I WAS ARRESTED! How That Day Went Down Including Police, FBI and a Swat Team | 217 |

it seemed like you know just a regular day it was just a monday you know it was like nothing special about it you know and then all of a sudden you step outside and you're just surrounded by fbi agents police you know people walking around with shotguns in their hands hi i'm larry lawton america's biggest jewelry join me as i walk you through my past robberies how i planned them executed them and ultimately got caught i'm going to show you how we did things in prison like making the tattoo gun making wine making white lightning it's going to be very educational these are the untold stories my last day of freedom before i went away my last day the actual day the cops raided my house the helicopters over the house you're gonna hear from a couple of young kids that were there uh at the scene so that's gonna be interesting as well before i get started please check us out on the member program of patreon the member program of youtube check us out on discord please check out merch out let me let you know what the exact thing that happened it was early december and when i got arrested it was on a monday and i'll never forget the day of course monday was my book making day my monday was a date where i got my football tickets ready i uh square uh people who the books ended on a sunday as far as gambling goes and i had a computer system in my house this is in 1996 now and i had a computer system at my house the best at that time and you guys will laugh about this it was a six time modem and eight gig and all this crap you know the best at that time remember this is 96. so and i really didn't even know much about it i actually the kid next door who matthew ended up working for me and the two kids you're going to hear from today those young guys uh did a lot for me and they remember that day as well uh because the day i just found out uh by talking to both of them today really you know it hurt them you know i didn't know how much of a father figure i was to them i knew they were close to me i tried to steer them away from crime yes even back then when i was a criminal i i didn't want people to uh you know get in involved in the life i was in and here's two young kids now one's 41 and one's 40. makes me feel old i'll tell you that that's number one but anyway uh so these young guys uh you'll hear from today on how they felt the day i was arrested because you know i got up and it's a regular day it's a monday now you have to remember 30 days or so maybe even more than 30 days i had that wild getaway from the last robbery in phallus hills where i was shot my brother was shot i had a ball just squeeze through right here trickle me give me a surface wound there my brother has the bullet boom hit him and here it is uh now when we come back after that we didn't hear anything i thought everything was starting to bypass although i had this inkling of twinkling that something was wrong because i got all the stuff that was important in my house out whether it was guns or whatever it was i got him out of my house so i always did have in the back of my mind that something had happened but this monday was a regular monday i get up in the morning and i do my normal routine i get coffee i sit on the patio i read the paper i made some phone calls that i had to do uh to new york and to other places and see kind of my schedule i had my guys check in with me tommy checked in with me junior checked in with me uh jimmy checked in with me my brother checked in with me seeing what's going on what what's on the agenda for that day here it is in december it's getting ready for christmas and you know i'm ready to you know help help with a lot of things with my wife uh you know gave her money already so she can go shopping did all that kind of stuff and at the time if you remember i had a 15 month old baby actually my daughter was only 15 months old my son at this time is in new york back again and he's seven years old so i get up i do my my normal routine missy's doing her routine she gets the baby breakfast we're going i got some people i make my phone calls and i i got my brother coming in from uh up north now my brother's staying up in the melbourne florida area and he's running the book making up there and so i have he comes down every uh monday and i give him new tickets and his guys i'd have to know who's doing what how much who's owed this back and forth the book making end of it who who we're gonna loan money to to get loan shocking money all of that stuff ready so we do that so uh you know i make my phone calls with my brother i know my brother's coming in town now which is okay that's perfect you know and i enjoyed that because it's important that he came into town so my brother's coming into town and we're starting to get now things don't stop getting going in the house in those houses until about 10 in the morning i mean i'm an early bird i always an early bird and i'm getting ready i made like i said made my phone calls this now my brother's coming in town and i have a new computer so i'm actually gonna try to learn this new computer and it's funny because matthew the young kid didn't come in because i was going to teach my brother how to do this stuff on the computer that would have never worked now that i think about it but anyway so he was going to do that my brother so here it is now in the afternoon i'm hanging around i have lunch i go make a few like i said phone calls i go check on stuff i go to the warehouse i make sure everything's okay there everything's ready i'm just doing nothing junior checks in used to check in every day man and he was great so now here it is about uh oh in the afternoon 12 o'clock my wife has to go shopping so missy leaves shopping we leave out of the cul-de-sac she leaves she comes back oh two hours later whatever it is she says to me she said something funny she goes you know i think i was followed like what do you mean you think you were followed she said i think i was followed and i'm saying all right now i'm worried about more things than the cops remember as a wise guy i'm ready i'm worried about somebody wanting to kidnap me or uh you know take me and try to get money out of me uh that was a common thing back then drug dealers were shaken down or robbed or taken hostage