This is an arrest that should of never of had to take place, nor the fight that insued. Thanks to a mistake by someone at the local jail, this defendent was released when we posted his bonds. The mistake was that he had a zero bond hold for another county. When you have a zero bond your stuck in jail and can’t get out.

So the jail releases him and calls me about 1 hour later to let me know that we need to return him to the jail!! So the defendent comes in and I explain the mistake the jail made and that I have to return him to the jail. He says “fuck that” and makes a run for the door. I quickly bear hug him and throw him onto the sofa in my office. He squirms and yells.. mind you he’s not a small guy..he’s short but heavy and adding the fear of jail, he’s tough to wrestle with.

I manage to hold on to him and get him cuffed up. Thank goodness… kudos to the idiots that weren’t doin their job and cause me to get in this situation. Pain in my ass….

OK.. This girl here skipped court on some drug related charges. The co-signer of the bond only knew what area she was staying in and that it was a hotel. So another agent and I proceed to go to the downtown Clearwater Beach area and search.

While driving down the road we get stuck in traffic that’s backed up from a car accident. As we pass the accident scene, I glance over at the group of people standing outside the hotel checking it out and I spot our target!!  If I had warrants, I wouldnt go watch an accident scene full of cops. Unfortunately, not everyone is smart.

So we pull in the hotel and talk to one of the police officers thats standing there. There’s about 8 cops around us. I inform him of who we’re there for and he approaches the target. He runs her ID and she’s cuffed and stuffed and transported back to the county jail. Total bond recovered was $5,000.

Alrighty.. I decided to put this one up because she was definetly a piece of work. She skipped court and I recieved a tip that she was in a local hotel at Clearwater beach with a couple of guys. So another agent and I go out to the hotel and locate the room she’s in.

We knock on the door and a guy answers. I invite myself in and begin to look around. It’s actually a pretty big hotel room. I find the target in one of the rooms, inside the hotel room. In my opinion, she was high on something for sure. So she’s stuffed and cuffed and VERY irrate!! The guys also aren’t to happy I’m taking their girl away. I notice some suspected drugs and suspected paraphernalia scattered throughout the hotel room.

So on our way to the county jail, the fugitive begins getting very violent and starts to try to kick the window of the car!! I have the other agent pull over and I hop out. I walk over to her door and pull her out. We seem to have forgotten the shackles, so I take my belt off and begin to hog tie her. She screams and begs not to hog tie her. She agrees to calm down and I untie her.

We arrive at the jail, and once inside booking she gets all crazy again. The funniest thing I heard her say was when a female deputy asked why she had no panties on under her VERY short miniskirt?? She said “I was just in a hotel with 2 guys and I was gonna let them give it to me”!! LOL.. I swear I almost died laughing.. she’s crazy!!!! Total bond recovered was $5,000.

Alrighty.. I’ve been on vacation for a week so here’s one from the past. This was the first time I deployed my taser.

This lady here skipped court on everything from supposed prostitution to possession of crack. All I really knew was that she picks up a disability check at her moms on the first of the month.

So I set up at her moms and begin watching the house. Hours and hours go by and nothing. So I decide to order a pizza.. about 20 mins after I order the pizza I notice a car pull up to her house. I drive down and I spot the target just getting out the passenger’s side of her friend’s car.

I hop out real quick and run over to her. She spots me and jumps back into the car. I grab the door handle before she can lock it and open the door and begin to TRY to pull her out. She weighs in the range of about 250 lbs. So as I’m half way hangin out of the car she tells her friend to go. All I see is him grab the steering wheel and put the car into drive.

With me hanging half in and half out of the car I fear that if he takes off I’m gonna get sucked under the car and run over. So with no choice left, I grab my taser and shoot the driver. He begins to shake and scream. I then am able to pull the target out of the car and cuff her up.

Police and EMT’s arrive and the driver is ok and asks if he can go. He leaves and the target is booked into the local county jail. total bond recovered was $7,500.

Ok, this is when bountyhunting is sometimes fun.. if your a single guy, lol!

This girl skipped and we had no leads. The only thing I know is that she works in the adult entertainment buisness. In case your not familiar with the Clearwater area, there’s ALOT of these establishments. So I have the daunting task of hopping strip club to strip club till I find her. Ugghhh.. such a tough assignment!!

