Is Patty Mayo a real bounty hunter? His videos and profession dissected
Patty Mayo is a YouTuber who catapulted to fame due to his bounty hunter series. The first season of Southland Bounty Hunters ended in early 2020, presumably due to the coronavirus pandemic. Fans of the show will be delighted to learn that Southland Bounty Hunters will return in 2022.
A preview of what to expect in the refreshed series is available on Patty Mayo’s channel. In fact, it is the first thing you see when you visit Patty’s page, indicating that he’s also excited for the series’ return.
Before the show returns, however, you can enjoy the law-enforcement content Mayo posts.
Patty Mayo is not a real bounty hunter
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a bounty hunter as someone who searches for criminals or hunts animals in exchange for a reward. Bounty hunters are legal in most states in the United States.
When a court grants an accused person bail, the defendant can pay, or if they can’t afford the sum, a bondsman guarantees payment of the money if the defendant fails to appear in court.
If a defendant absconds while on bail, the bondsman hires a bounty hunter to locate and return the fugitive – it saves him from forfeiting money to the court.
Bounty hunters draw arrest authority from the bail bondsman and receive a fee upon the return of the fugitive. Per hg.org, bounty hunters are very successful: they apprehend 90% of bail jumpers.
In his YouTube series, Patty Mayo arrests bail jumpers or repossesses property used as collateral to secure bail – much like a bounty hunter. However, Patty Mayo is not a real bounty hunter.
Per BNO News, Mayo’s videos are fictional. “Mayo does not appear to be breaking the law, and there is no indication that he has represented himself as a police officer in public,” the outlet rights. Mayo’s crew wears reflective clothing marking them out as film crew.
Mayo coordinates with police to guarantee the safety of his crew and cast
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office’s Sgt. William Bailey told KTVZ-TV that Mayo communicates to law enforcement the location, date, and time of his shoots. “So that we don’t have a situation where we have a real cop showing up at a fake law enforcement scenario,” Sgt. Bailey said.
Mayo told the outlet that his ‘intent is to create a production; it’s not to commit a crime.’ He continued:
“So that’s why before we even purchased the cars for the show, or any equipment, we sat down with the police department and said, ‘this is what we’d like to do, what do you think?’”
The Oregon State Sheriff’s Association stated it knew of Mayo and his activities. “Mr. Mayo is not a member of law enforcement, nor affiliated in any way with any sheriff’s office in Oregon,” the association’s statement read. “He is an actor, and the uniform he wears is a costume.”
The statement assured the public that the people in his videos were paid actresses and had been advised not to wear their costumes in public locations. It continued:
“Oregon law is specific in what constitutes ‘impersonating a police officer,’ and making YouTube videos with paid actors does not violate that law.”
Even if Mayo were a real bounty hunter, he would have to find another state to practice his trade: Oregon is one of four states that don’t allow bail bonds and bounty hunters. The other three are Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky.
