Having a great team can mean the difference. My wife has helped on several cases here at Morrow Detective Agency. After getting some exposure to investigative work I asked her about what she experienced, how she felt about it, and what she was able to accomplish personally.
Q: How did you feel about your first surveillance experience?
Surveillance was ehhh. I liked the fact that I got some time to sit and relax, and get paid for it at the same time. What I got surprised about was after a couple of hours I started to get hungry and needed to use the restroom. Unfortunately there was nothing that I could do until the surveillance was over.
Q: Was it a successful surveillance?
Yes, but not necessarily what the client wanted.
Q. How did you feel about your first time conducting a process service?
Very nervous, I wasn't sure what to expect on the other side of the door. When I pulled up, I saw 3 cars which made me a little nervous. I always heard stories from you about people getting crazy and sometimes wanting to fight. It was a relief to have it end so smoothly.
Q: Do you feel that the real life private investigating experience is the same as what is portrayed on t.v.?
No, what you see on t.v. is the exciting cases, you see a lot of cheating spouses, you see the following, but you don't see the waiting around and everything that it takes to get to that point. The waiting part is not challenging, its the following the people around, if they are very fast driver's or slow ones.
Q: Do you find this type of work fun?
I personally would not say that the work is fun, I will however say that it is rewarding. Helping people, helping them find someone, returning a child to a parent that they have not seen in years, helping to keep bad people off the street and busting people that take advantage of the system, these are the things that make it rewarding.
Q: Do you think just anyone can be a private investigator?
No, it takes a special person. It takes a person that has patience, the ability to deal with demanding people who want what they want when they want it. I personally think that the best investigators have the gift of gab and can converse with anyone, they have to be strategic thinkers and also self-disciplined. The work as an owner of a company can be demanding.
Q: What kind of cases do you like working so far?
Criminal defense cases and locating people.
Q: What kind of investigative work do you like the least?
Surveillance.
This line of work draws from all walks of life. Investigators can easily find themselves in a upscale neighborhood one minute and in a low income area the next. Being able to adjust and also having great members on your team can determine whether you will be successful or whether you will fail.
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!
Monday, August 25, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
We can only guarantee efforts, not results!
An investigator is called when something has gone wrong, a client needs someone found quickly, papers need to be served asap, a cheating spouse needs to be watched because they are about to leave the house in ten minutes. As an investigator you learn to adapt to these changes, you try your best to do what you can, but sometimes no matter what you do, things don't work out.
A client calls, they are about to go to court, they need a person to testify that the defendant is lying. They have court in 18 days, the witness needs to be served at least 15 days before the date. They aren't sure where the witness is living at. This is the assignment. We explain to the client that we are great at locating individuals, that we are also great at serving papers on them, but we cannot guarantee that it will be done in the time that they need it done. The client states that they understand and they need us to try our best. First thing we do is locate the person, we verify that the person is residing at the address. The area is out of our range of investigation, we advise the client that we have found the defendant, but due to where the defendant resides there will be an extra charge as service of processes can take time and multiple efforts. The client states that they are low on income and they cannot afford for us to do it. We explain to the client that we understand and that we will get a server in the area to help them out. We make the arrangements, but we also find out that the defendant lives in a guarded gated community, we explain to the client that this in itself will present another challenge and that time is not on our side. The client again says that they understand. A few days go by, the server advises that they have attempted to serve the defendants but have been unable to serve them. They state that the client is going to have to file a continuance and that they will redo the service at no additional charge. We relay this information to the client. Of course the client is not happy. The client states that for the amount of money that they paid, they thought that we would do the service ourselves. Again we remind the client what our companies fee would have been had we taken the service, and we also remind the client how much they paid for the service. Our company's goal is to do everything within the law and reason to assist a client in getting the information and results they need, but we can never guarantee that we are going to get those results. We cannot know whether the person a client believes is cheating is in fact going to cheat. We cannot guarantee that a claimant is faking their injury, or that a person is going to be home at 7:00 p.m., all we can do is be there when we say that we will and do what we say we are going to do. No matter how good you are, no one in this business can guarantee results, if they do they are lying to you. Things happen that are out of our control. With this particular client, we had to apologize, we reminded them that they were informed of the time issue as well as the challenges. We wanted to accommodate the client, though we knew that there was a margin for not being successful the first time around. It reminded us that we are dealing with peoples lives, and that they depend on us to do. Sometimes though, we can only do what we can.
