Catfish: The TV Show (2012–…): Season 8, Episode 52 - Tracii & Ace - full transcript
L.A.-based single mother Tracii wants to fly to Miami to finally meet Ace, a model she's fallen for online, so she calls on Nev and Kamie to investigate before she makes the trip.
- ♪ MTV ♪
- We've got Tracii.
Single mom living in LA
meets Ace.
- There's something
different about him.
He's like,
"I'm ready to be a stepfather.
I want to have children."
So that's why I wanted to
just see what's going on.
- Searching
of the phone number.
- [gasps]
Pacific Payphone?
- What?
And there's a map.
- MacArthur Park.
- Yeah.
We're actually
not that far from there.
Here it is, okay.
- Ready for the stakeout.
- If anyone comes from there
or there, we'll see them.
There's someone.
This could be our guy.
[dramatic music]
I got up at 6:15
'cause I was supposed to have
a Reiki session this morning.
And then my Reiki person
overslept.
- That's very LA of you.
That's when they do,
like, the...
- It's basically meditation,
but they are there
apparently channeling energy
in and around you.
- I could do that right now.
- Yeah, you wanna do
some Reiki on me?
Oh, it works.
All right, let's get to work.
- Let's go.
[upbeat music]
- All right, we're ready to go.
Okay.
Email here from Tracii.
- With two I's.
- Yep.
"Dear Nev and Kamie,
my name is Tracii.
"I'm a single mom, splitting
my time between LA and Vegas.
"I've been talking to a guy
named Ace since May, 2020.
Ace is ten years
younger than me."
- ♪ I want you so badly ♪
- "And he lives in Miami,
Atlanta, and Dallas."
Hold on a second.
So let's just take a walk
over to the map here.
- The hotspot.
- So he lives in Miami,
Dallas, and Atlanta.
He literally lives in
the three top catfish cities.
- Yeah, if he would've added
Michigan, it would have been--
- Or states, right, the only
thing he's missing is Michigan.
- Yeah, God.
- Unbelievable.
"We met when he sent me
a friend request.
"I saw we had a mutual friend,
"so I figured
it was okay to respond.
He's really cute and charming."
- ♪ You got me losing sleep ♪
- "We share the same interests,
and are both hard workers,
"and he makes me laugh.
"As a single mom,
dating isn't easy.
"But Ace was quick
to let me know
that my kids did not
scare him off."
♪ ♪
"Hearing a man say that,
has meant the world to me."
- ♪ Off my mind ♪
- "We talked a lot at first,
just through Messenger.
"And then he asked
for my number,
"and we started talking on
the phone almost every night.
We still haven't videochatted
because he travels a lot."
- The phone travels, too,
by the way.
- Yeah.
"There are a few numbers
he calls me from,
"but lately,
it's been the same number,
"and we talk
every night after work.
"I did ask him why his numbers
change so much.
"He said I was paranoid
and just brushed it off,
"saying that it doesn't matter
where he's calling me from,
just that he's calling."
- I just don't like
the gaslighting
- "Things are feeling
good with him,
"and he's invited me to Miami
to meet him next month.
"I'm excited,
but also a bit nervous
because I've never done
anything like this before."
♪ ♪
"I hope you guys
can help me figure out
"if this is a good idea
or a dead end.
Thanks so much, Tracii."
You're gonna go to Miami
before you just jump
on a [bleep]ing FaceTime?
- No.
Tracii, seems a little naive.
- Let's text her.
- "Hey, Tracii.
It's Nev and Kamie.
- "Can you jump on a Zoom?"
- "Oh wow hi
how are you guys?"
- All right, well, I think
we can tell her
with pretty high confidence.
It's not a good idea.
- It's definitely
not a good idea.
Hey.
- Hi.
- How are you?
- I'm great.
I'm doing good.
- You look gorgeous.
- Thank you so much.
- Are you in Los Angeles?
- I live in Los Angeles,
but I'm currently in Las Vegas
just visiting my mom right now.
I just kind of go
back and forth.
- What do you do?
- I am a model,
aspiring singer,
I'm a student,
and then single mother.
I wear many hats.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- That's a full-time job
on school.
- You're a beautiful woman.
You live in Los Angeles.
You're single.
How is this hap--what is
going on, guys?
- I always attract the wrong
type of man, always.
So that's why this guy,
Ace, is so different.
- Go through the timeline
of when you met Ace,
the entire scenario.
- So we started talking
in May of last year.
He said that he
just saw my picture.
He thought I was beautiful.
He started sending me messages,
and it was just always,
you know, "Hello, beautiful,
good morning.
I hope you have a blessed day."
It was so different from,
you know,
"Hey, girl send me,
you know, a picture of you."
You know, just some guys
are just so vulgar.
And so we talked for
a few months, like every day.
He's also a model.
So we talk about, you know,
the business a lot.
That's another thing
that's a plus
because we share
the same interest.
We understand each other,
you know, we understand
how it goes and how it works.
- So he says he lives in Miami,
Atlanta, and Dallas.
- He travels between
those three places
but mostly lives in Texas.
- You said you have
a mutual friend?
- Yeah.
My cousin's name is Frank.
So I asked my cousin
if he knew him personally,
and he said,
"No, just from Facebook."
- Okay.
- Okay.
- This is a 26-year-old model.
Obviously he's on his phone.
How can he not FaceTime?
- It's always, like,
the lamest excuses.
He'll just say like,
"Oh, my phone's tripping.
I'm in an area where
you can't really hear me."
- Okay, Tracii.
But the changing phone numbers,
that's strange.
You can acknowledge that.
- It is.
Yeah, it is.
- And yet you're still engaging
with this guy
and getting deeper and deeper
into this relationship.
- Yeah, I don't know.
It's just like with Ace,
he kind of caught me, you know,
like at a vulnerable time,
I was just getting out
of a really bad relationship,
and there was something
different about him.
I felt like I can talk to him.
He doesn't judge me on my past
versus my last relationship.
He encourages me.
He even talks
to me about my kids.
He's like,
"I'm ready to be a stepfather.
I want to have children."
He's just different.
You know, versus other guys,
they've just been so immature.
- Do you guys say,
"I love you"?
- I mean, I feel like sometimes
he wants to say it,
but he hasn't said it,
but he's calling me a lot.
He's calling me every day.
- So you guys talk
on the phone a lot,
and you text him, right?
- He doesn't like to text.
He likes to talk.
He'll call me.
- But has he ever texted you?
- No.
He likes to send me messages
from Facebook, or he'll call.
Those are his two,
but mainly calling.
He loves to just call.
He's like,
"I don't like to text."
"That's a lot, you know.
I have so much to say to you.
I'd rather just say
it than text."
- Weird, that's like
the reverse of everybody ever.
- Right, all the catfish
are always like,
"No, I can't call."
- Right.
- "But like, I can text you."
Do you feel like his voice
on the phone
matches the pictures
that you're looking at?
- Yeah, it sounds
like it matches.
He has like a nice, soft,
kind of deep voice.
- All right, well,
I'd love to see
what this guy looks like.
- Okay.
- All right, here we go.
Whoa, wow, okay.
Definitely not
wearing underwear.
- He's definitely not wearing
underwear there.
So I said, "Well,
are you doing nude modeling?
I mean, if you are,
you can let me know."
And he's like, "No, you know,
I don't hide anything from you.
I'm not--if I was doing that,
I would let you know."
- I'm gonna be honest,
he's giving me
gay escort vibes.
- [gasps]
- [laughs]
- Oh, my God.
- But he is cute.
- He's very handsome.
- Let me ask you something.
You said you got out
of a bad relationship
and that shortly after,
Ace showed up.
- Mm-hmm.
- Is there a chance that maybe
Ace could be your ex?
Have you ever considered
that maybe it
could be someone you know?
- I don't think so.
- You've talked to Ace
so many times on the phone,
I feel like, that you
should recognize the voice.
- Exactly.
- Yeah, yeah.
And what's going on
with this trip to Miami?
- He wants me
to come next month.
He said he'll fly me out.
He'll get a nice hotel room.
And, yeah, I'm supposed to go.
First, I have to see
what's going on with this guy,
but he's worth
checking out for sure.
- Obviously, you need to know
more about this guy
before you hop on a plane.
- Definitely, yes.
Just see, you know,
what's going on.
You know,
I don't wanna be lied to.
- All right,
so send us his Facebook,
send us the phone numbers,
pictures that you have,
and let us do an investigation
and see what we find.
- Thank you so much.
- Of course.
- Tracii, we got your back.
- We will talk to you soon.
- Bye.
- You know
it's not his pictures.
It's not.
That guy is not gonna have an
issue with getting on FaceTime.
- Right, the unfortunate
reality is that Tracii doesn't
feel like she can meet
good guys in person.
I'm just worried that if this
doesn't work out for her,
it's gonna mean she's gonna
stop looking for guys
altogether and basically
just give up on dating.
I'm nervous about
what we're gonna find.
- Okay, recap.
- Okay, we've got Tracii,
single mom living in LA.
She's a model, meets Ace.
He's very kind.
And he seems like he is great,
except for the fact
that he changes
his number all the time.
And they've yet to FaceTime,
but she's planning
on meeting up with him
in Miami next month.
And why we're even being
brought in is for her to decide
whether or not she's actually
gonna go forward with it.
