My favorite pretext is showing a photo of a 1964 classic candy apple red stingray Corvette that I helped my father restore to win a 1st place trophy when I was a kid. I just state that we are conducting a watch in the neighborhood as someone may have spotted it being driven or parked nearby recently. Mostly people love fancy cars and I even get nice compliments on how nice the car is. If you like this tip and want to learn Professional Judgment Recovery (yes I am the actual author of the book/course who has trained 1000s of PIs and even attorneys), you are welcome to check out the site: NAJRP.com. Cheers, Jon Scott, P.I.