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Pat Pespas, star of HBO's N.J.-based 'Telemarketers' docudrama, is missing
By
Louis C. Hochman
Published Oct 2, 2023
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Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO
By
Louis C. Hochman
Published Oct 2, 2023
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Police and friends say Pat Pespas — one of the call center operators who sought to expose graft and corruption in the HBO docuseries “Telemarketers” — has gone missing.
“His wife, family and friends are all very worried about him,” his co-star in the docuseries, Sam Lipman-Stern, wrote on Instagram.
Police in Easton, Pa., said Pespas, 54, was last seen in that city on Friday, and may be operating a white 2002 Ford Mustang with the New Jersey license plate N74KUB. A media alert said "police are concerned for his well-being."
The series features footage Pespas and Lipman-Stern shot in the early 2000s at the Civic Development Group, a New Brunswick, N.J.-based telemarketing firm that would later pay a record $18.8 million FTC settlement for convincing consumers they were donating to fire, police and veterans’ charities, while barely any of the money CDG collected went to those groups. Their footage shows workers giving each other tattoos, doing drugs and wrestling in the office while talking to customers on the phone. Later episodes chronicle their adventures over two decades investigating the broader telemarketing industry, alleging practices like CDG’s remain widespread and that charity organizations are often in on the scam.
Adam Bhala Lough, who co-directed the series with Lipman-Stern, wrote Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Pespas may have been seen in a bar in the Pittsburgh area. Police have not released any information about suspected or confirmed sightings.
The series’ directors are asking anyone with information on Pespas to contact [email protected].
In the docuseries, Pespas is described as a “telemarketing legend.” He's also portrayed as loud, personable and exuberant in nature. Of their work at CDG, Pespas tells Lipman-Stern in Telemarketers: “We call people up on behalf of some bulls--- organization, and chisel ’em out of money.” Pespas is frequently seen in his trademark plaid jacket and cowboy hat.
The docuseries also details Pespas' own history of drug use. This summer, Pespas said he’s a born-again Christian and sober, and ashamed of footage from his time using drugs while at CDG.
“I'm not that person anymore,” he said.
Lipman-Stern told NJ Advance Media Pespas moved to Easton after living in New Jersey communities and Phillipsburg, Pa.
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Louis C. Hochman
After about two decades in (mostly) New Jersey-focused commercial print, digital and digital-but-radio-adjacent news, Lou stumbled into member-supported news in early 2021, as the editor and CEO of Montclair Local. There, he (hopes he) expanded enterprise, brought more sophistication to digital storytelling and moved the nonprofit newsroom closer to long-term financial sustainability. He helped lead the Local to its fourth consecutive General Excellence award from the New Jersey Press Association — the NJPA's highest honor with judges noting the paper's work to strip away layers of government opacity, to hold power to account, to make news accessible for more members of the community, to share the stories and concerns of more facets of the community and to tell compelling stories across multiple media. He's excited to continue the same ethic — news as a public service — at NYPR as the New Jersey and suburbs editor, drawing on the extraordinary talents of reporters including Karen Yi and Nancy Solomon. Lou lives in Philly (that commute!) with his partner and their two cats, about whom and about which he speaks incessantly.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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