You Can Run but You Can't Hide (48 page)

be denied the right to visit his children. I was in Travis’s shoes more

than once in my life. No one gave me the chance to prove I could be

a good dad. LaFonda took Duane Lee and Leland from me. Ann

took Wesley and J.R. I prayed it was the right thing to do, but my

heart said Big Travis deserved a chance to prove he was worthy to be

this boy’s father.

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I told him if he was serious about raising Travis, he needed to

get on a plane and come to Hawaii for a while. I bought him a plane

ticket and within days he was here to be with his son.

When I introduced the two of them it was nothing short of mirac-

ulous. At first, Big Travis was scared to be around his son. He didn’t

know how to be a dad. It reminded me of myself when Duane Lee

was born. I explained to him that he had the instincts to be a great

dad. He would know the right things to do the minute he held his son

in his arms. Little Travis never knew he had a father. I brought him

into our family room and said, “Travis, this is your daddy.”

Little Travis looked up at Big Travis, who must have seemed like

the jolly green giant to him because he is so tall, and said, “Hi, my

dad.” He reached toward his father. They touched and hugged. I

cried tears of joy seeing this young man connect with his boy. It was

a feeling I had craved and longed for, so many times in my life. I un-

derstood Travis’s need for fulfillment.

Big Travis got a job at a local supermarket. He is a good man,

trying to do right by his son. It has taken Little Travis some time

to get used to the idea that he has a dad other than me. Until Big

Travis showed up, I was the primary male figure in his young life,

but his father has proved to me he is a stand-up guy who loves his

kid very much. He has become part of our family. I consider him

my son. There’s always room for one more.

Not long ago, Little Travis asked to spend the night at his dad’s

house. This was the first time he ever asked to sleep away from our

home. I jokingly told him I could whoop his daddy. The boy looked

up at me and said, “You might be able to whoop my daddy, but he’s

taller than you!” I had to laugh. He was right. I knew the time had

come to let my grandson go home. There’s no replacing the love a

child gets from his real dad—not even a grandpa’s love.

C h a p t e r F i f t y - f i v e

SECOND CHANCES

Reality television is
a tough gig. Our A&E show made its

official debut in 2003. I am extremely proud to say it has become

the number-one-rated show on the network. Everything you see on

Dog the Bounty Hunter
is pure. It is not staged or acted in any way.

There are no scripts or story lines, just real captures of actual fugi-

tives. No one comes up with my lines or gives me a second chance

to catch a target on the run. It has been a bit of a transition going

from bounty hunter to television entertainer, but my job descrip-

tion is still pretty much the same: Get the guy.

If I make a mistake bounty hunting, it can cost me my freedom.

I could go to jail for doing the wrong thing—with no Get Out of

Jail Free card. Also, I have to try to make sure the people I bond are

worthy of my trust. Over the years, I’ve developed an innate sense

of who will or won’t run. Still, some do. Lucky for me, my televi-

sion show is predicated on fugitives.

If I only wrote safe bonds, I’d have no career and definitely no

TV show. I am not involved in the day-to-day production of the

show, but I do come up with themes based on the bounties I’m

hunting. My primary role is to just be Dog and do my thing. I never

watch the show, because I already know the outcome. Our show is

unique, because it captures both sides of my life. We are a family

business, so viewers get to meet my wife and children. They get a

rare view inside both lives I lead, Duane and Dog. Duane is the soft,

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sensitive, God-loving family man. Dog, well, he’s the guy who’s gonna

hunt you down.

When I first started doing other television shows, before I had

my own, producers wanted me to do things that weren’t natural.

They’d ask me to fight with a guy or jump off a roof to tackle some-

one. They wanted more action, more blood. I know how to taunt

someone to engage in a good fight, but the truth is, that’s not how I

work. I wanted my show to be
real
reality television. I’m like a foot-

ball player who knows just how hard to hit without really hurting

my opponent . . . unless I absolutely have to. At the end of the day,

it’s the hunt I love. I don’t need any of that phony crap.

I’m extremely proud that we include our faith in the show. If

people come closer to God as a result, we will have served the Lord.

Joel Osteen, one of the most respected television evangelists in the

world, doesn’t have as big an audience as
Dog the Bounty Hunter.

The Lord doesn’t care who spreads His word. He wants to reach

everyone, so it makes sense that He would use a guy like me to

reach a wider audience.
Dog the Bounty Hunter
is now syndicated

in a dozen countries all around the world, including places like Rus-

sia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, and the United King-

dom. I dreamed about someday having my own television series

that would reach millions of viewers each week, and now it has fi-

nally happened.

The first time I met Tony Robbins, in 1981, he told me to go out

there and be the absolute best man I could be. And then he said,

be better than you already think you are. Do something better than

anyone else in the world and you will succeed. Set new standards

and leap forward to break records that can never be challenged by

someone else. And when you do that, give it one more final push.

Add faith to that equation, and you have a foolproof formula for

guaranteed success.

One fun aspect of having my hit show was to be spoofed on

South Park.
You know you’ve really made it when they include you

in their show. I loved Cartman being Dog the Hall Monitor, and if

you’ve seen the episode, you know their depiction of Beth was clas-

sic. She was featured as a big cartoon circle, with two huge boobs.

