Original subtitles

We didn't know how the McDonald's Monopoly game was fixed.

So inside the wire room, people sitting there getting ready to listen, and

nothing happened.

The FBI started coming up with, how do we get past winners to recount how they

allegedly won these pieces?

Locking them into a story on camera takes a B -minus case and makes it a A

case.

For a while, the question was, who is Uncle Jerry?

We were looking into Jerry Jacobson. We thought this may be the main guy.

But there was always this inference that Uncle Jerry somehow connected to

organized crime. We found out that there was another Jerry involved named Jerry

Colombo. My husband, he was part of the Colombo crime family. My Jerry and Jerry

Jacobson became partners on the mineral plating.

My husband picked the winners.

Can you spell that?

Jerry, Jerry.

Uncle Jerry is Jerome Jacobson, my husband. He got a lot of my family

involved. And that isn't all. That was just a little piece of the pie.

Cookie, where's Oliver?

Oliver,

come on.

I helped pick the winners.

I gave them tickets to some friends of mine and family members who needed it.

I wanted them happy, so...

I gave him things.

I was going to get the million dollars, but I gave it to my father.

And maybe if certain things never happened,

this would not play a thing. But it would still be going on today.

It's true.

With Shamrock Productions and the quote -unquote reunion of winners, I think

some of them are pretty legendary in terms of what was captured on film.

Like Buddy Fisher and Mr. Hoover.

Gloria Brown was an instant million dollar winner.

She had won in South Carolina.

Gloria had said her address was in the Hilton Head area of South Carolina, but

she was from Jacksonville, Florida.

There was always something that I was trying to drive out. I was trying to

expand the BS that they were trying to put out there. Because I know...

AUSA Devereaux needs a ground ball.

Boy needs something easy.

I'm kidding. He's good at his job.

So when you were in South Carolina, what kind of work did you do there?

Well, I was unemployed at that time. But I am a social worker. I just was taking

a break from stress.

I'm not doing it anymore, thank God.

So you were a social worker here.

Now, did you have family up in South Carolina or something? Why did you move

there? Most of my family is here. I had a friend, personal friend, and another

friend, a couple of friends there that basically what I was doing was a lot of

visiting, job searching at that time, so, you know, trying to relocate. One

thing that struck me was that Ms. Brown wasn't as open and friendly as Mr.

Hoover was.

She seemed to be on guard, whether or not she suspected something was

awry or not. She just wasn't as forthcoming.

What I'd like you to do, Gloria, is take us through what a normal day was for

you in Hillhead.

And we want to basically tell them that she's a regular.

Yeah, yeah.

It's a family play. Yeah, yeah.

Well, in Hilton Head, you know, during that time I was, you know, living with a

friend, of course, and trying to job hunt. And right now I have my own

agenda. You know, I have my patients to care for.

I'm busy. Like today I'm taking a trip, you know.

And day to day I work seven days a week, basically. You know, I'm on call all

the time.

So compared to back then.

And to now, I would say that McDonald's has made it so that I can

just fly without any stress, you know.

So how long did you live up there for?

A little over a year, back and forth.

Many of the winners were saying they lived in one area, but then had a post

office box where they would have their winnings sent to. So they would set up

fake addresses.

And so a lot of the evidence that I was gathering was around where they lived,

exactly what store they won the McDonald's Monopoly piece at.

Doug, anything else we need to get about South Carolina for the story?

So I said, Gloria, do you remember the McDonald's where you went to claim the

prize? Absolutely.

This is a picture. We took a picture of it and put it on this board. And she

said, oh, my God, that's exactly the one.

And I said, you know what? Can you autograph that for us? If you could just

write, thanks, McDonald's. Thanks a million. Oh, that's good. Thanks a

That's good. And then sign it. That would be great.

That picture that she signed, it was not in Hilton Head.

South Carolina was Jacksonville, Florida.

Lori, do you recall the person that you spoke to at the counter when you were

using it?

No, I sure don't.

