Dog The Bounty Hunter (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Dog the Bounty Hunter is a reality television show, chronicling Duane Dog Chapman's operations at his job, Da Kine Bail Bonds in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dog is joined in his exploits by his wife and business partner, Beth Smith Chapman, his sons Leland, Duane Lee, his associate Tim Chapman and his daughter Lyssa Chapman. His nephew Justin Bihag also appeared during the first season. Besides Hawaii, episodes have been filmed in Dog Chapman's home state of Colorado and the city of San Francisco.

He claims to have captured over 6,500 bail jumpers and criminals.

The show is aired on A&E Networks in USA and on Bravo in the UK.

While the program mostly follows Chapman and his team's pursuits against actual criminals who violated the conditions of their bail, it also shows his life as a husband, as a father to some of his twelve children, and as an ex-convict. Chapman and Smith were married on May 20, 2006. Dog's compassionate side is frequently on display, as he looks for ways to coach his catches back to the right path.

The program spun off from their appearance in the show A&E Network's Take This Job, a program about people with unusual occupations. Both shows are produced for A&E by Hybrid Films, a New York-based production company. The concept of the program is to follow a family of bounty hunters as they capture fugitives.

The family also run a bail bond business, Da Kine Bail Bonds, and have locations in Oahu, in Kona on the Big Island and also on the mainland, Denver, Colorado. The office on the Big Island is owned and run by Duane's son, Leland Chapman. The Oahu office is located at 1381 Queen Emma St. in Honolulu.

As revealed in an episode of "Dog, the Bounty Hunter," Duane also had a daughter named Barbara, who was killed in a car accident the day before Duane and Beth married. Nevertheless, the wedding ceremony commenced and the special wedding episode was aired August 2006.

2006 arrest and extradition proceedings

See Duane Chapman#2006 arrest and extradition proceedings for more information

At approximately 6:00 am Hawaiian time on September 14, 2006, Duane Chapman, his son Leland and his associate Tim Chapman were arrested by US Marshals at the request of the Mexican government, on charges of bounty hunting, which is illegal in Mexico. On June 18, 2003, the Chapman trio captured convicted fugitive rapist Andrew Luster (heir to Max Factor cosmetics) who was wanted on 87 counts of rape. He had fled to Mexico. Duane, Leland and Tim have since been released on bail ($300,000 for Duane and $100,000 each for the other two).

On February 16, 2007, the second district court in Guadalajara denied a request for an injunction preventing extradition. The court ruled that Duane, Leland, and Tim should face trial on one count of "deprivation of liberty" in violation of the country's anti-bounty-hunting statutes. The Chapmans are looking into their legal options to prevent this.

Mexico is currently reviewing Dog's case to see if they do have grounds to extradite him on a misdemeanor. There have been multiple legal defense fund raising accounts set up for Duane, Leland, and Tim including one set up by Tanja "Doe," a victim of Andrew Luster.

On August 1st, 2007, the ruling was appealed by the prosecution to overturn the decision. In Mexico most rulings such as this are automatically appealed and it could take some time for a decision to be made on the appeal.

On August 2, 2007, the First Criminal Court in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico dismissed all criminal charges pending against Dog, Tim and Leland Chapman on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. The order effectively cancelled all pending charges. The ruling, however, was appealed by the prosecution in order to overturn the lower court's decision. A&E was told that in Mexico, rulings against the prosecution are generally appealed as a matter of principle.

On August 4th, 2007, on an episode of Larry King Live, while Duane "Dog" Chapman was talking, it was said that the charges against Duane "Dog" Chapman, Leland Chapman, and Tim Chapman on the Andrew Luster case, had been dropped by the Mexican government.

In popular culture

Duane Chapman's book "You Can Run but You Can't Hide: The Life and Times of Dog the Bounty Hunter" was to be set for a February 2007 release, but after his arrest, and extradition case, his book was released on August 7, 2007.. As of August 20th, Chapman's book, "You Can Run but You Can't Hide", is number one on the Hardcover Nonfiction list of the New York Times Bestsellers list.

Dog and his crew were parodied in the tenth season South Park episode "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy." Cartman portrayed Dog, but was a hall monitor rather than a bounty hunter. In this episode, Cartman would chase around students accusing them of "hallway infractions" and attacking them with bear mace, which is the weapon of choice for Dog and the rest of his crew.

Dog was parodied in American Dad! episode "Joint Custody" when Roger dresses up as Dog, when he was trying to hunt down Jeff Fischer.

Dog appeared as himself in the season two finale "The Trial" of the NBC show My Name Is Earl capturing Joy Darville in Mexico.

Dog, appeared with his wife Beth on the one hour special of Criss Angel: Mindfreak. Dog tied Criss up to a chair and lowered him into a pool of water. After four minutes, Criss loosened himself and stood up. He did not completely remove the ropes.

Trivia

It was shown on the August 3, 2007, episode of CNN's Larry King Live featuring Dog and Beth that Dog was originally a vacuum salesman prior to becoming a bounty hunter. This episode also featured footage of Dog repairing a vacuum and claiming that "back when he sold Kirbys" he enjoyed "fixing these machines and hearing the vacuum clean up."

In season one's episode of Hide and Seek Part 2, the episode starts out with Dog running a vacuum and talks about selling Kirby's when he was younger,Tim and Leland guess that Dog runs the vacuum at least twice a day!

However in season two's episode of Baby's Back In Town where Baby Lyssa comes to live with her father or DOG, Dog talks about selling vacuums and later in the episode uses vacuums to trick the wanted suspect.

Heavy metal artist Ozzy Osbourne sings "Dog, The Bounty Hunter" as Dog's theme song. His name is credited as J. Osbourne in the credits. The song can be heard on Ozzy's Prince of Darkness box set (CD #3).

Located at 1381 Queen Emma street in Honolulu, Da Kine bail bonds main office or Headquarters for Dog and his crew is located next door to a church. Very fitting for the Dog and his rehab work on fugitives. Typically before hunts the crew uses the parking lot to say a team prayer.

Russell Brand on "The Russell Brand Show" BBC Radio 2, mentions Dog as a resident of Hawaii.

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