ever had a private investigator follow you and you knew it?

buttercupbee

Years ago I had an accident at work and was followed on different occassions by different PI's (Magnum not being one of them).
Sorry to say PI's out there but you guys are crap!
For catching a woman anyway!

Generally these types consist of ex-Gardai and halfwit shop security by day/bouncer by night.
I reckon it's common that there would be two working together
- one on foot, one in vehicle. Buy one get one free???
But there are women and kids at it too. I have heard that a family
(ma, da and babbies) often followed people around the shops,
posing as regular customers.

In an empty (and I mean empty) bookshop one morning, I arrived at the fiction section (this is fact) .
I was quite nimble at getting there as I had used the lift.
Nobody around me, behind me, in front of me.
Next thing this man in his 50's springs from NOWHERE and plonks himself right beside me, feigning interest in Jane Austen i might add.
He may as well have introduced himself as one.
Backpack on, geared up in weatherproof coat, no doubt armed with
pocket-cam the dirty so and so.
Just waiting for me to drop something on the floor.
I was going to start a chat with him just to let him know he was rumbled.

An hour or so of mazing through various WOMENS shops later (to which he could not have followed me), I entered a € store and there he was again,
'browsing' uncomfortably beside me, appearing AFTER I had.
I left immediately to excite myself (I wanted a follow! and to p*ss him right off!) and in I went to the next shop FAST then waited a few feet inside for him, then sure enough....there he is!
He is standing in the doorway, scanning the shop to see where I went.
Eye contact was made. I smiled. He legged it!

Other occassions I could give plus some of those I know but its now 6:15am and I've got obair to get ready for (pulled another all-nighter posting on Boards - I really should blog!) and not in the same
hell-hole job I had the accident in either (obviously!).

So then, people of the Boards - tell your experiences and let us all be wise to them.
Let us know where you have been followed to (not EXACTLY no!),
by whom (physical description - sex, age, ect), daytime/night,
successive days/alternating ones/months apart ect.

For they are out there, in all guises, ready to discredit you in their most pathetic and HYPOCRITICAL ways.
I doubt there isn't one private investigator out there who's had an accident not sued for.
Let us be ten steps behind them after they are a step behind you.
Follow THEM for the fun of it!

Rabies

he only wanted to ask you out on a date.... failing that abduct you.

Private investigators are for hollywood movies and welfare scammers

dilallio

If I won the lotto, I'd hire 2 Private Investigators and get them to follow each other around.

buttercupbee

Rabies wrote: »

he only wanted to ask you out on a date.... failing that abduct you.

Private investigators are for hollywood movies and welfare scammers

No not at all!
They are for insurance claims MOSTLY and also for cheating partners
and welfare scammers.
I trust you've been NEITHER of the three???

buttercupbee

dilallio wrote: »

If I won the lotto, I'd hire 2 Private Investigators and get them to follow each other around.

Whoo Hoo! Brilliant! Ruddy brilliant! Nominate you for an award!
Possibly a compensation award!

geeky

I had a long conversation with a P.I. once upon a time. Seemed pretty professional actually, though there are a few chancers in the field. He mainly did electronic stuff.

cheating partners, insurance claims, and industrial cases (ind. espionage and other instantly-sackable offences) make up the bulk of a caseload - 25 per cent of this guy's cases were made up of the latter. There's the odd missing person too.

Canis Lupus

buttercupbee wrote: »

Years ago I had an accident at work and was followed on different occassions by different PI's (Magnum not being one of them).
Sorry to say PI's out there but you guys are crap!
For catching a woman anyway!

Generally these types consist of ex-Gardai and halfwit shop security by day/bouncer by night.
I reckon it's common that there would be two working together
- one on foot, one in vehicle. Buy one get one free???
But there are women and kids at it too. I have heard that a family
(ma, da and babbies) often followed people around the shops,
posing as regular customers.