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!
A client calls, they are about to go to court, they need a person to testify that the defendant is lying. They have court in 18 days, the witness needs to be served at least 15 days before the date. They aren't sure where the witness is living at. This is the assignment. We explain to the client that we are great at locating individuals, that we are also great at serving papers on them, but we cannot guarantee that it will be done in the time that they need it done. The client states that they understand and they need us to try our best. First thing we do is locate the person, we verify that the person is residing at the address. The area is out of our range of investigation, we advise the client that we have found the defendant, but due to where the defendant resides there will be an extra charge as service of processes can take time and multiple efforts. The client states that they are low on income and they cannot afford for us to do it. We explain to the client that we understand and that we will get a server in the area to help them out. We make the arrangements, but we also find out that the defendant lives in a guarded gated community, we explain to the client that this in itself will present another challenge and that time is not on our side. The client again says that they understand. A few days go by, the server advises that they have attempted to serve the defendants but have been unable to serve them. They state that the client is going to have to file a continuance and that they will redo the service at no additional charge. We relay this information to the client. Of course the client is not happy. The client states that for the amount of money that they paid, they thought that we would do the service ourselves. Again we remind the client what our companies fee would have been had we taken the service, and we also remind the client how much they paid for the service. Our company's goal is to do everything within the law and reason to assist a client in getting the information and results they need, but we can never guarantee that we are going to get those results. We cannot know whether the person a client believes is cheating is in fact going to cheat. We cannot guarantee that a claimant is faking their injury, or that a person is going to be home at 7:00 p.m., all we can do is be there when we say that we will and do what we say we are going to do. No matter how good you are, no one in this business can guarantee results, if they do they are lying to you. Things happen that are out of our control. With this particular client, we had to apologize, we reminded them that they were informed of the time issue as well as the challenges. We wanted to accommodate the client, though we knew that there was a margin for not being successful the first time around. It reminded us that we are dealing with peoples lives, and that they depend on us to do. Sometimes though, we can only do what we can.
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!
Monday, August 4, 2014
So you think your spouse is cheating
Cheating spouses cases are not the primary cases that our agency works. We do get them and we do work them. The cases themselves need to be handled delicately from the beginning when the client that is calling through the conclusion of the investigation. Often times you will receive a call from a client who is hesitant to explain that they need help to access whether their significant other is stepping out of the relationship. They talk about the emotional pain and mental anguish that is involved, the feeling of guilt for having these suspicions, the feeling like they may be going crazy also. They have noticed that the work hours have become later, that the phones are turned off or the person is not as easily accessible as they had been in the past. They notice that the cellphone is underneath the pillow,or always face down. Be it male or female the emotion in these phone calls is the same. Some people have been married for decades only to have this happen to them now, while some people have only been dating for weeks. In my experience womens suspicions have been more validated, their intuition a little more in tune with the difference.
