Cocaine Bear

Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Alright, welcome back.

Hi. Hi. How are we? We are surviving.

And thriving. Are we? You know, Hailey asked me to show up for class this week. Oh, yes.

And it was great. You took our job. Thank you. I enjoyed it.

I had hoped that my kid would sleep. And I kept rushing him off a little bit. And I was like, okay, now you can play in your room until you feel ready to go to sleep and then turn off your light and go to bed. Okay.

I was like, mom, how did you guys do this? Educate young minds. Yes, mom has to go educate other young minds as opposed to just yours. These are college students.

I think they enjoyed it. They needed that information to be provided. Like a therapy perspective. Yes, yes.

I mean, I didn't get into CBT and EMDR and all the different modalities. But still, it's all the same. It was good. And every Thursday, I teach a trauma-focused class.

Yeah. So then you guys are coming to join me on Tuesday night for class? I did some late nights last week. And I'm pretty darn old, so that was sometimes a challenge.

But nonetheless, happy to do it. Well, last week was our first full week since Christmas break that we were in school. Oh, we got snow. We had snow.

We had Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We had all kinds of stuff. But we are back at my house.

In the podcast room, my dog is out and about. So if you hear a strange noise, it's not the demon in the basement. It's just Kelly. I mean, this is kind of a blast in the past.

It brings us back to like early 2021 episodes. Yeah. Yeah. I just heard her growl at the people walking down the street.

So I was like, oh, man, it's time. She's blossoming. She is. She should chill, hopefully.

Well, until she hears some of the story and it might get a riled up. It's because, correct me if I'm wrong, but you had texted me that you were doing a story about a cocaine there? Yeah. Is this a bear on cocaine?

It was. Yeah. There's layers on layers here. Sounds like some kind of, it really does sound like some kind of test subject or something.

Yeah. And there's a movie coming out soon, I think, like this, maybe this month. Called the cocaine bear. Called the cocaine bear.

And it is loosely based on this story. I think it's more about the bear being on cocaine and like rampaging through the town, but that's not what happened. Crack is whack. But it's smoky.

We are getting into like the story of how the bear came to find the cocaine. As bears sometimes do. I mean, well, when you're rummaging through the garbage, you're likely to find anything. You're likely to like, no use needles or anything.

Right now. He's not hitting up heroin tying himself off. Well, and I had like heard of this thing, this cocaine bear before. And then I was taking the dog for a walk their date, listening to my favorite murder, the podcast, and they covered this story on there.

And I didn't realize how close it was to us that this happened, like in Appalachia. Well, that seems appropriate. And I was like, well, duh. I mean, cocaine bears.

We got it all. I know. So if you want to listen to their episode, I don't know which episode it was that they did it on, but I'm sure it will be much. Only you can prevent drug addicts.

Sorry. Okay. We know we're not doing an excellent job at that. Well, only you can prevent the forest fires too.

Yeah. We do. There you go. Okay.

So I'm dropping rolls. Oh, he does roll. Oh, that's a different type of thing. It could be laced with crack though.

It might be. All right. Sorry. That's all good.

So we're going to go back to the 60s to talk about this whole incident happened in the 80s. We're going to be like a 20 year span here. All right. A crime in mayhem.

Okay. Let's do it. All right. Andrew Carter Thornton the second grew up living a pretty privilege life.

He attended Sayer, which is a private elementary school in Lexington, Kentucky, and then Suwani. Suani? Maybe? Suani?

Military Academy? In Tennessee. After graduating in 1962, he joined ROTC and attended one semester at the University of Kentucky. So I decided to go into try that college life.

Turns out it didn't really like it. And he quit school after that one semester to join the army. Which is, you know, noble business. Very much so.

He trained as a paratrooper for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and was supposedly awarded a Purple Heart in the 1965 US invasion of the Dominican Republic. I did not know that we invaded the Dominican Republic. Apparently we did. Interesting.

I mean, we are the US. We do, you know, invade lots of things. Well, you were saying this is the 60-60-62, 63. So, you know, we're talking about like Cuban Missile Crisis Bmpigs.

