Improvisation and investigation go hand in hand; a good investigator is continuously forced to think on their feet in order to gather the most effective evidence.  It is important that not only we be aware of the changing world but we embrace it, considering the changes as advances and using them to our advantage.  With technology comes challenge, and with challenge comes opportunity.  Tracking someone down in the cyber world is becoming more and more common as our world becomes a global village and our need to communicate with friends and relatives living abroad increases.  The fact that so many people are spending more time in the cyber universe than their own might be seen as a disadvantage in the surveillance and investigation realm of things.  The obvious reason being that this would equate to more time in the house (in front of the computer) rather than out and about being active; however, this new trend can actually be quite advantageous.  Ironically enough, while people are inside cooped up, alone in the room to which the computer is dedicated, they are in fact for the most part socializing.  The people they are socializing with often have common memberships that allow for the communication platform.  These platforms can come in many forms; anything from Facebook to hobby or sports websites where they share an interest and are a part of a forum.  All of these memberships leave obvious footprints that can be tracked as easily as a sea turtle in a snowy field, and the more memberships they are a part of, the fresher the snow.

We recently experienced a case where a client had an individual claiming a severe back injury which gave him a list of restrictions that were impeding him from a comfortable lifestyle and certainly prevented him from working.  After a thorough internet search using some name variations (ex. Chuck rather than Charlie) we discovered a photo from a news article that uncovered that our subject was in fact a volunteer wrestling coach for a team that was still active with their season.  We then looked up the schedule for the league he was in and discovered that his team had a meet the following weekend in another town.  We had to assume that the team was certainly going to need their coach; and with any luck he may even be conducting some last minute training before the match.  After advising the client of our discovery we got the green light to attend the event with camera in hand (after all who wouldn’t have a camera at a sporting event).  When we arrived we did in fact find our subject and he was wearing his workout attire; now we just had to wait until he put that apparel to use.  The wait wasn’t long and as expected he was all too eager to give some last minute tips.  Either the air in the unfamiliar town provided an immediate cure or his injury claim may have been somewhat embellished; either way the evidence would do the talking.

Whether it is an investigation in the workplace, a fraudulent insurance claim, or a workplace violence situation; all too often the answers we are looking for are written on the wall, the question is which one?

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