CHRISTIAN Diez was born to be a bail-bond agent. His mother worked as an agent in Miami, and by the time he was 8, he knew he wanted to follow in her footsteps. The money was good, and he liked the idea of putting bad guys in jail while giving others a chance to get back on the right road.
Bail-bond agents get people out of jail after they’re arrested, typically at a family member’s request. The agent’s task is to secure the bond using the family’s assets as collateral and then get the prisoner before a judge and out of jail as quick as he can.
The bail, of course, is the guarantee that they’ll return for court dates. Most do – but not all, and that’s where bond agents really earn their money. They have to hunt down anyone who skips out.
Diez started in the field in Miami at 21. He moved north three years later, passed the New York state bail-bond test and got his license. He started working at Triple AAA Bail Bonds on Sheridan Avenue in The Bronx, a few blocks from the Bronx courthouses, and worked up to vice president.
Now 29, Diez owns an apartment in Astoria, but is rarely there. He’s on call 24 hours a day, putting in 80 hours a week going to courts and jails or on stakeouts hunting down bail-skippers. He’d like to have a girlfriend, but so far the grueling schedule hasn’t left much time for romance.
In between court appearances on a recent afternoon, Diez met with The Post to talk about his life and work.
My mother inspired me to do this job. She was a good bond agent.
I knew I had to come to New York because it’s the city with a lot of money and enough criminals so there’s always work.
My job starts as soon as I wake up. I travel from court to court to try and make bail for people in jail. I go everywhere in New York state.
How it starts is the family comes to us, and we tell them to bring at least two people we can use as indemnifiers. They sign on and are liable. If a person skips, we have the right to kick down the door of anyone who’s signed the bond.
If the judge gives bail, we get the release order and go to the jail where the person is being held. In New York City, that’s usually Rikers Island or VCBC, the barge-boat jail out in Hunts Point in The Bronx. We give the release order to the correction officer and tell the defendant he has 24 hours to report to our office. We don’t take them home. They get a MetroCard from Legal Aid for that.
Seventy percent of our clients are good, and they report to us weekly and make all their court appearances. The other 30 percent we have to go out and get. I take a team of two or three bounty hunters with me. We wear bulletproof vests, we carry mace and police batons, and if we’re licensed, we carry firearms.
What works best is persistence. I don’t give up, and that alone wears criminals down. They know I’m right behind them. I don’t punch a clock, so they know I can show up anywhere at any time. You get his habits – you find where the person goes, who he hangs out with.
If we’re hunting an extremely dangerous felon, we go to the local precinct and ask for backup. The cops treat us real good, because everyone wants to get the bad guy.