The Neighborhood BusyBody

There's one in every neighborhood. That one person who takes it upon themselves to watch everything and everybody. They have this incessant need to know everything as if it gets them some level of respect. Which it typically doesn't. It gets them an unprecedented level of untrust. Still, they do seem to know a lot.

I was on this case recently watching a house in a predominantly African American neighborhood. I expected (which really is the problem lol) some older, middle-aged woman to be the neighborhood busybody. This is typical in most neighborhoods regardless of race or color. I was dead wrong. I'm not ashamed of that, this entire job is a constant learning experience so I went with the learning on this one.

So I parked at a church. I love these. The parking lots are rarely empty and most people just instinctively dismiss any new cars parked there as being visitors, etc. This church just happened to be in full view of my claimants home. It was perfect. I climbed into the backseat of my car and sat there for quite sometime before it got too stuffy in the car and I moved up front to crack the windows.

I sat there a few minutes enjoying the breeze. (My claimant wasn't home and so I wasn't too worried about being burned by the way.) Then I noticed that there were several people walking in the neighborhood and some were going to the store and other close by locations. I just sat there an observed the human behaviors before me. Then I noticed a young man, maybe in his mid 20's came walking from behind my car and across the parking lot. He looked at me and I just kept on about my business, being careful not to look in the direction of my claimant's home.

The young man came back through the lot again about 10 minutes later. That's when I got suspicious. It's not common for anyone to walk to the store twice in such close time frames. Another thing that complicated his actions was that it was raining. The area was under a tropical storm warning and here he is walking around in the rain to go to the store twice? He didn't have that much in either bag so I have trouble believing that he forgot something important the first time and went right back.

A few minutes later my claimant came home and purposely did some things that lead me to believe he was expecting someone to be watching him. I caught on quick though and I followed him very briefly and then turned another direction and doubled back to his house. When I got back to his house, he was already there which just verifies I was right in my initial assumption.

So I didn't turn down his road, I took another road and went to a nearby business. There I parked under a carport amidst other cars and blocked from his view by some heavy machinery. I had a small hole in which I could see his house. I sat there about 30 minutes when the same guy who walked by me twice earlier walked through this parking lot, looked right at me and went toward my claimants home.

Yeah now I know he's the neighborhood busybody. What I couldn't figure out is how he knew I was there. I know people talk and word travels quickly but this seemed rather fishy indeed. I had entered this area from a back road, hadn't passed my claimants home or the church and no one was around when I did it. There were also no houses in this area. I didn't like it....AT ALL.

I immediately began scoping out other places to park. Once you have one person watching you, there are bound to be more. Busybody types don't keep their mouth closed for long and I'm dead sure he had told other people - even possibly my claimant. Changing cars at this point in the game wasn't an option. I felt like my safety was compromised at this point.

But where does a girl go who needs to hide in plain sight in these circumstances? Simply getting into the back of my car was no longer an option. I couldn't sit to far away on this case because there were too many options for where he could go. Dilemma, dilemma. It's like a battle of wits with the players in opposite rooms. I had a paycheck at stake though so I did not want to be defeated.

I finally decided just to drive around a bit and see if I could find anywhere else that was feasible that wasn't on this block. That's the beauty of the neighborhood busybody. He/she sticks to their block. So it only takes a short move away and they stop looking for you. The trouble is, it's not always easy to find an inconspicuous place to park that has an easy exit. I'll be writing more about why you need those soon.

Kicked Out of the Neighborhood

I was recently on the case of a professional insurance claimant (PIC) and was attempting to establish direct surveillance. His neighborhood had on-street parking but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not. So I canvassed the neighborhood and wasn't finding anything better. To make it worse there were multiple exits to this neighborhood and there just wasn't anywhere good to park that I was sure I wouldn't miss him or lose him when he went out.

I had already lost him once that day and had to look for him. Thankfully he was easy to find but I had rather not lose him again. So I decided to park just up the street on the side of the road. There were other cars parked on the street and so I thought I could get away with it.

I wasn't parked in front of anyone's house. I was between two houses and about 3 houses away. Normally I try to park 5 houses away but that wasn't possible in this case. I didn't hide myself right away and I'm glad I didn't.

