I Tried Escaping A Bounty Hunter

- I love playing hide and seek. Some people would say I love it too much, but I disagree. A

bounty

hunter

's job is to chase down criminals who are hiding, so today I will meet a

bounty

hunter

and challenge him to a dangerous game of hide-and-seek. (suspense music) What does a bounty hunter do? - 50% paperwork and research work and 50% is going out into the field. What I mean by being in the field is that I'm chasing people. If we have a case, it's a bail jumper, someone who bailed out of jail and didn't show up to court.

So what we have to do is go out, do surveillance, then arrest that person and bring them back to jail. - What are some of the most intense cases you have covered? - The boy was 25 years old. He was with his mother. The mother had a keychain with pepper spray. She pepper sprayed me while she was arresting her son, she knocked him to the ground, he rolled around and at that point he was just handcuffed, nothing more, because he was undercover. - So, I want to challenge you to catch me. I'm going to run away. I'll have an hour's head start and then you and your team can chase me. - Challenge accepted. - Since you are a bounty hunter and I expect you to enter my apartment, I will only give you a key to my apartment.

Don't go into my roommate's room. If you get close enough to see me, you can chase me and your job is to handcuff me. - If you make me run, I'll tackle you. - At the end of the six-hour chase, if you don't have me handcuffed, I win. - Then I'll invite you to dinner. - Oh! We can be friends? - Of course. If you're going to dare me to catch you, I'll catch you as soon as possible. - I don't understand how you're going to catch me if you don't know where I'm going. - This is how bounty hunters work and if you want to know, wait until Friday. -What I didn't tell the bounty hunter was that I spent the last two weeks preparing my escape. (dramatic music) I have done a lot of research and found that most criminals are caught when they approach their family, friend or lover, therefore I will not approach my family, friends or lover.

I look like an alien right now. I'm not happy about it, but I think it will help me get away from this bounty hunter. (suspense music) There are a few more things I have to do before I leave. I'm going to put on this muscle shirt to look more muscular. I'm going to wear my glasses all day. There are no photos of me on social media with my glasses. I'm going to leave my cell phone so no one can track my phone. When the bounty hunter arrives at my apartment, he will find several clues. There's no way this guy is going to capture me. (intense dramatic music) (Taser click) - First we'll go to his house, then we'll see if we can access the cameras surrounding his building, see which direction he went or what he did.

We also posted his photo on Facebook. The Sheriff's Department has contacts with them, so we sent them his photo. We will have everyone in the community try to help us locate Mike. (intense, suspenseful music) - My first move was to run straight to the subway. I knew that if someone followed me in a car, they would not be allowed to take their car onto the subway. I then offered an off-duty Lyft driver $20 cash to take me out of the area. It's 10:00, so my one hour lead is gone. Now we're just getting onto the highway. I am very confident that we will escape. (intense dramatic music) 10 minutes into the hunt, the bounty hunter will receive a text message from an unknown phone number. - We received a clue.

Now it's our turn to figure that out. He basically made it look like code. - That unknown phone number is a tip I had written and given to a coworker at Buzzfeed. - "Tonight we eat sushi." -The first four letters of those words spell "west." Was he going west? I would have to find out. We were in the taxi for approximately half an hour. Now we're, I don't know, maybe 30 miles from Los Angeles. I had the Lyft driver drop me off two blocks from a special effects makeup artist. She and I had been talking for the past two weeks about putting prosthetics on my face to make me look like a completely different person. - Mike approached me a couple of weeks ago about doing his makeup and I thought the best approach would definitely be to use a prosthetic application.

Those elements, although still subtle, will definitely go a long way in changing his appearance. (suspense music) (knocks) - Fugitive Recovery, we're coming in. (dramatic music) He loves clues. (dramatic music) - Track number two had two parts. The first part was "What is the part of your eye that is also a type of flower?" The second part of the clue is: "What white watery substance is found "in the ground during the winter?" - What part of your eye is also a type of flower? So, with that being said, I actually sent him a message text to one of My friends, that's an optician and he's actually a bounty hunter too, so he'll know for sure and he'll let me know what the answer to the first part is iris.

The answer to the second part is snow. letter of both words and you get "is." Clue Number One: West. Clue Number Two: Frozen Iris. Throughout our investigation, we talk. in his vehicle. At least we have a vehicle to pay attention to. Let's go to the girlfriend's address right now, see if he knows anything or if his car is there, or if there are any clues or whatever - So, first. , I use a medical grade adhesive to stick the pieces to her face. Then, I go ahead and apply a set of eyebrow prosthetics. From there, I go ahead and apply the chin prosthesis. (dramatic music) - Mike doesn't seem very smart, so Iris? - Then, the bounty hunter received another text message from an unknown phone number.

