The Hunt for Rick Sanchez
O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, I'm just a little winded. I've been running from the law. I'm hiding out here at the CNN Center. I'm going to change my identity right now. There. How's that?</s>PHILLIPS: Proof that CNN reporters make lousy fugitives from the law.</s>O'BRIEN: All right, Rick Sanchez -- and we're having a little fun at his expense. But he did try a little experiment. He tried to run from the law, and he met up with Lola.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good girl.</s>RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to Man Tracker 2005 in the woods of Coweta County, Georgia, where local police and state agencies brush up every year on the very techniques that could save lives, maybe their own. Among the techniques, tracking and finding a fugitive.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We call it a traffic stop just like a normal traffic stop would be. At the point we get stopped, once I step out of the vehicle to make contact with the driver, you guys will bail out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USB-589, Kelly command post. (ph)</s>SANCHEZ: In Georgia law enforcement terms, what you are about to see is called a "bush bomb," a routine traffic stop that suddenly turns into a man hunt when the suspects bolt. Trooper Tony Hightower (ph) says it happens more often than we think.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know why they are running, number one. It may be a murder suspect. It may be they don't have driver's license. They may have beer in the car. It may be something as simple as that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wayne, could you -- get you about two or 300 feet above.</s>SANCHEZ: The exercise is going to be conducted just like the real thing. There will be two suspects. The first, Phil Kirksy (ph) who happens to be a real corrections officer and experienced tracker. The second, the next person they could find, me, a television correspondent with a bit of curiosity and a willingness to not take himself too seriously. After getting pulled, over the troopers mounted camera catches us making a run for it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's haul ass.</s>SANCHEZ: My handycam recorded the get away. The dense Georgia woods would seem to any suspect, a perfect hiding place.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two white males, bush bomb.</s>SANCHEZ: As we run through the woods, Trooper Hightower does not give chase. Experience and training tell him that would be the wrong thing to do. His job is to set up a perimeter.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. 10-4. You got 10-77?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4, 911</s>SANCHEZ: He calls for more units, a helicopter and, what may be the best weapon of all, a bloodhound.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And also need any K-9 units in the area.</s>SANCHEZ: Back in the woods, we're still running. The feeling of being hunted creates a sensation of both desperation and confusion.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that comes to mind right away is, you figure they're looking at you, and they got a good look at you when you tried to get out of the car. So, if you could somehow change your appearance, you might be able to throw them off. One of the keys is to just take off whatever clothes you have, and just leave it behind, and take off.</s>SANCHEZ: After running through the woods and into a clearing, we hear the first sounds of the helicopter.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear the chopper. We want to stay out of this clearing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, girl.</s>SANCHEZ: While we're looking for another place to hide, the tracking team arrives.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dog will find him within 20.</s>SANCHEZ: As we run, we're shedding millions of cells. Think of it as a constant trail of microscopic pieces of your own skin. It is undetectable to us, but for Lola -- she's the bloodhound -- it is easy pickings.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right through there.</s>SANCHEZ: And she picks up our scent almost immediately. But it's a helicopter that still has us worried at this point.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to find our way to an area over here that is covered. We think they won't be ale to see us here, because there's no way the helicopter can spot us. This looks open here, but the tree cover above us might possibly block out the helicopter. This would be the best bet right here.</s>SANCHEZ: So the idea then is to try to hunker down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunker down and wait it out.</s>SANCHEZ: That's when Phil spots the tracking team on our heels.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see the dogs coming. Get down. They are coming to us. We got nowhere to go.</s>SANCHEZ: What I'm going to do now is try and separate myself from the other suspect, figuring, by separating the scents, the dogs that are chasing us will get confused, and they won't be bale to find me. Heading off on my own turns out to be the right move. Phil is immediately captured.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see your hands.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I give up!</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Good girl.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't shoot, I give up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get him, girl. You can get up, boy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, don't shoot. I'm getting up.</s>SANCHEZ: It's taken Lola just six minutes to find her first fugitive. And, now, she has picked up the next human scent: mine. I'm figuring they already got the other suspect. I'm going to see how long I can stay on the run before they find me. By continuing to run I seem to be able to stay ahead of the trackers, but what I can't do is run away from the sound of the helicopter blades. They are in the woods. You know you are being hunted. You really don't know which direction to go in. You just -- your instincts will tell you, don't go in a clearing because they'll see you, and the best you can do is try and confuse the dogs so they can't pick up your scent. Figuring if I can get away across this creek, I might be able to... But it's probably me who is confused. I follow some railroad tracks hoping to find a way out. Instead, I spot what I think will be a decent hiding place. I found a highway overpass. I figure if I can get a little slot underneath this thing, the helicopter won't be able to see me. But Lola is relentless. I don't realize it but she is getting closer. Now I've hunkered down, hoping to wait them out. Here's a little corner I'm tucked into. Nothing but concrete barriers and dirtdaubers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show your hands! Good girl.</s>SANCHEZ: You found my spot, huh? Well, I guess this is where guys would normally hide out, right?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, this and anywhere else they can. As long as we keep tracking you, and they keep you pinned down as a team effort, it's hard to get away.</s>SANCHEZ: My brief career as a fugitive is over. Fifteen to 20 minutes after finding Phil, Lola's nose and trainer Matt Gorely's (ph) experience proved unbeatable. Even my tricks didn't work, not even crossing the creek. I'm told it was neither deep enough nor wide enough to hide my scent.</s>SANCHEZ: So, no matter how many circles I did out there in the woods, eventually these bloodhounds are going to get my scent.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to stay out there with them.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, they never give up. That's the thing about them. They run. They run until we get tired.</s>SANCHEZ: Lola goes back in her cage, and if I had been a real fugitive, I would be off to jail. Rick Sanchez, CNN, Newnan, Georgia.</s>O'BRIEN: I hope Lola got a little treat there. You know, one thing Rick should not do on the Coolhand Rick do, he shouldn't do that hard-boiled egg eating contest. I don't think that would be very good for him.</s>PHILLIPS: Got to give credit to the photographer. We forgot to do that.</s>O'BRIEN: Rick. He shot it him himself.</s>PHILLIPS: He was holding the camera the whole time?</s>O'BRIEN: Well, a lot of that was just him doing this, you know, yes.</s>PHILLIPS: Really. That's the next part. Well, that's the best line was, "My days of being a fugitive are over."</s>O'BRIEN: Well, I was thinking a next assignment for him would be to put him in a chain gang and see if he could escape. Maybe we can do that. We'll keep you posted. Time for us to take a break.</s>PHILLIPS: We'll be right back.</s>O'BRIEN: Don't be fugitive to us now. Come back.