A funny thing happened

As mentioned in my previous entries, one develops a certain degree of paranoia when working in our field as, after all, we are the living proof that people really are watching you through the walls. That said, every now and then, one encounters something that seems to go past simple paranoia and forces one to ask the question: Am I the follower or the followed here?

Today witnesses a rare event indeed…I am on holiday. No phone calls, no Ops, no sneaking through the shadows planting tracking devices, just a good old fashioned home day on which the most dramatic event so far has been the raised voices on this mornings edition of the Jeremy Kyle show (Which, as it happens, sees the most concentrated collection of people that really should phone us).

Nipping out to the shops to park myself in Starbucks and watch the world go by for a while, I notice a car in my rear view mirror. Then I turn a corner and notice it again. Then I park my car and see it once more. Coincidence? One could assume so if it were not for the fact that spotting this car on such a regular basis, I decided to exit the car park only to have it follow me out.

Now, in terms of surveillance the very fact that I saw the vehicle almost immediately after leaving home did indicate that at best, the person following me (or not as the case may be) was not particularly good at it, though from this fact alone identification is somewhat hard due to the fact that there aren’t many people in our industry that are good at what we do. But that fact remains that good at it or not, they were having a damn good try!

After employing some very simple evasive driving manoeuvres (and I do mean very simple) the car was gone, not to be seen again, but the question to this point remains unanswered: Who was it?

A competitor (and I use the terms loosely here)? A hard done by target who believes that it was us that ruined his marriage as opposed to his ‘secretary’? Or someone completely unconnected to the industry?

I suppose not having neither the time nor the inclination to find out I will never know, but just for a fleeting moment I was able to see life from our targets point of view. To know what it feels like to be under the spotlight and observed. Don’t get me wrong, I have no need to shroud my relationship with Starbucks from my wife and as such, feel not even a morsel of compassion for the unfaithful among us but still, it was novel and I suppose as long as our competitors (if that’s who they were) continue to work to the same standards they have today there is only one company in the area cheaters need fear: Us!

It’s nice to know when we do it better.

How would I know if they were cheating?

Our job introduces us to people for whom the security of knowing they are in loving relationship doesn’t exist. They cant focus at work, they cant sleep, eat or even socialise without that fear in the pit of their stomach that as they do so, their life as they know it may be crumbling behind them. Whether this fear is founded on intuition or fact is not relevant, just the fact that it is present in their mind is damaging enough.

People often approach us and ask if there is anyway of reading the signs to get the truth they seek and sadly, as every case (and person) is different, this is easier said that done. Your intuition is more powerful than any device or method we could employ and if you follow this, you will, in time, find the answers you seek. That said, many people want to take a more pro-active stance against infidelity, hence the need for agencies like Black Cat Investigations,and for those people we offer the following guide to ‘Universal Signs of Infidelity’

  1. Your partner’s working pattern suddenly changes for no reason and they seem to be coming home later and later from work each day
  2. They change the way they dress, look or smell perhaps adopting the style of one years younger that they are
  3. They take an interest in the Gym or start working out at home, or worse join a Gym yet show no physical improvement after many months of ‘training’!
  4. As per number four, they change their car, moving away from their traditional choices and choosing something completely off the wall
  5. They are suddenly in contact with old school friends or people you haven’t, nor will ever (seemingly) meet and socialise with them on an increasingly frequent basis
  6. They become engrossed with the Internet, spending more time in front of the screen, perhaps until the early hours of the morning
  7. They become secretive with their mobile phone, perhaps; employing a key guard or PIN code feature and seem to send more texts or take more calls than ever before
  8. They become easily agitated at home
  9. They lose interest in sexual contact with you or conversely, their sex drive suddenly increases and they are introducing things into the bedroom that they have never tried before
  10. They hide their mobile phone bill from you or suddenly switch to online billing
  11. They adopt a hobby that is totally out of character for them
  12. They show subtle changes in their mannerisms (we often emulate people we associate with)

Of course as mentioned, this guide is by no way definitive and the only true way to get the answers you are seeking is to call us, and if you can answer yes to one or more if the questions above, maybe the time to do that has come.

Textbook follow

The names, places, events and other identifying factors in this next entry have been changed to protect the identity of both our target and our client.

