Pearl - April 12, 2025


Beta Male Robbed Banks To Pay For His Wife's IVF Treatment


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

201.89497

Word Count

2,763

Sentence Count

238


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 If you are thinking about IVF, it is going to be incredibly expensive.
00:00:04.480 The insurance didn't cover any of it, so we had to cover all of the costs,
00:00:07.660 both the medical procedures and the medication.
00:00:09.880 Yeah, he loved her.
00:00:11.360 He should have just found a new wife and said,
00:00:13.220 look, you got your tubes tied, I want a kid.
00:00:15.240 Sorry, next.
00:00:16.680 And that's when this sort of takes a direction that nobody was expecting
00:00:20.120 because the option that you chose was to rob a bank.
00:00:23.320 Why?
00:00:23.900 You know, whenever a guy does a bad thing,
00:00:26.640 a lot, not all the time, but a lot of the time, a woman really is behind it.
00:00:31.140 I mean, you guys got to start doing what women do to you back.
00:00:34.720 What up, guys?
00:00:35.580 Welcome to my reaction series.
00:00:37.400 And today I'm going to be reacting to a man who robbed banks to pay for an IVF treatment.
00:00:43.700 As you guys know, we keep waiting longer and longer and longer to have children
00:00:47.040 and men are the ones that are going to eventually have to pay for it.
00:00:49.860 When women make bad decisions or different decisions that maybe I could say,
00:00:54.340 don't, you guys will pay for it if we're a single mother,
00:00:57.060 we'll find one of you guys to take care of it.
00:00:59.040 If we're homeless, we'll make the government take care of us.
00:01:01.640 They just won't let us face the consequences for our decision.
00:01:04.960 So here we have a man who's robbing banks to pay for his wife's IVF.
00:01:09.220 Next guest was raised in Wales,
00:01:11.520 had an idyllic childhood with all the privileges of a private school education.
00:01:15.580 So how on earth did Reid Domingo end up spending nearly four years
00:01:19.340 in an American jail for bank robbery?
00:01:21.520 Well, Reid joins us now to share his remarkable story.
00:01:23.920 Welcome. Thank you for being here today.
00:01:25.780 This is really about a journey to becoming a parent,
00:01:29.560 that desire and what you will go to to become a father.
00:01:33.280 So just explain a little bit about the IVF journey
00:01:36.380 because this is your wife, Patrice.
00:01:38.480 She underwent nine rounds of IVF over five years.
00:01:42.480 So what was kind of the circumstances leading up to that?
00:01:45.020 Why was that so necessary?
00:01:47.260 Primarily because...
00:01:48.660 She doesn't even look that old that she got married.
00:01:50.740 In her early 20s, Patrice lost one fallopian tube through an ectopic pregnancy
00:01:56.140 and then after the delivery of her third child, she had the other tube cut
00:02:00.540 because she wasn't expecting to get divorced and let alone have any more children.
00:02:05.520 Aha.
00:02:05.740 So you had moved to America to work for your father's company, a biotech company,
00:02:12.340 and that's where you met Patrice and settled down in America.
00:02:16.520 Yeah.
00:02:17.060 And where we know that if you are thinking about IVF, it is going to be incredibly expensive.
00:02:24.060 And so tell us about that funding of, before we get onto the main story,
00:02:32.360 how difficult was it for you guys to pay for it?
00:02:35.980 What was at risk?
00:02:38.300 Yeah, so again, women make a decision, society will pay for it.
00:02:41.640 So women wanted to go to college, society started subsidizing education in the 70s.
00:02:46.720 Women wanted to wait to have kids, now the government's going to subsidize IVF.
00:02:51.420 So women, like if something's free from the government, just assume women are at the end of it.
00:02:56.800 As you said, the insurance didn't cover any of it.
00:02:59.200 So we had to cover all of the costs, both the medical procedures and the medication.
00:03:04.080 At the time when we first started this process, we both had good jobs.
00:03:08.120 As you said, I was working for my father as a director of sales
00:03:10.880 and Patrice was the regional director of 15 gyms for group exercise.
00:03:16.260 So we had the means to fund it ourselves to start off with.
00:03:19.760 And because we were just trying to circumvent or circumnavigate the fact that she didn't have any tubes,
00:03:25.000 we're both healthy individuals, it was supposed to be one time and that was supposed to be it.
