Okay people, listen up. Here we go. This is Nature's
Secret Service, the podcast that puts you in
the room with the men and women of wildlife law
enforcement. I'm your host, Ed Newcomer, and
this is the last bonus episode, Bridging Between
Seasons 2 and 3. Season 3, Wolves, premieres
on June 2nd. I hope you'll tune in and tell all
your friends about it. For this bonus episode,
I decided I should just tell you about one of
my adventures as a special agent It's not a particularly
big case In fact, it didn't even result in criminal
charges or any kind of referral to the US Attorney's
office and wasn't even my investigation But I
was along for the ride and I think it's a great
story in 2005 I was working in the Los Angeles
Field Office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service
and we had a fully staffed special agent group.
We had about, at that time, I think we had about
eight special agents working out of the LA field
office. So we were busy and all those agents
were really kicking ass. I had been sent up to
Monterey, California to work on an investigation
related to the illegal killing of some sea otters.
There had been a rash of sea otter shootings
in Monterey Bay. So I went up there for a few
days to do some interviews and scout around and
start an investigation. While I was in Monterey,
I got a phone call from a special agent named
Neil Mendelson who was one of my colleagues in
the Los Angeles field office. Neil was a fantastic
agent. He was one of these guys that was always
working on something good. We used to call him
his nickname at the office was Felony Fred because
he made so many felony wildlife cases. He was
actually younger than me but he was the first
agent I met On the very first day I reported
for duty at the LA field office and we became
quick friends Although he was younger than me.
He was already an experienced agent by the time
Ike reported for duty and You know, I was kind
of in awe of him. He had a great reputation he
worked on great cases and you know, he was one
of these guys who Was really fun to work with
because not only was he really professional and
really good at his job But he always knew exactly
the right thing to say to make everybody laugh.
So we might all be, you know, real busy on a
high stress assignment, like executing a search
warrant or something like that. And at the end
of the day, when everybody was pretty stressed
out, Neil would crack exactly the correct joke
at exactly the correct time and everybody would
relax and laugh. He could also be pretty high
strung when he was working on an affidavit for
a search warrant. I knew to pretty much stay
clear of his office. I might stop in to ask if
he needed anything, but other than that, I was
going to leave him alone. Anyway, I'm in Monterey
working on this sea otter investigation and I
get a phone call from Neil Mendelson and Neil
says, hey, Ed, I got something going on up in
Santa Barbara County on your way back from Monterey.
Do you want to meet me? I need some help. So
I said, yeah, what do you got going on? What
time do you need to see me? All of those things.
Well, as it turns out, Neil was about to conduct
an inspection of the Neverland Ranch in Santa
Barbara County. Now that may sound familiar to
you because that is where Michael Jackson used
to live. He lived on a property, a huge property
in Santa Barbara County called the Neverland
Ranch. Turned out Neil had received or our office
had received a complaint. I don't remember who
the complaint was from but it was basically that
the endangered species held on Neverland Ranch.
were being mistreated. Now, if you don't remember
Neverland Ranch, like I said, big property, Michael
Jackson's house was on that property, but he
had a private zoo and he had a lot of endangered
animals in that zoo. I didn't even know what
he had, but one of the animals everybody knew
he had was a chimpanzee, Bubbles, because Bubbles
used to appear with him in media events. But
Neil, our office had received a complaint that
some of the endangered species at the zoo were
being mistreated. So potentially that could be
a violation of the endangered species at criminal
provisions because it could be essentially take
of endangered species. So Michael Jackson and
his ranch and his zoo, Neverland Ranch Zoo, had
a permit to have these animals for educational
purposes in display. So we had a right to go
up there and inspect but you know Neil didn't
know quite what we were gonna find so we thought
well we better have a couple vehicles and at
least two agents not that it was dangerous but
just you don't know what you're gonna encounter
so I am up in Monterey which is about five and
a half hour drive from Los Angeles so I head
back on the day we're scheduled to meet I meet
Neil at the gate to Neverland Ranch in Santa
Barbara County and there's a security guard there
Neil goes and Neil had already said he's coming
to do the inspection so they they knew we were
coming and Neil identifies himself to the security
guard I identify myself we show him our credentials
and immediately the security guard presents us
with a non -disclosure agreement that we're supposed
to sign we can't get on the property unless we
sign the agreement Well, I'm still pretty new
agent I wasn't quite sure exactly how to handle
these things but Neil knew what he was doing
so he flat -out said no, we're not signing that
document and The security guard kind of got flustered.
He didn't know what to do, right? He's not supposed
to let us on yet. We are federal agents there
to do an inspection This zoo has a permit to
have these animals part of that permit Part of
that agreeing to or having the permit requires
you to submit to inspections when requested by
the US Fish and Wildlife Service. So we didn't
need a warrant. We could come on and to do an
inspection and we'd given them notice we were
coming. So it wasn't like it was a surprise.
So we went back and forth. The security guard
called his supervisor. Basically, they held firm.
You aren't coming on unless you sign the agreement.