Good recap?
- For sure.
All right, let's dive in.
Should have an email here
from Tracii.
There it is, oh.
"Hey Nev and Kamie.
"Thank you so much
for your help.
"Here's everything
I know on Ace.
"His full name is Ace Davis.
"The pictures he sent me
are attached.
There are more pictures
on his Facebook page."
And she linked it.
"And he lives in Miami,
Atlanta, and Dallas.
He's used a few numbers,
a [424] number,
a [323] number,
[213] number.
And so all the numbers he's
had are California numbers.
"He mentioned calling me today
around 4:00,
"so that's probably
the next time we'll talk.
"Let me know
if you need anything else.
"I'll be around today
if you need me.
Thank you."
All right, so let's dive
into this investigation.
Let me save these pictures.
Okay.
Let's see what we can find.
[tense music]
Okay, so no hit there.
How about the flexing one
on the terrace
by the ocean
in the green briefs?
All right, how about this one?
No match.
Is this even working?
Oh, yeah!
We got a hit.
- Ooh!
- We got a hit.
- Ace!
- Whoa!
- No.
- Wait a second.
- Ace Rockwood.
- What?
Black guys on the [bleep].
- Does that mean, like,
hard wieners?
- Ahh!
It does mean hard wieners.
I put on my glasses
at just the right moment.
- Holy moly.
So he's definitely
a nude model.
- But he told Tracii--
- He wasn't.
- That he wasn't.
- But more importantly,
it looks like this guy's name
is actually Ace.
Or his professional
name is Ace Rockwood, sorry.
- His stage name.
- Right, right.
- Oh, Rockwood.
- Oh.
- Oh.
- Of course.
- It's all making sense now.
- All right.
Well, so this one comes up
on a bunch of different sites.
- Gay porn [bleep].
- Oh, yeah.
- Rockwood, gay model.
- Hold on.
There's a Twitter.
- This is all, it's gay porn.
This is a lot.
It's a lot of--
- This is a lot for me.
- [laughs]
There's a lot going on.
- There's a video.
- Buenos días, amigos.
Good morning, y'all.
- Well, this is good
'cause his voice is in it.
- Right.
- So on the off chance
it could still be him.
Maybe his secret is that
he's a gay porn star.
- Yeah, yeah.
There's a possibility
that this Ace
is who Tracii's
talking to, so--
- Right, because he did say
his name was Ace.
- Right.
- Maybe he was like gay
for pay and did porn,
gay porn, at one point,
but he's interested in women
only, and like--
- Or maybe interested in both.
- Maybe interested in both and
never brought it up to Tracii.
- It could be
that they're the same person,
and he just gave her
a different last name.
And she's actually
talking to Ace Rockwood.
- Well, should we try
to find--I feel like we need
to do better research to find
who the real Ace Rockwood is.
- Let's go to Instagram.
I wonder if Ace has a page.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, [bleep].
- OfficialAceRockwood.
Here he's with a girl.
"If you love what we do,
then it'll be very easy
for you to love
the latest update, too."
So it looks like he does
different types of porn.
- The Ace that Tracii's
talking to told her
that he doesn't have
other social media.
- Right, although,
maybe he told her that
because he doesn't want her
to find out
that he's a porn star.
- We don't know.
- But we could
reach out to him.
Let me find his--all right.
Let's send him a message.
"This is Nev from "Catfish,"
"and we're hoping
you could chat with us quickly
"about an episode
we're filming right now.
Let me know."
Okay, all right,
so that now leaves us...
We've got three phone numbers
to try.
Searching of the phone number.
- Oh, Sprint.
- Oh, it was a Sprint number.
All right, let's run
a different number.
- T-Mobile.
- Another actual cell phone.
- We have a third number.
- Yeah, this is
his newest number.
- Pacific Payphone?
- What?
- That's the potential owner.
- Well, that's a first.
- But location is Los Angeles.
- And then the a map.
- MacArthur Park.
- Yeah, that's Downtown LA.
We're actually not that far
from there.
7th and Coronado.
7th, here it is, Coronado.
What is this right here?
[bleep].
- There's a payphone.
Isn't that a payphone?
- Yeah, but she calls him
on that number, doesn't she?
- No, they talk on Messenger.
He says, "I'm gonna call you."
- Right, she said,
"He mentioned calling me
today around 4:00."
And this is
his current phone number.
♪ ♪
- Do you wanna go and, like,
stakeout the payphone?
- Yeah!
I mean, what an incredibly
rare opportunity we have.
It comes up as that payphone.
It's in Downtown LA.
And if they're supposed
to talk today in an hour,
we could just go and see
if anyone comes to the phone.
- You've got that crazy
look in your eye.
- This is crazy.
This is exciting.
We're gonna catch this guy.
- Here we go.
- All right.
- I feel like a vlogger.
[upbeat music]
- All right.
This is a big deal.
We're heading
to the specific payphone
that might be where
our catfish is calling from.
- Stakeout time.
- Which seems insane that
a catfish would use a payphone,
but maybe he's really
trying to stay,
you know, kind of incognito.
I don't know.
It's pretty wild.
- ♪ Easy come and easy go,
I want it all ♪
- ♪ I want it, I want it ♪
- ♪ Oh, I want it all ♪
- It's just wild to me.
I mean, you have to fall
on really hard times
to not have access
to any kind of means
of calling someone
other than a payphone.
- Right, or unless, like,
you're really trying
to keep your location
and your identity secret.
- I mean, that is--that's
like spy [bleep].
And then they've been talking
almost every night.
for hours sometimes.
- That's a long ass time
to be standing outside.
But if he's in LA, what was
his plan for this Miami trip?
Like, was he just gonna
ghost again
and, like,
do some weird [bleep]?
- Right.
- I wanna bust him,
soon as he picks up the phone.
- Text Tracii and--just
so she has a heads up.
- "Hey, Tracii.
Text us as soon
as Ace calls you."
♪ ♪
She said, "Hey!
Okay, I will."
- ♪ Make my head spin 'round,
make my head spin ♪
♪ Turn me upside down ♪
- All right, we're very close.
There it is.
Okay, all right.
So I'm gonna turn here.
- ♪ Oh, I want it all ♪
It's exactly 4:02.
I don't see anyone
on the phone.
All right, well, we're kind of
just far enough away from it
that no one would look over
here and suspect that we were--
- No, we look
very inconspicuous.
- Yeah.
- I got the binoculars.
- Where did you get those?
- Ready for the stakeout.
Wrong way.
- All right.
So this is the liquor store,
and that is the payphone
right there
that we were looking at.
So if anyone comes from there
or there, we will see them.
There is a guy
walking down the street.
[tense music]
- Do we look suspicious?
- [indistinct]
There he is.
There he is.
- He's looking to
the left and right.
Put it down.
You look like a narc.
- So there's this guy.
♪ ♪
- Nobody using that
dusty ass payphone.
- And that guy standing there,
is he getting on the phone?
♪ ♪
It's 4:12.
Where is this guy?
- One thing about Ace,
he's not punctual.
- He's not here yet.
I'm starting
to get discouraged,
but she also hasn't texted us
that they're on the phone yet.
So--
- Right.
- There is still a chance.
- He said around 4:00.
- Right.
- He didn't say at 4:00.
- Right.
Watch this guy.
He's walking over there?
♪ ♪
He is walking over
to the phone.
This could be our guy.
Right to the payphone.
Is he gonna stop?
He's gonna stop.
He's gonna stop.
He's gonna stop.
No.
[phone dings]
- [gasps]
- Oh, is that her?
- He's on the phone now.
- [Bleep].
He must be using
a different payphone.
All right.
- Is he on another payphone?
Let's just cruise around
the block a couple times
and see if we see someone
on a payphone.
- Damn.
♪ ♪
I mean, truthfully,
to see anyone on a payphone
in 2021 will be a rare sight.
♪ ♪
- No, that's
the closest payphone.
- That's the payphone.
- Man, I really thought
we'd caught this catfish,
and now I just feel like
we're back to square one.
One way or another,
we are gonna
catch this person.
- Yesterday was both thrilling
and disappointing.
- Yeah.
- I really thought
we were gonna catch him
like, picking up the phone,
dialing that number.
Nothing.
- I mean, I'm just so curious
how that number and the fact
that it comes up
as a payphone at that location
is related in any way,
or if it's just completely
random, strange nonsense.
♪ ♪
- I don't know,
but I do know Tracii
is not going to be very happy
when she finds out--
- About Ace Rockwood.
- About Ace Rockwood.
Did he message us back?
- I don't think so.
So it says sent but not seen.
- Ready to break the news?
- You ready?
You ready?
- You mean, am I ready to sleep
on the couches behind you guys?
Absolutely.
- All right.
Let's text our girl to join us.
We can show Tracii
everything that we found.
- She's going to be...
[upbeat music]
Hey, Tracii.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- I like this marigold.
- Oh, thank you.
- How are you?
- Oh, I'm just, like, anxious.
I've been anxious all morning.
I couldn't get any sleep.
[sighs]
- All right.
Well, look did some research.
We actually had
a pretty wild day yesterday.
- Okay.
- We definitely have some
things we need to talk about.
- Okay.
- So I'm gonna share my screen.
All right.
So when we searched all of
the photos you had sent us...