and the money was given up and the drugs were given up i always worried about more of that than even the cops although you're worried about the cops especially since the incident in fairless hills the last robbery so here i am uh she says that and i'm keeping an eye on things and before even this day i had all the kids in the neighborhood looking out for uh fpl trucks or uh delivery trucks that are there too long and i used to tell the kids you know go up to him try to hot you know see if we're in there because then you'll expose them if anybody's in there but anyway so this day i'm on edge a little bit but i'm not too crazy on edge i understand what's going on this is my life i'm i i stay cautious uh i had guns all over the place it wasn't like i was worried about somebody coming in and you know trying to kidnap me you're gonna have a shootout because i did have guns all over the place so anyway and i used to carry so anyway here it is about three o'clock and now i had a neighbor one of my neighbors used to be a like a head chef in a really fancy restaurant and he used to bring home like boxes of lobster boxes of steaks i mean the best steaks you can get and sell them to me so i knew he was stealing the lobsters everybody did their own hustle if you want to call it that so he'd bring out a case of lobster i'd give him whatever it is forty dollars or whatever i don't know what deals we made but he used to come and he knew he had a place to get him out it was if he was a head chef and he wanted money that was his hustle anyway so he'd go we'd always have a barbecue out of people coming down now my brother's coming down from the melbourne area so he gets to the house all about three o'clock my brother so he's got a couple of guys with him that work for him so he brings them with him just regular guys and we're all hanging out now we're starting to drink i had a nine foot bar you'd walk into the house and on the uh you'd come in it'd be a pool table kitchen to the right and then it'd be a pool table and then to the left of the pool table up front towards i had a nice computer area set now behind the compute the the pool table area there was a nine foot bar going out to the patio and in the front of the pool uh bar area there was a living room area with a big screen tv lounge you know vodka lounges or whatever they are the recliners and love seats and all that kind of stuff so people can you know watch tv or whatever they're gonna do so anyway uh it's about three o'clock and uh my brother's down and i'm gonna teach him how to uh work the computer so i'm sitting at the computer station at that point and i'm right there and all of a sudden you know missy comes uh comes out she's gonna go get the mail it's about five at night she goes and gets the mail she has my daughter ashley in her arms so she heads to the mailbox i don't think anything of it all of a sudden i hear the words they're coming they're coming so i jump up out of the chair i'm i'm like what i jump up and the door flies in and there's guns pointed at me and the black ninja suits but i do see a badge so i do see a police and the badge and all that but a lot of the drug deals were robbed that way you know posing as cops whatever so my mind is still not going yet i turn around to run towards the patio and there's cops coming through that and the ninja suits and i just go like this so they come in now when you walked out the door there had to be 15 undercover cop cars all over the place now lights on everything's on over a helicopter's overhead you hear overhead and they take everybody who's in my house out front now they got me i later find out they had a warrant for larry lawton any excessive jewelries any excessive cash so that's what they had a warrant for so they couldn't do any because on my bar there was cocaine and there was marijuana i mean not not crazy amounts only personal use or anything like that and uh marijuana right on the bar right on top of the bar the book making material which was the tickets and sheets of people oh you know we had a big loose leaf sheet never touched it never touched it they had a warrant for what they got and they came to get it they were the fbi and the dea not the fbi and marshalls and they don't play but they were pretty nice i i can't say they were bad people so when i get out i mean i i come out everybody comes out now they take me away right here now they have everybody lined up in front of the house right up against the wall and they ask for everybody's id everybody so they get all their id cards and i i they got me already they know who i am they took me they got me in handcuffs already and they put me they sat me on the curb in front of my house right on the curb i'm handcuffed and i and that they were nice the mar uh the the fbi agent the lead guy matt mullen uh you know he says to me i said to him hey listen i got some money on me my watch and sneakers can i give it to my wife you know i'm going to jail and he goes sure i take 3 000 bucks out of my pocket i had three grand army i had a nice nice pair of sneakers i think it was the the whatever the jordans the new ones or whatever they were back in those days and she went and got me a shitty repair and i took off a rolex watch and i took off uh a ring and all that kind of stuff i had and i just gave it to my wife and i'm sitting there handcuffed and they're going through the people who are against the wall now they're pulling their ids now i'm thinking you know okay what is this is this organized crime stuff something else my main is it the jewelry robberies i don't know yet i have no idea myself and sure enough i'm thinking they don't arrest my brother so i'm thinking is it the jewelry robbery but they didn't arrest my brother i mean okay so that's here it is my brain is wrecking i know not to say anything obviously i'm not going to say a word and so they dismiss they give them their ids they write them down they give them away and they let these guys go now they didn't touch book making equipment they didn't touch drugs minor but not drugs so i'm like okay it's got to be something very big like organized crime bigger but you think they'd still get that and the jewelry that was my big thing which nobody knew nobody knew what i did it wasn't like i they knew i was a gangster but they didn't know what i did as a