Brittany
Appearances
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
This is his account. He's done literally everything for me today.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Yep. All the good stuff. So we actually live two doors down from where this happened. I am neighbors with my parents. So this happened yesterday. Summer of 2009. It was the day after my mom's birthday. And we had all gone to sleep. It was like two o'clock in the morning.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
I was 17 at the time. So it was my last summer before senior year. I was over it already. And then this happened. I was like, I'm out of here. Now I'm back. So the layout of our house is my dad built it. And the first floor is the main floor. So it has a kitchen and there's a room off the side of it. And then there's two bedrooms. And then he added on to it later.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
And so there's the master bedroom downstairs and then another bedroom. My brother got the bedroom downstairs. I got the bedroom upstairs. And then obviously my parents are down in the basement. So we had a 40 pound Jack Russell Terrier German Shepherd Nick. Super smart, super spunky.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
a lot of energy. She was grepping at my mom in the middle of the night and my mom was trying to ignore it and still sleep. She would smell stuff either from outside or through our swamp cooler. She would catch whiffs of stuff sometimes. So my mom was just ignoring it. And then she got a little bit more agitated and was like barking at my mom. So she was like, okay, I'll go check it out.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
My dad is now totally deaf. Back then he was very close. So he's dead to the world, has no idea idea anything's going on. But hearing it do the trick. So my mom headed upstairs. We had this cut out window from our living room that you could see through into the kitchen. And so my mom peered through there and there was a bear charging at her.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
And so this little 40 pound dog starts to go to take care of the bear. And my mom is hysterically screaming. Yeah. What color bear? We have black bears here, so thankfully no grizzlies.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
He had actually gotten into my car the same week. I had left like this much in a Starbucks cup. That was a small amount for the listener.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Yeah. And I don't know how much you know about bears, but they are nasty, greasy animals. So he left lots of grease all over my car.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Stinky, greasy, all that good stuff. So my mom's screaming bloody murder. She hightails it back into the bathroom that's right by my bedroom and is still screaming. My mom used to ridicule me. I was like, Brittany... You can't just sleep in your underwear. You have to sleep in clothes because what if something terrible happens in the middle of the night? You need to be ready.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
That stuff never happens. So I'm leaping out of my bunk bed, just in my underwear, eating some humble pie. And I like step out there. I'm like, what's going on? And she's like, there's a bear in the house. And then booked shit down the stairs and left me. What? I'm assuming she thought I was following her, but the dog was still upstairs. The dog was going bananas near our kitchen.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
This is true. This is good. We're getting both sides.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
My dog would not give up. Do I stop trying to cover myself up and try and save my dog? Do I just hightail it and hope that she makes it? So I free the titties, run after, grab the dog by the tip of her tail and drag her back. And the bear is still following us at this point.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
pick her up, book it down the stairs. And we don't know where it is at this point. And so we get down there. My brother is also just in his underwear, putting his contact lenses in.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
readying himself for battle speaking of which my dad was in the process of loading up his shotgun he kept things separately so he wasn't as quick as could be but it was safe thank god he finally heard i know yeah my mom at that point had gotten down there and let him know what was going on so he put two rubber pellets in the gun and then had a regular slug shot ready
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
to go again super deaf didn't put in his hearing aids before he went up there which was a foul choice and his idea was to go up and open one of the doors to let the bear escape so he went back up there flipped on a light to open the side door and the bear was charging him oh my god so he like shot the rubber around and it just yawn pissed it off and it got like really aggressive
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
And so we're downstairs. My mom is rightfully so freaking out. I called 911 to get them on the phone. So I was giving them details while they can hear shotgun shells going off in the background. And we hear shooting and then a scuffle. And then we hear another shot and then another scuffle. And then my dad did his third real round, which turned out to be another rubber pellet round.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
And he grabbed the wrong color. Oh. So he had no actual real protection. He shot it. And for some reason, that three rounds of rubber pellets to the face disoriented him enough. So we all of a sudden just hear my dad barreling down the stairs. And my mom was like, open the door to my brother.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
So my brother let him in really quick and we slammed the door shut because we didn't know if the bear was going to follow. The 911 operator told us to go out of the house and get in our car and wait at the bottom of our driveway for the sheriff to come. So we did that and the sheriff came and kind of poking around asking us questions, visibly shaking.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
And he's like, I would rather deal with any armed criminal than a bear. They're my biggest fear.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
the only one at that time too. So he went up and quickly got to action. And so we heard another couple rounds go off and then more sheriff showed up. So he had backup finally. But what happened is he went in the house and the bear was at the back of that side room, clawing at a window, clearly trying to get out. It turned around, started to charge him. He shot it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
And again, I don't know how much you know about bears, but they have really thick skulls. And so it is extremely hard to shoot a bear in the head.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Or you, luck out enough to go through the ribs or something like that but if it's charging you you don't have that shot oh he actually shot the bear five times and it did nothing but piss it off and it continued to charge at it the next sheriff came and had a bigger gun and it took actually three more rounds from that gun to put this bear down wow so a bear was killed in your living room
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
The way that he was charging, he technically died outside. The way he would have wanted it. Yes, exactly. Back into the wild.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
He definitely got vengeance on us, though, because he smeared his body over every surface that was in our house. So they brought us back up. They showed us the bear. He was like a two-year-old, only 120-pound bear. He had somehow learned that if you push on the side of a door threshold, you can kind of warp it enough. And that just swung the door wide open. Oh, my goodness. He was brilliant.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
No kidding. So that's how he got in without us hearing a big bang. One of the rounds that they shot at him, hit him in the forehead and ricocheted off and went through one of our windows and smashed our windows. We went in the house and it was like a massacre. There was blood everywhere. And my dad was dealing with the sheriff, going over everything.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
And my mom is calling the insurance agent and claiming this with homeowners insurance. He's like, I don't even know how to enter this. This is my first bear in the house thing. told us that they would cover everything and that they could send a cleaning crew up the next day or we could do it and we would get a check. And my mom was like, put some gloves on and get going.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
We had to buck up and get it done. And then shortly after that, for some reason, the sheriff had to report it nationally.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Yeah. So then that meant that the news crews got all of our information. So they were calling and calling. And my dad didn't want to do it because we are in Boulder and it's a pretty liberal city. And he was really worried that he was going to be tagged as the bear murderer. Oh, it's not his fault. Oh, my God. We kept telling him that we're like, Dad, you literally saved our family.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
I mean, I know. So, yeah, everyone except for my brother got charged by a black bear. That is wild.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
She lived a long, happy, healthy life. She was never the same after that. Always on high alert. We called her the bear dog after that. She lived to tell the tale. Wow.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Ironically, he ate a ton of Crystal Light of my mom. Oh.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Crystal light was exploded everywhere around our kitchen.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Maybe that's just what amped him up.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Thanks for telling us that. That was hairy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Animal Attack II
Yes, and if I can quickly shout out my friend, Nicole. She is my beloved boss.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I am in a blanket fort bunk bed. Absolutely. It's my best option.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
So I own a beach resort on the Jersey Shore with my family. What?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