We're also talking about Bylate 63 Vietnam. So, you know, there are reasons. Anyway, go ahead. Okay.

So, after this, his life kind of took some different paths. We explored some different options. He attended college again in 1966, but then dropped out. He worked for his father training resources.

His father was a pretty big, I think, jockey and also had horses because it's Kentucky and that's like what you do in Kentucky. Which is super cool. He then joined the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Police Department. It's a long word.

Sure is. In 1968 and at night he attended Eastern Kentucky University and received his degree in law enforcement in 1971. Well, that's awesome. So, he kind of found his niche.

Yes. As a policeman, he went by Drew at this point. And Drew drew. He would arrest University of Kentucky students who were protesting the Vietnam War.

So, he was kind of part of that crew. In the early 1970s, he became a member of the Lexington Police Department's first narcotic squad and worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration's regional office in Louisville. So, DEA, we're coming in and going. I think they stayed busy.

Yeah. So, the 70s. Oh, yeah. Drugs.

The South. Rock and roll. Yeah. All kinds of good time for all.

Yeah, it's just what it is. That's what it is. No, no, no, no. So, one of his former DA agent cohorts, this guy named Larry Laken.

Oh, I like the retaliation. Right. So, he said this about Drew. He said DA worked with Drew on many occasions in narcotics and sometimes on a weekly basis.

So, they were really tight. Like he wasn't a part of, like he wasn't a DEA agent, but he was working close to them. Right. In partnership.

Right. So, this kind of affiliation between Zorton and the DEA really is going to speak a lot later as to how we got to cocaine bear. So, this is all important information. DA agent Robert Brightwell says that he worked with Thornton on narcotics investigations in the early 70s, described him as a 007 paramilitary type personality.

He said he was an adventurer driven by adrenaline rushes who became bored with the end of the cop. Oh, here's bear cocaine there. He said 007. Yeah.

Even though it wasn't him, it was the bear, but nonetheless. Right. So, we're kind of getting an idea of what Drew Thornton was like. You know, he's the ex-military, like I'm adventure.

Shakin' not stood cooler than I actually am, kind of thing. Yeah. So, he then attended Law School at night. Wow.

And received his law degree in 1976. This guy who in the 60s was like school isn't for me. And so, maybe he started for taking us some drugs and was like, let's get this fit. Well, I'll be honest.

I mean, you know, maybe he had a little ADHD and he took some things that helped him focus and, you know, pretty soon, you know, quailudes. We don't know. Yep. Very popular in the 70s.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So, we finished that degree in 1976 and then he joined a law firm in Lexington with an old friend, Harold Sloan, but he actually never practiced law, which is probably a good thing. I was gonna say, Sloan, Thornton and Cocaine Bear.

That sounds like a really great, really great partnership. Yeah. It was, it would have been, you know, legendary 100%. So, he was this daring pilot.

He still flew planes periodically. Was it Master of Martial Arts, expert skydiver. And he was pretty famous among other skydivers for pulling low, which means that you released the parachute at or below 2000 feet. That's good.

I had a whole inappropriate. All right. Well, whatever. I don't know much about skydiving, but I can't say I do either.

I feel like 2000 feet is really not that far. We say that because we're standing on the ground. Well, how many feet a mile? I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. 5,000.

I'll look at 100 and 84. Don't make up stuff. I feel like that's right. How many feet in a mile?

I'm gonna look this up. Just, you know, give me a second to get the old Google going. I'm waiting. Yeah.

Because I invested. Okay. So 5,280. Okay.

I don't know why I said four. Yeah. So that's 280. So that's close.

So that's like half a mile. Yeah. Which, when you're falling from the sky, feels like not enough time. That's no.

Like, I easily walk. When I get home from work, I take my dog for a walk. It's about half a mile. And it takes me what?

Not very long to walk half a mile. Yeah. Well, and when you have the rush, proportions, and you get it, and it depends on the wind and all those things. So yeah, that's that's that's okay.

All right. So we're kind of going back a little bit to get some more background information. He actually married a Betty Zering in July of 1968. And Zering describes him as being, you know, a loving, supportive, and gentle husband.