Jobs don’t always go as planned. That is just the nature of the beast. Whilst you can have a good idea of what a target may or may not do, there are so many factors involved in each different type of Operation that you never really know what is going to happen. But all this aside, occasionally you seem to get everything right from start to finish and end the day wondering why all jobs can’t be as easy as that one?

Take yesterday for example. As mentioned in a previous entry, a client contacted us with fears that his wife may be cheating on him and thus a surveillance team were booked to follow her the next day.

The team arrived at the target location within about two minutes of each other (We always use more that one car in vehicular pursuits so that we can change positions frequently ensuring that the target doesn’t have the same car following her for any great length of time) and all three vehicles immediately slotted into what can only be described as perfect surveillance points: Just far enough away from the target vehicle so as not to arouse suspicion, but close enough to be able to move quickly when she chooses to leave her address.

One Agent then performed a radio drop to all three cars, ensuring that we can all stay in radio contact throughout the day and we wait in position for her to make a move. It seemed mere minutes following this that her front door opened and she swiftly made her way across the community parking area to her vehicle. At this point, an amateur agency would start vehicles and begin moving off towards her, but biding our time, we allow her to slowly turn her car around and make her way out of the modern housing estate she lives in. One by one behind her, from different estate roads and turn offs, our Agents fall in line behind her, just three more cars joining her for the morning commute to work.

And so this pursuit continued, just as smoothly as it had started, for the 62 miles covering everything from little B roads to country crossing motorways. In time, a route pattern began to emerge from her journey and it dawned on us that we may know where she was going. Call it intuition, or call it witchcraft (or Intel from the Client!) the feeling was strong enough to warrant one vehicle breaking free from the convey and forging ahead of her to meet us again in what would hopefully be her final destination.

The car forging ahead was mine.

Pulling into what I thought her destination may be (the main car park of a major northern landmark building) I took a moment to grab my Camera and attach a long range telephoto lens (I was using a Canon 400D with a Canon 100 – 400 L IS USM lens just in case you are interested!) and then moved into a position about 300 yards from where I thought her entrance point would be and set up my surveillance point.

Nothing. How far ahead of the main convey was I? Could it be that we had misjudged her destination? I tried my radio a couple of times, but whilst these are licensed professional Motorola’s I must have been too far away to get a signal through.

For twenty nail biting minutes I sat there, poised for action when a message started to crackle through my earpiece. “….approaching now..ca….conf…posito….” I was still too far away from the convey to get a proper signal but by virtue of the fact that I was hearing something from them, I meant they must have been getting closer. Suddenly, another car moved behind me and drove to an empty space on the other side of the carpark. Why move further away from the building when the space the car had occupied seemed fine? The car pulled up and I watched as a male driver emerged and leaned on the roof, watching the entrance just as I was, before checking his watch.

Another signal from the radio, this time not the victim of distance. “Agent A, can now confirm that we were correct, target is approaching your position now, please confirm copy over?” I pressed the button on my remote mic “Roger that, in position”

No sooner had I released it again than the target appeared, slowed her vehicle at the entrance and took a moment to look around. Behind her, I saw my fellow agents drive innocently past the entrance to take up distant positions from her. Catching sight of the man leaning on her car, she turned the wheel and headed off towards him. Parking next to him, she emerges and walks to him before they exchange the hugs and kisses exchanged by any other loving couple in a relationship. The only difference here? Her husband should be the man she is kissing.

And....rest.

When one finds oneself falling asleep on the sofa at 2030hrs you come to realise that one of two things has happened: Either your 70th birthday has snuck by without you knowing and your dreams are littered with adverts from Stanna and Saga, or you have been burning the candle at not only both ends, but also in two places in the middle.

Whilst a visual check in the mirror confirms that I have the complexion and black eyes of a 70 year old insomniac, it dawns on me that as an otherwise healthy 32 year old male, I really should take this as a sign that I need sleep and thus (after a ‘Sky plussed’ edition of Spooks) I find myself in bed for the first time in a long time, by 2200hrs.

As I lay there snug in my duvet with an electric blanket gently baking me on gas mark 5, I remember the days of nine to five and go through the mental checklist of why I do this job again. Getting to the point where I list down all of the bugging equipment I get to play with, I smile, roll over and allow myself to be taken over by dreams of playing Poker in Monte Carlo in an evening suit….

Sleep is for wimps

Tiredness is a feeling that one gets accustomed to rather quickly in our line of business. As you would imagine, our targets are rarely agreeable enough to perform their acts of indiscretion between normal working hours and thus, we find ourselves trying to catch sleep whenever (or wherever) we can!

