Is it really like ‘Dog The Bounty Hunter?’ Do they really bust into houses? Do they really have meaningful chats with the fugitives on the way to jail and stop to buy them dinner? I wanted to know.
I spent the day following a crew of bounty hunters who hunt for fugitives, both in Morgan County and in Denver. What I discovered was that the thrill in a bounty hunter’s day is a real and tangible thing, but so is compassion and care for the one they are hunting. This surprised me.
10 a.m. – I meet Kayla Grimes at the courthouse. Grimes is a bail bondsman and bounty hunter in Morgan County. She is a little blonde woman who makes you feel like her best friend upon meeting. Soon I learn that she is also one tough lady.
10:15 a.m. – Grimes and I have collected all of the new warrants and we head to the jail to grab a stack of mugshots and case files. Though most of the fugitives are being sought for major crimes, some of the warrants are for minor things, like forgetting to go to traffic court.
I fish a traffic ticket I have out of my wallet and hold my breath as I look for the court date, hoping I haven’t missed it. I tell Grimes, she may be arresting me first. She laughs, but the pink handcuffs in her pocket remind me that I may be in big trouble.
I can just see it, me on the front page of the paper, ‘Fort Morgan Times journalist arrested.’ I breathe a sigh of relief when I see that I have not missed my court date and I put three reminders in my phone for it.
10:30 a.m. – We stop to grab a Red Bull and plot out the day. I ask Grimes how in the heck she got into bounty hunting. This is a mother of six, who used to be a preschool teacher and now she spends her days hunting fugitives. It’s got to be a good story.
“My husband got arrested for something very minor and unexpected, kind of like your traffic ticket scare,” Grimes laughs “I called the bail bonds company I work for and Gabe (the owner) helped me. We got along so well through the process and he treated myself and my husband so well. I was shocked that we actually became instant friends. Later in conversation he asked if I would be interested in bounty hunting and I thought sure why not.”
Bounty hunting actually requires a person to become a licensed insurance agent. This involves learning the ins and outs of insurance from vehicles to boats and passing the state licensing exam. The cost to take the courses and get licensed is about $3,000.
In addition to this, many bounty hunters participate in classes to learn the hands on tactical aspects of the trade, however it is not a requirement. Tactical classes teach things such as cuffing, hand to hand combat, use of tasers and even techniques and conditioning for foot chases.
11:15 a.m. – A young man who Grimes knows has missed court and forgotten about it. He pops up in her warrants list. Grimes must give him the bad news that his only option is to turn himself in, sit in jail for a few hours and then bond out.
We meet him in a parking lot to drive him to the jail. The drive feels ironically like a road trip with friends. The poor guy is a nervous wreck, but a super nice guy. We chat about our weekend plans and what we did for the 4th of July.
We get to the jail and the police come out to grab him. The feeling in the room is very calm and the transaction is quite peaceful. The police pat him down and he hands them his wrists for the cuffs.
“Thanks man,” says one of the cops. They walk into the holding area.
Grimes assures the young man that we will return at 1:15 pm to get him and it’s only a couple of hours. He looks unconvinced that it is going to be ok and I honestly can’t blame him.
Noon – We begin driving around and scoping out the addresses where the fugitives or their co-signers for their bonds allegedly live, looking for signs that they may be there. Things like their vehicles, open windows, sprinklers running or doors open.
If a person co-signs on a bond for someone and that person fails to appear in court, the co-singer can have their house searched at any time without a search warrant, by a bounty hunter.
“I like to do some investigation of the places we will be going, so that I can have a mental note of the layout and get a feel for who is around,” says Grimes. “Then we will meet up with the guys (other bounty hunters) and go for it.”
We spend an hour driving around to the various locations and plotting out the plan.
Finding these people is a personal matter for Grimes. When a bail bondsman puts up bail for someone and gets them released from jail, that bondsman is taking a huge risk. If that person then fails to appear in court, the bondsman has 120 days to find that person and arrest them before they get put ‘on the board.’
Being ‘on the board’ means that the bondsman’s license is temporarily suspended and they cannot bond anyone else out of jail until the fugitive is captured or the bondsman pays the bond in full with their own money. The only other answer is the least likely scenario, they get the co-signer on the bond to pay up. While this is happening, the bondsman is not making any money
“I had to pay a $20,000 bond out of my own pocket once. I was on the board for three weeks. Longest three weeks of my life,” says Grimes.
1:15 p.m. – We pick up our poor young kid from the jail and he looks like he could hug us as he walks out.
I ask him if he talked to anyone in the cell while he was there.
“I tried not to,” he says.
We drive him back to his car and tell him he better not forget his next court date. He laughs and tells us he may get a tattoo of the date to remind him.
2 p.m. – It’s time for the action to begin. We meet up with the other bounty hunters, who work in downtown Denver but come out to Fort Morgan to help Grimes with her hunts.
The files and mugshots are laid out on the back of the car and everyone is filled in on who we are looking for. Police are alerted to the hunts and come out to meet us for a quick overview so that they can be ready, should something go south.
