(rhythmic instrumental music) - [Voiceover] Bounty
hunter, Walter Fernandez, has one key mission: to track down and catch wanted criminals and bring them back before the courts. - If he don't open the door, we're gonna kick the door. - [Voiceover] Walter and
his bounty hunting partners will stop at nothing to catch their prey. - If I'm looking for you, I'll stay on you until I wear out the
very last lead I can get. I will stay on you, I'll flip every stone, I'll chase you from one end
of the Earth to the other. - Guys, come on. - [Voiceover] Going after drug dealers and murderers alike, bounty hunters never know
what kind of fugitive might be waiting for them
behind those closed doors. (knock on the door) - Take it down, take
it down, take it down. - [Voiceover] And to what
extreme they will fight to stay out of prison. (instrumental rock music) (rhythmic instrumental music) - Let's see what else we got here. - [Voiceover] It's 5am and
the sun is about to rise on the streets of New Jersey. This is Walter Fernandez's hunting ground, and he's about to strike. - It's a young kid. We gotta be careful. You know how these young kids are, tend to wanna run. - Yeah. - All right? - [Voiceover] Working
with his regular crew, Walter is on the hunt for
a man in his early 20s, who's wanted in court for skipping bail on drug charges. Now considered a fugitive, the drug dealer is being stalked by professional bounty
hunter, Walter Fernandez, and his highly-trained crew, the Metro Fugitive Recovery Squad. Walter has been tracking down fugitives for the last 14 years, and his experience makes
him one of the very best. If you jump bail, you better hope than your bondsman doesn't send this guy after you. (gong) - Right now, we're going to 11 Gardinia, we're gonna go try and see
if we can grab this guy. If you get arrested, you get out on bail with a bail bondsman, you're scheduled for court, if you don't show up to court, the judge considers you an FTA, they send out a "failure
to appear" notice, henceforth, you get a warrant. It's called a bench warrant, actually. You get a warrant for your arrest, and at that point, you're a fugitive. (rhythmic instrumental music) - [Voiceover] Which means that for Walter and his crew, you are now fair game. - There's a green Cougar. What year is that Cougar, 2000? That's gotta be it right
there. That green Cougar. - [Voiceover] And make
no mistake about it. For these guys, it is a hunt. - [Walter] I became a
bounty hunter back in '92, and I'm pretty aggressive
at getting what I want. And it helps me when I'm hunting because I don't give up. (gong) - [Voiceover] As daylight breaks, Walter and his squad
strategically approach a house where they suspect the fugitive is hiding. At this early hour, the bounty hunters are
confident he's still in bed. - [Voiceover] Over there
where we saw building 10. - The house is right there, bro. That's his car right there, that's the co-signer's car. (mumbles) Right, you see with the lights on. That windows upstairs is theirs so don't get in the view of it. - [Voiceover] The crew stealthily
move towards the house, careful not to give away their presence. For bounty hunters, a surprise attack is one of their greatest assets. With the squad strategically
positioned around the house, Walter makes the first move to assess the activity going on inside. No one is more dangerous than a fugitive running from the law, so if the drug dealer saw them coming, Walter and his men could be
in for a dangerous surprise. Whenever drugs are involved,
there's always a threat that the situation could turn violent. - [Walter] In my 15 years
experience, I've been on the, staring down the barrel
of a weapon before, and it's not a pleasant experience. We wear body armor, and that's probably the best
protection you can have. Hopefully, they don't
shoot you in the head. - Check it out. Check it out. (mumbles) - Their will's in there, we just don't know if they're
inside right now or not. - [Voiceover] The Metro
Fugitive Recovery Squad is a blended mix of speed,
strength, and smarts. - I'm a runner, I'm a
great runner, you know, I'm a very healthy guy. - [Voiceover] Walter must utilize each agent's specific skills to successfully capture his prey. - If someone has to go
through a window or something, that'll be me, you know,
no one else, that'll be me. - [Guy in Hat] You good? - It's slippery. - [Walter] In New Jersey, currently, there is no law yet
governing bounty hunters. - [Voiceover] If a bounty hunter is sure that a fugitive is hiding
inside a private residence, he has the right to break
in and make the arrest. This right dates back to an 1872 U.S. Supreme Court decision. - The way to make entry if someone doesn't want to open the door, the first thing that comes to mind is, you know you have the right to enter. If I know you're inside, then yeah, I'll do what I have to do. If I'm not sure, then there's other ways. You can look through a window, if there's a window that I can boost my partner up into and look in. If they see, if the window opens, I'll push my partner
right through the window, let him go inside and, believe me, once people see you going through their window,
they're going to react, and they're going to come out and say, "Hey! What are you doing?" act, like, "Oh, I didn't
hear you knocking." And you know they're lying, but at that point you know
that something's going on. Then, you have two choices. Kick the door down and go in, if you feel that your partner
