- 6 hours ago
Frank Frazier aka "Bounty Tank" is a bounty hunter based in Ohio. He has been a licensed fugitive recovery agent for over 15 years and claims to have made over 500 arrests.
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00:00My name is Frank Frazier, a.k.a. Bounty Tank.
00:02I've been a bounty hunter for over 12 years.
00:05I've recovered over $1 million in bonds.
00:08This is everything I'm authorized to tell you.
00:12I was on a hunt, looking for a guy.
00:14This truck pulled up to me, and it was like,
00:16hey, you better get off this block.
00:19And they started shooting.
00:20I'm running for my life.
00:22There's no one to help you.
00:23It had to be at least 20 shots.
00:25So that was my first a rude awakening
00:28that this badge don't mean nothing to certain people.
00:38A bounty hunter is an agent that goes out
00:42to apprehend fugitives that are on bail to have skipped court.
00:46The misconception people have for bounty hunting
00:49is that it's all glitz and glamor.
00:52People watch it on TV, and all they see is the fun part.
00:57They see the door kicking, the chasing, the hunt.
01:01They don't see the countless hours that you're sitting in a car doing surveillance.
01:06They don't see the death threats you're getting for looking for certain individuals.
01:13You got people calling to threaten you.
01:15If you come back to my house, I'm going to kill you.
01:16I've made over, now at least, oh, over 2,000 arrests.
01:22One of the things that make me unique is the lengths I'm willing to go to find people.
01:28I'm very crafty.
01:29There was a young lady, she was a prostitute, and she was on the run.
01:33So, what I did was I put up a Craigslist ad advertising that I was shooting a porno.
01:40So, I put the ad up because I was told that she periodically goes online to Craigslist
01:46and other websites to look for odd jobs, and she wind up hitting this ad.
01:53Probably about a week later, we got a call.
01:56She sent photos, and she bit.
01:59She bit on it.
02:00We gave her a location at the motel to meet there.
02:03We told her what to expect.
02:04We had music playing.
02:06We had the camera set up, obviously, so she would think it was, you know, shooting actual
02:10porn.
02:11But it was no different because if I was hunting, I would have my camera set up.
02:16So, it worked out perfectly.
02:17I had my shirt off.
02:18I was well lathered up to play the part.
02:21She came in.
02:22She felt comfortable.
02:23Then I told her, hey, we're going to switch to this scene.
02:25I'm going to put some handcuffs on you.
02:28Things might get a little wild.
02:29And she was like, oh, okay.
02:30I like this.
02:31This is starting to turn out great how I want it to.
02:35At this point, she's cuffed up.
02:37Then I say, okay, we're going to go to the next scene.
02:39I'm going to take you to the car.
02:40And she's still just going along with it at this point.
02:43I take her to the car, and she's still not aware of what's going on at this time.
02:48We start getting closer to the police station.
02:51Now she's like, where are we going?
02:53So I'm like, I'm taking you to jail.
02:55And she's like, we're having a scene in jail?
02:59I said, you're going to have a scene in jail, but I'm taking you to jail.
03:01I'm your bail bondsman.
03:02A bail bondsman is an insurance agent that loans out money to defendants who can't necessarily
03:09afford to bail out themselves.
03:11She realized that the gig is up.
03:13She realized she was going to jail.
03:14So it was crazy.
03:15I'm not going to lie.
03:21You have to be honest with yourself.
03:23Certain places are more friendlier than others.
03:25Early on in my years, I went to Detroit.
03:28I was on a hunt looking for a guy.
03:31And I thought that me having a badge and a gun meant something.
03:36I was around the neighborhood.
03:38I was like on six, seven miles.
03:40Like I was in the trenches handing out, this was old school, I was handing out pictures,
03:45flyers.
03:46I seen this guy, seen this guy walking around just willy-nilly.
03:50And I'll never forget this truck pulled up to me and it was like, hey, you better get
03:55off this block.
03:56Get out of here.
03:57If we come back here and you're still here, there's going to be problems.
04:02Paying no attention.
04:03Again, I'm high and mighty.
04:04I'm thinking, whatever, they're not going to do nothing to me, they're just talking.
04:07They came back, maybe about an hour or so, and they started shooting and chasing me.
04:14And I'll never forget, I remember finally getting into this abandoned building and I
04:19was hiding.
04:20And they were still looking, still walking around looking, looking, looking.
04:23I had dropped my phone, I didn't know when to call.
04:26I was just sitting in there scared out of my life thinking, wow, this is about to be over.
04:32So I'm sitting in there and they stayed out there looking for at least about 45 minutes.
04:36And I waited at least another hour and 15 minutes before I left.
04:40Don't ever get it twisted to think that I'm above or I can do anything I want or talk to
04:46anybody any type of way because there's people who don't care about that and they'll put you
04:51in your place.
04:52I've been out at the mall several times with my family.
04:55I was out with my wife, my daughter.
