[Remy Ma] How far would you go to come up
within a system built to hold you down?
♪ It’s time to push it up A level high ♪
[Remy Ma] These are the true stories of real people
who had good intentions but got caught up
by bad decisions.
It’s a wild ride from all the way up
to all the way down and back around again.
I’m Remy Ma,
and I’m proof that even a wrong turn
can still lead to redemption.
This is "My True Crime Story."
[Victor] As we're walking off the plane
I'm feeling like a movie star
I know what I'm about to go do
I'm about to go get 500 grand in 30 seconds.
[Remy Ma] This is a cautionary tale
about how a gutsy little guy
from Strong Island, New York,
started out just trying to outrun poverty.
We had nothing.
I was already stuck in the cycle
because my life consisted of a battered family
living in poverty,
going to domestic violence shelters
and being the underdog just as my size is now.
I got beat down every single day.
There was no statistics saying that I was
legally going to be able to ever become something.
[Remy Ma] But went straight into a notorious den of thieves,
with an airtight scheme.
These guys are already on top of the food chain,
pretty much bigger than the president of the United States,
in my eyes at this point.
[Remy Ma] To grab and dash diamonds in order to come up.
♪ You can't stop me now ♪♪
[Victor] I look at the doors and it's a clear shot.
And I'm like, it's now or never, Vic.
I jump up and I say, thank you.
Boom!
This is so much more clever than robbing stupid banks.
He wanted to get this money and live the party lifestyle
and have no cares in the world.
He was for the money and the fame and the thrill.
[Remy Ma] And quickly found out, diamonds aren't forever.
[Victor] I will never forget this lady's face
of this police officer.
And she locks eyes on me like no other,
she knows I'm him.
[Remy Ma] So how did this underdog, Victor Lupis,
end up heisting millions worth of ice and bling?
Like any good caper, let's review the blueprint.
Portland, Oregon, nicknamed Rip City,
was once a busy shipping port.
Now home to the highest number of strip clubs in the country
deadass from shipping to stripping, [indistinct].
For 25-year-old rebel without a cause,
Victor Lupis, Portland would be a landing strip
for joining an infamous crew of diamond thieves.
I was on a plane to go steal diamonds.
[Remy Ma] Vic and his boy Trey, who was also on the plane,
were small-time hustlers in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Vic was the fearless underdog
running from the shadow of poverty.
You know, we didn't have a lot of money growing up.
Back then, I just thought it was, you know, money,
property, prestige.
That's what success meant to me. I wanted more.
The way I ran my day to day, it was always more.
[Remy Ma] Trey, Vic's boy from his hood
had recently done a few licks an ill-famed diamond heist crew
and pitched Vic on joining.
Me and Trey had history already.
He started coming to me and he's like,
I got these diamond guys
that I was the driver for a couple of times.
These guys are already on top of the food chain.
So Trey was like, yo, he's like,
you gotta, you gotta meet these guys.
[Remy Ma] So let's meet them.
[Victor] Gio is the mastermind.
He is the guy that sets the stage,
finds and does all the homework.
He is the one that appoints the roles to every part.
Dom is his right hand.
He's the money mover.
He is the enforcer of Gio's master plan.
Trey, the minivan bandit.
He can rob a minivan quicker than anybody I've heard of.
Then you got Jack Cannon.
Literally the loose cannon of the group.
He was the experienced guy that can run in,
get the diamonds and run out.
But he was hot.
He had gotten caught in Florida.
He wasn't supposed to have a gun on him.
And he did.
And that pissed everybody off.
My role is to take his place as the runner.
[Remy Ma] Run that, run and get them diamonds.
So, getting off the plane, I was feeling great,
I was like, man, these guys know something.
These guys are somebody.
I'm feeling like a movie star.
And Gio and Dom pull up in the big white dually truck.
I'm in a city that I've never been in.
I'm meeting to very high executive guys in my game,
pretty much bigger than the president of United States
in my eyes at this point.