may be in imminent danger, or wait for your partner to
come open the door for you. That is a game time decision
that you make at the moment. - [Guy in Hat] He shoulda kept his radio. - [Walter] That's not what we do. Trust me, you see someone
flying out the window, it won't be him. - [Voiceover] If anything
goes wrong inside the house, Ali will have to take on the drug dealer and his backup crew, alone. As a result of a court ruling, New Jersey bounty hunters
cannot carry firearms, so Ali must rely on his
baton, pepper spray, speed and strength. (gong) - Guys, come in. Yo. (knock on the door) - Take it down, take
it down, take it down. (high intensity music) - [Woman] Ow, ow, ow, stop. - Turn the shower off. - Back up, let's not crowd this room. Turn the shower off. - [Woman] Sorry, can I just
get dressed real quick please? - [Voiceover] Like a
shock, Walter and his crew storm the house with lightning speed, giving their wanted fugitive
little time to react. - Cover yourself up. - Just cover yourself up. - Cover yourself. - Listen, either you cover
yourself, or we going cover you. - Cover yourself, cover yourself. - [Voiceover] This quick arrest
was a textbook intervention. Unfortunately for Walter, bounty hunting and it's
unpredictable game of cat and mouse, is not always this easy. - Nah, I just want to make sure, cause you don't want us to
take her in there with you. - [Voiceover] After 15 years
of hunting down fugitives, Walter knows who he's up against. - Your general fugitive
is usually a drug dealer. They tend to be aggressive. They're usually carrying guns or knives, they're the violent type. They're usually runners. So we're going to be transporting him now to (mumbles), he's not
too happy as you can see. But we gotta do our jobs. - [Voiceover] Now in custody, the fugitive drug dealer will
be escorted to the county jail where he'll wait to
face justice once again. This time, from behind bars. (rhythmic instrumental music) - I became a bounty hunter back in '92, that was my first interest
in bounty hunting. I had a bounty hunter
who was supposed to come into the high school for Career Day, the high school I go to. What happened is, he never came in, but I did so many things
to get into his class to listen to him speak that I had to try to get in it somehow, so I spoke to a few of my friends that are on the police force, they told me I had to
talk to a bail bondsman and one of them knew the local bondsman, so he made a connection for me, and I spoke to him and sure enough, he got me a few cases and
I got my first try at it. I wasn't very successful,
but I got my first try. - [Voiceover] Bounty hunting
is anything but simple. Finding a fugitive who's
trying to escape the law is a delicate and challenging task. Unlike the police who have Miranda rights and probable cause to assist them, bounty hunters have no
formulas for success, and certainly no guarantees. Every case is different and requires it's own plan of attack. - [Walter] My best advice to a young guy that wants to be a
bounty hunter is simple. At the beginning, don't quit your day job. It's gonna take a lot of
time and perseverance, like any other business, you're going to have
to develop a clientele and develop a reputation, before you can make it in this business. And it's no guarantee
you're gonna make it. (gong) - [Man in Grey] Car-jacking city. - [Walter] Hell yeah. - [Man in Grey] Careful when
you go to a intersection cause somebody-- - Might hit you. - Might drive a stolen car maybe. - [Voiceover] The one thing in common between all of Walter's cases
is the action and danger involved in chasing down a fugitive. Whether he's hunting down a drunk driver or a suspected murderer, Walter always prepares for
the worst case scenario. He knows the minute a fugitive
catches him off-guard, his life is immediately put at risk. (suspenseful rhythmic music) For Walter, every new case
starts out the same way. Someone gets arrested and hires a bondsman to help them post bail and remain free until their future court date. When the defendant
fails to appear in court at the prescribed date, the court issues an arrest
warrant and holds onto the bail. At that point, the bondsman
hires a bounty hunter to bring back the fugitive and help him recollect his bond. - Steve, get me the file for David Arkos. - [Voiceover] The bondsman
gives the bounty hunter all the relevant information
about the fugitive, but it's rarely enough to locate him. - [Bondsman] The basic information that we have on this file
is the person that signed, all their information, where they work, they have a few a few references number,
their car information where they work, how
long they been working, the supervisor's name and basically, and the other sheet, we have all the defendant's information, which it tells us his
weight, his date of birth, his address, his previous address, where does he work, and if he been arrested before that. - [Voiceover] Although this
is a good starting point, the chances of finding a fugitive at the address listed on
the bond agreement are slim. So when Walter gets a new case, he'll have a lot of research
to do before finding his prey. - I don't think he wants to talk tonight. - [Voiceover] Working
out of his home office, Walter reviews the fugitive's
public records online for any clues that will
lead him to his whereabouts. In bounty hunting, this
research is called "footwork". - What I do there is I
have a website I go on, where we can do, we can run Social Security numbers, name searches, basic skip tracing. You know, phone numbers,
