Keep Bailing

We All Need Help Sometimes

As a bail bondsman, my job is to help people get out of jail. It’s not my job to give advice. Sometimes, that’s hard to do. Today was a good example, the phone rang around 6:00 am, I looked at the caller i.d. before answering, as is my habit. “Global Tel Link“ - tells me it’s a call from a Los Angeles County Jail. “Bail Bonds, may I help you?” I answer.

The caller is a male who tells me that he is in the Van Nuys Jail. He immediately tells me that his bail $10,000, he had $3000 in cash when he was arrested and would like to pay for the $1000 bond fee himself with that money. Before I even ask the usual bail questions, my warning signals are twitching. He seems to know the bail bond process, he sounds young and he has a large sum of cash.

I ask various questions and he tells me that he lives in the area with his grandparents and grew up in Southern California; he is 21, has bad credit and works under the table. I ask if his grandparents might be willing to take responsibility for him. “No,” he tells me, he doesn’t want them involved. Without asking about his charges, I tell him that I cannot help him unless he has a homeowner or someone with excellent credit to sign for him. I wish him luck and hang up.

Sure enough, within a minute, the phone rings again, “Global Tel Link” reveals the caller i.d. “Bail Bonds, may I help you?” I answer again. It’s the same guy; he wants to know what he needs to bail himself out. I ask him why was he arrested. Heroin possession, he answers and he goes right on to tell me that he’s been arrested before and bailed himself out with no problem. No, doubt, I thought, but instead told him that I was sure he wouldn’t have trouble getting someone else to bail him out, but with our company he would need someone else to take responsibility to make sure he takes care of the case.

I resisted the temptation to tell him that had his family been made aware of his prior arrests maybe he wouldn’t be back in jail. Some may look at a bail bondman as dealing with criminals, but I see it differently. Yes, we get people out of jail, but there’s more to the bail industry that that. When people hit a bump in the road in life I hope they learn a lesson, get the support they need to put things back on course. As a bondsman, my role in that is quite minimal, but I know that we have very few repeat clients.