gangster so here i am i'm handcuffed and uh the helicopters overhead that leaves they put me in the back of the car they were very nice i have not no complaints they take me down to opa-locka opa-locka where's an air station oh balaka they have an fbi headquarters and at the time they had the new machine where you put your hand down and it takes your prints that way in a special way because they did both of my prints and hands and i ended up finding out they did get me on that because they ended up having a palm print on a jewelry case that i jumped no fingerprint palm print but they do match the palm print to me not that i might have fought just that if it was just that but it wasn't so anyway i i i'm now gone i i'm getting taken away it's about five o'clock in the afternoon and maybe yeah about five o'clock and i always wanted to know what happened you know when i was gone or what the people around me what happened to them and now you're gonna hear from chris and matt hey matt uh your name's matthew waring you're now how old uh 41 41 wow i i knew matthew everybody when he was 15 years old him and his brother it was a you're younger than him i think yeah they used to be my neighbors and they ended up kind of kind of working with me or working for me and making money and they were growing up a little quicker than they should have seen a lot of things maybe they should not so matthew that day i was arrested was it a regular day for you uh yeah it was actually it was a little bit different than a regular day i remember clearly and you know to borrow one of your catchphrases i'll never forget it was a monday because monday uh i used to come over and you and i would print out the football tickets and i you know i've really liked strong memories of doing that because we used to print so many football tickets that we would burn up printers like we just have to go to the office depot and return printers like every two weeks um so it was a monday and we ordinarily i would come over um after school and we'd print out the football tickets cut them up get them ready um but but on this day you called me right after school and said hey you don't got to come over today because uh your brother david was in town and you're going to show him how to do it so i was like sweet i get the day off and uh you know i i think it's a good day i don't have to work because we used to put in long hours on those mondays because we had you know thousands and thousands of those things we had to print out so i was just you know kind of vegging out watching tv so yeah i it started off with me thinking you know hey great day bonus you know what what a pleasant surprise i bought the best computer the modem the whole works he set it up pretty much and then he would i'd have guys coming from down south for uh from south florida from north florida from west florida coming to pick up the football tickets what matthew was telling and we would cut them up and then they would come back and we had a bookmaking outfit going all over the place uh and every monday is matt's right and it was a monday so it's a good memory of when i was arrested uh when now you went to school i was arrested and i think it was about five o'clock at night were you home when i was arrested yeah yeah i just been home for about an hour um and i was watching tv i put a movie on i had the tv up really loud so i actually didn't hear everything go down at first so i was caught completely by surprise like chris was outside so chris saw everything happening i know he was the one who called out to missy but for me i didn't hear anything going on next thing i know there's a a knock on the door and i go and answer it and there's a gentleman standing there in a suit and a guy standing next to him in what looks like you know a life preserve you know i didn't connect the dots and it was a bulletproof vest but then he flashes his badge in my face you know says he's special agent russell with the fbi and then i noticed that the guy next to him was holding a shotgun and that like completely caught me off guard i had no idea what was going on so when they came to the house at that point what did you see when you came outside yeah he he asked me to step outside um they didn't ask to come in um so i stepped outside and i looked over and i saw you know a bunch of different agents kind of coming in and out of your house um and they were trying to ask me questions but it was like it's hard to explain like when you kind of know your world is crumbling down and you like it's almost like the feeling you get like right before you get faint where your hearing starts getting like real quiet you know i see a bunch of uh fbi agents kind of coming and going out of your house i see missy standing out there you know tears streaming down her face i see you getting put into the back seat of a car you know it it was um just like images are like just burned into my brain you know it's funny because they actually closed down that whole complex from the front of the complex at that time and it was like oh my god and again my neighbors even you knew i was a gangster and knew everything but you didn't know the core you didn't know oh wow he's the biggest jewel robber you didn't that was never connected but everyone thought i was at the drugs at the gangster stuff and all that but nobody knew the actual uh hard crime so to speak if you want to call it that and nobody met my connections you know i made that important no matter what uh so nobody ever dealt directly with my guys there's nobody so nobody could have said i gave him money or i did something but i i put a lot of trust in you young guys and always but always with the caveat that i try to let just you know it's kind of weird i was that kind of guy that was a bad guy but i didn't want to see you or your brother get caught up in something stupid either you know i mean make your choice make money you're gonna have to make choices in life but i did i didn't want to see you go to jail you know so i never put even the football tickets that i take the heat for everything i took the heat for everything and uh you saw all the crap in my house i had that long nine foot bar and used to have drugs on it and and everything that whole place was a zoo you know i mean what a party house huh the yeah we used to bartend bartending me and