Texas EquiSearch: A Lifesaving Mission and How You Can Help at the Good Grub & Gears Car Show!

Texas EquuSearch

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast From the Good Robin Gears Car Show and Fall Festival in Stevenson Park in Friendswood , texas . It's the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show presented by the Space City Corvette Club and sponsored by Emmons Autoplex in Webster , texas Just had another participant in today's show . We're going to turn the microphone over . Get our sights set right here in the In-Wheel Time Remote booth . Don't look so glum . We're coming to you next .

Speaker 2 0:36

I see that smile on your face he's excited now .

Speaker 1 0:39

Later Jeff has the racing calendar , mars has this week in auto history and I'll get you caught up on the stories making automotive news headlines this week . Howdy , along with Mike out of this world , mars . We always need more . Jeff Zekin , our chief engineer , david Ainsley , our special guest in the back , mr Jeffrey Heitzman .

Speaker 3 0:56

Thank you , very much for stopping by . Thanks for coming , Jeffrey .

Speaker 1 0:58

And I'm Don Armstrong , glad you could join us today . Did I say your name ?

Speaker 3 1:03

No , you didn't do the mm . David Mm .

Speaker 1 1:08

Ainsley , there you go , there you go . Now it's official , you're here , thank you . So you get residuals for that . Well , no , he does .

Speaker 3 1:17

He does . I don't , no , he does .

Speaker 1 1:19

His middle name . What's your middle name , David ? There's a long story behind that and we can't tell it here . No , we can tell it , oh no . No , have we told it before we have . Okay , well , we'll tell it again on one of the segments that were in the studio . How's that ? Because we don't want to embarrass you here in public .

Speaker 3 1:42

We're in 50 countries and there's only one of them that gets mad at us . Which one ?

Speaker 1 1:47

is that it's Russia .

Speaker 3 1:48

Russia .

Speaker 1 1:49

Oh , they blocked us .

Speaker 4 1:50

Yeah , we're blocked in Russia . Now , darn , shucks .

Speaker 1 1:54

Nastrovya , all right .

Speaker 4 1:58

All .

Speaker 1 1:58

I know is it's Tammy from Texas EquiSearch . I assume that you have a last name .

Speaker 2 2:03

I do Phillips , tammy , phillips .

Speaker 3 2:06

You know he told us that earlier . We just didn't write it down . I didn't write it down .

Speaker 2 2:08

Write it down .

Speaker 4 2:09

That was 10 minutes ago . We can't go that far All right .

Speaker 1 2:13

So here's why we're going to talk to you because the proceeds from today's event go to Texas EquiSearch . Now it's up to you to tell us . I know what it is .

Speaker 2 2:26

You tell everybody in the world what texas equi search is and what it does . So texas equi search is a search and recovery organization . It was started almost 25 years ago by tim miller who had lost his own daughter , um , at the time , after she was recovered . She was recovered 17 months later and you , you know , at that time there was not a lot of resources like we have today . There was no internet . There was , you know , you had a newspaper . There was no social media . There wasn't a big network of people who could come out and help you volunteer to help look for somebody .

Speaker 2 2:58

Exactly exactly so . In 2000 , tim Miller started Texas Equal Search to help people , families and also law enforcement find their loved ones , to assist in whatever way that we could . And when he started this organization he started it with his buddies who had horses and he lovingly refers to them as hillbillies on horseback . We've evolved since then . Now we use UTVs and ATVs instead of horses . They're a little bit easier to manage in a search setting . But he thought he would be doing two to three searches a year when he started this organization and today we get two to three requests for new cases every single day .

Speaker 3 3:35

Every day , every day . Now , is that just here , locally in Houston , texas , or is it across the country ?

Speaker 2 3:40

No , we've been in 43 states and 11 countries .

Speaker 3 3:44

Wow .

Speaker 2 3:45

We have about 800 volunteer members that are spread out throughout the United States . They're primarily focused here in Texas . But do you guys have any idea how many people go missing every year ?

Speaker 1 3:56

No , but you're going to tell us , I am going to tell you so .

Speaker 2 3:59

about 600,000 people a year are reported to law enforcement as missing in the United States .

Speaker 1 4:05

And they can't find them .

