Safety Video Transcript
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[00:00:00] Justin: Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Phones2Freedom podcast. I'm your host, Justin Frye and on this show, I, Along with the people I interview share tips, tricks, and strategies to help you start and grow your phone flipping business, I phone flip full-time, and I interview people from all over the phone niche, like flippers, mobile repair, shop owners, wholesalers, and everything in between.
[00:00:47] Lets talk about safety. Okay? I've heard of a few stories recently of people getting robbed. [00:01:00] And so we need to figure out why that is and what we can do to help prevent that from happening in the future. Okay? Or, atleast do what we can to try to prevent it. Okay. So first off, why is it happening? A little more prevalently?
[00:01:15] So the cops, small town cops and stuff, they just don't seem to care. Okay. I don't know if they're just so understaffed or they know the courts aren't going to do anything or what, but it seems like if you get robbed for, you know, a thousand bucks or less or an iPhone or something, they just don't care. They'll come out. They'll do the report. And then their investigation just never seems to bring anything up. So I don't know if people just know that or what. So, and then the next thing is inflation. Inflation is just out of control right now. It is all time high historic highs and, so I think people are just trying to put food on the table, trying to feed their kids, [00:02:00] trying to feed their drug addiction, whatever it is, inflation is hurting that and causing issues.
[00:02:08] And then the last thing is the courts, you know, for the people that are getting arrested or getting tried, the courts just seem to give them a little pat on the wrist, a little, little slap on the butt and carry on you know, here's your $50 in bail. Good luck. We'll see you. And then it just gets kicked down the road. Nothing ever happens.
[00:02:27] And people are picking up on that. So they just don't care. They're they're going for it and trying it. So. I wanted to read, I wanted to read the post from yesterday and I'm not going to put any names to the person for their privacy. But if you haven't seen it I just want to read it, read it so that you can know what I read and, and let me know how that makes you feel because everybody needs to go home at the end of the day.
[00:02:55] So the post goes, today I got robbed of [00:03:00] $2,650. I want to share this story, not because I want you to feel sorry for me or to send me nice comments. I want to share with you to warn you, and hopefully everyone here in this group can learn from my experience. We all hear it from the group that someone was involved in a robbery or someone had a gun to their head. I unfortunately never lived. I was stupid and reckless, and I allowed myself to be comfortable with this individual. Keep in mind, this individual was a regular customer. Someone who has sold me many devices before, however, today he decided that he was going to steal my money and threaten me. I was parked right in front of Starbucks, in my car with this person next to me in my passenger seat.
[00:03:57] That was my first mistake. [00:04:00] I usually never allow anyone in the passenger seat, this time it was the end of the day. I was tired and didn't want to step out and it cost me my money and possibly my life. Second major mistake. The money was right next to me in the cup holder. And he saw it as an opportunity to quickly steal it away. And when I grabbed a hold of his shirt, which was ripping off, he told these words, don't, f-ing touch me. Trust me, you don't want to do this. And he had a bag on him, which I wouldn't be surprised if there was a gun in there or in his pocket. Unfortunately for me, I am unarmed. First thought to my head is this person has a gun on them. Of course I was furious. I wanted to chase him, but my life is worth more than $2,650. This was a learning lesson [00:05:00] for me, of course, from now on indoor meetings only. I hope everyone here can read this and learn from my mistake. It doesn't matter how much a person has sold you before. How often you have seen them. There are no friends in this business. People will turn on you in a second, stay safe.