chris bartended for almost all of your parties yeah i had bought yeah you guys used to bartend and clean up and boy you sort of crazy women running around that place stuff it was just a it was a lot of fun it was just a it was a fun place nobody could ever say and do you remember the warehouse oh yeah yeah i remember you know when it was being built um chris i was the brains chris was the brawn so chris you know chris put in a lot of work helping build the place i just kind of stood around and you made me office manager so i took care of the bills answered the phones and things like that while chris was painting behind me and pushing them up and getting paid a dollar less an hour than i was okay go let's get back to the day i was arrested yeah like so you don't you you don't remember hearing the helicopter over the head or do you remember hearing right you remember hearing cops or do you remember what it is not when they first got there no um as a watching tv pretty loud like chris has a you know great recollection of the the um he was outside in front of the house when it happened but once i came outside stopped the tv i started you know and came outside saw the helicopters you know that's kind of when the reality of everything came crashing in like it was such such a weird unexpected shock you know like it you know to your point earlier it's it seemed like you know just a regular day it was just a monday you know it was like nothing special about it you know and then all of a sudden you step outside and you're just surrounded by fbi agents police you know people walking around with shotguns in their hands they had the masks those hoodies over there some of them that came through the patio in the back yep they had the uh those ninja suits yeah all the bridges you know they were coming through they came through the patio um it was crazy it was like it was insane you know i remember coming to you a few days before talking about you know i used the ice cream truck that was parked behind the house that you know you told me to go try buy ice cream from them they told me to get lost it was just i just remember it was odd because there was an ice cream truck parked behind our house at like eight o'clock at night you know nobody's buying ice cream at you know seven eight o'clock at night um so i remember that kind of like you know gave you a little bit of a caution and you know you seemed a little bit spooked by that well there was also i was spooked they had an fpl truck someone else one of the young kids in the neighborhood you guys i don't know who it was all the kids i remember i painted the football field and everything but the uh uh they said hey uh mr lawton there's a there's a fbl truck working over there so i always had it in my mind and missy the day i was arrested said when she went out to the store she goes you know i think i was followed and i said what are you talking about and she was obviously and then when she came back nothing happened for a while and then later we did it but uh i want to get back into you here a second man after the fact after the fact that i was arrested you're out there who are you talking to i'm talking to special agent russell the guy uh who gave me his card he was the one who started questioning me do you remember any of the questions yeah i remember i remember quite a few of them he first started off like just trying to spook me a little bit by saying you know he has pictures of me with you and they have like uh phone recordings from my house because you used to come over you know use our phone um every once in a while if you had to make a call you want to make from from from your phone um so they said they had phone recordings they started asking me a lot of questions about you know you what was my relationship with you and i remember i told him i said i don't know you know he pays me like a couple bucks to show him how to use the internet you know teach him how to pay his bills online you know things things of that nature um and then they started asking me a lot of questions about junior like i remember um they they want to know where junior was so they asked a few questions about him they asked where my parents were and it was at the time my parents were starting to separate so my mom had actually moved out and my dad worked um evenings so nobody was home you know i was 17 almost 18 at the time um so they're asking where my parents was and asked if my parents would call and i you know i never told my i never told my parents to call but i remember them being interested in junior and then junior coming and walking around while all the agents are still there and everything and and none of them had the i guess the attention span and notice that the guy they were asking about was walking around you know the the the parking lot right while they were all still there oh my god i didn't know that that is hilarious uh after the cops like when you after you spoke to the cops and he leaves you uh i i remember giving money three thousand bucks in my pocket that i gave and i and my rolex and all that and i gave it to missy uh they let me do that and even let me switch my sneakers to shitty sneakers i know i'm going to jail and uh so i wasn't there long if you remember they kind of like they didn't have me hanging around long and after that now when they left how long were they there you know it it it seemed like a very long time but i know it wasn't but it was just like you're sitting there and it's it's almost like you know it's a it's kind of a traumatic experience you know like you were somebody that was like a father figure to me that i looked up to a lot and you know a large part of my life at that time and when you're that age your life is relatively short um was spent you know with you working with you and and you know the stuff that that that i you know you you took me to to a lot of like places and nice restaurants and things that i'd never really done before so you know i knew that my like you know not to be dramatic but my life was kind of like crashing you know like my parents had just separated and now you are getting taken away so we were all kind of sitting there in shock and it you know it just seemed like forever but i know it wasn't that long because i don't even think it was still i don't even think it was completely dark