And she said that he loved her, but also resented having a wife, which kind of contradicts a little bit as a policeman, Thornton would meet, quote, with mafia hit men from Detroit, who had contracts on him is what she says. To me, sounds like he's a little bit of a pathological liar. It was like telling her all this stuff. Telling her that to scare her or he also could be, you know, he has women on the side and he was having affairs.

So he's like, making up stuff? Yeah. Or it could have been this guy's like crazy. So very well could have been like a thing.

Could have been such a gentle lover. Right. It's a gentle man. Also, he hates me.

Yeah. So she said, you know, they both realized that it wasn't really a life that she felt comfortable living. Yeah. Yeah.

So and she said, though, closer that he moved towards this kind of James Bond character that he was making for himself, the less she was able to relate to him. Andrithilton. Yeah. So she didn't really want to be involved in that whole thing.

So I think kind of split ways. You can see that. How long were they married for? I don't think very long.

I think, yeah. 19, they divorced in 1970. Oh, so many years. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So he had apparently been telling her these like horror stories about these military operations in Vietnam. And just I think he probably had some PTSD stuff going on.

But it also sounds like he wanted to make himself more than he was. Yeah. Yeah. So they divorced in 1970.

Like apparently neither of them remarried. Lots of bummer. So but hey, you know, live free and single. Yeah.

It wants to be tied down. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And she said they did keep in touch and that he always made sure that she had whatever she needed. That's really nice. I guess he was still, it wasn't angry. I just financially supporting her in a way.

Good. There we go. Great. Okay.

So he was super independent now was like, okay, I don't have the wife. I'm gonna just do this kind of James Bond thing. He really believed that in society, the only way you could be successful was to have these like perfect survival skills and be confident in self defense, which is not a bad thing. Yeah.

Where it gets a little wild though is that he then started thinking that we were really headed towards a nuclear holocaust is what he called it. No, no. He was stockpiling paramilitary weapons, some freeze dried foods, gold coins, war camouflage fatigues with swastikas. Oh, no, we don't like that.

No, no, no, no, no. We're some bullet proof vests. Really was talking about, you know, going for an eye for an eye. Oh, no.

So we're really just deteriorating left and right. I mean, the swastikas really just send us over the edge there. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh dear. Not great. No, this was not gonna end well.

No. So he considered himself a freelance military advisor and decided that citing with anti-communists around the world was the move that he was gonna make. So he was real into the Salvadorian government, the Nicaraguan Contras and South African industrialists. He was like, these are the ones.

He is the guy that the CIA is watching. He's, you know, oh yeah, he's on the list. All the list. Yes.

They're tapping his phone. Yes. He's doing things because he is scary. All right.

Yeah. So through the years, he becomes increasingly paranoid. Yes, because usually that doesn't get better unless you have active mental health support. Correct.

Yeah. But she did not. So he surrounded triad, which is this isolated just mine county farm that he owned, I think in Kentucky. So with like razor wire, he set up barracks and started digging trenches on his property, which like do whatever you want on your property.

If it's just you, like if you want to build all the stuff for yourself, fine. Do what you want. But his farm, according to the Kentucky State Police, was subject to aerial and ground surveillance several times. Following reports that Thornton was operating a guerrilla warfare training camp for mercenaries.

I mean, where else can you find it? I, you know, it's just right there. It's your neighbor. Yeah.

I don't think Randy the guard jack would go for that. I don't think so. If I would go for that. That if I told Randy that we were setting up a guerrilla warfare training camp, I don't think he would let me back on the property.

No, I don't think so. I think I would say, I know she's, I know she's one of the therapists, but I just don't know. Sounds therapeutic to me. I don't know about that.

Randy at the guard check. Maybe you want to be part of it. He might. I mean, he's kind of a tough looking dude.

He's got a gun. I mean, you know, he could make someone down for like a guard shack. Randy looks like he could we actually wasn't the military. He was.

So yeah, he's got to get a little so we can get part of why we hired him. Yeah. So I mean, he'll be ready and we'll be ready and we'll be ready to attack. Our trenches.

