Dog The Bounty Hunter: A Personal Conversation | SDR #214

Welcome everybody to Service Driver Evolution. Today we have a guest who needs no introduction. Don't you get down. Who also just happens to be a speaker at this year's top dog event. We have Dwayne Dog the Bounty Hunter Chapman.

We're stirring them up and they're gonna get so mad. Get the out of here. That they're gonna turn him in.

Duane Lee Chapman, also known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, is an American television personality known for popular TV programs following his life and adventures as a bounty hunter.

The bottom line is we all had fun. Even the fugitive had a great time.

Dog is deeply involved in crime fighting, advocating for tough legislation to curb crime, and launching several media ventures, including a new TV show and podcast.

I don't mind the name calling and stuff, it's okay because we needed excitement, but I don't want you to carry that inside.

Looks like he's won him over. Dog is a New York Times best selling authority. He also has a new book coming out in 2023 and additionally he operates a ministry, Light up the Darkness, with his wife Francie, whom he married in 2021. So now let's get ready and give a warm welcome to Dog the Bounty Hunter and service Drive Revolution.

I have the nickname Bulldog and I got the Nickn in business. I would grab on to things and I wouldn't let go until it got done. I was curious, how did you, how did you get the nickname Dog?

Well, I was 15 years old and I was a member of the Devil's Disciple one Percenter motorcycle club. So after I got my patch, the president nicknames all the members. So when I would ride with them and they'd flip the bird to God, I would back off and say, no, no, no, I'm not doing that. Or I always said the blessing because some of the stuff they ate was terrible. And so we had a guy named John the Baptist who always wrote his Harley of water. And we had some nut that was called the Preacher. So the president of my club said, you're always loyal. I always showed up for a fight or whenever there was problems. You're kind of like man's best friend and you always talk about God. So going to name you Dog, which is God spelled backwards.

Oh, wow. So it's God spelled backwards. That's powerful. How did you feel about that at such a young age? Did that kind of give you a little more confidence or how do you process that at that age?

Well, I was 15 and, you know, the brothers first started calling me Puppy. You know, I didn't My name's Dog. And this is. We christened your Dog and then they were like, some of the members would say, come here puppy. I didn't like that part, but the dog part was okay with me. I never thought there was anything wrong with it.

Did you eventually start introducing yourself to people as dogs?

Oh yeah. When you're, when you're at least that club, when you're riding in a club like that, your name is gone.

Even I went on to a few years later, went to Texas prison in 76 and everybody called me Dog. No one ever called me by my name. And I was teased by my name when I was at school. Dwayne the bathtub. I'm dwounding so to be called something else. I like that. So the only one that really calls me Dwayne now is my wife. My wife Francie.

Now does she only call you Dwayne when you're in trouble or just. That's the name she has.

She calls me Dog when I'm in trouble.

So that's the reverse of what I would have thought.

Get my attention, Dog.

You're like, oh, here we go. That's funny. So the thing, Dog, that you know, is fascinating to me is that you've had an incredible life experience and you know, all of your.

Challenges in jail and Tony Robbins and all and all that stuff. But the thing that really fascinates me is how you are elite at bounty hunting in the sense that you have a system and a mindset and an approach to it that is, you know, it's gotta be the top 5% or even, maybe even higher. But you're very accomplished at that. And I'm just curious about your system and the mindset in your approach. And so like if you decide on a target that you're going to go after someone, what is, what is the process and what are the first things that you, you think about and what are the steps that you go through in order to create the outcome that you create.

Okay, not to, let's say talk about myself, but let's start at the 5%. So I started bounty hunting in 1979 and there were two bounty hunters in America. Papa Thorne and Dog the bounty hunter. Since that date, I've arrested over 10,000 fugitives, men and women. I've shot about 1500 with tasers, non lethal weapons. I've arrested from raping a baby to murder one his own mother. So there is no bounty hunter at all even close to me. The best one they got is maybe 3,000 and my son Leland is a probably half of what I've got. So second in line would be Leland. There's 80, there's 6,500 bounty hunters in the United States. The reason there were only two is because I started going after the top FBI agents when I got out of prison, or top the, the top 10.

