I've heard stories of Bounty Hunters doing home invasions on the wrong house.

They wear outfits that make them look like police.  They have the sympathy of the system, the judges, the police, the DA.

What would you do if a group of 5 armed men wearing blue jackets with the words "AGENT" broke in to your home yelling for you to "get down on the floor"?

ump, bounty hunter can and have been sued for this. Gov't agencies can't be......



headshot

i'd get down on the floor, they have guns and i don't, if i had a gun i'd still get down cause i'd expect cops to shoot me if i pointed a gun at them.

pretty scary for me.

OffRoad

if i knew they were "coming for me" i'd probally comply, but if i knew i had done nothing wrong and i heard my door break down they probally meet alot af taliban  : )

Honestly,

Shoot them. If they do not identify themselves as police officers, they would be a threat. I am not a criminal, so 5 guys trying to kick in my door would be BAD! I would most likely retreat to my safe area, call the cops, and stop them from entering my safe area.

If I have to shoot, so be it. I would not know that they are Bounty Hunters, and if they did not identify themselves, I would not assume they were.

Anyone know if that has happened before? Bounty Hunters bust down a door, and the occupants fight back. Curious to see how the courts would handle it.

Av.

What happens if you shoot them even if you know they are Bounty Hunters?  If they don't have the authority to be in your house, I would think they are in trouble.  No fugitive, no legal authority.  When private citizens invade your house and threaten you with guns, I would think that self defense might be a legally viable option, regardless of any "mistake" that brought them there.

BTW many bounty hunters "invite" the police to a bust for just such a reason.

Bounty hunters in my house would be targets of oppurtunity.  But that is not the scary part.  A group of bounty hunters in my state had staked out a house, and knew their target lived there.  They broke observation for one day, came back the next night.  Meanwhile, the perp moved and a new family moved in, unknown to the bounty hunters.  That night, the bounty hunters returned, and, not even attempting to enter, hosed the home with bullets.  Fortuneatly, nobody was hurt, but what the hell?

Bounty hunters are retards if they just start bursting into people's homes.  For that matter, cops would be too.  ID yourself if you value your ass.

Doesn't have anything to do with someone bursting into my place... just, in general... that kinda tactic needs to remain in the movies, where it belongs.

First of all, bounty hunters are civilians.  They have a legal right of arrest and can enter a house if they know the bail skip lives there.  However, most hunters with half a brain know that it is a very bad idea to enter the house if they don't know that the skip is there at the time.  In order to do this, they must have appropriate documentation.

1. Certified copy of the Bail Bond.
2. Certified copy of the Bail Forfeiture Notice.
3. Power of Attorney from the Surety Bondsman who wrote the bond. This PoA designates the bounty hunter as a legal "agent" of the bondsman...giving the "agent" a legal authority to arrest on behalf of the Bonding Agent.

When a bounty hunter or bondsman enters a dwelling or tries to arrest a skip, he must identify himself as such.  Otherwise, the skip is fully within his rights to defend himself by whatever means necessary.  Basically, if a bounty hunter enters a dwelling without identifying himself and gets shot, all self-defense laws apply.

Avalon01,
Bounty hunters have been shot in this manner, and it is usually determinied that the shooting was justifiable.

rifleman2000,
Do you have a link to that?  I never heard about that one, and it would be a valuable training aid as to what NOT to do.  I am assuming that these "bounty hunters" were criminally tried?  That is definitely illegal.

One more thing.  I know there is a lot of disdain for bounty hunters, but remember this.  They provide a valuable service at zero cost to the tax payers.  They have a fugitive recovery rate of around 90%, which is MUCH higher than any LE agency.  The reason for this is because they don't get paid if they don't deliver the fugitive to the court.  They also have a much smaller case load than police do, and there are not as many legal restraints on them.  Unfortunately, there are definitely some bad seeds, and they give the rests a bad name.

A successful tactic some home invaders were using in California a few years ago was to get windbreakers and vests with "POLICE" and "AGENT" on them and hard knock/kick in peoples' doors.

Anybody kicking in my door should be prepared to absorb their body weight in lead.

Some, not all bounty hunters are those who couldn't make it as a cop. They abuse their privelages, and cause more harm than good. Then again, there are those that rock, and I'm happy to work with them any day of the week.

Two "bounty hunters" came to a business I was managing a couple of years ago.
They didn't identify themselves as anything but had badges clipped to their belts.
For some reason I asked if they were sworn peace officers.  To their credit they said no.

I told them to go get a sworn officer which they did and I released the employee to him.  Those campers weren't real happy but too bad.

The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of bounty hunters.  Exactly what rights, other than the power to arrest, they have I don't know.

Really?  Their own weight?  Given a 175# grown man, multiply that by 16 ounces per pound = 2,800 ounces.  There are 437.5 grains per ounce so that = 1,225,000 grains of lead!  Divide by that by 55 grains per bullet, and you have 22,272 rounds!  Remind me not to kick down your door. ;)z

The flaw in your math, my friend, is that you assume only AR15 rounds going downrange. What about 230 grain JHPs or 1oz slugs?

Regardless, just like at Ruby Ridge and Mount Carmel, there's no meth lab, illegally converted weapons or molested children at my house, so [b]NO ONE[/b] has any reason to kick in my door.

Anyone who does so must be a bad guy. In the Republ....uh State of Texas, there is no bag limit and no season on bad guys.

Bail recovery agents have no right to enter any residence other then the fugitives. They derive their powers from the bail contract, which grants the bail bondsmen the right to enter and recover them in their residence. They have no special powers of arrest and are regulated by state laws, which vary from state to state.

The bottom line is they have no right to be in your residence and subject to your state laws you are authorized to use reasonable force to terminate their actions.

AR15Gator says; "BTW many bounty hunters "invite" the police to a bust for just such a reason."

Care to post some hard stats to support that??

bounty hunters are just guys who are too slovenly to make the grade as a bonafide LEO and too anarchistic to cut it in the military. Same mindset but usually 150 pounds overweight and 75 points under on the average IQ test.

A while back I heard of a guy shooting, killing a few bail enforcement agents but he got killed too, mistake of identity thought he was the guy jumping bail but wasn't.

If i was one of those agents I would try to get the guys on bail out of there house because going in people houses could be very dangerous never know of whos waiting for you.

BEA sounds like it would be exciting tracking people and outsmarting them but you really don't get too much respect from the police it seems like.

thats not true Ben, most bounty hunters are former military, or former LEO they are just tired of working for peanuts and want to cash in on some real money

Do they have any special LEOish Firearms rights ? Might be an interesting angle if they do.

Bounty Hunter: Yeah, I am getting this FA Uzi for my job as a Bail Enforcement Agent. Does it transfer tax free ? HaHaHaHa.

Are bounty hunters considered LEO's when it comes to weapons? Do they get to have post sample MG's, and LEO mags? Just courious, that would definetly be a perk [:D]

NO!!  Bounty hunters are civilians and subject to [b]all[/b] local, state, and federal laws, including firearms laws.

OneRobertFour, I have no hard stats, but I know plenty who do invite LE on arrests.  At the very least, it is a good idea to notify them.