cell phone numbers, anything that is a public record, we can access it through that website. So that's basically what I do, is skip tracing on the computer, see if I can get a better location, usually through the Social,
with the name and date of birth, we can track down I would say
probably about 70% of people. The other 30%, you gotta
work a little harder and go different routes to catch 'em, sometimes on a street
level, different things. - What's up man, how you doing? - All right, all right. - We may get an address, it's a empty lot. You don't wanna go out
at three in the morning, go to an address and find
out, oh, it's an empty lot, so you do footwork during the day to verify information and
then at night, we do our hits. Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait. What vehicle do we have for him? (rhythmic instrumental music) - [Voiceover] When the
information from the computer turns stale, they have to
trade up their home office for the streets of New Jersey, and physically search
out the leads they need. - How you doing? Bail enforcement ma'am. Can I ask you a question? - [Woman] Who? - Bail enforcement, fugitive recovery. Here's my I.D. - [Voiceover] They're
looking for a man called Steven Caldebra, who was
arrested on drug-related charges. Caldebra was suspected
to be out of the state for the past few months, but reliable sources now tell the squad that he's back in town. Walter and his crew meticulously check out every lead they have, that includes questioning the neighbors. To gain their trust and
willing cooperation, Walter and his men use
a high degree of tact to get the information they need. - How you doin', bro? You live here? Neighbors have a tendency of not talking, but it depends on the
neighborhood you're in. If you're in a bad neighborhood,
predominantly Hispanic, and not only Hispanic, but
predominantly, for instance, I'm Dominican, say the whole
neighborhood is Dominican, Dominicans are a very tight-knit group, so it'd be very difficult to get another neighbor who's Dominican
to give up a Dominican, so a lot of times, and
this might not sound right, but you have to play the race card. If you're looking for
a black guy, you ask, you try to find a white old neighbor, and they'll probably give
'em up or vice versa. All right, let's go. - No go? - Nah, negative. (suspenseful music) - [Voiceover] As soon as
night falls in Jersey City, Walter is getting ready for the next phase of this operation. By cross-checking the
different information he's uncovered today, Walter has managed to pinpoint
Caldebra's whereabouts to his mother's house. - [Voiceover] The second
door. Hit the second door. (mumbles) for the 180. - Right near the laundry room, hang on. - [Walter] All right, let's go for it. - We're going for it right now. - [Voiceover] The air
is filled with tension, as Walter and his troops
are about to raid the home of the fugitive's mother. Everyone's wearing full
body armor for protection, as they can't be sure
how Caldebra will react. He may very well be armed and dangerous. (door bell ringing) - I gotta move man, I gotta move. - [Voiceover] The lights. - Fugitive Squad ma'am, Metro Fugitive Recovery, bail enforcement. Looking for your son. Let's take a look around. - Hi, can I get-- - Sure. - Can I get somebody down? I'm sorry. - Okay, that's fine. You understand if we find him here, you can be charged, right? - Oh, he's not here. - Okay. - He's not here. - [Walter] You usually wanna
do it early in the morning, and I'm talking between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m., that's usually when you do your hits, cause that's when you're gonna
catch people in bed sleeping. They're usually less prone for violence at that hour in the morning. - [Voiceover] While one
bounty hunter speaks with the defensive mother, Walter and Ali make use of
this valuable opportunity to search the house for helpful clues. - [Woman] I only saw this two days ago. - [Ali] Miss, but I asked
you today (mumbles). When was the last time he stayed here? - A couple days ago, I just asked her. - [Ali] How many days ago? - A couple days ago. - [Voiceover] This time,
the search doesn't yield any tangible results. - I bet you anything
he wasn't there tonight because there's only two beds and they're both sleeping on it. And the couch wasn't used. - So, he's not there now. - So he's not there. - I just wanted to put on
that front to scare her. You see how shook she got? - No that was good, that was good. I'm glad because when
I took her in the back, see, when I took her in
the back, I saw further up, so it was good that you
got her all worked up. Cause I saw further up,
so it works perfectly. You know, sometimes the frustration, you have to deal with the
frustration in this job sometimes. People are horrible liars,
as she was, terrible liar, and, you know, the trail could go cold, but I have enough information to where if it does, I can heat it up again. Cause, again, I got
into his mother's mind, and that's key for this job, is getting into the minds
of the people involved. When you get to 'em, they start thinking about what you said and I had the right words for her. I won't tell you what I said because I like to keep that to myself, but I had the right words for her to open up to me and tell
me what I needed to know, and get her to agree to
do certain things for me, so that we can catch him. (gong) Playing mind games is simple.
