Any private investigator related news or infomation that is not covered by another catagory.
I have no idea why, but this Halloween weekend has been one of the the most heavily request surveillance time weve had. We have had more calls from people concerned about a cheating spouse meeting someone this weekend then any holiday other than valentines day. Usually, this is not a busy time for a private investigator. More thoughts later.
If you are the victum of a cheating spouse and you have hired a private detective to get you proof, you will ultiamtely be faced with the question “how much do I want to know about the other person”. Of course we can get you whatever information you need (within the boundaries of the law) but the bigger question is “what do you want to do with the information?”. We strongly recommend that you talk it over with family and friend before you do this. Why? Because we REGULARLY do this type of background check on a cheating spouse case and get a call from the client a few days later saying they wish they had not done it and wish they did not know. If you have kids, then you likely want to know, but otherwise, think it over first. Just a heads up for those at this point.
Sometimes we get asked if we can get someone’s credit report. No, even though we are private investigators, we cannot get someone’s credit report without a written authorization from that person. If someone, be it a private investigator or not, tells you that they will do this for you without anyone knowing, run away as fast as you can! Obtaining someone’s credit report without their knowledge or consent is illegal, and if you are paying someone to do so, you are also breaking the law. That’s the best advice we can give you about it. If you wish to obtain information about someone, your best option would be to do a background check… but leave the credit reports out of it.
When you find that you do not have a ny idea when your cheating spouse is cheating on you and you need to get proof, we often recommend that you give your husband or wife the perfect opportunity to take advantage of. What we mean by this is, plan out a time for you to be gone. If you have kids, make sure you have them with you and do not put any pressure on your spouse about doing something or giving you a schedule for that time you are going to be gone. Make sure that they have as much notice as possible, a week or more is best, so that they have as much time to plan their time as possible. You must pick something to do that will NOT be suspecious to your spouse! If they have time, and they know that you will be accounted for, they will likely take advantage of this opportunity. Then get the private investigator scheduled for that time when you will be gone. It is not 100% effective, but it is MUCH, MUCH better than guessing and going in cold.
As a licensed private investigator, we are sometimes able to get access to motor vehicle records that the public cannot or we have much quicker access to those records where public, BUT not all states allow running license plates. Please understand, we do not have any control over who lets us have access and who restricts it. Hollywood shows us that all P.I.s have a secret source to get restricted information like this so it’s just a matter of finding the right PI for the job. Well, if it can be done legally, we will do it, but we will not break the law. if you need access to restricted records, hire a crook, not a private investigator.
We had a very concerned client that wanted to know about obtaining a copy of his girlfriends recent hotel records, phone calls and to learn about the number of occupants in the room. We made the effort to contact the hotel and got the bill (which she registered to her parent’s house instead of their place) including the calls (although MANY hotels and motels do not have the calls printed on the bill and delete such information once the bill is paid) but this place did not provide the number of guests reportedly staying in the room. Unfortunately, we are private investigators, not magicians, and we cannot make this information available for review. We tried to see if someone at the front desk remembered to no avail and we even contacted house keeping and got no where.
We had another case of the client hiring us to watch a cheating spouse who is away on business. We start watching the husband and he is immediately scanning the lobby of his hotel looking for us. We swithced investigators and the game continued. A short time later, he stopped and just went about his day. We filmed him for two days straight and he only spoke with the suspected other woman briefly in a business conference. After some discussion with the client, she concluded that we are simply not very good at private investigative work. We convinced her to install Spy Sweeper on her computer and low and behold, there it was… a spyware program copying every key stroke she made and forwarding it to him via e-mail. He knew EVERYTHING she told us and played it out. Makes it a little harder when our clients fail to tell us the whole story and to cover their tracks in the process.
As a private investigator, I cannot trespass illegally to do my job. That does not mean that we cannot go onto our client’s property with his/her permission. We had a chance to use this in a case in New York where the “other person” was entering our client’s house through a rear yard that was surrounded by tall privacy fencing. We could not find a place to watch the alley in public view, but our client has a small garage that we were able to sit in and film from. We got the proof, several days in a row, including the still naked wife and this man making out in the rear doorway as he departed. If we had been caught, we would not have been doing anything illegal.
If you think that your spouse is cheating inside your home and you feel that it would be better to install hidden cameras in place of hiring a private investigator, we recommend that you consider the following: Hidden cameras can be a problem, and we mean “legal problem” for the person who installs them. In most states, a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, basically meaning that there are some places, like a bathroom, bedroom, etc. in a house where a person may go and expect to have total privacy. Although this is NOT legal advise, be aware that many courts have found these rooms to be protected and use of hidden cameras in them to be invasive and sometimes illegal. (Keep in mind that perverts and creeps like to hide cameras in these rooms) If you elect to go this route, confine your surveillance to those common areas of the house, like rooms where everyone inthe household go all the time.
For those of you needing to investigate your spouse, but able to wait a bit to get the info, we often times will recommend using a passive type of vehicle tracker. Passive trackers can be tucked away in his or her car and provide information about where that vehicle traveled, how long it stopped here or there and can be an excellent way to get the good on the cheap. They are called passive trackers because they do not provide real time data (you can’t call up someone and say, where is the car now, etc.) We had a case in Michigan where the client installed this device over the weekend, got the data on Monday and found out exactly what house her spouse was stopping at. A quick knock on a neighbors door and she had the woman’s name and found out she was a co-worker of her husband. Case closed.
ASG Investigations
42815 Garfield Road, Suite 208
Clinton Township, MI 48038
(855) 997-2800
Call us today at
(888) 667-9700
for your investigation needs.