Lesson learned

The bread and butter of the typical private investigator consists of two main types of cases: spousal infidelity and/or workers' compensation fraud. We're far from typical, but we still get some of these cases from time to time.

One infidelity case just wrapped up Wednesday night. What makes this case somewhat unique is what I learned from it. For several weeks we'd been letting the client call the shots, according to her suspicions of when he was cheating and with whom. We were burning up her money getting nothing. Wednesday afternoon we finally told her to just let us handle it our way, and she agreed.

I tailed the guy to a restaurant and got the incriminating video inside and outside, then tailed the woman to her residence to identify her. Turned out it was the same woman he'd been cheating with last year. I can't really say the client was happy, but she was more than satisfied with our work.

Promo stuff

We've been shooting a promo video for the upcoming reality show. Above are the weapons laid out prior to a scene we did in a parking garage. The scenario was three guys in a car entering the garage, and we arrested all three.

This promo video is staged, of course, because the camera crew doesn't want to roll with us for real until some insurance issues are settled. It's fun, but a little irritating to keep repeating all the action until everything goes just right.

Then Wednesday we rolled out to Burro Canyon, a local shooting range (if "local" includes BFE), and shot some training scenes and some brief interviews.

Saturday is more filming, this time entry stuff. A former client and current friend of the company has agreed to let us break down her door for the scene.

Stand by...

No posts for a while now, there are things going on but can't talk too much about the details. When there's something to say I'll say it.

Follow the Goose to the Gander (aka Wild Goose Chase)

Our boy in Inglewood, we've confirmed through an informant, is a shooter for Lennox 13, one of the local street gangs. We also learned what car his girlfriend drives, and I went down and put a GPS tracker on it last night. Now I have a guy a few steps behind her while I track the car online, so she can lead us to him.

She drove around for about an hour, stopped at several places, and when my guy pulled up beside her she had her girlfriends in the car. Then she went home. Wild Goose Chase.

No matter, she'll meet him sooner or later. But it's frustrating, expending time and and energy on what turns out to be nothing.

UPDATE: She left again last night and we know where he may be staying. Stand by for further.

C'mere. Come closer to the fence.

So this piece of work here is Juan Sacalxot, from Oaxaca. His charges were vehicle code stuff (I didn't bother looking them up) and probation violation. He lived in Koreatown, in one of Los Angeles' many gang areas. We (The Boss, Miss M, and I) went first to his home address, and as we got out of our cars the cops rolled by. That saved us a call, we explained what we were doing, and one of them informed us that a handcuff would work just perfectly to get through the fence and open the security door.

Well, there was a guy on the second floor watching the street, so we went around the corner so he wouldn't think we were going to that building. We headed around to the back and found a six-foot cement wall, topped with four feet of chain-link, topped with razor wire. With at least 20 pairs of eyes on us from the parking lot and the other apartments on the other side, we bent back a section of wire and made a hole just large enough to shimmy through. 

Miss M went up the back stairs while The Boss and I headed to the front. As we walked up the building manager stuck his head out, so we asked after our friend Juan. The manager knew Juan, and knew where he worked, since he had taken his car to the body shop where Juan worked, and with a little help from his wife was able to locate an address for another body shop across the street. He said Juan usually got home at 9 or 10, if at all, so we decided not to hit the apartment yet, and headed to his workplace up on Sunset Boulevard.

Arriving there, we encountered another fence. Twelve feet high or so, but no razor wire on top. The shop was closed and the gate padlocked, but there were lights on inside. As we were preparing to go over, who should walk out of the shop but Juan himself! We called him over (not sure why he came) and asked him his name. He thought for a moment and said it was Manuel. Well, we did have a picture, so we told him to come closer to the fence (he did that too - not very smart, this guy) and The Boss grabbed him by the shirt while Miss M cuffed him to the gate. I provided a convenient shoulder for The Boss to go over the fence and let Juan's boss know what was going on so he could unlock the gate. 

Then the usual shenanigans at IRC and a Denny's finisher to the evening. Later I had to go retrieve a couple GPS trackers from a car up in the Valley, but nothing to write about there, really.

Finally Busy

We picked up two more fugitive files a few days ago. Big ones: each is $275,000. We've been running down leads on one of them for the past few nights, and we're definitely getting closer. Last night we spoke to one of the indemnifiers, who was just a friend of the bailee's brother, and let them know (apparently they didn't understand) that they'd made themselves responsible for that money if the Bailee didn't appear in court. Now he's going to try to locate the Bailee and let us know where he's hiding.

The other big file is a guy from Arizona who apparently has some sort of charity scam going on. We think we know where he is, and it's just a matter of picking him up.

There's another file in the works we should have today, and some small protective details on the horizon. Things are looking up!

Yes We Can (or "Don't Tell Me My Job")

Got the call Wednesday night for a B.O.B. (bondsman off bond) pickup. A B.O.B. is when the bondsman is uncomfortable with the situation for whatever reason and no longer wants to be responsible for the Bailee. It could be because they have reason to believe the Bailee is planning to flee, as in a recent arrest in Lancaster (someone remind me to tell that story sometime), or the Bailee is not checking in as they are supposed to, or misses payments. The bondsman has broad discretion to drop the bond at any time.

B.O.B. arrests are usually simple affairs, as the Bailee is not yet a fugitive and doesn't usually have reason to expect us, so isn't hiding. That depends on the bondsman, though, and if they don't play it right they can spook the Bailee.

This one was supposed to be a simple one, and the bondsman went with me to the bailee's address Wednesday night. No-one was home, and we ran down a few other possibilities with no luck. Then Thursday night after a promotional photo shoot we went back out (The Boss, Miss M, Master P, me, and some local talent that fills in sometimes) and tried again. Still not home.

Then last night I got the call at half past midnight that Doc had spotted the Bailee's vehicle at his address. I headed down to pick up The Boss, and we met Doc at the house. The Bailee wasn't home, but his wife was. It took convincing to get her to open the door, but she finally did, after calling the police. We searched the house and he wasn't there, and she kept police dispatch on the phone the whole time. She kept telling us we couldn't be there (wrong) and didn't want to give us any information about her husband. When the cop got there he explained to her that we could go there any time, and that didn't help her mood much. Finally the dispatcher broke in and said "Ma'am, why are you acting like this?"

Eventually we got her to tell us he was at his parents' house, but wouldn't tell us where it was. Unbeknownst to her, we already had the address of his parents' house in Lancaster. Just before we set out, Doc's Suburban broke down. The Boss and I called in Miss M and another local guy, who met us at my place and we headed to the desert.

The rest is boring. We got there, pounded on the door, he came out, and I'm typing this on the way back to L.A.