Bail Bondsman Takes Job In Stride
Richard Hensley
Published: March 2, 2008
SEBRING — Imagine that you spent the night in jail after driving drunk and needed a wad of cash for bail. Or maybe a creditor or attorney is searching for you and wants you in court. Either of these examples might conclude in a meeting with Rodney Elinor.
He can be the first person you want to see — or the last. And sometimes he's both. That depends on how you conduct business.
Elinor, owner of Rodney Elinor Process and Bail Bonds, has seen it all in more than 10 years. But his business is all about using brains, not brawn.
"If he's going to be immature and cuss you out, let him …," Elinor said in his soft-spoken style about serving papers to individuals. "When I serve you a small claims summons, that's the last step. They've tried everything to contact you and you're just avoiding them."
Elinor, who grew up in Haines City, said serving papers usually is not a big deal, and that he's never had someone turn on him during the process. That doesn't mean it's a happy time to reminisce, either, he said, but they usually understand what's happening.
Process serving takes Elinor to a lot of places, and he learned early on that using his brain saves him a lot of time and effort. The best time to find people is either early in the morning or later in the evening. Those hours aren't conducive to a normal private life, but it goes with the business, he said.
"If I have the paper to serve and I go to your house four different times … how many times before that $25 per page is gone?" he said about his fee. "So you really have to work smart, not hard."
Besides work he does for local attorneys, he also works for attorneys and clients from all over Florida, and even the country. If someone, say, needs papers served on a person in this region, Elinor will handle it. If someone from Highlands County needs papers served on someone in another state, Elinor has contacts with process servers everywhere to make sure the job gets done.
No 'Dog' In This Bail Bondsman
Bonding people out of jail came later in his profession, and Elinor said he's picky about accepting customers. He wants to know his client will show up for a court date, and that he doesn't have to go looking for him.
To make sure his investment pays off, before he'll pay your bail for a percentage fee, he wants to know about friends, family members, phone numbers and addresses. He wants collateral, too.
"If something happens and he fails to appear, I'm coming to you," he said about family members of his client. "If he misses court and we get him back in jail, you're relieved of that responsibility."
The TV show "Dog the Bounty Hunter" is a million miles away from what Elinor does for a living. There are no hot pursuits with a platinum mullet twisting in the wind as he wrestles a bad guy to the ground. In fact, in Florida, bounty hunting is illegal. But as a bail bondsman, he has the right to arrest a client for failure to appear. And Elinor's done that.
"I make my pickups in high-profile places like a restaurant," he said. "Honestly, though, I don't have that many failure to appears. For every 40 to 50 people I have one. It could just be a misunderstanding."
Bail bonding is a tough job, though. Calls come at all hours to get people out of jail, with the busiest times being from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Elinor said he's choosy about who he bails out, and he has a code of ethics he follows.
"If I know a guy's in jail and he raped a woman, I wouldn't bond him out," Elinor said. "But I haven't run across that yet."
Life On The Edge?
So what does a process server/bail bondsman do to unwind in the little free time he has? Elinor enjoys riding his Harley Davidson or going flying. He recently earned his private pilot's license and enjoys cruising high above the Florida landscape.
Some people might think he enjoys danger, but he doesn't necessarily see it that way.
"My girlfriend says I live life on the edge," Elinor said. "Maybe, but I've never had anything handed to me, and I've always made it on my own. I don't know the word quit. I don't know the term 'It can't be done.'''
The former sand miner from Polk County has now grown his business and hired people to assist him. Even with that help, the hours are long and the job is difficult.
"I've laid in bed many nights wondering why I work the hours I do," Elinor said. "The only thing I can figure is that I like my job."
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Don't take it personal, Leland. It's just that with the TV renegades calling themselves bounty hunters, we tend to shy away from the name.