The fake address was a part of the scheme. And so Rick had this

photo of a McDonald's right there in Jacksonville. And I go, oh, my God,

perfect. So I take it with me. What are you going to do with that? I'm going to

use it.

Wait and see. I'm going to show you.

And as she's doing it, Amy, she's like, oh, my God, that's just,

that's not it.

That's not it. And I'm looking over here. It's starting to get louder.

And I'm like, I'm looking back and do you want that here? I mean, they're

can hear that.

That's perfect. Thank you so much.

That's my love.

Every time I talked to them, they would just lie, lie, lie.

And it was perfect for the FBI because it was really building evidence and

helping them build their case. But we also wanted to make sure that it seemed

like we were having fun because, once again, that's how it would be at a real

shoot. Now, what I want you to do is take us through, like, I got my million

dollars, and I took it to this McDonald's in Hilton Head, South

And it made me, and I want you to stand up real slowly, and I want you to point

to your star.

Okay.

Doug brought a lot of that energy.

Now that sounds cheesy, but it looks good when you put it together. Here you

are. We love doing goofy stuff. We can't help ourselves.

That's typical Matthews. That's what he would do.

Thanks a million, McDonald's.

Look right in the camera and say that.

Thanks a million, McDonald's.

And it was hard sometimes to keep a straight face, to be honest with you.

It was very hard at times because the things we were doing with the light

or the camera and fitting them and fixing them up, we had no idea.

I got my McDonald's Million at Hilton Head in South Carolina, and it made me

a millionaire.

Now, pretty close. Pretty close, okay.

What I figured out at an early age in the Bureau is you push it, and then you

think it, you keep pushing. You never know when you're going to hit a wall.

of course, I never found the bottom. The bottom of the tea glass, right, is

perfect for me.

Just keep going.

And, of course, she did.

Ronald and I will see you

in Vegas.

Thank you, McDonald's.

We knew it was such good evidence, having Gloria sitting here just making

story up and doing it with this sincerity, this fake sincerity.

As a criminal investigator, it was an awesome thing to behold.

There were so many different layers of the conspiracy that we were

investigating.

And the more sophisticated a scheme, the more difficult it is to prosecute the

case. Now you have actual video production that you can show a jury.

That's very powerful.

By this time, literally almost the whole office now, or a big majority of them,

have been diverted to work on what we call Operation Final Answer.

We worked seven days a week on a regular basis.

But at times it did not feel like work. We had great camaraderie between all of

the agents that we're working at, and we knew the mission is what we were trying

to accomplish was a noble one and a good one.

So nobody ever complained about it.

Things were moving fast, and naturally we always want to.

move at our pace. We want to control the timing of things. And we did not have

that luxury. The game was running. There was a clock running on how long we

could keep it a secret.

Throughout this, we were really, really racking up incredible evidence,

discovering new people, proving all different elements of what was going on.

we kind of knew the process of how these were placed. But the one thing that was

still out there was, how is Jerry Jacobson doing this?

That was kind of this nagging, you know, this nagging question mark.

What we had to vet out is who was helping Jerry.

Hilda Bennett was the CPA that would travel with Mr.

Jacobson to these various manufacturing plants, and we didn't know, are they in

cahoots?

On an investigation, you just don't cut somebody out.

And so we had to surveil Miss Bennett as well.

You want your ears?

Yep. I need to get a large coffee with ten

cream and five sugar.

Anything else? Yep, another large coffee with ten cream and five equal.

Okay. That is equal? Yep. Awesome. Thank you.

Have a great day.

Oh, that's perfect.

One time I seen Uncle Jerry was up in Georgia.

My brother went to go visit.

I stayed in the car. I didn't get out of the car because he didn't directly

involve me because he was always trying to protect me.

But giving you a little taste at the same time.

I guess so. Yeah. Yeah.

Uncle Jerry was a middle -aged guy, just normal average height, normal average

build, but size doesn't matter.

Like my dad always used to say, and still does say, as long as this works,

that's all I need, one finger.

And it's the truth. And the family that's backing you. Yeah, and the family

that's backing us. That's a big thing.

