Off The Hook
We are a group of private investigators, bounty hunters / fugitive recovery agents, and bail bondsmen that have been in this line of work for over twenty five years and have many stories to tell. We have traveled all over the country catching fugitives and bringing them back to have their day in court. With our years of experience we are trying to educate the public about bail and why it is a needed part of our judicial system.
Off The Hook
Minnesota Slow Learners and Peter the Wife Beater
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Two cups of coffee, one packed news cycle, and a case file that still makes our palms sweat. We kick off the year by separating signal from noise: the Venezuela headlines and talk around Maduro’s capture, oil shock ripple effects that touch diesel, flights, and logistics, and the viral allure of “sonic weapon” stories that demand better sourcing before we buy the hype. Headlines set the mood, but evidence sets the truth—and that’s the theme that runs through everything we tackle today.
We break down a Minnesota shooting that lit up social feeds and argue for a slower, statute-first look at use of force. A vehicle can be a deadly weapon under state law—context the first clip rarely shows. When body cam footage appears, the picture shifts, and so should our conclusions. It’s a reminder for anyone who works in risk or cares about accountability: wait for the record, not the rumor.
Then we open our archive for a hunt we call “Peter, the wife beater,” a 25K bond that went sideways at the worst time. No modern databases. No social trails. Just courthouse runs, late-night knocks, and a family that didn’t tell the truth. When the forfeiture hit, we started paying—until a tense call from out of state, a stray Arizona number, and a hunch about Tent City lined up. A DA hold, a reluctant victim, and a sharp judge later, we clawed back a loss that could have crippled the business. The takeaways are practical: verify early, document everything, protect your buffer, and move when the evidence is solid.
If you’re into true crime mechanics, bail bonds reality, skip tracing strategy, or just want a straighter path through the week’s buzz, this one’s for you. Tap play, learn how we turned a near-miss into a win, and stick around for a tease of our next hunt on a cold ten-hour trail. If you enjoyed the show, like, rate, and review—and share it with someone who loves stories where persistence beats panic.
And I'm Chad. What's up?
SPEAKER_02And we are back from a long uh holiday and vacation. Yep, a little hiatus. So we're ready to get back at it. Yeah, sorry guys. Uh, I was out of town and took a little vacay and gotta do it from time to time. Man, it was it was man, it was nice. I I didn't want to come back. But I hope everybody at home had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful new year. Uh, but a lot has happened since I've been gone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, since we haven't been on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know, right? So um, so all right. So first let's get into um how was your new year's?
SPEAKER_01It's all right, man. It's good. It's good. I'm just I'm ready to I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get on with 26. Right. You know.
Venezuela Headlines And Maduro Capture Reactions
SPEAKER_02I I wrote I wrote the date down. I had to sign something for my son's school the other day. I was like, uh, 26. I had to get used to that. Yeah, yeah. Every year. It's weird. But okay, so now when I was on vacation down in the US Virgin Islands, I saw I oh, you know, I would keep up in the morning times I'll have my coffee and kind of like see what's going on. Right. It took me a few days to disconnect from that. So, but while I was down there, Monuro got captured by the U.S. So you know we've been keeping up with Venezuela and everything that's been going on with it. I've been keeping up with it because it's kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_01That was a topic for a few episodes, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And uh I saw that and I was like, wow.
SPEAKER_01Didn't know it was gonna unfold like that, did you? No, I didn't know you saw that comment.
