The only famous bail bondsman is the star of the A&E show Dog the Bounty Hunter, Duane "Dog" Chapman. Even the ultimate bounty hunter, Clint Eastwood, as "the Man with no Name," had, well, no name. This is a profession that likes to keep its head down and profile low, and it would be hard to imagine a more nondescript group than those attending the Professional Bail Agents of the United States convention at Luxor on Monday. There are a lot of men in gray suits with blue-collared, button-up shirts, and more than a few ties that looks suspiciously like they clip on.
In fact, outside of Dog, few of those in attendance at the Luxor refer to themselves as bounty hunters at all, preferring either "bail enforcement agents" or the only slightly more racy "fugitive recovery agents." Then there is Chapman, with his biker outfits and an entourage that includes television cameras for his reality show. On one episode of his show, Chapman revealed that his boots have 3-inch lifts, because he's only 5 feet 7 inches. Chapman, you see, usually likes standing out. Still, a few minutes before addressing a packed audience of about 200 of his fellow fugitive catchers, he's worried.
"I am very nervous, probably the most nervous I've been in 20 years. I don't speak to any bounty hunters at all; the last time was [in the search for fugitive] Andrew Luster. When he took off, every bounty hunter in the country was looking for him, and the title then was on the line. When the title was on the line, it was very important that I capture him. We captured him. No bounty hunter has called me since that day at all."
The capture of Luster, a fugitive heir to a cosmetics fortune who was convicted of rape, made Chapman a hero to the general public. But it also led to Chapman getting arrested by Mexican authorities for violating extradition laws (the charges were eventually dropped), and that made him notorious among his peers for all the negative attention it brought to the profession—especially after he fled Mexico, becoming a fugitive, himself.
Similarly, his chase 'em down, leathery style of bounty hunting seems monstrously out of step with a convention that featured daily technology briefings and vendors more focused on websites and software that are the primary weapons of the trade.
Yet, as he would be the first to say and many of his critics would agree, Dog has become the public face of the profession. This was a point made in the introduction he received at the Luxor from a lady who added to her observation that this was true for better and for worse. So, when Dog stood up to give his speech, many in the room rose to give him a standing ovation, but quite a few others stayed conspicuously seated.
But Dog had a secret weapon: charisma. The man spoke for one hour straight and he managed to get a standing ovation from almost the entire room. Of course, Dog mostly avoided all the specifics about his controversial differences with the profession (except for a heartfelt argument against the use of guns in fugitive apprehension), and instead came at them with over 20 years experience speaking at Tony Robbins events. As a motivational speaker, Dog is fantastic working a stump speech on his life: a fall that included time in jail for murder, to his redemption through a television show. (In fact, the story even has a lady in church telling him he is the chosen one destined to save thousands of children.) At the Luxor, Dog teared up at the right parts, turned to his wife (placed on stage with him) for chimed-in lines to back him up at key moments and, in all, presents all the makings of a television star. Anyone there who might have suspected Dog of using bounty hunting to achieve fame probably wound up convinced that, if this guy delivered trash, he would have found a way to become famous at it. Though there was a microphone for questions in the middle of the room, Dog took none, instead heading to the back as soon as he was done for a photo-op with any bail agents who wanted to pose with him.
So it was no surprise when Chapman listed politics as among the careers he was considering for the future. And his commitment to bounty hunting is clearly lasting for as long as the ratings hold up. "Without the bounty, the show is nothing. You got to have the capture before the show works." And, so the third season begins next month. After that though, Dog, is more vague: "My future is in entertainment and I have always saw that. My whole life I have planned for this."
Still, before heading into his future in politics or the next Surreal Life, Dog is hoping that he and his colleagues will leave this town a little more fugitive-free than it was when they arrived. In fact, Dog says more than fans have been calling him during his time in Sin City: "Volunteers. People like to bet on the winning horse. The way I am, people will volunteer for us. We've had phone calls to the room already telling us about some of Vegas Top 10 fugitives. It is a bad week to be a fugitive in Las Vegas. These are the best [bounty hunters] in the United States. We are all here. Any fugitive in Las Vegas now is a duck landing in a pool of alligators: He's done."