01x01 - You Just Gotta Trust Me

[bunniefuu]

[insects chirping]

[special information tone]

[automated voice]
If you'd like to make a call,

- please hang up and try again.
- [siren wailing]

If you need help, hang up
and then dial your operator.

- [TV playing indistinctly]
- [special information tone]

If you'd like to make a call,

- please hang up and try again.
- [TV playing indistinctly]

If you need help,

hang up and then dial
your operator.

- [water dripping]
- [train whistling in distance]

[water sloshing]

[engine starts]

eerie music

[insects chirping]

Oh

You tell me the truth

And then you tell me lies

First you say hello

And then you say goodbye

Oh

I never know

I never know just
what you're thinking of

But I don't want no

No, I don't want no

Part-time love

[thunder crashes]

No

Sleep tight, baby boy.

[laughter echoes]

hypnotic music

[Kayla] Where are you guys
going for dinner?

[Tracy] We are going
to Cheddar's, I think.

Do they serve drinks at...

- [Kayla] Yes, they do.
- ...Cheddar's?

So, you guys are cool
with me dating?

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

As long as you...

take it easy.

- Take it slow.
- Mm-hmm.

Take it easy.

What should I talk about?

- With him?
- Yeah.

Normal things.

Yeah?

- Real estate.
- Real estate?

Okay. Boom.

Boom. Slam, bam,
thank you, ma'am.

You look beautiful, Mom.

[laughter]

[Tracy] Thanks, guys.

Slow, intriguing music

[vehicle approaching]

[Tracy]
Dating in your 40s sucks.

It seems like your
only choice is to go online

to meet anybody, but it's hard.

You know, you look at a picture
of someone and think,

"Wow, he's got kind eyes,"

or "Oh, wow, he looks
like he'd be really fun,"

and you get there
and they don't have teeth.

And you're like,
"What the hell?"

I, like, literally had to tell
someone, "Where's your teeth?"

You're a grown man,
there's dentists.

There's no excuse not to have
teeth these days, you know?

So, one day, you know, I was
kind of just swiping through...

...and I saw this nice guy
in a suit

that was in real estate.

He was the owner
of his own company...

...and he was a pilot.

He was also very religious.

So, yeah, of course
I was interested.

I think you, like,
swipe right or something

and we must have
both swiped right.

He picked me up
on his motorcycle.

We went on a motorcycle ride.

So that was our first date.

And we went...
Drove around the lake

and... we had a great time.

[engine revving]

gentle music

[birds chirping]

You know,
I live a very specific life

where I work
and I take care of my children.

I work and I pay the bills.
That's what I do.

And this was so different.

It was freedom.

It was just fun.

I was having fun.

All right, let's just see
what hat hair looks like.

Oh, my gosh.
This isn't gonna work.

Not for this Arkansas chick.

[Ellen]
The first night that we talked,

we talked, like, three hours.

And we hit on all cylinders.

[phone beeps]

We went out to eat

every night.

YaYas or Applebee's
or Olive Gard...

It was all these... Cheddar's.

Oh, not Cheddar's, I'm sorry.

Chester's,
or something like that.

"Hey, baby, want me
to get you a glass of wine?"

"Sure. Well, that's sweet."
You know?

Uh, "Well, here, go ahead
and put your feet up here,

you know, " uh, or " Sit bes...
Lay beside me on the couch

and-and let's just look
at this together."

T-There were times
that he would... was like

the perfect partner.

[Sabrina]
I'd come home from work

and there'd be gifts on the bed.

He would text me and say,
"Hey, how... What are you doing?

How's work? I miss you.

Do you want to do this tonight?
Hey, I'm gonna fix dinner."

I was in love with him.

He made me feel like number one.

And I've never had a guy
do any of that for me before.

Honestly, it was like
a golden ticket for me. [laughs]

I just was like,
"God does love me.

Finally loves me.
He sent me someone that...

everything I've been
asking for."

hypnotic music

[Tracy]
So after we started dating,

we were inseparable.