[Remy Ma] Then straight out of baggage claim--
Gio says, whoa, don't say anything about business.
I need you to turn your phone off right now.
We're going to go inside and check for a wire.
So Gio goes into the bathroom with me
and I strip down, butt naked, do a whole little dance.
I'm like, hey, do you want me to turn over and cough?
[Remy Ma] Nah, that was on some
New Jack City Pookie type [bleep].
And then we roll up to the house.
I didn't weigh the consequences in my mind
and I didn't question why I'm there at all.
[Remy Ma] Now it was time to talk business.
Heisting diamonds, Gio, the mastermind,
explained the whole operation, starting with the role
Vic was there to take over.
What the runner did is they ran the diamonds.
They had to look the part, play the part of
a sophisticated, successful person.
You literally had to look like a million bucks,
smell like a million bucks
and act like a million bucks.
[Remy Ma] And there were three other players
needed to make it go smooth.
So the hero stopper would be in place,
kind of like at third base coach and either trip up the hero
or stand between the hero and the runner by accident.
The risk reducer is setting the stage to make sure
there is no high risk of getting caught.
The getaway driver, all they had to do was
drive the van and get away.
[Remy Ma] And there were levels to this, too.
The crew had a simple way to assign difficulty to the hit.
Level one being the easiest,
level five being the hardest.
[Remy Ma] Straight up, Rip City's Ocean's Eleven.
We already know Vic's gonna need an attorney.
So here he is.
Federal criminal defense attorney Matt Schindler.
This is so much more clever than robbing stupid banks.
From a planning standpoint, from a routine,
from the way that they managed the business
when they did these particular crimes.
I've never seen anything comparable.
[Remy Ma] And Vic, who had recently become a new dad,
initially saw Portland as an exit plan
from a hard knock life of poverty.
[Victor] Growing up, I didn't never have nice things.
We had nothing.
My life consisted of a battered family living in poverty
going to domestic violence shelters.
What was there every day of my life was the streets.
[Remy Ma] Knickerbocker, the street that raised him,
taught Vic how to knuckle up.
Where the black was hot
and the lure of the dope boys lurked around every corner.
So I come down there and they're like,
we're just going to make you tough.
So what they would do is beat me down every day.
All I grew up knowing was my mind,
my heart and my two fists.
I didn't know anything outside of that.
[Remy Ma] Victor's wife, Brooke,
learned about the hard times her husband had growing up.
He's always been a smaller guy.
He struggled getting bullied.
When I hit high school,
that's when it really changed for me
because, you know, I started idolizing the dope men.
They were driving a Honda Civic sitting on twenty sixes.
I'm learning how to smoke weed and roll blunts.
That's the life I want to live
because I see them being successful.
[Remy Ma] And baby sis' Michelle,
witnessed her brother's turn
toward the south side of the law.
I was around 13 when I noticed
that he was really getting into some bad things.
I could just tell he was going towards a crowd
that leaned towards criminal behavior.
My goal was to get two to three million dollars,
hustle, get out of the game, retire
and be living in Belize owning a tiki hut.
And that was my wash.
[Remy Ma] Now in striking distance
with what was queued up: Christmas time.
Twas the night before Vic's very first diamond heist.
It was Vic's debut with the crew.
You know, I'm starting to feel the jitters.
You know, my stomach's turning.
And now me and Trey are praying, like, in the car,
literally praying,
was like, Lord, just protect us.
We're not here to hurt anybody.
We're actually doing a good cause.
These diamonds got blood on them.
God in your name.
[Remy Ma] Not blood diamonds, now you draggin' it.
But Mama says prayer changes things.
Now I'm like, aight, Gio, let's get the music on.
Like the Tupac comes on.
You know the California song and now I'm psyched out.
[Remy Ma] The scheme was underway just as they planned.
They had rehearsed the story a million times.
[Victor] Dom says you're gonna go find Cathy,
the jewelry store clerk.
