IamA Ex-Bail Bondsman/Bounty Hunter of 8 Years in NYC AMA!

What's the best way to evade you?

Kill me.

How many people have you arrested?

What was your favourite arrest?

What was your worst arrest?

I have arrested around 100 but I always went with a team and as a Bail Bondsman I have the power of attorney to send anyone to do the arrest for me with proper paperwork.

My favorite arrest would be when I had to go to SC and keep a guy handcuffed in the bathroom of a hotel for 2 days because my car broke down. I actually became Friends with that guy.

Worst arrest is anytime I have been shot at and thankfully not hit.

My favorite arrest would be when I had to go to SC and keep a guy handcuffed in the bathroom of a hotel for 2 days because my car broke down. I actually became Friends with that guy.

How is that not illegal?

Because its not I have every right to apprehend a defendant I bailed out by federal law

No weapons...do you sweet talk them into giving up peacefully?

I have weapons. In NYC no gun though. But its more the art of surprise and some tackling. We need no warrant unlike the cops so we can just kick in a door and get you.

What are the legal implications of that? Why are you legally allowed to kick a door down and not the police? Isn't that still breaking and entering?

No when we bail the out of jail they are handing over power of attorney over themselves to us. Cops need a warrant, we need power of attorney which is provided the minute we bail them out. They are essentially giving us ownership of them for the time until their court case is over. We can drug test if we wish, but an angle tracker etc.

Some Cops do not like us because of this and they can make your life hell which is why it is always recommended that you call the police first to see if they want to get the guy for you and meet you there which saves you time and trouble and money anyway.

You have as a Bail Bondsman every legal right to travel across state lines unlike cops and arrest with no warrant because you are not a law enforcement officer. With that said that does not mean that you will not be arrested and tried a few times but you will never be convicted unless you actually break the law.

Let's say you go and bust down some dudes door and he shoots you not knowing who you are and states he felt in danger. This ever happen before? Not to you obviously.

This has happened which is why we try to knock and let ourselves known or call the police first. If it is a felony charge he cant have a gun though.

If it's a felony charge he "shouldn't" have a gun. Plenty of felons have access to or continue to carry firearms even after incarceration

I said he shouldent meaning it is against federal law and almost all state laws. Therefore there is no defense argument for possessing an illegal firearm.

Why would you drug test them? How does it affect you if they're doing drugs?

I didnt i said we can. Dom other companies do as a condition

How many times have you kicked a door in? Do you work with a team when you do that? Do you wear body armor?

I just can't imagine doing that around here if you're not a SWAT team. Almost every household is armed and willing to shoot home invaders.

I did have a team. We do not kick down doors often but we are allowed. Yes bullet proof vests are always worn.

what the biggest bounty you've ever got?

I bailed someone out for $1 million dollars they gave $400k as collateral and skipped. I got a team together of 4 and we got him. I paid my Employees $50k each so 150k and my office and me got the rest. So 250k minus expenses

Do you know Dog?

No and he is very fake and his show does not represent the industry at all.

Favorite Star Wars bounty hunter?

I honestly have no idea and actually never seen the film.

Who let this monster into reddit?!

onto reddit?

If anyone asks, just tell them that Jar Jar Binks is your favorite Star Wars character. That way they will know that you know what's up.

From what I just read the most hated character in star wars?

Can you explain like I'm five how bail bonding works? How do you make money doing this? If you're putting up your own money to get someone out of jail, is it like a high interest loan or something?

We make our money in a few ways.

1) You put up collateral about 40% of bail and we take about a 10 percent fee of the bail.

2) Our insurance pays the court a bond to get you out. If you skip all collateral is lost and now ours which sometimes people put up the deed to their houses.

Usually on a $10,000 Bail we make $860 unless you skip then we end up with $4000 from your collateral which we keep if we turn you in because if we do not turn you in we owe the court $10k

Whoa, I never knew it benefited the bail bondsmen for someone to run. As long as you can catch em.

Yeah fucked up right

aight so Mila Kunis and your mother are both drowning in a lake, you can only save one of them but whichever one you save you have to bang after, who do you save?

"Your Mother"

well played sir, well played. grrr

Lol Thanks for giving me a laugh.

