I’ve never had any interest in being in law enforcement, but after watching about a hundred true crime documentaries, I have gained an immense appreciation for those who devote their lives to solving cases.
And if you’re as curious about the mysterious lives of detectives and private investigators as I am, you’ve come to the right place, pandas. One Reddit user invited PIs and detectives to recall some of their strangest cases, so we’ve gathered their most fascinating stories below. Enjoy scrolling through these tales that sound like they could be plots of television shows, and keep reading to find a conversation with full-time private investigator Tony Smith!
#1
FINALLY! A question I can answer! Been a P.I. For a going on a year now and the strangest case I had was of a woman asking us to find out if her husband was cheating on her. She said there was something off in the house as if feeling something and she wanted to know what it was. So she suspected her husband of cheating.
So I show up and install Nanny Cam's in her house for the weekend upon her approval and where to place them. She works all weekend and this was the best route. Well 3 days go by and I collect the footage and come to find out the husband was "touching" his 8 year old step daughter. After seeing that I rushed to the court house with a copy of the footage and got a court order for the police to go and get him.
283points
#2
Not a PI here, but someone who was confronted by one and told it was the weirdest thing he's had to do.
A roommate I had in college was a strange guy. This guy came from the other side of the country (I'm US). He went out at all hours of the night, never showed up for class, slept during the day, and drank more energy drinks than is healthy. His parents were worried about him, apparently, and hired a PI to trail him.
Now, living in a college dorm in a part of campus where only freshman live makes an adult who isn't janitorial staff stick out like a sore thumb. So, I picked up fairly quickly that this guy was hanging around the dorms. Thought he was just cruising for some freshman, and didn't bother him.
A few weeks later, I was walking back from the dining hall, and he approached me (it was a public place) asking if we could talk somewhere private. I was weirded out and told him we could talk right here.
He told me he was a PI hired by my roommates parents to trail him because his parents were concerned, and he wanted to ask me about my roommate's dorm habits. We then left to the coffee shop to talk about my roommate.
My roommate apparently liked to go walk on the beach at night for stupid amounts of time, hang out at Steak and Shake playing game on his phone and Nintendo DS for hours on end, and cruise thrift shops for some reason. I told the guy that the dude just slept and didn't even have any personal affects in the room besides his clothes.
The PI and I both realized that this kid pretty much had no direction or motivation in life, and his parents usually pushed him to do everything. He said that this kid's behavior was the most bizarre pattern of activity he's pretty much seen.
To explain the kid's actions, college was the first alone time he's ever had, and he was savoring it doing whatever he wanted. I ended up feeling for the guy and reached out to him. He changed majors from engineering to a psychology degree because he wanted to learn how the mind worked, and he suddenly became super-interested in college. Ended up being a cool guy once he realized he was not in his parent's grasp anymore.
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244points
#3
Someone wanted to know what their cat was up to when they were working. Paid me to tail it. I don't like wasting my time but the works not always busy as a PI. Turns out the cat just walks around the streets, licks itself and climbs trees....
231points
To learn more about what it's like to be a detective, we reached out to Tony Smith, a full-time private investigator, Operations Director at Insight Investigations, and Chairman of the World Association of Professional Investigators. Tony was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and share some of his own experiences working in the field.
"I am a full-time private investigator and have been so since 1978. During that time, I have come across many varying matters requiring Investigation, both in the UK and overseas," he noted. "Being a ‘full service’ 24-hour agency, Insight Investigations undertakes enquiries ranging from the tracing of missing people to major Criminal Defense investigations and most anything in between."
#4
I got hired to follow another investigator who, turns out, was hired to follow me
219points
#5
Was hired to follow a woman who claimed she was completely blind (collecting insurance money of course). Spent the day following her around as she DROVE from store to store in a church van.
178points
#6
I was asked by a lady to investigate her husband because he might be cheating on her. He used to come back late at night with smell of woman's perfume. Turns out he was taking dancing classes and he didn't tell his wife
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168points
First, we wanted to know what a typical day on the job looks like for a private investigator. "An average day usually starts with the checking of emails and responding to what is required," Tony shared. "This is followed by the examination of the current files to ascertain what is required to be tasked that day."