Jason Shaw was my character.
And your fiancee is right down the street
eating dinner with your in-laws
that you just flew in from out of town.
And you need to tell her this entire story and get her
to show you the diamonds that are in this case.
[Remy Ma] Story airtight.
They'd use that over and over again.
[Victor] So everybody's in place.
And I'm about to walk into a level four,
biggest diamond like I've ever seen
[Remy Ma] On your mark--
[Victor] And then as I'm walking up to the jewelry store doors,
this is a big glass door, I can see my reflection
and I feel like a completely different person.
[Remy Ma] Get set--
I never felt this way. So I'm like exhilarated now,
I'm like, whoa,
I'm 'bout to go get 500 grand in 30 seconds.
[Remy Ma] Go!
[Victor] So I pop the door open.
I use the side of my hand
so I didn't leave fingerprints behind.
That was the plan.
I went in and I go right up to the jewelry store clerk
and I say, hey, Kathy, this is Jason Shaw.
I'm like, you don't remember me, do you?
And she's like, no. I was like,
I was just sitting here two weeks ago.
You don't remember me with my fiancee?
And she's like, oh, my God.
I've talked to so many people since then.
So I sit down and this is where all the big diamonds were at.
So she starts pulling out the diamonds.
And I have one ring on my finger.
And I know it's for like 113 thousand dollars.
I said, but I think she might have wanted another cushion cut.
Now, on the second one, it's like 240 thousand.
I'm watching the doors and I'm feeling nervous
and I'm feeling like she might be catching on
to my nervousness.
And I'm like that one right there,
and she pulls it out.
I look down and look at the doors
and it's a clear shot and I'm like, it's now or never Vic.
[Remy Ma] Tis the season to be jolly,
and instead of fa la la la la,
it’s go time for 25 year old Victor Lupis.
with half a million dollars
worth of diamonds on his fingers.
So I’m looking up like this. And look at the doors.
And it’s a clear shot.
And I’m like, it’s now or never Vic.
I hit the doors and I remember I had the rings here
and I went like that to open it.
[Remy Ma] Rewind! Remember the plan?
When I went in there, I used the side of my hands
to open up the door
so I didn’t leave fingerprints behind.
That was the plan.
[Remy Ma] Unreal. Rookie move,
supposed to leave Santa cookies and milk,
Vic, not your fingerprints.
He was like, I was freaking out
that I had just left fingerprints on this door.
Like, my only thing was get to that van.
[tires screeching]
And I’m blowing past people.
The adrenaline was pumping so bad
that I probably looked like
I was running from my own ghost.
[Remy Ma] Queue Trey, the getaway driver.
He’s like, did you get them? And I’m like, [mimics coughing]
like, literally almost throwing up from coughing
and I can’t even get a word out.
And I know what I got in my hand.
I got at least 500 grand worth of diamonds.
So I just pulled it off. I just did it.
[Remy Ma] What about that handprint you left?
Queue the risk reducer.
He told me that one of the other guys had went back
and wiped the door down and he got away.
I mean, it’s all crazy.
There was this whole process behind it
that they knew to wipe the doors for him to get away.
[Matt] There was an inherent recklessness
involved in walking into a jewelry store where you know
you’re going to be exposed to closed circuit.
[Remy Ma] But Vic got away,
on the come up to a better life.
Then what?
So we went back to the house and we had to stay super low.
-- Watch the clean-Cut diamond thief rip it off --
And then when the news came on, it was,
"ohhh, he’s on the news!"
I was like, you can’t even tell it’s me.
[Remy Ma] Now it was time for Vic to get his money.
[Victor] So that’s where Dom had to come in
and he had to fly over to Philly and fence them
so we could all get paid.
And Gio’s like, you did so well.
I’ma throw you a five thousand dollar bonus.
I made 35 thousand dollars the quickest money
I ever made in my entire life.