Today is a perfect example of such a situation. Like any business there are periods, especially around Valentines day for example, when everyone wants everything done at he same time. As well they should as we are, after all a 24/7 Agency and they are (after all) paying our salaries. That said, I find myself at the extreme end of this deal today as having had only 3 hours sleep in the last 24, I am beginning to see things which I am not entirely sure are there!

Trying to rest, I find myself having passed the sleep stage and, fuelled by this morning’s Red Bull and Coffee which has seen fit to kick in now rather than when it was needed, I am wandering around the office ‘wide eyed’ and with a ‘bushy tail’ that I am sure is mere seconds away from collapsing in a slumbering heap.

So, will rest come tomorrow? I think not. The phone, as it always does, has been ringing off the hook today and as part of a surveillance team, I am off to the west country to pick up another target at 0700hrs.

It is at these times when you find out who really loves the job and who merely does it for the business card and I have to say, no matter how tired I get, the adrenaline rush of a brand new ‘bust’ always keeps me on my toes.

Now, what cancels out the effects of caffeine and Red Bull?

Ethical or not?

I still relish the thought of getting into the standard social group discussions about what people do for a living and use the moments before it is my turn to decide how best to deliver my long since polished lines about being a Private Investigator. Whether this is because I still love what I do, or simply that I love people’s reactions to what I do, I am not sure.

One thing that I do know however, is that for every ten people that pat me on the back for offering our clients the truth and giving them moral ammunition etc, there will be one that despises the whole business and looks upon us as the scourge of their otherwise anonymously shrouded lives.

While this viewpoint is normally brushed off with the line “If what we do worries you, maybe we should be talking to your wife!” and the laughter and banter that normally follows, one still asks the question of oneself “Are they right?” and it is that that I would like to talk about for a moment.

There is of course no doubt that by the very nature of what we do, we are invading our target’s privacy (and anyone in the business that tells you otherwise is either delusional or lying) but the question is simply how much privacy should one be afforded if what they are suspected of doing is causing another person such extreme distress that they cant sleep, cant eat and cant work for worrying?

The privacy to cheat on their wife or husband? The privacy to lie to their children about why they couldn’t make it to their sports day? Or how about the privacy to hide a complete separate family that they are raising in parallel to another?

When we work, we have to look at what is justified and what isn’t. It is this search for justification that leads us to ask all of our new clients why they suspect their partner of cheating. The reasons will always vary to some degree, but the effect of these suspicions is always the same.

If we can help people get answers to questions that they have otherwise been unable to answer themselves, then I believe that that is all the justification we need to do what we do. Of course, the Target will always argue that we are underhand and devious but that simply raises the question: If you are innocent, what do you have to hide?

That one person in our social group discussion will argue against us to all who will listen, but the irony of them doing so is remarkably clear to all who they spill their pinot gregio over that evening: Why do you care so much?

The day after these events is always primed to take the call from their partners, and nine times out of ten, it always comes.

Long live the dinner party.

Tracking in Birmingham

There is a serene tranquillity to be found when you are sitting next to someone’s car while they lay asleep not 20 feet from where you are. Whether it’s the fact that you are about deliver answers to an aggrieved husband or wife about their partners movements that they themselves have been unable to find, or simply that it is the early hours of the morning and for once the world seems to rest I don’t know. What I do know is that we are here once again with a job to do and as it is not without its risks, I really should get on with it rather than lie here pondering the peace and harmony of the night!

Its 0305hrs on Sunday morning and two of us, me and “Agent B” have just arrived at our next ‘Fix’ location which without being too specific, is about 15 minutes south of Birmingham city centre. We refer to the deployment of GPS tracking devices as Fixes simply as that’s what we do with them: Fix them to target vehicles. As you would expect, the world is silent but for Agent B and I preparing ‘Crystal’ for her next two-week assignment.

Crystal is a new generation of GPS tracking device, battery powered but capable of staying with a target vehicle for up to around 4 weeks with no intervention from us. Just the size of the palm of your hand and enveloped in a thick rubber casing, she will attach magnetically to a vehicle and stay there until we collect her again, sending back signals every 15 seconds informing us of her whereabouts, how long she has been there, how fast she was driven to get there and just about anything else you might want to know, or rather, might need to know if you are building a case against someone for unreasonable behaviour.

