Yea, and I’m sitting here the day after, feeling sick. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the exposure but I was exposed to MRSA yesterday by a junkie I arrested in San Francisco. For those of us who don’t know what MRSA is, it is a Staph infection that is resistant to antibiotics and, in some cases, can be deadly. The fugitive didn’t bother to tell me until after I cuffed her. Silly me for expecting a Fugitive heroin addict to tell me prior to being arrested that she has a potentially deadly infection. Not to worry, I suppose, I’ve already been exposed to Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, Scabies (disgusting) and several other communicable diseases. This is just one more perk to being a Bounty Hunter I guess, or just something for my resume.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterial
infection that is highly resistant to some antibiotics. Staph skin
infections cause a red, swollen, and painful area on the skin … www.google.com/health
I get asked a lot about what it takes to be a Bounty Hunter. I get everything from the legal requirements, work experience and physical requirements. In California it’s pretty simple. You must be a least 18 years old and can’t have any felony convictions . You must also do the following:
Complete a 40-hour “power of arrest” course certified by the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).
Complete a “power of arrest” course certified by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services.
Complete a 12 hour of education relating to the duties and responsibilities of a Bail Licensee certified by the Department of Insurance.
All of these requirements can be found here. Okay, so that’s the legal requirements which are fairly easy to complete since no testing is required. Now let’s list the physical and mental requirements. If you’re okay with the following then you should have no problem doing the job.
Can you sit in your car for 10, 12 or 18 hours staring at a house?
Are you okay with peeing in a big gulp cup in your car?
Are okay with eating 2 day old fast food?
Are you okay with being spit on, punched, kicked, screamed at, pepper sprayed or tasered?
Do you like to fight?
Are you comfortable touching homeless people or searching homeless encampments (which may include walking through human feces)?
Are you okay with someone pointing a loaded gun at you? This includes cops, criminals and parents or friends of criminals.
Are you okay with being awaken at 3 in the morning by annoying phone calls from informants, defendants or parents / friends of defendants?
If you said no to any of the above questions then this job is probably not for you. However, if you said yes to the above then you may want to seek mental help.
We all know that most criminals are not the brightest people. In fact, most of them are really stupid and that’s why they commit crimes and why they get caught. So let’s all just agree that criminals are dumb, okay? Alright, now that we got that out of the way let me give you some proof. A couple of months back my partner and I were in Watsonville, CA. waiting for defendant to make himself visible. We were pretty sure of the address so all we had to do was wait. About an hour into our surveillance an older model pickup truck pulls up in front of the house. Inside the truck was the defendant and what appeared to be his father. The defendant climbs out of the truck and immediately jumps into a beat up old black Camaro and starts burning rubber in front of the house; just like any smart fugitive would do. Nice way to lay low idiot.
I’ve got a few posts I’m working on, in the mean time enjoy the following video from Jon Lajoie. Jon creates some of the funniest videos which can be found on youtube.com and funnyordie.com. You can also visit his site at www.jonlajoie.com or search for him on youtube.com.
I am trying out a new feature on my site that will display an interactive map of all my arrests. I only have a few on the map but it will grow each time I make an arrest. I would love feedback or just let me know if it is interesting enough to keep on the site. You can view the page here.
I haven’t posted lately because I’m going through a major life change that has me completely consumed with drama and chaos. It’s a change that I elected to make, a change that should have happened years ago. You know, you wake up one day and wonder, “what the hell am I doing?”. We all have moments in our lives where we wonder where we’re going or how we ended up were we are. Some of us are lucky to realize we’re headed in the wrong direction before it’s too late. I’ve realized that I didn’t want to lay on my death bed wishing I had done something different. I didn’t want to live out the rest of my life unhappy and alone.
There is a silver lining to this change, though. One that has saved me from completely falling apart or self destructing. I would love to go into more details about the changes in my life, but I can’t right now. So needless to say, I’ve completely lost my desire to post, I’m using all my energy just to stay focused on my job. Business is booming right now. I’m overwhelmed with cases and have a few really nasty ones. One of them is getting a lot of my attention right now and it involves a defendant who is accused of sexually assaulting children.
I am a firm beleiver that everyone is innocent until proven guilty but the police report on this case is disturbing and it’s hard for me not to judge this guy. If the statements from the victims and witnesses are true then this guy should spend the rest of his life in jail. I will provide more details later but for now I’m going to get back to my drama filled life.
I’m here sitting in our office talking with my partner and I started thinking about my very first arrest as a bounty hunter. Actually my first arrest ever. I remember it like it was yesterday. You know, like the first time you had sex or the first time you robbed a liquor store. A memorable day it was. It was in San Francisco, she was about the same age as me but quit a bit larger. No, not my sex partner, my first arrestee. Anyway, I was there with a more senior investigator and he was going to “show me the ropes”, you know, “teach me how it’s done”. I remember it being very hot, standing in front of San Francisco Hall of Justice on Bryant Street. We were waiting for this girl to show up across the street, next door to a public parking lot. I was anxious and a lot of thoughts were bouncing around in my head. Thoughts like, “Am I going to get hurt?” and “What happens if we get into a fight?”. For some strange reason I was wearing a sweat shirt and my body armor (bullet proof vest). I was really hot and the sun was beating down on my bald head. It was starting to hurt and I was sweating profusely.
Gotta love this one. I got this new case on a guy who beat his girlfriend silly and then held her against her will. He was charged with kidnapping and domestic violence and stopped going to court when he realized the best he was going to get was 8 months in county jail. I started working the case by looking for his mother and his “friend”, both of whom had bailed him out. Neither address was good so I started doing drive by’s on his address. He lived in a not so very nice neighborhood near Highway 101 and Oakland Road in San Jose. His 50’s era house was surrounded by commercial and industrial buildings on a very narrow, seedy street.
I made a promise when I started this blog that I would never disclose the name’s of my defendants, coworkers or the company that I work for. So, as much as I would like to tell you who John Doe is I have to stick to my guns and respect everyone’s privacy. I had been looking for John since September. He was wanted for failing to appear in court on drug related charges and was originally arrested in Sunnyvale. John and had been living out of his van and I learned through friends that he was a pretty decent guy who was doing what he could to makes ends meet.
Today is Christmas eve and I know this because my 7 year old woke me up at 4:30, she’s had a relapse of what I like to call “Christmas Insomnia”. This “disorder” is the result of torturing your kids for 25 days of the threat of receiving a bag of coal instead of a Nintendo DS or that Barbie Play House. I mean Christmas really is torture for children, isn’t it? You spread the reminders throughout the house in the form of decorations, strategically placed packages under the tree and then hang the advent calendar on the wall – you know the one. Each day the kids get to mark on X on the date or open up a piece of chocolate. Each day of the month they have to wonder what’s in those packages. I know this because my daughter will sit by the tree for hours, looking at and shaking each package, wondering what’s inside. It’s torture I tell you, torture!
Christmas is also a special day for me. This is the day that I get to pick 1 or 2 really special people and show up at their house right in the middle of Christmas dinner. Imagine the surprised look on their faces when I show up. I am very selective about who I visit, too. Like Santa, I save this day for the really special people, the people who have already ran from me or the people who have told me that I will never catch them. I have a list and I check it twice too and tomorrow I have 2 very special people that I’m going to visit. I’m going to surprise them with the gift of silver bracelets and a free ride back to jail. “HO HO HO, Merry Christmas”.