[Remy Ma] I spit bars in seconds, but damn,
that’s a crazy ass grab.
Now the celebrating hits, with the clubs,
Dom Perignon on me for all the tables.
[Remy Ma] Vic was off to a running start
and doing more liks with the crew.
[Brooke] He was out every single night spending tons of money.
He would drop thousands and thousands of dollars
just on a bottle of liquor.
Anything that he wanted, he would get it.
[Victor] So this girl, I remember,
she’s like, what do you do?
I’m like, I’m a professional gambler.
And she’s like, oh, you must be lucky.
I’m like, I don’t believe in luck. No such thing.
Opportunity and preparation, baby.
[Remy Ma] Slick Vic was feeling himself
on his way to leaving Lac behind and realizing
those Belizean Tiki Hut millionaire dreams.
Now Gio believes in me more.
I’m bringing more value to the game.
So he’s like, all right, let’s level up some more.
We’re going to do two licks in a day.
[Remy Ma] Two in one day?
You’re doing the most, in Cali, at that,
not HQ in Portland, because Cali was easier?
Clock that for later.
For now, Vic was making his own quiet moves.
So I masterminded this idea with Trey that we were
going to learn everything that Gio and Don were doing.
So this way, we could go run our own crew
and actually make the millions of dollars
that they were making.
And nobody else knew about that other than me and Trey.
[Remy Ma] There was something else
Victor Lupis kept from the crew.
I was not morally ready to ever take part
in some type of violence.
I knew from a very young age
that I would never prey on people
that couldn’t protect themselves.
It felt just dead wrong.
He didn’t want to hurt people,
which I think would lead back
to his childhood domestic abuse.
He didn’t want anybody else to feel that same pain.
[Victor] The no violence absolutely came from
experiencing the domestic violence inside my home.
And watching what my mother went through
and what my sisters went through and what I went through.
[Remy Ma] A thief with a heart?
Vic wasn’t about that violence life
because of his past, which shaped who he was.
There’s no single risk factor that predicts whether a child
will develop criminal behavior or not.
But usually there’s several at play.
Education, poverty, neighborhood, role models.
But please be clear,
one of the major risk factors linked
to future criminality and violence applies to children,
like Victor, who grow up victimized.
Victor’s childhood made him twice as likely
to become a criminal.
And that’s a hard odd to shake.
Now, before Vic could get in on the next heist,
he had to get a monkey off his back.
Probably about three or four months
before we had gone out there,
I started doing oxys,
and my addiction is now really starting
to spiral out of control.
So Gio and Dom knew this and they’re like, listen,
you can’t do this unless you’re 100 percent clean.
[Remy Ma] Ironic.
People that steal rocks are the ones that get him off drugs.
[Victor] So I went through ’bout
four to five days of withdrawals,
just cold turkey, no alcohol, no weed,
nothing to take over the edge.
[Matt] You know, I think he was embarrassed
that he was a drug addict, embarrassed
that he couldn’t work a legitimate job.
There was a desperation in Vic.
And so in some respects, I think that cleaning up,
getting off drugs, there was an element of relief there.
[Remy Ma] Now, detoxed, Vic and the crew
were ready to breeze through California
and brazenly pull off two licks in a day,
making twice the money.
♪ Everybody let me take you to the place to be ♪
♪ the infallible West at the hottest degree ♪
♪ we blazin’ up the track gettin’ hotter than Quint ♪
♪ California is the spot where they romping the shade ♪
They find a couple of jewelry stores in San Mateo
and Palo Alto.
Jack Cannon was the driver, I’m the runner.
The wash vehicle was gonna be parked up the block,
probably about six football fields away
[Remy Ma] Hold up, the wash vehicle?
The wash vehicle is the clean vehicle
That’s the vehicle that nobody’s looking for
It’s registered, it’s licensed
and it’s never used in any crime.
So that’s the safe vehicle.
[Remy Ma] Bet. Carry on.