[00:05:24] If you're married, have kids, a family, anything that that's kinda painful to read. You know what I mean? It just, it's hard to read because while we all want to make money and we all want to provide for our family, the biggest thing is, is we want to go home to our family. Okay? And so that's just, that's rough, you know, and, and, we gotta, we gotta talk about things to do differently. [00:06:00] Okay? So he, like he said, the first mistake he made, was he less money in his car. I would never, ever, ever in a million years let somebody in my car now, you know, he obviously thought this person was trustworthy. And just felt comfortable with it. And they caught him slipping, you know, I'm not throwing shade at him or nothing like that. I mean, he felt comfortable. He went with his gut, he felt good. And it, you know, it burned him. So, you know, a lot of people prefer to me inside a location like police department, Starbucks, McDonald's, you know, places like that. I personally meet outside. I meet people with my kids. But there are certain things you can do to make the situation much more likely to go smooth and not get robbed. Okay? The place that I meet it's at a gas station. It's at the middle of a big intersection. It's one of those stores that's [00:07:00] busy, but it's not so busy that you can get lost in the hustle and bustle. Okay? So there's, there's constantly people coming and going, but it's not like a, you know, black Friday where you could just get hammered and there's so many people, you just, you wouldn't catch it. I park right in the middle or right in front of the front door. And there's cameras all over the place. Not saying that that always helps, but there's cameras all over the place. And then a lot of times there is a city cop that also sits there because it's kind of like a central location. And he's not sitting there because it's a bad crime. He's just sitting there because he can go here or there, or wherever quickly. And that's a place that he can sit. Okay?
[00:07:46] And like I said, I'll take my kids to a lot of my pickups. And because of that, something I always say to my people is, WE will see you at four o'clock. And so that does you know, that, that lets them know, Hey, [00:08:00] it's going to be more than just me in the car. So, if you're going to try something, you might want to think about it twice. Cause it's not just going to be me, be me by myself alone. Okay? And I think that that messes with people psychologically and, and kinda deters them unless they're just super desperate, you know, that's not always, fail-proof.
[00:08:22] Another thing you can do is take the exact amount of cash that you need for the deal. So if you're going to buy, you know, a I don't know, I phone 11 and you're buying it for $200. You need to take $200. Okay? And then take increments of twenties. And the reason I say that is because if you do get robbed, you want it to be for as little cash as possible. Okay? So try to leave your cash at home, if you can. And then, you know, take increments of twenties because if you get there and it's not as described, you can deduct [00:09:00] in increments of 20. Okay? And then you can leave the rest in your pocket and you have exact change. This prevents you from them getting frustrated with the deal that you don't have a correct change, but it also prevents you from having to leave what you're doing and go into the store and go make change. Okay?
[00:09:21] The next thing is don't get comfortable with sellers, especially repeat in the case of this story, this was a guy that, or a person that he's been dealing with for quite some time that brings him sealed new inbox, phones, and whatever your opinion of you know, buying sealed new inbox is, is, there's a way that that person is getting those phones. Okay? And I'll just leave it at that. And typically the person that's getting those phones is probably not going to be the most trustworthy, [00:10:00] reliable person. And I'll just leave it at that. Okay? If you're getting repeats all the time with nice new stuff, you have to wonder how they're getting it. Okay? And these people, they don't care about you. They don't care about your safety. They care about getting as much money as they can at the time. And if they're having a new in box stuff consistently, they've got somebody else that they can sell to. Okay. So if they can get you for a thousand bucks or 2000 bucks right there, and then turn around and then go sell those phones to somebody else, that's what they're going to do. If the opportunity you know, is there, if it's available, you know what I mean?
[00:10:44] The next thing is, is, like I said earlier, you know, meet in a good place. But more importantly don't ever go to anybody's house. Okay. Don't be meeting at an apartment complex if they don't have a car, that's their problem. Okay? They need to figure it out. [00:11:00] If they need the money and they're legit, they will figure out a way to get a friend to come bring them five, you know, five or 10 bucks in gas to go sell the phone, whatever it is. Don't be meeting in an apartment complex. A lot of these places are big. A lot of buildings around them, trees, bushes, alleyways, stairwells, a lot of places to hide. And so I've heard of a lot of people getting robbed in apartment complexes, stay away. Okay? And, and part of that is you need to try to always decide where you're meeting. Okay. I understand that if you're doing a reach out method, That you may not always get to choose the exact location, but if you can, whenever they say a place, say, okay, well how about here? Because it's better lighting or whatever, you know, that makes them feel comfortable and it makes you feel comfortable. Don't ever be saying, okay, yeah, I'll meet you in this alleyway or something crazy like that. Okay? [00:12:00] The money's not worth it, even if you're brand new. And I understand you're trying to get that cat. It's not worth it. Okay? It's not worth it.