This was another coworker of mine from Buzzfeed who offered to help. - I sent it, so now a bounty hunter has my number. I hope it's nice. - Where do the rich and old fools go. (dramatic music) Something to do with the iris. - Take the first letter of each of those words and you get "wrong." Clue number one: west. Clue number two: it is. Clue number three: bad. Therefore, I go east. (suspense music) - So there's no one home right now. It does not work. - He's probably working during the day. Many older people like to play bingo. - Any letter that had a period in front of it, I just put them together and it spelled "west." Searching Yelp, Iris and West Lastro came up.

It's actually a place for eyebrows. - The smallest advantage can also be the biggest advantage. - Yes. - Then I apply the upper and lower lip prosthesis. Once I'm done with the application, I go around and blend all the edges to make sure it blends completely into her skin. Once I'm done with that, I use a red tone to create the undertone and flesh to blend it with the rest of her skin. -We did a quick search on him again to find out other possible addresses with his phone number and we got a hit on an address that is linked to his phone number and his name, so let's go check it out. . (suspense music) - We're locked down.

Let's see if we can enter through another door. - While she opens, let's hurry. Come on. Oh, perfect, let's go. - There's a package at the front door. It all comes back to Rachel. Different last name. This is an old address, so that's what we determined by coming here. -We just give you her old address and then, if we can't find anything there, we'll sit in her apartment and try to figure out how she left. (suspense music) - Then I come in with various levels of skin tone. From there, I apply a couple of brows and after that, you're done and ready to go. (suspense music) - There's only one hour left in this chase.

The bounty hunter has no idea where we are. I have had a lot of success by not giving him any clues in the right direction. - (beep) why didn't I put the track on your (beep) car, man? -Because I don't think this bounty hunter is close to catching me, I'll get as close to him as possible, so the best way I thought I could do it was to replace his intern with me. I will film it in my costume and claim to be a freelance videographer. I'm going to put a slight accent. I'm going to talk a little differently.

I will use a different body posture and try to make him think I am someone else. If he doesn't realize it's me, I win. (suspenseful music) Okay, so we're about a block away from the bounty hunter right now. There are about 15 minutes of hunting left. The whole day could be completely ruined. He could handcuff me in three seconds, or for the next 15 minutes, I could convince him I'm someone else. So, I'm going to put on an accent and we'll see what happens. (suspense music) The bounty hunter then received a fourth tip from an unknown phone number. - Okay, Mike, this is a little weird.

I am not going to lie. (suspense music) - Sako, this is the Other Mike. - Another Mike? Nice to meet you. -Emily. Nice to meet you. Apparently, Mike just sent Sako another clue. So let's go ahead and put a microphone on him so he can read the last clue quickly. Let me call Jen real quick and see if we can expand a little bit. - Well. Check one, two, check. - Well well. (suspense music) - "Your shadow is attractive." We'll have to like it, figure it out, and try to figure out what it means. (suspenseful music) Let's check that parking lot real quick. (intense, suspenseful music) If it is, if it is here, it will be at the highest level.

Do not you believe it? Mike just sent us the latest track right now. It's been seven hours and it's already 4:00. But he sent an interesting text message. He would say, "Your shadow is attractive," which leads us to believe that he is actually looking at us too. So right now, we're going to take the next few minutes we have and look around the area real quick and see if we can try to find him. (intense dramatic music) - Something is wrong with your microphone. - What is it? - Can I try this? - Yes, go ahead. Everything's fine?

Is it better now? - One last thing. I'm Mike. - I knew it! - I knew it was him with that damn face! Dude, I knew it, man. We were talking a lot about that. I was like, why does this guy have---Guys---he stopped for a minute before you got there, and said, Dude, look at his face. - I thought, this is Hollywood. This guy is probably a weirdo. (laughing) - It's funny. I'm wearing a muscle shirt right now. I had... - Dude, no way! I'm like (bleep) with you! Oh Lord! This guy (beep). I knew it! (lush orchestral music) - It was a tense last few minutes. -And as soon as you basically shook my hand and said you're Mike, I literally wanted to punch you in the face. - Thank you for not punching me in the face.

My weakness is my arrogance. I could have easily stayed in La Puente and you would have never found me. - Oh, definitely. - But I chose to really challenge your abilities and confront you. So I learned that being a fugitive is miserable because you can't talk to your friends, you can't talk to your family, you can't talk to your lover. It's not a fun life. What I think is very interesting is that your only weakness as a bounty hunter is that you are too nice. - I'm not, especially when you say they are freelancers and their interns or similar, even if they are interns.

I'm not going to be rude and say, "Hey, give me your ID." Because, first of all, as if they weren't the ones who signed up for this. I'm not going to. I could have pushed them, but I don't know what kind of buttons I'd be pushing on that guy. Then he would have to deal with it. I could have offended him very easily. - Well well. - It was perfect. I am not going to lie. - Thank you. You owe me a dinner. - We'll take you to Korean barbecue, my favorite place. - Can we bring our friends? -Who knows what we are going to do?

Maybe we can be great friends after this. - When we have a double date with our friends, what happens if I dress like my girlfriend and she dresses up like me? - That would be great, that would be great.