Jerome was getting the ticket, but when it came to person to ticket,

I don't think he had the resources to do the big $1 million hits everywhere, so

I think that's where my brother took the reins of everything.

So Uncle Jerry was getting the tickets and selling them to my brother, and then

my brother would sell them to other people, and it was just a, literally, it

a monopoly of scams.

Every ticket was a little different.

The agreement with Uncle Jerry was, depending on the value of the ticket,

million -dollar tickets were going for 50 grand. Uncle Jerry would get the 50,

and then my brother would get half of whoever won. So if they got the payments

for 20 years or so forth, he'd get half, and then the winner would get half. So

it was a better deal for my brother long -term than it was for Uncle Jerry.

I really didn't think much of it because someone had to win.

So in my brother's eyes, it was like, okay, well, instead of Joe Schmo

I'm going to make, you know, John Schmo win.

The money's still going to go somewhere.

They were just redirecting it.

The $1 million ticket was supposed to be our wedding gift. We were married

November 24, 1997.

1996.

1996.

Let's start that over again.

Okay.

But that was going to be our gift, our wedding gift. Free of charge.

We didn't have to buy it.

The McDonald's piece was in one of the little, I guess you'd call them eggs,

like you kids get toys in it, the gumball machines.

It was in there, in the back of the freezer, underneath two ice cube trays.

I remember exactly how it sat.

It was just chilling.

It was just chilling.

I always looked up to my brother. He was my protector, pretty much.

He would always come to visit me and throw me a couple thousand dollars like

was me giving away a couple of dollars to the kids.

This is our son Frankie. He dropped about $150 ,000, and we just decided to

a picture. We thought it was kind of funny.

I was so upset over that picture because it was such dirty money around such a

clean, perfect baby.

It was pretty crazy, but with that comes a price.

Put it this way, Uncle Jerry called my home at least three times a week to tell

Jerry what he had to do next.

He and I would talk, you know, sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes.

And my husband would meet him in Atlanta.

I don't know how many people he hooked up.

It was way more than I thought it was.

My brother had a lot of connections all over the place because he had nightclubs

and certain things that he was doing that I can't really mention because I'm

sure the FBI is going to watch this tape someday.

But there was a lot of things that he was into.

So my brother started, you know, expanding to in -laws and brother -in

friends and friends of friends. And that's how he took this little small

operation and made it huge.

I was working at the airlines in Jacksonville here, and a passenger came

named Colombo.

Right off the bat, he was very personable and a gentleman.

My last name was Italian, so he seemed to take a liking to me.

First thing he said to me was like, hey, here's somebody, go eat, go eat. And I

just thought that was so funny because that's how Italians are.

And it just made me feel at ease with him that this is a good person.

I never knew he was married. I didn't really care because I didn't really have

any relationship on that level, you know, in my mind anyways.

One day we were just driving around and he says, hey, I want to show you

something. So we pulled over.

And he reaches around the back seat and he pulls out the winning pieces. It was

like the whole thing. It's $100 ,000.

And I was like, wow, so many people are trying to win this thing, and you're

sitting here with all four pieces.

You know what I mean?

If you're interested, he says, just walk in McDonald's, and this is what you've

got to do, and this is how it rolls.

He goes, I'll give you $20 ,000 now, and then I'll give you another $10 ,000

later.

And I thought, wow, that's a lot of money.

You know what I mean? I could go buy me a car.

You know, I could go do some stuff, you know. Because by saying, you know, I'm

working at the airlines, what am I making?

You know, $10 an hour?

I was game for something exhilarating.

So he had me fly to Philly.

Being that I'm with the airlines, I can do that.

He picked me up at the airport.

We drove right to McDonald's.

And I didn't even have to think for myself.

You know what I mean? Just follow the script.

And that's exactly what I did.

And I was just like, um, I'm the winner.

And he's like, oh, so you're the winner.

It was just too easy.

But I didn't know the aftermath that was to follow.

I mean, because there were things that nobody knew.

And I just kept it all to myself.

My husband, he picked the winners, but he kept picking Italians on the East

Coast.