It's a psychological war. Half of bounty hunting,
half of tracking down and catching your skip or your
fugitive, is psychological. If you can trick 'em into believing whatever it is you're saying
to 'em, you're gonna get 'em. You can promise 'em, you tell 'em whatever they need to hear. That's what I call it. Once you get to know
who you're looking for, you'll figure out what it's gonna take and what you have to say to 'em. Once you trick 'em into believing whatever it is you're telling
'em, you'll catch 'em. 60% of the time, they'll come to you. All you gotta do is be
convincing, have a golden tongue. (rhythmic instrumental music) - [Voiceover] Back at the
office, the Metro Fugitive Squad is about to tackle another fugitive. This time, Walter has his sights on a man wanted for a "driving under
the influence" charge. - Bardalis, remember him? Playing hide and seek with
the authorities for some time, this fugitive has been bouncing
from one state to another, trying to escape justice. - [Walter] Cause I gotta
snitch that knows him. - [Voiceover] Luckily for Walter, one of his closest informants
knows the fugitive personally. Bounty hunters rely on
their network of informants for the hidden clues they
can't find anywhere else. Purchasing useful bits
of information from them when necessary, Walter knows informants
are often the only way to obtain fresh intelligence
on wanted fugitives. - He knows everybody
in town. He's a savage. If he don't know 'em, nobody does. Especially in the Latino community. (gong) - [Voiceover] Walter secretly contacts his informant by phone and
arranges to meet with him. - Pull up a little further. - [Voiceover] Walter is hoping that the informant will share with him the lead he needs to
apprehend his fugitive. - [Walter] When dealing with informants, first of all, they're
looking to make a buck. So what's on the line for
them is making some money because they may be broke as hell. Maybe they need some extra
money to go get their next high. The other thing from my
aspect, and for their safety, is we really have to guard their safety. When we deal with them we
usually see them somewhere outside of the neighborhood
where they might live. They might, you know, call me and say, "Listen, the guy's here
at such and such place." So they tend to hide and
you have to help 'em hide because you don't want them to be seen, the don't want the neighborhood to know who your informant is cause
you can get 'em killed. (Walter and informant speaking Spanish) (suspenseful music) - [Voiceover] The informant
tells Walter about a house where he saw the fugitive
a couple of days ago. - The bad thing is, we're
not sure if anybody's home. - [Voiceover] Wasting
no time, Walter and Ali quickly rush over to the location to investigate this promising lead. While Walter approaches the front door and talks to the owner, Ali covers the side alleyway
in the back of the house in case the fugitive tries to escape. - It's a good place to be in the backyard is to always corner the house so you could see all
the windows and stuff, make sure, you know. And the other guy, his job in the front is to corner the other side of the house. The best thing is, you know, we usually sneak around
the house at night, you never wanna face the
window in case they see you. You don't know what these people have, so, best thing is cover
yourself the best you can. The job is dangerous,
anything could happen, but, you know, there's
certain things you could do to pretty much cover yourself, so I believe this is
the best position to be. (gong) - [Voiceover] The fugitive isn't there. In fact, he's already left New Jersey. - All right. Just found
out the guy is in Florida. (calm instrumental music) - [Voiceover] But fleeing to another state will certainly not stop
Walter and his team. (rhythmic instrumental music) The grey buildings of Jersey City give way to the palm
trees of Daytona Beach as Walter and his right
hand man, Reggie Tyler, fly down south in search of their prey. New sources put the fugitive at his sister's house in Florida. Jumping across state lines,
Walter knows this man has no intention of returning to court, so it is up to him to
bring him back to justice. (gong) - All right, Reggie, our target
tonight, Norman Bardalis. Okay, we got him on a
warrant from New Brunswick. Okay, we got everything
we need right here. We got the address from Florida. We got our authorization. We're good to go. Hello, Norman. Hello. - [Voiceover] Walter
double-checks his information by making a mock phone call
to the house he is stalking. - Teresa. (mumbling from the phone) - Okay, (speaks Spanish). That was him. Let's go. That was him that answered the phone. Let's roll. Let's go, let's go, let's go. (gong) - [Voiceover] Walter moves
towards the front door, while Reggie checks out the back. Although the suspected fugitive doesn't have a history of violence, Walter isn't willing to take any chances. Desperate people can sometimes
resort to desperate measures to stay away from jail. - [Walter] I treat all cases the same way. In the sense that they're
all dangerous to me. (speaking in Spanish) - Norman? He's not here. - He's not here. Usually, it turns out
you get more resistance from a DUI or something than you do from these big gang-bangers. Was it you I just spoke to on the phone? - Yep. - Okay, where's Norman at? - Norman? (Walter speaks Spanish) - These little cases, they're not smart. If they skipped out on a
little case to begin with, that's not very smart. So, I find I get more
resistance from the small ones rather than the big ones. A person wanted for a DUI can come out and stab you with a knife, just like a person wanted on a murder. So, to me, everyone is the same, until you show me differently. I treat 'em all the same. - [Voiceover] The fugitive is not at home, but is expected to return shortly. - All right, do me a favor. Park somewhere where you can see cause what we're gonna
do is when he gets here, actually just park close. When he gets here, he'll be
here between 11:30 and 12:00. I'll hit you on the radio. I'm gonna stay in here. You wait outside. When I hit you on the radio, just come on. - [Voiceover] This unexpected delay gives Walter the chance he
needs to perfect his operation. - All right, yeah, let him walk in. Once he walks in, you
come on in behind me. - [Reggie] I'm waiting to see his car, but I don't see it now. - All right, but otherwise
stay outta sight. Try to be as inconspicuous as possible. - [Voiceover] By effectively talking to the fugitive's family and
getting inside their heads, Walter is able to secure
their trust and cooperation. (speaking Spanish) For Walter, the power of mental persuasion is an essential weapon. (gong) A few hours later, the fugitive returns back to
the family home as expected. Facing DUI charges in New Jersey, the fugitive did not
expect a bounty hunter to be waiting for him inside
