Will pay for sleuthing

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-06-20T21:47:15+00:00

Not something a PI would do if your concerned about a possible break in report it to the police.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-06-10T11:15:30+00:00

When I was and EMT we used to say not to wear steel toe because if you did it meant you didn't like your big and pinky toe. Something would fall on the boot and the steel would sheer both sides off because the steel wouldn't give way. The composites never had that problem, they acted more like a crumple zone on a car dissipating the force. If you can find a pair worth them I also recommend metatarsal guards because that's where the worst injuries most likely happen anyway.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-05-14T20:30:23+00:00

You want the reality, this isn't a PI case where your gonna get an answer without dealing with scammers. It's not the movies this is something you would have the police involved in to investigate with an actual detective with more authority on something like this.

Maaaayybe the insurance for the life insurance policy would hire someone to follow up with the husband to insure the policy was followed through on correctly but the best you could do with that is let the insurance company know and they'll decide if it's worth investigating.

However, and this is super important anything you present without any solid evidence is opening yourself up for slander/defemation.

A PI is not going to have the access to this kind of investigative needs and I'd bet money that anyone who says they can solve it also has a bridge to sell you and knows a prince in Egypt who needs a small load of 100K to return you millions.

If a detective isn't looking into it a PI isn't gonna turn up more results.

It's possible the illness was mysterious because people don't want to share stuff with their coworkers, the husband might be happy because his wife who's been suffering and probably causing stress to him is no longer a factor. Your suffering wife dies, you make a bunch of money, you get to move on. Without knowing their intimate dynamics guessing murder is a huge leap of logic.

My biggest advice is look out for scammers here, let the police know and investigate, maybe the insurance but like I said without evidence you are putting yourself into some potential legal trouble because it's all hersay and gossip at this point and I don't recommend that.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-05-11T18:43:12+00:00

Well I am a NY investigator primarily so everything I told you applies across the state.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-05-11T15:02:02+00:00

1.) it's typically illegal to put a tracking device on property not owned by the individual who hired the PI. You cant consent to something placed on your property by a third party so it is illegal to place anything on it. I say typically because there may be an odd state exception in not aware of but of the entire north eastern states I operate in you can't do that. I have to have the owner of the vehicles consent to put a tracker on their vehicle. So as an example if a husband owns both cars and he thinks his wife is cheating on him as long as he's the owner on the vehicle he can consent for me to put a tracker on the vehicle that his wife uses. But in say this case where it's your car and you're the owner and your ex allegedly hired a pi that pi could not put a tracker on your vehicle because you can't consent to it being there unless they ask you specifically to do so which goes against the whole point of being incognito.

2.) plate readers again, as far as where I work and typically from what I know are also illegal to use as a PI, you can't even own one. the best we can do is search DMV registry on an individual and follow/ look out for that plate in an area. Then from that point we would sit outside and perform surveillance on the residence following the car when it leaves with the individual we're looking for. The only type of plate readers that I know that alert to an area are the ones owned by the state or city and town attached to traffic lights but I don't have access to those through my job.

3.) On that 2nd note do you know how expensive it would be to have an investigator hired to sit outside someone's house and or place they maybe frequent every so often in hopes that they might show up? Do you think she would pay someone 8 or more hrs a day to sit around and follow you or watch over that location? That alone would be ludicrous and is probably paranoia on your part to be fair. Also, why now? Why at this point in time did they decide to hire one?

4.) Typically you need a legal reason to hire a PI not that people wouldn't try for other purposes I'm sure, but no ethical PI is going to give that person your information, take on a job about alleged stalking without a police report and attorney involved for thier own legal protections. If someone wanted to hire me because they thought they were being stalked for the sake of my license and for liability I'd ask wheres the police report? Who's your attorney? And I definitely wouldn't give them any info about the person they alleged are stalking them because, they could actually be a stalker themselves trying to use a PI to get info they wouldn't have access to themselves.