"It could be an ongoing romance scam that requires further work to locate the individual behind the scam, or it could be the continuing search for a missing person, a Criminal Defense case that may require interviewing witnesses or one of the many other cases that require attention in varying ways," he explained.
"Whilst a fair amount of a PI’s work is office-based, the requirement for ‘field work’ remains, and this, in addition to the management of other Agents out on the road undertaking various tasks, makes for a full day which is rarely 9 to 5," the expert says.
#7
Client wanted to know why her dog was getting fat.
Turns out the dog was getting fed by almost every stranger it encountered while wandering around outside during the day.
anon
Report158points
#8
Did surveillance on a nurse. She was supposedly so disabled that she couldn't work. They suspected she was working. Easiest surveillance I ever did. I arrived. She got in her car 10 minutes later. Followed her, with no complication, to a strip club where she went in and began doing her thing.
Club had a posted prohibition on video. So I had to go in and watch her dance so that I could testify that I saw her dancing when it went to court. Over the next few days I followed her to three other strip clubs and did the same.
That month I turned in the sketchiest expense report of my life.
Eventually it went before the WC Board. When the judge asked why she was stripping she just shrugged and said she made twice as much money than when she was nursing.
Benefits got yanked. Insurance company was happy. But the company lawyer gave me the nickname "Detective Tits" which, most regrettably, stuck and spread to all of the other lawyers I dealt with.
Worse night of my life, man.
152points
#9
I've been a P.I. for about 3 years - mostly for disability fraud, no cheating wives or anything. Coolest/strangest thing I observed was a low level criminal (who was supposed to be disabled), who would spend all day going from Walmart to Walmart.
In each Walmart, he would fill the shopping cart full to the brim with energy drinks (Monster I think), walk briskly out the door without paying, throw them in his trunk, and take off like a bat out of hell.
At the end of the day he sold a trunk-load of energy drinks to a corner store and I video taped him walking out with a wad of cash.
Definitely not as exciting as the movies, but it was a fun day for me.
149points
Tony also opened up about one of his most memorable cases. It included the identification and subsequent arrest of an individual who was stalking his ex-partner with the intent of doing her and her family serious harm.
"He was met on a high-end dating site and quickly moved in with his partner, and all seemed well. Unfortunately, the mother thought something wasn’t quite right and asked me to investigate this individual's background," Tony shared. "I eventually established that he had lied to gain entry to the UK and obtain very prestigious employment. He also had considerable criminal history in his native country."
#10
A couple was divorcing and the wife was sure her husband was sticking random items of hers up his a**. He was.
143points
"The relationship ended, but subsequently, he went on to terrorize the family and, amongst other things, burn their house to the ground," Tony continued. "The family were moved to a safe house with round-the-clock protection. He was eventually arrested with a weapon and impersonating a member of staff at the place his ex partner worked, intent on doing her harm. He was eventually jailed for 6 years and deported on release. This became the subject of a TV Documentary."
#11
Cases where older people get a phone call from the "IRS" and get tens of thousands of dollars on prepaid credit cards and read the numbers off the back to the guy on the phone with the Indian accent to pay their tax debt.
This happens a lot actually. It's just weird that otherwise intelligent people can be talked into doing stuff this dumb.
Please talk to your grandparents. Make sure they know this is a common scam and their are many, many variants of this scam. No reputable business or organization takes payments by I-tunes gift cards. Their grandchild did not get locked up in Mexico, they aren't overdue on their electric bill and their power is about to be shut off, the police don't have an old warrant that they'll dismiss for a small fee.
A lot of these victims are so sold on the lie, that store clerks will stop them in the middle of purchasing $3k in moneypak cards, TELL them that they are being scammed, and these victims will argue with them that they need to pay the guy on the phone.
140points
#12
Currently studying Criminal behavior analysis.
A woman in her midlife, presumably between 45 to 50, was found dead behind a dumpster around a local bar in the middle of December.
She was wearing a skirt that was pulled up to her waist, and leggings that were pulled down, and torn in multiple spots.
She also had abrasion around her buttocks, the heels, thigh, and wrists.
She also had abrasion around her buttocks, the heels, thigh, and wrists.
