Truth vs. Video Proof

We had a situation where a new client engaged us to document where her husband was going with the idea being that he was seeing another woman. We followed him late into the evening and after he departed from a bar, he drove to a area frequented by prostitutes. He stopped and picked up a woman who we are certain is a prostitute and drove to an abandoned strip mall where he pulled into the rear alley. Obviously we could not follow him into the alley without being detected so we went to the other end of the alley and we were able to see the vehicle some 75-80 yards away. We could see people moving around inside the car but we could not actually see what was going on inside the car or make out their faces, largely due to a complete lack of lighting in the area. After 9-10 minutes, the vehicle started back up and they exited the alley. We filmed him returning this woman to the area where he picked her up, they talked through the car window for 30 seconds and then he was on his way home. The client indicated that the surveillance was poorly executed inasmuch as she cannot tell what they were doing inside the car in the alley. As much as we would liked to have documented that for her, the reality is that we had no real opportunity to do so. We are private investigators, not magicians. For those of you who have expectations set this high, we recommend that you interview several private detective agencies before hiring one so that you can get a true sense of the reality of the work product and the limitations that life imposes on us. As for our client, if it’s OK for your spouse to be parked in an alley with a hooker at 3:10 a.m. unless you see a sex act in progress, I think your marriage is in trouble video proof or not.