- I love playing hide-and-seek.
Some people would say I love it too much,
but I disagree.
It's the job of a bounty hunter to chase criminals
who are hiding, so today, I'm meeting a bounty hunter
and challenging him to a dangerous game of hide-and-seek.
(suspenseful music)
What does a bounty hunter do?
- 50% paperwork and investigative work and
50% is out on the field.
What I mean by out on the field is
I'm out there chasing people.
If we get a case, it's regarding a bail skip,
somebody that's been bonded out of jail
and they did not show up to court.
So, what we have to do is we go out, do surveillance
then apprehend that person and bring them back to jail.
- What are some of the more intense
cases that you've covered?
- The guy was 25 years old.
He happened to be with his mom.
The mom had a pepper spray keychain.
Pepper-sprayed me while I'm arresting her son,
tackling him on the ground, rolling around and
at that time, I only had handcuffs on me,
nothing else, because it was undercover.
- So, I want to challenge you to catch me.
I'm gonna go on the run.
I'm gonna get an hour head start and then
you and your team can chase me.
- Challenge accepted.
- Because you're a bounty hunter and I expect you
to break into my apartment,
I'm just gonna give you a key to my apartment.
Don't go in my roommate's room.
If you get close enough to see me,
you can chase me and your job is to put me in handcuffs.
- If you make me run, I'm gonna tackle you.
- At the end of the six-hour chase,
if you don't have me in handcuffs, I win.
- Then, I'll buy you dinner.
- Oh! Can we be friends?
- Of course.
If you're gonna challenge me to catch you,
I'm gonna catch you as soon as possible.
- I don't understand how you're gonna catch me
if you don't know where I'm going.
- This is how bounty hunters work and
if you want to find out, just wait til Friday.
- What I didn't tell the bounty hunter was
I spent the last two weeks preparing my escape.
(dramatic music)
I've done lots of research and found that most criminals
are caught when they reach out to their family,
a friend or a lover, therefore,
I will not be reaching out to my family, friends or lover.
I look like an alien right now.
I'm not happy about it but I think it's going to help me
get away from this bounty hunter.
(suspenseful music)
There's a few more things I have to do before I leave.
I'm going to be putting on this muscle shirt
to make me look beefier.
I'm going to be wearing my glasses all day.
There's no photos of me on social media wearing my glasses.
I'm going to be leaving my cell phone so that
no one can track my phone.
When the bounty hunter arrives at my apartment,
he's going to find several clues.
There's no way in hell this guy's going to capture me.
(intense dramatic music)
(taser clicking)
- We're gonna go to his house first,
then we're gonna see if we can tap into the cameras
that surround his building,
see which way he walked off or what he did.
We also posted his picture on Facebook.
The Sheriff's Department, we have contacts with them,
so we sent them your picture.
We're just going to have everybody in the community
try to help us locate Mike.
(intense suspenseful music)
- My first move was to run straight for the subway.
I knew if anyone was following me in a car,
they wouldn't be allowed to bring their car on the subway.
Next, I offered $20 cash to an off-duty Lyft driver
to give me a ride out of the area.
It's 10:00, so my one-hour head start is over.
We are now just getting on the highway.
I feel very confident that we're going to escape.
(intense dramatic music)
10 minutes into the hunt,
the bounty hunter will receive a text message
from an unknown phone number.
- [Sako] We did receive a clue.
Now, it's up to us to decipher that.
He basically made it look like a code.
- That unknown phone number is a clue that I had written
and given to a co-worker of mine at Buzzfeed.
- [Sako] "We eat sushi tonight."
- The first four letters of those words spell "west."
Was I going west?
He would have to find out.
We were in the taxi for about a half hour.
Now, we are, I don't know,
maybe 30 miles outside of Los Angeles.
I had the Lyft driver drop me off two blocks away
from a special effects make-up artist.
