Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that the world of call center dealings is as corrupt as it is fast-paced because there are always more people to call and more money to make. This much is actually evidenced in HBO’s ‘Telemarketers,’ wherein two unlikely friends unravel the truth behind this industry they once worked for while also underscoring its lasting impacts. They were Sam Lipman-Stern as well as Patrick “Pat” Pespas — so now, if you simply wish to learn more about the latter along with his current standing, we’ve got the essential details for you.
Who is Patrick Pespas?
It was reportedly in the late 1990s when New Jersey native Patrick (or Pat) began working as a full-time telemarketer, only to soon earn the label of legend owing to his incredible pattern. The truth is he was not just a convict on probation but also had intense drug issues, which was never a secret while he was at Civic Development Group (CDG) in the 2000s, as he was always high. In fact, as per a couple of former co-workers, he often abused heroin right in the bathroom before stepping out to make more sales, only to actually close them despite being half passed out.
That’s ostensibly why CDG never really fired Pat — he rarely confided to any office or social rules, yet he almost always went beyond his benchmark and was thus allowed to get away with a lot. “I don’t even know half the time if he knew what he was saying to people on the phone,” fellow telemarketer Billy Fedor candidly stated in the documentary series. “and they’d still give him money.” The fact he genuinely treated everyone with respect, carried a sense of empathy as well as compassion on his sleeves, plus was an overall good human, is also the reason many personally stuck by him.
Nevertheless, it remains undeniable Pat hated his job and telemarketing as a whole — he despised nearly every aspect of its working, yet had to remain employed to provide for his partner, Sue. It hence comes as no surprise that when he came across a like-minded, then-aspiring filmmaker in the office, he convinced the teen to co-investigate the industry while documenting the same. That’s how the duo of Pat and Sam Lipman-Stern came to be, though little did either realize their leads would slowly begin to dwindle once the government ordered CDG to shut down in 2009.
Patrick did subsequently manage to become a delivery man for a local Chi nese restaurant to keep his little family afloat, but then he disappeared just as things started to heat up again around 2012. He’d actually left without a trace left behind, making Sam fear the worst for close to a year before he heard his former co-worker/friend had gotten his life together and was working at a gas station. That’s when the two began communicating off and on again, only for Pat to reach out following a “treatment” in 2020 with complete determination to finally bring their expose to a satisfactory close.
Patrick Pespas is a Working as a Freelance Journalist
Even though Pat and Sam have done wonders bringing telemarketing scams into the limelight in the past two decades in the hopes of Congressional action, their fight is unfortunately still ongoing. Therefore, today, it appears as if the former proudly serves as a freelance journalist, a telemarketer expert, as well as an undercover telemarketer, sometimes, while still residing in his home state of New Jersey.
Coming to Pat’s personal experiences, while he does prefer to keep them on the down low, it seems like he’s clean of hard drugs these days and is happy to have his partner Sue by his side. According to the original production, they had a few rocky years — she’d left him for a while owing to his issues prior to getting back together after a cancer diagnosis, yet now not only is she in remission, but she’s also glad to have her long-lasting love persist.
Read More: Matt Petzold and Billy Fedor: Where are the Ex-CDG Employees Now?
