We've got a runner

This case started approximately a year ago with an asset investigation. The asset investigation turned into a locate investigation. For the sake of privacy I am going to only change the name and city of the person in involved. We were retained to locate and serve papers on Mr. John Brown. Mr. Brown was responsible for overseeing the legality of some documents and may have failed to do so. The failure in oversight caused my client loss of significant funds. My client's attorney contacted Morrow Detective Agency and asked if we could assist her with locating Mr. Brown. After contacting the attorney's client and speaking with her we started the assignment. It took our offices approximately one week to locate Mr. Brown. I go out and make contact with Mr. Browns wife and confirm that he is residing there in Santa Barbara but was not home. I set my clock for o dark thirty in anticipation of conducting surveillance to facilitate the service of process. The following morning I arrive at the Brown residence and sit. Approximately 4 hours into surveillance Mr. Brown exits his residence with a stroller and baby in said stroller. Unbeknownst to Mr. Brown I am taking photos of him, I approach him and explain who I am and why I am there. Mr. Brown proceeds to run at full speed with the baby in the stroller in attempt to evade service, I took a photo of him running ( Judges love those) and I in turn walked over to his residence and placed the documents by his door. I took some other photos to prove that I was there and that the service was a personal one and a good one and departed the area, while driving away I saw Mr. Brown, he saw me and yep, you guessed it, he ran again.

A few things that can be taken from this experience, one the person does not have to accept the documents in order for a service of process to be a good one, two taking photos of the person is a big help just in case they don't show up and the credibility of the service is questioned, and three you can run Mr. Brown, but you sure cant hide.

Morrow Detective Agency is a licensed private investigation firm located on the border of Ventura and Los Angeles, Ca in Simi Valley, CA. Morrow Detective Agency is capable of performing surveillance, process service, locates, background investigations, asset investigations, and more. Please feel free to visit our website at www.MorrowDetectiveAgency.com  or give us a call at (805) 823-3540 and allow us to make your problem our solution!

Cousin or not!

Locating people is often the most challenging and rewarding work that a private investigator can do, whether you are locating the person because they are a deadbeat parent or because they are a family member that has never been met. Recently I was hired to locate an individual for the purpose of reuniting them with another family member. My client had never met their siblings and asked for our assistance in being able to do so. After explaining to our client about the good ( they want to get to know you), the bad (they may have never known about you), and the ugly ( they don't want to know you), my client decided that they still wanted to take the chance. After locating the clients sibling and advising her about my client, the sibling was elated and could not wait to meet my client. The sibling knew about my client, but due to their differences in age and also location, my client resides on the west coast and the sibling resides in the mid west, she presumed that the meeting would never take place. After getting the siblings permission to reunite her with my client, I got the opportunity and the blessing to convey the good news. My client of course was very happy and I hope that she will one day meet with her relatives and grow with them. 

Sometimes people are not happy to be found, take for instance the guy that was running from my client and being evasive about where he could be located at. He purposely fed my client misinformation so that my client would always be wondering about where he is. Our offices get a call from this client's attorney and after doing some research figure out a way to locate the individual, the clients attorney gives us some papers to serve on the client and we are off to the races. I must add that in doing research for this client I found the guys facebook account with multiple photos of him, his girlfriend, and his children. I get to Long Beach where the guy is residing with his girlfriend, I check the mailbox and I don't see his name, but I do see his girlfriends name. While walking through his complex I see his girlfriend and she is talking to a neighbor. Instinct told me to slow my roll, wait, and observe. Sure enough after several minutes of gossiping the girlfriend goes upstairs to her unit. I follow, knock, and the door opens and standing before me is the girlfriend, I look through the heavy weed smoke and see the guy I am looking for sitting on the couch. I ask for him, the girlfriend asks me who I am, I tell her, and I also tell him, he of course try's to lie to me saying that he is her cousin and is not who I am looking for. But see people forget about smart phones, you gotta love smart phones, I open facebook and sure as the sun was shining is his face with the name that I was looking for with is profile picture all over it. I told him that life sure has some coincidences, but this isn't one of them. After laughing about being caught, he accepts the paperwork from me and even asked how he was found, I laugh and walk away. As I am walking away I hear him yelling and screaming at the girl who a moment ago was his cousin about not answering the door for people she doesn't know. 