04:56I see a guy that has a warrant.
04:58I've been looking for it for a while.
05:00He sees me, I see him.
05:02And at this point, I'm like, I can't do this here.
05:06My kids here, my wife is here.
05:08This could literally go south.
05:10In those situations, you got to pick or choose, you know, is, are you going to prioritize
05:16your job or your family at that point?
05:18And this has happened to me multiple times where we get to a person's house or in their
05:24neighborhood, in their hood, and they have 30 guys with them armed to the T. And police
05:31won't come out and help us.
05:33What do you do at that point?
05:35You let your ego, your pride get in front of you?
05:38No.
05:39You got to understand that if you approach this situation with an ego, that you may not leave.
05:50As far as tracking, my first method that I'm always going to do is go straight to social
05:55media.
05:56I'm going to see you posting stuff on Facebook or Instagram or your live.
06:00If I don't find any social media, I'm going to start looking, finding out where you hang
06:07out at.
06:07He lives here.
06:08Let me go check with this store.
06:10Does this guy come in here?
06:11Yeah.
06:11He comes in every day and gets a pack of cigarettes.
06:14So you start, you learn their habits.
06:16Then it goes to association.
06:1995% of the time, I'm not even hunting these guys.
06:21I'm looking for the women that they hang with because they're not hiding.
06:26And they're always going to post them online.
06:28I'm here, so-and-so, and you might see his foot in the background.
06:31So early on in my career, I was good at my job.
06:38So I would catch someone and other bondsmen would recommend me to other bondsmen.
06:43And this particular lady reached out to me, this particular bondsman, and she said,
06:50hey, I'm looking for this guy, I got him out for a million dollars, I cannot find him.
06:55So if I found this guy with this million dollar bond, I would make 10% of that, which is
06:59$100,000.
07:00So that's a lot of money.
07:02This was like a major payday for me.
07:04I was struggling at the time, just trying to make a career out of this.
07:09She gave me this case file.
07:10I looked into it.
07:11I figured this particular guy, he was a street guy.
07:14He sold drugs.
07:15He had several women, but I found one particular woman that he had a kid with.
07:20So I knew he was an active father as much as he could being in the streets.
07:25So I knew that at some point he would come back to visit her to see his son.
07:30And she was a dancer, so there was no loyalty.
07:32She was going to go whoever had the money.
07:34So when I found out where she danced, I started to frequently go in there.
07:39I would purposely request her.
07:43I would purposely spend money on her to the point where she got a little comfortable.
07:47I was so-and-so.
07:47Hey, how you doing?
07:48Again, I wouldn't do this today.
07:50I'm married.
07:51But we started to develop a relationship.
07:55I can't remember exactly what I told her I did fully.
07:58I just told her I'd get money.
07:59And that was cool with her.
08:00I probably put in thousands of dollars to find this person, to court her, take her out.
08:06So after about a month of courtin' her, kickin' it, spendin' some money, then finally got
08:10to a day, it was Father's Day, and she was like, yeah, hey, he's gonna come pick up her
08:15son at this time.
08:16So I'm like, cool.
08:19So this day I had made sure I had my vest packed up and my bag and all my tools
08:26that
08:26I needed.
08:26I'll never forget, he knocked on the door, came in.
08:29I started thinking, man, this is kinda messed up.
08:31You kinda start feeling bad a little bit, you know?
08:33So I'm like, whew, okay.
08:37So I go put my stuff on, I come out, he's sitting at the table, so he has nowhere to
08:42go.
08:42I come out, and they just kinda lookin' at me like, and I'm like, hey, bruh, I hate to
08:47do this, man, but you're under arrest, you got a warrant for your arrest, I'm your bondsman.
08:51So he immediately starts going off on her thing, and then she set him up.
08:56Going off, gettin' bellendrit, I wind up gettin' him in control, talkin' to him real calm, like,
09:00this is what it is, he wind up just bein' compliant, puttin' his hands behind his back.
09:05Now, you would think the trouble would come from him, oh no.
09:09The trouble came from her.
09:11She started to commence a ass-whoopin' on me, swingin', kickin', spittin' on me.
09:17She was just, and I understand it, I understand, I understand.
09:21She was just, she felt betrayed, she was just confused, she was angry, and I felt bad about
09:27it, so I was like, I can never do that again, even, I don't care how much the money's worth.
09:36As a bondsman, we try to stay away from gang members, if all possible.
09:40Sometimes you don't know they're affiliated with a gang, and it just is what it is.
09:44But we deal with all type of cases, from misdemeanors to F1 felonies.
09:50There was a situation where I bonded out a guy.
09:54He was trafficking marijuana, truckloads, semis, and we got him out for trafficking drugs.
10:02I remember goin' to this guy's house, knockin' on the door, like,
10:07hey, you got a payment comin' up, I need you to make sure you get a payment.
10:11And he looked at me through my soul.
10:14There's not too many guys that just look at me, and just look at me like I'm nothing.