- Mm-hmm.
- We did get a hit
on one of them.
- Okay.
- This picture came back
actually with a bunch of hits.
- [gasps]
- And one of them
is this website.
- [gasps]
Oh, my God.
- That's what I said.
- Wait a minute.
[gasps]
Oh, my God!
- We then also noticed the name
for the person in these photos
seems to be Ace Rockwood.
- No wonder I couldn't find him
on Instagram
'cause it's
a different last name.
- So after we saw that,
we're like,
"Okay, well,
let's look up Ace Rockwood."
- Oh, my God.
- So we did.
And we found a video here
where he's acting in gay porn.
- [gasps]
No!
- But I want you
to hear his voice
because it would be good
to know if it matches.
- Oh, my God.
- Buenos días, amigos.
Good morning, y'all.
- Does that
voice sound familiar?
- Yeah,
it sounds like his voice.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Interesting, so basically,
we found the pictures,
we found the Ace Rockwood,
and we messaged Ace
off of his Instagram page,
and we're waiting in the hopes
that he gets back to us.
If it is him, if you are
talking to Ace Rockwood,
and he somehow felt
he should omit
much of the details
of his professional career
and personal sort of sex life,
how would you feel
about that?
- I would definitely not want
to talk to him anymore.
I have no problem with that.
You know, it's not that.
It's just that,
I've been talking to this man
all this time,
and he's never even
mentioned--I've never
seen anything like that.
So it's like, what are you...
- This guy's hiding something.
That brings us
to the phone numbers.
They came up as cell phones,
like, actual cell phones.
- Mm-hmm.
- But what we
immediately recognized
was that they're also
Los Angeles phone numbers.
- Did you not ask him
why all of his numbers
were LA phone numbers?
- I asked him that,
and he's just like,
"Well, you know, eventually
I do wanna come out there."
- Right.
- And he said that he has a lot
of friends and contacts
in California.
So that was always it.
- Well, check this out.
The third number, which
is his most recent number,
weirdly came back
to a Pacific Payphone.
- What?
- Which is not something
we've ever seen before.
- Yeah.
- But it shows a location.
- Oh.
- And the location happens
to be, like, Downtown LA.
- You told us that Ace
was gonna be
calling you around 4:00.
- Yeah.
- It was around 3:00
when we searched the number
and found this payphone.
It isn't far from our office.
So we got in the car.
We head Downtown,
We went to this payphone
to do a little stakeout.
- And is that
when I text you guys
and said he was on the line?
- Right, 'cause we thought
maybe some guy
is gonna walk up to that phone.
- Yeah.
- And you're gonna
text us and say,
"He's talking to me now,"
and we're gonna know who it is.
- Yeah.
- But no one ever came.
You got on the phone with Ace.
We were sitting there, and
there was no one on that phone.
- Oh, wow, oh.
- What number did
he call you from?
- He called me
from a private number.
So I don't know,
maybe he's using...
[phone dings]
- Who's that?
- Ace.
Ace is just
writing me back on Instagram.
- Oh, my God.
What did he say?
- He said,
"Hey, yes, I'm available.
What do you need?"
- Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
- "Would love to get you
on a Zoom."
- I mean, could it have been
Ace this whole time?
- Oh, [bleep], I'm nervous.
[tense music]
- Oh, he hearted it.
Great.
All right.
I'm sending him the link.
- Oh, my God.
[computer chimes]
- Oh, wait a second.
Hey, all right.
What's up man?
- Hey.
- Hey, hey, hey, how you doing?
- We're good, we're good.
- Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Well, so Tracii's been
talking to someone
for a little over a year now.
- Okay.
- Whose name is Ace.
Who looks exactly like you.
So I have to ask.
Are you in an online
relationship with Tracii?
- No, oh, oh, no.
I'm sorry, Tracii.
- Okay.
- I'm sorry.
- I'm sure this is probably
not the first time
you've heard of someone
making a fake profile of you.
- No, I have fake pages
of me on Facebook,
and I've never had a Facebook.
- Oh, wow.
- Okay, all right, well,
this was the answer we needed.
You are just you and also
for you to clear your name
and make sure people know
A, you don't have
a Facebook page.
- Never had one.
- So if you're talking to
Ace Rockwood on Facebook...
- You're not.
- You're not.
- Oh, my God.
- I'm sorry, Tracii,
that you went through that.
That's so sad, but at least now
you get the real thing.
- Thank you.
I really appreciate that.
You're very handsome.
- Do you date women?
- Yeah, yeah.
I've had a relationship with
a woman before, more than one.
- Do you live in Florida?
- Yeah, yeah,
I live in Florida.
- I just wanna know, okay, if
it's not you, then who is it?
And why?
Why did they pick me?
You know,
out of--this is crazy.
We gotta find out who this guy
is, or girl, or, oh, God.
- Whoever it is.
- All right.
- Thanks, Ace.
- Thank you, bye.
Nice meeting you.
- Good luck.
- [sighs]
Oh, my God.
- All right, so look,
we got some answers now
at least.
It's not Ace Rockwood.
- I'm trying not to get mad,
but it's just like, "Come on."
Like, who is this person?
They're, like, wasting my time.
Like, why?
- ♪ Holding on so tight
'cause I'm afraid you might ♪
♪ Might slip away ♪
- There is nothing wrong
with being mad
about your time being wasted
for over a year
by a person who has lied to you
about seemingly everything.
- Oh, my God.
Yeah, it's very disappointing.
Disappointing,
like, come on.
This is embarrassing, too.
You know what I mean?
Like, I don't understand why
someone would wanna do this.
- ♪ Can't get
this moment frozen ♪
♪ ♪
- I'm sorry.
I didn't want to cry on camera.
♪ ♪
- ♪ So why don't we move
in slow motion ♪
- Okay.
- This [bleep]ing sucks.
- Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I didn't want to cry on camera.
I look more stupid.
- No, it--there's
nothing stupid
about putting yourself
out there to meet someone.
What's stupid is somebody
[bleep]ing conning you
and making you think
that there's somebody
that they're not.
- Yeah.
- It's okay for you to be sad,
and it's okay for you
to be angry,
but don't direct it
towards yourself
as something you did wrong.
We're gonna put that energy
where it belongs
in the hands of Ace,
whoever the [bleep] this is.
- [laughs]
- Now having discovered
that he's been misleading you,
is there a reason
to continue forward
and find out who this guy
you've been talking to is?
- I would like to find out,
you know, who's doing it.
I was getting out
of a bad relationship.
Whoever this person is came in,
and they helped me
get out of that.
'Cause I really had
a hard time.
I was really depressed.
You know, and now I'm just,
like, nervous.
I'm like, who could this be?
This takes a lot.
Why would they do all of this?
- Just feels a little,
like, intentional.
- That's what makes it scary.
- So I say
we reel this catfish in,
and let them
explain themselves.
Give them an opportunity
to finally come out
from behind the mask.
[tense music]
- Oh, God.
- So I can message him
or try calling him,
but it's a payphone.
All right.
Well, I'm gonna call him.
Let me make sure
I have the right number.
All right.
Let's see what happens.
- Goodness.
- Oh, boy.
[line trilling]
[piercing beep]
- A fax machine?
- It's a payphone!
- Why can't you call
a payphone?
I mean, maybe you have
to pick it up right away.
I mean, I don't know.
Maybe you can't call
payphones anymore,
but I'm basing my knowledge
on payphones from "Die Hard."
- Right, 'cause in the movies,
you're walking by,
it rings, you say, "Hello?"
It be like,
"You got five minutes."
- Right.
- "Meet me in the park."
- We can't text him.
So I'm gonna just send him
a message on Facebook.
- Oh, wow.
- "Hey Ace.
This is Nev from 'Catfish.'"
All right.
I think that's pretty good.
- He gonna have to get
to that phone.
- Oh, my God.
- Well, let's see
if he sees it.
Is he usually pretty quick
with his Facebook Messenger?
- Yeah, he's usually
pretty quick.
[phone rings]
- Oh, that's the number.
He's calling from it.
- The payphone.
- Oh, it's the payphone.
- Okay.
Hello?
- Yeah, hey, this is Ace?
- Hey, man, how you doing?
- Good, good, do you know
about the show "Catfish?"
- Okay, cool.
We're working on an episode now
with a lady
who I think you've been
talking to named Tracii.
And we were just hoping
we could get you guys
to meet up,
even virtually, face-to-face.
We're in a Zoom,
and just full disclosure,
I wanna be honest with you.
We already know
that the pictures that you had
sent her are not actually you.
- All right,
so I'll send you that link,
and we'll--I look forward
to speaking with you.
Thanks.
He definitely was outside.
- First of all,
that is the first time in years
that I've actually heard
the phone be hung up.
- Right, that's true.
- I heard it, too.
- That's true, it clicked.
- It was a cl-clunk.
- All right.
Well, I sent the link.
- Oh, God, okay.
- Wait, so he said
that he tried to reach out to
you as himself and that you--
- It must have been before.
- When?
Yeah, who?
- I mean, you might have had
people message you and try to--
- Yeah.
- Right,
it probably happens often.
So it could have been any
number of guys who were like,
"Hey, what's up?"
- Oh, God, who is this?
[computer chimes]
[dramatic music]
What is that?
- [indistinct]
- Hello?