So in the end, Neil and I signed the agreement
because we knew it had absolutely no legal legal
effect We would be allowed to talk about anything
we saw on that on that ranch so We go on and
I follow Neil and we're driving on this long
winding road through this kind of oak Hill rolling
green hills with oak trees and we finally come
over the hill and down into this little valley
is this huge mansion and We immediately recognized
it as The Neverland Ranch Michael Jackson's home
And we were you know, both of us of course are
watching for Michael Jackson Didn't see any movement
around the house. Not even any cars near the
house But you know you could see the swimming
pool with the statues of Peter Pan and all that
stuff We're out there and there were lights on
in the home, but it didn't look like anybody
was moving around there Actually, we didn't think
Michael Jackson was home at the time because
you have to remember this 2005 this was very
shortly after he had been charged with Child
molestation and had been acquitted after a pretty
lengthy high -profile pretty traumatic trial
for him So after that trial he really soured
on his home there at Neverland Ranch and he pretty
much left and I don't know where he was live
in Las Vegas or wherever, you know, he went to
another one of his homes and honestly, I'm not
really sure he ever went back to Neverland Ranch
after that it was sold at some point after that
and the zoo was shut down and I don't think he
I think I think that experience with the trial
really soured him on his whole life there in
the Santa Barbara on the ranch there so um we
didn't see him but beyond the house maybe I don't
know 100 yards or so further down this one track
you know uh paved road is uh is the zoo and you
could see there were amusement rides there was
a ferris wheel a merry -go -round different types
of rides and then stretching off down the valley
were walkways, buildings, exhibits. This place
was a real zoo, but the weirdest thing about
it was really once we got there, we told the
security guard who had led us or we had followed
the security guard up there. We told him, Hey,
we're going to go do an inspection. We don't
want you around basically. So He you know, he
hung around at his car I guess we didn't see
him after that Neil and I went through this entire
zoo looking at every single exhibit every single
animal and pretty much documenting what kind
of condition they were in and You know making
notes of questions we might have for the for
anybody the keepers people who were involved
in animal care and It was the surreal experience
because it was later in the afternoon. So it's
kind of getting a little dark ish or the sun
was kind of concealed behind the trees and the
hills and it was totally empty, right? It was
almost like a post -apocalyptic walk through
a zoo where all people had vanished from the
earth and here you are in this zoo with the animals
are still there, but nobody's there. I think
we did see like one maintenance worker at some
point on our inspection, but otherwise nothing.
This is such a surreal experience, very quiet,
right? Except for the noise of animals. But we
went through the zoo and I it was astonishing.
There were two live tigers. So two endangered
species i'm Not sure what I think they were indo
chinese tigers, but they kind of the common tiger
two live adult tigers there was a live african
elephant adult sub -adult and a giraffe an orangutan
And then there was an entire reptile room You
know a large alligator, lots of snakes and reptiles,
which Neil was really interested in. I am not
into reptiles. I did not care for that part of
it. But it was just fascinating to see how many
highly protected animals were present in the
zoo. We did not see Bubbles, the chimp. I don't
think Bubbles, I think Bubbles was gone by that
time. I don't know what happened to Bubbles.
I think he's moved to another facility or something.
But also interesting, the animals were in pretty
good shape. We didn't see any that appeared to
be too stressed out. Actually, none were stressed
out. Some of the enclosures were pretty small.
Like the elephant was in a pretty small indoor
enclosure, but it did have an outdoor enclosure
it could go to during the day. Giraffes were
in a pretty small enclosure, but they, you know,
they appeared in good physical condition. They
weren't pacing. They weren't doing any behaviors
that looked like they were under any kind of
mental stress or anything like that. The tigers
were pretty chilled out. I think they would have
eaten us and killed us if they could they gave
us some pretty hard looks But yeah, again, they
weren't pacing and they their fur was in good
condition They had good body weight and body
condition And in the end, you know, I think neil
did interview the animal caretakers after that
at some point He didn't do it that day. I don't
know why they weren't there with us during the
inspection seems like they would have wanted
to have been and should have been but You know,
we never we never verified any legitimate care
issues related to the endangered species held
on the Neverland Ranch, which was kind of reassuring.
But it was truly a bizarre experience to be a
special agent, you know, armed going on Michael
Jackson's Neverland Ranch to inspect his zoo
and the animals he kept there right after, especially
right after he had been charged with child molestation
and acquitted after a jury trial. So all I remember
of that experience is we took pretty cool pictures.
I'll post some of those on the website if you're
interested. Go over to the website, take a look.
And I had a great time with Neil. Neil always
had a very positive attitude about the work that
he did. He always did a professional job and
he was a great agent to work with. That's the
story. That's the story of the Neverland Ranch
Michael Jackson and his endangered species and
the unsubstantiated complaint that he was mistreating
them Okay, a short bonus episode for today Listen
season three is looking good. I am very very
happy with the guest list We're gonna have about
16 episodes for you for season three and that's
a little reward for the delay I Got a little
sick in february came down with a bad chest cold
that turned into pneumonia So that kind of shut
down my interview schedule for a while and we
got a little behind but we're back on track now
Season's done in the can and premieres june 2nd.
Don't forget to tune in tell your friends and
family and as always Thanks for being a listener.
We'll see you next time Nature's secret service
is written and produced by me ed newcomer and
is co -produced by the DHTV team here at California
State University Dominguez Hills. Follow us on
social media and connect with us online at naturessecretservice
.com.