Welcome to strangers from KCW in Radiotopia. I'm Leah Tao. And welcome to dumb shit we do. Number two, Rob Banks. We're featuring a story from another podcast by producer Benadair. His podcast is called First Time, Last Time. And it has the simple but wonderful premise that people talk about the first time they did something and the last time they did something.

It's not like your typical stranger story where you get the whole picture of everything that happened over many years.

Instead, you get these little snapshots of just the first time and the last time, and it's quite lovely.

Here's Ben Adair from first time last time talking to Joe Lawyer.

So let's just get straight into it.

Tell me about the very first time that you robbed a bank.

Okay, the first time I robbed the bank, I'd actually been a fugitive from a bunch of crimes I

had committed in the United States.

You know, like, strong-arm robbery, I took somebody's keys and, you know, snagged their

keys out of their hand, pushed them down, took the car, a bunch of check fraud and petty stuff

mostly, you know?

It hadn't broken big yet.

I'd never actually done a stick-up, like pull out a gun, go into 7-Eleven, give me the money,

you know, whatever.

But I had big heart.

I mean, I'd had big heart.

When I was 16, I was being brutalized by my father.

At 16, squawney little kid who'd been being beaten forever. I got a knife.

I stabbed my down the neck. I tried to kill him, twisted it, tried to break it off in his neck.

I showed that this is who I thought I was. I wasn't a victim. I was somebody who was supposed to be

taken seriously. Joe's dad survived, but that's what started Joe's life of crime.

And by the time he was 24, 25, everything had added up, and the police were on his trail.

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