10:21I could just see in his eyes, he was different, he wasn't a normal fugitive that we go after.
10:27Turns out, he was a part of the cartel.
10:30Now, at this moment, when I found this out, I said, oh my God, I hope this guy goes to
10:36court.
10:37We don't want to be searching for a cartel member.
10:40And God, sense of humor, he missed court.
10:46So, at this point, I'm not afraid to go after anyone.
10:50This is a job, this is what comes with it, you gotta do what you gotta do.
10:53Or you lose money.
10:54But at this point, I'm like, I mean, how are we gonna do this?
11:00We can't lose the money, but then again, we can't put our family and our life in jeopardy looking for
11:06this guy.
11:06But luckily for us, it went federal, and the feds picked it up, and we didn't have to go after
11:12him.
11:13That was a situation where I don't know what would happen, to be honest with you.
11:19There was another situation, me and Tony, that's who I work with now, where we walked up to a house.
11:24We were just doing something normal, going to knock on the door just to have a conversation.
11:27We were about to go knock on the door, and the guy we wanted to talk to literally hops out
11:32the bushes and comes around us.
11:34And he could have just shot, he could have took us down.
11:38So he seen us on the cameras and was in the bushes.
11:41Not knowing who we were until we kind of got up, he kind of seen, you know, identification and badges.
11:46But it could have went bad again.
11:48You just have situations like that, it's a dangerous job.
11:51You start to get a little desensitized to things.
11:54I remember we went to this guy's house, he was an older guy, and he literally had a pistol on
11:59him.
11:59And me and Tony were just kind of sitting there like, hey, put the pistol down.
12:02Like, just super calm and retrospect-looking.
12:06In hindsight, we were like, man, this guy could have shot us.
12:09And looking back at it kind of shook me a little bit because sometimes we're so desensitized to things that
12:14you don't really realize it.
12:21We get the word that an individual is in a certain location.
12:26We're going to go surveillance the house first.
12:29The longest I've had to stay in the car was three days.
12:31I got intel from someone saying, hey, he's in the house for sure.
12:37But it was a third-party house, so I couldn't just go barge into this house legally without physically seeing
12:46him.
12:46So if it's a third-party house that's not on the application or on a warrant, you can't just go
12:53in there unless you see them.
12:56If you physically identify them in this house, we have the legal right to go in there.
13:00So I knew this guy was in this house.
13:04I knew if I left, it was a possibility that he would leave.
13:07And I was just waiting for one sign for him to pop his head out.
13:11And I also knew that he probably knew that I was sitting outside.
13:17So at this point, it's a waiting act.
13:19Who's going to outweigh who?
13:21And he might have thought that since I was in the car that eventually I would leave.
13:25He didn't know.
13:26I stayed in that car.
13:27I had jugs of urine in there that you got to pee in the bottle.
13:31I door dashed food.
13:32I ordered a pizza, sat up there, ate.
13:35I literally stayed there for three days.
13:39And finally, like I said, at some point, he popped his head out.
13:43At that point, I called everybody and said, hey, I just seen them.
13:46It's go time.
13:46But if I didn't have the patience to sit there for those three days and thug it out,
13:51I would have probably knocked on the door and burned the address.
13:55Now you're back at level one.
13:58Yeah.
13:59We're going to see how many points of entry, windows.
14:02We're going to assess the entire situation.
14:05We're going to find out how many people are in the house.
14:08Is this individual armed?
14:10What does this individual have on?
14:13Once we get all this information that we'll combine as a team, we'll collab.
14:17We'll meet somewhere maybe a mile away from the house.
14:20You don't want to meet too close just in case someone's driving by and they see us, obviously.
14:23And nowadays, a lot of people have cameras, so they can see you coming.
14:27They can, you know, be prepared for you.
14:29Also, we're going to contact local law enforcement to let them know, hey, it's Frank Frazier.
14:34I'm an area.
14:35I'm a bail bondsman.
14:35We're about to try to apprehend so-and-so.
14:38We're at this address.
14:40We are armed.
14:41There's X amount of guys, so they know exactly what's going on.
14:44Because a lot of times, when you're about to go hunt, people might see a bunch of guys
14:49putting on gear, and then they call the police.
14:52And then the cops show up.
14:53If they don't know what's going on, their guns are drawn, and now you got a whole situation.
14:57That is the process before we even get to getting to the house.
15:03Then we want to make sure everyone's getting dressed, you know.
15:06We're getting a bulletproof vest.
15:07We're going to have handcuffs.
15:09We definitely want to have mace and a taser.
15:12And someone's always going to have a gun.
15:14The only time it may switch up is if we have to breach a house.
15:17And we need a sledgehammer or a battle ram.
15:21Body camera's on.
15:22You want to make sure it's getting documented, because a lot of times things can happen,
15:26and people may lie on you.
15:27You know, you want to make sure that you are holding yourself accountable,
15:31and also that you have something to cover your ass if something does go wrong.
