Private Eye Jailed for Posing as Federal Police

An Australian private investigator, Brett Sutcliffe, has been jailed for posing as an Australian Federal Police agent. Why did he do this? To taunt an old lady.

The woman challenged Sutcliffe, then director of private investigation firm Spousebusters, for parking in a disabled parking zone outside her building. She asked him to move so she could better unload her shopping items, but Sutcliffe refused saying he was an investigator. She later received a letter using an Australian Federal Police (AFP) letterhead warning her not to interfere with AFP investigations, claiming she ruined months of surveillance when she confronted the investigator over the parking space.

Here is an excerpt of the letter via LiveNews:

"The man you spoke to that was parked in your street was a federal agent working
on an investigation regarding matters of national security," the letter
said.

Telling her neighbours of his presence "may have led to ruining months
of surveillance and investigation”.

"This letter serves as your first and
last warning about such matters although if it is found your actions have led to
this investigation being compromised, you will be arrested and charged with
obstruction of justice, harbouring of criminals as well as many other offences".

Later, she saw this "federal police" agent on a news story, which identified him as a private investigator for Spousebusters. He soon found himself busted, serving 12 months jail time.

Source: LiveNews

People Smugglers Steal Go-Fast Boats

A private investigator, Charlie Meacham, has recently been hired by insurance companies to investigate five go-fast boats stolen from the docks on the Intracoastal Waterway in Pinellas County, Florida. He believes these boats are to be used by criminals to smuggle aliens from Cuba to Mexico, where they can cross the border into Arizona, New Mexico or Texas.

This is no minor operation. The go-fast boats that were recently stolen are valued between $200,000 and $1 million. These theives do not purchase their fuel along the waterway, where they could be detected. Local police believe they have oil drums in the Gulf of Mexico, tracked with GPS systems. Meacham thinks they might be using some type of mother ship.

A major problem in stopping this sort of crime is that there is little risk and a potential for great reward. Smuggling people for a profit of hundreds of thousands of dollars can lead to months of prison time, the same smuggled in drugs can lead to life sentences.

Source: The SunCoast News

The Red Bronco

I had just finished a run and exercise with my three dogs and drove a block over to the local Sonic for a drink. While waiting at the window and chatting with the clerk, with whom I am acquainted, I heard sirens approaching from the East. I looked over to see a red Bronco coming westbound at a high rate of speed on Orange Grove, a major thoroughfare. Close behind him was a Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy in a marked unit, the source of the sound of sirens. As I watched, the Bronco left the road surface, crossed a dirt divider and continued rather erratically down a side street before side swiping a house, striking several parked cars, striking and uprooting a large tree, and then literally completing a full forward roll before landing on its wheels. I saw the deputy affect a power stop and told the clerk I would be right back as the deputy might need back up.

As I pulled up to the street, I noted two male subjects run from the vehicle heading East along the side street. The deputy was in foot pursuit and Tazer’d one of the individuals, causing him to make an immediate and unscheduled stop on his face, followed by the deputy trying to place handcuffs on him. I began crossing the street, seeing that the second individual had continued running. After avoiding an oncoming cement truck, I crossed Orange Grove, went through the divider and over the curb to the side street then headed East after the individual. I pulled my vehicle up along side the individual and ordered him to stop in both English and Spanish. He continued running, so I reached out the driver’s window and grabbed him at the back of the neck by his sweatshirt, again telling him to stop, which he ignored. I pulled him against the side of my Expedition, tightened my grip on him and noted he was slowing and finally stopping. I pulled my vehicle across his path, switched hands and exited the vehicle, ordering him to the ground. He resisted, so I placed him on the ground by pushing down on his neck and sweatshirt. A passerby came up and asked what was happening, and I told him to go back down the street and see if the deputy needed any help. I put one of the individual’s arms behind his back, patted him down and found a knife and an Altoids tin filled with what appeared to be either cocaine or meth.

As I was standing him on his feet, I could hear a number of sirens approaching from different directions and I began walking him back to the deputy. We arrived where the deputy had secured the first individual just as a number of back up units were arriving, and they took custody of the two individuals. I spoke with the deputy, who thanked me and asked why I had gotten involved. I told him it was rather obvious he was in need of back up, and my law enforcement background kicked in when I saw one of the individuals running from the scene. I also told him that I lived and worked less than a block away and didn’t need that type of individual running around loose in my neighborhood. I gave my contact information to the responding officers who took control of the scene and went to retrieve my vehicle. One of the funny aspects of the story was that my wife and office manager had been in our home office, had heard the sirens, the vehicle colliding with the house, and when I didn’t immediately return with the drinks, she went looking for me. When she walked around the corner and saw the scene, she said “I might have known you were in the middle of something!” I only shrugged and said he apparently needed a little help!