She and I had been speaking for the past two weeks
about putting prosthetic pieces on my face
to make me look like a completely different person.
- Mike reached out to me a couple weeks ago to do
a disguise make-up for him and so I thought the best
approach would be definitely using prosthetic application.
Those elements, while still subtle,
will definitely do a lot to change his appearance.
(suspenseful music)
(knocking)
- Fugitive Recovery, we're coming in.
(dramatic music)
He loves clues.
(dramatic music)
- [Mike] Clue number two had two parts.
Part One was
"What is part of your eye that is also a type of flower?"
The second part of the clue is,
"What white watery substance is found
"on the ground in the winter?"
- What part of your eye that is also a type of flower?
So, with that being said,
I actually texted one of my friends that's an optician
and he's actually also a bounty hunter as well,
so he's gonna know that for sure
and let me know what that is.
- The answer to Part One is iris.
The answer to Part Two is snow.
Take the first letter of both of those words
and you get "is."
Clue Number One: West.
Clue Number Two: Is.
- Iris freeze.
Iris--
Let's look up places called Iris.
There's Iris Cafe.
- Throughout our investigation, talking to the roommate,
the roommate believes that he's in his vehicle.
At least we have a vehicle to look out for.
- Let's head out to the girlfriend's address right now,
see if she knows anything or if his car is there,
or if there's any clues or whatever.
- [Keaghlan] So, first, I use a medical grade adhesive
to glue the pieces onto his face.
So, I go ahead and apply a set of brow prosthetics.
From there, I go ahead and apply the chin prosthetic.
(dramatic music)
- Mike doesn't seem very smart, so Iris?
- Then, the bounty hunter received another text message
from an unknown phone number.
This was another co-worker of mine from Buzzfeed
who offered to help out.
- I sent it, so now, a bounty hunter has my number.
I hope he's cute.
- Where rich and old nincompoops go.
(dramatic music)
Something having to do with iris.
- Take the first letter of each of those words
and you get "wrong."
Clue Number One: west.
Clue Number Two: is.
Clue Number Three: wrong.
Therefore, I'm going east.
(suspenseful music)
- [Sako] So nobody's home right now.
It's not working.
- She's probably working during the day.
A lot of older people like to play Bingo.
- Whatever letter had a period in front of it,
I just put it together and it spelled "west."
Searching on Yelp, Iris and West Lastro came up.
It's actually an eyebrow place.
- The smallest lead can also be the biggest lead.
- Yep.
- [Keaghlan] I then apply the top and bottom lip prosthetic.
Once I'm done with the application,
I go around and blend all of the edges to make sure
that it blends completely into his skin.
Once I'm done with that, I then go in with a red tone
to create the under-blood tone and the flesh
to blend it into the rest of his skin.
- We just did a quick background again on him
to find out other possible addresses with his phone number
and we got a hit on an address that's linked to
his phone number and his name,
so we're just going to go and check that out.
(suspenseful music)
- We are locked out.
Let's see if we can get in from another door.
- While she's opening, let's rush.
Let's go.
Oh, perfect, let's go.
- There's a package at the front door.
It comes back to Rachel.
Different last name.
This is an old address,
so that's what we determined by coming here.
- We just give up his old address and then,
afterwards, if we can't find anything from over there,
we'll sit out his apartment and
try to figure out how he left.
(suspenseful music)
- [Keaghlan] Then I go in with various levels of flesh tone.
From there, I apply a set of eyebrows
and after that, he's done and ready to go.
(suspenseful music)
- There's only an hour left in this chase.
The bounty hunter has no idea where we are.
I've been very successful in not giving him
any clues in the right direction.
- (bleep) why didn't I put the track
on his (bleep) car, man?
- Because I don't think this bounty hunter is
anywhere close to catching me,
I'm gonna put myself as close to him as possible,
so the best way I figured I could do that was
by replacing his interns with myself.
I will be filming him, with my disguise on
and I will claim to be a freelance videographer.