At first, the cops are thinking that they have a sexual abuse or a possible rape case on their hands.
However, certain things were not adding up. Even though it was mid December, that particular bar was fairly populated, and thus, someonr should have reported at least hearing a woman in distress as the dumpster was near the parkinglot of the bar.
Also, the abrasions on her buttocks were rather strange, as if someone had dragged her across the cement floor. Some state that it is possibly due to livor mortis ("marks" caused by setteling of the blood).
After some investigation, they found no traces of physical proofs that suggested neither sexual abuse nor rape. No semen, saliva, or hair, was found.
Later it was revealed that due to loneliness of losing her husband and daughters (husband through divorce and daughters simply grew up and started their own lives), this woman went to the bar to meet potentially a new partner but have gotten carried away drinking.
Once outside in the freezing cold, she wants to take a leak and hides herself behind the dumpster. While doing so, she is slowly suffering from hypothermia due to the cold winter wind and lowered body temperature caused by the alcohol. She begins feeling hot (due to paradoxical undressing, caused by hypothermia), she presumably stripes off her jacket, and other pieces of clothing. At this point, the hypothermia is really getting to her and she begins slowly losing conciousness.
While laying on the freezing ground, skirt pulled up and leggings down, she begins convulsing which leaves abrasions on her body. Leaving behind a curious scene that appeared as if she had been taken advantage of.
130points
#13
I had a case referred to me by an attorney I worked for involving a woman who was convinced that her condo maintenance man was going into her home while she was gone and moving things around. She had bought the condo from him originally. (In other words, it was his former condo).
I met her to discuss the case and she seemed rational, she was an attractive older woman, the guy would obviously be familiar with the condo layout and would have access, and hell, I've seen weirder things. So we proceeded. She agreed to let me install a hidden camera setup with a motion detector. She was to call me if anything happened to make her think he'd been there. A couple of days go by and she calls. I go by and get the tape (this was before digital recording) and check it out. There's nothing on it but her. I meet her to tell her this and she says, " He must have some machine that makes him invisible. He's a space alien, after all." She had not previously mentioned this vital tidbit of information.
I told her that that level of technology was beyond my ability to deal with and that we should talk it over with her attorney to determine the best course of action going forward. I called the attorney to let him know that our client had some issues, and we were able to get her some psychological help.
But most importantly, her check was good.
128points
We also asked the expert what he believes makes a great PI. "That’s a difficult one. Attention to detail is a must," Tony says. "There are those that specialize in surveillance, interviewing, research, IT forensics and the like and as such can combine with others to create a ‘team’ that accomplishes most things, and one need never be stuck with a task, as someone somewhere will have the required skill to solve it. Rarely has there been a profession where the saying 'Standing On The Shoulders of Giants' can sometimes be more apt."
#14
Ah, finally something I can share!
A few years back I accidently became the owner of a detective agency. I intended to just be an investment partner, but the owner and actual PI died shortly after I made my investment and lo - I now owned an detective agency.
After quickly getting the various legal licenses, etc., I just started taking cases. The entirety of what I knew about how to be a PI was from various TV shows, movies, and books. For cases, I would just rely on random people whose life has become so bad that they decide calling a PI is the next logical step. Much later I learned that normal PIs never take these so-called "domestic" cases because they are always a huge mess. Real PIs get almost all of the work from lawyers and hire off-duty cops to do all of the leg work. As a result, I had a TON of crazy cases. Several TV seasons worth. Here are a few classics:
- Guy calls me to help catch his neighbor who is knocking over his trashcans at night. We set up a small night vision camera to catch the guy. Watch the video the next day - it is the wind. The client freaks out, says that his neighbor could have had an invisibility field or could have been moving too fast (like the Flash) to show up on camera. Wants to pay us thousands of dollars to rent a heat-seeking camera or one that can shoot thousands of frames per second... Turns out lots of crazy people call PIs to investigate the TV controlling them, alien abduction, etc.
- Seventh Day Adventist lady in an abusive relationship who wants to divorce her husband but apparently needs the husband's permission, which he won't give her. So she wants us to hire a prostitute to seduce him, get it on video, and then mail that to the church leaders to show the marriage is broken.