00:03:30.520 So each round costs about approximately, say, $15,000 to do one round of IVF.
00:03:36.660 At least it was in 92.
00:03:37.760 So then by the end of that, you accumulate a debt of $250,000.
00:03:43.220 Because we did nine times.
00:03:44.840 A lot of money.
00:03:46.100 So you sort of, to pay for this, you liquidate nearly everything you own.
00:03:49.800 You remortgage the house.
00:03:50.880 So you're really trying to find a way.
00:03:52.180 Yeah, he loved her.
00:03:53.720 He should have just found a new wife and said, look, you got your tubes tied.
00:03:56.800 I want a kid.
00:03:57.860 Sorry, next.
00:03:59.340 Women do it to you guys all the time.
00:04:01.000 They have starter husbands.
00:04:02.580 I mean, you guys got to start doing what women do to you back.
00:04:06.180 Do you know what I mean?
00:04:06.760 Like, we do something to you guys and you guys are like, no, let me do the right thing.
00:04:10.420 No, no.
00:04:12.680 Do you know what I mean?
00:04:13.900 Way of pain.
00:04:14.980 Put the women on alimony.
00:04:16.520 Put the women on child support.
00:04:18.180 Tell the women that you're going to do better and you're just a starter wife.
00:04:22.080 Off this debt, there's nothing left to sell.
00:04:25.320 The debt's still very much there.
00:04:26.940 And that's when this sort of takes a direction that nobody was expecting.
00:04:30.560 Because the option that you chose was to rob a bank.
00:04:33.760 Why?
00:04:34.360 It's absolutely crazy.
00:04:35.560 And obviously, I never, never thought I would find myself in that situation.
00:04:39.960 This was obviously, you know, two, three.
00:04:41.680 You know, whenever a guy does a bad thing, a lot, not all the time, but a lot of the time,
00:04:46.680 a woman really is behind it.
00:04:48.940 Either it's the guy's messed up from his childhood, which was a woman.
00:04:51.960 Or he does something because he wants to make money for women.
00:04:56.240 Or he's trying to commit crimes so women will sleep with him.
00:04:59.620 Again, women.
00:05:00.400 Three years of heavy pressures, financial pressures that I was bearing.
00:05:05.060 And I was working for a bank by this time.
00:05:07.380 And even though I wasn't customer-facing, I went through bank training that told me what
00:05:12.440 you had to do in the event of a bank robbery.
00:05:14.520 And it was based on that training that was in conjunction with all of the pressures that
00:05:19.520 one day I just thought, you know, that's the solution.
00:05:22.280 Well, you were writing sort of software for them, I think.
00:05:25.320 Correct.
00:05:25.740 And so you'd sold everything.
00:05:27.980 The one thing you did keep was your motorcycle helmets because you loved your bikes, which
00:05:32.460 came in very handy because I think you ended up being called the Easy Rider Bandit, I think.
00:05:36.740 Yeah, the FBI always gives you a moniker.
00:05:38.620 Yeah.
00:05:39.480 And so these...
00:05:40.600 So because of this work with the bank, you do have access to these manuals.
00:05:44.260 And those manuals contain information that gave you the means to rob a bank, which you
00:05:50.520 were very casual about.
00:05:52.740 I mean, you'd carry on, you'd crack on with your day, rob a bank, and then crack on with
00:05:56.520 your day again.
00:05:57.040 Yeah, I don't want to sound flippant about it, but I basically used to schedule the bank
00:06:01.740 robberies during my lunchtime.
00:06:03.180 So because I was a software engineer, I'd come in very early in the morning, six o'clock.
00:06:10.920 So I would go to lunch around 9.30, 10 o'clock in the morning.
00:06:13.780 That was the time that I chose to rob a bank.
00:06:15.940 I would go out, rob a bank, go pick up some lunch, go back to work.
00:06:19.320 Well, you did one of them, wasn't it?
00:06:20.200 Your daughter was in the car.
00:06:21.380 Oh, OK.
00:06:22.020 Yeah.
00:06:24.320 That was in the afternoon.
00:06:25.660 It was like, we're all parents.
00:06:27.880 We know what it's like.
00:06:28.740 I was planning on robbing a bank that day.
00:06:31.140 And right before I was ready to leave, Patrice calls me and says, OK, don't forget, meet
00:06:35.260 me at the club so we can swap cars.
00:06:37.000 And don't forget, you're picking up our daughter, which we call Chummy.
00:06:41.100 You've got to pick up Chummy.
00:06:42.400 And it's like, oh, you're kidding me.
00:06:43.560 So I went, I picked up Chummy, and I was going to go to the gym.
00:06:48.000 And I looked over.
00:06:49.120 Chummy was fast asleep.
00:06:50.840 And I thought, if you're efficient, you can get this done.