15:35Me, personally, I think the most important quality of being a bounty hunter would be you have to embed patience.
15:43If you don't have patience, you're going to suck at this.
15:46A lot of guys in today's hunting industry, they're more smash and grab.
15:53They lead with the hammer.
15:55There's no finesse.
15:56Instead of sitting on this house and watching it for 10 days first, they're going to burn the address.
16:02The address is burned.
16:03He's never going to come back there.
16:10Under federal law, we are legally permitted to pursue a fugitive in any dwelling.
16:18It's a law that's called Taylor versus Tainter.
16:21We sometimes bump heads with law enforcement because they don't know our laws,
16:25and they're like, you need a warrant to do that.
16:28We can't do that.
16:28But we abide by different laws.
16:31It's different laws.
16:32It's bail laws.
16:33If the cosigner signs this bail contract, and we're in agreement, and this person is hiding in your house,
16:43we can break entry if we need to.
16:45You know, we're going to knock first.
16:46But if we need to come in and kick the door and breach it, we have every legal right to.
16:51This was a case I had in Youngstown, Ohio.
16:53There was a situation with a guy, his girlfriend.
16:57I was looking for this young lady a while.
16:59This was a $75,000 bond as well.
17:02This individual, we had to track him all the way down to a third party house.
17:07And I found out that he's staying there.
17:09He's renting there.
17:10His name's on the lease.
17:11I got word that she was there.
17:15He didn't think that I can come into this house, which he had a rude awakening.
17:19And he was like, you can't come in here.
17:21I didn't put this on an application.
17:22After about five minutes, he said, fine, come in and check.
17:26So I checked upstairs.
17:28She's obviously not upstairs hiding.
17:30So now there's a door leading downstairs that is conveniently locked.
17:36So I said, hey man, open this door.
17:39I can't open this door.
17:40This is not my house.
17:42You can't go in here.
17:43So now he's chesting up and trying to get bold like, you ain't doing nothing.
17:48So now I know she's in there hiding.
17:51Because if she wasn't, he wouldn't be putting this much of a fight up.
17:55So I know exactly when someone's lying to me.
17:58Ninety percent of the time when I'm asking questions, I already know the answer to.
18:02I just want to see what you're going to say.
18:03At this point, I started to kick this door in to go downstairs.
18:08Once we go downstairs, I get to searching.
18:11What do you know?
18:12She's underneath the bed hiding.
18:14He comes downstairs, tries to get loud and bugged.
18:17You know, I say, hey, you know, I can take this off and we can handle this as men and
18:20we can get back to this.
18:21And he kindly declined.
18:23Most of them do decline.
18:24So again, I'm not a police officer.
18:27Is it the most professional thing to do?
18:28No.
18:29But sometimes it calls for it.
18:32I don't do that these days.
18:34But yeah, earlier in my days, I was a little bit more, you know, wow.
18:43When you have a contract with a bondsman, my standard is 10%.
18:47Again, I've been doing this for a while.
18:49So when you hire me, I want the full amount.
18:54I would say mostly like $5,000 to $50,000 is the typical.
19:01But the higher it is, the more tighter usually bondsmen are.
19:05So you don't get as many as those.
19:07That million dollar one is the biggest one I've ever collected.
19:11So back, this was some years ago, we had to look for a guy named Ted Palmer.
19:15He was known as a meth cooker and he eventually was convicted of drug trafficking.
19:22The bond was $75,000.
19:24It took me six months.
19:27Not only was I looking for him, local police was looking for him.
19:31This guy was different.
19:33He could live anywhere.
19:35No one wanted to give us answers.
19:37And, you know, we had X amount of days to find him.
19:40And we got down to the last day before we had to pay out that $75,000.
19:44And the last possible day, I wound up going to Ted's friend's house.
19:50Who knew where he was?
19:52And he drew up a map where Ted was.
19:55I called up the task force.
19:56I said, hey, I got whereabouts where this guy is.
19:59I think it's the real deal this time.
20:01Once the task force got there, we all got suited up.
20:03My drilling is pumping.
20:06It was me, the task force, went into the trailer, drug him out.
20:11They put out the cuffs, cupped him up.
20:13Had no clue that we were ever going to find him.
20:15But that was it.
20:16After that, he was caught.
20:17But it got down to literally the last day where they either find him
20:21or you got to cough up that $75,000.
20:24So, thanking God, we found him that day.
20:27There's obviously a drug epidemic going on now.
20:31I mean, it hasn't stopped.
20:32The worse it gets with drugs, the more skips we got.
20:36There was one year where all I was looking for was drug addicts.
20:41And it's because they fear withdrawals more than they fear me.
20:48Because they get sick.
20:50It's a horrible experience when you're taking drugs every day
20:54and then you just go cold turkey and you got to sit in jail.
20:56And they fear that.
20:58So, they'll take off and run.