All you could see were tiny little eyes sticking out above her cleav-

age. Our whole family laughed when we saw the show.

On the other hand, due to the popularity of the show, my bail

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business is down significantly, because people know I’ll come for

them if they run, and I’ll bring my television cameras. It won’t be a

private event if Dog catches you. In fact, my competitors in the

business use that fact as a tactic to keep clients away from us.

Another change for me since
Dog the Bounty Hunter
began to

air is that I can’t screw girls for information anymore. I can’t say I

really miss that part . . . OK, maybe just a little. But the truth is,

it used to an easy way to infiltrate circles of the friends and family

of someone I was looking for. With my newfound notoriety, I am

forced to be more creative in turning up clues. I have been blessed

with the gift of discernment, which means I have the ability to read

people pretty accurately. If I’m going to spend more than five min-

utes with someone, I soak up everything I can about who they are,

where they come from, their actions, movements, the way they

speak, anything I can use to create a full picture of who that person

really is. I can tell if someone is as gentle as a dove or harmless like

a wise serpent. I’m rarely wrong.

Fifteen years ago, I met a ninety-eight-year-old man sitting in

my dentist’s waiting room. I asked him his secret to longevity. He

said the reason he lived to be so old was because he spent his entire

life honoring his father and mother. He turned and asked me, “Do

you honor your father and mother?” I said I did. And then I pro-

ceeded to tell him how my dad used to beat on me when I was a lit-

tle boy. I told him I used to ride my motorcycle and pray to God that

Flash would die. I hated him for years for what he’d done. But after

I found out about Flash’s abuse, I told the old man, I didn’t hold it

against him anymore. Of course, I spoke of my mom with loving-

kindness. As the nurse called me into the dentist’s office, the old

man turned to me and said, “Honor your mother and father, Duane,

and thou shalt have a long life.” I asked the dentist who the old man

was in the waiting room. He said there was no one sitting out there

but me.

That experience has led me to help my clients understand that

they have to honor their mothers and fathers too. All parents just

want what is best for their children. I see it every day when parents

come to us because they are tired of their kid being on dope and in

and out of jail. They know Beth and I are their last hope, because

we talk to them in a way no one else does. We make our clients

check in daily and force them to try and clean up their act. We are

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willing to give anyone a second chance. Without second chances,

Beth and I would be two unknown citizens just trying to get by. We

understand the value of tough love and forgiveness. That is why we

keep doing what we do. We want to effect positive change in the

lives of these young kids who have fallen away from their righteous

path. So far, we’ve been doing pretty well.

Sometimes I take chances and they really pay off. Wesley, who

works in our Da Kine Bail Bonds office, is one of my great success

stories. Several years ago, he was busted for stealing industrial soap

from his janitorial job. He’d sell the extra gallons for a few bucks to

support a bad gambling habit. His small bets eventually caught up

to him. Before he knew it, he was in way over his head, owing more

than seven grand to his bookie. The more he owed, the more he

stole. He finally got caught and was sent to jail. The court set his

bail at five thousand dollars.

Wesley spent a week in jail before I posted his bond. A person

arrested for a first offense is usually out in a couple of days, but

Wesley’s girlfriend refused to post bail. She wanted to teach him a

lesson. I don’t think she understood what it feels like to have your

freedom taken away. Even after Beth and I tried to explain what it

means to lose your liberties, she still refused. This made me mad as

hell. Wesley didn’t belong in jail.

Beth and I decided to help get him out, but I had to go away for

a few days. Beth told him we’d post his bail if he could get us some

extra business from other guys inside. He hustled up some more

bonds for us. A few small ones and one big one—Jack Gibbs, who

needed to post a twenty-thousand-dollar bond.

Beth saw this as an opportunity to make a little extra money, so

she bailed Gibbs out. At this point, she was eight and a half months

pregnant with our son Gary Boy, so she had trouble getting around.

Jack told Beth he had the whole twenty grand in cash at his bank.

All she had to do was take him down there, and he’d give her the

full amount. She didn’t understand why he wanted to give her the

extra money. Gibbs explained he wanted to post bail for a few

friends who were inside, especially Wesley, because he’d been so

helpful to him. Beth questioned whether Gibbs had enough money

to do an all-cash collateral. He said he did, and sure enough, he

handed over twenty thousand dollars to get four or five of his bud-

dies out. The good news was that two of the guys jumped bail. I

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caught them both and got to keep all the money for the bounty, as

well as getting my expenses paid.

To be clear, someone like Jack Gibbs is a one-in-a-million case

for me. Unfortunately, he also failed to appear in court, which

meant he was once again a wanted man. I didn’t want to hunt him

down, so I let the cops find him.

The silver lining was that Wesley began helping me around the

office. He began running errands for us all the time. He followed

Beth around and started to learn our business. There’s no better

teacher for bail bonds than Beth. The court clerks often see Beth as

Cruella De Vil, so Wesley balances her abrasive nature with his

soft-spoken, polite ways of getting things done. He can charm any-

one for anything we need at the courts. I see a little bit of myself in

Wesley. He’s someone who was headed down the wrong path and

has made great strides toward straightening out his life. It makes

me proud to know that giving him that second chance paid off for

everyone.

C h a p t e r F i f t y - s i x

FEDERAL MARSHALS

The impact of
what happened in Mexico was hard on the en-