I went back to the scene with the design of taking a photograph of the vehicle and scene for the scrapbook and was approached by the Sheriff’s Public Information Officer, a woman I knew through professional affiliations, and she coordinated a television interview with a local station. The reporter turned out to be someone with whom I have been friends for more than thirty years, who also asked why got involved. The comments I made are just what everyone else should be in a position to say, that if we don’t get involved and support law enforcement, we’re going to pay for that lack of support in having more of these types of individuals running around loose on our streets. The two had stolen the vehicle just a couple hours earlier, were both noticeably high on meth, were in the US illegally, and had prior records for much the same offenses.

My oldest daughter is a police officer on the Denver Police Department and I served for almost eleven years as both a military policeman, K-9 handler and security specialist in Viet Nam before becoming a Special Agent in the OSI, like my father before me. I entered into the PI profession some 29 years ago and have pursued cases all over the United States and several foreign countries. I am the current President of the Arizona Association of Licensed Private Investigators (AALPI) for 2008!

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This story comes to us from John MacIntire of MacIntire & Associates.
www.macintireandassociates.com

An Evil Lawyer

A few years back I was hired by a woman to follow her husband, whom she suspected was cheating on her. After waiting at the subject's workplace for almost an hour, the husband finally leaves work and I start following him. He makes a stop at a gas station and then heads to a small, dark, off the beaten path type bar. The perfect place to meet for an affair. Ten minutes after parking he gets out and heads towards the door, looking like your typical white male businessman; white shirt, dark pants, balding a little, and a loosened tie ready to have an after work drink. I follow him in with my hidden camera and go straight to the bar and order a soda. I leave a twenty on the bar and spin my stool around to see the subject sitting at a table about three feet away from me. I get the inner seize and casually spin back to the bar hoping to avoid being noticed.

After about a half hour of waiting, as I am starting to think this guy is just a drinker, a young, attractive woman walks in looking like she does not belong here. Most of the males in this place are looking her up and down as she goes over and sits down next to my subject, and I reach for the record button. My hidden camera is built into a light jacket that is currently hung over the back of the chair, which I spin hoping to line up a good shot of them as I grab my soda and head over to the pool table. About ten minutes later I go back to the bar and throw my jacket on and walk outside to check the video.

Murphy got the better of me... no good shots. I'm chain smoking trying to figure out how to get back inside when the two of them exit the bar and get into his car. I hop into mine and start following, but lose them at a light when some moron cuts me off. I look around for them... no luck. Anyone who has been there knows how I feel at this moment. I cruise around a bit then head back to check the bar again. No joy. I go back towards the highway and pull off into a commuter parking lot to do my report, cursing and chain smoking some more. I backed into a spot in a dark corner and look over to see, you guessed it, the subject's car with him and the girl in it. Now I am in a perfect spot, I got my camera, I have position and I have the subject. I wait. They talk for a bit and I take video to show them in the car together, but thats all it is at this point: proof he is in a car with a woman who is not his wife. They get closer, and I am waiting for the brake lights to flash and them to be off to the hotel.

But, I am wrong. Instead they start moving to the back of the car, and I grab the camera and take footage of them getting into the back seat. It's starting to look like I beat Murphy at last when a cop pulls up next to my window, sees the camera, and motions for me to roll down the window. I do and we talk, I couldn't tell him who I was working on but I think he has a good idea. He asks me if I called in and I tell him the story up to when he pulls up next to my car and that I've got no good video yet for the night. I look over at the subject's car and see asses and elbows in the windows, and I am really beginning to hate Murphy and life right now.

After the cop and I have a good laugh over my luck he tells me to have a good night and smiles, but it was not a "have a good night" smile: it was a "watch this" sh*t kicker grin. He drives off in the direction of the subject's car and stops about ten feet away. I had just got my camera running again hoping to get the last few minutes of anything in the back seat. Then, the cop hits the lights, high beams, flashers and lets out a couple chirps on the siren. I hear him on his loud speaker, "Please step out of the vehicle," and out pops the husband wearing nothing but black socks and boxers followed by the woman pulling on a shirt and hopping into one leg of panty hose. The camera is rolling and I am laughing so loud I thought they would hear me! I record about a half hour of the cop just laying into them, standing with hands on hips as they get dressed and find their IDs, standing arm in arm while the cop runs the licenses.