by the time they left what was the neighbors out was people talking what was it like then yeah um after like kind of the dust settled mean meaning me chris jr um you know we kind of got together and you know try to go you know check on missy make sure she was okay and then we started talking and you know i guess uh you know everybody in the neighborhood knew that we had a close relationship with you so everyone was you know was coming to us uh trying to get information like asking what happened and it was pretty close knit like everybody knew each other at the time um and so everybody was coming out like it you know it's just like you know the talk of the town and everybody's trying to figure out what's going on and you know we just like uh just telling everybody we didn't know we didn't have any idea what was going on it was a surprise to us you know we were like that was one thing we were good at when we were kids was keeping our mouth shut i think that's why you liked us yeah i i think i trained you well or or i liked you for that you're right you guys uh great you know you guys stayed to yourself you made money you did the right thing you you saw a lot of things did you ever think anything like that can happen did you ever like in your own way say i wonder what could happen or what are they what can happen you know you watch movies you watch stuff did you know did that hit you in any way or was it afterwards oh [ __ ] i see that now you know we always knew it was a risk you like you you know you talked to us about it um you know like we like it was never like a serious sit down like hey this is what you say if this ever happens but you you know you asked us you know you're like if you know if you're ever getting questioned by the cops and they ask you this you know what would you say and i remember you know you were um saying you know like if they ever took you and chris and separated you guys you know like and said well chris told us everything you know um and and how would you respond to that and you know so it was you know it was relatively close to this time so i feel like you know prior to that you know like when you're a kid you know you can obviously sense some danger but you don't you think you're indestructible right like you don't think you know nothing's going to change and the sky's the limit so you you don't really think too much about it i never spent a lot of time and you were always very cautious you know like you weren't you you you were careful about who you exposed even you know the stuff that chris and i knew about you two um you always kind of kept the you know a layer between yourself and a lot of the stuff that you were you were involved in um and you were dealing a lot with guys that you knew like your brother and jimmy and us and junior and you know tommy and stuff like that um so to us it seemed like you were really careful and especially you know me being the person who helped you pay your bills and got you set up and you know paid your bills every month with the computer and stuff and you were always careful about how much you paid on what like or how much you paid on your credit card like never wanted to pay too much or never wanted to put too much money in your bank account so to to me it always seemed like you were being extremely cautious but of course you know i didn't know anything about the the whole jewelry aspect of it so it was definitely a shock you know like that that like that was probably one of the most shocking things that's ever happened in my life was opening that door to just like pure chaos you know like going from one minute watching tv to the next minute having a guy standing in front of you holding a shotgun and and seeing you know somebody that you care a lot about being stuffed in the back of a you know of a of a vehicle did they tell you what happened no did they tell you what i was being arrested for or anything no they never said anything and i in fact i didn't know until you told me in a letter because i i'd asked this i still never knew and it like i didn't want to be insensitive you know and ask missy you know like i'm not that nosy you know obviously i cared about you want to know what's going on but the same time i'm sure missy was tired of answering you know to everybody who asked so i never wanted to ask her and she didn't stay for much longer after after you left but uh you you know we corresponded when you when you were in prison and you know you were the one who told me you know you didn't say anything about jules but you said you know that as far as you knew was a racketeering charge what about your parents yeah my parents i don't you know i they didn't really know too much either you know like i think they thought the same thing you know mob ties and um you know like gambling and loaning and that sort of stuff because uh you know you you told him enough about the book the bookkeeping and stuff like that um and you know i i for me having to help you with uh you know i know you used to when you'd be out of town you'd call me seven o'clock in the morning have me go over to your house and pull the vegas odds to to send over to tommy so you know my parents you know you were you know you were always open my parents you didn't want me like disrespecting my parents or um you know going around their back so you know that much they knew about the gambling stuff and um you know i don't think they really knew anything about drugs and they certainly didn't know anything about the the jewels you know like even even at that age i was um you know old enough to know that this is like one of those moments in your life where it's never going to be the same after this you know like this is it the there there was your life before this happened and then there's your life after this happened and i wasn't even the one going to prison you know but just the how much of a part of my life you were at the time um and knowing that you know there's like when somebody leaves you know it was very much almost like a death you know like it sounds morbid but you know when when somebody leaves or moves or something like that you know it's coming you get time to say your goodbyes you know but in it when somebody dies and it's sudden that person's just ripped from your life you know and and there's a big hole left and you got to kind