20:59And they're more afraid of going through that than actually getting arrested by me.
21:04So, yeah, with the drugs, there's more skips.
21:07And it might be a situation where you don't find a person for a month.
21:11You don't catch them.
21:13You don't eat.
21:13When you're hunting, you're gone all the time.
21:15It's hard to maintain a stable household because you're always going hunting.
21:21And you're just trying to find that next buck.
21:23That next buck, you're literally chasing money.
21:25Literally, you're chasing money.
21:27So, in Ohio, if you just want to hunt and make a living off of it, you're not going to
21:32make a living.
21:33It's not enough to go around.
21:35Honestly, you need to be a bondsman.
21:37I would recommend doing both to get the full benefit of the industry.
21:43Yeah.
21:48Me, personally, I started in Virginia.
21:51And I got a bounty hunting license in Virginia.
21:53And I went through a company at the time.
21:56I don't think they're no longer around, but I went through a company.
21:58And they specifically trained for this specific job.
22:02So, you learn, like, handcuffing, clearing houses, just different tactical work.
22:08So, that was my base of it.
22:11Now, they didn't teach you the skills you need to know when you're out really dealing with people.
22:16You just have to have some type of street awareness.
22:18If you don't have good instinct, you're not going to do well.
22:21So, typically, guys who are from certain areas, they know, I shouldn't go over here.
22:27I shouldn't approach this person.
22:29White hunters, Caucasian hunters, they can't go in the hood.
22:32They stick out like a sore thumb.
22:34And as soon as they pop up or they're seen in the car sitting doing civilians, they're going to be
22:39noticed.
22:40What made me really good is I'm young.
22:42I'm urban.
22:42I would blend in the neighborhood.
22:44So, I could do certain things that other individuals couldn't do.
22:47Now, there's situations where I go into environments where there's no black people around.
22:52Some of the cops are kind of old school, a little racist.
22:55I'm going to take someone with a friendlier skin color with me.
22:59This particular case was early on in my years, and I went to a specific bondsman.
23:04And I was like, hey, you got some work?
23:06He was like, not really.
23:08He was like, but I do got one guy that I'm having a hard time finding.
23:12And it was one of them situations where he's a white guy and he can't go in the hood.
23:17He's not afraid of going there.
23:18He'll do what he got to do.
23:19But he just couldn't because he stuck out and everyone knew him.
23:22So, he showed me the guy.
23:25He showed me where one of his kids' moms was staying.
23:30So, what I did was I went to his girlfriend's house, asked to get my hair braided.
23:37And I called.
23:38I was like, hey, he's in here.
23:40So, he came, rushed.
23:42We arrested, dude.
23:43You just have to have some type of street awareness.
23:46So, my first hunting experience actually was in Virginia.
23:51Crazy, I was still in college.
23:53I was in my senior year of college.
23:55I knew I wanted to do this.
23:56I called around to every bondsman I could.
23:59And I'll never forget this guy.
24:01His name was Michael Jackson.
24:02No lie.
24:03And he had this case.
24:04It was a thousand dollar bond, which you only get a hundred bucks.
24:08But he said, hey, I can't find this guy.
24:11I don't know where he's at.
24:12I heard he's in a hotel somewhere.
24:14That's all I know.
24:15I went in the area to every hotel.
24:20And there had to be about 40 plus hotels.
24:24Hey, you seen this guy?
24:25Hey, you seen this guy?
24:27All night.
24:28And probably when I got to about maybe the 30th hotel, they said, yeah, he's in the room
24:33so-and-so.
24:33I said, ha, it's time.
24:35Okay.
24:36I said, hey, can I get the key?
24:38They said, no.
24:39I said, well, I'm going to kick it in.
24:40Here's the key, sir.
24:42I'll never forget that.
24:43My stomach was bubbling.
24:44I was like, am I really doing this?
24:46I'm like, just remember what you was taught.
24:49So I started banging on the door.
24:51I said, hey, come to the door.
24:53Is the bill behind me?
24:54Open up the door.
24:55He wouldn't open it.
24:56I said, okay.
24:58Open the door.
25:00I'll never forget the scene.
25:02Bro had his laptop up.
25:05He had a Snickers, a grapefruit, and he had some porn playing on his computer.
25:12And he was butt naked.
25:15It was the oddest setup I've ever seen.
25:18I was like, get on the ground.
25:20Put your hands behind your back.
25:22And I was like, no, no, no, no.
25:24Put some clothes on.
25:25Put your hands behind your back.
25:26But, yeah, that was my first time catching somebody.
25:29Yeah, man, it was a wild time, man.
25:31But it was funny when I took him to the jail.
25:34I felt accomplished.
25:35I remember calling Michael Jackson.
25:37I got him.
25:38He couldn't believe it.
25:38He was like, what?
25:40King gave me my $100, man.
25:42It was uphill since then, yeah.
25:44I spent more money looking for this guy than I did getting $100.