♪ ♪
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi there.
- Obvious I'm not the person
in the picture.
- Yes.
I see here on the Zoom,
is your name Tyrone?
Is that--
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
First of all, I wanna say,
sorry to everyone, you know,
putting y'all on a wild
goose chase, especially Tracii.
- Ah.
- Wow, you look so good.
Oh my God, you look so good.
- You know what?
- But yeah,
I just wanna apologize
and start off
with saying I'm sorry.
- Okay.
- Wow.
- So Tyrone, can you tell us
a little bit about yourself?
'Cause we don't--you know,
we're all very curious.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I am in LA, and I'm
an artist, digital artist,
and I do some modeling
on the side,
and I do travel
and all that jazz.
Of course I like leather, and I
have a cat named King Julian
who's on my bed over there,
which if you can see him.
- [laughing]
Wait a minute.
There's no way
that this is the same person
I've been talking
to the whole time.
The voice, it's not the same.
- Yeah, yeah, it's Ace, baby.
It's Ace.
- [gasps]
Oh, my God.
Okay, I'm gone.
I can't.
- Yeah.
- Oh, my goodness.
- Come back.
Get it together, baby.
- Oh, my God.
- It's Ace, baby.
It's Ace.
- [gasps]
Oh, my God.
Okay, I'm done.
I can't.
- Yeah.
- Oh, my goodness.
Oh, my goodness.
- Come back.
Get it together, baby.
- Oh, my God.
- Is she gonna come back?
- Well, until she does,
you seem like
a very confident guy.
- No, not necessarily.
I have my insecurities, too,
just like everyone else.
- Yeah, sure, yeah.
- But you got a lot going on,
so what the [bleep]
are you doing on the internet
pretending to be Ace Rockwood?
I can't help
how I feel about Tracii.
I mean, my feelings are real.
I'm just in a different form.
You know,
she could still get Ace.
[tense music]
Oh, she's back.
♪ ♪
- Okay, I'm sorry.
I just needed a moment.
- That's fine.
- Yeah.
- Hey, I know--look,
I know I did a [bleep] thing.
I did a very [bleep] thing.
- And for a long time, too,
it wasn't just like a week
or two, or you know,
even that would've been bad,
but it's been damn
near a year, like--
- My heart is still here
for you honestly.
I really like you
because your energy,
you're a wonderful mother.
and you're just
this cinnamon bear
that I just love.
I just want a nibble on you.
- That's creepy.
- And I told you a thing
I like about whipped cream.
I really meant it.
I like whipped cream
with chocolate.
- Um...
- And I wanna eat that
body-ody-ody-ody-ody, eh, eh.
- Well...
- [laughing]
- You know, I like your
chocolate self, come on now.
It's nothing but love
for you, baby.
- Oh, my God.
- And I'm willing
to get this hair of mine
and rub it in your under
"beyondas" and your whoo-ha,
and get you all excited.
- Oh, um...
- You know, it's all real
for you, it's all real.
- We can go ahead
and pass on all that.
- What is going on?
- Well, I mean, look,
Tyrone, it would be great
if you could drop the act,
and we could just say,
take it down a little bit
'cause I want to talk to you,
and I don't want you to feel
like you need to perform,
I just want you to talk to us.
First of all, it would appear
to us that you have
at least recently been talking
to her via a payphone.
Are we right about that?
- Yeah, it's actually
right next to my apartment.
- And why are you
using a payphone?
- Because she'll find out
my true identity super fast.
All she has to do--you know
us millennials,
you know, this generation,
period, is super smart.
You can easily just put
somebody phone in Facebook,
and it pops up.
- Right, right.
So you have been in LA?
- Yes.
- You had told Tracii
that next month
you were gonna fly her out
to Miami to visit you.
Like, were you going
to do that?
- What was the plan?
- Yeah.
- Well, what I was gonna do
is like,
we were just gonna have
a little vacation.
But eventually, I was gonna
show her my real self.
I just didn't know how,
and that's another reason
why I'm finding, like,
this "Catfish" is a blessing,
and I might look a little silly
or goofy and all of that,
but you know,
I know I deserve love,
and you deserve it, too.
- Absolutely, everyone
deserves love definitely,
but the way you went about it
was just the wrong way.
You know, you came in
with a lie, like you said,
you reached out to me
before--I don't remember
you ever reaching out to me.
You could have approached me,
you know, the regular way.
- Maybe it was
with a different profile,
and I don't remember, but
I do remember Tracii [bleep].
So I don't know.
- You have other profiles other
than the Ace Davis profile?
- Oh, shoot.
I done told on myself, hell.
- Okay.
But my whole thing is, why?
Doesn't it take extra
to sit here
and make fake profiles
and do all this stuff?
That's a lot.
- Originally, the profiles
were just more like me
spying on my exes
when I know they were cheating,
and I ended up keeping
a lot of those profiles.
And then as COVID, and
the protested,
and George Floyd,
and all that other stuff,
it really made me very sad
and depressed.
I was going through a spiral of
an anxiety and missing people,
human interaction,
so I made this profile Ace.
- How many other profiles
do you have that you use?
- I probably have
like 10 or 15.
- But you do use your other
profiles to talk to people?
- Yeah.
- Some of them are
your ex relationships?
- Yes.
- How many people are
you talking to
right now including Tracii?
- It's, like,
at least over 20, but--
- Wow.
- They're not
as serious as her.
- And are you in love
with Tracii?
- Yes.
- And are you in love
with any of these other people?
- No.
- Do you love
any of these other people?
- No, no.
The other people,
they were just playing,
and honestly,
a lot of them blocked me.
- Tyrone, it sounds like
you don't know
how to take a [bleep]ing hint.
Like, why not just meet
somebody who likes you for you?
- Exactly.
- Why are you creating
these false personas
and leading on
these long relationships
- And wasting your time
checking out exes
when you could be making new,
you know--
- Exactly.
- It honestly has been really
tough for me.
I'm pansexual.
So it's all
about energy for me.
I have dated transgender.
I've dated men and female,
and I don't really see sex,
but it's so hard
to actually find somebody
who actually loves all of this.
And the first thing
they look at is the hair.
And then the way
I present myself, I don't know.
I don't know
if it's intimidating,
or if it's just
a little too much for them.
With the Ace character,
I just felt invincible.
It was like the shield.
Like, I felt like Superman.
- I get all of that.
But for someone who has so much
going for themselves,
for someone who is loud
and proud pansexual.
- Yeah.
- For someone who is living
in that kind of truth,
to be upholding these lies
is just...
- Hypocrite.
- It makes no sense.
You have no reason to.
You could meet somebody great,
but instead, we're channeling
our sadness and anger
into multiple profiles.
- I wish I could go back
in time and fix it,
but I can't.
You know, all I can do
is move forward from here.
All I'm asking for
is forgiveness.
You know, you don't have
to do it today,
'cause I don't wanna
come across as a douchebag,
even though it's kind of
looking like I'm a douchebag.
But I really am genuinely sorry
for what I've put you through.
[tense music]
- I'd like to hear
from you, Tracii.
I'm just curious kind of where
you are with everything.
- Um...
I'm a forgiving person.
I forgive him.
You know,
I appreciate him apologizing.
That still doesn't take away
how I feel, like how
I was hurt and affected.
You know, again,
I'll accept his apology,
but I feel like anything
moving forward for me
is definitely a hard no.
[soft music]
- Mm-hmm, that's fair.
- Yeah.
I don't want any
communication going forward.
- And it's gonna
take me some time
to lose my medicine
for the day, you know,
'cause you're like medicine
and you know.
I'm just saying.
I'm just keeping it real.
You're like a drug--
- Yeah.
- That I can't
let go of, you know,
but I know I gotta respect
your decision and your life.
- All right, well, my questions
have been answered.
I don't know if anyone else
has anything they need to say,
but I think, Tyrone,
it was nice to meet you.
Now I think we'll say goodbye,
and I think it's safe to say
that should in the future,
Tracii want to reach out and
connect, it'll be up to her.
- She will find you.
- And she'll find you.
- Absolutely.
And I am deleting the profile,
so I'm gonna get rid of that.
- Okay, all right, well, good.
- All right, Tyrone.
- Okay, Tyrone.
- Good luck.
- Bye-bye, thank you.
- Bye.
- See ya.
- Bye.
Awkward.
- The Lord bless him.
Bless his heart.
- Okay.
- Tracii, how are you?
- A lot of emotions.
Maybe I just need to take
a break on dating for now
and just focus on other things
because it was already scary,
now it's scarier.
- We can't let Tyrone keep you
from meeting somebody special.
And, like, there's still
Ace Rockwood in Miami.
- Yeah.
- He's really cute.
- I mean, at this point,
if I were you,
I would be booking that flight.
- [laughs]
- Take care, Tracii.
- Thank you.
You guys, too.
Have a good rest of your day.
- Bye.
- Bye, thank you so much.
♪ ♪
- ♪ If your love's
in disguise ♪
♪ Then you're not loving
anyone but yourself ♪
♪ Some things never,
some things never ♪
♪ Some things never break ♪
♪ ♪
A year ago, Michael slides
into Romeo's DM.
- He was so generous
and so sweet.
He's saying he want
a future with me,
but I still haven't seen
this man yet.
- Oh!
- "I'm not a catfish."