of figure out how to move on from there and that's what it was like you know you were just completely pulled you know straight out of my life and it had a you know a big emotional impact like it was it was rough to get over having to try to like you know reintegrate myself back into being a kid and caring about kid things because it's hard to care about you know somebody sneaking a drink out of their dad's liquor cabinet you know when on the weekend you know you're making a couple hundred bucks a night bartending a party for you know some gangsters you know that's funny you know you just said a few things which is which really you know it i mean i always affects me because i always cared about people is that you know i you know not even knowing that put some emotional stuff on kids and i hope people learn that you know your your choices have a bigger impact than you think anybody's does but you know i used to talk about you guys even though i had the kids these kids were great and i used to say that i said how can these kids you know they're going to be like oh okay we're gonna hey we're gonna steal this beer we're gonna go drink it where you were bartending uh with a bar full of all the best liquor and drugs in the world and you're right there it's like oh yeah like big deal and you never said anything you were guys mature enough to like not you know spread the word at school or wherever for that matter you know that's that's pretty able to do that i'll say you know going through that stuff as a kid you know seeing that stuff and learning you know how to make smart decisions about what you were doing that that may not have been you know on the on the right side of the law actually one of keeping me out of trouble as i got older you know as a you know older teenager or young you know in my 20s when when kids are starting to get into trouble and trying to do some dumb [ __ ] by the time i got to that point you know i did the stuff i had seen and done when i was kid was way past that so i you know i was never really one to get into kind of those kind of shenanigans which kind of helped me maybe be a little bit more successful getting older because when my friends were getting into trouble drinking and all that stuff you know it was old news to me you know it didn't really hold a candle to some of the stuff i had done earlier so i'm you know i you know i'm 41 years old i've worked at the same place 20 years you know built a career there so i started right when i was 21 years old you know and uh and worked there ever since and while i had friends you know bouncing from job the job getting into trouble i'd been there done that um and and i think it helped me really hunker down in and not go on some of those adventures that they were going on because i it didn't really compare to what we had already done up until that point i want to thank you and i'm proud of you i'll say that i always was i always will be uh you guys you always know i'm here always can ask me for anything you know and you guys i remember writing you when i was in prison uh so i wrote a lot of people yeah i gotta stack your old letters right here as a matter of fact oh my god keep them keep them but uh i want to say you know hey thank you for coming on thanks for experience i'm actually sorry that you had to go through that uh i you know part of me always says people say what do you regret in life i don't regret anything because whatever happens you regrets a wasted emotion it is what it is you have to make the best of it turn your life around do whatever you do in life ever all of us have to do that and and you have you've you've learned so much that i feel a part of that which is good yeah but i also feel a little bit you know hurt that i had to put that hurt on you especially at a time when you were going through some rough times you know with your family and stuff like i remember that so and i don't like that you know i mean i i i just but it also makes you better i always believe that you know if you're able to see things and learn from them whether good bad or indifference that's the key to life you know why make the mistake if i made it for you and then you don't have to make it so to speak and then and that goes for everybody you know uh we all grew up in the environment we are but you made the best of everything in your environment which is great so i want to thank you matt for coming on thank you all right everybody i'm with chris waring who is now 40 years old chris was i think 14 when i first met him when i went to prison i think he was 16 or 17. do you remember that date yes that's like one of the most prevalent days of my life the day i was arrested first of all did you know what i did i did not at all i had no idea that you were a jeweler jewelry robber now you knew i was involved in organized crime and all that when you found out what it was what was it like a shock yeah it was because i mean i guess i was just naive like i thought just because you were connected that you just had money like i didn't know you did anything other than just have money and you know be a cool guy now the day i was arrested was what do you remember about that day give me your recollection of that day all right so i was outside you know how we always played football out front um i was out front missy i remember missy pulling up and uh it looked like she came from the grocery store or something so usually i would always go over there and help her um and so i went over there and asked her if she needed help bringing anything in and she had ashley with her so i grabbed whatever little stuff she did have and i went inside with her i think i had ulterior motive because i wanted to play football on your computer so i helped her inside and i asked you if i could play football and you and davey were at the computer and uh you said you know when you guys get done with the football tickets um that you know i could play so i got done with that i went back outside and missy ended up going outside to check the mail um and i went back and was you know throwing the football with my friends and um as she was walking back from the mailbox i s i seen a line of cars coming in and thought it was strange at first because they were all kind of the same kind of car and had ten and windows and everything and by the time missy made it