I wanted to be a cop. No shit, that was my plan.

I graduated high school in ’88-and-a-half, full of half-assed ambition, convinced that law enforcement was my future. But the reality? I never got further than riding shotgun as a cadet on a few boring-ass patrols.

Eventually, I landed a “real job,” clocking in at a print shop, pushing paper around for a year after graduation. It was safe. Predictable. Completely fucking miserable.

Then summer rolled around, and my buddies came back from college with this wild hustle - selling speakers out of the back of vans. These guys were pulling in hundreds of dollars a day, flashing wads of cash at pool parties like it was Monopoly money. That was all it took.

I picked up the phone, called in sick to the print shop and jumped into my white Toyota Supra, adrenaline buzzing like I just did a fat key bump.

I pulled up to this small warehouse, and it was like stepping into a different universe. The place was fully alive at 7:30 in the morning. Young guys everywhere, laughing, loading up seven white vans packed to the ceiling with home audio equipment in shiny boxes. The energy was absolutely electric.

“STFO!” someone yelled.

Sell. The. Fuck. Out.

That was the motto. That was the religion.

The whole warehouse erupted, dudes high-fiving, tossing each other beers, practically vibrating with hunger. There were daily, weekly, and monthly cash bonuses for who could sell the most sets (this was speaker guy lingo for a pair of speakers). The winners got more than just cash. They got respect and bragging rights. Sometimes it would even get them a paid escort, courtesy of the company.

“Go rock ‘em!” another guy barked.

The walls shook with the chants. It was tribal and primitive.

It was like stepping into a filthy, glorious temple of hustlers. Naked posters of hot chicks were slapped up all over the walls, big tits, perfect asses, lips parted like they were begging for it. Right in the middle of it all hung this massive framed Ferrari poster with the words in bold red: “LOOK ‘EM IN THE EYE, PITCH ‘EM HIGH, WATCH ‘EM BUY.”

It was like gospel.

The king of this circus was Adam Steelman. That motherfucker oozed confidence from every pore. Gold chains resting on his hairy chest, bright white Reeboks, and he cruised around in a brand-new Jaguar.

“Alright boys - who wants a shot of Jack before we head out and make some fuckin’ money?” he’d bark, waving a bottle around like a preacher with holy water.

We paired up, two guys to a van, survival of the fittest. My buddy Blake got stuck with me. I was the new guy, raw as hell, eyes wide and jaw to the ground. Neither of us had a plan beyond one simple goal: sell the speakers stacked in the back of our van for as much as humanly possible.

We got the sets on consignment, which meant when we rolled back into the warehouse at the end of the day, we’d better have that money. Otherwise, we had to turn in our pride along with the unsold speakers.

By noon that first day, I’d already stuffed $800 cash in my pocket. I was completely, irreversibly hooked. I never stepped foot back in that shitty print shop where I used to work. Blake? He never went back to college.

Later that afternoon, vans rolled back into the warehouse lot at random intervals. Guys hanging out of the windows, waving stacks of bills, grinning like maniacs. Beers would be passed around, everyone high fiving, sharing stories of how they’d conned some poor bastard at the bank into coughing up six hundred bucks for a set.

That night we hit up Chili’s and I felt like a goddamn king. I sat there with a knot of cash so thick I could barely fold it, feeling invincible, like nothing in the world could ever touch me again.

That was only the beginning, of course.

Sellin’ Out: True Stories From the White Van Speaker Scam is the jaw-dropping, laugh-out-loud memoir that takes you deep inside one of America’s most infamous underground hustles. Written by Craig and Kristy Riley, this true crime book pulls back the curtain on the white van speaker scam, an outrageous street-level operation where fast-talking crews sold “high-end” audio gear out of sketchy vans in parking lots across the country.

Whether you’re into real-life scams, con artist stories, or wild tales of fast money and broken rules, this gritty and hilarious book delivers. From shady parking lot deals to hotel madness and wild police chases, these stories aren’t urban legends-they’re 100% true.

Perfect for fans of:

• True crime memoirs
• White collar scams and cons
• Sales hustle culture
• Get-rich-quick stories
• Books like The Wolf of Wall Street or The Dirt

Get your copy now and find out how a van, a lie, and a dream made a few guys rich-and got some locked up.