From the FBI service. And I arrested one and they gave me 10 grand. And the FBI stepped in and said, hey, wait a minute, what are you doing? And I'm like, you know, I'm a bounty hunter. I'm going after These guys are 10 grand apiece. And so they assigned me a federal agent by the name of Keith R. Paul. And I went to school in Blackwater. I went to school with feds. And they said, you know, during my training I had to meet him once a week. And we went over what warrants I had, what happened the last week. Show me your body receipts. A body receipt is proof that you caught the guy. So I would. I constantly, for years was trained by Keith Paul. I used non lethal weapons that, you know, they provided me with, from wax to a ball with, you know, two balls with a rope in the middle. Nothing has ever worked. Mace was okay. And the sheriff started getting mad when I bring a guy in all soaked because their jails don't like it. So then Colorado SWAT lieutenant trained I and the family with the pepper ball gun, which is, it's four times stronger than a paintball pistol. A pepper ball gun will knock you to the on your knees. So mine is fully automatic, seven shots a second. You don't have to kill anyone unless you know you're coming out of somebody's got a gun to a hostage's head coming out of the bank. I've shot guys with guns. I've shot guys that drew on me. I've shot guys that try to stab me. Machete, da da da da da. Never had to kill anyone. So I'm really glad that I was not maybe necessarily convicted felon, but because of being a convicted felon, you know, I could get a, probably a pardon, but who cares about that? But that kept me from owning a firearm. So Tony Robbins in 81, you know, I started working with the feds and working and working these guys. And the feds came to me said, listen, these bail bondsmen, Abraham Lincoln in 1851 or something like that, 1800 signed a law when they made bail bonds a part of our country, that the bail bonds may hire an agent to go out and get his runaways, his skips, his Jumps. So the FBI introduced me to first George Lucero out of Denver, Colorado. And George had about 200 jumps. Now, prior to me coming into business, if you co signed a bail bond for someone and they didn't show up, the bondsman took your house, your car, your money, whatever it was the courts would give. They'd send a letter to the bondsman and say, dear bail bondsman John Doe did not show up. You got 90 days to bring his body in or pay 10 grand. So there weren't any bounty hunters. And the feds, you know, led me to that. So I started getting all the bail bondsman's jumps from all over the country. Then in 81, Tony Robbins wrote the book Awaken the Giant Within. And in that book, about a paragraph and a half he dedicated to me. And I had arrested a thousand people by then. And he was very impressed that I did that. Martin Sheen, the actor.

I would speak at Tony Robbins, a guest speaker. And Tony made me go through the 10 day deal, the 10 day awaken yourself or something. And Martin Sheen, I met him and he started saying, man, you need a TV show. I cannot believe that you do this every day. And then I met Ozzie and Sharon. And Sharon is very good, I would say manager for the whole family. And I did a couple appearances on, in the late 80s on the Ozzy Osbourne show. And they got good ratings and said, who is that crazy looking guy you call dog? So and then I, you know, started doing TV shows in about 89, 90 with Dominic Dunn, I did the the Secret Life of Bounty Hunters. And then A and E came to the plate. I, there is no, there's no man that I can't catch or woman. And my secret is I pray and ask God to show me where they're at. Now he doesn't show me them sitting in a chair or smoking a joint, you know, in front of 7:11. But he'll go, I'll pray and say, God, come on, I gotta have a lead. And a thought of the mother will come in or a girlfriend will come in, or a thought will come in my mind. And I go, let's go over there right now. Let's check. We checked the mom three times. Let's check it again. And A and E always I did, we did A&E, CMT and WGN. A&E, after eight seasons, said, Listen, you know, you've only got so many days to catch a per pig because there's so much money allocated per show in the season. So I had about a week to catch all of them. And then they would say what they did say. It took me 10 days to catch one guy, a gang banger leader in Pueblo, Colorado. And they said, listen, we don't have this yet. Let's just call this the one that got away because you caught them all. I said, you ain't gonna do that. You're not going to do that. Give me two more days. It was eight days ago. Okay, we're over budget now. I go then make it two hour show, make it a special. Well, if you catch him, that's exactly what we'll do. Thank God on the 10th day we caught him. So my secret is asking God, looking at visions, standing right where the guy stood before, sitting in his car, you know, all that stuff put together and then going on, you know, the FBI told me it's not God, it's a hunch. So I believe it's God. But one day we did a show and it was seven days and my son said, dad, we forgot to say the prayer because every show has a prayer in Jesus name, amen. So we said the prayer and I said, lord, come Thursday morning or come Thursday night, you're gonna look pretty stupid because I'm asking you to help me find this guy and it's no longer my fault. God, I'm dependent on you. In Jesus name, amen. An hour later we were driving down Waikiki and in the crosswalk, he walked across the street in front of us and of course we jumped him and took him to jail. So my faith in that, in that particular part of my life is humongous. And I know for sure my life, if I'm living my life right and I'm turning down all the temptations that dog the bounty hunter because you're, you know, from you're in Hollywood that you get that God is going to bless me. And I keep temptations, a list of them kind of in my mind day after day. And then I go, God, I could have done that. I could have done that. I didn't do that. I didn't do none of that. I used to do that when I was young. But I don't do it no more, Lord, because I love you. So I need a favor, I need a blessing and that's how I balance my blessings.