- Criminal who is serving 20 years in jail for hiring a hit man (who happened to be an undercover cop) to kill his friend. In prison he came into some money and hired us to prove he was innocent. His plan to do this was to have us tell his friend that he better recant his testimony or else our client would use his new money to hire a hitman to kill him "for real this time." This criminal genius told us this plan on a recorded phone call from jail.
- Get hired by a wife to see if her husband is sleeping with his secretary. We follow them, recording them going into his single-bed hotel room at 10:20pm after a nice dinner and leaving together the next morning at 8am. She says it proves nothing, that they could have just been working late...
- Guy calls to ask for Paddy, my late partner. We tell him he is dead. Conversation that follows goes like this:
Bob: Dead? Tell him its Bob.
Davevr: Bob - Paddy is dead.
B: sure, ok, whatever. Who's this?
D: This is Dave. How can I help you?
B: Dave huh? Dave... yeah, Dave, I think Paddy mentioned you.
D: I doubt it, but go ahead. How can we help?
B: I was just calling to make sure the thing is still on for Friday?
D: What thing?
B: The thing, you know...
D: I don't know, Bob. What?
B: Well yeah, I know you don't "know", but is it on?
D: Bob, I have no idea what you are talking about.
B: Ok, I get it. Of course you don't know. But - all I'm saying is, we're good, right?
D: We are not good Bob. I don't know what you are talking about.
B: Of course. Got it. No idea. Great. Friday?
D: Bob, Paddy is dead so whatever you think is happening on Friday is not happening. Understand?
B: Perfectly. Tell him I will see him then.
Bob: Dead? Tell him its Bob.
Davevr: Bob - Paddy is dead.
B: sure, ok, whatever. Who's this?
D: This is Dave. How can I help you?
B: Dave huh? Dave... yeah, Dave, I think Paddy mentioned you.
D: I doubt it, but go ahead. How can we help?
B: I was just calling to make sure the thing is still on for Friday?
D: What thing?
B: The thing, you know...
D: I don't know, Bob. What?
B: Well yeah, I know you don't "know", but is it on?
D: Bob, I have no idea what you are talking about.
B: Ok, I get it. Of course you don't know. But - all I'm saying is, we're good, right?
D: We are not good Bob. I don't know what you are talking about.
B: Of course. Got it. No idea. Great. Friday?
D: Bob, Paddy is dead so whatever you think is happening on Friday is not happening. Understand?
B: Perfectly. Tell him I will see him then.
- Different call, also asking for Paddy. Conversation goes like this:
Guy: I was told to ask for Paddy.
Davevr: Paddy's dead. This is Dave, how can I help?
G: Hmm, I was told to ask for Paddy.
D: You did that, I told you he was dead, so can I help or not?
G: Well, OK. I need to disappear.
D: What do you mean, disappear? Like, from your girlfriend or from the Feds? (I literally had no idea what he meant)
G: Really disappear. Like, dead.
D: I don't know what movies you have watched, but there is no way to disappear unless you have a ton of money and a body. (I made this line up on the spot btw just to shut the guy up).
G: I have 3 million in cash. Body is no problem. Can you help or not?
D: .... I can't talk about this on a cell phone. *click*
Never called back. Later found (from tracing the # that called me) it belong to a real estate investor who was being sued for millions in back taxes from the government who died in a private plane crash about a week after that call...
Guy: I was told to ask for Paddy.
Davevr: Paddy's dead. This is Dave, how can I help?
G: Hmm, I was told to ask for Paddy.
D: You did that, I told you he was dead, so can I help or not?
G: Well, OK. I need to disappear.
D: What do you mean, disappear? Like, from your girlfriend or from the Feds? (I literally had no idea what he meant)
G: Really disappear. Like, dead.
D: I don't know what movies you have watched, but there is no way to disappear unless you have a ton of money and a body. (I made this line up on the spot btw just to shut the guy up).
G: I have 3 million in cash. Body is no problem. Can you help or not?
D: .... I can't talk about this on a cell phone. *click*
Never called back. Later found (from tracing the # that called me) it belong to a real estate investor who was being sued for millions in back taxes from the government who died in a private plane crash about a week after that call...
The list goes on and on...