I notified the police of my presence since it was a residential neighborhood. (Just for the record, this was a multiracial, working-class neighborhood.) Then I slid my seat back and just enjoyed the tinted windows in my car for a minute. From my position, none of the residents could see in through the front window so I opted not to put up my shades.

I was only there about 15 minutes when an unidentified male approximately in his 60's, not my claimant, started walking from his home across and down the street to my car. At times like this you can never be sure if the person is armed, has ill intentions or what they are thinking. I started to get nervous and rolled my window down and acknowledged him there.

He asked me what I was doing there and I gave him a pretext statement. He said it seemed suspicious to him that I was there and told me I "needed to leave." In this kind of instance it is always better to avoid conflict and so I told him I was just about to. He then turned to walk off and was greeted by his daughter who had just pulled up at his house. I overheard her ask him what he was doing (not who I was) and he told her he was asking me what I was doing here and then stated he didn't want me there.

I then pulled off and out of the neighborhood entirely. I took extra care in my parking for the remainder of that job. It was painstaking to even find anywhere else to go.

Being a PI Before and After the Boston Bombing

I had been a PI for about 6 months before the Boston Bombing. I had trained with one of the best investigators in the field. I wasn't entirely uneducated in my methods, though still new to the game.

Before the Boston Marathon bombing I enjoyed a relatively easy time finding a place to park and watch my claimants. Nine times out of ten, no one paid any attention to me. The few who did usually had something going on they didn't want anyone to know. I've parked on rural streets where there were no public parking available, I've backed down abandoned driveways in plain sight of my claimants home and I had even parked in front of someones home and not been noticed at all.

I know for sure things changed the day Boston was bombed. I had been out on a case that morning and parked in a public parking lot at a business establishment. I was approximately 1 block from my claimant and was not any closer to any residence. The only person who noticed me was a worker at the business and he asked me if I was waiting for someone and I told him I was working and would be parked there a while. He was satisfied with that and didn't bother me again. I sat there for 10 hours that day.

When I got back to my hotel room I was relaxing and the news of the bombing came on. I, like so many others, was listening intently to find out what all had occurred and what was being done about it.

The next morning I went out on the same case, parked at the same business establishment. I called in my position to local law enforcement as required by the client. The male worker acknowledged me and went on in the door that morning. Later in the day I saw a state police car pull into the business. He came over to me and asked me who I was and what I was doing. I showed him my license and he told me they had "several" calls about my car from the neighborhood nearby.

"Several" calls. He said residents were concerned that I was trying to kidnap their kids. He stated that his first reaction to the call was that I was an undercover police unit and thus checked the postings on the board first before coming out. I told him I had called in my position that morning and he asked me who I called. I told him and he then informed me that I had called the county police but these people were calling the state police dispatch and the two didn't work together. We finished up our conversation and he left. I remained parked there and several residents had stared at the interaction. Before he left I had confirmed with him that my claimant hadn't been one of the calls by the way.

Fast forward to the next day. I was again on the same job. This time I thought it might be wise to park somewhere else. I still had a good view of the claimants home and was still on public property. I had sit there about 2 hours when a car pulled up beside me, questioning me in a rude tone. I didn't give him the answers he wanted because he kept asking me if I was law enforcement or worked for the state. You can only answer the same question so many times before you stop answering because it's getting you nowhere.As he left a few minutes later I noticed he drove 3 blocks away, well out of my view down a dead end neighborhood road. So I wondered what in his mind made him think I was watching him.

About 30 minutes later someone else came up to me in the same manner. He was much friendlier so I answered him and told him what I was doing there. He laughed a little and exclaimed "I got kids" and indicated that he just needed to be sure that I wasn't some crazy person stalking the neighborhood. He left and drove 2 blocks away.

Then a third person, one I know for sure had seen me talking to the police came and started giving me the evil eye. This person had talked to the police while they were in the parking lot with me. This person didn't come talk to me but instead drove to their home about 2 blocks away which was in view of my parking spot. They got out, stared at me and started talking to a neighbor and pointing at me.

On subsequent investigations I've also had similar issues. People are much more observant and quick to assume I have ulterior motives for being in their area, even if I'm not near their homes. I've found the same to hold true regardless of race.