Insurance cheats and philandering tourists keep investigators plenty busy
It’s nearly 1 a.m. on a Thursday morning when the young blond woman knocks on her boss’s hotel room door. She enters and quickly slips from view.
But not quickly enough. TruthFinder Investigations LLC’s private investigators get the incriminating photos and break the news to the man’s distraught wife. The proof was the culmination of two days of surveillance of “a high-profile person from out-of-state.”
From limo tails to hotel-room stakeouts, the man’s every move was followed from the moment he stepped off the plane two days earlier at McCarran International Airport.
“Our motto is, ‘What happens in Vegas, you should know about it,’ ” says TruthFinder Investigation owner and P.I. Shawn Kessler. TruthFinder specializes in infidelity.
Most of Kessler’s cases fit the bill of this latest one: Visitors to Sin City decide to test the much-publicized promise that their indiscretions really do stay here.
Not if Kessler has anything to say about it. The Air Force veteran, who still sports a crew cut, knows how to market to significant others left behind for the Vegas vacation.
TruthFinder advertises on the Internet and in phone books across the country to pick up the national business. The average tab is $1,000.
“We give them updates every two hours, so they won’t have to wonder what’s going on,” the P.I. says.
BUSINESS AFFAIRS
From workers comp surveillance to workplace investigations and loss prevention, local businesses have also discovered that the sleuths can be a valuable resource. And there are plenty of options.
There are now 191 private investigators licensed in Nevada, according to the state Private Investigator Licensing Board. That’s grown from 131 licensed P.I.s last March. The Silver State requires five years, or 10,000 hours, of experience to be licensed as a private investigator.
Unlike many other states, Nevada requires separate licenses for process servers and “private patrol,” which includes security. P.I. rates are whatever the market will allow: That’s usually $65 per hour up to $150 or more per hour, plus expenses.
FAIR COMPENSATION?
A few days after the cheating tourist has packed up and left, a surveillance operation of a much different nature is about to unfold. Already bleary-eyed from an all-night job, Las Vegas P.I. Eric Fletcher has just enough time to eat breakfast at a local diner and tank up on coffee before heading to his next assignment: making sure a workers compensation recipient doesn’t play hooky from school.
The woman is a former maid at a downtown hotel. She is claiming an 80 percent disability in her hip and right arm, which prevents her from working in hospitality. The insurance company is paying for the woman to be retrained at a vocational school - and is paying Fletcher’s Archer Intelligence Agency to make sure she attends class.
Piling into his SUV, Fletcher explains the unwashed appearance of his vehicle. “We are going to Fremont Street, and you want to fit in with the neighborhood.”
Investigators also avoid bumper stickers and other identifying marks. “You don’t want to have anything that draws attention to yourself,” he says, opening his truck’s back window to reveal a dark curtain.
Tinted windows hide the curtain and the small opening that allows Fletcher to spy on his subjects from the back of the truck. The flap, secured with Velcro, is wide enough, though, for photographs. This time the camera is unnecessary because Fletcher catches up with the claimant, a young Hispanic woman, just as she arrives at school.
“She’s where she’s supposed to be,” he notes. “They (the insurer) just wanted to make sure she is not working eight hours instead of going to school.”
P.I. Rudy Lozano, who handles insurance cases for Las Vegas-based Sagebrush Investigations LLC., had better luck in his surveillance of a worker’s comp claimant who was supposed to be disabled.
“The guy looks like he has a wheelchair lift on the back of his truck. It seemed like a no-brainer that he was disabled,” Lozano said. Following the man all the way from Las Vegas to Pahrump proved otherwise. “He gets here at 9 or 10 a.m. and starts digging trenches,” he recalled.
Workers comp cheats can get lulled into a false sense of security by leaving town, or even the state, Fletcher said.
They shouldn’t be. “I’ll get on a plane, I’ll leave my car and hop a train,” the P.I. says Sometimes that can be a cross-country trip. Other times, it’s a just a drive to Southern California or Pahrump.
A TOUGH CRIME TO PROVE
Fletcher moved his company to Las Vegas four years ago from California. During his 11 years in the Golden State, he says he did mostly workers comp. In Nevada, it is everything.
“People here don’t want to lose their jobs,” he said. “The average waiter here makes more than a lawyer.”
Many of those in the construction trades may be undocumented, or falsely documented, workers, he added. Once they file a claim in Nevada, they’ll simply migrate to a bordering state to work.
Workers comp cases typically require daytime car surveillance, which is harder in Southern Nevada because of the triple-digit summertime temperatures. “I lost five pounds in one day,” Fetcher laughs.
Surveillance can also be dangerous. Once, somebody tried to steal Fletcher’s SUV in North Las Vegas, not knowing the P.I. was hiding in the back. The startled thief “left his Slim Jim,” the investigator recalled.
Even catching a supposedly injured worker in what looks like a fraudulent act doesn’t necessarily mean their claim is finished, said P.I. Robert Lawson. He photographed a worker with severe shoulder pain doing heavy lifting. “He said he was in pain but he couldn’t afford movers because he was out of work, so he turned it around on (the insurer).”
From Fletcher’s experience, when a person is caught defrauding an insurance company, they usually lose their benefits and are required to sign a waiver. The matter is then closed. “It costs too much to prosecute,” he said. “It costs around $25,000.”
Insurance companies don’t pay P.I.s enough, either, Lawson maintained. “They only want to pay $50 to $75 per hour because they know you’ll be out a lot of hours.”
Private sleuths can also help to solve crimes. Lawson recently cracked a case involving the theft of copper wire. The culprit turned out to be an employee who had stolen more than $30,000 worth of the metal and sold it to a scrap yard.
Fletcher, a burly 38-year-old dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, has also busted drug and theft rings in nightclubs and bars. The investigator has caught delivery drivers sleeping in their cars while charging their employers for overtime.
ONLY IN VEGAS
Then there’s the “Only in Vegas” assignments. Fletcher has served as a bodyguard for everyone from hard-partying celebrities to porn stars and has even protected a prized poodle.
But his least favorite Las Vegas clients are tight-fisted high rollers. “I hate whales. They’ll play $20,000 a hand,” but after one suddenly canceled a week’s worth of work for Fletcher, “He only tipped me $100!”
