Is her back really injured? Hmmm... REALLY?		Greetings from not-so-sunny South Dakota, A few years ago I worked as a private investigator in Nebraska. I was given a worker's compensation case by an insurance company. During my prelimenary check on the subject, I found that I was going to have my work cut out for me. The subject lived on a street with only two other houses other than her own. Each home was situated about half a city block from each other and there was no vegetation of any kind in this area. How was I going to get my video footage of the subject doing whatever she was doing? The woman was supposed to be suffering from a severe back injury, which "kept her from her job" as a receptionist (she actually injured her back at work?). I made a couple of trips through the neighborhhood on a couple of different days to see who might be home in the area and when. During the second of these trips, I noticed that the subjects husband was out in their side yard with a "Bobcat", a piece of construction equipment similar to a small bulldozer or tractor. I stopped the car and took a look at what was going on. I could not believe what I saw next...the "disabled" subject was in the yard using a shovel to move heavy stones and earth from one spot to another, clearly using her back...and enjoying her time. Thinking quickly, Ii grabbed my video recorder and walked toward the subject's husband. I told him I was an architecture and construction management student at the local college. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Private Investigators are, as a rule, among the most honest and responsible of citizens. However, as in this case, it is often necessary to go "undercover" and assume fictious identities....) I informed the fellow of my "student" status and that I was to get footage of different kinds of construction equipment for a class project, and i would be grateful if he would allow me to film him. Surprisingly, he said "Of course!" and invited me onto his land. While filming his equipment and asking a few questions to find out what they were doing, I moved the camera a little to the left and filmed his wife, the Subject, doing exactly what she should not have been able to, using that darn shovel to move those big heavy rocks. The husband informed me that the subject was expecting a large settlement and that they were building a large shed and workshop for the husband. Sure this may be a great story on how to create a diamond from a lump of coal but the ending is worse: After getting all of my footage, I returned to my office and phoned the insurance company to inform them of what I had. I was told that they didnt want it because they had already left me a message to stop the investigation. Because of the cost and the fact that the case had been assigned to me after another investigator had botched it, the company had already made the decision to pay the claim. Our contract was ended. I told the company that they should not pay the claim because of the information I had for them and since it only took me about an hour to get the footage, I would waive the fees from the time they had left the message until I called them. Here I had worked for free to get the footage and it wasn't even going to be used! Oh well, chalk that one up to experience! I am now working out of South Dakota, since I moved my family up here from Nebraska. Take care and good snooping! Dennis Grace

Want anchovies?		Here's one from our own archives here at Baker Street Investigations. While this isn't typical of all P.I.s, here on Florida's Treasure Coast in the 19th Judicial Circuit, we find it convenient for all our private detectives to also be Certified Process Servers. One of the rules is that we Private Investigators are licensed by the Florida Department of State, which authorizes us to go "undercover" or wear disguises, hide in trees, etc., to further our investigations. But, Florida Certified Process Servers may not do this. Florida Certified Process Servers may not use any form of disguise, for example, to serve the Subject. Once, the Chief Judge in the circuit commented how nice it would be if you could pretend to be a pizza delivery person and have the Summons inside the pizza box. Unfortunately, the statutes do not permit this. However.... We had a particularly difficult subject who needed to be served in a federal consumer fraud case, and time was of the essence. At an Executive Team meeting here at Baker Street Investigations, we commented that it was too bad that we couldn't put the Summons in a pizza box as hinted at by the Chief Judge. Our agency director, Investigator Marcia Gillings, however, asked what would be wrong with actually deliveringreal a pizza! That's exactly what we did. We called a local pizza delivery service, ordered a nice cheese and pepperoni pizza, and had it delivered, for real, to the subject's apartment. When the hard- to-serve subject opened the door, there we were right behind the pizza guy, Federal Summons in hand. He was served (twice, actually, once with pepperoni, once with Constitutional due process!).