- Some weird [bleep] is
going down.
- What is going on?
[computer chimes]
- Oh.
- Oh, no.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
1057
00:41:40.
- We've got Tracii.
Single mom living in LA
meets Ace.
- There's something
different about him.
He's like,
"I'm ready to be a stepfather.
I want to have children."
So that's why I wanted to
just see what's going on.
- Searching
of the phone number.
- [gasps]
Pacific Payphone?
- What?
And there's a map.
- MacArthur Park.
- Yeah.
We're actually
not that far from there.
Here it is, okay.
- Ready for the stakeout.
- If anyone comes from there
or there, we'll see them.
There's someone.
This could be our guy.
[dramatic music]
I got up at 6:15
'cause I was supposed to have
a Reiki session this morning.
And then my Reiki person
overslept.
- That's very LA of you.
That's when they do,
like, the...
- It's basically meditation,
but they are there
apparently channeling energy
in and around you.
- I could do that right now.
- Yeah, you wanna do
some Reiki on me?
Oh, it works.
All right, let's get to work.
- Let's go.
[upbeat music]
- All right, we're ready to go.
Okay.
Email here from Tracii.
- With two I's.
- Yep.
"Dear Nev and Kamie,
my name is Tracii.
"I'm a single mom, splitting
my time between LA and Vegas.
"I've been talking to a guy
named Ace since May, 2020.
Ace is ten years
younger than me."
- ♪ I want you so badly ♪
- "And he lives in Miami,
Atlanta, and Dallas."
Hold on a second.
So let's just take a walk
over to the map here.
- The hotspot.
- So he lives in Miami,
Dallas, and Atlanta.
He literally lives in
the three top catfish cities.
- Yeah, if he would've added
Michigan, it would have been--
- Or states, right, the only
thing he's missing is Michigan.
- Yeah, God.
- Unbelievable.
"We met when he sent me
a friend request.
"I saw we had a mutual friend,
"so I figured
it was okay to respond.
He's really cute and charming."
- ♪ You got me losing sleep ♪
- "We share the same interests,
and are both hard workers,
"and he makes me laugh.
"As a single mom,
dating isn't easy.
"But Ace was quick
to let me know
that my kids did not
scare him off."
♪ ♪
"Hearing a man say that,
has meant the world to me."
- ♪ Off my mind ♪
- "We talked a lot at first,
just through Messenger.
"And then he asked
for my number,
"and we started talking on
the phone almost every night.
We still haven't videochatted
because he travels a lot."
- The phone travels, too,
by the way.
- Yeah.
"There are a few numbers
he calls me from,
"but lately,
it's been the same number,
"and we talk
every night after work.
"I did ask him why his numbers
change so much.
"He said I was paranoid
and just brushed it off,
"saying that it doesn't matter
where he's calling me from,
just that he's calling."
- I just don't like
the gaslighting
- "Things are feeling
good with him,
"and he's invited me to Miami
to meet him next month.
"I'm excited,
but also a bit nervous
because I've never done
anything like this before."
♪ ♪
"I hope you guys
can help me figure out
"if this is a good idea
or a dead end.
Thanks so much, Tracii."
You're gonna go to Miami
before you just jump
on a [bleep]ing FaceTime?
- No.
Tracii, seems a little naive.
- Let's text her.
- "Hey, Tracii.
It's Nev and Kamie.
- "Can you jump on a Zoom?"
- "Oh wow hi
how are you guys?"
- All right, well, I think
we can tell her
with pretty high confidence.
It's not a good idea.
- It's definitely
not a good idea.
Hey.
- Hi.
- How are you?
- I'm great.
I'm doing good.
- You look gorgeous.
- Thank you so much.
- Are you in Los Angeles?
- I live in Los Angeles,
but I'm currently in Las Vegas
just visiting my mom right now.
I just kind of go
back and forth.
- What do you do?
- I am a model,
aspiring singer,
I'm a student,
and then single mother.
I wear many hats.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- That's a full-time job
on school.
- You're a beautiful woman.
You live in Los Angeles.
You're single.
How is this hap--what is
going on, guys?
- I always attract the wrong
type of man, always.
So that's why this guy,
Ace, is so different.
- Go through the timeline
of when you met Ace,
the entire scenario.
- So we started talking
in May of last year.
He said that he
just saw my picture.
He thought I was beautiful.
He started sending me messages,
and it was just always,
you know, "Hello, beautiful,
good morning.
I hope you have a blessed day."
It was so different from,
you know,
"Hey, girl send me,
you know, a picture of you."
You know, just some guys
are just so vulgar.
And so we talked for
a few months, like every day.
He's also a model.
So we talk about, you know,
the business a lot.
That's another thing
that's a plus
because we share
the same interest.
We understand each other,
you know, we understand
how it goes and how it works.
- So he says he lives in Miami,
Atlanta, and Dallas.
- He travels between
those three places
but mostly lives in Texas.
- You said you have
a mutual friend?
- Yeah.
My cousin's name is Frank.
So I asked my cousin
if he knew him personally,
and he said,
"No, just from Facebook."
- Okay.
- Okay.
- This is a 26-year-old model.
Obviously he's on his phone.
How can he not FaceTime?
- It's always, like,
the lamest excuses.
He'll just say like,
"Oh, my phone's tripping.
I'm in an area where
you can't really hear me."
- Okay, Tracii.
But the changing phone numbers,
that's strange.
You can acknowledge that.
- It is.
Yeah, it is.
- And yet you're still engaging
with this guy
and getting deeper and deeper
into this relationship.
- Yeah, I don't know.
It's just like with Ace,
he kind of caught me, you know,
like at a vulnerable time,
I was just getting out
of a really bad relationship,
and there was something
different about him.
I felt like I can talk to him.
He doesn't judge me on my past
versus my last relationship.
He encourages me.
He even talks
to me about my kids.
He's like,
"I'm ready to be a stepfather.
I want to have children."
He's just different.
You know, versus other guys,
they've just been so immature.
- Do you guys say,
"I love you"?
- I mean, I feel like sometimes
he wants to say it,
but he hasn't said it,
but he's calling me a lot.
He's calling me every day.
- So you guys talk
on the phone a lot,
and you text him, right?
- He doesn't like to text.
He likes to talk.
He'll call me.
- But has he ever texted you?
- No.
He likes to send me messages
from Facebook, or he'll call.
Those are his two,
but mainly calling.
He loves to just call.
He's like,
"I don't like to text."
"That's a lot, you know.
I have so much to say to you.
I'd rather just say
it than text."
- Weird, that's like
the reverse of everybody ever.
- Right, all the catfish
are always like,
"No, I can't call."
- Right.
- "But like, I can text you."
Do you feel like his voice
on the phone
matches the pictures
that you're looking at?
- Yeah, it sounds
like it matches.
He has like a nice, soft,
kind of deep voice.
- All right, well,
I'd love to see
what this guy looks like.
- Okay.
- All right, here we go.
Whoa, wow, okay.
Definitely not
wearing underwear.
- He's definitely not wearing
underwear there.
So I said, "Well,
are you doing nude modeling?
I mean, if you are,
you can let me know."
And he's like, "No, you know,
I don't hide anything from you.
I'm not--if I was doing that,
I would let you know."
- I'm gonna be honest,
he's giving me
gay escort vibes.
- [gasps]
- [laughs]
- Oh, my God.
- But he is cute.
- He's very handsome.
- Let me ask you something.
You said you got out
of a bad relationship
and that shortly after,
Ace showed up.
- Mm-hmm.
- Is there a chance that maybe
Ace could be your ex?
Have you ever considered
that maybe it
could be someone you know?
- I don't think so.
- You've talked to Ace
so many times on the phone,
I feel like, that you
should recognize the voice.
- Exactly.
- Yeah, yeah.
And what's going on
with this trip to Miami?
- He wants me
to come next month.
He said he'll fly me out.
He'll get a nice hotel room.
And, yeah, I'm supposed to go.
First, I have to see
what's going on with this guy,
but he's worth
checking out for sure.
- Obviously, you need to know
more about this guy
before you hop on a plane.
- Definitely, yes.
Just see, you know,
what's going on.
You know,
I don't wanna be lied to.
- All right,
so send us his Facebook,
send us the phone numbers,
pictures that you have,
and let us do an investigation
and see what we find.
- Thank you so much.
- Of course.
- Tracii, we got your back.
- We will talk to you soon.
- Bye.
- You know
it's not his pictures.
It's not.
That guy is not gonna have an
issue with getting on FaceTime.
- Right, the unfortunate
reality is that Tracii doesn't
feel like she can meet
good guys in person.
I'm just worried that if this
doesn't work out for her,
it's gonna mean she's gonna
stop looking for guys
altogether and basically
just give up on dating.
I'm nervous about
what we're gonna find.
- Okay, recap.
- Okay, we've got Tracii,
single mom living in LA.
She's a model, meets Ace.
He's very kind.
And he seems like he is great,
except for the fact
that he changes
his number all the time.
And they've yet to FaceTime,
but she's planning
on meeting up with him
in Miami next month.
And why we're even being
brought in is for her to decide
whether or not she's actually
gonna go forward with it.
Good recap?
- For sure.
All right, let's dive in.
Should have an email here
from Tracii.
There it is, oh.