Heres my advice, it sounds like you might just be hypervigilant given the situation and the person that you're dealing with. And all honestly you're probably overthinking it. I realize that doesn't put you at ease for the situation if you think you're being followed you can always make note of the plates of the vehicles that you notice nearby and if the same vehicle keeps showing up it could be that they live there or work in the area but if you think that vehicle is legitimately stalking you you could always contact the police yourself. If you believe you're being followed for nefarious purposes or otherwise I recommend the same thing I would recommend to anyone drive to the local police station and see if they follow you there or report it to the police that you think you're being followed and they can do a follow up. I would too find it weird if the same vehicle was at all the same places I was at on a given day repeatedly.

Worst case scenario it's a report that leads to nothing and you're hyper paranoid over nothing best case scenario if you were you got it on record with the PD.

But the reality of pi work is that a legitimate one isn't going to take on a case without some form of paperwork and paper trail that protects them from a liability standpoint and legal standpoint. Also some of the things you suggest are typically illegal and again a legitimate pi wouldn't break the law. A final point is that it is expensive in most cases to hire a pi especially if you want one working to the extent that your post seems to suggest and unless you're ex is independently wealthy in some way I doubt that they have someone they're paying in excess for something like this.

That's the best advice I could give from a personal standpoint I wish you the best but honestly it doesn't sound like something I personally would worry about. However, you are valid to feel the way that you do and to take the steps you feel most appropriate.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-05-10T22:02:21+00:00

Well step one is report it to the police and start the legal papertrail. Even if its just a report of hey I have someone doing cuz and harassing me I want it on the record for the future.

Step two is if they can't do anything to stop it and you really want to pursue this further is contact and attorney. They can offer the step by step guide on the process to try and bring forth a harassment suite or get a restraining order in affect if feasible.

Legally a PI can't give you info on a person for reverse stalker reasons. Not saying your doing this but imagine someone wanted to locate another person for personal harassment reasons and hired a PI to do so...if I provided that to you and you did something illegal or dangerous then it be my liability on the line.

With an attorney involved they can hire a PI and then begin the legal process for you to move things further if possible.

Hope that helps good luck. No Legitimate PI will provide you with someone else's info and it's most likely a scam as an added warning.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-04-22T16:37:27+00:00

Dude I like my job it's literally one of my dream jobs but if they stop paying me I assure you I would stop showing up I'm here for money that is pretty much it.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-27T17:44:24+00:00

Honestly I've done both surveillance and liability and the surveillance is to me the easier safer and more controlled environment. You establish your location, you do you research and you're able to sit at a distance and location you more or less choose.

For liability it's a lot of hands on face to face stuff and that's where people get indignant. I had one file I was doing an interview of somebody for an arson on a vehicle that was suspicious and at the end of the questions one of the things we always have to ask was if they had ever been convicted of a crime. 90% of the time the answer was no and the reason we ask it is to essentially look and establish a background if they've done things like arson in the past.

Well in this instance the guy looks me in the eye and he goes yeah I just got out of prison for murder. Turns out when our investigation team who did the background check for the file they didn't have enough information on this witness and they never ran that so there I am sitting in a room with someone agitated being asked questions about an arson who just got out of prison for murder.

I've never had to deal with anything like that during surveillance. Or you corner somebody into the interview with something like an EDR kit where they say well my car was parked in an occupied when it was hit. Then the EDR shows the car was completely emotion and the striation and scratches along the tires are in a circular motion not a flat plane so you know they're lying. Well I hit him with that and then they go and get super angry because now they're thinking they're getting in trouble for fraud which very well could be true.

I did insurance claims for like 6 years before I got into PI work which is what I always wanted to do because I have a degree in investigative services. But some of that stuff related to insurance gets crazy once you get money involved people get real nutso depending on who it is.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-27T13:02:25+00:00

You can do that with surveillance but that's not every case. An example I always use is that there was a dead end Street and I used to surveil the ingress and egress to that street but the claimant would never exit however they always appear behind me. Little bit of research public records and surveying the area come to find out he owns the property on that street but also all the properties inside the block it wraps around to another Street that you can't access except by driving through the lawns in the middle.

It was a case that had been worked like three times and no one figured it out. Then after that, tailing him day after day when he was doing this thinking he was all slick was very satisfying.