In case you are wondering, I am no longer in this business and the business itself no longer exists.
119points
#15
There once was this dude who had his emails leaked. I had to sift through many of them and there was countless of weird instances where words for various food was used in conexts that didn't make sense. I realized it had to be code for something and after further research I realized the words where most likely code for young children and I was dealing with p*****iles. I ended up getting help from the public and the case started trending on twitter. Turns out we were uncovering a major network of businesses that are used or have been used as human trafficking fronts. He hasn't been arrested yet though.
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117points
#16
All right, here goes. After I got out of the Navy, I worked for one of the top PI firms in Houston. Because of my electronics background, I'd usually go along on the jobs where were were checking for bugs and hidden surveillance devices.
We got a call from a client who was sure that his office was bugged because his client knew everything that he was doing before he did it. His office was a mobile trailer that was on his client's site. He was a subcontractor for a big oilfield construction company.
We did a full electronic sweep and found nothing (this was back in the early nineties, didn't have to worry about burst transmissions, etc.) No devices implanted in his phones. He insisted on a full physical sweep of the trailer, inside and out. So we crawled under the trailer and got a ladder and inspected the roof. Still nothing.
We're getting ready to leave and he says: "Look, I'm not crazy. Pick up the phone, press 9 to get an outside line, and you'll start hearing all sorts or clicky sounds." Turns our his office phones were routed through the corporate PBX of his client. They didn't have to bug his office, they could just "pick up an extension" inside the main building and listen in to whatever they wanted. We weren't even sure if it was illegal. We advised him to install a private phone line that he paid for if he wanted private conversations. We ended up billing him like two grand for that visit.
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115points
But Tony added that, if you're going to hire a PI, you need to do your research first. Today, there is still no legislation controlling private investigators in the UK. "There has been much said by subsequent governments over the years about the need for this, but it has never really gotten off the ground," he noted.
"The World Association of Professional Investigators, amongst other associations, attempts to self-govern its members in best practice and lobby government for correct legislation, but there remain many rogue individuals who call themselves “private investigators” who are inexperienced, have no consideration for ethics, wish no part of the rules any association has and continue to cause harm to the public image of a profession that is required more now than ever."
#17
Doing a standard pre-employment background check on a guy, found that he was found guilty in a sexual harassment case. Didn't have the case details at that point and the guy denied it was him. Pulled more details from the case and confirmed that it was definitely him... And that he was convicted of indecent exposure. The guy finally admitted it was him, but claimed it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Pulled the court transcripts. Turns out he flashed a 12-year-old on the beach and said "ever seen one of these before?" He did not get the job.
108points
#18
It was one of my last cases that I worked on. It was for a child custody/paternity case.This case was the one that made me rethink what I was doing and I got very disturbed by what I was asked to do. This is the case that made me stop being a PI Our client was denying that the child in question was actually his and was fighting the child support case. He believed that the mother of the child was a serial adulterer. So much so that he spent THOUSANDS on the case for us to make sure there was evidence to support his claim. The icing on the "s**t cake" was when my case manager told me that client wanted video evidence that the child did not look like him. The client told us that we had to record the child at play. So here I am, beside a playground, in a completely limo tinted car, videotaping a 9 year old. I couldn't have felt worse about my life choices. To this day I have never felt like such a creep before. I hated that case and the case manager. two weeks later I handed in my resignation.
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104points
#19
Was asked by a prospective client to kidnap a child who's parents were in the middle of an ugly custody battle, the one parent was keeping the child in violation of a court order and this family member thought this would be the easiest solution, nope, passed on that one. One of the funniest things about the PI business that we saw over and over was clients coming in mad as hell wanting something done saying "cost is no object", right up until we told them we charged $100 per hour, then cost suddenly became an object.
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100points
#20
My uncle is a PI. He got tasked with investigating a collision at an intersection. He found a nearby business that happened to have a camera facing the road which would have collected the footage and got said footage of the collision.
The client was definitely in the wrong and caused the accident, then the client was seen abusing the other driver while damaging his own car further.
It was meant to be an insurance scam where the client could say they hired a PI but found nothing which legitimizes his word, however he rolled snake eyes and ended up incriminating himself.
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99points