No, we're not that type of Jersey Shore. We're like the quaint, family-friendly, low-key Jersey Shore.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Not really our vibe. You know, we like to stay a couple islands down, but they're fun to watch, I guess.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
No, it's great. Couple more weeks to go and then we're done. Got it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
It is. It's about our hotel. And as low key as it normally is, we see our fair share of crazy stuff. So I've got a doozy for you guys today.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
53, so we're pretty tiny. We're like a restaurant, nightclub, wedding venue. Oh, wow.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
All right. Well, I'm just going to dive on into it. So it's a Friday morning. I'm coming into work and, you know, we work some late night hours usually. So sometimes in the morning I come in around checkout time for the hotel. I walk in, I open the front door right to our lobby and normally it would be a pretty low key scene.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
It would be a couple of people checking out, people gathering their stuff, getting ready to go. And immediately I can tell that is not the case for this morning. It is a zoo in the lobby. There is pretty much the entire hotel's worth of people standing around our tiny little lobby and they are losing their minds.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I can immediately sense the tension in the room and I'm overhearing people going like, what did you lose? I lost my beach towels. They were pottery bond. They're martyrammed. We lost all our life jackets. So I am on high alert. I lock eyes with our front desk receptionist and she just gives me that nod, like go to the office. I'm going to meet you in there. She presents me
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
with a full yellow legal pad of missing items from hotel rooms. Side note, we are that idyllic little town where people leave all their stuff outside of the room at night. You leave your car doors unlocked. Everybody puts their beach towels, their beach gear outside of their room. Never been an issue.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Apparently today was not that day because almost every single hotel room had come down and reported something from outside of their room missing. Nothing like this has ever happened before. So I am in semi-panic mode. You know, we want to keep our guests happy and don't know what to do. So I'm reeling, trying to think what's our next step here.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
And in walks two of our managers and I have a manager, Heather, who does our front desk and a manager, Tina, who does our housekeeping. And they come in and they were in earlier than me. And we've got a story for you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
One of our housekeepers had walked by one of the other rooms and noticed as she looked through an open door, a boatload of beach stuff, like mountains of beach gear in a certain hotel room. So she's like, all right, we've got an issue. So, you know, it was like 1045 when I got in there. Checkout's 11. So I'm like, all right, let's go upstairs. I gather my girls. We head up the stairs.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Some of our rooms are oceanfront and they've got private balconies. So we go to the one next to this room who's already been checked out of. And I walk out on the balcony and I'm peeking over to the next room and I'm trying to figure out, oh, my God, is this it? And I just see mountains of things. All the beach towels stacked up, puddle jumpers, beach gear. I mean, everything.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
So it's now 1101 and this is no longer this lady's room. So I'm like, all right, let's go. So I leave my girls down the hallway. I go up. I knock on the door. Little side note about this lady. She's already been an issue in the hotel. Oh. We've got bars. We've got a nightclub. We've had a lot of complaints about her so far already.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Loud, aggressive, too drunk, causing scenes, chirping up people at the bar, being rude to the security guards. Like, you name it, she was doing it. She's been a handful. So I knock on the door, tell her who I am, kind of. Give her the old, hey, had a couple of complaints about some hotel rooms. Are you missing anything? She's like, oh, no. What are you talking about?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
And as she steps sort of to the side, I look over her shoulder and I'm like, how many towels did you bring with you on this vacation? This point, I'm like, I'm coming in the room. So I sort of just walk past her. And our rooms have a little bit of an entry hallway, and then they open up into the larger space. So I'm coming in, and I'm clocking all the stuff.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
The puddle jumper with the mermaids on it that's been reported missing. I have the list with me, and I'm like, this is it. We've got a kleptomaniac on our hand. As I walk through the threshold to the room, I look to my right, and I catch eyes with somebody I know in her bed.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
So we have a lot of different bands that play at our resort and some play weekly. And I look over and one of the trombone players from a band who plays at the resort a lot is tucked up to his chin in her bed.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Endless gear. I mean, a hotel's full. You could have a whole camp with the amount of gear for children that is in this room. So I look at him and we're just eyes on each other. We know each other and he's a deer in headlights. So I look over at her and I'm like, hey, do you guys have any kids registered with your reservation? Because I know it's just her in this room.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
She's moving quick. She's trying. But I know this guy. And he does not have children of this age. And I've never seen him with any family of anybody at the resort. So I look right at her and I go, that's not true. Come on. And he is still just stone cold. So I'm like, listen, guys. I'm under the assumption that you've stolen all this stuff from all of our hotel guests.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I go, I'm going to take it back. I go out to the hallway. I hooty hoot my staff and I ask them to come down and they bring a whole crew of housekeepers. I mean, this is five, six ladies, arms full of stuff, just taking it all out.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
She was absolutely drinking the night before. But the reason that's not the case is because everything was nicely folded. She had mounds of towels rolled up perfectly and was loading them into her suitcase. How's she getting this out of here without people noticing?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I don't think it's about that. It's just about the stealing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Also, she is so far on left field. I've just accused her of robbing the entire hotel. She could care less. She's smiling. She's joking with me. She is not defensive at all. I'm just like, okay. So we get all this stuff out of the room and I look at the guy and I go, listen, I'm going to step out of the hallway. I'm going to give you two minutes to get decent. And after that, I'm coming in.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
You guys are getting out of the room. I walk out. I'm not out there 30 seconds. He comes barreling out the door down the hallway. Won't even look at me. He's gone. So I'm like, all right, I'll deal with this guy another day. I know who this guy is. So I go back in and I'm trying to just get the ball rolling for this lady. I'm like, you got to go.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I'm not even there. I'm just like, you got to get out of this place. We have reclaimed everything. We're not going to make a big deal out of this, but you got to get out of here. So I'm grabbing her stuff for her. I'm literally, she brought a Keurig machine. I'm holding a Keurig that she stole from the last hotel. Probably. She's joking with me about the weather.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
She's saying how much she loves our resort. And I'm just like, we got to go, lady. I get her down the hallway, out to her car. As we're walking, she's detailing her plans to go to the next hotel down the street and check in. And I'm like, oh, God. So I get her in her car.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I'm immediately calling the other hotel owner because, you know, we're a small town and being like, hey, this is coming your way. Absolutely do not let this lady check in. Before I can even get off the phone, I'm beeping through with another call from our housekeeping manager, and she's like, you need to get back up here right away.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I'm like, did this lady sneak back in the other side? Like, what am I getting back into? So I hustle back up there, and I get in there, and there's a team of housekeepers in there. They had come in. It's already past checkout. They're trying to get in there and clean the room. We've got a full hotel to flip over, and they are just shocked. I'm like, what's going on?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
They pull back the sheets, and... poop stains all over the sheets. Oh, my. That same bed Mr. Trombone Player was just laying in. We don't have cameras in the room, so we'll never know what really happened.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Oh, baby. And I don't know if I was so freaked out by the situation of the theft originally that I didn't smell it, didn't notice it, like the balcony door was open. But I looked down and there's one of the little maps we give out of our island that gives like tourist spots and restaurant recommendations. Somebody moves that with a gloved hand, pile of poop juice. Oh, my God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
We look in the bathroom. What? Poop, washcloths, poop, everything. But we deducted that they must have gotten absolutely hammered the night before, gone on a drunken rage of ransacking the hotel, and then probably celebrated with a big round of butt sex right before they left.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Poop everywhere. Wow. That's the whole story. I mean, it ended in a good note. We have a great team. They cleaned the room. We have professional carpet cleaner machines. Like, we took care of it. All the guests were happy just to get their stuff back. So it was a happy ending. Oh, my God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