He'd be like, "I don't want
to be away from you.

I can't stand
not sleeping next to you."

So, one minute we were dating
and the next minute,

he was staying over
and then the next minute,

his stuff had moved in.

Two of my good friends were
talking and one of them said,

"Don't you think
she's moving a little fast?"

and the other one said,
"She's 47 years old.

You know? Things go at
a different pace at that age."

[laughs]
I remember her saying that.

[Kayla]
Things were moving quickly.

But they just seemed like they
were perfect for each other,

like, the things
they did together

and the way that they talked
to each other.

So it just seemed to... like,
maybe she had finally found

who she was supposed to be with.

[rock music playing]

[Sabrina]
So after probably a month,

he says, "I want to get
a tattoo with your name."

[buzzing]

So we go to this tattoo parlor,

and he had, like,
an anchor on his shoulder.

And then he wrote
my name above it.

[dings]

And we were sitting there,
and I just watched

"Sabrina,"
he tattooed on the back.

I thought, "Oh. Wow,
this guy really does like me."

[soft rock playing]

[Ellen] We were at, um...

I think we were
at the YaYa Club.

And we were eating...
And I love to dress up...

And we were all dressed up,
and he says,

"This is as good a time as any."
I said, "For what?"

He goes, "Well..."

"Let's just go ahead
and get married."

"You're just the one,
I'm gonna be with your forever."

And he goes,
"Well, you're everything.

You're everything I've wanted."

intriguing music

So he took me to Zales,

and he goes,
"Well, what about this one?"

Which was beautiful. It was the
prettiest ring I'd ever seen.

Simple. Band with just
some diamonds on it.

Two-carat diamond.
It was beautiful.

Everything was... I said,
"Mickey, how are you...

How are you gonna pay for this?"

He told me that he was,

he had been in a lawsuit
about his face.

And that the doctor
had cut the nerve

and then lied about it
on medical records.

He just said, "You know, I have

a medical malpractice.
I'm gonna be getting

$12-point-something
million dollars.

After the attorneys are paid,
it'll be-be $7.8."

So, everything we were doing
was revolving

around the seventh of November,

'cause that's when the money
was gonna hit.

And he-he'd say to me,
he'd be like,

"We're gonna wake up
millionaires in a couple days."

suspenseful music

[Sabrina]
All of a sudden, he wanted

to combine checking accounts.

And I was like, "Oh, okay,
'cause we're getting married."

[Tracy] And then he goes,
"I want to buy a sports car.

I want to get this for us."

And he just wrote
a check for it.

Like, I didn't even know

you could take a check
for a-a Porsche.

He said,
"I'll take care of the payments,

just put the car in your name."

[Tracy] And he says,
"I want to buy a house for us."

And then, "Well, I want
to buy a condo in Florida."

Furnished, on the beach.

We had a virtual... we went
through it with, uh, Dennis,

I think his name was...
A virtual tour of this house

and he got paperwork sent.

And we signed pa...
I-I signed them, too.

I signed them, too.
He was first, I was second.

[bell tolling]

[Tracy] And then he said,
"We also want to be sure

that we're using
this money for the good.

And we want to help people."

So, at night
he would pray with me.

He would pray that we would do

what God wanted us to do
with the money.

And then,
after we got engaged...

...he started acting
very, very strange.

Suspenseful music

[Ellen]
He didn't sleep at night.

He would get up and watch hours
and hours of TV shows.

[Stacy Keach]
This con man convinces woman

that he's a wildly successful
stockbroker.

But he steals their hearts

and drains their savings.

[Sabrina] American Greed,
he liked that show a lot.

He also liked to watch shows
on Lifetime network

like "My husband's stalking me,"

you know, those type of movies.

- [woman screaming]
- [man grunting]

[water running]

haunting music

[faucet squeaks]

[water dripping]

[Ellen] And then he would go
run the tub

with a little bit of hot water,

and then just lay in it.

No lights on, nothing.

And then ask me to come in
there and sit down by him.

So, I would sit on the toilet,

but he never said a word.

