The bondsmen were working on behalf of two bond recovery companies, NorthStar Fugitive Recovery and Delta One Tactical Recovery, police said, and appeared to have acted on an unconfirmed tip on the suspect's location from social media.
– Asking for tips on social media isn't the most reliable way to track down a fugitive, as 11 armed bounty hunters found out the hard way in Phoenix on Tuesday night. They converged on a home around 10pm only to discover, after a confrontation, that it was the residence of Police Chief Joseph Yahner, the LA Times reports. Police say that when they were called to Yahner's address, they found employees of NorthStar Fugitive Recovery and Delta One Tactical Recovery surrounding the home, with one man banging on the door with a weapon and ordering the chief to come out, the Arizona Republic reports. Police video of the incident shows the furious chief emerging in his underwear to confront the men. Brent Farley, the owner of NorthStar, was arrested on charges of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, reports the LA Times. The bounty hunters were seeking a drug fugitive from Oklahoma who, unlike the chief of police, is black and weighs 310 pounds. The bounty hunters followed an "unconfirmed tip," police say, and Reuters reports that NorthStar had asked for tips earlier in the day on its Facebook page, which has apparently now been taken down. The former president of the Arizona Bail Bondsmen Association tells the Republic that such mistakes are the result of weak state laws for bail bondsmen that allow anyone to act like "John Wayne all day long, without any education or training." (In June, country singer Randy Howard was killed in a gunfight with a bounty hunter.)