[00:12:11] It looks like I got a comment here. Let's see. I mean the shopping center sites move transaction. It's a safe public shopping center with cameras and security present all the time. Yeah. So yeah, that's, that's exactly what I do. It lets them know that. This is not the place to try something.
[00:12:28] But you know, most of these people are not out to get you nine out of 10 people that you meet are there to just get their money, get paid and hope that you're not the one trying to scam or Rob them. So whenever you tell them things you know, like in the comment, safe public shopping center, where there's cameras, that also tells them, Hey, this dude, or a woman is not looking to scam me, and it's going to be a safe transaction. Okay?
[00:12:56] Let's see. Let's see extra [00:13:00] devices, somebody commented in the group that they had also taken extra devices with them. I guess to, give them a buffet of available devices that they could purchase. And I think they got away with all of them. And so we don't want to be flashing the extra stuff that we have. Okay? If you get somewhere and they say something like, Hey, what do you know, do you, do you sell iPads? Do you sell Mac books? And you're like, yeah, you know, I've got this and this you know, if you're interested, I can run home and grab it or whatever. You don't want to have that stuff on you. Okay?
[00:13:36] Now this one, may ruffle some feathers, but you've got a profile people. Okay? And I know in this, you know, political climate and, and what you can say, and can't say is, is one thing, but you need to be getting on their Facebook profile, their Instagram account, whatever it is that they use to [00:14:00] reach out to you and you need to be profiling this person, okay? You need to vet them. You need to look at their profile, you know, are they, are they, you know, this, this person that looks untrustworthy, have they, are they, do they have pictures of drugs and partying and, and you know, this and that? Do they have pictures of them with stacks of cash, guns? You know, just all these types of red flags.
[00:14:29] That's what we're looking for. Red flags. If they got the red flags, then you need to make the decision whether you're going to meet them, or you're not. If you are going to meet them, you need to make sure you're meeting them inside. Say at the police department or something like that. If they're legit, they're going to come meet you and it's going to be good if they're not going to be like, nah, I'm not meeting there. You know, I'm not, I'm not meeting there. And so they just saw themselves out of the conversation, which is what we want. Okay?
[00:14:56] So some of the other red flags could be, you know, fake [00:15:00] names, you know, or some kind of a nickname, something like that, no profile picture, a fresh account, you know, things like that, that stuff you've gotta be looking for. One thing I also did. Is, you know, I just, I just skim through some of their comments and stuff. See what kind of people they associate themselves with that'll tell you a lot about a person's character. Okay? The conversations that they're having own you know, their, their newsfeed or whatever, their, their page.
[00:15:31] So now for me personally, like I said, I meet people in parking lots. I mean, I always have, I've met somebody inside a handful of times when it's a larger deal or if it's what they needed to feel more comfortable. And that's, that's cool. If they want to meet inside. That's cool with me that tells me, Hey, they're not going to try to screw me, they're not going to try to scam me or robbing. Okay? So, but while you're doing that, if you know what they're driving and they know what you're driving I always back into my spot [00:16:00] and I locked the doors, you know, and I kinda, I back end so that I can see what's coming in, see what's around me. Okay. I can see the people coming and going, but also keep my doors locked because if somebody was trying to set me up and they knew what I was driving, they could just come up and grab the door, but I keep it locked, I keep the car running. I'm backed in so that if they were to come up and try to bang on the window or the door or something, all I got to do is hit drive and I'm peeling up out of there. Okay. They're not going to be able to open the door. I'm going to be out of there as soon as it starts. That's controversial that that, that goes off of where you live, your city and the people where you live in your city.
[00:16:46] There's some places that you need to be meeting inside all the time. My city's not like that. It's just, it's just not that bad. Okay? You're going to have some bad apples, but for the most part, everybody's cool and chill. There are some places you need to be [00:17:00] meeting inside every time, regardless. Okay?