They were kind of being stupid about it.

Somebody was bound to get suspicious.

So I told my husband, I've got a friend in Jacksonville.

Bring some women into it and women of color.

My name is Gloria Brown Byard, and I live in Jacksonville. I've been here all

life.

I didn't want to be interviewed anymore. I didn't want to talk to anybody else

about the McDonald's thing.

Because it was all a lie.

I was a McDonald's million -dollar winner.

This is the first time that I really just had the opportunity to just really

just say, okay, I'm going to lay all my cards on the table and tell everything.

I mean, even though my sister was there, she don't know all the details.

I mean, she'll be hearing this for the first time herself, some of this stuff.

I have a son, and I raised him as a single parent.

He, as a child, was very understanding. We had a relationship where if money was

not available, I discussed it with him, and we worked it out together.

I always had to work, and I always managed to keep a job, but it was always

struggle.

Years passed by, and I didn't see Robin for some years. And when she called me,

she told me she had got married.

and thinking maybe now she has somebody that can look out for her. And she was

very happy being with Jerry.

I think it was in 97, Robin had called me and said she had something she wanted

to discuss with me, but we couldn't talk about it over the phone.

So Jerry asked me to come and visit. It was at their home in South Carolina.

My first impression of Jerry Colombo was that he was a real -life comedian type

guy, you know, and he treated me just like I had been around the whole time.

But the thing that bothered me is that there was never any time that she and I

could be alone.

Even when we went shopping, he went shopping with us.

One night I had just said, can you just leave us alone for a few minutes?

Darn, Jerry.

And then he left us alone just for a few minutes and he came back. We were not

allowed to really discuss anything.

Finally, he talked to me about a proposition.

And it was a proposition that would help me.

He asked me, was I familiar with the McDonald's game piece?

I said, yes.

So he said,

People are picked to be winners.

This is how it's always been done.

And then he told me that he would let me know what the next step was.

When I first got the offer, I thought to myself that there

was a blessing that came knocking at my door.

You know, I was going to church, and I was trying to do the right thing.

And my son was young, and I was making

probably about $24 ,000 a year.

By the time taxes and stuff come out, it's really nothing.

And I just wanted a better life, and I just felt like this was my opportunity.

And I said, well.

This couldn't come to me if it wasn't meant for me.

My brother was always joking around, always making people laugh, always

good time, very lighthearted.

But if you pissed him off, then he can have a temper as well.

But he never was the type of person who would grab you or, you know, threaten

you or rough you up.

You knew if he looked at you and he told you exactly what he wanted you to do.

You knew you had to do it.

The whole relationship changed.

It got to the point that I didn't talk to Robin anymore.

I only talked to Jerry Colombo.

And I finally got the information from him that I was going to be a million

-dollar winner and that he needed me to come up with some money.

And I'm asking him why. Then he said, everybody that wins has to give some

upfront money.

I'm like, how much?

And he asked me, how much can I come up with? I said, I really don't have any

money. So he said, can you get money off your house?

Came back out now. He's told me too much.

I mortgaged my home to get my upfront money.

I put all the stuff I worked hard for on the line because I believed that this

was mine.

I met him on the side of the road and gave him my first portion of my money.

It felt like something had just been ripped from me.

You know, to meet somebody on the side of the road and give them cash money

much at one time, that's more than I ever had in my hand at one time in my

and I just had to give it all away.

I just felt that I just had gave my life away, and I'm giving it to somebody I

don't know much about.

Can I even trust this guy, you know?

Before my husband was working the Monopoly fraud game, we had my son,

Gennaro Colombo.

I

was

at times really very happy.

Son, I had some money. I should have at least been having a good time.

But I was never satisfied, ever.

I went from home to home thinking that one was going to make it better. You

don't have friends. You can't bring friends in that lifestyle.

Even though I adored my husband, I found out I had a mistress on the side, which

I guess is a prerequisite.

Italian gangster to have a mistress.

I was walking down the hallway to check on Frankie while he was sleeping, and I

heard my husband on the telephone saying some

unsavory words to her.