It was nuts. It's been six, seven years since his story, and we still call the trombone guy Roto-Rooter.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
He left the band for a few years and then he's been back recently. I don't give him shit. I just kind of give him a little side eye when I see him. Like, I know. He has the audacity to show his face again.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
We had to throw away all the sheets, all the towels, you know, everything. I mean, the room got stripped down to bare bones and started over, but it was nasty.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Also, the juice description is really something.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
I just want to thank you guys for this. This was so much fun. I'm obsessed with your podcast. I listen every week, all the shows.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Everybody was happy. Nobody caused a ruckus or anything. They were just happy to get their stuff and go to the beach that day.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Let's hope she turned it around. Yeah, hopefully she's doing better things with her life these days.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
Before I leave, my friend Heather, who was a part of the story and who turned me on to your podcast, is here. Do you care if she says hi real quick? Of course.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Friday 2024
She's our front desk manager. She was one of the ones that was a part of the beginning. Hi.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Did you make a fort? Well, my cousin and my best friend made a fort for me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
It's like every blanket in my house, and I think there are brooms stuck to chairs. It's pretty impressive. People get really innovative.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
One of them's a contractor, so I have faith.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
There's integrity in that fort. Yeah, exactly.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I'm outside of Portland, Oregon, in Beaverton, Oregon.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I did. This was in 2012. I was 18, almost 19, in college, away from home for the first time.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Down in Southern Oregon. I went to go visit a friend who went to a different school about three hours away. He was having a party, lived in this big house with a bunch of roommates. And I meet, sorry, there's a cat intruding on me. I meet this guy at the party. And we just instantly clicked. Super handsome. We talked the whole night. He said that he wasn't a student.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
He was actually an assistant professor at the school. But he was close to our age, just a little bit older. And yeah, had a great time with him. And when I leave and go back home, we keep texting and talking constantly. And a week or so goes by. I knew so much about him. He was really close with his family. His grandparents took him in when he was little because his mom died really tragically.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
He told me about his ex who was a liar and a cheater and just awful. Anyways, I decided to go back up and meet him for a weekend. I was really looking forward to it. I get there and we're walking up to his room and he just mentions something as we're walking in. He's like, oh yeah, I just vacuumed for you. And we get in there and the floor is disgusting.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I don't know why he would lie about that, but it was obviously a lie. Don't really think anything else of it. I stay the night and I had to go home the next day. But as I'm getting ready to go, I get a Facebook message and it's from... Someone I don't know, but I recognize the name and it's his ex-girlfriend.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Yep. And I read it and he's staring at me and it says, I want you to be aware of D. I wish someone would have warned me. He ruined my life. And I just stop and look up at him. And I literally was like, oh my God, she is such a bitch.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I know it's so ridiculous. I go back to my school. Life goes on. We keep talking. He says that he wants to come visit me next and his car is in the shop or something. So he gets on a Greyhound bus to come see me. I pick him up from the bus station and he gets off. He has like a giant suitcase, a duffel bag and a backpack.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
And he's just going to stay one night with me. Oh no. Whatever. Who cares? Maybe it's full of presents for me. I don't know. And we go back to my apartment. Have a great time. Things seem normal. if that was a Friday or a Saturday on Sunday, I'm like, hey, what time do we need to go back to the Greyhound station? And he just kind of like, well, I have a surprise for you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I took some time off work and fall break is coming up soon, so I don't have to go back. I get to stay. Oh, God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
would happen here and there but then he would do something that made me feel so special yeah love bombs so him telling me like i'm not leaving was the first time i remember really feeling off about him though but again whatever i'm 19 and don't yet know how to stand up for myself And he stays. He doesn't have a car there.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
So he is driving me and my car to school every day while he just sits at my house. One day, I remember coming home and I had had $200 sitting on the counter. And I'm like, hey, where did that money go? Well, what money? Oh. The money that was right here. No one else has been here. What do you mean? Oh, yeah. Oh, that money. Well, I remember how you said that you wanted to stop spending so much. Oh.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Also, what a dumb excuse. I get pissed. I'm like, where is it? Give it back. Well, I put it in the TV speaker.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
My life. My thing. Say it on repeat. Right? It's been a long time. It's still a problem, apparently. You remember those big screen TVs, but they were boob tubes and they had the speakers on the bottom and they sat on those. And he's like, I pushed it through there. So if you really want it, I can get it out, but I'll have to take the whole TV apart. My cash stayed in the TV. I don't know.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I sort of believed it. I wasn't fully there, but I also kind of believed it, which is terrible.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
He said he pulled it up and like shoved it in there. Okay. Okay. A while later, I don't remember exactly how long, but probably a month or so. And weird things happen in between. He's still there.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Yep. I am going to visit my mom who lives in Hawaii and I'm going to go for like a week or 10 days or something. So he drives me and of course he's going to stay at my apartment and take care of my dog.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
That he wanted to be with me and he was going to find his own place down here. Also, I was just at a point in my life where I had very low self-esteem. And the fact that this boy was showing interest in me and making me feel special. It was like, I got to hold on to it. Yeah. So he drives me to the airport and drops me off in my car, kiss him goodbye. He drives away.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
And little do I know that's going to be the last time I ever see him. So get on the six-ish hour flight, land, turn my phone back on. And I have 37 missed calls. Oh my God. And so I'm panicking. And there are a lot from my dad and there are some from one unknown number. And so I listened to the first voicemail and it's my dad.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
And he's just like, B, in the past few hours, over $5,000 has been racked up on my credit card that you have for emergencies. And you better hope it wasn't you because cops are involved. And I'm just like, what the fuck? And I rip open my wallet and there it is in the back, never touched. I have it. And I listened to another voicemail and the other number turns out to be a detective.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Find out my dad reported this. Detective goes to my apartment. finds my front door wide open. My dog was gone. I guess a neighbor had found my dog running around the parking lot and scooped him up. Detective said that he doesn't know what I had in there, but it looks like things might not be right. There's nothing with the TV.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
The TV is huge, but there's no, back then, like DVD player and cable box. All of that's gone. And my car, of course, is not there either. Oh my God. Just a nightmare.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I didn't even first go to it's him.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I was confused and angry that my dad could think I did this. And then feeling like I'm going to have to defend myself because I have the card. It's not like I lost it. I never even touched it. It's for emergencies. But then when my car's not there, my dad, of course, owns my car. Just an old Camry. But he reports it stolen. And Dee and I were texting a little bit.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
My dad was like, it's got to be him. And the detective said to just act normal if I can. Don't talk to him about this. And so we didn't talk on the phone. I remember saying I had bad service. And I'm there with my mom. She's helping me. So a few days go by. And the detective calls me again. And he says... We followed up with some of the stores that the purchases were made.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
One of them was the Walmart right next to my house. And there were physical purchases in the store while I'm on the plane. And he goes, we have the video of who did it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