his sister's Florida home. - Norman. (speaks Spanish) - [Voiceover] The man offers no resistance as Walter explains to him
why he is being arrested. (Walter speaks Spanish) Being caught completely unexpectedly has left this fleeing fugitive speechless. (gong) (speaking Spanish) - Let's go. Okay. (speaking Spanish) (rhythmic instrumental music) - [Walter] When we make
an arrest outta state, deep south, where we have
to go maybe if it's a, if you drive it may take
you 10 hours to get there, usually I like to fly cause
I don't like to drive far. So in a plane when you're
transporting a prisoner, first of all, you have to pick what airline you're gonna put him on, cause not all airplanes or airlines let you have him handcuffed. Secondly, to clear security, you have to get there a little
earlier than everyone else, and in our case, we go through
the usual security process, then the prisoner goes in the
back, in a separate office, with airport security and us, they do a more in-depth
search of the prisoner. They verify the documentation,
make sure he is a fugitive, and then we go on about
our way into the plane. When we get to the plane, we have to alert the check-in
desk that we're there. What they do is they board us first, and we get off the plane last. And the only seats they give
us are the very last ones, all the way in the back of the plane, where the seats don't even lay back, so you have to sit straight
up, in the last row of seats and that's pretty much how it goes. (rhythmic instrumental music) - [Voiceover] After
delivering the fugitive to the local authorities in New Jersey, Walter pays a visit to his bondsman to collect the rewards of his efforts. Recovering fugitives can be
a very lucrative business. - [Bondsman] I normally
pay Walter 10% of the fee, so whatever the bail is. So for the bail in Florida, he gets $500, I cover the flight fees, I cover any expenses
that he might require, the hotel and the car, and the flights, that's my responsibility to take care of. - [Voiceover] It's a good
deal for everyone involved. Because if the fugitive is
not caught, the bondsman could be forced to pay the
whole amount of the bail. And once in a while, they come across cases with enormous bonds that can range between
$50,000 and a million dollars. The potential for a 10%
cut on these types of cases is a very appealing
payout to a bounty hunter. - There is no bond I will not touch. The bigger the bond,
the more motivated I am. The big bonds, they have one thing. When you're looking at
a million dollar bond, you know right away that's
not gonna be a easy case. You know that right away. It's not gonna be something, you're gonna knock on a
door and boom, there he is. Those are usually what we
tend to call "hoop dreams". You hope to catch one, you work on it cause
you don't turn it down cause you don't know what could happen, but you're not gonna catch one of those every day of the week. So when you get it, it's
a beautiful opportunity and you work it until you run out. Norman Bardalis. - [Voiceover] To be able to
go after such lucrative cases, Walter first has to get
the bondsman to call him and hire him as the
bounty hunter for the job. - [Walter] In this business,
your reputation is paramount. Your reputation is the number
one thing you have to guard because the better your reputation, the more work you're gonna have. (suspenseful music) - [Voiceover] Bounty hunters
have to work very hard to have their work
recognized and respected. Some of their most ferocious
critics are police officers who have had their opinion
tainted by a few bad seeds. - The relationship with the police, between police and bounty
hunters, it's a iffy one. Some places you go to and they're great. Some places you go, they'll
kick you outta their town. It's in our opinion, an envy thing. They feel that we're doing a job that they have to train for
years or months or whatever, go to the academy to be able to do. We're doing it and in their
minds, we're not even trained, and that's the first mistake
is that we are trained, but we're trained in one specific thing. The police are trained in
a wide variety of things. They have a lot of people they have to be. Us, we're one person. We are the bounty hunter,
we're coming to arrest you. So we deal with one
thing and one thing only, that's the fugitive. So, it's a iffy one because of that. In our opinions, in our
industry, it's a envy thing. - [Voiceover] Fortunately
for Walter and his partners, their spotless reputation
has earned them respect in the field and helps them
get information from places where others would
simply hit a brick wall. - Guys, this is gonna be a good one man. Cops know him. He hides in a crawlspace. This guy, you know, don't have a phone, he told us he's a little shorter than me, he weighs about 150 lbs., you know, so might make it happen. - [Voiceover] The police
gave Walter a photo of a man he's been looking
for for a few weeks. The friendly officer even
gave them an address. - He's 20-something years
old? I don't know about that. This guy looks much much older. He got two earrings though,
so one on each side, so a little goatie on the bottom, we'll see what we can do. - Shouldn't be bad, goatie on
the bottom, that's not common. That's not common, goatie
on the bottom like that. - [Walter] Once we get there, if he's not out on the stoop, as soon as well pull up, are these highrise or lowrise buildings? - They're just gonna be projects. - They're just projects. - Yeah, so people gonna see
us, one way in, one way out. - One way in, one way out. - That's it, so. - Keep your eyes open to the sides. As soon as you see him,
just jump out at him. All right? There's no time to do nothing. No drive-bys or nothing. You see him, jump out at
him and chase him down. - All right, so which
address you wanna pull up to? - We're gonna go to the
one at the top there, well that's all gonna
be in the same section, so let's do it. (suspenseful music) 103, 103, when we pull in here, we're gonna make this left. All right, if he's sitting on a stoop, we're gonna pull just ahead of him. You guys need to stop just behind him, and we're gonna try to limit
him on which way he can run. (gong) - [Voiceover] Walter and
his partners waste no time. As soon as they get close to the address they're looking for, they spot a man who
matches the description. Ali's quick reflexes allow
him to jump out of the car, and catch the suspected
fugitive in seconds. - [Man in Green Shirt] We need some I.D. - I don't live out here. - Yeah, he got earrings. - He got earrings. - [Man in Green Shirt] On both sides? - [Voiceover] Everything with this arrest seems to be going perfectly. Except for one small detail. - That's him bro, look at the eyes. - I can tell you if that's me. - That's him. - Hell, no! - [Voiceover] They've got the wrong man. - That's not me man.