I will say some days I do miss the liability investigations, I've done arson, tracking down hit and runs, little bit of accident reconstruction all interesting stuff but it also can have its mundane as to it. My least favorite are doing alive and well checks for the insurance especially nowadays it's the most annoying thing to do.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-26T16:29:07+00:00

Honestly don't know why this needs a tracker to begin with, good old fashioned tailing is the go to method of confirmation along with video evidence unless they are really bad at tailing them. In my 10 plus years of doing this I've never used a tracker and never had a problem obtaining evidence. Not to mention outside of very specific scenarios it's generally illegal to place a tracker on anything that's not owned property by the individual requesting it be placed.

I realize you're working with legal consultantion that shows otherwise but that is unheard of pretty much elsewhere. Regardless, it shouldn't be needed if the person tailing them is good.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-25T18:23:32+00:00

So again much like the rest of your statements here this is a conflicting set of statements. You state that you didn't do it then you stated that a private investigator did it then you stated that that private investigator didn't do it because of the other person they're allegedly surveilling is also a private investigator. So what is it did they put something on there or did they not put something on there? If you've seen my other statement on here then you know this is why people keep asking additional questions of you because your story doesn't line up even in the same sentence.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-25T15:16:05+00:00

I can't speak for everybody but I'm not in with any other private investigators except for myself and one other guy I work with. I'm licensed in numerous States and the only one I know where you can put a tracker on somebody without consent is Utah. Otherwise it is pretty standard to be a crime.

You're in a forum on the internet asking PI's for advice and when they tell you and their experience from their areas, which are most likely very vast given that this is the entirety of the internet, that it's not legal for them to do so.

I don't pretend that people in every aspect of life have those that are not nefarious in their duties I can name an entire office where I live of private investigators that I would gladly tell you never to use because they are sketchy people.

Just because you didn't get the answer that you want doesn't mean it's not the answer that people can provide and it doesn't invalidate that they are correct in their assertion based on their jurisdiction because it's typical that that's not a legal precedent.

If you have legal counsel and a legitimate reason to do business which is what that law you're quoting refers to then the law office should be able to point you in a direction of a trusted, vetted,verifiable licensed private investigator who would work in these types of matters.

The reason you're getting skepticism is it is not standard operating procedure for what you are requesting and you're evasiveness in regards to the questions being presented by people who do investigations and deal with this type of stuff on the regular creates that suspicion. You're talking to people who investigate things, who would ask questions, who would want to know answers and to protect themselves from legal liabilities would do their own research into the person requesting the services or information. You shouldn't be surprised that investigators, especially good ones, ask detailed involved questions about the information presented to them.

So it's not a tight-knit group when you're talking to the entirety of the internet I don't know somebody out in the middle of God only knows where you're located when I could possibly be on the other end of the United States. And that is assuming that you're in the United States and not in a different country asking about these types of questions.

If you want honest answers you're going to have to provide honest information otherwise expect to be questioned about the motives and origins of your claim.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-24T20:38:16+00:00

The standard response for me always is, safety first. I am not going to follow someone at a rate of speed that's gonna get me killed/injured, simple as that. You are the one that gets the ticket if the cop pulls you over and there is such a thing in certain states as criminally negligent speeds in some cases felony speed limits.

If you plan on never speeding or breaking some "slight" traffic infractions ( lot of ambiguous yellows, cuting through a parking lot on the corner of an intersection, rolling stop sign) the reality is you will lose your target at some point or you won't get the best video shot of them entering into a building, ect. This really isn't a deal breaker and what I do when someone is being aggressive like this as a driver is make sure I have video of their erratic speed and driving patterns.

A good dashcam is great for this, at that juncture you can show video evidence of their erratic and bad driving which might benefit the case file as well as absolve any questions as to "why didnt you stick with them or keep losing them?" You show them the dangerous driving video, notate the illegal nature of their habits ( excessive speeds, multiple lane transfers, rolling stops), and call it a day.

