~  Winston Churchill          

Surveillance is the "art" of covertly following someone and documenting his activities. For the audience of television and film, it appears brief, interesting, and productive. For the professional investigator, however, it is long hours of boredom, interspersed with short bursts of frantic activity.  

Attorneys still request surveillance for their clients, even though "no fault" divorce laws have eliminated the need to establish adultery as a cause for divorce. Our attorney-clients request surveillance to establish spending habits of a philandering spouse, in custody cases, and for "peace of mind" for a client who simply needs to know that another person is involved in the relationship. Others have corporate interests in mind.

Case Study:

Several years ago, we were asked to conduct surveillance on a senior executive who was in Miami on a business trip with his personal assistant. The client suspected that the executive was having an affair with the assistant. There were marital and employment issues at stake.

The only information we had about the subject was a blurry photo and a physical description, along with the hotel they were staying at, a well-known facility in downtown Miami. We did not have their work schedule and had no idea what activities they had scheduled. The surveillance team called for a married couple (which consisted of yours truly and his partner, licensed investigator Wendy Murnan, CP, FRP) and a third investigator. Wendy and I would maintain watch inside the lobby, and the third investigator would watch for the subject outside from his vehicle.

For whatever reason, you're single again. In a society with a divorce rate of more than fifty percent, odds are good it has or could happen to you. If it has, and you find yourself "in the market" for companionship, here are some suggestions on protecting yourself from the phonies and frauds who prey on newly single people.

First, get some counseling. The reason your relationship didn't last has much more to do with the person you see in the mirror every day than most people are willing to admit. I'm not suggesting that you're responsible for your spouse's infidelity or abandonment or inability to commit; no, they're accountable for their own behavior. What I am saying is, unless you're from a culture where someone picked your spouse for you, you picked that person!