And they found this beautiful yellow canary diamond
And it was 350 thousand dollars off of one diamond
So this was a big hit and it was a level one.
[Remy Ma] A level one because the jewelry store
kept their doors flung wide open
Oh, yeah, dumb, where they do that at?
[Victor] So it’s a beautiful California day
And we’re going to go steal a 3.5 carat canary diamond
valued over 350 thousand dollars.
[Remy Ma] OK, Silicone Valley’s Jacob, the jeweler
That’s a big ass rock.
[Victor] So I do everything that I normally do
in my same routine, get the music going
And I’m fitting the part, in a nice Armani sweater
I got the same nice watch on and of course,
the rubber soled shoes, I’m just like game time.
Hey, how you doing?
[Victor] So, as soon as I go in, the guy automatically greets me.
The door’s wide open.
I’ll say, hey, you know, I’m just out here with my wife
And we were looking at this beautiful canary diamond.
And he pulls out the canary diamond right away.
And immediately puts it in my hand,
I said thank you--boom!
I was out of the store in like two seconds.
I didn’t realize how quick I was moving.
So Jack wasn’t set up yet.
He’s still fumbling around in the parking lot.
And I know the guy is right behind me.
I feel him, no safety net, no risk reducer.
This was a level one which I kind of screwed up
and now I’m freaking out. And I ran.
I’m like, don’t let me get caught.
Victor Lupis was dead smack in the midst of heisting
a rare 3.5 carat canary diamond ring
worth 350 thousand dollars.
When somebody in the crew screwed up.
[Victor] Jack wasn't set up yet.
He's still fumbling around in the parking lot.
And I just keep running down the block.
And I know the guy is right behind me.
I feel him.
So I go running all the way to the parking garage
and I'm looking around for the wash car.
I'm like, oh, [bleep] he's not here.
[Remy Ma] Minor misstep, be damned.
The crew really had big out here truly [bleep] up.
[Victor] So I grab my bag of clothes
and I know I'm out of time.
And now all of a sudden I see the cops
whoosh, whoosh, flying past me.
So then I see this little coffee shop.
My first goal is to get out of the description
that I just left the jewelry store.
I've got a canary diamond bigger than my fist,
and I'm freaking out, I put it in my shoe
and I can feel it digging into my foot
I take the lid of the garbage can off
and I take the bag out
and I throw my clothes inside the trash bin,
and then I put the bag back in
and I put the lid back on.
[Remy Ma] Smart!
I'm like, I'm good.
And I go up to the counter I'm like,
I lost my phone and I'm sick,
I don't have my inhaler.
And she's like, oh, no, sweetie. Use the phone.
[distant sirens blaring]
And while I picked up my phone--
[Remy Ma] Here enters Lalla, Vic's homegirl from back east,
she was new to the game,
training to be a part of the crew.
[Victor] She's like, you guys get caught?
I'm like, no, I'm calling you right now,
I'm not caught.
She said, Gio said we can't go back.
I'm like, I don't care. You guys come get me
I'm like, give me a place right now.
And I see him drive by.
They're like, go over to the parking garage.
And she hangs up.
Oh, now, I got to come out of the coffee shop
I can't run because there's cops everywhere.
[sirens blaring]
I still got this big canary rock sitting in my shoe,
so I'm limping now
because it dug so far into my foot.
I'll never, ever, ever forget this police officer.
She locks eyes on me like no other.
She knows I'm him.
And I look paranoid like a deer in headlights.
[Remy Ma] That cop glare is so real.
[Victor] But I don't think she had enough audacity
to actually call me out on it
because, number one, I'm just a civilian.
Number two, you better be 100 percent sure
if you're going to stop and frisk me.
So I just turn like,
I'm going to the second level
and I act like I'm fumbling for my key.
[Remy Ma] Hmmm That was some quick thinking
on your 3.5 carat canary diamond feet, Vic.
[Victor] I'm out of time.