He just wanted me to sit there.

But... there were times

that he could look at you,
and be talking to you,

but it's like
he wasn't seeing you.

His eyes didn't look right.

[Kayla] There was just so many

weird things happening.

Like, he started trying to
move up their wedding day.

He kept saying, like, "We need
to get married right now."

And I said...

"There's something weird
about this."

So I came up with a plan,

that I was gonna
go through his truck.

Just to see if there was
anything weird in there,

just anything
out of the ordinary.

Dramatic music

And I found, um,
a bunch of pill bottles

that had the labels ripped off.

And I found papers that had
different names on them.

One of them just said "Scott."

My first thought was that
he was a drug addict.

But...

all of the ideas that ran
through my head at that moment

were nothing compared
to the truth.

Eerie music

I started plugging
the different names

into my phone.

And I came across a blog

that had his picture at the top.

I called my mom.

And I said, "You need
to come straight home.

Mickey's not
who you think he is."

[Lisa] "My name is Lisa,
and I am wife number six

of Richard Scott Smith.

I started this blog to warn
other women that he is a thief,

a liar, and most of all,
a con man.

If you are reading this blog,

I am sorry that you
have been victimized

by Richard Scott Smith."

[woman] I had gotten divorced...

I was, like,
a struggling single mom...

Just so focused on work...

So I was trying out
the online dating thing...

- And I met Scott.
- I met Rick.

He called himself Mickey.

He was very charming.

He was always a gentleman.

This rich, wealthy
businessman...

Went to, um... law school...

[woman] He was a professional
water-skier.

[woman 2] He was a pilot.

- [woman 3] Professional cook.
- [woman 4] Wine connoisseur.

- [woman 5] Played in a band.
- [woman 6] He also did karate.

And that was after he'd got
his finance degree.

He kind of swept me off my feet.

And it was quickly, two weeks...

...after we met, that he said...

[all] I love you.

[woman] So he moved in with me

a couple months
after we started dating.

Moved in with him and he wanted
to get married right away.

He proposed to me after,
like, a month.

Told me that he had never
been married before.

[woman] I would like to know
how many of his exes

he is still married to.

[woman]
There was Jean, Sandi, Candy...

- [woman 2] There was Caroline.
- [woman 3] Carrie.

[woman 4] I'd heard of a Tracy.

[woman 5]
There was Sabrina and Angela.

- Lisa and Sabrina...
- Michelle...

- Lisa... Jennifer...
- Christine...

There might have been a Vanessa.

-I reported him as a bigamist.
-He is definitely a bigamist.
-He was a bigamist.

He will become a Christian
if you're a Christian,

an atheist if you're
an atheist...

He's trying to figure out
who has money,

who has good credit.

And he wants to buy houses
and cars together.

My name was on the lease.

It totaled about $95,000.

More than $100,000.

$250,000.

I was well in.
Over $700,000 in debt.

[Tracy] One moment I was his
world, and he loved me

more than anything
and couldn't live without me.

And within hours,
he disappeared...

...and never spoke to me again.

Suspenseful music

[laughter on TV]

[woman on TV] Honey, is that
something you're making up?

[Sabrina]
This guy ripped my world.

Just, boom and gone,
and then he just walks away.

[laughter on TV]

[TV playing indistinctly]

[Sabrina] I lost everything.

Slow, somber music

I live with my parents.

[laughter on TV]

Everyone else my age has homes

and going forward in life.

[laughter on TV]

I'm stuck.

I went to the police,

and I filed charges
for forgery and identity theft.

But they just
gave him probation,

and then he disappeared.

Unless you k*ll somebody,
they don't give a sh*t.

They don't care.

[mouse clicks]

[Sabrina] I'm tired of people

telling me I need
to get over my hatefulness

and this and that.

You know, I tell girls,
"You know, the best way

to get over guys... revenge."

I'm sorry. It is.

It's not going to a therapist,
it's not crying about it

or talking to your friends
over and over.

I'm getting tired
of this bullshit.