Both of these cases I received some pleasure from, they helped my clients locate someone that they either wanted to know, or needed to get in touch with. We don't always find who we are looking for, but we do most of the time, and we always are happy to do a job well done, cousin or not. 

Morrow Detective Agency is a licensed private investigation firm located on the border of Ventura and Los Angeles, Ca in Simi Valley, CA. Morrow Detective Agency is capable of performing surveillance, process service, locates, background investigations, asset investigations, and more. Please feel free to visit our website at www.MorrowDetectiveAgency.com  or give us a call at (805) 823-3540 and allow us to make your problem our solution!

Being comfortable with being uncomfortable

Being a private investigator is challenging. We sometimes get asked to do things that we would not ordinarily want to do. In this job you have to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. For example, I once had a surveillance in West Hollywood and had to follow a gay gentleman around for the purpose of documenting whether he was truly as injured as he alleged to be. On my third day of surveillance I followed the gentleman to a club that was for people of the same relationship interest. I am not homophobic, but I have to admit that it took some mental preparation for me to "man up" and go in. After having a mental conversation with myself about the what ifs: what if someone see's me that I know, what if someone hits on me, what if the person I am watching see's me in the club and notices me in there, will that burn the job for me for the rest of the assignment? In the end my professionalism won the debate, I was there for a job and if I wanted to work in a comfortable environment that I needed to pick another profession. I went into the bar, and got a drink and watched my subject at the bar. The music was good, everyone seemed to have a great time and folks were extremely nice . The few that asked me to dance or why I was alone thought nothing about the excuse I used for being there, and I got the videotape that was needed to show that my subject was not as injured as he said he was, he danced, joked around, and had the time of his life all while I sat at a table with a covert camera taking it all in. All of the trepidation's that I had used as a reason to not go in the club in the first place went out the door. 

Another example, I once had to serve papers on an individual. This individual knew that she was going to be sued and did everything she possibly could to conceal where she was residing, the problem was this individual in her effort to be clever outsmarted herself, she told my client to fax all correspondence to a particular number. I ran a trace on the number and found out that it belonged to a specific company, a call over to the company and I was able to confirm that my subject worked there. The challenge is that this subjects position was accessible by appointment only, I made one for the next day. The following day I get to my subjects place of employment, I am dressed in a suit and have hidden the papers that are needed to be served, I go to the desk and let the receptionist know that I am there to see Ms. Smith. The receptionist walks me over to the desk of Ms. Smith and informs me to wait. I wait for a few minutes and two women, one who invariably was Ms. Smith approached the desk and both took a seat across from me. Come to find out Ms. Smith was being evaluated by her supervisor...but I too had a job to do. Once I confirmed who Ms. Smith was I advised her of who I was and why I was there. Ms. Smith was not a happy camper, and I am surprised that she withheld all of the profanity that she wanted to spew at me, I was informed that security and the police would be on their way, I have never ran in a suit before, but I did that day. 

The point is if you are going to be in this business you have to learn to adjust to whatever openings are out there, if you wait to long for them to be more comfortable for you, then you may have missed your opportunity. And your clients aren't paying for you to sit back, they are paying for you to go out and do something about their problem. 

Morrow Detective Agency is a licensed private investigation firm located on the border of Ventura and Los Angeles, Ca in Simi Valley, CA. Morrow Detective Agency is capable of performing surveillance, process service, locates, background investigations, asset investigations, and more. Please feel free to visit our website at www.MorrowDetectiveAgency.com  or give us a call at (805) 823-3540 and allow us to make your problem our solution!