Now I see the wash vehicle and I see them
and they're pointing
and I'm thinking they're pointing at a cop,
but they're pointing at a dumpster
with the dumpster lid closed.
So in like two seconds,
as soon as I identified that dumpster lid,
I didn't even think about it,
I didn't think, well, I could break a leg,
I didn't think about the height.
I just dove over that wall,
swung around, held on to the ledge.
And it's a drop.
While pulling off the first of two licks in a day
in Silicon Valley, California, 25 year old diamond thief,
Victor Lupis, was left hanging, literally.
[Victor] As soon as I identified that dumpster lid
I didn’t think about it.
I just dove over that wall, held onto the ledge
and fell right onto the lid of that dumpster.
And the door of the wash vehicle was right there.
[man] You weren’t supposed to be there!
[Remy Ma] That was a crazy-ass getaway
Vic narrowly escaped, again.
We can’t make this stuff up.
That’s why the show was called "My True Crime Story."
[Victor] We just pulled off
our second biggest diamond heist.
And in my world, a 350 thousand dollar
rare canary diamond
that’s bigger than my fist itself.
And now we’re going to pull off
a second heist in the same day,
only 10 miles away from the heist that we just did.
[Remy Ma] Dude, bro.
You’re really down for a second heist
after what just happened with the first one?
Freak for pain.
Just call that a win and go home.
And now it’s my turn to be the driver.
[Remy Ma] Switch!
Role reversal for the second hit in Palo Alto,
where now Jack Cannon is supposed to run with
close to half a mill worth of diamonds.
He goes in
and he’s in there for a good, solid 15 minutes
And I look out and I see him running.
He’s hightailing.
And I’m sitting there with the door open
and somebody right on his tail.
He dives into the minivan and turns around and boom,
kicks the guy right to the ground.
[tires screeching]
So I blow through the red light
and then I see a cop that blows right past
and I just start driving crazy, I’m hightailing it now.
[Remy Ma] Till finally--
We dumped the dirty car
and we jumped straight into the wash vehicle.
We just pulled off a 450 thousand dollar heist,
second heist of the day, successful.
And we get out of California and cross state lines
all the way back to Salem, Oregon.
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
When they got back, Gio and Dom
start a scheme in something else.
They wanted to plan out a one time lay down
where we would clean out the jewelry store
and we would all make three million a piece,
and that would be the end of the game for us right there,
[Remy Ma] Lay downs, for this swan song,
which meant using a weapon to get people to, well, lay down
while being vic by Vic.
But remember Vic’s golden rule?
He didn’t want to do anything with weapons.
He knew he had a line that he wasn’t going to cross
and he had that morals like deep in him
because he’s such a good person down in there.
He had created this distinction in his own conduct
between what’s a robbery and what’s a burglary or a theft.
[Remy Ma] Pay attention. This is important.
A robbery is any time that you’re getting something
from somebody else and there’s an element of force
or threat or intimidation involved.
If he had grabbed it from her, it would have been a robbery.
He asked for it.
She said, sure, he receives it and then he runs away.
What these guys did was effectively
a very, very sophisticated shoplift.
[Remy Ma] Victor wasn’t stupid either.
He knew more time for robbery versus theft.
[Victor] I’m not gonna do anything with a weapon.
That’s an automatic 20 years.
But I don’t think that just the legal consequences of it
were entirely what caused him to think that way.
[Remy Ma] Vic not only thought differently,
he saw things differently, too.
We’re all dyslexic.
Yeah, we’ve all had issues.
We transpose everything and yeah,
it gets in the way a lot.
[Victor] So I spell my name backwards,
which was like to you guys ’rotciv’
I see it as Victor.
[Brooke] It’s just second nature to him
that he will read from the right to left
instead of the left to right.
I call it an ability because I found out
a lot of great, great scientists of the world
and great minds of the world are extremely dyslexic.
Albert Einstein, for example, could never even tie his shoes.
Like one of the best tricks
I remember teaching myself at a very young age.
