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Bounty Hunt Costs Taxpayers
Man Back In Ohio Jail, Bondsmen Say
POSTED: 8:49 am CDT July 11, 2007
UPDATED: 9:01 am CDT July 11, 2007
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa -- A man who escaped from bounty hunters in Minden, Iowa, is back in an Ohio jail at the expense of local taxpayers.
On Monday, Admir Saad, 29, was traveling from Utah to Ohio with two bail bondsmen. When the bondsmen stopped at a gas station, Saad took off, Pottawattamie County authorities told KETV NewsWatch 7.
The suspect and two bondsmen walked into the gas station. One of the bondsmen went to use the restroom and the other lost track of Saad.
It took several area law agencies to find him.
"There was a lot of manpower between us and (the Omaha police helicopter) and the state," said Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker. "There was a lot of manpower devoted to trying to find this individual."
Those few seconds of confusion on the part of Saad's escorts will come at a cost to taxpayers and law enforcement, according to Danker, but he did not specify a dollar amount.
"If they would have been a little more careful with monitoring this individual, this wouldn't have happened, and we wouldn't have had to spend this much time and effort trying to locate him," Danker said.
If it weren't for the public manpower, bounty hunter Roland Johnson and his partner would have lost the bail money they paid to insure Saad's appearance in court.
"If they put up $25,000 and they don't get him back in time for court, they lose that $25,000," said local private detective Brett Pippin, who said he often tracks criminals for bail bond companies.
In his nine years as a bondsman, Johnson said, he's never had a prisoner get away.
Pippin said bounty hunting can be exhausting and dangerous work for just two people.
"Very dangerous. You see some of these TV shows, like 'Dog the Bounty Hunter,' and other things. I mean, they have crews, and they have a lot of people involved and they do it all the time."
One of Saad's bounty hunters told KETV NewsWatch 7 on Tuesday night that Saad was back in jail in Ohio and their company won't lose the bail money, or their $1,500 fee. He said that money was hardly worth all the trouble.
Pottawattamie County gave the bounty hunters a little more help to transport Saad back to Ohio in the form of lead handcuffs, borrowed from sheriff's deputies. They'll have to mail those back to Pottawattamie County.
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