Duane "Dog" Chapman and his wife, Beth, the bounty-hunting stars of two TV series, "Dog The Bounty Hunter" on A&E and "Dog and Beth: On the Hunt" on CMT, visited Bay Minette this week, according to an Instagram post. Both shows are now in reruns.
On Sunday, Beth Chapman posted a photo of the Bay Minette water tower with the comment "Sweet Home Alabama." Then, Monday, she posted a photo of herself and her husband with Baldwin County District Attorney Robert Wilters in Wilters's office.
She called Wilters an "amazing man," and said he is "now the DA of Bay Minette where my office is."
In April of 2015, the Chapmans signed a year-long lease on storefront office space along Courthouse Square in Bay Minette for their Da Kine Bail Bonds, headquartered in Honolulu. Dog's son, Leland B. Chapman, was to run the Alabama office. The website for Da Kine Bail Bonds does not list a Bay Minette location.
Both licensed bondsmen, the couple, along with several of their family members, became famous for finding and apprehending defendants who violated their bail agreements. According to his website, Dog has captured more than 10,000 fugitives in his 35-plus-year career.
On Tuesday afternoon, Wilters said the Chapmans stopped by his office Monday "to tell me they're thinking about opening a business in Baldwin County, and also to talk about some of the bail bond bills that are going through the Alabama Legislature and the problems that they have seen with similar laws that have been passed in other states."
Wilters said that sheriff's offices and municipal police departments "don't have enough manpower" to bring defendants to court anymore, resulting in 40 percent failure-to-appear rates in some jurisdictions. "The bail bond companies are the ones that go out and get these people now," he said.
Beth Chapman recently underwent surgery for Stage 2 throat cancer. Her ordeal was documented in the A&E special, "Dog and Beth: Fight of their Lives," which aired on Nov. 27, 2017.
The hashtags at the end of her Instagram post -#alabama, #dogandbeth, #nextchapter, #aetv" and "yaneverknow" - hint at something to come for the couple in Alabama.
This story was edited Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, at 10:49 p.m. to add comments from Baldwin County District Attorney Robert Wilters.