There’s a birthmark on my right hand.
So I know and this is my right hand
by looking at that birthmark.
[Remy Ma] Still, for some,
dyslexia means when you can’t read,
you see no other way out.
Dyslexia is a learning disorder
that involves difficulty reading,
and it’s much more common than you probably think.
Most of the time,
instead of it being properly diagnosed,
it gets kids labeled as problems
which can lead to antisocial outcomes.
One state that screened their prison population
found that almost half were dyslexic.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Many successful people are dyslexic,
from Whoopi Goldberg,
Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston,
Octavia Spencer to Steve Jobs.
Their learning difference, forced them
to find their own way through life
by being creative and thinking out of the box.
At this point, Vic could use his superpower
for good or for bad.
[Victor] I’m deep enough into the diamond heist crew
to where we’re a family.
But they were wanting us to do actual armed robberies.
These guys were planning some stuff
that was so over the top that he was afraid.
[Victor] We would obviously have to use weapons.
Somebody is going to wind up dead.
Somebody is gonna get shot.
And I didn’t really want to go that route.
[Remy Ma] Was it time for Vic to chuck the juices
and leave the crew or get down with doing lay downs?
Looking for one big final, pay day, the bling rings
planning of their next heist
started to take a dangerous turn.
I’m deep enough into the diamond heist crew
to where we’re family,
but they were wanting us to do actual armed robberies,
lay downs. We would obviously have to use weapons.
I was not morally ready to ever take part
in some type of violence.
I was always the one
that wanted the smart, sophisticated ways.
[Remy Ma] An exit ramp was coming close.
Vic rolled on a few more licks with the crew
while secretly planning on starting his own crew.
I had enough money to where I can,
you know, pair up with Trey, Lala was down,
she was game, she was gonna be the driver.
So we said North Carolina bound let’s put our crew together.
[Remy Ma] Eventually, Vic left Gio and Dom for good
to do his own thing.
♪ Go get the money, go, go ♪
[Victor] So when I got back, me and Trey
went to work right away.
But now I’m back at the clubs
and my addiction is roaring at this time.
Those Roxie’s have me going.
[Remy Ma] Vic’s addiction was a coping mechanism.
He turned back to drugs
because he didn’t wanna face reality.
And now I’m getting farther away
from making my couple of million to go retire
and go get away from this lifestyle and go get clean.
But now I don’t have to get clean
because I’m not with Gio and Dom.
So I knew that I was starting to lose my self-image
of the successful G that I was putting off as my persona.
And I knew that was gonna be my downfall.
[Remy Ma] A couple of fumbled robberies and clumsy casings
resulted in a failed attempt at forming his own crew,
and then Vic’s world truly came crashing down.
Woke up in the morning, I get a phone call
and I’m ’bout still half lit from the night.
I get swarmed by undercovers,
U.S. Marshals and everybody.
Search warrant, fugitive arrest warrant,
I’m like fugitive arrest warrant for what?
And he’s like for the diamond theft
in Portland, Oregon.
[Remy Ma] Unbeknownst to Vic, Portland police and the feds
had been tracking the crew
since Vic’s first Christmas time heist.
[Victor] They had flight tickets that they had found.
I thought I disposed of them and I was like,
give me a lawyer.
And as soon as I said that, Detective McDaniel was like,
you’re gonna need one.
♪ I’m a big bad, bona fide boss ♪
♪ paid all the bills, I don’t care what it cost ♪
♪ diamonds in my thrill oh yeah, I’ma floss ♪
♪ to the fakes and the frauds, yeah I see you get lost ♪
[Remy Ma] Twenty five heists, nine states,
and 27 million dollars total for the crew.
And 25 year old, Victor Lupis,
just got caught by U.S. Marshals and Portland police.
They sat me in a cold room for over 12 hours,
belly chained and shackled
and US marshals out there doing their paperwork, talking,
and then they finally booked me into Monroe County Jail.