"Hey Nev and Kamie.
"Thank you so much
for your help.
"Here's everything
I know on Ace.
"His full name is Ace Davis.
"The pictures he sent me
are attached.
There are more pictures
on his Facebook page."
And she linked it.
"And he lives in Miami,
Atlanta, and Dallas.
He's used a few numbers,
a [424] number,
a [323] number,
[213] number.
And so all the numbers he's
had are California numbers.
"He mentioned calling me today
around 4:00,
"so that's probably
the next time we'll talk.
"Let me know
if you need anything else.
"I'll be around today
if you need me.
Thank you."
All right, so let's dive
into this investigation.
Let me save these pictures.
Okay.
Let's see what we can find.
[tense music]
Okay, so no hit there.
How about the flexing one
on the terrace
by the ocean
in the green briefs?
All right, how about this one?
No match.
Is this even working?
Oh, yeah!
We got a hit.
- Ooh!
- We got a hit.
- Ace!
- Whoa!
- No.
- Wait a second.
- Ace Rockwood.
- What?
Black guys on the [bleep].
- Does that mean, like,
hard wieners?
- Ahh!
It does mean hard wieners.
I put on my glasses
at just the right moment.
- Holy moly.
So he's definitely
a nude model.
- But he told Tracii--
- He wasn't.
- That he wasn't.
- But more importantly,
it looks like this guy's name
is actually Ace.
Or his professional
name is Ace Rockwood, sorry.
- His stage name.
- Right, right.
- Oh, Rockwood.
- Oh.
- Oh.
- Of course.
- It's all making sense now.
- All right.
Well, so this one comes up
on a bunch of different sites.
- Gay porn [bleep].
- Oh, yeah.
- Rockwood, gay model.
- Hold on.
There's a Twitter.
- This is all, it's gay porn.
This is a lot.
It's a lot of--
- This is a lot for me.
- [laughs]
There's a lot going on.
- There's a video.
- Buenos días, amigos.
Good morning, y'all.
- Well, this is good
'cause his voice is in it.
- Right.
- So on the off chance
it could still be him.
Maybe his secret is that
he's a gay porn star.
- Yeah, yeah.
There's a possibility
that this Ace
is who Tracii's
talking to, so--
- Right, because he did say
his name was Ace.
- Right.
- Maybe he was like gay
for pay and did porn,
gay porn, at one point,
but he's interested in women
only, and like--
- Or maybe interested in both.
- Maybe interested in both and
never brought it up to Tracii.
- It could be
that they're the same person,
and he just gave her
a different last name.
And she's actually
talking to Ace Rockwood.
- Well, should we try
to find--I feel like we need
to do better research to find
who the real Ace Rockwood is.
- Let's go to Instagram.
I wonder if Ace has a page.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, [bleep].
- OfficialAceRockwood.
Here he's with a girl.
"If you love what we do,
then it'll be very easy
for you to love
the latest update, too."
So it looks like he does
different types of porn.
- The Ace that Tracii's
talking to told her
that he doesn't have
other social media.
- Right, although,
maybe he told her that
because he doesn't want her
to find out
that he's a porn star.
- We don't know.
- But we could
reach out to him.
Let me find his--all right.
Let's send him a message.
"This is Nev from "Catfish,"
"and we're hoping
you could chat with us quickly
"about an episode
we're filming right now.
Let me know."
Okay, all right,
so that now leaves us...
We've got three phone numbers
to try.
Searching of the phone number.
- Oh, Sprint.
- Oh, it was a Sprint number.
All right, let's run
a different number.
- T-Mobile.
- Another actual cell phone.
- We have a third number.
- Yeah, this is
his newest number.
- Pacific Payphone?
- What?
- That's the potential owner.
- Well, that's a first.
- But location is Los Angeles.
- And then the a map.
- MacArthur Park.
- Yeah, that's Downtown LA.
We're actually not that far
from there.
7th and Coronado.
7th, here it is, Coronado.
What is this right here?
[bleep].
- There's a payphone.
Isn't that a payphone?
- Yeah, but she calls him
on that number, doesn't she?
- No, they talk on Messenger.
He says, "I'm gonna call you."
- Right, she said,
"He mentioned calling me
today around 4:00."
And this is
his current phone number.
♪ ♪
- Do you wanna go and, like,
stakeout the payphone?
- Yeah!
I mean, what an incredibly
rare opportunity we have.
It comes up as that payphone.
It's in Downtown LA.
And if they're supposed
to talk today in an hour,
we could just go and see
if anyone comes to the phone.
- You've got that crazy
look in your eye.
- This is crazy.
This is exciting.
We're gonna catch this guy.
- Here we go.
- All right.
- I feel like a vlogger.
[upbeat music]
- All right.
This is a big deal.
We're heading
to the specific payphone
that might be where
our catfish is calling from.
- Stakeout time.
- Which seems insane that
a catfish would use a payphone,
but maybe he's really
trying to stay,
you know, kind of incognito.
I don't know.
It's pretty wild.
- ♪ Easy come and easy go,
I want it all ♪
- ♪ I want it, I want it ♪
- ♪ Oh, I want it all ♪
- It's just wild to me.
I mean, you have to fall
on really hard times
to not have access
to any kind of means
of calling someone
other than a payphone.
- Right, or unless, like,
you're really trying
to keep your location
and your identity secret.
- I mean, that is--that's
like spy [bleep].
And then they've been talking
almost every night.
for hours sometimes.
- That's a long ass time
to be standing outside.
But if he's in LA, what was
his plan for this Miami trip?
Like, was he just gonna
ghost again
and, like,
do some weird [bleep]?
- Right.
- I wanna bust him,
soon as he picks up the phone.
- Text Tracii and--just
so she has a heads up.
- "Hey, Tracii.
Text us as soon
as Ace calls you."
♪ ♪
She said, "Hey!
Okay, I will."
- ♪ Make my head spin 'round,
make my head spin ♪
♪ Turn me upside down ♪
- All right, we're very close.
There it is.
Okay, all right.
So I'm gonna turn here.
- ♪ Oh, I want it all ♪
It's exactly 4:02.
I don't see anyone
on the phone.
All right, well, we're kind of
just far enough away from it
that no one would look over
here and suspect that we were--
- No, we look
very inconspicuous.
- Yeah.
- I got the binoculars.
- Where did you get those?
- Ready for the stakeout.
Wrong way.
- All right.
So this is the liquor store,
and that is the payphone
right there
that we were looking at.
So if anyone comes from there
or there, we will see them.
There is a guy
walking down the street.
[tense music]
- Do we look suspicious?
- [indistinct]
There he is.
There he is.
- He's looking to
the left and right.
Put it down.
You look like a narc.
- So there's this guy.
♪ ♪
- Nobody using that
dusty ass payphone.
- And that guy standing there,
is he getting on the phone?
♪ ♪
It's 4:12.
Where is this guy?
- One thing about Ace,
he's not punctual.
- He's not here yet.
I'm starting
to get discouraged,
but she also hasn't texted us
that they're on the phone yet.
So--
- Right.
- There is still a chance.
- He said around 4:00.
- Right.
- He didn't say at 4:00.
- Right.
Watch this guy.
He's walking over there?
♪ ♪
He is walking over
to the phone.
This could be our guy.
Right to the payphone.
Is he gonna stop?
He's gonna stop.
He's gonna stop.
He's gonna stop.
No.
[phone dings]
- [gasps]
- Oh, is that her?
- He's on the phone now.
- [Bleep].
He must be using
a different payphone.
All right.
- Is he on another payphone?
Let's just cruise around
the block a couple times
and see if we see someone
on a payphone.
- Damn.
♪ ♪
I mean, truthfully,
to see anyone on a payphone
in 2021 will be a rare sight.
♪ ♪
- No, that's
the closest payphone.
- That's the payphone.
- Man, I really thought
we'd caught this catfish,
and now I just feel like
we're back to square one.
One way or another,
we are gonna
catch this person.
- Yesterday was both thrilling
and disappointing.
- Yeah.
- I really thought
we were gonna catch him
like, picking up the phone,
dialing that number.
Nothing.
- I mean, I'm just so curious
how that number and the fact
that it comes up
as a payphone at that location
is related in any way,
or if it's just completely
random, strange nonsense.
♪ ♪
- I don't know,
but I do know Tracii
is not going to be very happy
when she finds out--
- About Ace Rockwood.
- About Ace Rockwood.
Did he message us back?
- I don't think so.
So it says sent but not seen.
- Ready to break the news?
- You ready?
You ready?
- You mean, am I ready to sleep
on the couches behind you guys?
Absolutely.
- All right.
Let's text our girl to join us.
We can show Tracii
everything that we found.
- She's going to be...
[upbeat music]
Hey, Tracii.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- I like this marigold.
- Oh, thank you.
- How are you?
- Oh, I'm just, like, anxious.
I've been anxious all morning.
I couldn't get any sleep.
[sighs]
- All right.
Well, look did some research.
We actually had
a pretty wild day yesterday.
- Okay.
- We definitely have some
things we need to talk about.
- Okay.
- So I'm gonna share my screen.
All right.
So when we searched all of
the photos you had sent us...
- Mm-hmm.
- We did get a hit
on one of them.
- Okay.
- This picture came back
actually with a bunch of hits.
- [gasps]
- And one of them
is this website.
