“Would anyone be able to find out ____________?” is a question that people pose to me quite often. The truth is that any motivated party with enough time and resources can find out pretty much anything about anybody. Granted, there are people who do what we do legally and aboveboard; while others might use more […]
What Does a Private Investigator Really Do?
Anytime an old colleague of mine was asked what he did for a living, he replied that he was a garbage man. It always flabbergasted me that he wouldn’t tell people what he really did. Private investigators have pretty cool jobs; at least, that is what I always thought. So I asked him. “I got […]
Investigation Lessons: 6 Months and 192 Telephone Interviews Later
Since May, I have done about 192 (give or take) telephone interviews for various investigation matters. The interviews that I have done have ranged from being for massive product liability cases to in-depth vetting of a possible CEO. In every single one of these cases, the names of these individuals were developed through open sources. […]
25 Takeaways, Quotes and Tools from the 2018 OSMOSIS Conference
Last week, I attended the OSMOSIS Conference, held in Las Vegas and put on by Cynthia Hetherington of the Hetherington Group. After years of going to conferences of a large national organization (that will go unnamed) and coming back less than fulfilled, I found it fantastic to attend a conference that was oozing with brilliant […]
What Is the One Quality That Every Investigator Should Have?
A few weeks back, I was on a radio show (~18:50 mark) with Los Angeles private investigator Scott Ross, where he asked me about the one quality I looked for in a private investigator. The question came up again in a PI Education webinar with Hal Humphreys titled “The Business of Investigations,” when a listener […]
8 Things This Private Investigator Wish He Had (Legal) Access to (but Doesn’t)
In every investigator’s most pleasant dreams, we have access to loads of information that would, quite simply, make our lives so much easier. But what would be the fun in that? There are a number of things that make a private investigator’s job interesting. For one, every case and every day are different, so that […]
The 40-Year-Old Rookie — How I Changed My Career and Became a Private Investigator
It took me 41 years and plenty of trial and error, but I finally found my calling. I became a private investigator. Here’s how it happened. The Backstory So there I was, 41 years old, blindsided by corporate bureaucracy, out of a job and staring into the face of an uncertain future. It was December […]
How the Detroit Lions Failed Background Check 101
According to recently published report in the The Detroit News, the newly hired coach of the Detroit Lions, Matt Patricia, was arrested for aggravated assault in 1996. Patricia was on spring break in South Padre Island, when Patricia and another fraternity brother “burst” into an upscale hotel room and sexually assaulted a woman. Patricia and […]
The Shitty Background Investigation
Black death? Influenza? There’s a new, much more dangerous plague affecting a small group of Americans. A fast-spreading disease has affected the private investigation industry called SBI, short for Shitty Background Investigation. To the best of my knowledge this has not affected our firm, but I know it exists because I have seen it with […]
9 Simple Rules of a Private Investigator, That You Won’t See on TV
1Don’t waiver from your ethical core values. 2Don’t impersonate another human being. 3Don’t do anything that is illegal or something that falls within the “grey area” of legality. 4Your reputation and your word are all you have; use them wisely. 5Don’t take on anything just for the money. 6Situations dictate tactics. 7If you are uncomfortable […]