And I barged in. I said, who the hell are you talking to? And I took the phone

from him.

And I took it and I slammed it across his face.

They did get in a lot of fights.

She would say a lot of mean, nasty things to him. She was very abusive as

physical slapping and so forth and so on.

Robin would just try swinging and clawing at him. He would grab her hand

say, stop, stop, stop it.

Anytime I threatened to leave him, Uncle Jerry would step in.

10, 15 grand, buy me a car, whatever to appease me.

And so I wouldn't leave.

My brother was always making money, and he was never home.

He always had an excuse to go somewhere, to go on a business trip, to be

somewhere.

So I knew he wasn't happy.

During the Monopoly situation, my brother wanted to open up a club in

County, South Carolina.

I believe he was trying to get away from the life of crime and he was trying to

make a legitimate business.

So he opened up a place called the Fuzzy Bunny. The Fuzzy Bunny opened its doors

just a half hour ago, opening the doors to a steamy controversy.

Grinnell? Well, Debbie, we are here at the Fuzzy Bunny, which is located on

Highway 78 in Royal, just down the road from the fairgrounds in Lassen. And the

entertainment and the dancing have begun here at the club.

He had some dancers. They were wearing bikini tops and panties and shorts.

He was not full nudity. He wasn't full nudity. He wanted to do classy places.

He had his morals.

Yeah, he had his morals.

I got girls in daisy dukes, tops.

I got volleyball courts being built outside.

We have live concerts here on weekends.

And basically, that's about it, really. He wanted to make, like, a gentleman's

club. And his goal was to open up four or five of these all through Hilton Head

in North and South Carolina.

The county kept on fighting him and fighting him and fighting him.

They kept on shutting him down for this permit, that permit.

That's not going to stop you from... That's not going to stop us. My attorney

told me, I mean, whatever we got to do, we're going to do.

I mean, I'm out here trying to earn a living for my family just like you are,

and that's it. I was proud of him for actually doing something legal for once.

One time he tried to do something legit.

Right? Some people have already trickled into the establishment here. Coming

soon.

Fuzzy bunnies. I hate it so much.

And I told my husband, I said, I know you.

You couldn't just open a club.

You have to try them out.

And I told him to stop.

There is an existing court order where the club cannot be opened.

Three months later, I thought he had sold it or whatever, so no more Fuzzy

Bunny.

And then one night, my son and I went out to dinner. He was like two, about

years old. We're driving down the road, and I pass Fuzzy Bunny.

And I looked, and there's a bunch of guys, and I'm like, damn, there's my

I got a little closer, and I said, and there's my big fat husband. And I turned

around, and I jumped up on the curb, and I went, oh!

And Jerry, he was sitting back, a big fat cat on the phone.

And I just punched him right in the jaw.

I said, you are so divorced.

All the guys were just standing there and just staring.

And I said, you're going down.

Oh, you mother.

Oscars are going down. Every single one of you. I'm going to the FBI.

I said, I'm going to the Witness Protection Program.

I said, so just watch out.

So I go to a pay phone. I call my parents.

And I said, Mom, I need you to take two names down.

She goes, what the hell have you done? I said, well, I just threatened 30 goons

with the FBI.

So if you don't hear from me in a couple days, you will have to contact them and

give them these names.

And Uncle Jerry was on that list.

They beat me home, my husband and two big -ass goons.

And I said, this is what I want. I want a moving truck here and a divorce.

He goes, Robin, you're never leaving me.

There is no divorce.

You're stuck with me.

So I called Uncle Jerry.

And he says, you married the wrong guy.

And he asked me to marry him.

Yeah. Hold on.

Really?

Yeah.

And I told him, no.

And I thought, you know, I'm never going to get out of this.

So I stayed.

But I was a prisoner in my own home.

Derek Colombo told me that I had to have a South Carolina address.

And he had a cousin.

that lived at this particular spot, and this was going to be my address.

And at that point, I'm like, oh, gosh.

This isn't what I was expecting.

He coached me on some things that I needed to say and work on and believe.

