Here you will find a short list of questions you should ask yourself before you hire a PI to conduct surveillance. You may ask us how the surveillance is going to be conducted on your subject because you’re concerned that your subject might find out they are being followed. When we’re asked this type of question, we reply by asking a few questions of our own. You should know the answers beforehand:
- Have you ever surveiled the subject yourself?
- Did the subject know they were being surveiled?
- Had you hired another investigator previously and the surveillance did not turn out well?
- Have you told anyone close to the subject that you had them surveiled or were planning on having them surveiled?
These questions are imperative because they filter out any possibility that the subject might be aware and on the lookout for someone following them. If you answer yes to any of the above questions, then we need an alternative plan to accomplish a beneficial outcome for you. However, there are times when a client “lets the cat out of the bag” and the subject finds out they are being followed. Here’s one case in point:
A Surveillance Story From Miami Beach, Florida
Letting the cat out of the bag can be very dangerous. We were recently asked by a very well-known celebrity to surveil her husband. The couple’s marriage was in trouble and their marital disputes were about his infidelity which made its way into all the social media sites. To make matters worse, the husband confessed to his wife that he had had an extra marital affair. The wife asked her husband to leave the family’s home, which he did, and then she called Worldwide Intelligence Network to arrange to have her husband surveiled, because she wanted to find out where and with whom he was living with. It was a simple enough request…so we thought!
We assigned two top surveillance investigators to this case, one being a former FBI agent. On the day we were to commence the surveillance, we were told by the wife that her husband was going to be at a hotel in South Beach Florida for a television interview. When our investigators arrived at that hotel they learned the interview was over and the husband failed to show up. This news was conveyed to the wife. The wife then found out that her husband was heading toward a recording studio close by the hotel in South Beach. Our investigators drove to the studio and just prior to their arrival the wife called to say that she and her husband arranged a meeting at another hotel in South Beach to work out a recent unpleasant situation that had arisen (he was suspected of stealing large sums of money from his wife). We were hopeful that this last instruction would be the right one.
When our investigators arrived, they located the husband’s vehicle in the valet lot of the hotel. One of our investigators parked within a few feet of the husband’s vehicle and the second investigator took up a strategic surveillance position on the street where he had eyes on the parking exit.
The investigator inside the valet lot observed the husband get into his car and exit the hotel driving down a main thoroughfare in the heart of South Beach, going 75 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour zone! The husband then proceeded to drive through multiple red lights, weaving in and out of lanes repeatedly. Our investigators miraculously managed to stay within a safe distance behind him until the husband turned onto a private residential street, where he sped over several speed bumps going 75 to 80 miles an hour. The husband’s car was flying over the speed bumps and literally going air born. It was like watching a segment of “The Fast and The Furious”. By the time our investigators located the husband he had turned down a cul-de-sac where he drove up a private driveway and was waiting for our two investigators to arrive. When they approached the corner of the cul-de-sac, he took off the same way he drove in going 75 miles an hour. Our lead investigator called his case manager who told both of them they were to terminate the surveillance. It was clear the husband knew he was being surveiled and was purposely jeopardizing the effort of the surveillance investigators by risking his own life and everyone else’s in the process.
Our case manager immediately notified the wife as to what had transpired from the moment the husband left the hotel. After some further discussion with the wife, we learned the wife’s assistant asked a staff member working for the husband to find out where he was at. That question was obviously conveyed to the husband, which is how he knew he was going to be surveiled. Someone could have gotten seriously injured or killed because of this!
We respectfully informed the wife that we would not under any circumstance attempt to surveil the husband again should he be the one behind the wheel. We also suggested that the wife increase her estranged husband’s life insurance policy. The wife told us she knew the husband was a reckless and frightful driver and it in her words “it’s a miracle he hasn’t killed someone or himself.”
We offered the wife an alternative to a mobile surveillance if she still wanted to learn where her husband lived. We proposed that we could conduct an aerial surveillance from a helicopter and her estranged husband would not know he was being surveiled. Or she could purchase a GPS tracking device that would tell her where her husband’s car was parked 24/7. The wife’s decided on the GPS tracker and she now knows where he is living and who he’s living with.
There is an old WWII motto: “loose lips sink ships” and this is a perfect case study to forewarn any prospective client to never disclose their intention to surveil anyone.