And he emails it to me and I pull it up and it's loading and it's grainy and it's black and white. And I'm watching it like stops on the purchase. And it's not him. It's not D. Oh, it's not. Is it the girlfriend?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
It's a woman, but she's older. It wasn't the ex-girlfriend. But so now in my mind, I'm like, oh, thank God it's not D. He's still wonderful-ish. I'm not dating a terrible person.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Yeah. And so a few more days go on. I get another call from the detective and he says, we found your car. D was driving it. They pulled him over. I guess he instantly confessed to everything.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
He had somehow made a copy of the credit card. He had been making purchases before this with it, but they were spread out and not major. He said, I'm going to return all of it. I was just borrowing it. They arrest him, of course, take him to the little jail in my tiny town. And the detective then tells me, you need to know the phone call that he made while we had
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
past tense had him in custody i don't remember if he played the recording for me or if he told me but the woman answers and he says mom they caught us oh they caught us oh my god this is wild oh i did not see mom entering the chat me either mom who's supposed to be dead oh i forgot that part oh my god
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
They release him. His arraignment is going to be two days later. Of course he doesn't show up. It was over 20 charges and they issue a warrant for his arrest. And time goes by, and meanwhile, I am trying to find him. I'm doing my own investigating, and I get, I would say, close to obsessed with investigations and criminology. And... They never found him until two years ago, 2022. Oh, my God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
He got pulled over. No. They arrested him, released him again. Oh, God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
There were a lot of other things between then and when I got licensed about a year ago that kept pushing me in this direction. But I love it. And I'm working on murder cases.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Yeah. I don't know why I haven't really thought about that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
And now I'm the crazy new ex-girlfriend. I just learned about the 2022 arrest because I am a PI and I was able to pull all these documents. And I was just going over it last night.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I just looked based on the case number from my case back in 2012. But there probably are more.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
That's so long. Yeah. And then the fact that they just let him go again. Have you learned nothing?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
I mean, what kind of chance do you have if your mom is bringing you in? Exactly. And I wonder how much of the other things, because obviously most of what he told me was a lie. But I especially think about like his family, because he would talk about he's so close with his family and his grandparents and his aunt. And tell me all of these stories. Like, is that still happening? No.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
While this is happening? I think they're not real. All just made up in his head? Who knows?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
And it really fucked with my head for a long time to already have that low self-worth and then to think that I found somebody. loves me for me and then it's like, oh no, I was just a target.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Yeah, it took until 2020 for me to, I think, fully snap out of what happened. There was a marriage, a divorce to be like, OK, no, I am worthy. I'm a badass. Yeah, you are.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
Self-employed. I get to choose. That's a deal.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Dated a Criminal
You guys too. Thank you so much.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
It would tell you if the charts needed to be resolved for something, like if they weren't assigned or things like that. So this was a good indication if that login was being used too much. If I saw this report was using that login too much, then I would try to go through the chart and see because you can match it to the schedule and see who's using that login and I would get on them.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Thing is, the midwives didn't like it when I did that because they think that I'm micromanaging them or whatnot. But I did not like it when they did this because it's not good for charting. It's not good for clients, all the things.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Things really morphed and changed from the time that I started working there. Whenever I first started working there, Gina and Caitlin were doing clinics. They were active midwives in the practice. I want to say around 2019, they decided to step back and just run the business is what they would call it. That's when things really started going downhill.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And I don't think it had anything to do specifically with the midwives that worked there. We often place blame on that, that they weren't as invested in the business as Gina and Caitlin were. They couldn't sell products like Gina and Caitlin could or love on clients like Gina and Caitlin could. And part of that is true. The clients loved Gina and Caitlin.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Caitlin can make anyone believe that you are her best friend. So they had a cult-like following by the time they stopped doing clinic. Repeat clients would come back and they were so upset that Gina and Caitlin weren't doing births. Gina and Caitlin would make exceptions for their special clients. Once a week, they'd still be in clinic doing their special clients.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
But then that phased out over the past few years. whenever COVID hit, the midwives stopped going to the hospital with clients. Before that, midwives always went to the hospital with clients. COVID hit and then the midwives weren't allowed to go to the hospitals anymore.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
So they just had to turn their patients over to the hospital staff and they go to sleep or go back to clinic or go about their day. It never changed afterwards. So as much as I kept saying to Gina and Caitlin, the midwives have to go with the clients. Let's figure out a way. Let's do this. Let's do that.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Hi, my name is Brittany. I was a birth photographer out of origins. I rented space from Gina and Caitlin. That began 2015. I had a birth photographer for my oldest son. Capturing the emotions from his birth was so special to me, and I just wanted to be involved with birth. I love it. I have photographed over 200 births, probably close to 300 now.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
That they'd say, well, we're on call and we have all these patients, which sometimes that was true. Gina and Caitlin. That was the other issue. It didn't matter if a patient was absolutely horrendously rude to my admin staff. It didn't matter. The midwives were already overworked and begging not to take any more clients. Gina and Caitlin said, we're taking them. Then the midwives were overworked.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And sometimes they would have to just send the patients to the hospital because they had another client in labor. They didn't care. Gina and Caitlin wanted the money. As the years went on after Caitlin and Gina moved out of clinic and their repeat clients kept having babies and they started seeking care elsewhere, both of them were very offended when this would happen.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Caitlin, more so than Gina, Caitlin did not like it at all. Oftentimes she would call them personally and try to convince them to come into care and let them know that if they did come into care, she or them both would do their prenatal care and their birth. Sometimes when she would promise them this, she would have whoever was on call show up to their birth.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And then whenever they were in active labor or nearing the end, Caitlin would show up, deliver their baby and then leave right afterwards. This was always very disappointing for the clients. I've spoken to a few of them that that happened to. This usually happened in Fort Worth, not Dallas, because that's where June and Caitlin did clinic.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
But they were always disappointed that they were promised one thing and didn't get it. But we very rarely saw repeats at the end of my time there. We definitely had more upset clients towards the end than ever before. One of our previous employees that was office manager, and then we created a role for her, patient advocate. She wasn't in that role for very long.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
She left about a year before me, maybe a little bit less. She was like, I can't do it. I can't handle all of these upset clients. She saw every single upset client. That was her job to deal with that and try and fix the problems. But it was getting worse and worse and worse.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I mean, they were different things. A big thing that really, really bothered the patient advocate and myself was miscarriage follow up. Because of the way the collective was that there's three midwives or whatever, no one would follow up. fall off the radar. We would get complaints all the time. My midwife just forgot about me. She abandoned me. Y'all don't even care about me.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
So that was really frustrating. And that was one thing that we felt really strongly about. And the patient advocate and I worked really hard to create a system to put in place for the midwives. We had to do that as admin staff. And we actually put in place to where the admin was calling and following up.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Because at the end of the day, I said, I don't think that patients care who's calling them as long as someone is calling them. So I was telling my admin staff, you're going to call, put it on your to-do list. If you see that there's a miscarriage, you call them and just say, I'm just checking in with you. I'm going to go ahead and schedule you an appointment with a midwife. Is that okay?