I'm trying to tell you. For real like, I'm back here playing man. I wouldn't even be here if-- - Okay hold on to him for a second. Just hold on to him. - [Voiceover] Walter
double-checks his intelligence and confirms the man's
identity with the neighbors. Everything points to a
case of mistaken identity. - [Man in Black] I ain't never
been hopped on like this. I'm back here playing man, I see these jeeps pulling up, I'm coming up front to see who it is. (laughing) I'm scared as hell. - All right, let's shut this down. - All right, my fault, I'm just-- - [Ali] Yeah, you was looking shady, chilling in the corner like that. - Yeah, I mean, cause I wanted to see who was turning the corner. Oh my God, I just like (laughing). Scared as hell. - [Man in Green] Okay, so it's not him. - That was close though. - [Man in Green] Yeah that was. (rhythmic music) - [Voiceover] The bounty
hunters will take a few minutes to check the neighborhood
and talk with the locals. But if their fugitive was
here when they showed up, chances are he fled the scene when they arrested the wrong guy. - [Ali] All right, nothing
going on at the front door. We're still knocking,
trying to make entry. - Copy that 101. (suspenseful music) - [Voiceover] Walter's
job sometimes draws him to the seedier parts of town. In Jersey City, the gang infested projects is as violent and dangerous as they come. The Crips and the Bloods,
two very powerful gangs, are fighting for territorial supremacy. - You don't wanna mix Crips and Bloods, and let alone in the same projects. That's dangerous. They have a tendency of
shooting off the rooftops and the windows, so it's really an
unpredictable environment. You got drug dealers in all the buildings, cause they hold stash in one building, get the money in the others, deliver the drugs to a
customer in another building, so you have a lot going on, in a closed area, and if you are quote unquote
"the law" coming through here, you're pretty much surrounded. So anything can come
at you from any angle, and what are you gonna do? So the danger is in not knowing
what's gonna come at you and when it's gonna come. You just have to be ready and
have a little bit of luck, hopefully nothing happens
and you walk out unscathed. (gong) - [Voiceover] This is the place where one of Walter's fugitives, a drug addict with a history of violence, has last been seen. The fugitive has been eluding
Walter for several weeks in an attempt to avoid jail time. Coming into the projects to
investigate cases like these is extremely dangerous
for Walter and his men. - This is what I'm talking about, see. You come here at night,
you find 'em getting high. This is one diamond bottle of crack. Those types of cases could
be my most dangerous cases cause you don't know what to expect. The young kids are real unpredictable, and most of the Bloods and the Crips in this area are teenagers. And they're unpredictable. You don't know what type of reaction you're gonna get from 'em. - [Voiceover] With the threat
of violence as real as it is, the crew wears their bulletproof vests underneath their street clothing. The last thing Walter and his men need is to be mistaken for cops. In the projects, wearing a cop badge, is like wearing a bullseye on your chest. - He's not home now. Might catch him later. Come through at about
three in the morning, you'll catch him in bed. (uplifting music) - Hey. Hey guys. - Hi. - Hey. How are you? - Good. - [Voiceover] Like most
law enforcement personnel, bounty hunters form a tight-knit group. They regularly see each
other outside of work with their families. Today, Reggie has organized a picnic and everyone from Metro Fugitive
Recovery Squad is there. - No, no. It was a hill. (woman laughs) - [Voiceover] It's a time to rejoice about their best solved cases, and a time to reflect about the ones that didn't have such a happy ending. (people laughing) This is also a good time
for the bounty hunters to get to know the people
they work with every day a little better. Ex-policewoman, Tammy Ellis, has been working with
Walter for over a year. She's one of only two women on the team, and one of the few female
bounty hunters in the state. - [Tammy] It's exciting, knowing that you, something we have to do,
somebody we have to get, and knowing that other people
are safer on the street once we get these guys. Once we get the guys, or women, or whoever it is we have
to get, it's exciting. I love working with the guys, you know. - [Voiceover] For Reggie Tyler, it's all about helping people make a better life for themselves. - [Reggie] I get enjoyment out about just being safe,
trying to do the right thing. The right thing is,
people that just jump bail really shouldn't be out there. Having your responsibilities, basically. You don't wanna walk all day, looking 24 hours over your shoulder. You have kids, you have
family that worry about you. Nobody should have to
go through the ordeal of having to come to jail to
come visit you inside a cell, and we're trying to keep you out of there. You may have to go back sometime, but our main goal is to try
to keep you outta there, get you on the right track. (uplifting music) - [Voiceover] The only
ones who seem to suffer from this lifestyle, are
the ones staying behind. - [Walter] The job can be very
stressful in my family life because a lot of times work
tends to overlap with home life. There may be days where
I may have promised I'm a take my wife out somewhere, and the day or time will
come and all of a sudden, boom, I gotta go on a job, and I'll be gone for two or three days, and then I gotta come back and make it up. You know, so, it's stressful because I don't have that much time