1. Does the bail amount tend to be the same for similar crimes or does it vary a lot?
2. Do you ever decide not to bail someone out who wants to hire you? What are your reasons for that?
3. Do all bail bondsmen charge the same fees? If so are you essentially competing on service, fast bailouts, or what?

Great Questions!

1. Bail is supposed to be by law "According to likely hood to run" Judges do not follow this however and they base it on the crime and whatever the hell else they feel like.

2. I have choose not to bail people out before because I thought they would run or I did not agree with what they did although they are innocent to proven guilty I do not bail out rapists.

3. In NY yes for the most part we compete on Service,Speedyness and how well the Criminal community knows us. For instance I had 3 ex-drug dealers working in my office so they knew the hood lol

How do you know which rapists not to bail out if they're innocent until proven guilty? I think you mean you judge them guilty.

I dont get involved with rape cases

Are there any funny stories from your time on the job that you can relate?

I have many stories and have been approached to write a book but decided against it at the time due to financial reasons. I once was locked in a closet at Rikers Island because the CO did not want me to get the guy out and I cursed him out. Long story short the Judge called and got me out and the CO was suspended.

Holy crap, why didn't the CO want the guy out?

Because he felt that no one should have the power to get anyone out of jail and had a personal beef with the inmate. So when I told him he has to let him out he yelled at me and I inturn told him he was breaking a court order to move his fat ass then he locked me in a closet lol.

How fucked up is Rikers? I had the displeasure of spending a night there once- by the end, I was way more wary of the CO's than the prisoners.

It is truly a corrupt place. The COs beat people especially in the minor section. The COs sell bootleg movies and all they are the real criminals

Write an e-book, and self publish.

I am too lazy lol.

You're preaching to the choir. I'm sure some nice Redditor would gladly help you out. Not me, because I'm lazy too. lol

lol

Thanks for taking the time with us. How does one get started in the business?

Your very welcome. Most people know someone I started in it actually through an ex-girlfriends Mother who owned a surety company.

Its different state by state to get licensed. In NY its done by the NYS Dept. of Ins. and you need a bond on yourself and have to pass Multiple tests and Interviews with Criminal Investigators/Psychologists

What are the biggest mistakes people make that don't want to be located?

The biggest mistakes are they always seem to be at a known Girlfriends house or Relative.

grabs pen and paper

Go on...

Do not hide at your girlfriends house.

What was the most difficult apprehension you've ever had to make? Also, what do you enjoy most about your job?

What I enjoy most is the money however there are usually long hours and weeks without a day off which is why I changed industries now. The most difficult is hard to say like I said I have been shot at, one time my face got sliced and this one time a guy zoomed through his garage door with his car to escape and almost hit a Friend of mine. Some people run to other countries like the Dominican Republic and they will not extradite to the U.S. so we end up loosing money.

So I don't know much about this. They basically give you warrants that the police are unable to serve and you kick down their doors and grab them? Or are the police working with you?

No basically we bail you out of jail with sufficient collateral and then we have Power of Attorney over you and we guarantee the court your appearance. If you skip or run away we have the option to track you down and turn you in.

How do you get the bail money back?

Show up to all court dates until case is over and you get the bail back minus the fee.

Wait, then how do you make money?

ok lets say your bail is 10k.

Your Family comes in and gives us 40% Collateral (4k) plus an $850 fee.

We made $850 but then if you skip or run away we owe the court you the perp. or the full 10k.

So we go and get you and turn you in and you loose the the collateral you put up and since we turned you in we do not owe the court anything. So in total for that case we made $4850.00

If you didnt skip at all we made about $850 plus a few other fees so more likely around 1k.

Each Bail bond office does about 10-20 Bails a day.

Ah, nice. Court blows (used to go with my dad occasionally, he was a Chicago cop), but $ is $.

True indeed.

How much work goes into finding the perp. You have been assigned?

Finding the perp. is way harder than it looks it often involves sitting outside a relatives or a girlfriends house for hours and sometimes days. It also involves Skip Tracing which is a way of trying to find your whereabouts.

What is Skip Tracing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skiptrace

Usually involves calling everyone perp. knows and pretending to be someone else to find out where they are. Usually pretending to be welfare office saying there is a problem with their check gets them located right away.