Yes. Teach my son about living in the trench warfare. I pay the mortgage on the big old house and I'm in a trench and we're just in the trench in the backyard. My neighbors will be like, really?

Yeah, you got like close neighbors. I do. Yeah. So I look out their window.

I'm like, what are they doing? Exactly. Meanwhile, you know, they're out mowing their lawns and they'll be like, why is she doing it? Oh Lord.

Another trench. Another trench. No, I didn't know. That's not me.

No. But it was good old Drew. He was real into it. Yeah.

So a retired Kentucky state police officer named Sergeant Ralph Ross. Again, there's a liberation. Ralph Ross. He was formerly in charge of the state's intelligence division.

So he was like, really the one monitoring all of this stuff. And apparently, Thornton, you know, consistently told this guy like, there's nothing illegal going on. Of course he was. What would he admit to see, you know, he's like, yeah, we're, we've got illegal weapons and drugs.

But no, he was like, no, that was good. So this coming up for years. And Thornton really was like, you know what, we have to prepare, you know, not only myself, but everybody else for Armageddon because it's coming. His big problems though really began in 1981 with the arrest of one of his connections from back when he was living this like real privileged life.

Bradley Bryant. Again, yeah. So let's talk a little about Bryant. So Bryant was also from Kentucky, a native person involved in the the horse race scene.

He was a grandson of a Lexington mayor and him and Thornton were lifelong friends. They traveled in these same social circles. They attended that Swanney military academy together. So went through, I think that's like a high school type situation.

I don't really know. Bryant had actually been the best man at Thornton's wedding. And in 1977, Bryant formed a private security company called Executive Protection Limited. And he recruited police from around the United States.

And Thornton resigned from the Lexington police force that year in 1977 and joined Bryant in this new private security thing, which was kind of feeding into this like, I'm a free agent. I could do whatever. So in 1981, Bryant was arrested in a hotel in Philadelphia when made smelled marijuana smoke coming from his room. And Bryant's possession at the time of his arrest was, you know, all kinds of stuff.

He had semi-automatic weapons, disguises, more than 10 fraudulent Kentucky driver's license and over $22,000 in cash. That doesn't look suspicious at all. His notebook contained the names and addresses of several Lexington men, including Thornton, as well as reference to a planned operation with names such as Bluefin. So they're doing these like weird, like clandestine meetings and paintings.

Did they have targets? I don't know, I guess. Okay. So Bryant then told police he was involved in that clandestine CIA assignment, which like, the CIA is like, we don't claim to go.

No, no, no. He did later, you know, say that he was not part of that operation. But he did say he was so part of the CIA. Okay, you think whatever you want to go for within days of his arrest, though, several federal agencies joined this investigation because they were like, what the heck is going on here?

And after a month, a few months later, actually, not just a month, several months, about 25 individuals were indicted in Fresno, California, and charged with conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana and to steal government property from the China Lake Naval Base. So there's so many ambitious things happening, like they're not bad at what they're doing. Can't say they are. I mean, but it's just weird.

But you know, to be tripped up, why would you be so stupid to light up in your hotel room? Like, I mean, something so small brings you down. Yeah, just brought down this whole opportunity. Yeah.

Really stupid. Yeah. So Thornton was one of nine Kentucky men. So there's a lot of people from Kentucky involved in this thing.

That wasn't indicted on this. And, you know, there were hints that a larger drug smuggling conspiracy existed. And he was actually charged with piloting into the Lexington airport a DC four, which I think is a type of plane, loaded with tons of marijuana. So he was, you know, the pilot of the operation, it sounds like.

Thornton remained a fugitive for several months. But after US Customs Agency's a 56 foot converted mind sleeper, I don't really know what that is, but it was carrying 1500 pounds of marijuana off of Louisiana coast. I want to say it's a boat. They discovered that a machine gun on board belonged to Thornton and this intensified the search because they're like, well, now he has access to large weapons.

It is a ship or aircraft equipped for detecting and removing or destroying tethered explosive mines. So wonder how they got access to that? Who knows money and drugs? That's how you do it.