[Remy Ma] It got worse.
[Victor] Through the, the discovery
I find out that Trey, and an anonymous source,
we’re talking to the detectives
and to the feds before I got arrested.
[Remy Ma] Damn, Vic’s man Trey,
the one who brought him into the crew, snitched.
[Victor] Where’s the fair in that?
Where’s the honor amongst the thieves?
Where’s everything that we all talked about?
[Remy Ma] Boy, the problem is, you’ve got the cliche wrong.
Everybody knows there’s no honor among thieves.
Now I see I’m the scapegoat, so I’ve nowhere to turn.
So I said, can I tell my side of the story?
[Remy Ma] So he cooperated.
Victor was extradited to Portland,
and while awaiting trial,
his journey to redemption began.
I mean, an old shot-caller literally tattooed down,
mafia hitman with a beard, basically down to his belly.
And like this handlebar mustache.
And here he is walking around with a Bible like smiling,
saying, "I’m free, free, indeed,"
I’m like, you’re a looney tune.
And he winds up leading me to Christ and explain Christ
to me that nobody ever has.
And break it down in such a format
that it just made sense.
And whether that was some prison God
or whether it was the Holy Spirit,
that’s not what changed me.
What had changed me was all the actions
that led up to where I was at in my point of life
and my my entire belief system being shattered
and taken away from me.
I’ve seen what religion can be
and how people can be duped by it and manipulated with it.
And, and Vic isn’t that, he’s not some fake Jesus guy
who does this because it’s you know,
he thinks it’s cool and it looks good to his neighbors.
It’s who he is.
That’s when I really knew that he was done with his past
and he was moving forward.
[Remy Ma] Then, in a strange twist of fate--
It was Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2013.
And I got pretrial released
after serving 22 and a half months.
A little over a year later,
Victor Lupis returned back to court to be sentenced.
He came back on a pathway to sobriety
and new dad for a second time to a son born
while he was behind bars, newly engaged to Brooke
and growing as a man of faith.
[Victor] And I read to the courts.
My first words would be to say, sorry.
I come here today showing you through the actions
of true sorrowfulness.
Since I’ve been on pretrial release,
I’ve done everything to become a better father.
[sniffs]
[Remy Ma] On top of 22 months time served, Vic the runner,
got three years supervised federal probation,
the lowest sentence of them all because he cooperated.
Gio the mastermind, was sentenced to nine
and a half years in federal prison.
Dom the money mover, 10,
Trey the getaway driver, seven,
and Jack the loose cannon, got a whopping 30,
football numbers, for robbery with a weapon.
When Vic was free to go after 22 months time served,
he moved to Tampa, Florida,
and started Dynasty Building Solutions,
a roofing and construction company.
[Brooke] You would never know that he runs
a 22 million dollar company.
You would never know that Victor gives back
one hundred plus thousands of dollars to charities,
and thst he volunteers his time
to help raise money for different charities.
He would give the shirt off of his back to literally anybody.
[Remy Ma] So nowadays, when Vic walks past
a jewelry store--
[Victor] I still get a little antsy.
But I know deep down inside that was an old person
and I’ve paid my dues.
[Michelle] Victor has definitely taught me personally that
when there’s good inside you, there’s always hope,
no matter what your past has brought.
You can pull yourself out.
You can push forward.
And his future is very bright.
[Remy Ma] The outcome is his name, Victor.
He ditched the diamonds and ran away with a victory.
I live a very humble life today.
I have a beautiful family.
I have a great relationship with my kids today.
My wife believes in me.
And the greatness that I’m doing
is truly just following my core principles
that I’ve followed since the day I got released.
[Remy Ma] And this part right here--
I just celebrated my sober day.
That’s a decade of no minor mood altering substance.
[Remy Ma] So use Victor’s story as a life lesson learned.
And be careful what you chase, because in the blink of an eye,
anyone can get caught up.
And you don’t want that, trust.