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Are you comfortable coming in? Or would you prefer that we just schedule a phone call? I always got that question. How many babies have you lost? And for the first several years, I was able to say we've never lost any moms or babies. But I just remember at some point, someone saying there's been all these neonatal deaths at Origins in the past two years.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And as the executive director that worked directly with Gina and Caitlin saying, what? To not know that? I knew of a few, but not that that many had happened in such a short amount of time. All of them were at Origins Dallas. I would hear about them in passing and I was given a little bit of details.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I do remember one of these bursts specifically because several people had access to our cameras, but I'm the main one that knew how to work them. I had them set up.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Yes. Whenever we had one of these fetal demises, I had to check the camera. In an emergency, a midwife is entering things quickly into a chart or even paper charting, and then they have to go back and enter it into maternity neighborhood later.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
So I had to go into the camera and get accurate times of when NICU arrived, when they left, all of those things, so that she could accurately enter it into the chart during this emergency. I believe it was after that incident that Baylor NICU decided to no longer come to Origins Dallas.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Baylor Dallas actually asked us to remove them off of the Origins tour and our website because they didn't want to be affiliated with us.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I was a surrogate for Caitlin Wages in July of 2017 while officing out of origins as a birth photographer. I worked very closely with Gina Thompson and Caitlin Wages during this time.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
There was never any follow-up with how are we going to fix this? Are we going to do any action plan? Are we going to do any round table or anything? We used to sit down with everybody that was at the birth. And if anytime there was a traumatic birth or anything that you needed to basically learn from, you would sit down with everybody that was at the birth. And you would talk about it.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
You would process the birth essentially. And it never really made sense to me why they didn't do that with any of these difficult births or why we weren't coming up with solutions for any of these things. And I did constantly suggest solutions.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
At one point, we even came up with a solution and the midwives were even begging to break up and did smaller teams of two to where clients could pick your team of two midwives. So you're still at origins, but instead of seeing like a team of three or four midwives, you're going to a pair of midwives. Because I think that's where a lot of the things got missed.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
You're getting tossed around three midwives and then you have people filling in for those midwives. It's just chaos all the time. And it makes me so sad that Origins didn't care enough about these mothers or these babies that I, as the executive director, didn't know enough about these mothers or these babies that I don't know their names. We had a mom in the ICU and I didn't know about that.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
That is mind-boggling to know that we had a mom in the ICU while I worked there and I didn't know about it. They sold this, the collective, as well-rested midwives that you always know and you love your team, but that's definitely not what the clients got. The midwives were overworked. If somebody was out sick or had an emergency, the other midwives never wanted to pick up a shift.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I don't blame them. They're exhausted. Gina and Caitlin rarely, rarely ever stepped up. And if they did, it was for like half a day or a few hours. Gina was way better at this than Caitlin. If Caitlin did anything, she wanted to get paid for it. She wanted extra pay. That always drove me crazy.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
The midwives were made to work through their personal emergencies, family emergencies, their own medical emergencies. There are some midwives that were actively working where Gina and Caitlin would not help them while they are having medical emergencies. You can't be a good midwife in that situation. So they actually reached out to Gina and Caitlin for help. And then this is happening.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
2022, August, Caitlin, she had an early birthday party with her son. Gina was there. Our childbirth educator was there, which is one of her best friends. And then our patient advocate. I wasn't invited. I literally gave birth to this child And you didn't think that you should invite me, even though I'm friends with every person here. Like I spend every day with these people.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
They're all sitting by a pool, taking a picture with him. You literally do not give a crap about me. That sealed it in my brain for me. Of all those little moments over the past however many years, everything that had happened, that was the moment that I was like, you do not care one ounce about me.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
In August of 2022, I gave my resignation and Gina and Caitlin rejected my resignation and offered me more money to stay on. Obviously, I wish I would have not taken that and walked away. I actually wrote a letter to them about all of the things that I thought they were doing wrong in their business whenever I put in my resignation.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I read the letter out loud to them sitting in front of them in person.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
It was a big decision. I actually had a dream about being a surrogate. It is something that I had thought about many times. My business partner, who I was doing photography with at the time, and I were moving in to our media room and office upstairs at the Burst Center. Gina and Caitlin were getting the birth center all set up.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
They had brought on a new clinical director for both locations, Darlene. Darlene's daughter was a midwife at Fort Worth, midwife-free. Darlene oversaw everything medical, like clinical-wise. So all the midwives reported to her, but she had no licensure in Texas. in the state of Texas, you have to be a licensed provider to be a clinical director at a birth center. I did not know that then.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Why did they think she was qualified to have this job? Because they were desperate to head. Looking back, I think they pitted us against each other because they would always tell me I needed to call her and work it out. But they would tell me one thing and Darlene another. So triangulation is a narcissistic tactic where they kind of like separate people and pit them against people.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Looking back, I think that they did that a lot. They made me do their dirty work a lot. And then at one point, they tried to tell me I had to change my job responsibilities so that I didn't ever have to see Darlene. And that's whenever I was like, nope, I'm out. I'm putting in my notice. They were like, well, we can't lose you. We're going to make a plan to get rid of Darlene. It was not good.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
They did not get along at all, her and Jen. Because Jen had just been told she could be a clinical director. And then they gave it to Darlene. Nobody at Dallas was happy with her.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Correct. I gave them my resignation letter. And so they were like, OK, we have to get Darlene out of Dallas. They told her, you're only going to work at Fort Worth. And then she said, well, if I'm not going to be at both locations, then I'm quitting, which is what they wanted her to do.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Fast forward, Bree and Darlene now run the Center for Birth and Wellness, which is the old Origins Fort Worth location. Darlene is the director of that location.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
So Gina and Caitlin had all of their students essentially practice once they completed their numbers. I guess once they were graduate midwives is what they called them. What they kind of sold to their staff was that as long as their preceptor was within an hour of them, then they were allowed to do so.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Right. They were waiting to sit for their test and They were submitting their paperwork and going through all of those steps. This is something they've been doing for years. Jen, I think, is unique. I'm not excusing anything that has happened. Jen was given too much responsibility.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And right out of the bat, as a brand new baby midwife, she took on the role as clinical director right after getting her license. Jen basically ran Origins Dallas. She reported to Gina and Caitlin, but she handled the call schedule at Dallas. All of the midwives reported to her. She handled all of the student midwives, even though she had became licensed just recently herself.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I passed Caitlin in the hall and saw that they had set up one of the birth rooms and I said, oh my gosh, if I'm ever a surrogate, I want to deliver at the birth center because it's so beautiful. She stopped and she said, I'm going through files looking for a client that might want to be my surrogate. That sparked the conversation.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Anything that I needed or my admin team needed that related to the midwifery team, we had to go through her. Plus she was going to births. If anybody couldn't find a birth assistant, she had to go. So there was many weeks where Jen was working by my guess, 80 plus hours a week. She would get calls in the middle of the night. She was not sleeping. Why did they think that she could handle this?