So you break the law but posing as a employee of welfare?

No its allowed to call someone and say whatever u want if you are not a bill collector

Have you ever left the state of NY to catch a perp? If so, what are these states/countries you went to catch this said perp?

I have arrested SC, NC,NH,CA,TX,HA,NY,CT,MA and even Canada and Mexico. There are more but I can not think off the top of my head.

Neither Canada nor Mexico recognize bail bondsmen, let alone ones from the USA. If you arrested people in those countries you were very much breaking the law.

Untrue Canada police worked with us 2 times and Mexico you are right but its doable.

How does it work if police work with you? Won't police return the guy back to the court themselves, meaning you don't get the bail bond back?

If we call them and prove to the court we located and called them then we still get our money. The police will sometimes go with us to the court or just arrest then hand said person over to us outside.

edit: It is really the DA who we have to prove to.

that is great! thanks for your time answering our questions.

You are very welcome.

How often do people come quietly as opposed to resisting or attempting to escape?

I would say about 60% come quietly and also only about 30% skip. So out of 100 people I bail out, 30 will run and about 20 turn themselves in quietly to us.

I don't think that math adds up, friend.

Sorry I responded to wrong question. 60% of the people that skip turn themselves in quietly while only about 30% of people skip.

If we turn them in we owe the court nothing. If I did math wrong I am rushing sorry. Also I said about 10 percent it is based on a sliding scale in NY.

Can you walk us through an average day on the job?

An Average day is not what you would expect. It involves going to an office, putting together files then sitting in court (NY does not apply in NJ) until your case is called and swearing under oath and getting a paper from Judge then taking that paper to the jail to get the inmate out. You do about 7-10 of these a day and it is time consuming and boring most of the time. But you get to know lawyers and judges and clerks and can often be enjoyable talking to everyone.

Thanks for the reply!

Of course that is why I am here.

What's the limits on lethal and non lethal weapons you can use? Is it a state by state issue?

For the most part no. Only Firearms laws vary by state but it says in federal law that :

Bail Enforcement Agent who, when legally employed, may cross state lines, carry unusual weapons, and use reasonable force in the apprehension of fugitives in interstate flight. He operates under the authority of the Supreme Court.

This is awesome. New York huh?

I'm very interested. How would one get into this gig? You mentioned in an earlier comment you make a huge amount of money on one grab. How much would you say the average bail bondsman makes?

Where would you learn the skills necessary to do this job?

You need to contact a Bail Bond agency and learn the trade in order to pass the required tests.

What makes Dog so fake?

They do not show the constant waiting to catch someone for days. He is not well respected in the industry and he does not give a shit about the people he is bailing out. He also does not work or do anything except for staged events you see on TV.

What was the scariest thing you've experienced?

Scariest experience was when I had to go collect money in a project building and I was assaulted by 3 guys.

Jeez. What was the outcome? Were you alone?

Yes alone. I got stitches and they were later caught by police.

Hi, can you prove that you're really Peter Uliano?

Sure what would you like to see? I moved to NH but I have my ID

If you send a message to the mods with your ID, we can verify you confidentially. Link is in the sidebar.

Done. I just did it.

Verified.

Thanks

I'm more curious about why u would move to NH.... You must be on a downhill slide

No I hate NY and I do not want my kids living there. NH no sales tax, great gun laws, No state income tax and the best motto out of any state " Live free or die" I am actually doing very well up here.

I lived in NH for quite a long time; Can confirm. Though with the gun/seatbealt/do-whatever laws, I like to think of it as "Live free and die" which is perhaps equally badass.

At least we get to live free. Death is a certainty no matter where you are.

There are so many bail bondsmen around jails I often wonder how they all stay in business. Do each of them compete for business? Meaning, do they offer cheaper bail to get business etc? I know bail is set by the courts, what I mean is the percentage you ask them to pay. You say you ask for 40%, well the guy down the street will do it for 30%. Does that stuff happen or is the reason there are so many is due to certain bail bondsmen have to many cases and just can't handle the load?

Theres actually plenty business to go around. You stand out by how well the community knows you, how well you know the community etc

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I am sure it has indirectly. Some Women told me it was hot that I am a Bail Bondsman.