back to like close getting it close to your car and your front door uh they started pulling in and you know people started jumping out and so i was like just shocked and i heard missy say larry they're coming you know like they all ran around the bet some ran around the back some ran on the front um and i was just i was shocked and the first thing i thought of was junior um so i was like i didn't want him coming over so i went in my house and i called junior and told him not to come over and he was like why what's going on i was like i said the you know the fbi's here larry's getting arrested um and he's like he goes well i need to be there i need to see what's going on so so i was like junior do not come here i don't know if they're looking for you um because i had no idea what they were arresting you for but he ended up coming right over and walked straight in your house when you were sitting out on the curb with davey and he walked straight in your house and then ended up coming straight back out and walked over to me and i was just confused how they didn't even stop him or anything well afterwards you know why they had a warrant just for me for diamonds for uh cash they never found my safe that was upstairs but they had warrants only for that that's why i didn't even arrest davey then they didn't they only had my warrant uh and tommy's actually and they got tommy because i met him down at the fbi headquarters and then i got rid of him by telling him he didn't know anything when did you when you saw the cops coming like you just played football in the streets because i remember you guys always telling me you guys give me heads up hey there's an fpl truck there or well yeah cause when you came back i guess you came back from new york and you were like you pulled us in the house and you were like hey tell the kids in the neighborhood if you see any kind of truck sitting around that looks like it doesn't belong like a plumber truck sitting there for too long um any delivery trucks sitting there for too long you're like just go up and look in the windows he's like you're like because if you look in the windows and you know they their cover's blown so they gotta move or whatever so like it seemed like you knew that the heat was on you because that was only like weeks before when you when they took you guys away finally um you know we were all in the house talking and missy called me called the house and i answered the phone i was gonna say call me like we had cell phones so she called the house and i answered the phone and she was just crying like bawling her eyes out and she's like she goes chris i don't know what to do she's like um you know i don't know if they're to come back i need you to come over so i went over to the house and i i guess it was the safe you were talking about that they didn't find she had like a ton of jewelry and she's like she goes i need you to take this stuff i don't know if they're going to come back i don't want them to take it so like i took all this jewelry to the house and uh it you know it was like watches and rings and i mean that day like i said missy when missy called me and um i wish i was a little older when she called me over because when i got there she was just losing it like crying and and she just you know wanted me to take the stuff i was like i wish i you know thinking back i was like she really needed a hug at that point and you know i'm like some 16 year old kid so i'm just i just wanted to get out of there you know because she's upset and um so you know i took the jewelry back to the house and um you know i just was in awe with all that stuff and uh you know i hit it away well first i like i said i put it all on and i was looking in the mirror all gangster so then i you know i quickly took it all off and put it you know put it back in the bag she gave me and um put it in my closet and left it in there until she uh until she called back for it so when they take me away what did you do what was the first thing you did well i got back with junior and was calling him stupid for showing up because you know we had no idea why you were getting arrested and you know i didn't want him to come there and get arrested and so you know we were just talking about what happened you know what happened and you know what is going to come of it and you know we didn't know how long you were going to go away or anything so we were just confused you know of course it was like the talk of the night for sure to this day i am proud that you guys turned out good guys you really did you turned out you know good family men good people that take care of their kids or whatever they do and you know and you don't judge people you didn't judge me you don't judge other people there's not none of that in you there's no prejudice in you you know you guys you know like it's good to see you know that young kids that you know i never want to this day that's why i do what i do a lot i don't want to see young people get stupid you know one they can't do the time they're going to come out not not stronger or better obviously i'm a rarity there and and then they ruin their lives and you affect more lives i'm even learning that now chris that i affected you and your brother your brother said it was really hard because you left you know it was that time like where the oh my god it's like the whole world was coming down you know used to you know come home from school and matt matt used to do my football tickets and and the computers and used to always do something working making money whatever you always did something clean and bartending going shopping or whatever it was you know going missy and so but it's a good feeling that you guys should you know came out so good i mean as as as young kids that were around a lot of crazy [ __ ] when you think back about it i mean you know kids your age that they weren't around that from drugs to sex to uh crime you name it it was you know i was that was a nut house well i think it was i think it was you know i seen that you would have fun and you would get crazy but there was always like a real professional side of you and um you know you would turn that on when you need to and you would have fun when you need to you know so i you know i think to me that was a lesson to me and also you just would always like if i would start