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Because she acted like she could handle it. Jen always acted very well put together and like she could handle everything. She was very good at that.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Elizabeth was there. We had a CNN. There was another midwife, Danielle, but she left. There really wasn't a lot of turnover at Dallas, which is so weird to me.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
She was until she couldn't. And unfortunately, we're seeing how that played out. Did Jennifer ever speak to you about any of the babies that she lost? Yes, she talked to me about Marquita some. I heard so many different things about that that I don't remember exactly what Jen said.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I remember hearing about how the assistant midwife at that birth went to the wrong entrance and it obviously caused a slight delay in getting her there to labor and delivery. Thank you. Thank you.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And then a few months later, my husband and myself and Caitlin and her husband, we were all sitting down at dinner, going over logistics and decided to move forward. They had just lost their son and were grieving and we were all hopeful to bring back a little bit of hope and love to their lives.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I have actually blocked out a lot of that because it was pretty traumatic for me. I do remember that it was a lot. We went through psyche vows. We had to do contracts. We each had our own lawyers. We did not go through an agency. We did one set of hormones. I actually had to wean my son early too, which is something that I look back on and I'm a little sad about.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Every round of hormones was brutal. We get to the day of transfer. It was a fresh transfer and we find out that none of the eggs were viable. So that did not work out and I had to abruptly stop the hormones. So that was awful. That was torture on my body. I did not feel comfortable complaining to Caitlin or anything. I felt like, what do you have to complain to her about?
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
What made you decide to speak out? I had watched them screw over so many people before me and even made me be involved in it. So I felt like I was standing up for all of those people that went before me and hadn't been able to stand up for themselves because Gina and Caitlin are very litigious, but I'm not scared of them anymore. If they want to do anything, then let them do it.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
She is devastated of her own accord. And then we did another transfer. So all new hormones start all over again, six months or whatnot later. And then that resulted in her baby that was born in July of 2017. It felt like I was getting good care. I rotated just like they did with their clients.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
So I saw Caitlin for one appointment, then Gina, and then their other midwife that was working with them at the time. I felt like they did a good job during prenatal. I don't feel like anything was off. Caitlin wanted to do massive amounts of blood work. She was overly protective of not even me. It was her son that she was overly protective of.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I think at one point I was taking 36 vitamins per day, but I don't feel like anything was off during pregnancy. There were no red flags for me at all. Caitlin was extremely anxious to meet her son, rightfully so. I was anxious, as any pregnant woman is. She decided she wanted to induce the midwife way, which is stripping membranes, doing the breast pump, all of those things.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I kind of had some hesitations, but no alarm bells going off or anything like that. I was over 39 weeks. She's stripping membranes and I'm doing the breast pump. Finally, she gets me into labor. My contractions have been pretty regular. Nothing was really painful. It gets to later in the day and he keeps putting his hand up above his head and they get him to put his hand down.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
They were not too terribly concerned. Caitlin went to do a cervical check. She's doing cervical checks for her own baby. She feels his nose instead of the back top of his noggin. She doesn't say anything to me. She or the other midwife to feel. And they say, that's a nose. And then the other one, the third person goes in and feels too. And they all agree.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And that's when they start saying, we have to go right now to Texas Health Alliance. That's like two miles down the road. While they're on the phone, I'm asking, can I do hands and knees? Like, is there anything I can do to help? I've been to lots of births. I know that there's stuff you can do to get a baby to turn. They're like, yeah, yeah, you can do that.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
But they're all so preoccupied in their little huddle that they're not paying any attention to me. They're all freaking out about the baby because Caitlin has already lost one child and they can't let her lose another one.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Absolutely. And even looking back, I'm like, the way his hand kept going up in my pelvis and how big my pelvis is, if I had done inversions or anything, we could have gotten him to move. We eventually get in the car and I ride hands and knees, but with my chest to the ground to the hospital. And they have the Doppler and they're breaking out.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I remember them telling me at one point that his neck might break. And then we get there and the OB says, yep, we're going to take you back. I had an emergency cesarean with her son. He was born around 4 a.m., Gina and Caitlin brought him into my hospital room. They got a different room. Well, they brought the entire family, but I was exhausted. I honestly have no recollection of that happening.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I remember it from pictures. That's all. The next morning, around 10, my husband wasn't there. He had gone home to check on the kids, something. Gina and Caitlin come in with the baby and let me know that they're checking out with the baby against medical advice. Because midwives can provide care for babies until six weeks and they didn't feel like they needed to be there. But I was there.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I think that I ended up being able to leave by that night. Maybe I did have to stay. I don't remember. The surrogacy is so blurry to me because I have blocked it out. That is how I survived working with Caitlin. Whenever I look back on that pregnancy, I'm like, wow, that pregnancy wasn't handled properly.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
But it all felt like rainbows and sunshine and butterflies because I was getting all of this attention. My care providers were Caitlin and Gina and then their other midwife partner. That's not right. Why would the mother be my care provider? I have my records pulled up, but these are Origins records. Origins did not keep records of when you're in the hospital.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
They track what's going on at Origins. That's it. Postpartum care at Origins was a two to three day visit, a two week visit, and then a six week visit. We did a two to three day visit at the birth center and Caitlin did a herbal bath afterwards. Let me tell you about the bath. It contains herbs that are supposed to be healing for the mom.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
After giving birth, baby's not supposed to have a bath immediately. But Caitlin used it for a marketing ploy and to use the beauty of the birth center to lure people in to something that it shouldn't have been. 18 months or at least a year later, they still had one more embryo left. I felt like so many eyes were on me and everybody knew there was one embryo left. And I couldn't tell her no.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And we did that transfer. I did blood work for my progesterone at the end of August of 2018. And that resulted in a miscarriage. It was traumatic going through a miscarriage. That was the only miscarriage I've ever had. I think that the miscarriage did slightly change my view of her because she acted like it didn't even happen. And that was bizarre.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I'm miscarrying someone else's baby and they barely acknowledged it. Another thing is Caitlin let all of my medical bills go to collections after the C-section. They were all in my name because I was the patient.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Yes. She finally paid them after they went to collections. My relationship with Caitlin was unhealthy. I laid in Caitlin's bed with her while she cried on the anniversary of her son's death.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
It was. You're always giving them the benefit of the doubt every step of the way. But it was also like a bad marriage. That's the best way that I can describe Origins, where it starts out so great and then slowly it goes downhill. I think about two years in, I was like, Caitlin doesn't give a crap about me. I knew that with my whole being.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
It's kind of that thing where everybody thinks that they're Caitlin's best friend. She wants everybody to like her and she wants to be on the spotlight. You always know when Caitlin's in the building. Caitlin craves attention. I truly think that Gina has a good heart. I've struggled with this whole thing with Gina a lot because I don't feel like anything that has happened has been in Gina's heart.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
But she has gone along with it because she did not want to deal with Caitlin and what it would take to get out of it. being the birth photographer that officed out of there. Something that always bothered us is Caitlin wanted to always take credit for us getting clients and they charged us a crazy amount for rent. But really, they used our photos, our videos for marketing.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
We were called Birth Unscripted. A lot of our videos went crazy viral. The Honest Company, we were in one of their commercials. Caitlin is in the commercial. People found them through our work. We would ask them in the tours, where did you find us? And they'd say, oh, we saw your video. Your video went viral. It's like, well, this is a mutually beneficial relationship. You can't say that it's not.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Caitlin takes credit for everything, always. Caitlin often spout out statistics that I could never find any information on afterwards. She just would say things that often afterwards, Gina and I would look at each other like, where'd she get that one from? In November of 2018, I started working at Origins. I was the office manager from 2018 to March 2021 at Fort Worth only.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And then I was the executive director from March 2021 to January of 2024 only. I would do paperwork. I had access to charts. You have to have them sign that waiver. The document that Kristen's like, I should have never signed that. They've always told me, this is all the stuff that you signed in the hospital. And so I didn't question it, right?