Speaker 2 4:06

They can't find them , and that doesn't include people that are never reported . You know , we got a call one day from a couple of foster kids . They had aged out of the foster system . They said we were foster children in this home and there was another person that we were with and we haven't seen them in a year . We think they might be missing but really didn't have any resources and no one would have ever reported that person missing .

Speaker 3 4:29

Yeah , that's terrible yeah .

Speaker 2 4:31

So fortunately , out of that 600,000 people , about 97% of them are found within two or three days .

Speaker 1 4:38

It's not always a good outcome , but they're located Because , if I'm not mistaken , I think that there are people that you do find that are alive .

Speaker 2 4:46

Yes , about half the people we find are alive , which is fantastic , even though we're a search and recovery organization .

Speaker 1 4:53

Right , because I know that , being with Channel 13 and other news organizations in town for all these years , that I have been on many search operations that you guys are conducting and , uh , it's , it's really interesting to see it from the air because it's like , well , are they looking ? Well , I see one atv out there , but then you go to the parking lot and there's three or four more , and there's three or four more , and three or four more , and this group and this group and this group , and then all of a sudden they're all spread out or they'll go from one location to another location that might or might not be necessarily close by that location .

Speaker 2 5:35

Right .

Speaker 1 5:35

So it's much more complicated than saying oh well , we think that they're missing over there .

Speaker 2 5:40

Right , exactly . So I think people sometimes have this idea that we have a bunch of volunteer searchers locked in the closet and when you call us , we're going to open the door and they're just all going to run out and start searching .

Speaker 2 5:51

We try to be very strategic in our searches . We spend a lot of time planning . We use the latest technology that we can get our hands on . We've got lots of partners that help us out . We have a partner that flies helicopters for us when we need a helicopter . We've got partners that fly planes for us . We've got partners that help us with our drones . So we've got a lot of partners . If we don't own the equipment ourselves , we have partners that help us out with that sort of thing .

Speaker 3 6:16

So you're set up here , you're part of the event here .

Speaker 2 6:20

Are you ?

Speaker 3 6:21

looking for folks to sign up to be volunteers here at this event .

Speaker 2 6:24

We're looking for two things financial resources and also volunteer members , and you can go to our website it's texasequasearchorg and you can read more about us there and you can also find out how to become a volunteer , and we have a place for everyone . You don't have to have special training . We will train you on what our methods are and our processes and we're and we can find , if you're not one , that if you physically cannot go out and do a foot search or you can't ride an ATV or UTV , we'll find something for you to do . You know we get a lot of tips off of social media , so if you can only sit at home and share our postings on social media , we're okay with that . We need that .

Speaker 3 7:04

So you don't necessarily need a horse or a UTV or anything like that . No , not at all . Just walk in and say I want to help .

Speaker 2 7:09

Right . You need a passion for our mission which is helping .

Speaker 3 7:14

Rehumanity .

Speaker 2 7:14

Releasing people .

Speaker 2 7:15

Yes , yes , because think about it . What would you do ? Let's say you have an adult child , 30 years old , and that adult child is very responsible . They go to work every day , they show up . They're just a very responsible person , person . And they don't show up for work one day and their employer calls you and says hey , you know , johnny didn't show up for work today . What do you do ? You know adults have the right to go missing on their own , but you know , as a parent , that that child would never not show up for work , right , right .

Speaker 1 7:43

So what do you not reach out to their parents , or a relative or a friend or something , right ?

Speaker 2 7:49

Right , so what do you as an individual do ? That's where we come in and assist , and we help families in all different ways . We have all different methods of searching for people and we help them in whatever they need to do , and even in places where we're not able to physically get there , we can direct a community on how to do a search on their own .

Speaker 4 8:08

So if I have a family member that's missing , I mean I'm thinking I'm going to go to the police first .

Speaker 2 8:13

Right .

Speaker 4 8:14

So do they get you involved , or would that be up to me ? If they say well , you know they're 42 years old , you know there's not much we can do if they decided to go off on a permanent vacation .

Speaker 2 8:26

Right , right . So one of our criteria is you have to have reported that person missing to law enforcement before we will get involved .

Speaker 4 8:35

Okay .