In an empty (and I mean empty) bookshop one morning, I arrived at the fiction section (this is fact) .
I was quite nimble at getting there as I had used the lift.
Nobody around me, behind me, in front of me.
Next thing this man in his 50's springs from NOWHERE and plonks himself right beside me, feigning interest in Jane Austen i might add.
He may as well have introduced himself as one.
Backpack on, geared up in weatherproof coat, no doubt armed with
pocket-cam the dirty so and so.
Just waiting for me to drop something on the floor.
I was going to start a chat with him just to let him know he was rumbled.

An hour or so of mazing through various WOMENS shops later (to which he could not have followed me), I entered a € store and there he was again,
'browsing' uncomfortably beside me, appearing AFTER I had.
I left immediately to excite myself (I wanted a follow! and to p*ss him right off!) and in I went to the next shop FAST then waited a few feet inside for him, then sure enough....there he is!
He is standing in the doorway, scanning the shop to see where I went.
Eye contact was made. I smiled. He legged it!

Other occassions I could give plus some of those I know but its now 6:15am and I've got obair to get ready for (pulled another all-nighter posting on Boards - I really should blog!) and not in the same
hell-hole job I had the accident in either (obviously!).

So then, people of the Boards - tell your experiences and let us all be wise to them.
Let us know where you have been followed to (not EXACTLY no!),
by whom (physical description - sex, age, ect), daytime/night,
successive days/alternating ones/months apart ect.

For they are out there, in all guises, ready to discredit you in their most pathetic and HYPOCRITICAL ways.
I doubt there isn't one private investigator out there who's had an accident not sued for.
Let us be ten steps behind them after they are a step behind you.
Follow THEM for the fun of it!

You just sound paranoid.

xzanti

Sorry but weren't you kind of giving him evidence if you were able to skip from shop to shop so effortlessly, weren't you supposed to be injured?

biko

It seems claims fraud is getting more common these days so if the insurance companies hire a PI to check you out I can understand it.

baalthor

OP, if you take ALL your mediction they'll stop following you ... :-D

BrokenArrows

dilallio wrote: »

If I won the lotto, I'd hire 2 Private Investigators and get them to follow each other around.

That would be loads of fun.

RATM

The PI business has grown massively in Ireland over the last 10 years. Phoenix have documented how Quinn insurance often use them as a matter of course for personal injury claims. They are mainly ex-gardai who can use contacts on the inside to get info, which is presumably paid for.

There's supposed to be also some dodgy goings on with the mobile companies and PI's. Apparently your complete phone record can be purchased if you know the right person in the right position.

They can also check where you were at a certain time by tracking your phone to a mast or base station as they did in the Joe O'Reilly case- evidence gained in this way is not admissible in court (in fact its highly illegal) but it will be used to inform an insurance companies decision to pay out or not. If its a false claim then the company could call the Gardai and the PI will very handily point them in the direction of the evidence (which might have come through that channel to begin with) so they can produce it officially in court.

General Zod

so what insurance fraud are you committing OP?

smash

RATM wrote: »

Phoenix have documented how Quinn insurance often use them as a matter of course for personal injury claims.

I've heard of Quinn doing this too.

MarkR

RATM wrote: »

They can also check where you were at a certain time by tracking your phone to a mast or base station as they did in the Joe O'Reilly case- evidence gained in this way is not admissible in court (in fact its highly illegal) but it will be used to inform an insurance companies decision to pay out or not. If its a false claim then the company could call the Gardai and the PI will very handily point them in the direction of the evidence (which might have come through that channel to begin with) so they can produce it officially in court.

I call shenanigans. With a warrant, the gardai can get that information. Without it, they can't. How could an insurance company not pay out on evidence that they aren't legally allowed to have?

SuperInfinity

OP are you very hot by any chance? If so, that might explain it.

I've personally followed exceptionally attractive girls around a handful of times when I was younger. The reason is a mixture of wanting to know what it's like to spy on someone and a primitive feeling of following your love "prey" and wanting to see more of this person. However it can also be quite boring as you aren't going the places you want to. I would never let myself get caught easily like that though.