So another agent and I begin and stay about 20 mins per club. Finally we arrive at one and when we walk in there she is on stage dancing!! I casually identify myself to the management without any patrons knowing.

The thing about these kind of clubs is once you show a badge and tell them who you’re there for they basically throw them right out to you. They want no part of any law enforcement in their clubs. So they tell me to wait outside and she’s cuffed and stuffed.

Along the way she makes a few bribes to let her go but to no avail. I want my bounty money!! I dropped her off at the local jail and she was later released and still to this day has outstanding warrants for her arrest. Total bond recovered was $5,000.

This one was one of my very first captures. I guess she, like most people, skipped court because she was on her way to prison if convicted. So after she skipped court I watched her mom’s house for a few days and basically nothing. I checked all family members homes and friends. She just seemed to up and disapppear.

So I manage to pull together some leads and find out she’s in NYC. I find another family member of hers and watch the house. I notice a car in their driveway with a Florida license plate on it. I call the NYPD and we knock. The occupants claim she’s not inside. After some haggling we go in and there she is!!

About a month later she finally arrives back in Florida after being transported from NYC. She is later convicted of numerous felonies and sentenced to 2 years and 11 days in the state prison system. Total bond recovered was $10,000.

I;m going to put up my most recent capture once again. It occured on 6/04/08 at about 4pm.

This one was a low bond and the co-signer actually had already paid his bond to us, so we were not out any money. However, I did really hunt him hard to save the co-signer her money.

I have a lot of respect for someone when they come in and pay the bond after the person has skipped court. When people do that, it’s a sign of a very responsible person. Most people will tell you to go to hell, or something of that nature. So, since this lady lost a thousand dollars because this idiot can’t go to court, I decided to go into full force bountyhunting mode and get her most of her money back.

I had really stirred up the neighborhood and his family for about 3 or 4 days and put lots of pressure on him. He and his girlfriend were allegedly homeless somewhere in the area. I went to his parents house on June 2nd… and his step-dad said that the fugitive does not come around there when he is home. He said “if u see my car ..he’s not here.

I didn’t believe a SINGLE word of anything he said. I know a liar when I see one. So I set up in a nearby location and watch his parents house. Not more than 30 mins after I left his parents, I see the step-dad come out of the mobile home and walk across the street and stop and talk to some people in a back corner of a local bars’ parking lot. Me and another agent pull up in the parking lot and there’s the target in all is glory. I told you the stepdad was full of it!!

The target got up and began to run like the wind. He had approx. a 40 yard head start. I quickly gained about 30 of that back and was on his tail. Unfortunetly, the fugitive ran into a swampy type field where the weeds were up to our necks. The ground was also VERY hilly .. so fearing breaking an ankle or suffering an injury I decided to call the chase off.

Sometimes you have to know when to stop. You don’t win all the battles but as long as you win the war your good.

So on June 4th, 2008 I located the fugitive in an RV with some friends. I called the local police and a deputy and I approached. When we looked in through the screen door of the RV there he was!!

He was taken into custody at tazer point and was EXTREMELY hostile towards me. The deputy also didn’t want to transport him, so we called a transport van in. He was probably upset that his warrant has a zero bond on it, which means you go to jail and can’t get out. Poor fella..lol..

That’s what you get for screwing over people when they try to help you out. His own mother told me she was a bail agent for 20 years and she wouldn’t even bond him out. Then, the co-signer is nice enough to bond him out when his mother wouldn’t, and the guy skips out on her.. what a piece of shit. Total bond recovered was $1,000.

This is my most recent arrest as it occured on 5/29/08. It’s also a prime example of how sudden and unexpectedly the dangers of bountyhunting can come into play.

Basically this fella skipped court of course, and I had a few leads to go on.  So I started with his girlfriend’s house thinking that it’s probably where he would be. I go out to the house about 11 pm and peek in the windows. As I’m standing, there I spot the target inside the house.

I try to find a place to call the police but I’m in an area thats very lit and as I go to walk back to my car, the target comes outside. He glances over and sees me and the badge and begins to run. I give chase and catch him after only about 30 yards. He was pretty slow..lol. So I put him face down on the pavement. By the way, we are in an apartment complex in a cul-de-sac.

