How Bounty Hunters Got Fugitive Heir

ByABC News via logo
June 19, 2003, 8:54 AM

June 19 -- For six months, bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman was consumed with hunting down fugitive cosmetics heir Andrew Luster.

"We've been researching for him. We have ate, slept and drank this person for six months. I've hardly seen my husband. He missed Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day," his partner and wife, Beth Smith, told Good Morning America today.

Smith, a bounty hunter herself who often works with "Dog," said the long hours were worth it to catch Luster, an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune who was convicted in absentia of drugging and raping several women.

"I couldn't be happier that Andrew Luster is in custody. Dog did a very good job. He worked very, very hard."

In the course of their investigation, Chapman's team assembled a "scrapbook" of material on Luster, including information from police, Luster's victims, and even cosmetic surgeons.

Smith said the hunt cost Chapman thousands from his own pocket, in the hopes of collecting the $150,000 reward.

"I love what I do and am honest with what I do and I don't get paid unlessI catch a guy. So I must catch the guy," Chapman told GMA in an interview conducted at the height of the search for Luster.

Dramatic End for Long Search

Chapman's work finally paid off when he received a phone tip after he appeared on television discussing the case.

"A young man had been on vacation in Puerto Vallarta and said, 'Hey look I think I partied with this guy,'" Smith said.

She said once they verified the information, Chapman jumped on a plane to Mexico and staked out his target.

He finally grabbed Luster in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday.

Luster was apprehended on an open street as bystanders called police. Unable to sort out who was who in the fracas, authorities jailed Luster, as well as Chapman, his two sons, and a two-man television crew which included a Hollywood actor named Boris Krutonog.

Chapman apparently used his preferred method of subduing a target: a "fire extinguisher-size" can of pepper spray.