25:48I would tell anybody who's getting into bounty hunting or law enforcement, period.
25:52If you were bullied as a child, as an adult, and you're trying to use this to get some type
25:58of leverage,
25:59don't get into this.
26:01If you have anger issues, don't get into this.
26:05If you just want to be able to hold a gun and give commands and have authority, don't get into
26:13this.
26:14You have to understand that you have a very big impact on people's lives.
26:20You have to know your laws, and you've got to know how to move with integrity.
26:24So you've got to know what you can and cannot do.
26:27I mean, sometimes you get those guys who think they're cops, and they start doing too much,
26:33and then they wind up in some trouble.
26:35You know what I mean?
26:35So you've got to know what your lane is.
26:42When someone misses a court, the court will notify you.
26:46They'll send a certified letter, you know, to the office saying,
26:50hey, this person missed court.
26:51You've got X amount of days.
26:52There is instances where hunters have arrested the wrong defendant,
26:59and that, because we're not cops, is very detrimental,
27:04because at that point it's kidnapping.
27:07So you have to be very sure who you are arresting.
27:12You want to check.
27:13That's why we get these applications to check body marks, tattoos.
27:17So that doesn't happen.
27:18So as a bounty hunter who I'm going to prioritize who to go and hunt,
27:23there's two factors.
27:25How easy it is to find you and how much it is.
27:30So I'm going to weigh both of those.
27:33If you're a very hard person to find and the bottom's very high,
27:38I might put you to the side and get the easy ones out the way real quick,
27:43and then come to you.
27:45And that way I can just focus on this one.
27:48And there's another guy, we call him Red Dot,
27:50and it took me forever to find this guy.
27:54There were probably about three times that we almost caught him,
27:57and he got away.
27:58One, there was a car chase.
28:00Now we're not allowed to get in high speed chases,
28:02because we're not the police, so I just let him go.
28:05We almost had him boxed in.
28:07He hit the car, hit my car, bounced, got on the freeway.
28:10Got away.
28:12When you're trying to arrest one in a car, it can get dangerous.
28:15You don't want damages to your car or his car.
28:18You don't want no one to get hurt.
28:19So a lot of times we just let him go.
28:21Again, we're not policing.
28:22So if it's a situation where this guy is super dangerous,
28:29we'll get as many people as we need.
28:31You know, if we need ten people, we're going to call ten people up.
28:34Usually it's about three of us.
28:36Simple, it's safe.
28:37But if we need more, best believe we can get more.
28:39There's multiple reasons why people run.
28:41You have those that are scared, who've never really been in the system.
28:45They're going to take off running.
28:47You have those who want to get their finances in a better situation.
28:55They want to get more money for a lawyer.
28:57So they're out hustling, trying to work, gather money, rather than go turn themselves in.
29:01Then you have those who are just on drugs, addicts.
29:05And their reality is different.
29:07Somewhere, high somewhere, they're not paying attention to what's going on in the world.
29:12So those are really the basic three type of people that missed court.
29:15The percentage of people skipping, it just varies.
29:20When you start getting around the holiday seasons, summertime, people don't want to go to court.
29:25Some months, no one skips.
29:28You might have a dry period of four months and everyone's just going to court.
29:32Then you have that month where it's all hell and no one's going.
29:41It's a job that you can't not take home.
29:46When you go home, your phone's still ringing.
29:49You're dealing every day with negativity.
29:54And it's taxing on you mentally.
29:59No sleep.
30:01You might be away from your home, from your wife, from your kids.
30:05If you don't find a positive coping mechanism, you can quickly start using substances to cope with the stress to
30:16numb it.
30:17I started personally coping with the wrong things.
30:21I started coping with alcohol just to numb it sometimes.
30:25I started coping with weed, coping with going to the strip club.
30:29Just coping it all with bad mechanisms that took a toll on my life personally, morally, spiritually.
30:39It ruined my relationship with now my ex-wife.
30:44It ruined that relationship.
30:45I was neglecting my daughter with work.
30:49And then after work, I would go out and just indulge in foolery consistently.
30:55Where it started, the chaos started to really, it started to become part of my life.
31:00And I started really losing myself just with the stress of it.
31:05And then, you know, I started to deal with my own personal demons.
31:08I started to fall victim to just dealing with women and the drugs and the alcohol.
31:14And it tore me to pieces.
31:17And I knew I needed to get right.
31:19But I just kept pushing it and pushing it.
31:28And I was like, hey, he's here.
31:28October 10th, 2024, a day I'll never forget.
31:33It's the day I was shot.
31:34Simple case.
31:35It wasn't nothing out the ordinary.
31:38So I got a call, like, hey, he's here.
31:40It was like, all right, let's go out.
31:42We already in Akron.
31:43So just a normal day.
31:45So we get to the house.
31:47The young lady's feeding me information.
31:50He's here.
31:50He's here.
31:51And I'm like, well, get him to come outside.