As I’m cuffing him up a car comes FLYING around the cul-de-sac and right at the last second the driver sees me and locks up the brakes!! By the time the car stopped, the targets’ feet were actually under her front bumper!!  She managed to stop approx. 2 feet from me!!!! Had she not been paying attention or on the phone she most likely would of struck me in the back and ran over the fugitive at about 25 mph. It most likely would have been death for the both of us.

Unfortunately, I dropped the f-bomb on her about 10 times and she left. There’s really no need to be going so fast in an apt. complex!! It just goes to show that sometimes the danger is not the fugitive or any of their friends but just unforseen things like traffic. I wasn’t even thinking about a car coming around the turn.. I was concentrating to hard on getting him cuffed and it almost cost me.

Total bond recovered was only $2,750. I wanted to post this for the lesson learned.

Ok, this one seemed to take a really bad turn for the worse one day when I received a call from a police detective. The detective stated to me that he was looking to arrest this guy and couldn’t find him. Supposedly this guy was involved in some organized mafia type stuff. The detective didn’t want to tell me much except for the fact that he needed him ASAP.

I had him on a $10,000 bond so I made some calls and gave him some excuse to come in to my office. I don’t want to release my trick for getting him in to my office but it’s a good one and works about every time. So he does come in and remind you, he’s 6′3″ and about 220lbs.

So he comes in and as I attempt to arrest him he does resist at first.. then decides to relax and I cuff him up. After I find out why the detective wanted him I’m shocked he didn’t fight harder. I’m not sure if he knew the charges he was wanted on or what. So I take him to the local county jail and he’s booked on my charge.

Later, the detective charged him with Attempted 2nd degree murder and on 5/21/08 the defendent was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the offense. The detective thanked me and now owes me one.. It’s nice sometimes to have a robbery/homicide detective owe you a favor. I’ll save it for a rainy day.

As this one goes, the defendent skipped court on his “record producer” (lol) and wasn’t anywhere to be found. I spoke with his family and they claimed they only knew he was somewhere in a county just north with some friends but didn’t know where that was. I could tell the father wasn’t telling the  truth. I acted like I believed him in case the target was coming and visiting them.

Within a few days I put some good intel together and get a couple block radius of a mobile home he was staying in. I also gathered they supposedly have a meth lab and numerous guns, some of which are shotguns. Bullet proof vest or not a shotgun is not a weapon you want your fugitive to have. You prefer them to just have a butter knife but that rarely happens.

To get back to the story.. I go out driving the area and actually spot the target drive past me in an old, beat-up red mustang. I’m on a very straight and long road so I go down a bit before I turn around in order to stay out of the targets sight. I pull up to a red light and see the fugitive just hopping back in his car leaving a gas station. I follow him and see him pull into a mobile home in the area I had thought he was to be in. I call local police and about 20 mins later they show up.

In the state of Florida, the police vary in the way they assist bondsman from department to department, sometimes even night shift will work differently than day shift!! It is always a crap shoot. Some will go every step of the way with you others will refuse to help at all.

In this instance if I was killed or hurt while trying to capture a wanted felon, the county would actually be held liable, so the police make me stay just outside the mobile home. They call in backup and about 6 deputies armed with AR-15’s approach the trailer. I notice the red Mustang is now gone!! Not good at all, I cannot tell the police to hold off and comeback later. Does not work like that.

So the police raid the house and the target is not there. Just then I notice the Mustang coming down the road. We all take cover and when he pulls in, the target is surrounded at gunpoint. Remind you, he has numerous deputies with AR-15’s pointed at him.

After a brief pause he opens the door and is cuffed up. Others in the trailer were arrested for various charges. Total bond recovered was $7,500.

On a side note, alot of people ask why I call the police all the time. Just about all police prefer you to call and notify them of what is going on and who you’re hunting in their county. If something bad happens and you didn’t notify them, you could have some legal issues to deal with. Also, having the police and just yourself means you have basically unlimited back-up and only yourself to split the reward with. Police cannot and will not accept money.. I’ve tried. Sometimes you feel responsible when an officer gets injured on an arrest that you called them in on, but it happens..