SPEAKER_02No, and directly south of us is Venezuela. But when I were flying in, I saw some I saw some military boats, you know, out in the water, whatever, but they dude, they grounded flights out of all the islands in Puerto Rico for like some days. I met some people down there that got stuck, and they were like, Well, we got stuck for another week. I'm like, well, not a bad spot to get stuck at, right? Yeah, but and it's people still complaining about it. But now, since we got Maduro, that's cut off a lot of oil that's made for diesel, diesel fuel, like I said, and that's cut a lot off from Russia, China, and Iran. So I think there's I there's there's stuff going on that we don't know about that that he's doing he's a big reason why he did that. Now it's not just because of fentanyl, which is a a major issue. Not just an oil grab either. Yeah, it's not just an oil grab, it's also, you know, we're gonna put some strain on some of these other countries that that that buy unsanctioned oil that are not Trump plays chess, not checkers. Exactly. So I it's it's it's interesting to see what's happening. He's on he's in New York on trial. I wonder if Mandami or uh Mandani or whatever wants to go visit his buddy while he's up there.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, right. Well, it's weird that he came all the way to New York. I don't fully understand that. Me neither. And and it seems as though criminals get treated better in New York than non-criminals. I don't know. I I me neither. At least in the judicial system.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna it's funny to see how to see things unfold and and and oh uh while I while you're talking about this, um, I saw a tweet uh from somebody.
SPEAKER_01Um actually I might I might find it while why if you can I need to pull that up. So it has to do with with how the whole operation unfolded. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what was used. Did you hear about that? Yeah, I heard about it. Oh, you did hear about it.
SPEAKER_02Like, dude, like the dudes like the US military, the like Delta Force, they use some type of sonic weapon.
Sonic Weapon Rumors And Military Speculation
SPEAKER_01Right, right. It was a sonic weapon. So, like, if you saw the the series that that we were watching actually was the um Stranger Things finale. In that show, they would pull up in uh RVs and um have these sound waves that they would put in then that would make them defenseless. Apparently, in this tweet that I saw that someone put out, it was um talking about a soldier down in Venezuela said that they showed up and um I think they said about eight helicopters, but one people repelled from the officers came down, but they used the sound wave technology and literally their nose started bleeding, yeah, and vomiting and stuff.
SPEAKER_02And from I and of something I heard from was like they never want to experience this key.
SPEAKER_01They said that they were useless, they defenseless, they couldn't do anything against this, and they and that's how they carried out this operation. Bro, if we're that badass. Come on, man. Wow, that was that's pretty crazy. That's some futuristic stuff. I'm sure that these weapons exist, you know, that we have no clue about to hear about something like that, though, that just renders you defenseless.
SPEAKER_02We need to use Delta Force to go get Ilian Omar out of office.
SPEAKER_01Ilian oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That lady, I'd hate that lady. God, I can't stand her.
SPEAKER_01I just could do that with a light lighter and a bottle of raid, you know.
Minnesota Shooting Video And Use Of Force
SPEAKER_02All right, so now now off Monduro. Now, let's go into a little bit, you know. Man, I'm telling you, man, all like all the wild stuff happened while I was gone. And I was like, wow. So all right, so the woman that got shot oh in Minnesota. In Minnesota by ice. Okay, so she gets shot. I see this video, right? And it don't doesn't look good. I was like, oh man, this is I'm like, this don't look good, you know. Don't like why we're like, why, why? You know, I'm like, okay, and and a part of me, you know, this this is like the the the PI in us, you know. I go, well just wait to see any more videos come out of this because there's gonna have to be some more videos come out because everybody's on cell phones now. Angles, yeah, more angles. Yeah, and lo and behold, the next day, damn the body cam footage or the uh came out from the officer, and it and I'm like, oh, okay, now you can see a lot better and you can see what's going on. You can see it from his angle, you know. I mean, I hate that she died, but damn, don't do stupid shit. Like try to run over an ice agent. Like, I don't understand why why would you interfere?
SPEAKER_01I pulled up Minnesota statute too, and it it's clearly states, you know, that you may use deadly force if you um are threatened with um equal deadly force, such as a vehicle.
SPEAKER_02A vehicle is a uh deadly weapon. Okay, because so you know, all right, so you remember uh a buddy of ours, Chris Burgess. Okay, up in Smithfield. Remember when Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is uh he got hit years ago when they surrounded a car, a guy tried running them over and they shot him. And the car, well, he it of course they found him not guilty. And but same thing right there. Same exact scenario. Right. You can't expect not to get shot at if you're gonna try to run over an officer. Yeah, and but it but but liberals seem to give a shit about uh uh that white lady, but not the white lady that got stabbed for a while.
