Now, all industries have their share of distressing news, and some certainly are more serious than others. But, when you’re a bail bondsman, the morning news alerts can be particularly interesting. Take this morning, we woke up to “Bondsman Charged With Kidnapping, Burglary“. (Or just a month ago, “Aspiring Bail Bondsman Jailed for Presidential Death Threats.” No wonder people are so fascinated when they hear that we’re bondsmen.)

But to this Utah case in point, the bondsman took the wife of a fugitive by force, in handcuffs! You cannot do that. And I bet that even if you are not a licensed bail agent, you probably are not surprised to find that type of behavior isn’t in the Bail Handbook of Ethical and Professional Behavior, and it’s illegal.

Mr. Alcalde was certainly within his legal bounds to track down a bailee who had not appeared in court, but as bondsman, that’s not really what we do. What we do is access the risk that someone will appear back in court and get them out of jail accordingly. Because we’re bail bond professionals, if someone does not appear in court, we will call the defendant and the family to work to get the case resolved. If we cannot, we hire a professional in fugtiive recovery — who also would not kidnap a family member, but instead would find the defendant and return him to justice.