- [gasps]
Oh, my God.
- That's what I said.
- Wait a minute.
[gasps]
Oh, my God!
- We then also noticed the name
for the person in these photos
seems to be Ace Rockwood.
- No wonder I couldn't find him
on Instagram
'cause it's
a different last name.
- So after we saw that,
we're like,
"Okay, well,
let's look up Ace Rockwood."
- Oh, my God.
- So we did.
And we found a video here
where he's acting in gay porn.
- [gasps]
No!
- But I want you
to hear his voice
because it would be good
to know if it matches.
- Oh, my God.
- Buenos días, amigos.
Good morning, y'all.
- Does that
voice sound familiar?
- Yeah,
it sounds like his voice.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Interesting, so basically,
we found the pictures,
we found the Ace Rockwood,
and we messaged Ace
off of his Instagram page,
and we're waiting in the hopes
that he gets back to us.
If it is him, if you are
talking to Ace Rockwood,
and he somehow felt
he should omit
much of the details
of his professional career
and personal sort of sex life,
how would you feel
about that?
- I would definitely not want
to talk to him anymore.
I have no problem with that.
You know, it's not that.
It's just that,
I've been talking to this man
all this time,
and he's never even
mentioned--I've never
seen anything like that.
So it's like, what are you...
- This guy's hiding something.
That brings us
to the phone numbers.
They came up as cell phones,
like, actual cell phones.
- Mm-hmm.
- But what we
immediately recognized
was that they're also
Los Angeles phone numbers.
- Did you not ask him
why all of his numbers
were LA phone numbers?
- I asked him that,
and he's just like,
"Well, you know, eventually
I do wanna come out there."
- Right.
- And he said that he has a lot
of friends and contacts
in California.
So that was always it.
- Well, check this out.
The third number, which
is his most recent number,
weirdly came back
to a Pacific Payphone.
- What?
- Which is not something
we've ever seen before.
- Yeah.
- But it shows a location.
- Oh.
- And the location happens
to be, like, Downtown LA.
- You told us that Ace
was gonna be
calling you around 4:00.
- Yeah.
- It was around 3:00
when we searched the number
and found this payphone.
It isn't far from our office.
So we got in the car.
We head Downtown,
We went to this payphone
to do a little stakeout.
- And is that
when I text you guys
and said he was on the line?
- Right, 'cause we thought
maybe some guy
is gonna walk up to that phone.
- Yeah.
- And you're gonna
text us and say,
"He's talking to me now,"
and we're gonna know who it is.
- Yeah.
- But no one ever came.
You got on the phone with Ace.
We were sitting there, and
there was no one on that phone.
- Oh, wow, oh.
- What number did
he call you from?
- He called me
from a private number.
So I don't know,
maybe he's using...
[phone dings]
- Who's that?
- Ace.
Ace is just
writing me back on Instagram.
- Oh, my God.
What did he say?
- He said,
"Hey, yes, I'm available.
What do you need?"
- Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
- "Would love to get you
on a Zoom."
- I mean, could it have been
Ace this whole time?
- Oh, [bleep], I'm nervous.
[tense music]
- Oh, he hearted it.
Great.
All right.
I'm sending him the link.
- Oh, my God.
[computer chimes]
- Oh, wait a second.
Hey, all right.
What's up man?
- Hey.
- Hey, hey, hey, how you doing?
- We're good, we're good.
- Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Well, so Tracii's been
talking to someone
for a little over a year now.
- Okay.
- Whose name is Ace.
Who looks exactly like you.
So I have to ask.
Are you in an online
relationship with Tracii?
- No, oh, oh, no.
I'm sorry, Tracii.
- Okay.
- I'm sorry.
- I'm sure this is probably
not the first time
you've heard of someone
making a fake profile of you.
- No, I have fake pages
of me on Facebook,
and I've never had a Facebook.
- Oh, wow.
- Okay, all right, well,
this was the answer we needed.
You are just you and also
for you to clear your name
and make sure people know
A, you don't have
a Facebook page.
- Never had one.
- So if you're talking to
Ace Rockwood on Facebook...
- You're not.
- You're not.
- Oh, my God.
- I'm sorry, Tracii,
that you went through that.
That's so sad, but at least now
you get the real thing.
- Thank you.
I really appreciate that.
You're very handsome.
- Do you date women?
- Yeah, yeah.
I've had a relationship with
a woman before, more than one.
- Do you live in Florida?
- Yeah, yeah,
I live in Florida.
- I just wanna know, okay, if
it's not you, then who is it?
And why?
Why did they pick me?
You know,
out of--this is crazy.
We gotta find out who this guy
is, or girl, or, oh, God.
- Whoever it is.
- All right.
- Thanks, Ace.
- Thank you, bye.
Nice meeting you.
- Good luck.
- [sighs]
Oh, my God.
- All right, so look,
we got some answers now
at least.
It's not Ace Rockwood.
- I'm trying not to get mad,
but it's just like, "Come on."
Like, who is this person?
They're, like, wasting my time.
Like, why?
- ♪ Holding on so tight
'cause I'm afraid you might ♪
♪ Might slip away ♪
- There is nothing wrong
with being mad
about your time being wasted
for over a year
by a person who has lied to you
about seemingly everything.
- Oh, my God.
Yeah, it's very disappointing.
Disappointing,
like, come on.
This is embarrassing, too.
You know what I mean?
Like, I don't understand why
someone would wanna do this.
- ♪ Can't get
this moment frozen ♪
♪ ♪
- I'm sorry.
I didn't want to cry on camera.
♪ ♪
- ♪ So why don't we move
in slow motion ♪
- Okay.
- This [bleep]ing sucks.
- Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I didn't want to cry on camera.
I look more stupid.
- No, it--there's
nothing stupid
about putting yourself
out there to meet someone.
What's stupid is somebody
[bleep]ing conning you
and making you think
that there's somebody
that they're not.
- Yeah.
- It's okay for you to be sad,
and it's okay for you
to be angry,
but don't direct it
towards yourself
as something you did wrong.
We're gonna put that energy
where it belongs
in the hands of Ace,
whoever the [bleep] this is.
- [laughs]
- Now having discovered
that he's been misleading you,
is there a reason
to continue forward
and find out who this guy
you've been talking to is?
- I would like to find out,
you know, who's doing it.
I was getting out
of a bad relationship.
Whoever this person is came in,
and they helped me
get out of that.
'Cause I really had
a hard time.
I was really depressed.
You know, and now I'm just,
like, nervous.
I'm like, who could this be?
This takes a lot.
Why would they do all of this?
- Just feels a little,
like, intentional.
- That's what makes it scary.
- So I say
we reel this catfish in,
and let them
explain themselves.
Give them an opportunity
to finally come out
from behind the mask.
[tense music]
- Oh, God.
- So I can message him
or try calling him,
but it's a payphone.
All right.
Well, I'm gonna call him.
Let me make sure
I have the right number.
All right.
Let's see what happens.
- Goodness.
- Oh, boy.
[line trilling]
[piercing beep]
- A fax machine?
- It's a payphone!
- Why can't you call
a payphone?
I mean, maybe you have
to pick it up right away.
I mean, I don't know.
Maybe you can't call
payphones anymore,
but I'm basing my knowledge
on payphones from "Die Hard."
- Right, 'cause in the movies,
you're walking by,
it rings, you say, "Hello?"
It be like,
"You got five minutes."
- Right.
- "Meet me in the park."
- We can't text him.
So I'm gonna just send him
a message on Facebook.
- Oh, wow.
- "Hey Ace.
This is Nev from 'Catfish.'"
All right.
I think that's pretty good.
- He gonna have to get
to that phone.
- Oh, my God.
- Well, let's see
if he sees it.
Is he usually pretty quick
with his Facebook Messenger?
- Yeah, he's usually
pretty quick.
[phone rings]
- Oh, that's the number.
He's calling from it.
- The payphone.
- Oh, it's the payphone.
- Okay.
Hello?
- Yeah, hey, this is Ace?
- Hey, man, how you doing?
- Good, good, do you know
about the show "Catfish?"
- Okay, cool.
We're working on an episode now
with a lady
who I think you've been
talking to named Tracii.
And we were just hoping
we could get you guys
to meet up,
even virtually, face-to-face.
We're in a Zoom,
and just full disclosure,
I wanna be honest with you.
We already know
that the pictures that you had
sent her are not actually you.
- All right,
so I'll send you that link,
and we'll--I look forward
to speaking with you.
Thanks.
He definitely was outside.
- First of all,
that is the first time in years
that I've actually heard
the phone be hung up.
- Right, that's true.
- I heard it, too.
- That's true, it clicked.
- It was a cl-clunk.
- All right.
Well, I sent the link.
- Oh, God, okay.
- Wait, so he said
that he tried to reach out to
you as himself and that you--
- It must have been before.
- When?
Yeah, who?
- I mean, you might have had
people message you and try to--
- Yeah.
- Right,
it probably happens often.
So it could have been any
number of guys who were like,
"Hey, what's up?"
- Oh, God, who is this?
[computer chimes]
[dramatic music]
What is that?
- [indistinct]
- Hello?
♪ ♪
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi there.
- Obvious I'm not the person
in the picture.
- Yes.
I see here on the Zoom,
is your name Tyrone?