SPEAKER_01Zaruska, yeah, yeah, Irina Zaruska. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's just it's the double double standards, you know, you can't stick to one. Right. And it all depends on what they want to do.
SPEAKER_02But um I I don't I don't understand like why can't well I do understand because the the the problem is white liberal women like the one that got shot. That is the problem.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That is the problem. I and I I'm just gonna say it. I mean that is the fucking that's the problem.
SPEAKER_01It definitely is, yes. I don't know what their problem is, but white liberal women are the downfall of America.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's horrible. But okay. Uh what about uh you know what did you want me to go ahead and play that clip? Yeah, let's go ahead. It's pretty funny. So since we're on the subject, uh so Chad sends me this fucking this uh this clip. And I can't I can't show it uh on the video, but but we can listen to it.
SPEAKER_01So we can listen to South Park put out uh their their interpretation of this Minnesota um shooting. And uh it's pretty it's pretty good. Go ahead and tell I love I love it.
Satire Clip, Local Politics, And Fraud Rants
SPEAKER_05You know what would be cool? You to you to get in your car and drive it down. What are they gonna do? You're a white lesbian! Seriously, are you sure that's a good idea? They're arresting an illegal immigrant, and I don't know what to do. How do we stop this? Of course it's a good idea. You're stupid, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, I love South Park does this look shit. They were learning pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah. I got a degree from the learning, the leering, the learing. Yeah. And you know what that is. I mean, all right, so let's before we we're about to get into that too, the fraud shit that's going on up there. Did you see where Tim Tim Watts is not running for governor again? And I think he's stepping out early.
SPEAKER_01I'd heard that he's stepping down. Heard. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And he's a tough guy.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, he's probably retard. Yeah. Oh God, dude, did I hurt somebody's feelings? Uh bring that word back. I mean, really, seriously. We need it.
SPEAKER_02Uh all right. So learning said, whatever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02If you're gonna be a daycare, at least have the spelling on your sign right.
SPEAKER_01My first clue was that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know, right? So evidently this this this young kid, I I can't remember the guy's name. They discovered all this, yeah. Nick something. Yeah. And he uh he actually done actually real journalism. That's what he's doing. Yeah, going out there going, hey, what's going on? What's up with this? And they're like, oh, they wouldn't speak, yeah. Yeah, it yeah, they wouldn't speak. So, I mean, do you like your tax dollars going to fraud? I don't like it going, do you? No. I mean, that's billions and billions of dollars going out the door. That's just there. I heard I all saw something where New York they're finding fraud in New York, same way.
SPEAKER_01There's a lot. Just look.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know. So those are my rant for them for them two things, man. Uh but other than that, that's that's all I got, man. I was I was like I said, I was trying to stay out of the news media while I was on vacation, trying to kind of enjoy it. But now I'm fighting with his sea lice. And uh yeah, I showed you that.
SPEAKER_01Uh I showed you that before.
SPEAKER_02Man, I got a rash here on my damn shoulder. Shit hurts, man. Don't ever get sea lice. That hurts.
SPEAKER_01I've never heard of it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, me neither until now. Yeah. But yeah, I know it now. Anyway, all right, so get on to our story. Uh, story of the week.
SPEAKER_01What is it? I have deemed him Peter Peter wife beater. Oh. Like that? Yeah. Yeah. See what I did there? I do like that. Okay. So Mr. Peter was um hang on, before we get into the story.
Sponsor Shoutout: NC Bail Agents Association
SPEAKER_02Oh. I forgot to do this. Sorry, it's been a minute.
SPEAKER_01Uh oh, our sponsor.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh, we gotta do it, we gotta give a big word to our sponsor, the North Carolina Bell Agents Association.
