Bounty hunters hit the wrong house...

[gspn]

I thought this was a very interesting story. I never would've guessed it would've ended this well. The short story is that a group of 11 bounty hunters hit the wrong house looking for a fugitive. The house they hit was that of the police chief.

At some point the chief comes out armed with a baton to confront the mob. I guess I was surprised he came out at all since help was on the way. I can't believe that nobody got shot during this circus. There is a video clip about halfway down through the story.


http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...ngbondsmen-trespassed-chief--police/31184159/

 

[lemaymiami]

Those "bounty hunters" were very, very lucky that their mistake involved someone with enough training and discipline to hold their fire....

I never encountered any of these so-called "bounty hunters" in my years as a cop. Once or twice I did encounter a legitimate bondsman trying to recover a skip but all of those guys made a point of checking in with local authorities before hitting the streets. Maybe it was south Florida and the high probability of encountering real shooters that kept them in line down here in "paradise"... Years later when I saw so called reality shows on TV that attempted to show bond recoveries as entertainment I'd quickly turn on some other cartoon....

 

[Jeff White]

I never encountered a bounty hunter who was working in Illinois. Their profession isn't legal here, despite the federal law they like to claim protects them. I arrested one from out of state on unrelated charges while he was passing through. I remember thinking at the time that; "if this is the kind of people bondsmen hire as bounty hunters, the business must be a liability nightmare."

Several years back a group of bounty hunters grabbed the wrong man and attempted to take him to another state to stand trial. If I remember correctly he escaped and went to the police the the bounty hunters went to jail on some very serious charges.

 

[CodeSection]

I have zero sympathy for Farley or any of the bounty hunters.....what idiots!

 

[Speedo66]

Had a case where a warrant was issued by the court on a guy who was out on bail. The bounty hunters grabbed the wrong guy and lodged him with the correction dept. Wrong guy, despite his protests, spends the weekend in Rikers before being brought to court. A quick look at his arrest photo proved it was the wrong guy, in addition, size was completely different. Only match was his name.

The bounty hunters tried to take off once it was proven they had the wrong guy. We made them provide ID and contact information to the guy to aid his civil case.

No respect whatsoever for any bounty hunter I had the misfortune to come in contact with. Bunch of loose cannons.

 

[dogrunner]

Jeff, the 'law' enabling bondsmen to recover runaway's is actually a U.S. Supreme Ct. decision......ancient as hell, but still in effect.

The bond agents that were jailed you referred to are likely the two dummies that actually illegally captured a runaway in Canada and smuggled him back to Florida........wound up creating an international incident...the fellow brought back was returned after Canada complained and you are right, the dummies did do time.

That incident was quite some time ago, believe in the late 70'd, perhaps '80's......& I seem to recall the fugitive was a fella named Jaffe.


Those dummies in Phoenix ARE lucky tho. I know that if that'd been me when was a sitting CLEO they'd have met a lot more than the reported nightstick with me in my skivvies.......I'd have imagineered some excuse to can the whole damn bunch!

 

[Jeff White]

dog runner,

The incident I referred to happened in Missouri not too many years ago. I hadn't heard about the Canadian incident.

 

[Sol]

Speedo, so some bounty hunters kidnap some random guy, throw him in jail while he waits at least 2 days to be correctly ID'ed and all the authorities did was takes names to further the civil case? That's messed up on so many levels. I'd sue everybody and their mother for that.

Anyways, so Dog and the crew "raid" some cops house based on some bogus tip from the internet? Sounds about right, no love lost for either party seeing as law enforcement also raids the wrong houses on perhaps a more frequent rate. Sounds like things turned out alright.

 

[USAF_Vet]

I had a bounty hunter show up at my house a couple months ago, looking for a guy who lived here many years ago and had this house listed as a previous residence. However, the bounty hunter also had a local deputy in tow, probably to ensure certain procedures were done lawfully.

I don't know the guy they were looking for, and they assumed he wasn't there based on the appearance of my house. Good to know my home doesn't look like a meth den. Sad to know it once did.

 

[rcmodel]

That seems like a deal that could get a lot of people killed if you hit the wrong cops house in the middle of the night.

Rc

 

[bikerdoc]

Dont write bad bonds you dont have to chase the skip.

 

[Averageman]

At some point the chief comes out armed with a baton to confront the mob. I guess I was surprised he came out at all since help was on the way. I can't believe that nobody got shot during this circus. There is a video clip about halfway down through the story.

I don't care who you are answering the door armed with a baton when the guy pounding on it is holding a handgun, well that just full of stupid, if you're a LEO it is even worse and He should have known better. The potential for this buffoonery to turn in to tragedy was enormous.
And bringing you 11 year old to apprehend a skip?

Dont write bad bonds you dont have to chase the skip.

Exactly, Some folks really do deserve to stay exactly where they are or work a bond deal with someone willing to be stupid enough to take the risk. We have Jails for a reason, I dont see why they shouldn't be kept there in many cases.

 

[Sapper771]

I dealt with a crew of them back in my Police years.

They broke into several houses looking for people. Had a few of them show up at our calls because they heard a name go out over the scanner. They would get pissed off if we didnt turn one of their skips over to them, some would even offer us money to drop the charges we had on their skip.

I got a 911 hang up call one evening. We showed up at the house to make sure everything was ok. The house we were checking out turned out to be the bounty hunter's HQ. There were 7 guys, 2 women, and a small child in the house......all of them were wearing the black T shirts with the small badge on the front and "BOUNTY HUNTER" printed on the back......even the little kid. LoL.

They had dog the bounty hunter posters on the walls with the wanted posters mixed in. American , Tennessee, Georgia, confederate, Gadsden, and some kind of bounty hunter flag on the ceilings. They had scanners and a HAM radio set up in the living room. When I asked about the HAM radio, they said it was how they could communicate with other bounty hunters secretly.