[00:17:03] Now, after the meeting, the other person needs to leave first. Okay? They need to leave you need to kind of watch where they're going and then make sure you're going the opposite way. You don't ever want to leave, and then, them, you know, leave out behind you. You don't want them to be able to see where you live or where you're going or catch you slipping because now you're, you know, you're running the Hardee's or something or a gah Hardee's, why did I say Hardee's, nobody actually eats Hardee's I don't think. Let's say you're going to you know, Chick-Filet or McDonald's or, or gah people eat McDonald's to gah, that's awful. Wherever it is you're going to eat, they might catch you slipping and want their money back.
[00:17:48] Now, always trust your gut. You know? I mean, we always say that trust your gut. If you don't feel right, it's not right. It's, there's something off about it. It's going to be the person it's going to be the [00:18:00] phone. It's going to be a set up it's it's going to be something. Okay? If your gut says no, that's no, I mean, that's just how it is. If they says no, it was.
[00:18:13] And then, so now let's talk about if you find yourself in the situation of being robbed. Okay. I don't want to lose a thousand bucks. I don't want to lose this 13 pro max that I'm trying to sell this person. I don't want to lose you know, this, this thousand dollar M1 Mac book pro I don't want to lose $200. I mean, I don't want to lose any of it. But I also don't give a flying crap about any of that stuff, as long as I get to go home to my three kids, my wife, my three dogs, all that crap. So if you are, if you find yourself getting robbed, it's not worth it, let them have the money, [00:19:00] let them have the phone. And you go home with an expensive lesson. Do not fight these people back. I mean, I mean, obviously if they're fighting you, you need to protect yourself, but the money's not worth it. The phone's not worth it. It's just not worth it. Okay? Karma's going to get them. Okay? They're going to get theirs. And so you just, you got to go home at the end of the day.
[00:19:27] That's all I got for, for safety, for the most part. I mean, that's everything I do. Actually had this conversation with my teenagers the other day, he said, you know, how do you know you're not going to get robbed? And I said, I don't know, you know, but I'm going to a public open place with good lighting. I'm not meeting in the middle of the night in the dark and meeting in a place with multiple cameras, it's busy, there's a cop sitting there most of the time, I vet their profiles to see what kind of person I think I'm meeting. [00:20:00] And I do all these things to try to protect myself. It's not going to be foolproof.
[00:20:05] I may get robbed one day. But I hope that these things help you and show you that you can protect yourself up to a point there's things you can do to help. So yeah, that's all I got. Let's see if we got any questions. If you have any questions, go ahead and drop them because this feeds on a little bit of a lag. It always is.
[00:20:25] So do you ever agree to meet at public places that they pick? So if they've came in through one of my paid ads, they're coming to me, if I need to move that place to help accommodate them for time or to help close the dealso they don't have to come as far, I will change the place, but it's still going to be a place that I pick.
[00:20:53] If it's a reach out method, you kind of have to sometimes, but you also can make [00:21:00] the decision of no, I'm not meeting you there. Okay? I've had people want to meet me in the middle of a Walmart parking lot, and I'm just not going to meet you in the middle of the Walmart parking lot. There's too many cars, there's too many exits, the cameras are trash, and so I'm not going to meet you there, but what I will do is the gas station that's in front of Walmart, the taco bell, that's in front of Walmart. I can meet you there, the gas station you know, I can, I can meet you at whatever it is the Circle K the 7 11 that's in front of Walmart, I can meet you there. And what I say is, Hey, instead of Walmart, Let's meet at the taco bell. It'd be a lot easier to find. And so we won't have to search all those rows of traffic you know, and then when you get there, you can be like, Hey, you know, I'm parked on the left side of taco bell or whatever. And then you can, you can feel a lot more comfortable that way.[00:22:00]
[00:22:00] But that's pretty much all I got. If you have any more questions, drop them in the comments and I'll see if I can answer. But the main thing to take away from this is be safe. The money's not worth it. The phone's not worth it. Your family is worth it.
[00:22:13] Be safe, make smart choices, make smart decisions and go home to your family. Okay?
[00:22:28] Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Phones2Freedom podcast with may your host, Justin Frye, for free resources and materials, head on over to phones2freedom.com. And if you enjoyed the show, I would love to see you subscribe to our podcast on whatever platform it is that you prefer to listen on.
[00:22:51] Thanks again. And I'll catch you guys on the next one.[00:23:00] .
