undercover drug busting and bombs. And. Those 3 you know, characteristics don't have to be in the story. Yeah. Jeff, What's the point? The point is, Call 911 if you see a car sitting in front of your house. Point number 2 is make sure that you look inside of the car that's sitting in front of your house. So that they are equally creeped out by you. Point number where 3 is watch out for police invading your house at 4AM. Mh. And point number 4 is handheld cinnamon rolled twists are the best way to eat cinnamon rolls in the car. I think I word of the week and point the.