I had to leave my voice on the voicemail as if it was my home.

He made me do it till I got it right.

He wanted the right tone, you know. It had to be happy.

One of the things that constantly crossed my mind is that my life was in

I had no other option but to take this process through.

Robert knew all of my family and my son.

I just kind of felt like I was trapped.

It was no way out but to go through it.

When time to turn the game piece in, he picked me up. Two men.

Didn't know either one of them.

I almost felt kidnapped in a sense. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you're

here, and you're going to ride with us, and you're going to do what we say.

And you're going to do it right.

All the way there, Jerry Colombo never stopped talking.

They're telling me what to do and what you're going to say. I mean, he was just

drilling me. How are you going to do it?

And they drove me to the McDonald's that they had picked out that I was going to

go to.

They parked the car in the corner.

The ticket was in a little valve about this tall with a cap on it.

There I was, walking down this block in a place I had never been before.

I was like... Bank robbery or something, you know, they're on the block down

there. They don't want to be seen. They're down the street, the getaway

And I'm like, oh, Lord, this could go so bad.

A lot of things are going through my mind.

Am I going to lie enough to be believable?

Am I going to mess up and then I'm in trouble?

It's all kind of stuff that's going around. Am I going to jail today behind

foolishness?

And at this point in time, I was kind of panicked.

And I'm saying to myself, oh, Lord, Jesus.

I wanted to cry before I got into the place.

And I said, no, you can't go in there upset.

I had not be Gloria at that time. I had to become somebody else to make it

believable.

Here we go.

And I had to go in and stand to this counter and tell them that it looked

I'd been a wimp.

The managers came out. They have a seat.

And I had to give them my information, the fake telephone number, the fake

address.

and then they finally came out and congratulated me.

The manager at the McDonald's, the cashiers, everybody running around so

that they got the winner come to their McDonald's.

And there I was. I couldn't even hardly put a smile on my face.

By the time I got to the car, got back to the car, Jerry Colombo was having a

fit because it took too long.

And there he was, as soon as I get in the car, okay, well, what you get on?

And I had to explain to him, well, what were you doing all that time?

I was sitting waiting, you know.

What did they tell you?

So they told me they'd be getting back with me.

I hung around another day, and then I came on my bike to Jacksonville and went

back to work.

Like nothing had happened, and I just had to wait.

My brother would use loopholes after loophole after loophole, and they

came up with one that was saying you can't have female dancers within a

feet of a school or something of that nature, what it was.

So... He turned the Fuzzy Bunny into the Church of Fuzzy Bunny. The Church of

Fuzzy Bunnies. The Church of Fuzzy Bunnies. The transformation of their

into a church. Dancing girls, alcoholic drinks, and the Bible.

Low country preachers say the switch from Fuzzy Bunny Club to Fuzzy Bunny

is nothing but blasphemy.

I really honestly didn't see the big deal in it. I'll be honest with you,

I swear.

And I mean, I'm a woman, but I really didn't see the huge deal. Those two

mix, as far as I'm concerned. Church and strip joints just don't mix.

They can't fool people.

No good people is going to be going in that place.

I don't see nothing. We're having a place where you can come in, say a few

prayers, have a couple drinks, see some women dancing.

He liked to be the center of attention.

And if you messed with him, he would just play that game as long as it took.

Marianne, you're next on the line with Jerry Colombo. Go ahead.

Go ahead, Marianne.

Yes, I think what you're doing is abomination to God, and it's wrong

in the eyes of God, and really it's wrong in morals, too.

All right. Thank you.

Well, I guess God hasn't talked to you lately. He came to me in a dream a

weeks ago, and he told me what I'm doing is fine.

You say that with somewhat of a smirk on your face. I mean, you had to have. I

did have a dream one night.

That's why. Why, we all have dreams. I don't know if it's divine or religion.

This one was divine.

We never went.

No. No. It sounded like a fun time, though.

I mean, a little prayer, a little pasty. Right?