Millicent

SuperInfinity wrote: »

OP are you very hot by any chance? If so, that might explain it.

I've personally followed exceptionally attractive girls around a handful of times when I was younger. The reason is a mixture of wanting to know what it's like to spy on someone and a primitive feeling of following your love "prey" and wanting to see more of this person. However it can also be quite boring as you aren't going the places you want to. I would never let myself get caught easily like that though.

*sprays mace* :P

MCMLXXXIII

I work in HR, and I've worked for companies that regularly hire PIs.

Some would be sent to someone's house to make sure their injury was real, etc. Some would be sent to bars and restaurants to make sure employees weren't srinking too close to their shift. And some were sent to make sure employees weren't stealing anything.

BTW, this was for US Steel. I can understand the drinking part, as it is still very dangerous to work in a steel mill. But for stealing? I'm not sure anyone is going to be able to haul out a 20 tonne coil of steel home on their lunch break. Besides that - are you really going to catch someone stealing a pencil?

Also, the plant security carried guns - that's how serious they were about all of this!

Boxoffrogs

I can spot them a mile away, they always seem to have a mustache.

leeroybrown

Pretty much any firm of solicitors who act on behalf of an insurance company will have a number of private investigators that they use. Avoiding a personal injury payout at the expense of a few days of a PIs time is money well spent.

Berty

I used to assess Insurance claims and hired many investigation companies but always in the UK because it was a UK company.

It was creepy reading the reports, seeing the pictures and the overall sneakiness of it all.

We even had one expensive investigtion where they hired a helicopter to get photographs of a house on the Isle of Wight. Told them to fvck off and pay for it themselves.

Caught a good few people out. The guy playing squash with the twisted spine was a good catch.

28064212

buttercupbee wrote: »

Sorry to say PI's out there but you guys are crap!

(Story about catching a PI)

It's true. All the PIs that are caught are crap. However, I've spotted a fatal flaw in your extrapolation of that to all PIs. Can you see what it is?

biko

Crash for cash, car drivers cause accidents to claim insurance
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8078667.stm
With PIs checking up on them after they can tell that it's been a staged accident in the first place.

steddyeddy

I hired a private detective before, complete waste of money all he did was stare at me hedge for two weeks, turns out he was a privot detective!

SuperInfinity

Is it not illegal to spy on someone? I think it should be illegal.

buttercupbee

General Zod wrote: »

so what insurance fraud are you committing OP?

Apparantley it would seem like I'm committing online perjury by a few of the posts I've received up as far as your post!
Some people have accused me of paranoia!
That's accussing me of a form of perjury!

The Big Red Button

buttercupbee wrote: »

Apparantley it would seem like I'm committing online perjury by a few of the posts I've received up as far as your post!
Some people have accused me of paranoia!
That's accussing me of a form of perjury!

You're posting under oath?!

buttercupbee

xzanti wrote: »

Sorry but weren't you kind of giving him evidence if you were able to skip from shop to shop so effortlessly, weren't you supposed to be injured?

What's to say my ARM wasn't injured and not my legs?
- As in being able to skip from shop to shop would not be hindered by say an injured arm or an injured shoulder...these wouldn't affect walking like say a back or a knee injury might.
Clever of you to point that out though, just thought I'd give you something to consider should you ever assume a role as a PI
- there are many injuries that do not affect your overall mobility

buttercupbee

SuperInfinity wrote: »

OP are you very hot by any chance? If so, that might explain it.

I've personally followed exceptionally attractive girls around a handful of times when I was younger. The reason is a mixture of wanting to know what it's like to spy on someone and a primitive feeling of following your love "prey" and wanting to see more of this person. However it can also be quite boring as you aren't going the places you want to. I would never let myself get caught easily like that though.