31:53We were circling around the house for probably about 20 minutes.
31:57Listening, scoping out, seeing, you know, what's going on.
32:00Normal tactic that I do.
32:02She finally calls.
32:02She says, he's outside on the porch.
32:04Hurry up.
32:05So I hear him go on the porch.
32:07I then run to the back.
32:10I scream hands.
32:11And then he shoots twice.
32:13My life flashed in front of my eyes.
32:16I remember feeling myself, like, did he get me?
32:19Like, I hope he got my vest.
32:21And I took my vest off, and I felt the blood.
32:24I was like, oh.
32:25The way I was running, it shot the side of it right here.
32:29Just missed my heart by two centimeters.
32:32I was still talking.
32:33I was moving.
32:34You know, at the time, the guy I was with, I told him to call the police, call the ambulance.
32:40Had him apply pressure while he could.
32:42And the police picked me up, put me in the ambulance.
32:44And it was a blur after that.
32:46It was a blur, man.
32:48The doctors said I was a miracle.
32:51They said they don't know how I made it.
32:53They had me on something called methane blue.
32:56And it's literally, it's blue.
32:58They give it to you to keep your blood pressure up.
33:02Because I had flatline also.
33:03They said that when usually a patient gets methane blue, they're at their end.
33:09And they don't, they rarely see people recover who have to receive this.
33:13They said they've seen two out of their time ever being there.
33:16My life changed completely after that.
33:20But for the better.
33:21I spent six months in the hospital.
33:24I had to relearn how to walk, eat.
33:29I lost my, really my identity.
33:31I went to, went through like an identity crisis.
33:34I was always known for my big stature.
33:37You know, that was gone.
33:38I'm now 160 some pounds.
33:41So I had to redefine myself and find my meaning in life and come back a different person.
33:48You know, it teaches you how to value the small things.
33:51Just being able to go outside and walk my dog.
33:54It made me really start prioritizing what's really important in life.
33:59And it bring me and my family closer.
34:02It bring, it got my spiritual life with God closer.
34:06So it was a learning lesson.
34:07But I still love the industry.
34:15I'm still recovering now.
34:17I'm still not 100%.
34:20I'm in a much better place than I was when I first got out of the hospital, obviously.
34:25I've been able to gain weight.
34:26Y'all can see.
34:27I got a little something now.
34:28Hey, hey, hey.
34:29So I still have one more surgery that's coming up.
34:32It's supposed to be, it can be up to a 10 hour surgery.
34:35And then I'll be able to, you know, get back to the most normal version of myself that I can
34:43be.
34:43So, recovery's been rough.
34:45I started getting questions.
34:47Because, you know, when you're a public figure, some people really don't care about what you're going through.
34:53And I would start getting, man, when you coming back?
34:55When you doing this?
34:56When you doing that?
34:57And I would start to think, like, am I going to get back in this?
35:01Like, how does my family feel about me getting back in this?
35:03I love it.
35:04I miss it.
35:05So what I did was, I had a test run.
35:10And this was going to be my determining factor if I would get back into this.
35:15I went out on a hunt.
35:18And I told myself, if I'm one step behind, if I'm feeling scared or if I hesitate, I'm done.
35:28Because that split second how you killed or someone else killed.
35:32And literally, when I got out there, I'm like 160.
35:35I'm still frail.
35:36I shouldn't even been out there, to be honest.
35:38But I had to see how I felt.
35:40I didn't skip a beat.
35:42It still felt good.
35:43I wasn't scared.
35:44I still got the same rush.
35:45I still felt the same way.
35:47I said, it's not time for me to leave yet.
35:50If I need to go out, I will go out.
35:53But I'm not just out there like I was before.
35:55It made me start sharpening different tools within this business.
35:59My managing.
36:00You know what I mean?
36:02I plan on opening up a shop here in the metro area, Detroit, Toledo.
36:07So I'm just sharpening different areas of myself and not just be focused on that part.
36:18I 100% think there should be more training and better screening.
36:23No different from being a police officer, but we don't necessarily have the same process as they do.
36:31So I would say more training on the mental part of it.
36:36You know, I get so many guys that call me, hey, Tank, yeah, I want to come along, man.
36:42I got my CCW.
36:44If that's the first thing you tell me that you got your gun license, I'm turned off immediately.
36:51Because that's all you're thinking about right away is guns and toting a gun.
36:56I've never had to shoot at anyone.
37:00I've had physical altercations with people.
37:03I'm always leveled and I talk very calmly.
37:08There's definitely a dying business, at least in Ohio.
37:11And I know it's like that in other states as well.
37:14It's just, you know, with all the political people trying to push cash, bail away, you know, it's making it
37:23harder.
37:24So some people would rather just go a different route than take arrests.
37:29It is hard to arrest someone that is high on drugs.
37:32I've had several crazy arrests where they didn't feel anything.
37:38It was like arresting the Hulk.