Speaker 2 8:40

And we never know when a missing person case is going to turn into a criminal case . So we want to get permission from law enforcement in order to get involved in a case .

Speaker 3 8:45

So law enforcement doesn't necessarily contact you . Sometimes they do .

Speaker 2 8:49

Sometimes they do . We get contacted by both family members and law enforcement and you know , people will always want to know . Well , what's your typical case ? There are no typical cases . Every one of them has unique circumstances and we have seen we think we've seen everything , and then we get another phone call and something , it's something different , so basically it's a manpower issue it is either through the , through the police departments , yes , and volunteers like yourself , yeah .

Speaker 2 9:13

Because law enforcement is spread so thin . You know people see a TV show and one hour , you know you've got this clue that leads you to this and leads you to that .

Speaker 3 9:21

Yeah .

Speaker 2 9:22

We wish it was that easy .

Speaker 3 9:24

Well , they wouldn't need you if it was that easy .

Speaker 2 9:25

Exactly , Exactly and honestly . We'd like to be out of business , but the demand for our services has just gone up exponentially , especially because of COVID Speaking of that .

Speaker 1 9:33

so we're going to raise a lot of money here and give it to you . Where does that money go ? What do you do with that ?

Speaker 2 9:38

So we often get the question if you're a volunteer search organization , why do you need any money ? Well , we have . Our phones are answered 24 hours a day , so we always have a live body who answers that phone . We have to pay for an answering service . Our insurance coverage is ridiculously high because nobody really does what we do . We have equipment needs . We have vehicles . We did a search on Monday in Farmers Branch , Texas , so we needed lodging for all of those searchers that went up there for that and , you know , pay for their meals . I mean , that's the least we can do is pay for their meals .

Speaker 4 10:12

As a volunteer . So that's an interesting question . So if somebody calls you from el paso I mean , there's four or five million people here in the houston area somebody calls you from el paso do you ? Do you try and find or have people out there , or do you actually say , okay , guys , we need to go to el paso because we think this is worth us doing ?

Speaker 2 10:31

It depends on the circumstances of a case , and I'll give you for instance . Recently we had a case in Florida where the family was actually looking for this person . She was in her 70s . She went missing in the middle of the night and we knew she was in her car . So the daughter had contacted us and wanted us to send people there . Well , at the time we had so many other searches going on that we didn't have the resources to send a whole team there . So we sent one person there and of course you know we flew them there . They had hotels to stay in so we had to pay for those expenses . But he was able to work with law enforcement and the daughter of that person and we were able to narrow down the area and she was found not long after the training stuff .

Speaker 4 11:10

That person the search yes criteria that the things that you've taught somebody right exactly .

Speaker 2 11:16

That's pretty cool exactly and you know um , I think sometimes just our presence there brings a higher level of attention to that case not only that , but a peace of mind for the individual right right , because there's nothing worse than not knowing , even if it's a bad outcome , that nothing worse than not knowing , even if it's a bad outcome , that's better than not knowing what happened to your loved one . Need the closure Right Right .

Speaker 1 11:37

Interesting . So what are you doing today ?

Speaker 2 11:39

So we've got a booth set up over here .

Speaker 1 11:42

I see somebody looking at us with a straw hat on yeah . Who is that ?

Speaker 2 11:46

That's some of our volunteers . They're over there working at our booth . They're waving at us there .

Speaker 1 11:50

Can you hear us over there ? Yeah , okay , good . Well , I hope everybody is stopping by and saying hello , shaking hands . Signing up making donations , we're kind of waiting for you to have kind of like an orchestra pit over here of volunteers to go yay .

Speaker 4 12:07

That's us that's coming later , I'm sorry .

Speaker 2 12:10

That's us yeah .

Speaker 4 12:11

We're going to march over there .

Texas EquiSearch Volunteer Information

Speaker 2 12:16

If anybody wants to stop by our booth today and volunteer , sign up to be a volunteer , or they can go on our website . It's txeqorg .

Speaker 1 12:21

Oh my God , Wait , txeq it's not e Txeq . That's what I said .

Speaker 2 12:26

Dot O-R-G .

Speaker 1 12:27

Okay , got it , got it . Yep , he's got it . That's the short version . All right . They can go on our website and learn more about our organization and how to become a volunteer member .