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I'm like, well, I don't know what I signed in the hospital. If I ever do go to the hospital, I never read that stuff anyway. So what do I know?
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
So the way Maternity Neighborhood was handled was that each midwife at hire was given a login. Then Dallas had a main login and Fort Worth had a main login. Maternity Neighborhood had one overall system for both locations that the main logins could toggle between the systems. Only the admin is supposed to have the main login.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Gina and Caitlin chose to put the main login in our password document for everyone to have. I don't remember why this was in there. I feel like it was needed along the way for something, but somehow it ended up staying on there. And every time the password got changed, it was updated on the password document and everyone had access to it. So it got saved on all the computers.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
I am the one that gave everybody logins. I did all the onboarding for everyone. So every single midwife had their own individual login to Maternity Neighborhood and they were told explicitly to use their own login. If they were not using their login, I would tell them repeatedly to use their own login. We also had reports that were run or were supposed to be run by the clinical director
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
And the problem, well, once he finds out about certain things, he does have a verbal confrontation with her, but he rolls over and pees on himself, basically, and he won't stand up to her. And I think his spirit is just so beat that he won't stand up for himself at all.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
And I'm just left here as the auntie who's trying to make sure that her nieces don't go through the same situation that I went through as a child.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
Uh, therapy helped a lot removing myself from the toxic situation. My mom kicked me out when I was 17, um, right after she got out of prison because there was a fight between us on, you know, the vehicle situation after she got out. So I, you know, I had to grow up real fast. I raised my younger sister for the last four years of her life.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
Because it was over 10 years after the fact. So after 10 years, their felony is erased or expunged from their record after seven, I believe.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
So, and they were in the system. So they, they went through the process to do parenting classes and become foster parents and they got custody of the younger two.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
Maybe some advice on how to proceed, because I know my mom's a lost cause for me, given our history. Your dad is too. We don't talk, we're not on speaking terms.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
No, he doesn't. It never affects his actions. And I've convinced him two or three times to leave her. And he's always on board. And I have a big house with a basement that him and the girls can move in with me because I have a 10-year-old too. I mean, I have four kids. And we have plenty of space for them. And I'm like, Dad, just get away. Just get away.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
Every time you do this, this just damages you. It damages your soul. It damages your spirit. It's affecting those girls. And you're teaching them and conditioning them that this is okay behavior. And it's not. And it took me years to figure that out myself.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
So I don't know if I should just wash my dad off and be like, Daddy, I love you. You're my favorite person in the whole world, but I cannot...
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
He's my favorite human being in my entire life.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
Yeah, so I guess that's what I was asking for is just maybe a secondary opinion on looking at this from the outside and telling me I'm doing everything I can the right way and there's no fixing them because they don't want to be fixed.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
You know, I was married before when they were born to my ex-husband and having a new baby ourselves, he refused to let me take the twins in because they were drug addicted. They were in the NICU. And he refused to let me take them in. But what I did is I raised them in the form of daycare until they went to kindergarten.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
Hi there, Dave. I was calling for some advice on how to handle a very financially abusive relationship regarding my mother and father.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
Okay. The basics are my parents are still together and I'm in my 30s. It wouldn't be a big deal for me if it was just my mom and dad. But the problem lies with my parents raising the next generation. They actually raised my sister's twin daughters who are now 10. And I'm terrified that it's going to ruin their upbringing like it kind of did mine.
The Ramsey Show
Small Changes Now Mean Big Wins Later
Um, my mother is financially reckless. I mean, for years, I mean, she did prison time for stealing from her employer when I was 16. Um, once she got out, she took out false loans in my name, my father's name, um, false grants through the state. And she's just been financially reckless on credit cards in her name and my dad's name. And it's just left them in financial ruin.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
My name is Brittany. I'm 39. And my former best friend is waging campaigns to smear my name.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Okay, so it's really, it was like my husband's best friend from growing up. We all went to high school together. So I knew him too. But we've been friends for like 25 years. I would call my brother, my kids would call him their uncle. We've always been close. But since COVID, we became even closer. He lives a few hours away, so he would stay with us for weeks at a time. We travel with him.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
He basically lived at our house up until last summer for like half the time. And last summer, we went on a few trips. And after the last trip, that was a road trip to Vegas for his birthday. He called up my husband and said that he was disappointed with how the trip went. And he's noticed a pattern that he's not happy with and lectured my husband.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
We were in complete shock because we thought the trip was great.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Well, the complaints were that we didn't make his new girlfriend feel special enough in the group. We take too long when we're traveling. We took too long on stops to Vegas. Our babysitter was late. We ruined his birthday. We're too affectionate at concerts, me and my husband. And my husband bonds with me over...
