This week I want to share with you a call you will get from a potential client, sooner or later, as a Private Investigator.
Remember, I’ve been-there-and-done-that. I made my full time living for nine years owning and running my own private detective agency and from that private investigator experience I take the things that I learned (first-hand!) and share him here with you every week. This is one of those things.
This week, I want to share with you one of those calls that comes in once or twice a year and it’s usually from a woman who suspects her husband of cheating.
As you talk to her on the phone, eventually she will say these words, “He works odd hours and he’s very alert of his surroundings.”
When I hear that magic phrase, the very next thing I’ll ask the potential client is, “Is he a police officer?”
They always pause for a moment and they’re surprised. They say, “Yes. Yes, he is.”
The only time I hear people say, “He’s alert of his surroundings and he works odd hours,” is when it’s a wife calling to check on her cop husband.
I share this with you because she WILL NOT volunteer that little piece of information.
She will be more than happy to hire you and let you go into your surveillance blind to that information!
For some reason, maybe she’s afraid that her husband being a cop is going to scare you off, but this is something that women just do not tell you upfront.
This can be dangerous for a variety of reasons.
It’s dangerous not because cops are harder to follow that anybody else, they’re human. I mean, they’re doing a hard job and I got tons of respect for them, but they can be followed if need be.
The reason it’s dangerous to follow a police officer, is because if a cop realizes he’s being followed, the consequences for you are much more significant than if it’s just some random Joe committing Worker’s Compensation Fraud (although that can be dangerous too!).
The reason it’s more dangerous to follow a police officer (and I’m talking about one who’s off duty here) is because they will call in back-up and they will do a full felony stop on you! Not just, “Hey, get behind him. and when he fails to use his turn signal, light him up and get a field interview card.” No. They will do a multiple vehicle, multiple officer, felony stop where you’re going to find yourself on the ground, spread-out and handcuffed before anything else goes on.
And you know what? I don’t blame them! If you were a cop, you’d do the exact same thing! And so would I!
Fortunately, I’ve managed to avoid that by…
1. I know I’m following a police officer. Just exactly because of that key phrase I taught you. Make sure you’re aware and listening for it.
2. I know what I’m doing on surveillance. (And it’s the things I teach in The Investigator’s Ultimate Guide to Surveillance.)
The whole value of that course, first of all, is to learn surveillance well. But secondly, if you can go through your career and avoid one single time of getting caught on surveillance, that’s worth it all right there!
If you’ve ever been burned on surveillance, you know it’s the worst feeling there is in this industry. You would do anything or pay anything to undo the few moments that you made that mistake.
The Investigator’s Ultimate Guide to Surveillance it pittance to pay, even if it only saves you from being burned once.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Committed to your success,
Larry Kaye,
Private Investigator (Ret.) &
#1 Best Selling Author
P.S. – Don’t miss my special report titled… If You Want To Be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do These Three Things. You can get it right here…
P.P.S. – Do I even have to say this… If you are not a legitimate private investigator, hired by a legitimate client, with a legitimate and legal right to know what’s going on… then DO NOT follow a police officer. Ever. Period. ‘Nuff said.