Speaker 2 12:42

Well , and what we do once we do .

Speaker 1 12:43

Do you have new volunteers ?

Speaker 2 12:45

We do have some volunteers .

Speaker 1 12:46

No new ones .

Speaker 2 12:48

Oh yeah , We've got lots of new volunteers . We get new volunteers every month .

Speaker 1 12:51

Do you ?

Speaker 2 12:51

Yeah , and here's the way it works . If you want to be a volunteer , If we have a large-scale search and that means we've done our recon , we've done all of our research we don't do investigation per se , but we do our research to narrow down the search area Then we will activate a full-scale search . And if you were a volunteer with us and then if you can show up , you show up . If you can't make it , you don't have to call us and let us know , Because we've got such a large number of people that are already signed up . We always get the number of people that we need .

Speaker 4 13:27

So if I'm working or I'm scheduled to go to work or something , then I just say in my mind sorry , I just don't show up , and you're good or you could call in sick . Well , but if I was already there sick .

Speaker 1 13:41

Well , but if I was already there , he's done that before . Yeah , well , do you do ?

Speaker 2 13:43

that pretty much every day , because I think he worked for southwestern bell .

Speaker 3 13:45

Yeah , oh so did I back in the day ? Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah . So do you participate in searches yourself ?

Speaker 2 13:49

I do . I do not as many as I used to because we've got so much work on the business side of it . I try to take care of the business side okay and my counter takes care of the search side .

Speaker 1 13:59

Do you guys have an office ?

Speaker 2 14:00

We do when is it ? It is in Dickinson Texas . It's right , not too far . It's on 517 , not too far off of 45 . We used to be in the oldest shopping center in Dickinson Texas and the way that started it was Tim Miller's construction office . And when I say construction office , I mean lumber tools , concrete , and when I say construction office .

Speaker 2 14:22

I mean lumber , tools , concrete , dirty , nasty , you name it . And when he decided to start Texas EquiSearch , he just built a wall down the middle of that office . So it was Tim Miller's construction over here and Texas EquiSearch over here and we were all in one big room and there was about three of us working in the office and we really didn't have room for volunteers to come in and help us . We didn't have a phone for them , we didn't have extra computers . So about a year and a half ago we decided we'd like to get into a real office space and a guy showed up in the parking lot that day with a check that paid for a rent for the whole year wow , nice , very nice .

Speaker 1 14:55

Well , you know , dickinson also is famous for something else . Tell us Don Houston International Speedway Drag strip . You know where the Walmart is there on I-45? .

Speaker 2 15:06

Yes , yeah .

Speaker 1 15:07

Well , that is the location where the drag strip used to be .

Speaker 2 15:11

Really yeah , so .

Speaker 1 15:12

I just wanted to let you know that . It kind of ran parallel with 45 .

Speaker 2 15:16

Didn't know that I've learned something new today . Well , there you go in parallel with 45 . Didn't know that I've learned something new today , Well there you go .

Speaker 1 15:21

That's worthless information . Gay Pontiac , wasn't it ? They were down at the other end . Yeah , they were the big sponsors , gay Pontiac , that's correct .

Speaker 4 15:28

Don's not allowed in antique stores anymore , because we're afraid they won't let him leave . No , no , they've offered to keep me there permanently as one of the antiques , standing out front by the other wooden Indian . Tammy .

Speaker 2 15:38

thanks so much for all the information .

Speaker 1 15:39

Thank you .

Speaker 3 15:40

Tammy , we appreciate you , thank you , thank you for being out here today . Thank you so much . Best of luck .

Speaker 1 15:45

Okay , I want to remind you that the In Wheel Time Car Talk show is available 24-7 through the iHeartRadio app . Just look for In Wheel Time Car Talk . We also video stream on Facebook . Youtube at InWheelTimecom , when we can . Podcasts are available from your favorite podcast provider . When they're permitted , the In Wheel Time Car Talk show continues after this quick break . That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show . I'm Don Armstrong , inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook , youtube , twitch and our InWheelTimecom website . Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts , spotify , stitcher , iheart Podcast Podcast Addict TuneIn , pandora and Amazon Music . Keep listening and we'll see you soon .