The target in an infidelity case traveled out of town often for business. The private detective had a contract with an out-0f-state colleague to conduct surveillance on the target while he was out-of-town, (in the private investigators home town). After four nights of surveillance, the private detective had nothing showing infidelity, but something didn't feel quite right, you know that gut feeling.
The target left town and the private detective decided to review his surveillance video he had taken over the past few days. There were hours of video as he would follow the target from his business visits back to his hotel then sit and wait to see if he would re-emerge. After reviewing the video completely through, something still did not seem quite right. He decided to watch the video's once more when he began to see a pattern. Target would arrive at the hotel, use the valet to park his rental car then go into the hotel. Over the four days of surveillance, the private detective noticed another man would exit the motel after his target arrived at the motel. He timed the appearances of the second man noted that were all within one hour of the the target's arrival. He also compared the height, weight, and build of the target to the second man. Primary difference? The second man had a beard. You guessed it, being suspicious he was being surveilled, the target donned a disguise when he left the hotel. A few weeks later when the target returned, the private detective observed the "second man" emerge from the hotel an hour after the target arrived. He followed the second man and within a few blocks he emerged at another hotel with no beard. It was his target. He got great video of the man meeting a woman in the lobby of the second hotel. Upon further investigation he found the man was renting two hotel rooms, changing in the first, putting on his disguise then traveling to the second hotel to meet. Case solved.
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A retail client called and wanted an investigation into a ghost they were seeing on a surveillance camera at about the same time early each morning. Yep, a ghost! I was intrigued to say the least, not being a ghost hunter, but being very curious, I agreed to have a look at the footage. Taking a look at the footage there was clearly a white blob that would move across the video from right to left, pause, then move backwards disappearing from view. Footage was from overnight when no one was there. So I set up one of my cameras and let it run overnight. Store footage showed the white blob. My camera footage showed nothing. After a few nights I decided to locate my camera to the same location as the business surveillance camera. When reviewing the footage the next day I saw the same blob. I noticed that the image appeared at roughly the same time, early in the morning between 5:30 and 6:15 am. My curiosity was peaked even further. I decided, with the approval of my client, because they were as curious as I was, to conduct surveillance. I set myself up at 4:45 am just to be ready. With a thermos of coffee I settled in and waited. Using my remote viewer I kept watch looking for the ghost. At 5:45am it appeared. I quickly looked to the area where the cameras were pointed but could see anything. I did hear a trash truck at the neighboring business emptying a dumpster. Yep, you guessed it. The headlights on the trash truck were creating a reflection on the lenses. Guess I can add ghost hunter to my resume'? No, probably not:-) An attorney handling a divorce case called me to conduct surveillance on the husband. Suspicions were he was having an affair.
Here is some background on the case: Wife had contacted the attorney about her suspicions about her husband having an affair. She had not told her husband that she was working on a divorce. The attorney said she was not convinced she would file for a divorce unless he was cheating on her. Financial difficulties had plagued the couple recently as they both had been laid off and had taken much lower paying jobs to keep paying the bills. Attorney said they were barely making it. Surveillance begins: I received the information about the husband in an email from the attorney that included his place of employment, list of absences from the home at night over the last few weeks, and a few pictures of the husband and his vehicle. I researched the home and work locations, did a few drive-by’s to get a feel for possible travel routes, etc. Your normal surveillance prep. A big box retail store hired me to catch a thief. They’d determined that somewhere between the goods being off loaded at the dock and where the products hit the store shelves someone was helping themselves. In my experience it was going to be an employee. My job wasn’t made any easier as the typical store manager response when they believe they have an employee stealing is to tell all the employees, “We know someone has been stealing and we are going to be keeping a close eye on the inventory.” Of course the manager is hoping that whoever is stealing will stop. It didn’t work. I like stupid criminals that don't get the message. It was a typical workers compensation investigation where the target, a factory worker, had been a back injury from a work related incident. The doctor’s report stated he could not lift over 20lbs. My client, the insurance company, wanted to see if the target might be faking the injury or working other jobs while away from work. I gathered the typical information; home address, internet research on target, and I scoped out his neighborhood to identify potential driving routes and surveillance locations. Then I set up a surveillance schedule and went to work. |
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July 2018
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