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
their favorite band more than he bonds with him you're married like we're disrespectful towards him okay weird how did you reply um so he called my husband and like lectured him for 13 minutes then basically was like before my husband could answer said i gotta go and hung up then they didn't speak for a few weeks and i was like we gotta
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
call this person he's our he's our family we got to make up and we both called him together and it like didn't really go well because he was like nitpicking about like how much time we like spent like on a stop on the on the way to Vegas things like that like pulling up text receipts and I just kind of got heated and so like that didn't go well then we both like met with him separately to try to like repair one-on-one and there was some progress made and then we like tried to get together to
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
the three of us to continue with that progress and he basically backtracked and said he doesn't trust us to like talk to both of us together he feels like he doesn't have a voice in the relationship and we gang up on him so we've we've like tried like then my husband tried I like stepped out of it and it's just like every time it's just Like we can't really like get to what he's looking for.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
It's not like what his expectations are not attainable. And he wants to control everything about like the communication. Like he won't text or FaceTime or talk on the phone or email. It has to be like one-on-one in person. And it's just taken like such a huge mental toll.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
So eventually it was just too much and it wasn't like going anywhere. He would just like twist things and like not take any accountability for his part in it. So we both like blocked him and said we need a break. And now he's like going around to all our mutual friends and complaining about us. And first it was like kind of like some people we went on a trip with over the summer.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
So like the tighter group. But now it's kind of like extending outward. And everything I've like read and research is like, just don't give him any gas, you know, don't react, don't give him what he wants. But he's starting to like say that we have substance abuse problems, which is where I'm getting really upset and don't know how to handle this anymore.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Like our mutual friends. So like it started with a close group and now he's like getting wider, like with a friend that we're closer with that he's not as close with. He called him like last week.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
I don't know. Like he's, it's not true. Like anything that you would do at a concert, we like would see a lot of live music with him. So he's like, yeah, he's saying that we are out of control or something, but also we haven't like hung out with him for seven months.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Yes. It's like, it is out of character and it, But he also, like, he's a little different. Like, he's never been in love. He fell in love for the first time over the summer. And it didn't work out. And, like, he, I don't know, like, he's saying that he's autistic now. And he has, like, he's an alien. And he doesn't understand.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Like, human emotions. Like, one time when he did take accountability, he, like, said those kinds of things. But...
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
going on or I mean he's definitely different I don't I don't think he got like a formal diagnosis I think he just thinks
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Yeah. I think he probably felt emotions that he's never felt before and didn't like, he's the kind of person that really needs to be in control of every situation. So he felt probably out of control and like blamed it on, slash my husband. Like he also seems to want like complete compliance from my husband without question. So I think it's like a control thing. He feels out of control.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
So we spoke like in September, we were like on our way to like repairing things, but then he like turned and
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Yeah. I mean, it is scary because I'm a professional and we have kids. So like there could be like implications with it. But I think he would have a lot to lose too. So I don't know. Like, but it's just like the more people you're starting to tell, like the more.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
But I don't know who else like maybe isn't telling us, you know?
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Yeah. Just trying to figure out what to do next. I like thought I figured it out with not like blocking him, not giving him any reactions, not giving him gas, but like, it just seems like he's still trying to like take this further. And I don't know what he wants. And I'm willing to do anything to stop the rumors.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
It was definitely to get back to us because he told a friend who he's not super close with and we are, and it wasn't like concern. It was like, here's what they did wrong.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
great because i don't want to like i'm he's a wild card so like any like reach out i don't know how he would react and i don't i would have to be like so sensitive and like specific i don't know as your husband did your husband yeah did your husband reach out to him at all after the rumors that got out or anything like that no we haven't he's still like dming my husband i i think my husband just like
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
unfollowed him maybe not blocked him but like there's still like after he talked to our recent friend last week he like dm'd my husband just like a surface level like message and your husband just ignored it yeah just ignored it i mean at that point is it worth your husband saying like a goodbye like a really like an actual breakup message because it doesn't sound like you guys actually broke up with them it was like the last exchange was like we need space and time
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Yeah. But I mean, like we could, I don't, I'm just scared of like his reaction.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Um, it's just like taking such a heavy, like mental toll just to like get back into that and like deal with him again and hear his response. Like, uh, it's just too much. Yeah.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
We talk about it every single day since it happened. We think about it, like, you know, we cry still. Like, it's, it, like, fucked us up. We already, like, tried everything, I feel. Like, really, truly. Yeah, I, like, am totally on board with being done done. The only thing, like, I was wondering if it, like, I, because he, like, has a weird thing about my husband.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
I think it would even be less dramatic if I was the one to reach out to him because he just, like, isn't as comfortable with me. I don't know. So I was just wondering if I should reach out and be like, sorry for any hurt we've caused, like, but please don't spread those rumors anymore. It's dangerous.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
There are things that we've said, like if he repaired his trust with me,
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
And actually send it. Sometimes you write this just to get it out.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
The good news is... We're just at different stages, I guess.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Like, please don't approach us or is that too aggressive? Please don't reach out. I'm just trying to figure out the boundaries because we will see them in public.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
I don't think we can't be in each other's lives. Yeah.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Just like, okay. Yeah. I asked that question.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Because it's inconvenient for them. What is their position? We all think it's crazy. Don't they think his behavior is crazy? We can't throw away 25 years of history.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Like, you know, he's different and like just trying to like present his perspective and I don't know. Like they got to him for, he got to them first because we consciously decided not to involve our friends. So he got to them first and then we're just here like trying to defend ourselves. And there, I mean, at first they were like, do we need to be worried about you?
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Or are you like, do you like have a problem? Like with substance abuse? We're like, no. Like, so I mean, he kind of, they're just, we just have to, be on the defense with all these details he's told them that are
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
Yeah. You know, they'll figure it out. We have more friends.
The Viall Files
E901 Ask Nick - My Boyfriend's Search History
I will. I will. All right. Thank you so much. I love your insight. So I appreciate your time.
Watch What Crappens
#2682 RHOSLCS5E15 + Sold on SLC Part One: For The Record
I heard you crying last night and throwing up and possibly slitting something.
Watch What Crappens
#2682 RHOSLCS5E15 + Sold on SLC Part One: For The Record
It's time for a commercial. It's time for a Crappin's commercial.
Watch What Crappens
#2682 RHOSLCS5E15 + Sold on SLC Part One: For The Record
Okay, well, if you would shut the fuck up, we can tell you what happened, Lisa.
Watch What Crappens
#2682 RHOSLCS5E15 + Sold on SLC Part One: For The Record
Ding, ding, ding. Jared likes lattes. I have an announcement. Jared likes lattes.
Watch What Crappens
#2721 RHOSLC S5E19: Bye Body Count Hair - Live from SLC
BRITTANY BATEMAN Hi, guys. Thank you so much. Oh, my god. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much. Have you ever seen the wolf cry to the blue corn moon?
Watch What Crappens
#2721 RHOSLC S5E19: Bye Body Count Hair - Live from SLC
But then like when her marriage was talked about it,
Watch What Crappens
#2721 RHOSLC S5E19: Bye Body Count Hair - Live from SLC
Which one was it? All of the above.
Watch What Crappens
#2721 RHOSLC S5E19: Bye Body Count Hair - Live from SLC
Wait, Jen Shah was in the prison line? That's my jewelry.
Watch What Crappens
#2721 RHOSLC S5E19: Bye Body Count Hair - Live from SLC
But I stopped the reckless. Okay, wait, stay, wait.
Watch What Crappens
#2721 RHOSLC S5E19: Bye Body Count Hair - Live from SLC
Good night, everyone. Opa! Opa!