I used to work for a pre-trial nonprofit and part of our job was to arrange for guys to be bailed out. The question I got most often was about bail bond percentages. Are there any bail bondsmen that offer 10% collateral anymore?

It differs by state. In NJ that is all that is required to bail someone out. It also differs by each Bail Bond place themselves slightly. The fees however are set by NY State. I only operated out of NY and in CT so that is all the laws I know with the exception of Miami because my Partner had an office there.

The laws are different everywhere and well regulated. I now live in NH and want to start again but they will not except my NY license so I have to go through a whole process again and learn new laws.

Did you ever feel like batman?

lol No I can not say I ever felt like batman.

How big are you? I've always imagined Bounty Hunters have to be physically intimidating

I am actually quite small and was in very good shape but I am an excellent fighter, black belt etc.

Bailing people out often especially several cases a day must take a lot of money. Does the percentage of cash you front come from your personal accounts or from a general "business" account?

We get bonds from our insurance company which we pay premiums to. So its nothing from any personal assets except normal operating expenses.

Did you ever feel bad helping bail out someone who later committed another crime while out on bail that you track down and return to prison?

No its all about the money for me.

did you ever impersonate special agent mosely?

Nope

Did you ever wear a disguise to catch somebody?

No lol most defendants do not know who is coming to get them or for some reason think no one is coming to get them.

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I personally never did it but its funny a lot of them did that I knew. Its actually illegal to solicit in court but everyone does it. My office was in the bronx on 161st in fact we used to call them the "Ambulance chasers of bail bonds"

Just joining the thread. Hope you're still checking this, Peter. What are the five craziest apprehension stories you can recall? What about crazy stories that didn't involve apprehension?

pm me question and I will answer when I can

Have you ever bailed-out somebody who later skipped because they were innocent, and you knew they were innocent, but you apprehended them anyway because of the money?

Its not my job to determine who is innocent or guilty or make a judgement to either. However if someone is innocent its not worth skipping because then you are guilty of something when you could have been proven innocent of what you did.

Bail is for when the trial is open.

I was thinking more in terms of somebody you maybe knew, or something like that. A situation where you just happened to know the person was innocent. I know that an innocent person could be tempted to skip if they felt they were getting railroaded.

I would not bail out a friend because to me that would be a conflict of interest and I would refer it to someone I knew.

What steps do you take to building rapport with potential informants who know the whereabouts of someone your company has bailed out? How do you know once you've reached a dead end? Have you ever given up on finding someone? What's your most fun threat you've had to use to complete a job?

Answer coming tonight at work

Thank you so much for doing this AMA! A few questions, if you're still taking them:

1.) What are some ways one can learn the trade (specifically in New York)? From the light research I've done online, some places claim that you must have experience as a LEO, or something similarly related. Are there apprenticeships for this sort of gig?

2.) Are bail bondsmen mostly men? Is there a stigma against women looking to join the field?

3.) What sort of job is this like physically? I imagine it's roughly 70% researching/waiting, 30% action, but that action bit must be quite rough!

4.) What do you answer when people ask you what you do for a living?

I will answer this later tonight sorry ... Working

Hey there! I know i am extremely late to the party but I wanted to ask you something, another redditor posted the following issue he had : http://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/2r26dp/tn_help_police_allowed_bail_bondsman_to_search_my/ It appears that a bondsman entered his house because the ex wife had the address on her ID and thats the address she gave. in your opinion, and I know it may be bias, did the Bondsman really had a right to get in and search? It presses a lot of potential issues in my opinion, because this means someone can have an old address in their ID and someone else could be living there.. then what?!

They shouldent enter unless they know they live there and they notify police first imo

What information does a perp have to provide in order for you to issue the bond?

In short everything. We need a guarantor, Collateral, Names, Addresses, Phone Numbers, Social Security number, With my Office they need to sign in once a week otherwise we surrender them, Signatures, Paperwork etc.

Just because John read the receipt wrong to you, you're gonna...you're gonna act thish way? Ish thish your way of getting out of your responsibilitiesh? Ish thish the way you act?

Huh?

Have ever hard of a bondsman who accepted payment from a fugitive in return for letting the fugitive go free?

no but I am sure it happens.

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Mod verified me through ID read through posts.