What's in a Name?		As we have mentioned elsewhere here on our Baker Street Investigations P.I. website, we private detectives have to go "undercover" here on the Florida Treasure Coast, where we have our national headquarters, and in the Palm Beaches, as well as in Central Florida where we do an enormous amount of investigator work. It's often necessary for Baker Street Investigations' private eyes to be more or less "invisible" and, sometimes, going undercover is for the birds! We knew that we were going have to answer the inevitable question from well-meaning and alert neighbors: "what are you doing in our ultra-exclusive neighborhood parked by our lake for several hours?" A great question, actually, since Baker Street Investigations also teaches security techniques nationwide. Hmmmm.... Let's see. What could we say that would adequately explain private eyes being parked outside million dollar homes, armed with binoculars, listening devices, video equipment? We came up with an innovative private detective plan: we would disguise ourselves as member of a Sandhill Crane nesting and mating habits research team. (Most everybody loves Sandhill Cranes and their cousins, Great Blue Herons!) Our Graphic Department provided research forms and questionnaires, full- color pictures with front and side views of these wonderful, large birds and...of course...Research Tech I.D. badges. Oddly, in spite of their names, Sandhill Cranes are pretty much aquatic and are generally found in shallow water, on docks, or sometimes in yards close to the water. Nobody we have run into has ever seen one on a sandhill...or...at least not until the day of our undercover operation (see picture!). It's always exciting and often fun working for Baker Street Investigations on the Treasure Coast, Florida (or anywhere else in the US, or abroad). But, a wonderful benefit is that, now and then, we get even to make a contribution to the advancement of Science!

The Kayak Trip		Generally, Florida Process Servers are allowed to go to the front door of a Subject's home...or the side door, if it is not gated. But, we are discouraged from opening gates to backyards. Yet, there was this guy who was seen hanging out in a hammock in his backyard...steadfastly "not hearing" our knocking and calling out his name. He lay there under a shady oak tree, with a great view of the canal that passed behind his home. It was a rush service and we were a bit nervous since we had knowledge that this particular man had reacted violently to other process servers in the past. The solution? Baker Street Florida Private Investigations founder, Marcia Gillings, is a long-time kayaker. She went home, got her kayak, launched it a few doors up the canal from the Subject, and went paddling by the target home. Stopping "midstream" to say hi, the burly Subject engaged in pleasant enough conversation so, Summons tucked under her wide-brimmed hat, Marcia pulled the kayak over to the shore. "Mr. Avoiding Service" ambled down to the waterfront and, much to his consternation, was served! Marcia paddled away quickly, dodging the lawn chair that was hurled into the water after her!

FLAT TIRE!		Dear Baker Street Investigations: My name is Kathy and I'm a certified process server in the Midwest. This is a true story: I had a rush subpoena for a local karate instructor. I'd been told he was going to try avoiding service. Not a good combination, a service-avoiding karate instructor!! About four houses from where this guy lived, I got a very flat tire -- on a rainy, gooey day! Groan! Fortunately, a car passing by stopped to help me...a trim, good-looking man about 30, who was very kind as he helped me get the spare on. The only trouble is that the spare was a bit low on air. But my new friend told me that he had an air compressor at his house and, fortunately, he only lived four doors away. Gulp. Could it be...?!!! Sure enough! My Good Samaritan was the "bad ol' Subject" I had to serve! Turned out, though, that he had been subpoenaed by the other side just that very morning, knew all about the case, and was only too happy to accept service from me. In spite of a few nervous moments, it had a happy ending. Actually, this Subject even hired me about a month later to do some private investigation work for him. Sometimes, the "Good Guys" win!

Who's following who?!		Hi, Baker Street Florida Investigations. (Glad to see that you do nationwide -- even international work. Maybe we can do some business together one of these days!) I'm Larry Gladstone, a P.I. in the Atlanta area. This happened to me yesterday: I was following a pick-up truck in a domestic violence case. The subject was a particularly scruffy fellow, with a history of several arrests for bar fights and other mayhem. We were in an area where there were several alleyways off the main drag and he unexpectedly turned into one, off to the right. Not to be obvious that I was following him, I passed that alley and turned right into the next one. It ended at a "T" and I "mentally flipped a coin" and turned right, back toward the alley into which the Subject had turned. Wrong decision! All of a sudden, there he was, right ahead of me in his battered, jacked-up, big wheel, truck...turning sideways and stopping in the middle of the street...blocking my path. As the guy ambled back to my car, he even carried a gun with him! He rapped insistently on the window, and demanded to know why the hell I was following him. Fortunately for me, my wife is a real estate agent and there was a lot of real estate stuff, pictures, maps, and fliers, in the passenger seat of my car. I told the guy, plausibly enough, that I was looking for a car repair place "in the neighborhood" that was supposed to be for sale. After glowering at me for a moment, sizing me up, the guy bought my story and told me that there was a garage three streets down that he'd heard might be going on the market because the owner was moving to Florida. I got away, didn't blow my cover, and let my partner (who had not been seen by the Subject) take over the rest of the investigation.

