I Was an Undercover Cop With a Death Wish

Julian Morgans· Host0:00

[gentle music] Super Real.

Todd McGuire· Guest0:02

But when I answered the phone, like he was crying, and he goes, "Mate, just tell my wife and my kids that I love them." And I said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not doing that, man." I said, "Where are you?" He said, "I'm standing on the cliffs at the Brisbane River, and I'm gonna jump." I said, "Wait for me." So I've raced over there, and there he's standing right over, looking over the edge, and I grabbed his hand and I said, "Oh, if you're gonna do it, I'll do it with you. Let's go. One, two, three." And he sort of went, "What the fuck are you doing?" And I said, "Come on, let's do it." And he's yanked me back, and we've hit the ground, and, um, you know, he s- he was crying. I started crying then, and we, we sat on a park bench for the next couple hours, and we just thrashed everything out, and, and I think that was the first time I really broke down and went, "I can't do this anymore. What-- I've gotta fucking stop this, you know, stop this reckless behavior."

Julian Morgans· Host0:53

[gentle music] Hey, I'm Julian Morgans, and you're listening to What It Was Like, the show that asks people who have lived through big, dramatic events, what it was like. [gentle music] Hello again. Welcome back. So many of our stories are true crime, which have been solved via the work of undercover cops, and the more I learn about undercover police work, the more it just sounds like a job for people with a death wish.