Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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I learned how to pick pockets in Miami. I wouldn't steal from black people. Just white people. Went to the pimp ball. The pimp ball? I'm not finna suck on no dick for nothing.
You're killing me.
I started stealing at a very early age. How? Going to work with my mama, going in these rich white folks' houses. I'm stealing out of each compartment. Wherever was an open spot for me, I'm stealing out of there.
What is she doing?
She was a housekeeper because during that time, that was like the 60s. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So you're working $7, $8 a day. And you're not getting everything that you want. So I got a couple of friends that, you know, their parents was doing pretty good. You know what I'm saying? So they had shit. You know what I'm saying? So I'm realizing, damn, you know what I'm saying?
You really ain't got shit. But my mama considered something. It wasn't shit to me. You know what I'm saying? So we supposed to be happy with the hand-me-downs. How old were you at this point? I'm probably seven, seven, eight, going on eight years old. When I started stealing, going with my mom, then I go with my grandmama, steal out of those houses. I'm stealing everything.
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Chapter 2: What led Celeste to start pickpocketing in Miami?
And you know what? That's funny because I'm realizing how I was doing it because I never took every fucking thing. So what you call that is, that's early onset fucking peeling. That's what you call peeling. You don't take all the money for a person to see that they're missing money. You know what I'm saying? Like I say, I lead a business, but these rich people, they got money.
So why would they want to, they worried about that little shit. You know what I'm saying? So I'm still in underwear. Even if they was dirty, not shitty dirty, but dirty dog. Yeah. Dirty panties and shit because they was pretty, you know, silk. You know how folks got money over there. So I'm up in there and I'm just taking my time. I'm going through the shit.
Chapter 3: How did Celeste's upbringing influence her criminal activities?
I'm going through the drawers. I'm going through everything in the house.
Well, this stuff is showing up at your mom's house at some point. She's noticing.
I'm hiding. Where is it? I'm hiding it. And then during that time, my mom just not really paying attention because shit was hard back then. So she had enough on her plate worried about my daddy. You know what I'm saying? So she couldn't worry about other minor shit. I would have to worry about my sister now, not my mama. So I always had to make sure that I got shit for my sister then too.
What's your dad doing?
My dad is working. Then my dad, after he's working, he coming home. If he come home late, then we know he get ready to come home and fight my mama.
What does he do for a living?
Well, at the time my dad was doing, he worked as a service for dry cleaning.
Okay.
And then he started driving the trucks later on.
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Chapter 4: What techniques did Celeste use for successful pickpocketing?
Beach. Yeah. Do you ever get in trouble? Do you ever get caught? Do you go to jail?
When I was young, yeah, I went to jail. When I was like 14 years old, I went to jail. My friend and I, we put a mom wig on, right? So we looking like grown because I always looked older. And then I was always mature for my age, big girl. You know what I'm saying?
So she got caught in theirs, and when they got her, she called me, and she told them she got some, too, so that made them get me, right? So we sitting there with fucking wigs on, 14 years old, with some damn Diana Ross wigs on and shit, and her mama came and got her from the store, but my mama made the police take me to the police station. And I was 14 years old.
OK, wait.
Your mother made them take you to the police station? Yeah, because she wouldn't come up to the store and get me.
Oh, she wanted you to learn a lesson.
Yes. She was teaching me a lesson, but that was not a good lesson because I wasn't scared from that point on. Nothing scared me. And then I started hanging with the older people. I'm starting to hang with the older set, like all the boosters and the robbers. They were dope things, but they the sharpest dope things in the world because they was getting money.
You know, you got a little bit of a little bit of a street cred, too. I've been arrested. I've been to jail. I've been I know how this works.
Yeah, I've been to jail. I went to jail a lot. You know, so I started early. Oh, there's so many different instances. One time I was stealing and my sister, my second oldest sister, I ain't gonna say it. Anyway, she went to I was at a store and I was stealing and she. I got the people wanted to catch me. And she's such a fighter because she could fight. She could fight.
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Chapter 5: How did Celeste transition from petty theft to credit card fraud?
So in the gym, in the gym. I would. We get undressed and we go to the go to the floor. Right. So in the in the bathroom for the girls, everybody leave their purses in there. It's only a couple of us black people on the gymnastic team. Anyway, I just made I used to be an athletic. I will be—I was an athletic. And so it just came to my mind, I'm going to take this hill.