Rick,

you lying sack of sh*t,
you f*cked me.

I am f*cked, Rick.

Buddy, uh-uh.
You and I are gonna...

I'm-I'm coming after you.

Slow, sinister music

[phone ringing]

[Carla] Bonding Company.

Dale, when you get out of there,

you better damn well
come see me.

You got to take care of this,
or it's my a*s.

Yup. Your word's all you got,

and you ain't gonna have
no a*s left

if you screw me around.

Dramatic music

[distant siren wailing]

[indistinct chatter]

Hey.

Tyler, what's going on?

What's going on?

This is Tyler. He works
for Steve, and he's an arrogant

as*h*le cowboy m*therf*cker,
and I hate him.

- [Tyler] What'd you say?
- What's going on?

- Not much. How are you?
- Good.

Dramatic music

[clattering]

[man] Bonding Company!

[radio beeps]

[Carla] I pick up fugitives
for a living.

- [distant siren wailing]
- [dog barking]

I love the thrill.

I love the chase.

And I love getting
some as*h*le off the street.

- [distant siren wailing]
- [garbled radio transmission]

[insects chirping]

slow music

[Carla] I just don't get it.

How do you fall for this?

[Sabrina] You don't understand.

If you were dating
in today's world,

you can't find anybody.

[Carla] You know what?

There are men out there,

but I'm telling you,

you guys need to go
on farmers.com. [laughs]

- No!
- Right. I've heard that.

- I've heard that.
- I'm serious,

- and let me tell you why.
- Yeah, but don't they...?

Because country boys ain't out

for what you got.

You guys are looking
for old-school guys,

and there just aren't
very many left.

[Sabrina]
It's not like I had said,

"Here's my checkbook,
here's my identity.

Have fun."

This is a whole game.

I mean, he's been
doing this for years.

But on piece of paper,
he's identity theft, and he's...

That's just probation.

They don't care.

[Carla] No, the law don't care.

These judges sit on that bench,
and they look at all you women.

- Mm-hmm.
- And the deal is,

they don't know your story,
they don't know your story,

they don't know yours,
they don't know yours.

They see a piece of paper
laid in front of them that goes,

"Okay, this guy's identity theft

and, uh, let's give him
a year's probation."

Yup, done. Out the door.

They got bigger fish to fry.

It's totally f*cked up.

So, here's the deal.

I want to help.

I'm appalled

by men that treat women
like that.

So this is totally pro bono.

The police officer
that I was working with

said that, "Well, he's not
in Clay County anymore,

so I'm not gonna waste
my time looking for him."

Exactly.

Nobody is gonna be active
on the streets looking for him.

Except us.

There's a warrant out
for his arrest.

So, when we find him,

I would call local PD,

- and I would say, "Dude..."
- And help them catch him, yeah.

"This dude...
I just found this dude.

Come and get him."

[Carla]
I hate men that abuse women

in any way, shape or form.

The first guy I ever lived with
beat me a lot.

And I took it and I took it
and I took it and I took it.

And I finally walked away
from that relationship

and never went back.

And I said no man will
ever touch me again.

I will k*ll anybody that ever
tries to touch me again.

So if Richard Scott Smith

came in and robbed me,
like he did these other women,

I'd be in prison.

I'd have slit his throat
and watched him bleed to death,

and then admitted to doing it,

because I'm not gonna let him
do that to somebody else.

Suspenseful music

[line ringing]

[distant siren wailing]

[engine starts]

[buzzer blares]

[chiming]

[sighs] Good Lord.

Okay, so we snuck into
the garage,

and someone else went in there.

This is his motorcycle.

Um, this is a new Ford Raptor.

[Kayla]
Do you think this truck is his?

[Tracy]
Um, it might be his truck.

When, um, right before
he-he and I broke up,

he was looking at new trucks,

and that is definitely
in his spot.

Maybe Carla can run the plates?

[line ringing]

[Carla] Hey.

Did you get the plates
we texted you?

sh*t.