Yeah. So after he was caught, so they found a catch up to him in the catch him. I don't know where, but somehow they catch him. US Marshals transported him to Fresno for his arraignment, where he posted $75,000 in cash and a $1 million personal security bond.

And he secured that by his interest in three race horses. So like he's not fangs everywhere. Oh, no, no problem. I'll just move my money around.

Right. He's good. So he returned Kentucky to a wait trial on February 27th in 1982. This was three days before he was scheduled to appear for hearing in Fresno.

Thornton was shot twice in the chest at close range as he was leaving a Lexington restaurant. Wait, didn't he have his bulletproof vest on? Please hold. The 38 caliber bullets didn't penetrate his bulletproof vest.

Yes. And please concluded that the shooting had actually been staged by Thornton to try to persuade the California judge that his life would be endangered. Should he be incarcerated? Oh, my God.

So he like paid somebody to come shoot him. Hey, Lee, please, even if I have on my vest, don't come shooting. I mean, if you need me to, I will. I'm not good of a friend.

I appreciate that. You're well. But don't. But no, you don't think that's what you need.

I'm not going to be using my tax money. Gotcha. Have you come shooting? Okay.

No. Gotcha. Just now. Okay.

So he ultimately pleaded no contest to the marijuana conspiracy charges. And he received a six month sentence at a minimum security facility of Lexington. Bryant, though, is currently still serving a 15 year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute in Memphis. How is that fair?

I don't know. But I guess I couldn't connect as many things to Bryant as they initially wanted to, or to Thornton as they wanted to. I don't know how that worked. He was just better at keeping it in cover.

Yeah. Yeah. So there was one case among those, you know, other 23rds or 25th charge in total. The one case in their main 23 was dismissed and the other defendants were either convicted or became government witnesses.

So this was like a big like DEA scandal. Yeah. See that? It was crazy.

So in the three years following his conviction, he Thornton was sought by various jurisdictions for questioning, usually in connection with what police termed as vendetta deaths. So now he's like a hired gun with all the victims connected to various Thornton enterprises. So we had Gene Berry, who was a Florida State attorney. He was more murdered at Point Blank Range on January 16, 1982.

When he opened the door to his one-time gorda residence, he had actually successfully prosecuted one of Thornton's Fresno confidants. So they're thinking this was a revenge killing. Robert S. Walker was a witness against Thornton in the case and he was found strangled in a swamp in Tampa.

And the man who informed customs of Thornton's involvement with the Louisiana smuggling vessel, that mind-sleeper thing, has throat slit in Miami. Well, I mean, so not great. Not a great time to be in Florida. No.

But the death really kind of pushed us over the edge. Because the strangling, the shooting, and the throat slatching wasn't enough. So this one kind of leads us into where the break maybe happened. So Harold Wade Brown, he was the former head of the DEA office in Kentucky and was one of Thornton's closest friends for many years.

He was found shot to death in Louisville home. And it was considered an apparent suicide. So Thornton and Brown really got into their own 70s when Thornton was working with the DEA. Brown's forced resignation from the DEA in 1981.

It came just six months before his retirement eligibility. But they're thinking that he may have been involved in all the smuggling stuff. So you lose your time. You don't get your retirement, but then Hal's a guy.

So the United States, the federal grand jury and Fresno investigated in charges that Brown had thwarted the probe of the DC-4 that Thornton piloted. So they're thinking like, I gotta get revenge. Yeah. A search of a cabin that Brown owned in Dead Horse Hollow.

I don't know if I'd want to live there. No. Uncover the laboratory for manufacturing a poison that was sold on streets as cocaine. When police search Thornton's Lexington townhouse last month, when this article was written in, when was article written?

82-ish. Somewhere around there. No. This was written in 80, 86, 87, somewhere, 80s.

This was written in the 80s. Okay. So when they search his home, they found similar exotic poisons and explosives. Also found either nicotine, sodium, and ammonium nitrate into your guests.

That's a lot of stuff. I was thinking that I like that there's just also included nicotine in that. So, I know. You have to diversify.

So you know, first you either them and you knock them out. When they wake up, you give them a cigarette, see if they'll tell you stuff. Right. If they won't, well, it's time to take a poison.