Seemed like more of a Boys club than anything else. They were always quick to inform you that what they were doing was perfectly legal......even when it was not. They would often tell people that they were the police just to scare people. They got busted on some of the B&E's they were doing. Instead of facing the charges, they left town. Never saw them again.

 

[danez71]

He's in Maricopa County jail now. LOL.... that means Sheriff Joe.

There's been more updates

Andrew Carlson, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Insurance, which issues bounty hunters’ registration, said Farley was not registered as a bounty hunter in Arizona and he did not file the proper paperwork for Tuesday night’s raid. Arizona law requires all bond-recovery agents, or bounty hunters, to register and pass a background check as well as file paperwork each time a bounty hunter is contracted for an arrest. However, there is no penalty under the law for failing to do either of these.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...s-emerge-phoenix-bounty-hunter-raid/31213701/

 

[Ron James]

The leader of the group, a Mr. Farley, wasn't registered because he couldn't pass the back ground check, he has a prior convictions ( felony ) on his record.

 

[Gottahaveone]

I had a bounty hunter show up at my house a couple months ago, looking for a guy who lived here many years ago and had this house listed as a previous residence.

I had the same thing happen about a year ago. I'm pretty rural and have a bit of a driveway and I have a driveway alarm about half way between the road and the house. I had just gotten home from work and was sitting at the computer checking my email when the alarm chirped. Looked out the window and a shiny gold Cadillac Escalade was parking behind my car. I opened the wooden door and discretely latched the screen door.

A vary large hispanic fellow got out and approached the house. Right before he got up on the porch, I asked him how I could help him. He said he was a bail bondsman and was looking a skip named Jose something. I told him he had the wrong house, and to have a nice day. He then told me that he needed to come in and verify that Jose wasn't here.

I told him that that wasn't going to happen, that if he wanted to come in, he needed to come back with a uniformed deputy and a warrant. He told me he had the right "by law" to come in and check, and he was planning to do exactly that.

I told him at that point that he had to do what he had to do, but if he forced entry into my house, it wasn't going to end well for him. I stepped back from the door into the shadows where he couldn't see me and unholstered and hid the pistol behind my right leg and waited. As much as I didn't want to, I fully intended to shoot him at the point that he broke the latch on my door and started inside. He stood there a minute then got in his suv and drove off.

I was awfully glad he didn't press it any further and that it ended as quietly as it did. I called the sheriff's dept and asked for a deputy to stop by and take a report because I wanted it documented. Never saw or heard from the "bondsman" again......

 

[LubeckTech]

I had the same thing happen about a year ago. I'm pretty rural and have a bit of a driveway and I have a driveway alarm about half way between the road and the house. I had just gotten home from work and was sitting at the computer checking my email when the alarm chirped. Looked out the window and a shiny gold Cadillac Escalade was parking behind my car. I opened the wooden door and discretely latched the screen door.

A vary large hispanic fellow got out and approached the house. Right before he got up on the porch, I asked him how I could help him. He said he was a bail bondsman and was looking a skip named Jose something. I told him he had the wrong house, and to have a nice day. He then told me that he needed to come in and verify that Jose wasn't here.

I told him that that wasn't going to happen, that if he wanted to come in, he needed to come back with a uniformed deputy and a warrant. He told me he had the right "by law" to come in and check, and he was planning to do exactly that.

I told him at that point that he had to do what he had to do, but if he forced entry into my house, it wasn't going to end well for him. I stepped back from the door into the shadows where he couldn't see me and unholstered and hid the pistol behind my right leg and waited. As much as I didn't want to, I fully intended to shoot him at the point that he broke the latch on my door and started inside. He stood there a minute then got in his suv and drove off.

I was awfully glad he didn't press it any further and that it ended as quietly as it did. I called the sheriff's dept and asked for a deputy to stop by and take a report because I wanted it documented. Never saw or heard from the "bondsman" again......

What did the Deputy say about the guy??

 

[Gottahaveone]

What did the Deputy say about the guy??

He said that they (sheriff's dept) had no knowledge of any legit bail agents working in the area. He said there was a chance the guy was legit, but a better guess was that he was either planning to rob me or casing the house for a later hit.

 

[Midwest]

Someone could impersonate themselves as a "Bounty Hunter" with bogus paperwork as a ruse to gain entry into a house to rob the house with the occupants inside.
.

 

[Bobson]

Those "bounty hunters" were very, very lucky that their mistake involved someone with enough training and discipline to hold their fire.

Fascinating that this is the first response.

When SWAT hits the wrong house, nobody ever mocks them with this sort of comment. "GOOD THING THE CIVILIAN DIDNT SHOOT THE COPS HAR HAR."

Real classy of you.

 

[Bobson]

Someone could impersonate themselves as a "Bounty Hunter" with bogus paperwork as a ruse to gain entry into a house to rob the house with the occupants inside.
.

Or as a cop? Might not want to bring it up, though; it didn't go over well the last time.

 

[danez71]

The leader of the group, a Mr. Farley, wasn't registered because he couldn't pass the back ground check, he has a prior convictions ( felony ) on his record.

I was wondering if that was the reason.... do you have a link or how do you know?

He had a guy in his hand. If it's all true, he's not going to like his new habitat.


UPDATE:

The guy has a record. Plead guity to Sexual Misconduct with a minor in the 90s. More recent is Theft. Landord judgement s against him (over $4k which is a lot considering the rents there.) . Other civil issues with car dealer.

It looks like he got his gun rights restore.



The S & T lesson here is if you hire a bounty hunter, run the criminal nack ground.