SPEAKER_01These guys keep your bail laws going in North Carolina and your continuing edges education and your licensing.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and I believe the conference is gonna be here in Carolina Beach. I think they uh decided on it. I believe I believe, not 100%, but I had talked to Julie, I guess. Well, that would be handy. So thank you, NCBA for for sponsoring us. Thank you. It means a lot. All right, so Peter Peter to wife beater.
SPEAKER_01So this was one that I did a long time ago. This is before me. Yep, this was before anybody in a group, and I was basically on my own. Oh. And I was learning this this whole thing. This was back when internet was you've got mail. And that's important in the story because we had to do things back then that were not, you know, you got a lot more luxuries as far as finding people now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01A lot more ways to do it online. Um, back then it was shoes on the street and knocking on doors and putting uh uh putting ads up at the post office. Uh I did that. I did I put one in a newspaper one time for a guy I was looking for and uh put it in their local newspaper, that the wanted picture, and his whole fan boy, they all got mad at that. Um that's how I came up with slammer picks, basically. But I did it on the internet, it's basically the same thing. So Peter Peter DeWife Peter, what was his how much does it be? Okay, so his bond, so this was referred to me from another bondsman back when I started. And um it was a 25,000. And um, like I said, I've just getting into the business and wrote this bond, it went bad. Um this guy I freaked out because you know, starting you you have a buff account when you when you when you stay in this business, you put some money in it and it builds a little bit, and that's your money that you take out in case something tragic happens that you pay a bond. And uh I had nothing in mind at the beginning, of course. You know, it's taken out gradually as you write bonds. And uh it takes a while to get a lot in there. Oh, it takes a long time. Um hundred thousand in order to get just a thousand in there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
Old-School Skip Tracing Before Databases
SPEAKER_01Uh as far as bonds written. So it's it's it takes a while. Um so I got the forfeiture on him. I did the normal stuff. Back then, though, it was check my my paperwork that I had done, and I took trips over to the p the family that co-signed for him. And this guy's record after I looked, back then again, I didn't have access to it. You had to go to the courthouse, you had to, you know, you had to put feet on the ground. Yeah. Um when you get these calls back then, you you didn't have access to check records or anything like that to see what you were getting into. You had to go on the word of the family. And uh family was nothing but a bunch of liars. And actually, it turns out that this guy had been in a previous incident with a another bonding company before me that and resulted in the family suing the bonding company. And uh because they went and chased him uh during during the f father's funeral. Oh yeah, I remember you telling me about that. Yeah, they literally it was it was something petty too. I mean, like it was really they did it really the wrong thing. I mean, it's that's why I think that they ended up in court over it was um they were dropping dad in the ground and they come running up and chased him. Yeah, there's some things you just don't want to do. That's one of them. Yeah, it was not worth it to do that that day for uh I think the bond was like 1500 or something, you know, so it wasn't worth that. But mine's considerably larger. So he was accused of uh wife beating. It was it was uh it was a violent charge. Um it was it was a robbery um with a knife, I think it was, if I remember right. Right. And uh also he had other charges of beating on his wife um and drug charges. So he was not a good member of society. He was not a model citizen by any stretch of the imagination. He was he was a hunter Biden. Pretty much, yeah. Before good cell phones came out, you got footage. Oh yeah, yeah. Um but I remember um his ex-wife, she was very adamant to speak to me about how to locate him and all the crack houses to go look.
SPEAKER_02How many crack houses did you have to go to?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I remember crawling up under one. It was him and his brothers, yeah, a couple brothers, and got up under this trailer at night. Just we were listening to hear his voice, never heard it. But you could hear him hitting that crack. So uh it time went on, you know.
SPEAKER_02So this there wasn't a Facebook world at this time.
