This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," December 29, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, GUEST HOST: Tonight, taking the law into his own hands. I'm Dana Perino, in for Greta van Susteren. Right now, you will meet Lynn Kartchner. He's an Arizona resident who is so sick of illegal immigration that he set up his own one-man, do-it-yourself border patrol. Kartchner was a friend of Rob Krentz, the Arizona rancher who was murdered on his property back in March. Griff Jenkins is on the ground bringing you the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFF JENKINS, FOX CORRESPONDENT: Here along Arizona's southern border outside of Douglas, Arizona, one of the nation's most trafficked areas for illegal human and drug smuggling, one man, Lynn Kartchner, an Army veteran from Vietnam, a retired civil servant, keeps a watchful eye day and night using only his resources. He's not a part of any militia or any affiliated group. He's not a part of the Border Patrol. He simply goes out with a few of his colleagues and tries to find illegal activity and report it to the authorities. So we traveled with only a camera to follow him on patrol to see what he could find.

Tell me, what do you do out here, and why are you doing this?

LYNN KARTCHNER, VOLUNTEER BORDER SECURITY: Well, there are a lot of gaps in the Border Patrol surveillance out here because they know they've driven most of the illegals, especially the drug smugglers, onto the ridgelines on both sides of the valley. And we're here to maintain surveillance over the bottom of the valley and to keep the people herded into those narrow corridors where they can -- where the Border Patrol can really concentrate on them.

JENKINS: And so with the high-powered night-vision scopes, you'll do hours of surveillance.

KARTCHNER: Yes, we have several of these scopes. We have two out here tonight. We will cover the area. These are 150-millimeter starlight scopes. They have a very wide field of view. And we'll make numerous full revolutions, different elevations and see if there's any activity.

And then when we're fairly sure there's nothing out there that we can report, well, then we do white light research on them. We shine the light around and disrupt their life as much as possible. We shine it up on the ridgelines on both sides of the valley. This is a 150 million candlepower arc light, and it's very well focused. It's a half degree or less dispersion. It also has infrared capabilities so that we can do active infrared surveillance without being seen. We would normally do this setup in total darkness, but that's not practical for the purposes of this interview.

JENKINS: We, of course, need some light so that we can show the viewers what's happening, and we're going to turn the light on and spend the next several hours in darkness, surveilling it. We've brought, as well, a night vision camera to try and mirror some of your efforts.

Lynn's equipment includes his personal pick-up truck. As you can see, it's got his own light, which is mounted on the back of a pick-up truck. It's hard to see over this ledge, but this is where the surveillance takes place. Here's the light that's going to be shone on trespassers, if there are any. On top, the infrared surveillance scope, as well as a 50-caliber for precautionary measures.

We're about a mile from the Mexican border, just about five miles east of Douglas, set up on the Rucker M (ph) ranch. We have a very clear view in the San Bernardino Valley. They're setting up watch. Lynn's waiting for the moon to rise to begin this evening's patrol. Lynn maintains watch on five ranches in the area. He has yet to cause a big bust, but he sees all kinds of illegal activities on his patrols. He says he does it out of the goodness and service of his heart.

We spoke to the Border Patrol on the phone off-camera, who told us that they appreciate citizens' input, surveillance like Lynn's, as long as Lynn doesn't actually take matters into his own hands and simply notifies the Border Patrol when he sees illegal activity.

Clyde, you work security on some of these ranches. On this particular ranch we're doing surveillance tonight, there have been burglaries. There's a sense of safety. Tell me about that.

CLYDE SLIGER, VOLUNTEER BORDER SECURITY: Well, over the last few years, the illegals coming from Mexico have broken into this particular ranch house at least four times, tearing the doors off the hinges, breaking into windows, stealing everything they can put their hands on. The family finally had to get security bars all around the house. It's like living -- having to live in a jail, which is not the fault of the family but I think a failing of security on our borders.

JENKINS: It's a few hours from dawn now. Lynn realizes that his bright beam certainly gives away his location of surveillance. However, after spending several hours through the night surveilling things, even with the Border Patrol actually on operation not far from here, he's pretty sure that his light will serve as a deterrent for any other foot or drug-smuggling trafficking in the area. Lynn, we didn't see anything tonight. It'll be dawn soon. What do you make of it?

KARTCHNER: I think we've lit up and beat up the area enough here that we're not going to see anything else. So it's time to pack it up and go home. But we can say that at this place tonight, no criminal activity happened.

JENKINS: What's your message to the cartel guys on the other side of that border may be watching us?

KARTCHNER: Well, this is our country, and we're not giving it up; not without a fight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)