00:06:53.180 So I drove to a bank, parked under a tree in the shades.
00:06:56.820 Chummy was fast asleep.
00:06:57.920 I went in.
00:06:58.580 I robbed the bank.
00:06:59.320 I came out.
00:07:00.020 I went to the gym.
00:07:01.160 I exchanged cards with Patrice, who berated me, you've got five minutes before your class
00:07:05.300 starts.
00:07:05.780 And it's like, sweetheart, I'm just robbing a bank, you know.
00:07:07.720 But she didn't know.
00:07:09.060 She didn't.
00:07:09.780 She had no idea.
00:07:10.540 Oh, my wife had no idea.
00:07:11.820 There is no way I could tell Patrice what I was doing.
00:07:15.500 Because I would burden her with that knowledge.
00:07:17.580 And every time we were out, if we saw a police officer or a police car, she would think,
00:07:22.220 is this the time to come?
00:07:23.320 Two of your best friends were police officers.
00:07:25.300 Yeah, the two people that I met when I first went to the United States in 1986.
00:07:29.820 Two of my best friends to this day.
00:07:32.340 One of them was the best man at my wedding.
00:07:34.560 One is a sergeant in the San Diego Police Department.
00:07:37.500 The other is the special agent in charge of the DEA.
00:07:40.320 Well, you did this for a year.
00:07:42.900 And then eventually, the FBI was contacted by a manager at a different bank who recognised
00:07:47.440 you as a customer.
00:07:48.580 Correct.
00:07:48.940 One of the CCTV footages.
00:07:51.280 The FBI knock on your door, at which point, I mean, it must have been terrifying for everybody
00:07:55.160 in your family, particularly for Patrice, who had no idea that any of this was going on.
00:07:59.140 Yes.
00:07:59.420 Yeah, it was at five o'clock in the morning, 3rd of June, 2002.
00:08:04.500 There's a bang at our front door.
00:08:07.040 Beautiful sunshine, Southern California.
00:08:09.200 I get up.
00:08:10.020 I'm walking to the door.
00:08:11.280 Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
00:08:12.840 And when I get to the door, I was like, somebody's going to be on the ground.
00:08:16.740 I open the door and it's bing, bing, bing.
00:08:19.460 FBI.
00:08:20.300 You've got the red dots on you.
00:08:21.160 Three red dots on my chest.
00:08:22.960 FBI.
00:08:23.800 Get on the ground.
00:08:25.140 Or worse to that effect.
00:08:26.380 So your house is then turned over, as you would expect it to be, and you are then carted
00:08:31.060 off to prison.
00:08:31.540 So, I mean, this is all in the podcast.
00:08:32.780 So we'll condense it just slightly.
00:08:35.440 So you serve your time in prison.
00:08:38.580 You are then extradited.
00:08:39.760 And I pleaded guilty.
00:08:40.980 So I did not take this to trial.
00:08:42.300 And you said at no point do you condone any of your actions.
00:08:48.260 And you served your time for it.
00:08:50.440 And they were desperate measures.
00:08:51.760 Not that that's an excuse.
00:08:52.840 But you're extradited.
00:08:54.060 You end up back in the UK.
00:08:55.280 And where we find you now is the fact that Patrice and your daughter came over.
00:09:01.720 They spent time here.
00:09:02.500 Your daughter was educated for some of her life here.
00:09:04.860 And then went back for various family reasons to go and look after parents.
00:09:09.140 That sort of thing.
00:09:09.820 You are separated now as a family.
00:09:13.600 Correct.
00:09:13.820 And it was only eight weeks ago that you told your 25-year-old daughter what had happened.
00:09:19.900 Absolutely.
00:09:20.540 And I think as any parent, you are there always to protect your child.
00:09:25.000 When everything went down in 2002, our daughter Angelique, who we call Chummy, was four years of age.
00:09:32.320 How do you explain to a four-year-old your father's going to prison for robbing banks?
00:09:36.740 So right at that moment, obviously.
00:09:38.980 You really can't.
00:09:40.040 I don't know how nobody told her, though.
00:09:41.860 We said nothing.
00:09:42.960 Then comes the point.
00:09:43.860 When is the time that you tell her?
00:09:45.140 When she's six?
00:09:45.960 When she's 10?
00:09:47.300 15?
00:09:47.940 At least he's still with the mom.
00:09:49.880 Obviously, when I was.
00:09:51.860 Women do tend to stand by criminals.
00:09:55.820 We do have a tendency to do that.
00:09:58.400 We'll stick it with you if you're a criminal.
00:10:01.260 If you're a stand-up guy, eh.
00:10:02.740 Released and deported back to the United Kingdom.
00:10:05.260 Ultimately, Patrice and Chummy came and lived with me here in the United Kingdom.