SPEAKER_01No, you had no Facebook, there was no Facebook. Um, I think I was the first bondsman to have a cell phone back then. It was uh pagers people worked off of.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You remember them old pagers, man? I had one when I started. It was blue. And uh when cell phones came out and they were more reasonable to buy, right? I was like, well, who's gonna want to wait on a callback from a page where I was like, just get a cell phone? You know, the little Nokia phones that were like bricks, and yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I had the big old fat one, uh it had a little flip part on it. Oh, that was Motorola.
SPEAKER_01That came later. And I'm talking about the ones that were like a brick. They were like this big, and you literally throw that thing.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It had like this the fixed antenna that was about that long.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, it I don't think mine had anything. I can't remember. You're you're talking like Next L. This is before Nextel.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, it's before Nextel. I it man, they're all old. But that nothing flipped on them. It was just like a brick.
A Tip From Out Of State And The Arizona Lead
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's what the best way I can describe it is a little brick. Yeah. Um, but anyway, um, so you didn't have the resources, the databases, things like we have now. And um so after doing, you know, and going out in the middle of the night and trying to find this guy by putting my feet on the street and the ex-wife trying to help me with this guy, um, we came to the conclusion he just wasn't around, you know. I've done everything, you know. So you're all the family members, none of them wanted to talk to me because I guess the previous bonding company had screwed things up. So the any of them that were decent now hated us because they thought I was like them, which I wasn't. I was just um Are you getting ready to pay this thing? Um, so yeah, as time went on and you know, I'm I'm freaking out the closer we get. You know, I'm young and I can't, you know, I was like I can't. Afford to pay this 25 grand. And um, I was stressing over it. Well, it came to it, and I actually uh my insurance company had to pay it, and then I had to set up payment agreement to pay them back. I was making six hundred dollar payments every month back to them. So that's you know, that's almost like digging your hole deeper if you get another furniture on top.
SPEAKER_02And back then, six hundred dollars a month was a lot compared to now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, man. That was that was a chunk of change. So that was I did a couple of those, so a couple of months, and then in the middle of the night, I got a call from a guy that sounded pretty creepy, as a matter of fact, uh, out of another state, and he said, Um, are you the bondsman that you know bonded out this this guy? And I said, Yeah, yeah, I am. Why? He said, Well, he took off with my wife, my ex-wife. Oh, and uh, we got kids together, and I um I don't want them to lose their mother over this. And I said, Okay. And uh, he said, I got a call. He said, if I ever get the if I ever get my hands on that guy, he'll he'll be in a pine box. And I believed every word he said. Okay. He was he was straight up wanting to kill him. Did you take death certificates back then? We did. I actually produced a couple to court. Um but uh he said I got a call and he gave me the number that uh she called him from, and it was a uh Arizona number. And so I used what little bit of internet you know you can do, right? Basic stuff. And I started uh I found the area code, I saw it was Arizona and the part of Arizona, and I knew that this guy was such a screw up that it was only a matter of time before he was.
SPEAKER_02He got caught somewhere else doing something stupid.
SPEAKER_01But we didn't have the nice jail searches like we have, so I literally had to call for the area that I suspected he was in and ask them if um if he was in jail there. And uh it just so happens that one of the areas I was watching, which is very popular, not popular, very infamous um jail out in Arizona is uh the one that has the tents where people where they where they sleep out in tents in city, yeah, inside the prison. Uh I think it's Joe Apico, Epico, something like that. He's a very popular sheriff out there. You know what? I'll look it up real quick. Go ahead, keep going. Arpeo, something like that. Our uh West Coast friends would laugh at me for trying to pronounce this because they know it. Anyway, um, so I found out that he was in jail. So I immediately called my uh district attorney and said, um, hey, um this guy, he's in jail. Can you put a can put a hold on him out there?
SPEAKER_02Mar Maricopia County, Maricopa. Maricopa, Sheriff of Chief. That's the county.
SPEAKER_01Joe, is it Apaco?
SPEAKER_02Yep, yep. In 1993 to combat overcrowding.
Tent City, DA Hold, And Court Breakthrough
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. He so like they like him out there apparently um because he he's very good with the taxpayers, not not overpaying for uh somebody to be in in jail.