Yeah. We got to do that. Yeah. We'll do it.

All right. Now. So what about the damn bear? Let's get over to it.

So we've got to go through all the drug smuggling chaos to get to the bear. We're arriving at the bear. All right. On September 11th, 1985, Thornton was on a smuggling run from Columbia when he jumped from his autopilot at Cessna 404.

Thornton apparently got caught up in his parachute and began to free fall from the plane. His body was found about six to eight hours later in the backyard of a Knoxville, Tennessee Residence House. Knoxville, of course. Can you imagine?

First of all, this is to be expected. It's Knoxville. We know that, you know, there's some debauchery. We cover a lot of episodes.

That's not surprising. But yeah, that would be startling. Just walk out and just this body. This dead man that fell from the sky.

Yeah. Figure it outside grilling. All the way to go. I feel like he would have gone out in like a blaze of glory and yet he just makes a mistake, falls from the sky and dies.

Yep. His body was found leg next to his backup parachute with his main parachute unopened. He was wearing night vision goggles, a bullet professed, and Gucci loafers. Gucci loafers?

That does not seem like part of it, especially when you have on all your, basically your military gear and you have on Gucci loafers. I mean, that seems, I don't know. He ends it all, you know, showing his privilege and you know, he did. He did.

He did. He did. He did. He did.

He was carrying a green army duffel bag containing 88 pounds of cocaine valued at $15 million. He was carrying about $45 and cash, 6.1 ounce gold. Some things. I don't know.

How's that word? Cucarans? Which are South African gold coin knives and two pistols. Wow.

He's prepared. His 404, Sessna 404, was discovered 60 miles away in Hayesville, North Carolina. Investigators were able to link Thornton to the Sessna when they found the planes keys in his pockets. So he jumps from this plane and just let that plane autopilot crash into a mountain.

It went pretty far. It did. Yeah. It got near Georgia.

Hayesville is on the line between North Carolina and Georgia. So it went pretty darn hard. It moved. It moved.

Yeah. So they further linked him to that plane when a garment bag was fished out of a pond about 40 miles southeast of Atlanta, Georgia, which contained a pilot's handbook with identifying numbers on it. Other items in the garment bag included clothes and a map of Jamaica. Federal agents tried to trace the Sessna back to its maker, hoping that, you know, they'd be able to link it to some type of smuggling operation.

But the company the Sessna was made at turned out to be not in existence. So the sewer made it put a fake company name on it, pretty much. Yeah. I mean, you probably would, because you typically don't put drug smuggler on your plane.

I mean, I'm just saying that that's sort of a red flag that you put, you know, Sess, Holly, you know, whatever. So as they were flying, and that's a ship. There was apparently another guy on board two who also jumped and he like landed and was okay. But was saying that like while they were flying, they just started like chucking bags out of the plane.

That makes sense. So a DA agent at the time said that there was literally cocaine falling from the sky. Many people just have their arms open ready to catch it. Yeah.

Duffle bags containing 220 pounds of 95% pure cocaine was still being recovered in Georgia after Gordon's death. Like, oh, I was still finding these bags. Crack is a whack. Yeah, that's crazy.

Okay. So now about the bear. In the midst of the category of the National Forest, a 175 pound black bear was found dead. The calls of death, cocaine overdose.

I'll do it, teen. This is hard to explode. Literally. He was, you know, going crazy.

Yeah. The poor, unspoken bear had stumbled upon 88 pounds of cocaine that had been dropped by Thornton during his free fall. The bear ate it, overdosed, and died. They'll just prove bears will eat anything.

Yeah, they will. Yeah. So they like did a full thing on it. Apparently, I believe the bear, they've got the bear in.

Somebody decided, you know what we should do? We should taxidermy this bear. So they taxidermy the bear. At one point, it was in a collection, I think Willie Nelson had it, of course, in a collection.

And now it is at the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington. So you can see the cocaine bear. You can. You can go see it.

It's on display. They also named it Pablo Escobar. They named it Pablo Escobar. Oh, Pablo.

No, or cocaine bear is this lovingly, no, that's some cane bear. Wow. That's the story of the cocaine bear. I really wish that he had had some kind of like rock and roll lifestyle.