[sighs]

pensive music

[car door closes]

[phone beeps]

[Jean] I was married to him

for nine months...

and I lost everything.

So I want to know that
he's not hurting other women.

[line ringing]

[woman] Hello?

Hi. This is Jean Hansen.
Have you heard my name before?

No.

Uh, you know Scott Smith?

I was wife number eight or nine,

and he is still married
to one of the other women.

So was there... was he making
the whole class action...

Or the malpractice
lawsuit up, too?

There's no settlement.
He's got no money.

He's living off of whoever
he can, whenever he can.

Well, he's done this
to a lot of people,

and there's nothing
you did wrong.

This is just who he is
and how he operates.

Do you have any
questions for me?

Um... I'm kind of just,
uh, stunned right now,

so I'm sure I've got a ton
of them, but I just...

Okay, I'll tell you what,

I-I don't want to overwhelm you
right now,

but there's a whole blog,
all of the wives and girlfriends

and fiancées have been
on this blog

keeping track of what he's
been doing and reporting it.

So do you know where he is?

No, yeah, I have no idea.

[Jean] He's a sociopath.

And he's good at what he does.

[keys jangle]

[engine starts]

But, other than that,

I don't know who he really is.

Somber music

[insects chirping]

[purring softly]

[Gary] I met him when I was 16.

We ended up going to the
same high school together.

At first, we were, like,
started out as enemies.

He would pick on me,
and then, I guess,

he had a change of heart.
We became friends.

[meows]

During our junior year, we both
dropped out of high school...

...and that's when
everything changed with him.

I mean, it was like Scott became

the type of person that
can't go without a girlfriend

for very long.

I mean, he was... there was times

he would be dating two
or three girls at the same time

and not tell each other.

[purring]

He thought it would be cool
to see how many girls

he could date at the same time
and not get caught.

He would always tell lies,

almost like he believed them.

[meows]

I mean, I don't think
he knows the difference

between right or wrong no more,

and it's either gonna
end one of two ways:

in a jail cell or in a coffin.

[meows]

'Cause he's gonna mess
with the wrong woman one day.

[Carla]
Okay, girls, here's the deal.

We're kind of, like,
walking into a wall

right now.

When we go bounty hunting,

we have a program that we use,
and my boss pulled it up,

and he started laughing,
and I go, "What?"

And there was a whole list
of different names, aliases,

social security numbers...
It was, like, eight or nine

of them on there, so...

we can sit here all night
discussing this,

but at this point,

we don't know what name
he's going under, we don't know

- what state he's in...
- How do we know he's not dead?

Well, that would be
f*cking nice.

- [laughs]
- I don't want him dead.

I want him to rot
and suffer in jail.

I want a f*cking toe tag.
That's all I want.

If he was dead somewhere,

- his fingerprints
would've came up.
- Mm-hmm.

And his record here
would say, "Deceased."

It says he has a warrant,

that is a felony warrant, so...

this son of a b*tch
is still out there,

and...

I have zero leads.

Somber music

f*ck.

[Carla] He looks like
a dumbass, but he's not.

It's just, like, he plans,

strategically plans every move
he makes on every woman

so that he does not get caught.

He's got to marry them in order
to get into their pockets.

You think about that.
Oh, that-that's easy.

That's easy.
The marriage things come,

and when the marriage
things come, the...

Everything he does is legal.

There's nothing
they can do to him.

Because if he marries them,
then it's his.

Community property.

Yeah. I get the marriage thing.

[Carla] Exactly.

That is how he works.

Suspenseful music

Okay, which dating website
are we on now?

Plenty of Fish.

- Here we go.
- Okay.

[Sabrina] All right,
you d*uche, where are you?

- Oh! Oh, my God.
- Wait, wait.

- There's a lot. Okay.
- Okay, keep going down.

[Sabrina] Wait, is that him?

- Oh, oh, oh, oh.
- We-we got him. Oh, my God.

- Oh, my God.
- Okay.

"We all been through
crazies in our life.

Please do not be married
or in an open relationship.

This will not work
for me." Holy sh*t.