When he's done they get back in the car and drive off, and the cop rolls up to me and gives me the lights and siren. The subject had already left and I would not have followed him anyway. I roll my window back down and the cop and I bullsh*t half the night. He made it clear that he never saw me and had no idea I was here; I showed him the entire video so he could see that I never showed his face or his car. I get to the office the next day and show the boss the video and give him the full report, telling him the whole truth. He tells me four other guys were unable to get anything on this guy.

A few months later we get a call to testify in court for a divorce hearing. This is a surprise as most times we never have to testify, but five of us have to go this time as we all worked on the case. At this point, I was not aware that the husband and the husband's attorney have not seen the video yet. So, I listen to the story of a man who loves his wife, but has a drinking problem, and would go out nights and drink and play poker and do everything imaginable other than see another woman. I think the wife was the best actress I have ever seen. I swear she even had a tear forming in her eye.

I do not where the wife’s attorney was from or how much he got paid, but he was truly evil. He put each of us on the stand one at a time, me last. Each of us got the same questions: "Did you see Mr. ______ with anyone outside of work? Did you observe any behavior contrary to his statement?" This went on for about an hour, then after lunch it was my turn. This lawyer hammered me; I was thinking he forgot I was on his side. "So, you tricked Mr. _______ into doing this or that. You manipulated him, you..., you..., you." I was sweating by the time he finished, and had just been released from the stand when the lawyer said, "Oh by the way did you obtain any video of Mr. ______ ?" I was so shook up by this lawyer that I had forgotten!! "Ummmm, yes I did." There I was, half sitting and half standing like a deer in headlights. My eyes are doing the tennis match between the judge and the lawyer. The judge takes pity on me and tells me to be seated again. So the lawyer goes at me again. "How did you get the video, what does it contain?" I have had defense attorneys treat me better than he did. At this point the husband's attorney jumps up and objects. "Well, I think we need to see this so-called video," he says. As the husband's attorney says this, the wife’s attorney was looking right at me and winks. The wife's attorney asks the judge for a recess to show the video. I thought it was all over. The husbands attorney jumps up again and says, "We can see it right now, we have nothing to hide."

"Oh my god," I thought, "this is the first time this video is going to be seen?" So, there I sat, in court, watching what was the best video taken by our company all year. I swear I tasted blood from biting my lip so hard, trying not to laugh.

We see a few minutes of the car at a bar, then some video of the guy leaving the bar with the woman, then some video of them sitting in the car. At this point the wife’s attorney looks back towards me and winks again. I get the urge to start giggling like a school girl. I actually had to put my hand over my mouth. The next thing we see is the husband, in his black socks and boxers, and the woman hopping around on one leg. I was beside myself... I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The wife looks back towards me and smiles a little. The husband looks at me like I should be on fire and screaming. So, I bend over some, trying to hide, laughing my ass off as quietly as possible. The judge actually asked me if I was OK. With tears coming out of my eyes, I look at him and said, "I am sorry your honor, I swallowed my gum." This brought on more laughter.

He called a recess. Thank God.

The husband lost BIG. The wife gave me a bonus, a weekend trip to Florida. I still start laughing when I think about it.

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This story comes to us from our friend at spyville.com.
Check out his blog at spyville.blogspot.com.

Nancy Drew Wanna-bes in the UK

This story comes from Brighton, in the U.K. Apparently, a private investigator firm has been hired by retailers to self-police their stores and make sure the employees are following the law in regards to selling alcohol or tobacco to minors. This firm, in turn, has hired teenage girls to go into the supermarkets and convenience stores to try and make a purchase without any form of I.D.

The two girls mentioned in this article at The Argus, 18 and 19, try to dress up as a typical school girl and go in to make their purchase. They will make up any excuse they can for why they don't have I.D., if they are even asked. They keep a tiny hidden camera in their pack and catch anyone on video not following the law.

Apparently, these Nancy Drew wanna-bes think it's "cool" to be a private investigator. Of course, I doubt they would have as much success busting stores here in the U.S., as the legal age for drinking is 21 rather than 18. But, you never know... illegal alcohol and tobacco sales occur frequently here, as anywhere.

Source: The Argus