00:10:09.140 Based on the information that we'd received from the federal government about returning in 2013,
00:10:15.940 Patrice went ahead to try and set things up for us with the expectation that in 2016,
00:10:22.020 upon Chummy completing her A-levels, we would all go back.
00:10:26.000 What was her reaction when you told her?
00:10:28.420 Your 25-year-old daughter who said, you know, this is my background.
00:10:31.320 I robbed banks.
00:10:32.220 I went to prison.
00:10:33.200 I was extradited.
00:10:34.600 And this is all stuff you don't know.
00:10:37.160 Yes.
00:10:37.900 When I told her, I am so blessed as a father to have the little girl that I do.
00:10:42.140 I say little girl.
00:10:42.840 She's about to be 25.
00:10:43.900 She sat.
00:10:44.700 She listened, you know, patiently.
00:10:46.220 It was a little teary for her.
00:10:47.460 But more than anything, it was like, oh, daddy, that fills in all the blanks.
00:10:52.520 Now I know why you never came and spent Christmas with us.
00:10:55.720 Why you didn't come over in the summertime when I was out of school.
00:10:58.660 You can't get back in, can you?
00:10:59.940 At the moment, no.
00:11:00.600 I'm not allowed to re-enter the United States.
00:11:03.020 Yeah, I mean, that'll do it if you rob.
00:11:05.320 If you come in and rob banks, I mean, that'll kind of do it.
00:11:08.840 The problem with that is the fact that their top line thing, they kept on telling me you
00:11:13.900 need to do something else, do something else, do something else.
00:11:16.440 Ultimately, I embarked on something in 2019, which I believe was the final step.
00:11:21.700 They said it would take about a year, but obviously in 2020, we were-
00:11:25.040 I mean, to be honest, I say don't let him back in.
00:11:28.080 I mean, you committed a crime.
00:11:30.140 Like why?
00:11:31.480 I understand like people want to, he's like a good looking business guy.
00:11:35.600 Like he looks, you know, like a guy you'd see in like a normal neighborhood or, you
00:11:40.540 know, like, like a normal guy.
00:11:42.060 But if you come into the country and commit a crime, I don't really want you to come back.
00:11:46.100 Like that's your, do you know how many people are dying to get into America?
00:11:49.740 I get it.
00:11:50.400 You had a kid here.
00:11:51.800 Tell her to come see you.
00:11:53.040 I don't want you robbing banks again.
00:11:54.560 I hope he doesn't, right?
00:11:55.780 But if you're not an American and you come commit a crime on American soil, I don't think
00:12:00.940 you should be allowed back in.
00:12:02.360 Went into that.
00:12:03.100 Sorry to the daughter, but just say this is, maybe she'll understand.
00:12:06.960 She'll be like the only women that understand consequences for actions, right?
00:12:11.280 At the pandemic and the lockdown.
00:12:13.360 So unfortunately it wasn't until November 22 that the US government finally gave me the
00:12:20.240 decision and they said, no, we will not give you a waiver.
00:12:23.860 So you just have to sit and wait to see if anything changes and keep, keep fine.
00:12:27.540 I got no sympathy.
00:12:28.460 You robbed banks.
00:12:29.300 Like, like I get it.
00:12:31.800 He can, you know, do this sob story or whatever, uh, but yeah, you robbed a bank.
00:12:36.820 So that's, that's called a consequence.
00:12:40.660 Um, your story, because it is fascinating and there's a lot more details that we haven't
00:12:45.240 had time to go into is on your podcast.
00:12:47.760 I mean, a lot of people spend money on IVF.
00:12:49.960 Not everybody robs a bank.
00:12:51.360 So if it was up to me, I would stamp Naseki and I would, I would let in instead, I would,
00:12:57.740 I would let in the, the guy that's been here illegally for 20 years and hasn't committed
00:13:02.880 crimes.
00:13:03.540 Well, I guess it is a crime, but you guys see what I mean?
00:13:06.060 The severity, like I would prefer someone that's been here illegally and has not committed
00:13:11.300 a crime over somebody that was here illegally and committed a crime.
00:13:15.160 I'd prefer neither.
00:13:17.060 I think I'm catch 22-ing myself because that is a crime, but one is far worse, right?
00:13:22.800 Anyways, let me know what you guys think.
00:13:25.080 Although, because you do, you are robbing Americans of their tax dollars because we all
00:13:32.160 got to pay for, you know what?
00:13:33.800 I'll take neither.
00:13:35.140 Anyways, guys, like the video on your way out.
00:13:37.640 Subscribe to the channel.
00:13:38.980 Bring the notification bell and I'll see you.
00:13:40.700 Bye-bye.