Is that--
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
First of all, I wanna say,
sorry to everyone, you know,
putting y'all on a wild
goose chase, especially Tracii.
- Ah.
- Wow, you look so good.
Oh my God, you look so good.
- You know what?
- But yeah,
I just wanna apologize
and start off
with saying I'm sorry.
- Okay.
- Wow.
- So Tyrone, can you tell us
a little bit about yourself?
'Cause we don't--you know,
we're all very curious.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I am in LA, and I'm
an artist, digital artist,
and I do some modeling
on the side,
and I do travel
and all that jazz.
Of course I like leather, and I
have a cat named King Julian
who's on my bed over there,
which if you can see him.
- [laughing]
Wait a minute.
There's no way
that this is the same person
I've been talking
to the whole time.
The voice, it's not the same.
- Yeah, yeah, it's Ace, baby.
It's Ace.
- [gasps]
Oh, my God.
Okay, I'm gone.
I can't.
- Yeah.
- Oh, my goodness.
- Come back.
Get it together, baby.
- Oh, my God.
- It's Ace, baby.
It's Ace.
- [gasps]
Oh, my God.
Okay, I'm done.
I can't.
- Yeah.
- Oh, my goodness.
Oh, my goodness.
- Come back.
Get it together, baby.
- Oh, my God.
- Is she gonna come back?
- Well, until she does,
you seem like
a very confident guy.
- No, not necessarily.
I have my insecurities, too,
just like everyone else.
- Yeah, sure, yeah.
- But you got a lot going on,
so what the [bleep]
are you doing on the internet
pretending to be Ace Rockwood?
I can't help
how I feel about Tracii.
I mean, my feelings are real.
I'm just in a different form.
You know,
she could still get Ace.
[tense music]
Oh, she's back.
♪ ♪
- Okay, I'm sorry.
I just needed a moment.
- That's fine.
- Yeah.
- Hey, I know--look,
I know I did a [bleep] thing.
I did a very [bleep] thing.
- And for a long time, too,
it wasn't just like a week
or two, or you know,
even that would've been bad,
but it's been damn
near a year, like--
- My heart is still here
for you honestly.
I really like you
because your energy,
you're a wonderful mother.
and you're just
this cinnamon bear
that I just love.
I just want a nibble on you.
- That's creepy.
- And I told you a thing
I like about whipped cream.
I really meant it.
I like whipped cream
with chocolate.
- Um...
- And I wanna eat that
body-ody-ody-ody-ody, eh, eh.
- Well...
- [laughing]
- You know, I like your
chocolate self, come on now.
It's nothing but love
for you, baby.
- Oh, my God.
- And I'm willing
to get this hair of mine
and rub it in your under
"beyondas" and your whoo-ha,
and get you all excited.
- Oh, um...
- You know, it's all real
for you, it's all real.
- We can go ahead
and pass on all that.
- What is going on?
- Well, I mean, look,
Tyrone, it would be great
if you could drop the act,
and we could just say,
take it down a little bit
'cause I want to talk to you,
and I don't want you to feel
like you need to perform,
I just want you to talk to us.
First of all, it would appear
to us that you have
at least recently been talking
to her via a payphone.
Are we right about that?
- Yeah, it's actually
right next to my apartment.
- And why are you
using a payphone?
- Because she'll find out
my true identity super fast.
All she has to do--you know
us millennials,
you know, this generation,
period, is super smart.
You can easily just put
somebody phone in Facebook,
and it pops up.
- Right, right.
So you have been in LA?
- Yes.
- You had told Tracii
that next month
you were gonna fly her out
to Miami to visit you.
Like, were you going
to do that?
- What was the plan?
- Yeah.
- Well, what I was gonna do
is like,
we were just gonna have
a little vacation.
But eventually, I was gonna
show her my real self.
I just didn't know how,
and that's another reason
why I'm finding, like,
this "Catfish" is a blessing,
and I might look a little silly
or goofy and all of that,
but you know,
I know I deserve love,
and you deserve it, too.
- Absolutely, everyone
deserves love definitely,
but the way you went about it
was just the wrong way.
You know, you came in
with a lie, like you said,
you reached out to me
before--I don't remember
you ever reaching out to me.
You could have approached me,
you know, the regular way.
- Maybe it was
with a different profile,
and I don't remember, but
I do remember Tracii [bleep].
So I don't know.
- You have other profiles other
than the Ace Davis profile?
- Oh, shoot.
I done told on myself, hell.
- Okay.
But my whole thing is, why?
Doesn't it take extra
to sit here
and make fake profiles
and do all this stuff?
That's a lot.
- Originally, the profiles
were just more like me
spying on my exes
when I know they were cheating,
and I ended up keeping
a lot of those profiles.
And then as COVID, and
the protested,
and George Floyd,
and all that other stuff,
it really made me very sad
and depressed.
I was going through a spiral of
an anxiety and missing people,
human interaction,
so I made this profile Ace.
- How many other profiles
do you have that you use?
- I probably have
like 10 or 15.
- But you do use your other
profiles to talk to people?
- Yeah.
- Some of them are
your ex relationships?
- Yes.
- How many people are
you talking to
right now including Tracii?
- It's, like,
at least over 20, but--
- Wow.
- They're not
as serious as her.
- And are you in love
with Tracii?
- Yes.
- And are you in love
with any of these other people?
- No.
- Do you love
any of these other people?
- No, no.
The other people,
they were just playing,
and honestly,
a lot of them blocked me.
- Tyrone, it sounds like
you don't know
how to take a [bleep]ing hint.
Like, why not just meet
somebody who likes you for you?
- Exactly.
- Why are you creating
these false personas
and leading on
these long relationships
- And wasting your time
checking out exes
when you could be making new,
you know--
- Exactly.
- It honestly has been really
tough for me.
I'm pansexual.
So it's all
about energy for me.
I have dated transgender.
I've dated men and female,
and I don't really see sex,
but it's so hard
to actually find somebody
who actually loves all of this.
And the first thing
they look at is the hair.
And then the way
I present myself, I don't know.
I don't know
if it's intimidating,
or if it's just
a little too much for them.
With the Ace character,
I just felt invincible.
It was like the shield.
Like, I felt like Superman.
- I get all of that.
But for someone who has so much
going for themselves,
for someone who is loud
and proud pansexual.
- Yeah.
- For someone who is living
in that kind of truth,
to be upholding these lies
is just...
- Hypocrite.
- It makes no sense.
You have no reason to.
You could meet somebody great,
but instead, we're channeling
our sadness and anger
into multiple profiles.
- I wish I could go back
in time and fix it,
but I can't.
You know, all I can do
is move forward from here.
All I'm asking for
is forgiveness.
You know, you don't have
to do it today,
'cause I don't wanna
come across as a douchebag,
even though it's kind of
looking like I'm a douchebag.
But I really am genuinely sorry
for what I've put you through.
[tense music]
- I'd like to hear
from you, Tracii.
I'm just curious kind of where
you are with everything.
- Um...
I'm a forgiving person.
I forgive him.
You know,
I appreciate him apologizing.
That still doesn't take away
how I feel, like how
I was hurt and affected.
You know, again,
I'll accept his apology,
but I feel like anything
moving forward for me
is definitely a hard no.
[soft music]
- Mm-hmm, that's fair.
- Yeah.
I don't want any
communication going forward.
- And it's gonna
take me some time
to lose my medicine
for the day, you know,
'cause you're like medicine
and you know.
I'm just saying.
I'm just keeping it real.
You're like a drug--
- Yeah.
- That I can't
let go of, you know,
but I know I gotta respect
your decision and your life.
- All right, well, my questions
have been answered.
I don't know if anyone else
has anything they need to say,
but I think, Tyrone,
it was nice to meet you.
Now I think we'll say goodbye,
and I think it's safe to say
that should in the future,
Tracii want to reach out and
connect, it'll be up to her.
- She will find you.
- And she'll find you.
- Absolutely.
And I am deleting the profile,
so I'm gonna get rid of that.
- Okay, all right, well, good.
- All right, Tyrone.
- Okay, Tyrone.
- Good luck.
- Bye-bye, thank you.
- Bye.
- See ya.
- Bye.
Awkward.
- The Lord bless him.
Bless his heart.
- Okay.
- Tracii, how are you?
- A lot of emotions.
Maybe I just need to take
a break on dating for now
and just focus on other things
because it was already scary,
now it's scarier.
- We can't let Tyrone keep you
from meeting somebody special.
And, like, there's still
Ace Rockwood in Miami.
- Yeah.
- He's really cute.
- I mean, at this point,
if I were you,
I would be booking that flight.
- [laughs]
- Take care, Tracii.
- Thank you.
You guys, too.
Have a good rest of your day.
- Bye.
- Bye, thank you so much.
♪ ♪
- ♪ If your love's
in disguise ♪
♪ Then you're not loving
anyone but yourself ♪
♪ Some things never,
some things never ♪
♪ Some things never break ♪
♪ ♪
A year ago, Michael slides
into Romeo's DM.
- He was so generous
and so sweet.
He's saying he want
a future with me,
but I still haven't seen
this man yet.
- Oh!
- "I'm not a catfish."
- Some weird [bleep] is
going down.
- What is going on?
[computer chimes]
- Oh.
- Oh, no.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
1057
00:41:40.