Paranoid Much?

I often don't sit too close to my claimants home. I try to find a view from some other location so as not to arouse suspicion in their neighborhood. This also gives me the opportunity to watch more of their area for trends, such as which way the traffic goes if there is more than one possible direction. It also keeps me from getting burned prematurely or being noticed by the claimants neighbors.

One downside to insurance fraud investigations is that you typically wind up watching the same claimant multiple times. Such is the case with this individual. At the time I'm writing this I have been out on this claimant 8 days, not consecutively, over the last 2 months. I park in different places each time but I had found a nice little turn around spot in a nearby neighborhood in which I could see her house without going near her. So I used that same route just about every time I went out there.

I wrote here about being mistaken for the FBI in this neighborhood on a previous work day. I alerted work to this issue but since I wasn't even in the claimants neighborhood, they were not worried. I hadn't been burned. Fast forward to the last time I went out there.

I parked at a local church. I had already spoken with the lady who lived in front of it and we were on good terms so I wasn't worried about being there. The church people didn't seem to mind me being parked their either. I couldn't see the claimants house from this church but it was the best parking space around the whole area and, as needed, I could always drive my little circle and see her home.

I didn't believe my claimant to be home that day and so I hadn't done any spot checks. I sat there from 7 AM to around 1 PM. That's when it happened. A woman came walking down the street looking like she had a mission. She came up the road by the church, into the parking lot and walked straight toward me. I knew what was about to go down.

I rolled down my window and with the sweetest sounding southern hospitality she could muster the woman said "excuse me ma'am, but are you watching me?" I wanted to laugh. I really did. I had no idea who this woman was or where she came from but laughing would have been plain out wrong. Instead I replied "ma'am, I don't know who you are."

She proceeded to tell me that several people in the neighborhood had told her I was watching her house. She almost cried when she told me she was a single mom, separated from her husband and didn't even own a car. She was upset she couldn't go grocery shopping when she needed to and now that everyone thought I was watching her house, her husband wouldn't even come over and mow the grass! She went on and on and then she hit me with a good one. She insisted I had followed her around a Wal-Mart in a nearby town. I assured her I had never been to that town, much less followed her.

I think she figured if I wasn't watching her, maybe she could get some information out of me. She kept on talking. So I decided to take the bait...sort of. I told her I was following a man and my car was pointed in the direction that it was for a reason. She then started looking around the neighborhood at who all I could see - none of which were my claimant but only I knew that.

Then the woman left me with another comment. People in the neighborhood were watching me. She didn't have to tell me that lol. One of them had dang near wrecked his truck trying to see as much as he could inside of my car. Another had driven by me 5 or 6 times (though I don't know why because this same man had come up to me before and knew who I was and what I was doing there). The third
had driven by me a few times that day and a few a previous day, sometimes changing vehicles to try and keep me from noticing him. I noticed though lol.

A short while later, she finally apologized for bothering me and went back home. I then recounted the event to myself and thought about this. Her husband won't come over to mow the grass because they think someone is watching her house. This makes me wonder what he and she are both doing that they know about but don't want to get busted for?

If I've said it once, I'll say it 100 times. The people who come up to us worried they are being watched are the ones with something to hide. I've been out on my claimant 8 times now and she's not once realized I was there. So how is it this woman and a few others in the neighborhood are all sure they know who I'm watching? It's because they know who is crooked and I don't.

And guess what...I have to go back out on this same claimant at least one more time on this contract and they may just give me more time on her again in the future. LOL. I can only imagine what these people will say next. I'm not taking another car because quite frankly I'm not sure my other car will make it through the mountains where this person lives. I don't think the company would spring for a rental car either.