You got to be kidding me.

Tense music

Holy sh*t.

Well, lo and behold,
there he is.

That was Sunday night at Shots.

c*ck in hand.

She's the girlfriend.

This is from the blog.

It says her name is Karla.

She's married,

and she ditched her husband
and her kids for Rick.

That must be her husband.

Eerie music

[Jim] We've been together
for 39, 40 years probably.

That's a long time.

And, um, I love her...

...but...

she started singing karaoke.

She would come home,
she's practicing karaoke

constantly. In bed,
she would be singing.

I'm going, "Karla, shut up.
I'm trying to sleep."

First it started off, she'd
come home at 8:00 or 8:30,

and then it got to be midnight,
and then it got to be...

"Jim, I'm so tired.
I'm at Patty's.

I-I'm just gonna
spend the night here

'cause I'm too tired
to drive home."

One day, my phone rang.
It was her,

and she says,
"I want a divorce."

And then it hit me.

I thought, "Wait a minute."

I thought,
"Something ain't right."

I said, "I'm going
to the bank." So I ran.

I got in my car and ran
to the bank to cancel my ATMs

and all my money was gone.

There was $80 left
in my bank account.

Couple of days later, messenger
went off on my phone.

It says,

"Just wanted to let you know

that the guy that your wife
is messing with

is just after your money.

This is very important if you
want to save your family."

alarming music

She says, "I need you to know
who your wife is with."

[r*fle clicks]

He's a psychopath,

and his full name
is Richard Scott Smith.

[g*nsh*t]

[line ringing]

Hey, do you guys
have karaoke tonight?

[woman] We sure do.

Okay, thank you.

Dramatic music

[line ringing]

[Carla]
He is not here yet tonight.

[Sandi] Oh, this sucks.

Yeah, well, yeah,
but that's, you know,

some days chickens,
some days feathers.

I can't believe
he would be staying home

because that's not his style.

And they've been doing a lot
of karaoke here lately.

That's why the guys
are running over

by the other bar to see
if there's anything over there,

- so...
- Okay.

You could always go run over
to the Moose Lodge, too.

[line ringing]

- [Tracy] Hello?
- [Carla] Tracy.

Sandi said something
about a Moose Lodge?

Yeah, the Independence
Moose Lodge.

That's where he goes on Friday.

- Okay.
- But, I mean, that was,

that was when he was with me,

and you know how he changes
per who he's with.

Right.

Oh, my God.

I don't know,
it just makes you wonder,

what is he up to?

Where is this as*h*le?

Pensive music

[line ringing]

[blinds squeaking]

[Paige] First time I met Rick,

he introduced himself
as Rick Smith,

CEO of Prestige
Corporate Living.

And he said he had apartments
in the Kansas City metro area

that he was leasing.

He was a very fast talker,

had a lot of charisma.

Very... I don't know...

Sleezy, kind of. [laughs]

If you caught him in something,
he would stutter a lot

and have a problem stuttering
and kind of [hacking]

have a-a little hacking to him.

So, maybe three weeks ago,
Rick Smith stopped

paying his bills,

and he went totally
off the radar.

Um, when all said and done,

I would probably say between
$50,000 and $60,000 from me.

Eerie music

But the other day,

I was in an apartment complex,

and he was coming
off the elevator.

He ducked his head
and walked away.

And I was just
totally freaked out.

But I wanted to figure out
what he was doing.

[car door opens]

[car door closes]

[hazards clicking]

ominous music

Holy sh*t.

"One Way Or Another" by Blondie

One way or another,
I'm gonna find you

I'm gonna get you,
get you, get you, get you

One way or another,
I'm gonna win you

I'm gonna get you, get you,
get you, get you

One way or another,
I'm gonna see you

I'm gonna meet you,
meet you, meet you, meet you

One day, maybe next week,
I'm gonna meet you

I'm gonna meet you,
I'll meet you

One way or another, I'm gonna
get you, I'll get you

I'll get you, get you,
get you, get you

One way or another,
I'm gonna get you...