to be home, when I'm busy. I may go away for a week, I
may go away for three days, come home for one day and I'm gone again. So it can be real stressful at home, and it's sometimes hard to manage. - [Voiveover] Walter's wife
Wendy loves her husband, but hates his work on the streets. When Walter becomes focused with his work, he often forgets to call, and Wendy can't help but fear the worst. - [Wendy] I don't like
it (speaks Spanish). I don't like it. It's too dangerous. I don't know if he coming home or not. - [Walter] A lot of ups and downs, cause the job is hard, and it causes, at times it causes, it crosses family with job. And there may be days
where I may have said, we're gonna go out at a certain time, and I may not even come home that day, so she's all ready for me to come home, and I have a, when I get focused on work, it's just, I get tunnel
vision, it's just work. So the correct, the right
thing for me to do on days would be call and say,
"I'm not coming home." I'll just forget. I'll just keep going and going and going. I don't call, I don't say anything. And that's just me. When I'm on a job, I'm 100% focused and I don't like to break my focus, and I just forget about calling anybody, it's just all about work. And a lot of times it takes
away from family time. And this one here, and these other two, it takes time away from everybody. (gong) (rhythmic instrumental music) - [Voiceover] Bounty hunting isn't a job, it's a way of life. There's no clear line between
what's work and what's play. The moment the barbecue comes to a close, Walter and his friends
are back on the streets doing what they do best: catching fugitives. They have a new lead in
the Steven Caldebra case. The elusive drug dealer
has recently been spotted in an apartment complex
on the outskirts of town. This time, bounty hunter Tammy Ellis is part of the strike team. - [Walter] I don't treat women
any different than the guys. The women on the team
are the same as the guys. They have a job to do,
they have to execute and they have to execute to the fullest. So they get no different
treatment than anybody else. - [Voiceover] While Ali Mustafa covers the back door of the complex, Walter and Tammy try to sweet
talk their way in the front. - [Walter] The use of women in strategy, that's another story. The women, they're able to get in and out of situations and places, easier and more effectively
than one of my guys would. So the women, I tend to use
them a lot in bar scenes, if I wanna get a guy out of a club, I'll let them go in there,
they'll dress real sexy and turn the guy on, get him
thinking he's gonna get some, walk him out of the bar or
the club, or wherever he is. Once we get 'em outside,
it's another story. And you should see the look
on some of these guys' faces when they realize they got had. - Thank God you came. - How you doin', brother? - Hey, how you doin'? - All right, looking for (mumbles). The advantage to having, to using a woman when you're
in a house is a lot of times, if you're dealing with somebody's mother, a girl might be able to bring
a mother down much easier than myself or one of the
big guys that work with me because it might be more intimidating. A woman can talk another woman down or even, another guy,
if it's a bad situation, a woman may be able to talk 'em down. (gong) - [Voiceover] The intel
they have on Caldebra leads them to believe
that he will not go down without some form of resistance. He might try to run, or he might choose to fight back. Either way, Walter and
the crew need to be alert and ready for whatever's thrown at them. They are not taking any chances. The fugitive might be hiding
anywhere in this apartment and they do not want
to be caught off guard. - [Ali] Let's close it. - Okay. - (mumbles) the threes. But this one he wouldn't
have enough time to get in. We can't make it down. - [Voiceover] Once again,
it seems that Caldebra was one step ahead of the bounty hunters. - Sorry about this so early. Have a good morning. Thank you. - [Woman] You too. (gong) - [Voiceover] So it's back to
the office for some footwork. Walter's got a truckload
of cases on his desk and his partners are eager
to score some points. (rhythmic music) Walter decides that he wants
to go after a young woman charged with drug possession. She's been on the loose
for a few days now, and his sources offer
some good information about her current whereabouts. - [Walter] When I plan an arrest, we usually get together
in the office first, or we'll get together on the
street, in a parking lot. We'll go over each file. I'll give the guys a rundown of every case we're gonna be doing. I let them look at the mug shot, and then, to back that, when we get to the area, to the house that we have
to quote unquote "hit", we'll look at the file one more time, I'll remind the guys, this
is who we're looking for, look at the picture again, this is what he's known for, he might come out of a back window, and I alert them to the
dangers of each individual that we're looking for and
what they're capable of. (gong) (knock on the door) (gong) (knock on the door) - [Voiceover] In this case,
as in most drug-related cases, they do not know what to expect. - Hello. - [Man] Who's there? - Fugitive Squad, sir. - [Voiceover] Will they find
a passive, drugged out woman, or a maniac in dire need of a fix? Nothing can be assumed, and every possibility
should be considered. - [Walter] When you're doing a hit, you usually wanna do it
early in the morning, and I'm talking between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. That's usually when you do your hits cause that's when you're gonna