37:40Sometimes it's not worth the little bit of money you're getting, you know.
37:44I think that the future could be great.
37:47And we start getting more individuals to get in this for the right reasons and not for the wrong reasons.
37:55Obviously, the communities that have, you know, lesser financial stability, they're going to be affected by this more
38:05versus someone who has the money and they can just get straight out and it's unfair, you know.
38:09Everyone deserves freedom and everyone deserves to be able to get bailed out of jail regardless of your financial, you
38:16know, status.
38:17Has ICE affected how bounty hunters operate?
38:20ICE has affected us personally.
38:23It's now when someone calls me to get out of jail, there's not a U.S. citizen or they're just
38:30over here on a visa or something.
38:32We can't take the chance of getting them out.
38:35Versus before all this was happening, we would get them out.
38:37But now we get them out, there's a chance ICE is going to come get them and now they're gone.
38:41But I haven't even personally seen any ICE agents.
38:44I guess they just deployed them to Cleveland.
38:46So once I catch this fight back home, I guess I'll see them at the airport.
38:55So when I was in college, I was thinking about what's next.
39:02When I went to school for nursing, I have a B.S. hand.
39:05When I seen that football wasn't going to go, you know, to the next level, then I started looking at,
39:10I said, well, what can I do where I can still be athletic, I can still be outside?
39:14And I started looking into being a U.S. marshal.
39:18It was a government shutdown for a while at this time.
39:21So that was off the board.
39:22So I started doing more research and I was like, what's this bounty hunting stuff?
39:27I'm like, wow, it's kind of similar, but it's different.
39:31Like, I don't have to cut my hair off, my facial.
39:34I'm like, shoot, I can wear regular clothes.
39:36So when I moved back to Ohio, I moved back for my daughter, I was doing, like, dead-end jobs,
39:42like cleaning malls and just jobs like that.
39:45But I was also bounty hunting because I wanted to pursue this career and be great at it,
39:51and I felt something I could be successful at it.
39:54So what I would do is go and contact every single bondsman that would give me a chance.
40:00And none of them would give me a chance except one.
40:04There was one bondsman, rest in peace, he was a good guy, a good man.
40:08His name was John Craven.
40:10Very big bondsman, had a lot of agents, and he took a chance on me.
40:15Why he just took a chance?
40:16He was like, yeah, I got some guys, I can't find them here.
40:19And I found the guy in two days.
40:22And he was like, oh, okay.
40:24So he gave me another case.
40:26Found him, a few days.
40:28Kept giving me cases.
40:29Now he's like, this guy is good.
40:31Now he's giving me cases from his other agents.
40:37Now different companies are starting to hit me up.
40:39So he opened up doors for me, and then it was uphill from then.
40:44So I had great relationships with certain bondsmen that I just kept working for.
40:50I decided to become a bondsman, slide bail bonds.
40:53Tony Sylvester, that's my brother.
40:54He told me, he was like, you're going to get tired of hunting at some point.
40:57He was like, you're going to want to start a family.
41:00You're going to want more consistent money.
41:01He was like, you need to get into the bonds.
41:04And I was like, all right, I'll try this out.
41:06And it's been curtains ever since.
41:08And he was right.
41:09It's more consistent.
41:12You will get tired of hunting and being gone for days.
41:15And it's job security.
41:17If you are advertised right and you're in the right place, you're getting calls every day to get people out.
41:23So you can be home or you can have a family.
41:28So, yeah, he got me into the actual bail bondsman space.
41:33Because I do hunt, I'm able to just go get them myself.
41:37They kind of go hand to hand, but if you can write bonds and hunt your people, you're in a
41:42good position.
41:43I started filming, I'm literally on the hunt in Daytona Beach with a flip phone.
41:48And I started seeing people react to it like, oh, this is cool.
41:51I like this guy.
41:53He different.
41:53And I just kept going with it.
41:55The more successful, the more money I would get, I would invest it back into the production.
42:00So then I went from a flip phone to an iPhone.
42:03Then I went to a camera.
42:05And I just kept elevating the more I would be successful in dumping it in into the production.
42:12Until, you know, I got something solid.
42:15I also wanted to give a different perception of a person with a badge.
42:21I wanted kids to see a young black man with a badge on just doing good.
42:27And you can go this lane.
42:30You can be successful.
42:31And I wanted them to associate a face with a badge and not have ill will.
42:38And just show that you can do anything that you put your mind to.
42:43And no matter how crazy it is or how crazy people think it is, it's okay to do things that
42:49are outside the norm.
42:50You can find me on YouTube at Bounty Tank.
42:52My documentary and my album is coming out.
42:55It is a testimony of my life and addictions and strongholds that I had to break.
43:02And just showing the process of me rehabbing and just the whole entire process of making this album.
43:10Hi, I'm a producer and authorised account.
43:13If you enjoyed this video, then please subscribe and comment with more topics that you'd like us to cover in
43:17this series.
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