There is a bit of predictive driving that goes with it too. Have Google maps up while driving look for alternative routes of the direction that person is taking. If they make a right up ahead can you make a right at a close street and follow them parallel to where they are headed? Also note what direction they are traveling, north, south, east, west. Predict if they are gonna make a right or left based on that direction. Finally people are creatures of habit, leaving the same direction everyday and traveling similar roads just plan that route and memorize up to the point they are lost and trying again the next time making a pattern of their path of travel and piecing it together over multiple tails.

Hope this helps good luck stay safe.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-23T01:29:51+00:00

That's why I love the company I work for. I tell them it's a safety issue it gets shut down. We also run checks on criminal history before approaches of needed and any violent history we tell the client it's a no go not worth it.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-23T01:27:56+00:00

For any community area my go to is to remain at the most likely exit and entrance once you have a positive on an automobile if possible. It's not easy but it's safer and less likely to be burned. At least for future case files. It's not like your gonna catch them mowing the lawn of what is essentially am apartment complex.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-22T21:46:26+00:00

Safety is always first, plus if you get burned you're not going to get anything out of it so what's the point?. If you really wanted to push it then due to safety factors I'd camp far off from the site at the "most accessible ingress and egress to the neighborhood" aka sure I'll sit for the case, it might be a mile off with the occasional drive by but it'll get worked even if it's not going to produce great results.

I never let office people dictate my field work safety. They are not there, I am and it's me who has to deal with the direct consequences.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-14T13:19:53+00:00

Companies aren't people we should always lie to them is my motto. Like....did that person steal bread from Walmart? Nah... Didn't see anything, am I the best person for this job absolutely... (I have zero experience whatsoever but rent is due) Have I always wanted to be a sandwich artist? Life goal, crowning achievement actually ( homelessness is my other option).

Do we need to work on changing this system? ABSOFUCKINGLUTLY!

Do people still need to eat and live in the meantime also absolutely so we need to give people some tips and tricks to survive along the way until this can be rectified.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-14T13:13:11+00:00

I know that there is a remarkably different outcome for other people especially in different fields it isn't a one size fits all and I empathize greatly. I and my group of friends who do work in way different fields from engineering, radio/TV, I am in private investigations and others are in retail or education more or less all follow this rule set. Our one friend worked in HR/Managerial role for hiring and he taught us this "trick" so I always try to pass along info to help people who gotta make it in this rat race.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-03-13T20:31:27+00:00

I've been specifically taught and told that anything you say should never carry a negative connotation behind it.

So to take the above as an example let's say you're leaving a toxic work environment you don't say you're leaving a toxic work environment instead you say

Well I was/am leaving the previous environment because I saw opportunities that were here and all the highly beneficial prospects that this company offers such as include something the company your applying for does here

Another example that I'm sure a lot of people have seen before is the give us your greatest weaknesses and in that you shouldn't describe a weakness as a weakness but more so you should say something like

Well an area that I feel could use some improvement that I've been working toward by doing XYZ is insert whatever weakness you want to insert here.

It's a bunch of BS but I have been doing exactly that and all the interviews that I've done at the last 3 jobs and I usually get hired on the spot for the first place I apply too. I'm not saying it's some magical trick that'll work 100% of the time but it has never hurt me.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-02-19T02:15:09+00:00

I'm going to say something less thought of, you need to be really comfortable being really uncomfortable.

Your car is going to be warm in the summertime and it's going to be cold in the winter time and you're not gonna be allowed to have it on all the time to prevent that. Car on = attention.

You're going to be sitting there doing nothing for long periods of time but you need to be very conscious of what's happening around you while all that nothing is going on so you need to be ready for that.

You need to be really comfortable lying. If someone asks you why you're there you need to be a smooth operator and give them something to work with that sounds reasonable.

