Who Let the Dog Out

Created on 2008-04-11 00:33:28

Dog the Bounty Hunter is the first celebrity bails bondsman. In June 2003 outside a bar in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Dwayne “Dog” Chapman and his team apprehended Andrew Luster, the famed heir to Max Factor cosmetics, who was a fugitive from US justice after being convicted in absentia of eighty-six counts on multiple rape charges.

After the capture of Andrew Luster, the Mexican authorities arrested Dog and his team, consisting of him, his son Leland and his brother Tim ‘Youngblood’ Chapman. The authorities argued that they had acted illegally in the taking of Luster as bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico. After posting bail and illegally returning to the United States, ‘Dog’ achieved somewhat of a hero status.

Dog the Bounty Hunter started off as a criminal and in the late 1970’s spent eighteen months in a Texas prison. After being released, he was at a family court hearing that Dog when he got his first challenge to catch a criminal. He filed a petition regarding visitation rights with his children, but given he had just been released from jail he was behind with child support payments and begged the judge to help him find a solution. The judge told him to catch a criminal as a bail bondsman in exchange for the child support payment. This was to be the start of something big.

After working as a bail bondsman and having a successful business, the capture of Andrew Luster changed Dog’s life. He secured a television deal with the A&E television channel for a series chronicling tales of bounty hunting in Hawaii where he and Beth, his girlfriend at the time, live and run their business, ‘Da Kine Bail Bonds’.

The show “Dog: The Bounty Hunter” fast became A&E’s most popular show. From the television show the amount of notoriety he has received has been remarkable. In Hawaii he is a local celebrity and islanders invite him to MC everything from soccer tournaments to hula competitions.

In May of 2006 Beth and Dog married after sharing their lives for 16 years. The day was marred by the sad and untimely death of Dog’s daughter Beth the day before the wedding.

As for the outstanding problems with the Mexican authorities, it would take until 2007 to be resolved. However, 2007 was not a good year for Dog as one of his daughters died, and he found himself in hot water after his son, Tucker, released a taped conversation with his father who used a number of racial slurs to describe Tucker’s African-American girlfriend. A&E removed Dog from its scheduled programming, but in 2008 decided to reinstate the show after Dog apologized and met with African-American community leaders.