I went in there and cleaned the fucking locker room out. So what happened was I got everybody—I got some shit that was sentimental value. So after I go in the locker room, clean it out, get everything— after a few days, a week passed, by the people missing their shit, right? So the parents are pressing the... Administration.
Administration about the shit that's missing, and then they end up telling one of my classmates, pressuring her because they remember, well, who opened this door? Because once you get upstairs for the gym and the gymnastic team, the doors are supposed to be closed locked. So they...
I remember seeing one of the girls and one of my classmates, and she's the one told, because I'm the one who opened the door, but I could take all the shit and give it to them to go. And it was some watches, and it was a sentimental value.
They was present childers, and once they found out that that was me, my mama said she drove, because she drive the bus for the school, which I didn't ride on her bus, and she said when they pull up, The superintendent, the principal came out and told her, well, Ms. Wells, she's done it again. So they kicked me out of all the schools in Dade County for that year.
Then I had to go to Brunswick, Georgia.
What happened to the sentimental watch?
I had to give it back.
Oh, I didn't know you mentioned you gave it back.
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Chapter 6: What was Celeste's experience like in prison?
And that's what I said. But anyway, I know that I didn't realize about the pimp because I didn't really realize about the pimp. was really after me because I'm feeling like he want to be my dude, my nigga. Right. So, because I know I could get him because I know I'm a hot commodity. You know what I mean?
Chapter 7: How did Celeste manage to evade law enforcement during her criminal career?
Like, I'm fly, I'm getting money, and I know that he wanted me. And so... I was going to have my way with him because even though I got with him, one thing I was not going to do was be a hoe, okay? I'm not finna suck on no dick for nothing. So my choice was, okay, well, you don't want to do that. My best bet is I can boost. That's it. So that was my thing for me to do with him.
Wasn't going to be nothing to turn me out to, nothing, none of that. Because, you know, to be frank with you, the white folks weren't on my side right there during that time, okay? I was with it. So he... He took me out and, you know, took me. He was the first one to send me to Tampa by myself. That's how I ended up in Tampa by myself. He sent me up here to come up here to get on.
But I learned how to pick pockets in Miami.
Okay, and what were you supposed to come up to Tampa to do?
Pickpockets, come up here to make money.
Okay.
Yeah. I was coming to Tampa to make money. That was the first place after Miami because Miami was getting hot. I got turned down in Miami. So after I met the pimp and I got turned down there, so that's where I learned how to go in the rooms, how to pickpocket and all of that. I picked that up right there. I just picked that up.
So he's telling you, go to Tampa, pick pockets, get as much money and jewelry, whatever you can get, and come back to Miami and give it to him? Yeah. I just don't understand that.
But let me tell you something. And see, I was always smart enough that I never even gave all my money. See, I'm not going to give you all my money. I had enough sense to not do that.
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Chapter 8: What motivated Celeste to write her book and start a safe house?
If I if I go and make eight, ten thousand dollars, you think I'm going to give you all of that? No way. So, you know, I appeal. I give you a few thousand dollars, but I'm putting some of this. I put this shit to the side, baby.
What benefit do you get from him for that, though?
I'm going to tell you, the only thing it was, was dick. It was it. Because it wasn't nothing else. Couldn't have been nothing else. You're killing me.
So how long does this go on? Before you kick into the curve?
I finally did, because once I got to Tampa, right after I get to Tampa, then I meet another pimp. But this one here... He a gangster pimp. See, Billy wasn't a gangster pimp. He was, I'm going to call him a soft pimp. Okay. Joe, I met Joe here. He was a real, and he's from Missouri. So he was, but they say, show me state. He was a good, he was a gangster.
That nigga shoot a bitch quick in like five minutes. So, oh, he was up my alley, right? But he was a... So...
Do you move to Tampa? Do you stay in Tampa?
I love Tampa. Oh, my God. Yeah. Anytime that I wanted to come up, I came to Tampa. Because I'm taking jewelry off of your arm. I'm taking off your neck. I used to go out to these hotels where the mall is now, the Tampa International. Before they built that mall, they had hotels. So, you know, these are all... uh, uh, corporate men that used to come.
So you walking through the hotel, we going walking through the hotel, it would just be me maybe in another partner or something or whatever, because it wasn't too many. Cause everybody got to be able to steal their own money. Uh, And so if you hear a room, sometimes they have the curtains open a little bit and me and Bea in there talking.
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