I shouldn't have done this ... but it worked!		Dear Baker Street Florida Investigations: Hi! I'm Rob Jensen, a Certified Process Server in the Miami area. When I was younger and less-cautious, I did the following: I had been trying all afternoon to serve this one guy who eluded me every time I went to his house. Once, he ran out the back door and into the woods with his dog. Another, I could hear him inside but he refused to answer the door or pick up the phone. But, having been there before, I knew that he was having his house painted, and that a crew was working there every day. I put on some old clothes, grabbed a bucket and brush from my garage, stuffed the Summons into the back of my jeans, and set out! Arriving at the Subject's house -- good luck! -- his car was in the driveway. As were two trucks from the house painting company. Parking, I grabbed my paint can and brush, and I walked to the rear of the house, and I climbed one of the ladders that was leaned up against the house. The painters were Cuban and didn't speak much English. I guess they thought the boss had sent me over...to help, or maybe they thought I was an inspector or something! It wasn't more than five minutes before the homeowner (the guy I was trying to serve) came out, looked at me, decidedly not a Cuban, and demanded to know who I was. Climbing down slowly, I walked over to the man, pulled the Summons out of my jeans, and told him that I was a process server in the 11th Judicial Circuit, and that he was served! Not sure if I could have been arrested to trespassing, or for Painting Without a License or something, but the service stuck. I am more responsible and mature today but, as I said, this happened fairly early in my career when I still thought I knew it all!

The "Blue Light Special"		My name is Bob, a licensed private investigator with Baker Street Florida Investigations. Here's a case that was both odd ... and embarrassing case! We had a client who was certain that someone was invading her privacy by peering into her house with a blue laser beam that was somehow capable of taking pictures of her as she moved from room to room. She reported that this happened nightly, for two years As up-to-date and technologically adept as we are here at Baker Street Investigations, we have never heard of any equipment capable of the feats that this client described. We discreetly asked if she had ever seen ghosts, had any type of mental problems, or even if she had any history of seizures (which sometimes cause flashes of light) ... anything that might account for her seeing -- or thinking that she was seeing -- these blue "laser" lights. But, she insisted that they are real. So, we went to her home loaded down with virtually every type of visual, auditory, and electronic detection equipment in our arsenal. One of the devices we employed is a sort of electronic spectrum scanner, which scrolls through the entire range of electronic frequencies, sort of like a super-duper police scanner. The thought was that, if there was in fact some sort of blue laser-like "probe" penetrating her home (presumably through gaps in her window curtains), then it must have an electrical source. Well, as I sat outside in our electronic surveillance van, hidden in bushes next to a nearby cul-de-sac, the speaker suddenly cracked to life. I clearly, all-too-clearly, heard voices saying things like, "the knife to her lungs was good, but it was the knife in the heart that did the the old gal in. Look at all the blood! Okay, now we need to move the body," and gruesome conversation like that. Trained as we are for all eventualities, I was emotionally unprepared for a routine "bug scan" and surveillance to suddenly turn into a homicide! Just as I was about the call 911, the spectrum scanner's speaker suddenly switched from the topic of a dead body to the theme song for "Law and Order!" What had happened was that, as the equipment scanned up through the myriad of electronic frequencies, it locked into a cable television emission and was picking up a tv program, not a real murder inside the subject's home! Whew! P.S.: We never did see the "blue light laser beam" that the client said was entering her home nightly and taking her picture. Anyone have any ideas that will help "crack" this case?

The Bad Guy's Excellent Security System		Here's one from the anals of a Baker Street Florida Investigator's file.... Baker Street's chief investigator and founder, Marcia Gillings, has been doing police work and private detective work for a couple of decades now and has run into most every situation that can be devised by humans, Nature, or by accident. Increasingly, though, the really bad guys are becoming more sophisticated in protecting themselves and their assets from discovery. (For example, there are high-tech security systems today that we wouldn't have dreamed about even a decade ago...motion detectors, heat sensors, video monitoring, and the like.) At any rate, Marcia had a paper to serve at a "mini-ranch," a home set on a pond on a 5-10 acre plot of land. As she approached the home, she was immediately attacked by large, angry, male swans. (If you have never been accosted by swans or geese, this is really no laughing matter. Not only will they bite visciously and fearlessly, they have large, heavy, powerful wings with which they will beat you!) Tasking off a sandal and swatting at the angry birds to keep them at bay, Marcia finally got her paper served. Yes, people today frequently have high-tech secruity devices but, often, lower tech, "old standbys," are very effective, too. Another thing faced by Baker Street Investigations' Marcia Gillings and her licensed private investigator staff here in Florida is this Security System: