Off The Hook
Off The Hook
From Boston Streets to Redemption with Jim Wahlberg
Imagine overcoming addiction and finding redemption in the most unexpected ways. This episode features the inspiring Jim Wahlberg, brother to Donnie and Mark Wahlberg,shares his journey from the streets of Boston to becoming an advocate for understanding God's love and mercy. He introduces his compelling book, "The Big Hustle: A Boston Street Kid's Story of Addiction and Redemption," and reflects on the impact of strong maternal figures in shaping his life.
The conversation then shifts to the critical role of the bail industry in offering support during some of the darkest times for families. By partnering with Evoke Wellness, a nationwide addiction treatment and mental health facility, we explore how providing resources and encouragement can lead to transformative changes. A powerful success story highlights the impact of compassion and emphasizes why leveraging these moments can make a real difference. Essential contact information for Evoke Wellness is shared to ensure listeners have the tools they need to assist others seeking help.
We also dive into the lighter side of our work with stories from a lively convention, featuring the ever-entertaining Charlie Chase from Georgia. Charlie shares his adventures from memorable bail recoveries to duck hunting escapades, blending humor with heartfelt camaraderie. The episode wraps up with a discussion on promoting wellness and recovery within the justice system, highlighting the crucial role of support systems and teamwork in aiding addiction recovery. Join us for an episode filled with hope, humor, and practical insights on making a difference in the lives of those around us.
If you have any questions or comments email us at OTHBailbonds@gmail.com
when people are released from jail, they have the responsibility to appear in court, but some of these people choose to go on the run they go back home to mommy and that is when these guys come into the picture. So sit back and listen to the off the Hook podcast with Chad and Rob.
Speaker 3:Very fine people on both sides.
Speaker 1:These are real stories, but the names have been changed.
Speaker 3:See what we did there.
Speaker 2:What's going on, guys? I'm Chad and I'm Rob. Oh shit, I'm Rob. This is Chad. We've been at this all day and we got a special guest with us tonight. I'm excited to have Mr Jim Wahlberg. Thank you, sir, for coming on thank you for having me boys we just listened to your testimony in the lobby there and it was absolutely amazing great story.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much. I appreciate that and one thing that I noticed that it's kind of you to say.
Speaker 2:And one thing that I noticed that we both have in common is I was raised by my grandparents old-fashioned way, you know. I got the tar beat out of me but we were poor as dirt and didn't have much. But my grandma stayed in my butt and it sounds like your mother did the same thing for you.
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, my mother was a strong, strong woman. She had nine children and she couldn't afford to take her eye off the ball, as they say.
Speaker 2:Man, I'm so excited that you took the time to come talk to us and see us today. We thank you for coming. And your book? Let's tell everybody about your book. It's called the.
Speaker 4:Big Hustle, a Boston Street Kids story of addiction and redemption, and it is available on Amazon, but I do prefer you buy it on OurSundayVisitorBookscom. Okay, they're a faith publisher and I'd rather see them get the money, okay.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I grew up in a small Southern Baptist church and, like you said, fear is what I saw growing up. But as I got older it changed.
Speaker 4:It's a terrible thing to do. I mean, a healthy fear of God is okay. It really is right. We should all have a healthy fear of meeting our maker when our time comes right and have we done enough and have we done it right. But making a kid petrified of God is not a good plan, right? I needed to know that God loved me and that he was merciful towards me and wanted the best for me. I needed that information and nobody gave it to me.
Speaker 2:It's funny how God's blessings happen. So yesterday we flew in, but the day before I checked in in they asked me if I want to upgrade my flight. I said, yeah, sure, I'll upgrade that flight from charlotte to here. So I said, okay, cool, I'll do it. And lo and behold, when I sat down beside this guy, he had a mask on and he was an older gentleman, he was telly, was tall, and he started talking to me and he said said well, he goes. You know God loves you. I was like man, I appreciate that man, I like it. Awesome. Come to find out he was Jimmy Buffett's main security guard for 37 years and he told me all kinds of stories about God blessing him, told me I hope God bless you, spread the love.
Speaker 2:So that's what you know, that's what I got out of it.
Speaker 4:That was worth the $30 upgrade, for sure, and that wasn't an accident. I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in God, incidents, and I feel like that's part of the plan for you. Right, yeah. And too many times we don't take the opportunity or we don't seize the moment. When somebody says something to us, we go yeah, right, yeah. And too many times we don't take the opportunity or we don't seize the moment, right when somebody says something to us, we go yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, and we move on. But I want to talk about this event, I want to talk about this industry, just for a second.
Speaker 2:Yes, go ahead.
Speaker 4:Because what I talked about today is because I couldn't figure out. Why am I here, why am I talking to this particular group of people? And really, what God put on my heart is is that the folks in this industry are in a very unique position. Right, they are meeting people in their darkest hour. Right, and they're meeting families and their children or their loved ones are in jail and they're contemplating putting up whatever it is that they have to get them out, right, and and this is the time and time again thing for them and they're suffering from addiction or they're suffering from mental illness, and they're really in a unique position because they have a leverage position, because they have a leverage, and that leverage is I'm going to put up this money so that you can get out of prison, but you're going to commit to me that you're going to do something right now about your problem. Right, you're going to go to treatment for your addiction. You're going to go to treatment for your mental illness, and I happen to be in that space, and so we have partnered with this organization to be a resource for them.
Speaker 4:Right, we're a nationwide addiction treatment and mental health facilities and we want to help you in that moment and my message to the folks in the bail industry was you're in this unique position. Don't miss this opportunity to really be of service to another human being. You're there at that moment. You can help that family understand their leverage and help them to understand that maybe, rather than throwing your money away, we can get your son or daughter or your loved one some real help as sort of a condition of this opportunity exactly, we hear that a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a, it's a conditional thing and we and we've actually we've got a story of a girl that I've known for a while and she got bad on meth and we helped her out and actually k Kay's in the building somewhere. She helped too when she got out we were helping her get a job and showing her love and help. It was a good story because now she's a stand-up comedian, she's doing a wonderful job and she's actually doing things. It's good to see us reaching out and helping people and with this organization, this is just another tool in our arsenal to help people Right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, if I can, I'd love to just give out some information, a tool for people. Right, Our company is Evoke Wellness. Evoke Wellness is an addiction treatment and mental health facilities across the country. We can service anybody in the country, right, we are fully licensed, we're fully insured, we take all insurances. We take people hey, when I say it, we take people with no insurance, no resources, because that's who we are in our hearts.
Speaker 4:We're all people that have suffered either directly or indirectly from addiction, and so I encourage you to go to evokewellnesscom. I encourage you to call us at 833-819-6066. I'm going to go one better 813-819-6066. I'm going to go one better. We have one of our directors here and I'm going to give you his cell phone number, because I'm that guy right, His name is Louis Pompeo and Louis' cell phone number is 561-424-6077. Write it down. We all know somebody suffering from addiction and mental illness. We all do, Every one of us. This thing does not discriminate. Every family is just. You know, some are riddled with it and some are just experiencing it for the first time.
Speaker 2:I think every family has had some type of drug alcohol addiction affect their family. It has for me, absolutely. It has. For Chad, I got a son that's 15. I've raised by myself since he was born because of it, and you know what. I don't look back in the past. You know saying, oh, poor, poor me. I just look forward, keep your head down, keep moving, and this is the inspiration we want to give to anybody and everybody. If you need help, they have it, it's right here. Contact them. I gave you a minute. It's now 10. All right, thank you brothers.
Speaker 4:God bless you guys and listen folks. Don't miss your opportunity to serve another. Yes, sir, god bless you Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Mr Wahlberg.
Speaker 4:Send me this episode.
Speaker 2:Absolutely will. Thank you very much, mr Wahlberg. This is awesome. Mr Wahlberg is my daddy. Look, I'm from the south. I'm from the south, mr Wahlberg. Chad, sit on down. Let's get somebody else. Let's try to get Charlie over here.
Speaker 2:Come here, charlie down, let's get somebody else yeah let's try to get charlie over here. Come here, charlie. We're doing an actual this, we're doing an actual episode, so we're gonna get you up here and talk. Okay, well, I'll entertain while everybody. Well, that was amazing guys. All right, so this is what we're going to do.
Speaker 5:Same topic.
Speaker 2:Same topic? Yep, same topic. That's fine. So what we're going to do is, of course, you know that we're helping out our district attorney in our jurisdiction there in North Carolina. We're actually going to give him this evoke wellness information and we're going to try to work something out with the district attorney. He's the assistant district attorney now. Hopefully he'll be our district attorney in November, mr Jason Smith, which we'll have him on also very soon. So I'm going to give this information to him so we can help people in our community, because we have to, because if we don't help each other out, guess what? We don't all succeed. That's fine, keep going. I'm keeping the episode going. Yeah, yeah, we're just getting everybody.
Speaker 2:There's a lot going on around here. Guys, if you can't hear already, let me turn some microphones off. So here we go, there we go. It's a lot better on my ears. I don't know if you guys can hear, but I can hear. So this convention has been absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:We're going to have Mr Charlie Chase up next. He's coming. Yeah, charlie Charlie's coming. And yeah, charlie Charlie's out of Georgia. Georgia is a respective state for Bell, that's for sure, and especially Charlie Charlie's been in it for a while. We've helped him. He's helped us. We're currently working on some stuff with him right now, and he's an avid hunter, like myself. You know I'm a duck hunter, so is he he likes. He likes shooting, shooting ducks and deer and coyote, same as me. God, it's so fun, ain't it? So, charlie, we'll get Charlie ready for you whenever you are. Come on over and sit down, sir. All right, we're ready for you whenever you are. Come on over and sit down, sir. All right, just put right here in the middle and put your headphones on and you can start talking. I'll introduce you to everybody. What's going on, everybody, all right. So here we go. This is Mr Charlie Chase out of Georgia. Charlie, tell them where you're from and what you do out there.
Speaker 5:Hello everybody. My name is Charlie Chase and I'm from Georgia, bear Recovery Associates, good friends with my buddy here, robert Allen. We go way back and we've actually done some work together, so I'm proud to be here and enjoy the day.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know what Charlie? Tell them that funny. We got a funny story with Charlie here. It was not too long ago. You went and got somebody for me, or it was for somebody else. Yes, sir.
Speaker 5:Yes sir, absolutely. I actually got to go to my old stomping grounds. This guy skipped bail in New York and Robert asked me to find him and he was hiding at Fort Benning, georgia, my old stomping ground. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was fun. And Charlie, when are we going hunting man? That's what I want.
Speaker 5:Well, what would you like to hunt? We can go into any time.
Speaker 2:Oh, we can hunt, hell, we can hunt people. Deer, coyote, duck I like duck though.
Speaker 5:Well, I think what we should do is get back into freelancing in the Canadian prairie. We'll just go up there right around the prairie and shoot waterfowl for a while.
Speaker 2:I am down. Hopefully my dog wants to get out of the bed and get away from mommy for a minute to come hunting with us. That would be fun.
Speaker 5:If you take your dog there, your dog will hate you, man. It will look at you and it will tell you I'm tired of the cold water and the ice and the snow and you've made me pick up all these birds and I'm just going to go home and lay on the couch. I'm not doing it, no more.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know what you know. It's fun For you people out there who don't hunt, it's an experience where you get to. It's an experience where you get to. It's more of the, just a camaraderie between all your friends and telling stories. You know, joking around picking on each other because, you know, not everybody shoots a duck that comes by Well you do need to be able to shoot a shotgun relatively well.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, you do, because they able to shoot a shotgun relatively well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, you do, because they fly pretty fast. So get off of the hunting duck for a minute. What is your best story of getting somebody?
Speaker 5:Well, I've got several pretty good stories about getting somebody. I'd say one of my all-time favorite stories is the day one of my head guys and another business partner of mine. We went to pick a lady up, and so we pick her up and she says you know, I just can't believe that my co-signer wants me to go back to jail. She says you know, I've been doing these strange things with him and his friends and I really like doing that. I just didn't want to do it today, and so the guy wanted to come off her bond.
Speaker 2:What did it involve? Handcuffs.
Speaker 5:You may have some listeners on here under the age of 18.
Speaker 3:We actually say it's a parental discretion of ours.
Speaker 5:So you can say whatever Well she didn't want to do that type of stuff with him. But we were riding down the road and she turns around and looks at my business partner and she says, man, I'm going to do this for you right now, good and hard, if you'll just let me go. So my guy Todd he's keeping a straight face driving the car. He says, yeah, I'm at work and I can't do that. So she turns around and offers the same thing to me. Normally I don't lie to people, but I did lie to her that day. I said, well, you know the guy up front, todd and I we work together but we're not really good friends and we're trying to compete for a job promotion and if I take you up on that offer, he's going to snitch me out to the boss and I won't get that promotion.
Speaker 3:So we just had to let her give other people that offer, we weren't taking that day.
Speaker 2:So, Charlie, what do you do for DAVA?
Speaker 5:I'm their vice president and pretty much I'll go anywhere that I'm needed, anything that's in the better benefit of bail, bail agents and recovery agents, especially if I need to go somewhere. If it's in with my power and ability to do it, I will go. Do that for our industry.
Speaker 2:And Charlie ain't no joke. Now, charlie will. He showed me some pictures. Oh, I got oh nothing. Chad, tell them.
Speaker 3:You talking about the shotgun shells.
Speaker 2:All right, so he's got this ammo right. He's like here, try this out, man this has been years ago now.
Speaker 2:So I I take a big old. He said he mails me a big old box of this shit, right, and I'm like, all right, cool, I can't wait to use it. I'm racking shotguns up right and for one is I I've, I can't. I've shot a lot of people with it. And there's one is me and Chad were after a guy. He was running away. I'm unloading this shotgun. It's a Kel-Tec so it's got like 14 shots in it. I'm unloading on this dude and he's like ow, ow and he was kind of far away. So some of them were hitting him, some of them weren't. It was bouncing off, but man, it made him think twice. And then Chad went after A guy.
Speaker 3:Not too long ago he went up to a guy. Yeah yeah, it was outside Jacksonville. The guy was, he had a standoff in the backyard and the guy said I'm not going anywhere. And I said you are.
Speaker 5:And he.
Speaker 3:I mean I gotta give him credit. We shot him at Maybe seven. I mean I got to give him credit. We shot him at maybe seven, eight feet away and hit him in the arm and he swolled up on the side of his arm like a goose egg and it broke the skin a little bit. He was bleeding. But he had a change of heart and decided he was going to go with us that day. So they're effective.
Speaker 5:Well, that's really good news, because it's environmentally friendly, it's lid-free.
Speaker 1:Right, it is. It's lid-free for all those who might worry about it.
Speaker 5:And it's fairly accurate and nothing solves problems. Quite like a shotgun.
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't. Especially when it sounds like boom, it kind of shocks you.
Speaker 5:Well, you know, it was something that I kind of got playing around with. The material was actually going to be used in something else, and I'm a shotgun shooter and I'm just kind of like, let's shoot this in a shotgun. And it does fairly well. The only problem with it is it's really going to be for law enforcement corrections or, you know, bail recovery agents. It's not something that most people keep in their house, but it does work well and it's environmentally friendly.
Speaker 5:That's what I like to point out to all my liberal friends who get worried about things, or the anti-gun crowd. You know it's environmentally friendly, it's good stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm glad you made it, because I enjoy shooting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the opportunity to actually do it Boy if you don't stop him, we'll shoot.
Speaker 2:Okay, he did stop Stokes, give him a second.
Speaker 5:Well, for anybody listening out there, if you want to look at it, it's called Stand Down and it's manufactured by Bird Industries. You can look it up on the internet Bird Industries Stand Down. And for anybody in law enforcement or corrections that's watching this, it's coming out in the 40mm tape and the 40mm's a beast, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Look over there.
Speaker 5:Robert's getting excited. He's excited about it.
Speaker 2:What are you trying to take down, brother?
Speaker 5:He's excited about a 12 gauge round. The bigger one is pretty good yeah.
Speaker 2:Alright, so we just got out of a meeting. Well, Mr Wahlberg's testimony. So what did you think about it?
Speaker 5:Well, I thought Mr Wahlberg's story is an excellent story. I always like good stories. In the bail industry, a lot of people that I deal with have drug and alcohol issues. I'm very fortunate that I don't drink anymore. My first experience with the bonding business was as the client. I was an everyday drinker for 16 years. I hadn't had anything to drink in 23. So his message should resonate with people in our industry. Our clients aren't all bad people. Sometimes you can make a bad decision if you're under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and some people do better with it than others. But you should never be afraid to extend help or the opportunity for help to anybody that you come in contact with with these problems.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said earlier, this Evoke Wellness that he's got going on Right. I said it earlier, before Chad sat me down and you got down here, that we were trying to help an ADA in our district become the new district attorney, and he's going to be on a podcast here very soon and I'm thinking about approaching him with this and saying, hey, look, you know, we can help people. Yes, there's consequences for your actions, but hey, let's help people. If we can help people, if we can help each other, we'll all succeed. If not, we're all going to fail.
Speaker 5:And helping people is really good and the key to it really is the person has to desire or want help and rock bottom. That's right, yeah, and yeah, rock bottom's a solid foundation to build on. Uh, my claim to fame's. You know, I just don't take pain as well as some people. Everybody's threshold is different. So before I kind of ended up seriously either in jail or prison or dead or crippled or something, the pain in my life got to be enough where I decided to change what I was doing.
Speaker 5:And when I speak about pain, they're all different types of pain. You have emotional pain, physical pain, financial pain and all of the things that are unpleasant and painful. When we get to talking about these things, those tools really need to be used because when the pain gets great enough, you're going to change what you're doing right. So my particular level of pain I'm kind of a slow learner. I had to go down that road several times before it got down to the point where I got tired of doing it. And we could take Robert here, and Robert's a go-getter and he's a tough guy. The man's a man. His level for pain might be greater than mine and so he might have to do it longer before the pain gets great enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I've been married a few times, so that helps.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's a good training area. I'm telling you, man, absolutely, if man, absolutely, if you want somebody, if you need me to teach you about red flags, I'm good on it, I've learned. But uh, yeah, you know, and, and really with some of that, you know it's not for me to decide if somebody has a drug or alcohol problem. But in the bail industry, you know, it's the fourth or fifth time I'm bonding you out and there's a common denominator like you and alcohol, you and drugs, you and alcohol and drugs, and every single time those two ingredients are in that equation, you're going to have to remove one of them unless you want it to happen again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's funny, you know, we go to the jail and get these people out and I always kind of jokingly say I said none of these stories ever start with I was eating a salad and I decided to slap the woman. It's always alcohol or something.
Speaker 2:And you know. If we can help promote this evoked wellness, I'm all down for it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think we should, you know, promote treatment and help for people and especially those that want it Right, and a lot of times, you know, I'm a big fan of alcoholic synopsis, this old 12, this original 12-step program and it's used in places like Eboke Wellness and the other treatment facilities. Right, they all have the 12-step program and some of them are tailored to drugs and some of them are tailored to alcohol, but the 12-step program with those principles works.
Speaker 2:I can't hear. I've got so many people talking over us. Yes, I, charlie, name your bail company and where you're out of. I don't think you've done that for us yet. Okay.
Speaker 5:I own and operate All-American Bail Bonds and my main office is in Winder Georgia. I probably bond and I'd have to sit down and count them up for sure but about 12 or 13 different Georgia counties. I bond in Northeast Georgia primarily, and Southeast Georgia, and I also own the Georgia Bail Recovery Associates with my business partner, john Payne, and I also own an ankle monitoring company with Todd Harris, my partner there. So regardless of where it happens or what we need to do to help people, we can fill that void. You know, if a judge says, hey, we'll let you out of jail, but you know you absolutely have to have an ankle monitor, we'll take care of that. We'll take care of that for anybody, even our competitors.
Speaker 5:If somebody else is bottling a guy out and they have to have an ankle monitor and they don't have that capability, we're happy to put that on or work with any bondsman anywhere. We try to do that. We try to extend the hand of brotherly love and help people in our industry, no matter where they're at. Kind of like my relationship with Robert here. We do each other favors in different states.
Speaker 2:Yes, we have. We have been all over the US capturing criminals and putting them back and helping people. It's been a very good relationship over the many years it is.
Speaker 5:You know, I'm kind of one of these people, whether it's recovery, bail anything. You know, if you try to be a team player, I always try to be a team player. I just want to be the dumbest guy on the team.
Speaker 2:I can see that.
Speaker 5:You know, if I'm the dumbest guy on the team, the team's probably going to do pretty good, you know? I mean if I'm the dumbest guy on the team the team's probably going to do pretty good. If I'm the best we have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we might not do too well, if I'm the best you know Well, so that's going to be. We're going to finish up this episode, but we just want to say thank you to Charlie, the Vice President of NABA and the owner of All American Bellbonding out of Georgia. We thank you again for coming on and we thank you. It's good seeing you again man, I've loved it, man. I've loved catching up with you. Let's get that Canadian trip lined up.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we'll get the Canadian trip lined up. Maybe we'll you know'll try to get some other bondsmen that we don't know to go with us. Kind of like a retreat. I'm down. It's great fun. It's great fun.
Speaker 2:I'm down.
Speaker 5:It is.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you very much again and until next time, guys. Thank you for tuning in. Like I said, we are in Pensacola Beach, Florida, at the moment and we're going to continue. We're going to be doing some live stuff. So thank you again. Chad, you want to?
Speaker 3:say anything, man, there's a lot going on, man, I don't have a lot left at this moment.
Speaker 2:I know, man, we've been going and going hard, haven't we?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but always a good time, right, right, always a good time it's fun to see all these people that we're friends with on Facebook and you see them, see the things they're doing, but to see them is good in person.
Speaker 2:So we're having a good time. I can't wait. I'm going to go play with the band tonight, so that's going to be fun, some watermelon crawl by some Tracy Byrds. Yeah, you like that.
Speaker 5:Listen. If it's musical, I just can't do it. I'll just listen. Yeah, they wouldn't even let me be in a chorus in middle school, you know they just told me not to.
Speaker 2:Hey, all you got to do is stand in front of us and bop. Okay, yeah, I could probably do that, man. That's all you got to do. That's all All right.
Speaker 3:And I'm Chad.
Speaker 2:Let's see you later.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Off the Hook with Chad and Rob. We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate and review, and be sure to follow us for notifications for another exciting episode. But in the meantime, you can go to our website at wwwoffthehookbillcom to see more. Wwwoffthehookbillcom to see more. So until next time, stay out of trouble, or it'll be you that needs to get off the hook. See you soon.