The bounty-hunting business has new allure

DETROIT- They track down fugitives the old-fashioned way: calling friends and relatives…. DETROIT- They track down fugitives the old-fashioned way: calling friends and relatives. Staking out the usual hangouts. Assuming unsavory identities to snake their way into suspects’ inner circles.

Some break down doors and corner their prey; others talk their targets into handcuffs.

Though many carry badges, they are not police officers. They are bounty hunters, and they captured about 24,000 bail jumpers in the United States last year.

Most work on commission for bail bond companies to chase down clients who skip court dates.

For years, bounty hunters- that’s bail-enforcement agents for those seeking a touch of class- worked in the shadows of law enforcement, gaining public notice only if they messed up.

But it’s changing big time. They’re scampering onto cable TV and hounding best-seller lists.

Duane (Dog) Chapman, the self-proclaimed world’s greatest bounty hunter, has his own show- “Dog the Bounty Hunter” on A’E.

And the fictional Stephanie Plum- the big-haired bounty hunter from Trenton, N.J., in Janet Evanovich’s series- is again a top seller in “Ten Big Ones.”

On HBO, “Family Bonds,” about a family of bounty hunters, begins Sept. 19.

The business hasn’t been this hot since Steve McQueen was Josh Randall, a one-man posse in the 1950s TV western “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”

But some Michigan bounty hunters said the attention perpetuates the old shoot-`em-up stereotypes.

“That’s not really how it goes,” said Melissa, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based bounty hunter who asked the Free Press not to publish her last name to protect her family.

She works alongside Kevin, another bounty hunter, for American Fidelity Group.

The hunt is exhilarating, two Michigan bounty hunters, Kevin and Melissa, said. But that’s about all Hollywood has right.

When Kevin and Melissa are on a case, they hardly look like bounty hunters in their T-shirts and jeans. Their running shoes are functional, not fashion.

Dog Chapman wears a skintight mesh T-shirt, steel-toed boots and a blond rock `n’ roll mullet. He runs Da Kine Bail Bonds in Hawaii with his wife, Beth. They’re the bash-down-doors variety.

On TV, Dog is a criminal-turned-Bible-quoting family man with a gold badge around his neck and big cans of Mace.

In a recent interview at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, Mich., Dog said the show works. “I watched it, and I thought, `They got it! They nailed it.'”

But some bounty hunters don’t think so.

“Dog,” scoffs Rick Adlen, a Clinton Township, Mich., bounty hunter. “He’s a joke.”

Michigan bounty hunter Rick Adlen prefers outwitting his prey, like when he pretended to be a telephone operator with a collect call from his target’s jailed boyfriend.

He can dig, too: He’s found skips- another word for no-shows- inside a wall and crammed inside a sofa.

Adlen said making catches is about catching them off-guard- the way Bob Burton taught him.

Burton, a top skip-tracer, served as a technical adviser on the Robert De Niro film “Midnight Run.” He launched an Arizona training academy that certifies bounty hunters for the states that require it.

The United States is the only country that has bounty hunting, but it is banned in three states- Oregon, Illinois and Kentucky. Bounty hunters usually are paid a percentage of the bond amount by the company that hires them.

Burton said good endings are more skill than luck.

“You drive around bad neighborhoods, drinking cold coffee, talking to stupid people,” Burton said. “It’s boring as hell.”

Melissa and Kevin have been stuck in boring mode for weeks. While Dog seems to catch fugitives in 30 minutes, they sometimes go days without an apprehension.

The dry spell ended early Sunday when they went after a Clinton Township, Mich., man wanted for parole violation. They had local police for help in case the guy ran- and he did.

The Macomb County, Mich., Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit found him hiding in a backyard.

While Melissa and Kevin are full-time bounty hunters, about 1,500 of the 2,000 active bounty hunters Burton has certified are part-timers: housewives, private detectives and even truckers who hop off their rigs for a bust.

Few, Burton added, are anything like Dog Chapman, who was jailed in Mexico last year when he tracked Andrew Luster, a Max Factor heir wanted for drugging and assaulting women.

But Burton and Dog- and even Melissa- agree on one thing: They like Evanovich.

The former romance novelist began delving into the world of bounty hunting in 1994 with her first Stephanie Plum book.

“One for the Money,” about an unemployed lingerie buyer who blackmails her bail bondsman cousin for a job, became a best seller. The numerically titled series is now on “Ten Big Ones.”

Evanovich was looking for a new project when she stumbled on “Midnight Run,” in which De Niro goes after a man who embezzled from a Chicago mobster.

“I thought, `This is it. This is what I can do,’ ” Evanovich said in a recent telephone interview.

Evanovich’s story lines are over-the-top, but so is real-life bounty hunting. Burton recalls a handcuffed woman throwing her feces in the back of his van.

Melissa, who began bounty hunting less than two years ago, has read nine of the 10 Stephanie Plum books.

“I love them,” she said. “But it is fiction.”

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BAIL BONDS 101

So, you’re arrested. You’re booked, fingerprinted and arraigned. You plead not guilty and the judge will cut you loose- but you have to post bond. Here are some basics:

-Bond- whether it is a few hundred dollars or a few million- is basically a promise backed by money that you will return to court.

-Once bond is set, don’t panic. You usually have to post 10 percent to get out of jail.

-If you don’t have the cash, you can turn to a bail bond company and pay a fee for them to post your bond. The company usually posts 25 percent of the bond- $2,500 on a $10,000 bond. Your fee will be 10 percent of the amount the company posts- $250 for the $10,000 bond- and your agreement that they can come after you if you fail to appear in court.

-If you skip, the company stands to lose that $2,500, so they will find you, haul you in and charge you $2,500- plus expenses.

Source: Free Press research

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