You know what I mean? Well, he lived in Vegas for a while. Yeah. As a taxidermy.

As a taxidermy cocaine bear. Yeah. He went to Vegas. He traveled more as a dead, you know, bear than he ever did in life.

So also it was apparently like on display at this lodge situation. I don't know, National Park Lodge somewhere. And then there was a fire. And then as they were evacuating, they were like, go get, make sure we get all of the like significant things like these priceless arrowheads and coins and things that have been found in the area.

Oh yeah, make sure you get cocaine bear. I mean, that makes sense. So they had to, they drug it out of this fire. So he's been through like, he's been through a lot.

Yeah. Well, I mean, and preserved for everyone to see. And I mean, what a way to go. Yeah.

What a terrible way to go. No, no. Yeah. But that's the one that's the story.

You did a hit and then just Ode. Pup of us the bear. You just, you know, imagine, you know, you're in your, your National Park. Here comes a giant bear and instead of having to stand like a tree and train a god that goes away, just, just offer it some some coke.

I mean, that's apparently how you prevent black bear attacks and forest fires. And the forest fires. You know, smokey comes along. You guys a little hat on.

That's it. Here, here's some crack. And then there you go. What a abrupt sort of ending, but also oddly satisfying.

Yeah. So cocaine bear was released. It's going to be released this month in February. A film.

A film about cocaine. About cocaine. It's let's see when the exact release is not a child's movie. Correct.

No. Do not take your child's movie. My friend, I'm cocaine bear. So the thing that it says here is rated R and oddball.

It's a lot of sex. An oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens converge in a Georgia forest where a 500 pound black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine. So not what happens. No, and it was only a 175 pound bear.

So this is a young bear. They're making up stuff. Yeah. They're taking some liberties with.

Yeah, there's a lot of, um, they like, they do show looks like show them throwing the stuff out of the plane and the plane crashing and everything. But then the bear gets the cocaine eats the cocaine or snorts it, whatever it does and goes absolutely free. And literally just watch it snort cocaine on this trail. A bear doesn't know how to snort cocaine.

It sure did right here. Yes. Hollywood has taken some liberties with our bear. So there, uh, now there's a bear out in the woods and it is eating people because it's on cocaine.

No, right. That's not like a horror. It is. It's very bloody.

There's a lot of blood involved. Um, but I think it's also a comedy. Of course it's listed as a thriller. Not for that.

We kind of have to go watch this movie. I think so. I think this is a day that you and I take off work. Yeah.

And we just go to, you know, we go, you know, but first he meets up with a couple of, um, uh, prostitute bears. Yeah. You know, they do some lines together and he goes a little too far and then pretty soon it turns him into this, you know, angry bear and he just starts attacking. Yeah.

And, um, give me your sandwich. Rawr. It premieres on February 24th. I think we should go see it.

It was directed and co-produced by Elizabeth. Thanks. We should go see it. It's worth it.

Yeah. Yeah. If we don't like it, can we get our money back? So, okay.

Because that's how that works. And movies now. What is that? I don't think I've been to a movie.

I think maybe we wait until it's released online streaming and then we can do like homemade popcorn. I agree here and I have Hulu. I have Netflix and I have Amazon Prime. Oh, and I have Peacock as well.

I've got a couple other ones. So we, you know, we can do this. We can watch this. Yeah.

We can watch cocaine bear. That's what is the name of the movie cocaine bear. I mean, you know, it's an hour and a half long. So it's shortly.

What are you doing in it? I'm going to watch cocaine bear with Haley. Making some homemade popcorn. Yep.

I like it. I mean, there are worse evenings. There are. Yeah.

I'm going. Okay. Well, if you guys watch cocaine bear at the end of the month, let us know about it. If you're going to go watch cocaine bear, maybe let us know.

We'll do it. Maybe we can live tweet. We can make a Twitter just for us watching cocaine bear. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, currently cocaine bear is with his lady friend. Cocaine bear has taken too much cocaine bear attacked for a sandwich. You know, like, wow, it's going to be, I mean, I don't know.