SPEAKER_02But it was in 2017, uh Paul Penzone who found it in efficient and costly, ending the era of tough on crime policies.
SPEAKER_01So it's no longer really it's not there anymore. That's not there no more. Wow. Well, so the DA confirmed that he was in prison there. I had a hearing, and um they also called in the witness, uh, excuse me, the victim of this case. And um she went there, and I don't know if she was just afraid uh to ID him or what it was. I'm not sure, but she said it wasn't. He wasn't the you know, they showed him a picture, said that's not the guy who did this to me. And um the judge saw in my favor. Um really, yeah, he said, and I don't see why this bondsman should have to pay for the wrong person. And uh so I won, you know, and I got I got her money back and I gave it back to my insurance company.
SPEAKER_02And uh And no more six hundred dollar payments.
SPEAKER_01No, no, but you know, yeah, that that was a big learning lesson there, and um that's why I'm kind of tricked on getting on top of them quick.
SPEAKER_02This tent city, man, it's it don't look fun at all.
SPEAKER_01Oh well, I mean, you know prison's not meant to be uh vacation, right?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, well to to Californians it does.
Lessons Learned And Paying The Forfeiture
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well anyway, that was that was my situation with um Oh my gosh, I just got this, dude.
SPEAKER_02What so you know that um that skip we're looking for right now? Yeah, yeah. The person I told you I wanted to reach out to, yeah, they just messaged me back. Oh yeah, anything good? They want to know who this is. Um second.
SPEAKER_01Well, so that was the case of Peter Peter, good wife Peter.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_01And um I'm sure he I I actually I I kind of kept up with him and he kept getting in trouble um further. So no shocker there, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_01So anyway.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I just messaged her back.
SPEAKER_01Alright, cool. I I'm hoping I'm hoping that I I was hoping you were gonna get the one about the venue. No, not yet. No, no, not that one. That one needs to text you back because I know, right? I want to be able to tell you guys what we're working on if once we get a venue locked in, if we do. Anyway, well, that's my story on that. And that's and I'm sticking to it.
Current Skip Tease And Closing CTA
SPEAKER_02So Peter Peter, the wife beater, yep, got caught in Tent City in Arizona. Man, I like I said, I was just looking at the pictures and they look pretty freaking look wild, but then you know, them doing away with it was probably a bad thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, we gotta coddle the uh appeal, you know, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, well, hopefully, this next uh just skip that we're working on that skipped out on us. Hopefully uh that that'd be a good story for us to tell as soon as we can make it happen.
SPEAKER_01We know where. We know oh yeah, we know where we know where. We know it's gonna be it's gonna be uh about a 10-hour drive, but yeah, but you know what?
SPEAKER_02It's gonna be cold. I can I can tell you that too many hints. Oh well, it is cold everywhere right now. Let's keep it cold everywhere.
SPEAKER_01It's true, it is.
SPEAKER_02Even in the south, yeah, it is, but it's okay. Because we're coming. All right, guys. Well, welcome back, Chad. It's nice to see you.
SPEAKER_01It's been a uh quiet week. I've been working on my site and uh yeah, but don't worry, I called you from down there.
SPEAKER_02I had to go that long with it. I couldn't go out without talking to him, you know. Check it up, see how things were going, you know.
SPEAKER_01So we got to get back to work. We got stuff to do. We got events coming up that we're trying to put in the works, and we got places to go and people to rest and some people to get out. Absolutely. So let's wrap it up.
SPEAKER_02Hey guys, well, thank you again uh for another great episode. And hey, it's a good 2026 already starting. All right. Hi guys, what's up? T-Lady, I'm Rob, and I'm Chad. He's out. We'll see you.
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate, and review. And be sure to follow us for notifications for another exciting episode. But in the meantime, you can go to our website at www.loft.com to see more. So until next time, stay out of trouble or the video that needs to get off the look.
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