Now, all the publicity that has come out of the situation with Fuzzy Bunnies has

earned owner Jerry Colombo notice from the National Enquirer, Comedy Central,

the cable channel, and this Friday, he has a scheduled guest appearance for the

David Letterman Show.

Do you think that Jerome Jacobson was angry at your Jerry for the attention

he was getting for it? Oh, yeah.

Yes.

Jerry Colombo won a Dodge Viper. Jerry Colombo. Jerry Colombo. Jerry Colombo.

Jerry Colombo. Jerry Colombo.

This

is

my... First letter of congratulation.

They're congratulating me for being a million -dollar winner and explaining to

me that I'll be getting $50 ,000 for the next 20 years.

The check came in the mail, which that went to my fake address, and Jerry

brought it to me. And I told him I deposited the check, and then he said,

didn't get any cash off of it?

I'm like, no, they got to put a hold on it. During that time, my bank account

was always low.

So I had to go back to the bank and insist on getting something.

So I got $2 ,000, and I gave it to him. When it did clear, he was

calling me to add to the $2 ,000 and make it $25 ,000.

So I just took the money and gave it to him.

Ask any questions.

He worked out a deal where what I had, he took.

And for the first five years, I had to give them, give

Jerry Colombo $25 ,000.

Nothing changed for me. I never acted like I had money.

Because I was in a deeper hole than what I was before I did it.

Took my mortgage up higher, of course. And I went from paying $300 and

a month to $1 ,000.

So I was like, that's when I found out about the taxes.

Jerry Colombo got $25 ,000 each time before taxes.

I didn't go out and buy anything.

I couldn't buy anything.

I was so stressed.

Well, Jerry Colombo always had to consult with the head man.

Let me call Uncle Jerry.

Uncle Jerry is being reported to about everything.

During that time, I felt like Uncle Jerry was the main mob man.

But then that first year, McDonald's wanted me to do.

All this publicity, but I just couldn't get into it.

Jerry Colombo's thing was, they want you to advertise because you are the first

black.

And you're a female.

And you got a million dollars.

And I'm saying to myself, yeah, but I don't want to keep talking to people and

telling people this story over and over and over and over and over.

But... He said that we had to do this.

We stayed in the Four Seasons.

I think that was the first time I ever had the opportunity to just order what I

want off the menu and not worry about a tab.

And I came in here, and the girls took so long to come out, I said, this must

real.

So, you know, it just all just began to set in.

I just don't know how to describe it. It's indescribable.

The best part about it, the whole thing, is that I got a chance to meet Chairman

Hensley.

The marketing company, they had a big celebration.

It was something like a promotion type thing. And Jerry Colombo said, Uncle

Jerry's going to be in the audience.

And I'm like, oh my God.

So they had this big text for me to hold and take a picture.

And then they say, speak.

I'm like, here I go.

More live.

I was kind of out of it. I could hear the cameras going.

The whole time I'm thinking about this mob man in the audience.

Never seen a picture of him.

Didn't know who I was looking for, but I kept looking to see which one it could

be.

After that, I finally just told him, I don't want to do anything else.

Don't put me out to do anything else.

Jerry Colombo said, Uncle Jerry was in the crowd.

He said, you did great.

It's just little things like that that made sure I guess I stayed on my toes

did what I needed to do and do it proper.

So I was still under that web the whole time.

I didn't know where to turn. I didn't know what to do. There's just really no

way out of it.

And I said to myself, now what's next?

As soon as I got that check, things changed.

I'm in his car, and we're going to this bank.

Went in to get the check cash right there.

And all the money went right to Jerry's hand.

The teller said to me, he said, get that money.

$50 ,000 taxes on that.

Make sure you get that.

But I didn't think anything of it.

It just kind of, you go numb. There's just no thought.

And that's kind of how I felt, I think, with that money, because it's not mine.

He said that he had to go to Uncle Jerry first.

Give him his piece of pie, and then everybody gets a piece of pie.

And it has to go, you know, in that order before I can get my money.

So I kept calling him and calling him, and he was like, call me back, say I'm

going to get the money for you. I got the money on me.

