Surveillance

• Cheating Spouse/Partners.
• Lifestyle Investigations – Discreet checking on the mode of living of a family member or other person.
• Fraud Investigations – Surveillance on persons suspected of fraud, theft, or other misconduct.
• Business Investigations – Checking on a business partner, competitor, associate, or sub-contractor.
• Family Law Investigations – Checking on suitability of a parent, possible negligent supervision of children, or violation of court orders.

Family Law Investigations

Information is provided to help determine the suitability of a parent, possible negligent supervision of children, or a violation such as “no drinking or drug use” ordered by the courts.

Lifestyle Investigation

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that sometimes people we care about become estranged. Lifestyle Investigations are highly discreet checks on the mode of living, activities, and acquaintances of a family member or other person. The purpose is to discreetly gather facts about this person through surveillance. We covertly and legally gather photos and video of the person and their activities. We may also conduct a background investigation to determine legal or financial problems.

The most common reason we are hired for this type of matter is because of concerns over possible at-risk behavior like drugs, alcohol, and association with dangerous, criminal, or abusive persons. Concerns over the mental health of distant family members may be another reason. You may simply want to know the truth about a person who is far away. A lifestyle investigation will supply you with information to help you make an educated decision regarding these matters.

Although some people might feel awkward about hiring an investigator to conduct this type of investigation, it is invisible to the person being checked on and the confidential information provided to our client typically provides either peace of mind or solid facts to guide them going forward.

Cheating Spouse/Partner Investigations

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that people sometimes stray from their marriage. If you’re reading this page, you probably never thought it could happen to you. But it has. Or at least you suspect it has and you need to know. Below is a mini FAQ on these cases and what to expect should we be hired.

DO YOU THINK MY SPOUSE IS CHEATING?

If you’re asking this question, there may already be a problem. We catch the suspected spouse cheating on over 90% of the cases we take. Is this because cheating is rampant? No — it’s because by the time someone is ready to hire a private investigator, they often already have deep-seeded suspicions; or they have indirect knowledge and are looking for independent corroboration.

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF A CHEATING SPOUSE?

There are many lists posted around the Internet on signs of a cheating spouse. Here’s our own, based solely on firsthand experience with these types of investigations:

The cheating spouse’s cell phone records almost always indicate there is a problem. In the case of a male cheating, his credit card statements can also indicate a problem.

The marriage is in trouble before the suspicions of an affair came up. Simply put, happy, communicative marriages do not produce affairs; unhappy or “flat” ones do.

The cheating spouse has windows of time when he/she is unaccounted for. Phone calls are not answered during this time and a later explanation of where they were is often vague.

The cheating spouse has a prior history of infidelity. We often see that “years ago” there was a problem that was resolved.

The cheating spouse has a public “friendship” with a member of the opposite sex. They admit to being “good friends” and make no effort to hide the relationship. This way, if spotted together, they have a cover story. In reality, the relationship is sexual and often emotional, as well.

There has been a “tip” from a friend, acquaintance, or family member indicating that an inappropriate relationship is occurring.

HOW MUCH TIME WILL BE REQUIRED FOR THE INVESTIGATION?

The amount of time required is based on several variables including: 1.) How often does the cheating occur? (If it’s just once a month, that will be harder to detect than if it is several times a week), 2.)How often is the investigator out? (Obviously, if we’re not conducting the surveillance when the cheating occurs we won’t see it), and finally, 3.) How much proof does our client require? (It is very common that after we catch a spouse cheating, the client wants us to document a pattern by continuing the surveillance). As a general rule of thumb, we advise at least five separate periods of surveillance at different times on different days to get a feel for what is happening. ALMOST NEVER IS A CHEATING SPOUSE CAUGHT ON THE FIRST NIGHT OF AN INVESTIGATION — PATIENCE IS REQUIRED.

HOW WILL I KNOW IF MY SPOUSE IS NOT CHEATING?

Proving a negative is sometimes difficult and based on opinion, not fact. Generally, if the suspected spouse has been followed several times and has had the OPPORTUNITY to cheat during this time and did not, we would advise our client that there is no evidence of cheating.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

It starts with a phone call where your matter is discussed in brief with our investigator. We can discuss what the investigation would entail in terms of time and expense after getting some basic facts. When a plan is agreed upon, we would require the suspected spouse’s photo, vehicle information, address info, and a retainer as a deposit against the first part of the investigation.

WHAT IS YOUR SUCCESS RATE?

If you define success as we either catch the spouse cheating or we clear him or her, our success rate in the past year was 100%. We never had a case during this time where we failed to determine what was really going on. As stated above, the percentage of time when the person is caught cheating is extremely high – well over 90%.

IS THE INVESTIGATION CONFIDENTIAL?

Our investigation is required to be 100% confidential. We will be completely discreet with your situation and provide you with clear, unvarnished reports on exactly what is seen during our surveillance. We will also provide video and photographs that can be discretely obtained.