We had a client that believed that her husband was having an affair with a neighbor of theirs. Our client was not able to prove it and her husband would tell her that she was crazy and even seem insulted that she would insinuate such a thing. However our client noticed that when she got home from work certain things would be in disarray, also her husband now started going to the gym (after years of not going) and after leaving she would notice the neighbor leaving about ten minutes later. His phone which used to sit on the nightstand would now be underneath his pillow on silent. Our client had enough and wanted to know if her suspicions were valid or was she just being overly sensitive. After hearing her story we determined what would be the best approach on her case. We found that obviously the gym time would be the best time. So we established our surveillance and waited for the subject. As luck would have it, the first night of surveillance the subject did not go to the gym, neither did he the second night or third. However on the fourth night the subject entered into his vehicle and off to the supposed gym he went, we followed him at length where he eventually arrived at a park on the other side of town. He waited in his vehicle and we observed him talking on his phone for a brief moment. Shortly after another vehicle shows up and sure enough it was the neighbor that our client suspected was being to friendly with her husband. They both exit the vehicle, embrace and kiss, and start walking through the park hand in hand. We observed them walking and sitting in the grass, at times embracing and kissing. About an hour later they walk back to their vehicles, give one last long kiss and the husband departs. We of course followed him back to his residence. Approximately ten minutes later the neighbor arrived at her residence. Now comes the hardest part, at least for us, the part were you tell the client that she is not crazy, that her husband is cheating on her, and that it is with the person that she suspected. The clients response goes from being happy that they are not losing it, to the rage that this is actually happening, and to the sadness and realization that things are going to be forever changed, and of course the big question of what to do with the information that you have? Do you get a divorce, do you seek counseling, do you confront the neighbor? What happens next?
Another case that comes to mind again has to do with a wife suspecting that her husband was cheating. She suspected that he may have been cheating with a co-worker but she was not absolutely sure. The first night we conducted surveillance at his work place. After he exited work he went into his vehicle and we observed him speaking with an unknown women in her vehicle. We of course took the license plate down for future reference. The subject then departed the area and was followed to a gas station where he sat and waited for a long period of time. After sitting at the gas station for thirty minutes he departed and went to a restaurant. He went in and we noted that there were several of his co-workers there including the girl that he was speaking with in the parking lot. After about an hour or so he takes off from the restaurant and departs the area, we try to follow him but he manages to get through a light and we were not able to do so. We break off for the night, in the morning time we find out from our client that the subject did not come back home. We go back out the following day, this time we canvass the parking lot and find the vehicle that the woman our subject was speaking to. We note that there are two parking permits, one for a local junior college, and another for what appeared to be a condo or apartment complex with the name of the complex branded on the sticker. The woman gets off work first, we note the direction that she is departing in. An hour passes and our subject gets out of work. He enters into his vehicle and does not head in the direction of his residence, he instead heads in the same direction as the woman. We follow him and eventually he comes to an apartment complex we will call Centerstone, the same name that we observed on the parking permit sticker in the woman's window. He parks in the parking lot right next to the woman that we observed him speaking to's vehicle. He gets out and runs into the apartment building. He enters into an apartment out of view. He stays overnight. We of course have to relay the news to our client, that her suspicions have been affirmed and her husband is in fact staying over at this woman's apartment. Our client calls us the next day and states that her husband stated he was only staying over there in the guest room and that nothing was going on. Our client of course did not believe him. We later confirmed with the apartment manager that the unit that the woman lived in was only one bedroom, no guest room to sleep in at all.
A lot of times people work through the infidelity. As a rule I personally do not advise whether a couple should stay together or not. I believe that only God and the people involved should make that determination. I have found that a lot of different reasons are utilized to justify the behavior, again I do not judge, sometimes things just fall apart, sometimes people want to feel like they are still appealing, sometimes they just want to feel loved. Or they could just want their cake and to eat it too. Whatever the reason may be, I do know that cheating can have repercussions, and before you decide to cross the line you need to evaluate the possibilities and what will happen if you get caught, and believe me, no matter how tricky you are, you eventually will get caught. If you have a family is it going to be worth potentially splitting them up, or God forbid catching something from a person and having to deal with that for life? Are you mentally prepared for having to essentially live two different lives and deal with when the affair turns into another relationship? If the person you are out philandering with has a family, are you willing to jeopardize that family in order to get what you want? Again I do not judge, we each have to make our own decisions and deal with the fall out or rewards from them. Just make sure that whatever decision you make, you are prepared for it.
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 www.MorrowDetectiveAgency.com or give us a call at (805) 823-3540 and allow us to make your problem our solution!
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