It's going to be like another week or whatever. He just kept putting me off.

I heard the difference in his voice.

Like, don't bug me. You're going to get your money.

I believed that Gennaro owed Uncle Jerry money.

I believed the money got too big to not take a

bigger piece of that pie because the spending habit became bigger and

And I'm thinking, okay, that's why I'm not getting my money.

You know,

it's a small town.

It's a cute town.

I love it.

You could ask any number of people what would drive you to do

what these people did.

And the first one I peeled off, I believe, was Pennsylvania Avenue. And

second one I peeled off was a million -dollar instant prize winner. And it was

like, wow, is this for real?

A lot of this is stealing money.

using a device to do it and tricking somebody into it, and then two or more

that, that's a conspiracy. Debra was going to be so happy I said that.

But more than that.

Breakfast sandwich.

Yeah, that's what it was, a breakfast sandwich. A lot of them are good people.

They make bad decisions, whether it be they have fallen into a financial

and they hear a nice way to get out of it.

That's your motivation. Okay, I'm going to do it because, you know, I need money

for my kids' health or school or I'm going to retire.

Human nature makes us do different things.

People want to justify what they did or why they did it so they can really live

with themselves.

Everyone, everyone watching this show.

cannot stand in front of a mirror, look at themselves in the eyes, and say

they've never done something that they wish they could correct and take back.

A couple of years later, I had this company that was calling me on a regular

basis trying to get me to come on this trip.

I was very reluctant, but they kept saying it was for all the winners.

They want to find out where we are now, what we're doing, you know, just a

follow -up.

A lot of the stuff I just wanted to block out and just forget it.

And we just kind of went in and laughed and talked.

You know, it just tried to make me feel comfortable, but I never felt

comfortable about this whole thing.

Somebody asked me a question from over on this side.

Somebody asked me a question from over on this side. That's when I knew that

something wasn't right.

I was about to get sick to the stomach because I knew.

And I was trying to cut them short, and they wouldn't stop asking me questions.

So did you, when did you decide to move back to Jacksonville? I feel like an

interrogation went on because when I came, when I was in there, I was like, I

could feel my adrenaline building a little bit because I knew

that it was, that they wasn't asking me questions.

The questions they was asking me was to just get it on record how I spent the

money.

But I felt it.

That feeling is something else.

Okay, let's rehearse it. And just talk to the camera. Okay, okay.

You can do it slow because this is like a rehearsal. Go ahead.

Did you have fun with the other corporations?

It might have been.

But you're about to deprive someone of their freedom, you know, their future,

everything from family.

It's not meant to be that.

that kind of fun for us at all it's not fun at all to deprive liberty to someone

we just walked out of there and i was kind of numb walking out the door like

this is it something is going to happen from this

It wasn't much longer after the fuzzy bunny situation.

I got real depressed.

I didn't eat.

I was just so distraught. Then I got mad.

I looked over at him, and I told him about Uncle Jerry.

I said, you know, he asked me to marry him. As soon as I said the word, I was

sorry.

Because I could tell it was a real thing.

Because at first I thought, this could be a setup.

You know, maybe they were trying to find out my loyalty, and it wasn't a setup.

And so he went and cut Uncle Jerry out.

The next day, we're driving down the road.

Jerry's in the passenger seat.

I'm driving.

Frankie's crying in the car seat.

It's bothering Jerry more than it is me.

And we got in an argument.

And so he says, Rob, I've got to put him down,

lay him down.

It's enough.

And so he took him out of his car seat.

And I'm like, God, Jerry, come on.

And a little teardrop came down my face, and I thought, you know, I'm never

going to get out of this.

He is not some sweet little old man. He's a freaking gangster.

I was not sure if the accident was an accident. It could have been a possible

hit. Things were getting really ugly.

Operation Final Answer was moving fast.

Everything was on the table.

So we thought, well, how much bigger can this get? And it would get bigger. How

much further back could it go? And it would go back further.

One of my biggest regrets has been involving this McDonald's thing.

you can get away with something over and over and over you only got to be caught

once