Where Mercy Is Shown, Mercy Is Given - Duane Dog Chapman [54]
The more business we did together, the more money we made. I often teased Mary Ellen about her older model Toyota, until one day I told her it was time to get a new car. Bondsmen and bounty hunters drive their cars into the ground faster than most people because we put so many miles on the vehicle so quickly. I kept pushing Mary Ellen to come down to the dealership with me to check out a car, but she wasn’t all that interested. About a week or two after I suggested she get a new car, she finally agreed to see what I was making all the fuss over. I had picked out a real beauty for her. It was a particularly slow day at her office, so we headed down to the dealership for a test drive. The manager and his salesman met us at the door.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m Dog the Bounty Hunter. I’m the guy you saw in the newspaper last week.” The owner recognized me right away. He rolled out the red carpet for us. He told Mary Ellen to figure out what she liked and he’d make it happen. Mary Ellen looked at every car in the showroom like she was inspecting racehorses before the Kentucky Derby. She kicked the tires, sat in the driver’s seat, opened the trunk, and looked under the hood of every single car. She finally settled on the car I’d originally picked out for her, a maroon Coupe de Ville. She handed over cash for her down payment and drove off the lot in her brand-new car with a smile as big as the Colorado River across her face.
I called her the next day to see how she was enjoying her new ride. I was so excited for her, you would have thought I was the one with the new car.
“It’s great! It’s the nicest car I’ve ever owned. I got up and wrote six bonds this morning.” I could tell she was ecstatic and that made me feel pretty good too. A couple of days later, Mary Ellen called to tell me the dealership was taking the car back, saying it had something to do with her financing. She told them to get screwed, pointing out she’d already signed the contract and the first payment had been paid. The financing was now their problem and not hers. I felt so bad thinking she was about to lose her car, I started giving her discounts on my fees so she would be able to make her car payments. When I reminded her of this story recently, she burst out into uncontrollable laughter.
“Dog honey, that never happened. I was joking with you. For Christ’s sake, what dealership would have let me keep the car if that were true? They call that grand theft auto, honey!” I had to laugh because I always thought that she’d held onto the car in spite of them wanting it back. Yes, Mary Ellen…you got me!
I was truly grateful for the work Mary Ellen threw my way. I paid her back by returning every single one of her fugitives. Well, almost.
Back in 1986, a guy named Michael Volosin and his wife got into an argument with their neighbor David Guenther on the doorstep of the Guenther home, about a party at Volosin’s earlier that night that had gotten loud and out of control. The conversation escalated and began to get very heated. Guenther pulled out a gun and shot the Volosins, killing the wife with a bullet to the heart, wounding Michael in the thigh and wrist, and accidentally shooting a neighbor, who was injured from catching a round in the abdomen during the shooting.
Although Guenther claimed self-defense, saying he feared for his and his family’s life, the cops arrested him. Mary Ellen posted the ten-thousand-dollar bond for Guenther. She had a bad feeling about him from the start, but she wrote the bond anyway.
Guenther’s case was the first time the “Make My Day” defense would be tested. This was a landmark law in Colorado that protects people from any criminal charge or civil suit if they use force—including deadly force—against an invader of their home.