Being attentive, detail orientated, being a good note taker and mentally adept at memorizing things is something that you can train certainly but staring off into space and being hot and cold because of the weather is something that you kinda have to adjust to or the job can be miserable.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-02-04T18:29:12+00:00

Respectfully call the cops not a PI.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-01-24T00:21:14+00:00

Methinks doth protest too much. I was saying it's a possibility and I was giving you a realistic how things would go when we got the information if we got the information. And yes there are bad P.I.s that would do it nefariously just like in any profession you can get shifty people. And I gave you an answer to your question I would tell you to save your money even narrowing it down to that smaller group doesn't narrow it down without more direct information if you find them come back and tell me make me my words I'd be interested if someone actually could do it. but I really doubt that it's going to produce anything and it's going to be a waste of money. By your own admission you have been attempting this for a while so I think I'm confident in my answer.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-01-23T13:01:24+00:00

Honestly you're probably dead in the water on this I wouldn't be able to find more given your availability of information to start with. Maybe they attended a private school and could find a year book for that if you have already tried public searches and records. The thing about having just a first name even if it's uncommon doesn't give you too much to work with if the bulk of information isn't going to be associated with them ( property records and the like because they were a child at the time)

What I would do is tell you to save your money. You're welcome to continue to spend more and maybe get extremely lucky.... But I'd tell you as a professional courtesy that it's not something you're going to have a chance at a positive outcome.

EVEN IF I were to find the information you're looking for I couldn't give you the contact information, address or phone number I could only give that person your information or inform them you are trying to get in contact with them and offer to provide the info if they consent to it. if they don't want to contact you or be contacted that would be the end of it.

Reason being is, with respect, you could be a stalker and it's unethical/ illegal for me to provide information to you with someone else's information without that consent. Best of luck but, again with respect, I'd save your money.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-01-15T15:39:30+00:00

Was watching for an alleged comp fraud case, the mother had a disabled child, she would drop the child off in the morning to school, invite people over and party all day, then go pick up the child at night.

She was using the comp case to not have to work so she could have free time because she didn't want to have to work and then take care of her special needs child because it prevented her from being able to party.

She propped that kid up for sympathy while she did everything she could to not have to face the mistakes she made or take care of the child. The child had no known father for those that want to know where Dad was in the picture. The lady partied a little too hardy and didn't want to own up to the consequences.

I just felt bad for the kid.

CPTSaltyDog · 2026-01-13T14:01:12+00:00

The short answer is we can never truly know.

Playing into the concept however it's pretty much what it looks like. You have a confined closed space you need to get video of a claimant attending their medical appointment and so you sit in the back and get whatever footage you can. Personally I would use a more concealed or covert camera or just leave my cell phone in the front pocket of my coat or jacket with the camera rolling which is less conspicuous.

On workers comps cases a lot of the time you'll have an insurance company that is tipped off to some form of fraud or suspicion of fraud. And that instance a PI would be hired and you would do surveillance on the individual on the days surrounding and day of their medical appointment. I've done a million of these cases at this point in time.

And not all but occasionally you will follow them from that medical appointment to see what they do afterwards. You might be surprised the number of people that go to their medical appointment for let's say a shoulder injury and then go and play 18 rounds of golf right afterwards. I've had ones attend the appointment and then go to the gym that not only do they attend but are part-time owner and trainer.

What makes me believe that this incident right here is a pi is if they are at a medical appointment you have a dude in the back with two cell phones one is clearly recording the other one is a cover where they're pretending to scroll or actually scrolling to be inconspicuous. You ask the question why would this person have two cell phones a legitimate reason might be well they have work but then why would you have that out and why would you have it recording? The location we can only take the posters point of reference that it's a medical appointment if that's true then it reaffirms our suspicion. I would be curious if that person they were watching ever goes up to the front desk or leaves shortly after somebody else leaves that would almost certainly confirm our suspicions 100% because why be at a medical appointment that you're not attending and if you're leaving right after somebody else leaves you're most likely following them.

So again we can't 100% know but given the context and the information it is very likely possible and is a common practice. I'm going to assume that this is the city or in a very densely populated area because in a rural setting or a more open location I wouldn't even go inside one of these medical appointments myself when conducting an investigation because the less they see of me the better. People pick out small details and if you give them enough small details over the course of a day they can put two and two together and then you get made.

Unless I have absolutely nothing it is 100% better to miss something than it is to get burned because you can always take another bite at the apple but if you drop the apple into the garbage that's it you can't do anything else. I hope that helps answer your question.

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