I'm gonna put on a slight accent.
I'm gonna talk a little bit differently.
I'm gonna use a different body posture and
I'm gonna try to make him think that I'm someone else.
If he doesn't figure out that it's me,
I win.
(suspenseful music)
All right, so we are a block away
from the bounty hunter right now.
There's about 15 minutes left in the hunt.
The whole day could be completely ruined.
He could put me in handcuffs in three seconds,
or, for the next 15 minutes,
I could convince him I am someone else.
So, I'm gonna be putting on an accent and
we're gonna see what happens.
(suspenseful music)
Then, the bounty hunter received a fourth clue
from an unknown phone number.
- All right, Mike, this is kind of weird.
I'm not gonna lie.
(suspenseful music)
- [Emily] Sako, this is Other Mike.
- Other Mike?
Nice to meet you.
- [Emily] Emily.
Nice to meet you.
Apparently, Mike just sent Sako another clue.
So, let's go ahead and get him miked up so
he can read that last clue right quick.
Let me go call Jen real quick and see if maybe
we can extend a little bit.
- Okay.
Check one, two, check.
- Okay, okay.
(suspenseful music)
- "Your shadow is attractive."
We're gonna have to like, decrypt it and
try to figure out what it means.
(suspenseful music)
Let's check that parking lot real quick.
(intense suspenseful music)
If he is, if he's here, he's gonna be on the highest level.
Don't you think so?
So, Mike just sent us the last clue right now.
It's already been seven hours and
it's already 4:00 right now.
But, he sent an interesting text.
It said, "Your shadow is attractive,"
which leads us to believe he's actually
watching us as well.
So, right now, we're going to take the next few
minutes we have and we're gonna look around
the area real quick and see if we can try to find him.
(intense dramatic music)
- One thing is wrong with your microphone.
- What is it?
- Can I try this?
- Yeah, go ahead.
All good?
Is it better now?
- One final thing.
I'm Mike.
- I knew it!
- I knew it was him with this freaking face!
Dude, I knew it, man.
We were talking about it so much.
I was like, why does this guy have--
- Guys--
- He stopped for a minute before you even came,
he was like, Dude, look at his face.
- I was like, this is Hollywood.
This guy's probably a (bleep) weirdo.
(laughing)
- It's funny.
I'm wearing a muscle shirt right now.
I had--
- Dude, no way!
I'm, like, (bleep) with you!
Oh my God!
This (bleep) guy.
I knew it!
(lush orchestral music)
- Those were a tense last few minutes.
- And as soon as you basically shook my hand
and said you're Mike,
I literally wanted to punch you in the face.
- Thank you for not punching me in the face.
My weakness is my cockiness.
I could have easily stayed in La Puente,
and you never would have found me.
- Oh, definitely.
- But, I chose to really challenge your skills
and get up in your face.
So, I learned, being a fugitive is miserable
because you can not talk to your friends,
you can not talk to your family,
you can not talk to your lover.
It's not a fun life.
What I think is so interesting is your only weakness
as a bounty hunter is that you're too kind.
- I'm not, especially when you say it's freelancers
and their interns or like, even if they're interns.
I'm not gonna be rude and be like,
"Hey, give me your ID."
Because, first of all, like it wasn't them who
signed up for this.
I'm not gonna.
I could have pressured them, but then I don't know
what kind of buttons I'd be pushing on that guy.
Then, I would have to deal with him.
I could have offended him very easily.
- Right, right.
- It was perfect.
I'm not gonna lie.
- Thank you.
You owe me a dinner.
- We're taking you to Korean barbecue, my favorite spot.
- Can we bring our girlfriends?
- Who knows what we're gonna do?
Maybe we could be great friends after this.
- [Mike] When we go on a double date with our girlfriends,
what if I dress up as my girlfriend and
she dressed up as me?
- [Sako] That would be great, that would be great.