Well Hi there SuperInfinity! Pleased to meet you! This is such a cool dating site!
And yes I AM pretty hot by the way

"it can also be quite boring as you aren't going the places you want to" did I read into that and correctly assume that you were at one stage a
P I? Cos that's just like something THEY would say!
There was a guy on tv documentary once, hid in the bushes near people's homes, all night if he had to, wouldn't budge from the spot in case he missed a thing and was very proud of himself too,
peed into bottles and all!

Or did you just like to randomly follow women around on your own agenda and pay yourself a salary for doing it?

buttercupbee

RATM wrote: »

There's supposed to be also some dodgy goings on with the mobile companies and PI's. Apparently your complete phone record can be purchased if you know the right person in the right position.

They can also check where you were at a certain time by tracking your phone to a mast or base station as they did in the Joe O'Reilly case- evidence gained in this way is not admissible in court (in fact its highly illegal) but it will be used to inform an insurance companies decision to pay out or not. If its a false claim then the company could call the Gardai and the PI will very handily point them in the direction of the evidence (which might have come through that channel to begin with) so they can produce it officially in court.

I can totally believe this as far fetched as it sounds.
Definitely so for murder cases but I reckon for the likes of High Court claim cases it would be a route they'd go down,
without having to declare their 'methology' in court,
as you say for a basis of whether to pay out or not,
directly between themselves and the plaintiff, in an attempt to scare the plaintiff off.

A documentary I once saw showed a guy on his holidays,
diving in to a pool and he was made to pay back what he had claimed on his Disability Benefit - FOUR years after he had HAD his 'accident' - somebody in his OWN circle I would guess, got hold of/shot the footage then used it against him all those years later.
But private investigators have also been known to follow people abroad aswell...duhn duhn duhn...

Mr Benevolent

Paranoid delusions are the new black.

MIRMIR82

HAVE YOU HAD AN ACCIDENT IN WORK OR IN YOUR CAR THAT WASN'T YOUR FAULT................CALL US RIGHT NOW!!!!!!:D

Newaglish

I'm not sure if it's the injury or the story itself but something here is lies!

buttercupbee

MarkR wrote: »

I call shenanigans. With a warrant, the gardai can get that information. Without it, they can't. How could an insurance company not pay out on evidence that they aren't legally allowed to have?

The 'legal' side of it is so grey that just by obtaining certain 'evidence' (which would certainly be construed as 'illegal' if it were used as official evidence) they can and apparantley DO use certain things to try intimidate you/call your bluff, such as for example
- day of court 'we have here some very interesting material which will be to your detriment should your client set foot inside the court' blah blah...
such as a person working when they said they were off of work
/working more hours than they were 'supposed' to whilst claiming part social welfare payment (ie - we'll get you in trouble with social welfare), and so on.
There are even cases of people not even being in the country when they said they had an accident here ect.

buttercupbee

28064212 wrote: »

It's true. All the PIs that are caught are crap. However, I've spotted a fatal flaw in your extrapolation of that to all PIs. Can you see what it is?

Yes - one or both things - my overall stigmatising that they are 'guys'
(and not women too), however I did say in my OP that their lady friends also come along for the canter (posins as regular shopping couples ect).
And the other - my assertions that the ones who get caught whilst following a person are crap (as in 'what about the ones you dont see' right?)

Me thinks you put up a very good defence of your nixer!

buttercupbee

Confab wrote: »

Paranoid delusions are the new black.

Let's hope YOU never have an accident/give your partner any reason to suspect you...

buttercupbee

Newaglish wrote: »

I'm not sure if it's the injury or the story itself but something here is lies!

Is there something about it that YOU can disprove my learned friend???

Confab wrote: »

Paranoid delusions are the new black.

BroomBurner

buttercupbee wrote: »

I left immediately to excite myself

This is probably why he followed you.

buttercupbee

I left immediately to excite myself

BroomBurner wrote: »

This is probably why he followed you.

Fair point, you got me there...

AnonoBoy

I follow women around regularly.

I never thought of using "I'm a Private Investigator!" as an excuse until now.

Thanks OP!