catch people in bed sleeping. They're usually less prone for violence at that hour in the morning. (knock on the door) - [Man in White] Yeah? - Open it now. - Where's she at? - [Man in White] She's not
here. She was here yesterday. I don't know exactly now. I don't know if she's coming back at all. - How do you get your fix then? - [Man in White] Ah. - [Ali] We're gonna talk. - Get one guy outside
and standby in the back. - [Ali] Okay. - Listen, if I find her here-- - [Man in White] I'll go to jail as well. - Yeah. - [Man in White] I swear
to God, she's not here, and I have nothing to do with her. She just happens to be
my girlfriend's daughter. - [Voiceover] The woman they're
looking for is not there. The only one present is
her mother's boyfriend. - She was here yesterday, that's the room she stayed in. - Which room? This room? - Yeah. - Where else does she live? - [Voiceover] He says he knows nothing, but Walter's not buying any of it. If this guy wants to play mind games, he picked the wrong guy to play with. - You think her mother will
tell me where she's at? - Yeah, probably, she wants her to get, probably get her. - Looked like a spot that
people used to hide up there. - Jason, yeah. - [Walter] That's the boyfriend. - [Voiceover] While
Walter continues to try and untangle the man's web of lies, Ali and Reggie search for evidence leading to the woman's
current whereabouts. What they find, will give
Walter the final leverage he needs to find the fugitive. - [Ali] Yo, Walt. - Yeah? - [Ali] Come here. - [Voiceover] The owner of the house is about to sing like a canary. - [Ali] This is in her bag. That's what... You see that and the
UPS sign, that's money. Look at the straw that she does her cocaine with. There's another bag. She probably did her fix
before she left the house. - It's in your house. - [Man in White] There is drugs then? - Yeah. - [Man in White] What's in there? - Dope. The way to get someone
to cooperate with you is get something on them. We had a case where we went in the house. We found drugs in the house. The guy, the person we were
looking for wasn't there, but there was someone in the house, so at that point we took
advantage cause at first the guy was acting like
he didn't know anything. After we found all these
drugs in the house, you know, found a few dope bags, I tell the guy, "Wait a
minute, what's this here?" I pressured him with that, and all of sudden he knew everything. All of a sudden, "She
gets home after 3 o'clock, "and her mother lives at this address, "and you know, you can stay
if wanna wait for her." So a lot of times what you wanna do is you wanna get dirt on the
person you're dealing with and then use that as leverage to get them to cooperate with you and what you wanna get done. - And who else is in Jamesburg you said? - Her grandmother. She is either. - [Walter] So you're saying
there's a possibility she could be staying at
her grandmother's house. - Bed's not warm. (exhales loudly) - [Walter] Let's get outta here guys. - Okay, we're gone. - [Reggie] Going out the back. - Have a good night. - All right. - [Man in White] Okay,
I'll be in touch with you if I hear anything. - Give me a call as soon
as you know something. - [Man in White] Like I said, I'm sorry I could have
been more helpful, but-- - Okay. I need a listing for this number. 609-- The reason parents will
give up their child, or a loved one, a lot of times, it may be because they're just tired of their child constantly being a problem. You may have a child that just, is always getting arrested
for possession of drugs or getting high. They may feel that that's
the way to help 'em, because they may have spent
years trying to talk to 'em, in and out of rehabs
and it just doesn't help and they feel, sometimes, that "You know what? My child
needs to be in jail. This is where he's at. Go get him." (suspenseful music) - [Voiceover] And that's
exactly what happens here. The grandmother knows that the fugitive has got an appointment in the morning at the Office of Motor Vehicles. For Walter, it's only a question
of getting there on time, and setting up a trap to catch her. - We're gonna go in and
see if she's inside. We'll be right back out. - [Voiceover] With his men in place, the waiting game begins. After a long, sleepless night, the hunt is in its final stage. - [Walter] There she go in the back seat. That was her in the back seat. - [Reggie] Where'd that car go? - [Walter] Where'd that car go? My approach to arresting
a male or a female is always the same. They're all criminals. I'm not interested in
what your offense is. - Do you know where there's a MoneyGram? - Put your cigarette down, honey. Put your cigarette down. We got a warrant for your arrest. - For what? - You didn't go to court. - Okay, what court? What are you? Okay, all right. What is this? - From Plainsboro. You wanna take her purse? Take her purse. Is it okay that he holds onto that? - Yes. - Okay. Who are you? (man mumbles) - Okay. All right, you missed
court in Plainsboro, honey. We got a warrant for your arrest. We're the bail bondsmen. Your cuffs okay? - Yeah. - Okay, be careful, don't hit your head. There you go. 14 years I been bounty hunting, and I think what drives me is the adrenaline, the adventure of it. There's no way to explain
what it feels like when you hunt someone that
doesn't wanna be found, and you hunt 'em for it
could be for a few days, it could be a few weeks,
a few months, a few years, when you finally catch 'em, it's the biggest high that
you'll ever get in your life. As long as I can walk and
think, I'll be hunting. It's all I know how to do. (heavy rock music)