acting up you know like try to be uh like a smart ass or whatever you'd always put me in my place you'd always be like don't get cocky yeah and it it is true i always did that when i when business was business whether it was robbing or whatever it was always business it was i remember putting a gun to jimmy and david's head and telling them if they ever came around here with that drug i'd kill them both and they knew i was serious so i mean i there were certain things i was just new that were something to do i think that was because of the guys i grew up with obviously and then you try to pass those things on and then okay getting back just to the day we're doing it and when you everything's settled down do you remember that part when they left and they took me were people still there what were they doing and then when they left what was it like holy [ __ ] what was it like like i hate keep going back to the word shock but like we were talking about you were such a big part of our life and um to just suddenly be ripped away i mean because every day when i'm at school i would be thinking about you know what's going to happen when i get home like what is larry going to need me to do or you know where am i going to go a junior i mean because we would pick up you know like people in the limo for you from the airport and um so i mean it was every day i would come home and see what was going on with you and what we could do so just you getting pulled out like that quick and that sudden was like you know i mean just i couldn't believe it you know and i mean that's kind of how me and matthew were talking about it and you know of course the neighbors were asking you know like oh what's going on you know but uh you know we we would always just you know like nothing nothing don't worry about it so now those guys uh i want to thank matt and chris that they're you know listen i love those guys to this day they're doing great uh i tried to give them good advice i mean you know yes as a gangster but you know i guess i always had that heart i had a pretty good heart uh so anyway so matt and chris uh thank you for coming on just talking about one day i'm gonna bring those guys on we're gonna have a great video they got some stories too we started catching up again and that's what was good about this so anyway here i am now getting processed in opa-locka i see tommy tommy work for he's in the book fat tony i call him but he was tommy and tommy uh is down in the same headquarters of the fbi now the reason they arrested tommy is because i ended up using tommy's credit card to rent the cars i used to rent cars never under my name so when they look him up tommy was a very big guy at the time and they'd look him up and that's not him that's not what he robbed me whatever but this time i was the co-driver of the car now i didn't know all this at the time that's how deep they went uh so anyway they processed me larry lawton at opalaca and they really didn't ask me a question what people don't understand is they never read me my rights and you're wondering what do you mean they never read your rights cops don't have to read you your rights you do know that as long as they don't ask you a question they don't have to ask you rights these cops weren't asking me a question on who who's that guy what are you doing we got you not a word was said in fact there were nice guys we were talking about the weather or whatever the hell we were talking about it was just an obnoxious conversation to make small talk and they were nice guys well when we got down to the fbi area where they did handcuffs tommy was there and i saw him go in and tommy didn't know anything really except that he rented the cars and he told what he's supposed to because i told him to do that he's not and they let him go they saw it was legit and they let him go they processed me to floor seven east never forget seven east they can look that up and that's the floor that i was processed on and i didn't get processed till past midnight so that full day for me was a shock day now people want to know how i felt when that happened uh let me tell you something it's part relief i know that sounds weird but it's part relief and also shocked because now your brain starts kicking into how do i get out of this am i going to get bail uh who do i call what's the lawyer i mean i had that down i knew lawyers i knew all that end of it so my big thing was what do i do next what's up what do i do and but that relief also is you know you knew you were criminal you were either getting killed i mean uh one good part of it was there wasn't there were cops because if they were wise guys or people trying to kill me you don't know you're gonna get away you don't know if you're gonna get away with it because they might kill you they don't get you give them money they'll do something they'll kill you so talk about an eventful day i had one hell of an eventful day my last day of freedom before doing that long stretch was a day i'll never forget which a lot of things i'll never forget but that i'll really never forget so don't make the choices i made be like chris be like matt and change your life you know they saw a lot and they still changed their life i gave him a lot of respect all right everybody i hope you enjoyed my last day of freedom that was from the morning i got up until i went to bed after midnight and i never got out of prison after that until 2007. so have a great day everybody make good choices please uh please subscribe if you have not subscribed uh pass these on put them in your playlist help us out in some way you can we really appreciate that you guys have a great day everybody much love much respect for everybody stay safe and live life

Channel: Larry Lawton

Views: 277,505

Keywords: police, numbers, fbi, swat, drugs, cops, gangsters, criminal, jail, warrant, crime, gambling, police car, arrest, policemen, betting, swat team, police lights, jewel thief, numbers running, traumatic experience, police interrogation, gangster redemption, prison letters, swat raid, arested, police squad, theft caught, day I was arrested, bookmakers, bookmaker, bookie, bookies, loan shark, loansharks, loanshark, loanshark meaning, loanshark definition, loanshark loan

Id: Q3kI0DaCwbo

Length: 52min 17sec (3137 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021