With the internal lights flashing to indicate that she is ready to go, Crystal is attached to the target vehicle and Agent B and I make our way back to our waiting car, which we have parked in the shadows about thirty feet away. Strangely, it is not the actual attachment of the device that increases the blood flow through my veins on these cold, dark winter nights, but more the waiting after the job has been done to see if our covert operation has been spotted by an ever helpful neighbour.

On this occasion, just as with all the others, our arrival, Fix and departure have gone completely un-noticed. Either way, as we slowly drive out of the modern housing estate back towards the Black Cat Investigations office leaving Crystal alone to do what she does best, it becomes apparent that the local badger population don’t adhere to the same rules of silence that we do.

Turning over yet another metal street bin, we watch the flash of its white stripes against the darkness in the rear view mirror before driving away thinking “….Well if the neighbours can sleep through that…”

You never stop watching

When I first started Black Cat Investigations all those years ago, I had no perception of the impact that It would have on my normal ‘non working’ life. Today is a sunny Saturday afternoon and like a million other families, we decided to pop into town to grab some essentials and stop at our local Starbucks for a coffee and some doughnuts. Sitting there, bags at our feet and sugar coated snacks on the table in front of us, I watched the rest of the world go about their business. But yet, at some point over the last few years I have lost the ability to simply watch and instead, now, analyse. The couple holding hands yet pulling in what seems to be opposite directions. The man walking ten feet behind his wife and children, engrossed in a conversation that obviously doesn’t include her or them. The couple who cant seem to get enough of each other of full view of everyone else.

Lets take the last couple as a study for a moment. He wears a ring, yet she doesn’t. He seems to be considerably older than her and whilst she never wastes a second casting glances to their improvised audience, he seems to never fully take his eyes off them, as if watching for something or someone in particular to break through the anonymous crowd.

So what of it, you may ask. Well, the first thing that comes to my mind, rightly or wrongly, is that these two aren’t together. Or at least I don’t think they are together in the accepted sense of the words. He just seems to have an air of nervousness about him that one shouldn’t have if they are not committing any offences against anyone else. Or maybe, like many men out there (myself included) he feels embarrassed by public displays of affection and thus he is totally innocent of any wrongdoing. Either way, yet again I have found myself analysing, watching for a spark that might herald the start of a new case and it is only my wife standing and gathering the bags at her feet that pull me back.

As entertaining as it is, to try and spot who is doing things they shouldn’t be, part of me yearns for the days when I could just sit in a street cafĂ© and watch the world go by in harmony, rather than dissecting it and trying to find the anomalies in behaviour that we watch for in our targets.

Never mind, on to Sainsburys….

Welcome to my world

I guess I lead a reasonably strange life. I am married with chilren, I live in Milton Keynes, Bucks and work as a Field Agent for one of the country’s leading Private Investigation Agencies. As matrimonial specialists, what this basically means is that I catch married people doing things that they really ought not be doing with people that they really ought not be doing it with. Some will say that this is an incredibly noble job as I give people the truth and others will claim that it is an invasion of privacy. To the latter group, I would ask “what do you have to hide....?”

Black Cat Investigations was set up with one aim: To offer people the truth, and that is a philospohy that we hold very closely everyday. Whether our clients are young, old, rich, poor, well educated or not, everyone has the right to know what is going on in their relationships and we specialise in telling them. Sometimes their instincts are wrong and there is nothing to tell, but most of the time if your intuition tells you that something is going on, it normally is. We simply give you the irrefutable evidence that you otherwise may never get.

So why this blog? Simple really: I love what I do and I want to share it with you. From team meetings, to testing new surveillance gear, to wandering through the darkness planting GPS devices on cars I am going to try and bring you into our strange little world of cloak and dagger operations and let you experience what we experience on a day to day basis because put bluntly: I am 32 years old, I am a guy and I get to play with night vision. Can I get any better than that?!

I will try to update this everyday to ‘keep you in the loop’ as they say and let you know what we have all been up to, but please forgive me if I miss the odd one as I have to sleep sometimes. So, until tomorrow night night world. Sleep tight and comfortable this evening as I have a evening off, but tomorrow, I am coming out in the dead of night to plant two GPS Tracking devices (Crystal and Ruby…we name all of our bugs!) So if you are doing something that you really shouldn’t be, tomorrow may be dedicated to you…

www.blackcatinvestigations.co.uk