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Interesting Cases
| Below are
Interesting Cases from the field. Names of parties involved have been
omitted for privacy purposes. |
Case of the Gang Shooting
While
conducting surveillance on a man living in the suburbs of Milwaukee, one of
our investigators followed her claimant into a rough neighborhood in town.
The claimant went into a residence and the investigator took up a position
where she would be able to see when he came back out to his car. She was
sitting in the back of the surveillance van when she heard raised voices and
looked out a side window to see two teenaged boys being confronted by five
other teenage boys. The argument was about money and drugs.
While trying to be sure she didn’t miss her claimant coming out, the
investigator also wanted to keep an eye on the escalating disturbance
outside the van. As she watched, suddenly, as the five teens advanced on the
two, the two started to run. One of the five pulled out a hand gun and
fired. One teen was shot and one got away.
The five immediately took off running. Our investigator called the police,
who arrived almost within a minute. They were able to save the teen, and
with our investigators help, they were able to identify the shooter and his
companions.
When our investigator started in the suburbs that morning, she did not
expect she was going to be a witness to an inner city shooting before the
day was over. |
Case of the Unexpected
Overnight Stay
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Investigator Aaron Larson was conducting
surveillance on an individual where the claim handler from the insurance
company did not know where the man was living. This young claimant was
moving around a lot and not maintaining a permanent address. Aaron had the
unenviable task of trying to find this man so as to conduct surveillance.
We didn’t know where this fellow lived, but we knew of a country bar where
he was known to frequent. Aaron kept checking to see if the young man would
show up there. One evening Aaron found the claimant’s car parked at the bar.
Yahoo! But upon going into the bar he was not able to identify who the
claimant was. The bar was crowded and all we had was a physical description
that gave his height, weight, race and age. The description fit most of the
guys in the place.
Aaron decided this claimant was not going to get away from him, so he went
back out to the surveillance van and waited to see who would come out to the
claimant’s car. Well the night wore on, people left, the parking lot cleared
out and the bar closed.
No one came to the claimant’s car.
Aaron continued to wait, thinking this guy wouldn’t just leave his car here.
About seven in the morning a car pulled into the lot and a young lady
dropped off a tired looking young guy who proceeded to get into the car and
drive away. Not only did Aaron get good identification film of the claimant,
but he followed him to the new address where he was now living.
We were able to continue the surveillance which went successfully, but no
one, especially Aaron thought it was going to take an unexpected overnight
stay in a bar parking lot to get this claimant on film.
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Case of the Surprise Car Theft
One of our
Investigators was conducting surveillance on an individual in Milwaukee when
he had a little surprise with a team of car thieves. We had followed a the
person we were conducting surveillance on into the parking lot of a small
strip mall. We shot film of the claimant as she went into the store, and
parked the surveillance van where we would see her come out so as to
continue filming.
Once parked, the investigator heard a commotion and saw a young man breaking
into the car parked next to the van. From here our investigator began
filming the young man as he got into the car, opened the passenger door so
that another young man could get in and act as a look-out. The first
individual proceeded to break the steering column lock to get the car
started. The investigator put in a call to police via cell phone as soon as
he saw what was happening.
The investigator saw the look-out gesture to a woman parked in another car,
who was watching the two men intently. It became obvious they were working
together, and she was there to drive them away if they needed to get out
quick. We then got a clip of film of her and, because we had a good angle to
see the front of the car, we got a close up shot of the license plate.
We were shooting film of the two men from only a few feet away, but because
of the dark windows in the van they never knew anyone was watching them, let
alone filming them.
In very little time, the men had the car started and drove off. Our
investigator called the police and let them know we had the incident on
videotape.
Later, when the tape was turned over to the police, it was shown on local
television and all three individuals were identified and taken into custody.
The car the woman was driving was one she was “test driving” from a local
used car lot.
We were still able to continue our surveillance without missing our claimant
coming out of the strip mall, but our investigator sure was surprised that
in the few minutes she was in the store he filmed a car theft from start to
finish. |
Case(s) of the Messed UP Identification
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When we are given surveillance assignments,
our customers give us the best description of the claimants they can.
However, often the descriptions just don’t match the person we are looking
for or don’t fit the situation. For example...
On a case where the claimant had lost both arms in an industrial logging
accident, we were told that we should have no problem identifying the
claimant, he had no arms! In a Wisconsin winter, wearing a heavy Carhart
jacket with those stiff arms, with this claimant living on a farm and no
place to get close to him, we saw him and several other men on the farm and
filmed everyone, they all looked like they had arms.
Another case gave us the initial description that the claimant had lost his
thumb and first two fingers of his right hand. When our investigator
followed the claimant into a store, he followed in on foot and observed that
the claimant had all his fingers and thumbs, and that they were all working.
We were sure this was the right guy, but what about the fingers? Later we
learned they had all been micro-surgically reattached.
Often we are told we will be able to identify the claimant by his severe
limp. When we do surveillance, the claimant has no limp. Is it the right
guy?
Often the description will say the claimant uses a cane or crutches. You
guessed it, on surveillance they claimant has no cane, no crutch and gets
around
There is not much hope for relying on hair color or the length of hair. With
some claimants that changes faster than the assignment can be made. |
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