While the meeting is going on, I talk with the Denver bounty hunters and get the lowdown on what it’s like to bounty hunt in the city. Recently, they tell me that they assisted Denver Police in capturing a highly sought after fugitive from a nationally known murder case.
“We saw him and I cornered him into a restaurant,” says W. Holland, one of the Denver hunters. “This guy is a top guy in one of the most prevalent gangs in America. I had to taser him three times to get him to stop fighting me, we’re talking a seriously tough criminal. His friends came out and thought he was in a ambulance parked on scene. They tried to jump in the ambulance to steal it.”
‘Oh heck no’ I think to myself, as my other job is working as an EMT on an ambulance. I know that this would be an epic level of bad, as there are many things on an ambulance that are highly dangerous in the hands of criminals.
Holland must see the horror on my face.
“Don’t worry,” he says “we stopped them. Immediately after the altercation and arrest, I started receiving death threats via text.”
Silence.
I have no words at the moment.
Holland laughs, “It’s all good. I love this job.”
I chat with the other hunters, R. Padilla, R. Boykin and H. Lee.
I ask them what they feel in the moment when something goes badly during a hunt.
“When you find yourself in a dangerous altercation, instinct and training takes over. It feels very surreal, kind of like you’re watching it in a movie.You do what it takes and you don’t think about it until later,” says Lee, “I think it’s that detachment you feel in the moment that allows you to react without fear.”
3 p.m. – Time to roll out.
I am buzzing inside with excitement. It’s been a long day of preparation and it’s finally time to see it all in action.
We pull up and park down the street from the first house.
Everyone gets out together as though it’s been choreographed for a movie. They all begin to surround the house, in silence.
One of them hops a fence, the others cover window wells and the front and back doors. One stays near the street to see the whole scene at a glance.
Once everyone is in place and all of the exits are covered, one of them begins knocking on the door.
“Bond enforcement” he yells, after no answer has been made for several minutes.
I am surprised by how smoothly this set up goes and how everyone seems calm, yet ready for anything.
After five minutes of knocking, someone comes to the door.
I am ready to see them rush the person and take them down, screaming commands, but it’s not like that.
“Hello ma’am,” says Lee, “I am looking for this woman, do you know her?’
He shows her the mugshot.
The woman tells us she no longer lives there but gives us her workplace and schedule.
We take off for the woman’s place of employment, as her shift will be ending in ten minutes. Everyone runs to their cars and we are off.
We can’t interrupt her while she is working, so we stand at the employee exit, scanning faces as they walk by. Everyone stops as they see us and walks by slowly, as if they are sure we must be there for them.
I ask them how they pick someone out of a big crowd.
“Its facial recognition techniques,” says Holland. “You look for certain characteristics. Their teeth, are they straight or are they are crooked? How big their ears are. The proportions of their face, like how far apart their eyes are, what type of nose they have. Then you learn to scan all of those things very quickly.”
4 p.m. – We unfortunately didn’t find her. We are off for the next person. A woman wanted on several accounts.
We end up finding the uncle of the person were looking for but, unconvinced that she is not hiding inside, Grimes tells the uncle that we need to search the house.
There are little kids there and I wonder if they are scared. The realness and humanity of these people in these situations really begins to hit me.
These people who are breaking the law have an effect on everyone in their lives. These people were having a family dinner and now their home is being searched and ransacked by a group of people in tactical gear.
Although the bounty hunters are kind to the children and as courteous as possible, I can’t help but feel bad for the kids.
We look in the dryer and under beds and in closets.
Nothing.
I begin to see how long a bounty hunter’s day is and what a game it can end up being.
5 p.m. – After searching a laundry mat and a gym after some tips, we finally think we have the location of our final fugitive.
This time, it’s a score.
We come upon the house and surround it as before.
After a couple of knocks, a woman answers.
It’s the one we are looking for.
Once again, I wait for them to tackle her and run into the house.
She holds out her hands, knowing she is caught.
They cuff her and notice she has a young child.
They walk inside with her and help her get a hold of her husband to have him come home. They help her locate items the child may need and pack a bag for the child.
Once everything is settled, they walk her to the vehicle. She looks visibly shaken.
“It will be ok. You’ll be fine. Learn your lesson this time.” says one of the hunters.
As we drive back to the jail and end our day together I ask Grimes what she wants the public to know about bounty hunters.
“We don’t want to intimidate our clients. We don’t go in there in attack mode or looking to push them around. Most of them are good people who have made a few bad decisions and our goal is to help them learn and get better,’ Grimes laughs. “However, if you take a bond from me and I get put on the board because of you, you can bet I’m coming after you.”
My day in the life of a bounty hunter was a myriad of feelings and experiences.
I got to see an inside look into the lives of these fugitives and the people who love them. The repercussions of their actions are widespread and felt by many. Some of them see this and want to change, some don’t.
We can only hope that they will all come around eventually.
Until then, these bounty hunters will continue to get the adrenaline rush that they crave.
Special thanks to 24 Hour Bail Bonds for their participation.
For more information on becoming a bounty hunter, visit www.bountyhunteredu.org.
