Finding out too late....

We found this story on the web this morning and wanted to share it with you. It's a pretty graphic account by a lady detailing the day she found her husband in bed with another women...

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Okay, this is very long, but I need to tell someone About this because I have no one to talk to, it could be pretty graphic too (sorry) I just made this account to talk to people, I made other accounts on other websites too 

My husband and I have been married for 2 years now, he is 22 and I am 23, we have a 10 month old son

I was at work and he was home with the baby, I came home a little early from work and there as a car sitting outside the house, I thought nothing of it, just that it was a friend. Came inside, heard noises, I went upstairs quietly and just remember thinking "no way. This is not happening. I'm dreaming. This is a sick dream" I pushed the bedroom door open and he was in bed with some woman, she was holding onto his arms, and they were red and sweaty, it was really passionate sex (the kind he never has with me.) and I was standing in complete shock

It was unprotected too and he just looked at me and kept going and said "um hi." Then I ran downstairs and I heard him swear and come after, I was down in the kitchen crying and he came in naked, still aroused, I shouted "how did you do this to me?" And he grabbed me and just held me while I cried. Then SHE came down naked too and looked at me and said 

"Your are SUCH a baby!" and I shouted "who are you??" She ignored me and said "he finds you boring in bed." Then she walked out, gets her clothes and gets in the car, I go after and shout "how could you sleep with my husband, she ignored me and drove off. 

He told me she was 44 and a divorcee and that she had a son. I can't look at him all I see is her holding onto his arms and I almost vomit my guts up, it's like a gag reflex kicks in. 

It's not the first time, he has now told me he slept with her twice at her house while they locked her 6 year old son in the living room so he wouldn't walk in on them!!!

My mother in law asked me if me and him had had sex one morning a few weeks ago I said no and she had a funny look on her face, now I know because she has now said she came over and he was upstairs smelling of sex and the bed was messy, he told her it was me and him, so it was obviously a LIE and she was in OUR marriage bed again. 

It breaks me heart even more because he did it all while our son was next door in his cot. And now his friend JUST revealed that when he was away on a business trip, they went out to a club and some model tried to seduce him but he refused, she told him her hotel room incase he wanted to sleep with her. So basically, he WALKED to her hotel room, knocked on her door and slept with her. Then came home and acted lovey dovey to me. 

Also, we were playing monopoly with his nephew and I said to him "you're such a cheat." And he looked at me and said "what do you mean" really fast. I just said that he was cheating on the game, then he laughed really hard and said "I am a dirty little cheat aren't I?" A voice inside me head went "hmmmmm" but I just thought "no my husband would never cheat on me ever!"

We have not talked about what has happened in ages, we just go about our life, sometime I cry and he just ignores me one, one night he asked if I wanted "to make love" I said ok, but the moment we started, SHE flashed in my mind and I saw her holding onto his arms while they had really passionate sex, he NEVER has that kind of sex with me, I started crying and he ignored me and just finished off. 

Sorry for the long description! Had to let it out, I told my mum what he did, and she and dad is coming over to have a chat with him, I told him this and he looked like he had **** his pants. I know he is scared of my dad, VERY scared of him. He's been acting weird today and hardly talking because he knows he will get it from my dad tonight. Sorry I had to let this out, I have no one to talk to, only him but ever time I look at him I see them I'm bed together, on my side of the bed too!!! 

Taken from http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/advice-support-40/families-relationships-50/1092376-i-caught-my-husband-cheating-all.html

Not without risks!

Whilst we take every care not to get caught doing what we do, sometimes your fate seems to rest in the lap of the gods. Yes, we have a procedure for every type of job, a mental check list if you will, that we use in the field, but every now and then you are dealt a curve ball that leaves you a little breathless to say the least...

The road was busy. This is a major UK city after all and thus nothing ever truly stops. Cars were parked on either side but all seemed locked down for the night, ready to serve their owners a few hours from now during the morning commute to offices, factories and shop across the city. Pedestrian traffic was zero save for a few late night stragglers waiting for buses some 50 yards from me. Darkness would serve as a good cloak from their eyes and thus with a last scan across the residential windows around me, I made my way towards my target vehicle, GPS tracker and mini torch in hand.

Approaching the vehicle, I checked over my shoulder once more and, coast clear, hit the ground and rolled under the rear bumper. Just 2 or 3 seconds passed before the device was attached and 2 or 3 seconds after that, I was back on my feet walking back towards my vehicle.

Job done. About 30 feet from the target vehicle I turned back (old habits - I like to make sure that no-one is running over to the vehicle having seen me do my plant) and I see the indicators blink, the locks activated by a remote keyfob. I step back from the road to take cover of nearby bushes and hold my breath while I watch the target approach his vehicle, convinced he has seen me make the drop and come out to investigate. Instead, he simply walks to the drivers door, climbs in and drives off.

I breathe a sigh of relief and thank my lucky stars that I wasn't held up 20 seconds by traffic lights on my way there, as I am not sure what excuse I would use for a target tripping over my legs while I was under his car....

(Incidentally, you might wonder where the target was going at such a late hour. Lets just say that just taking into account just our part in this operation - which not including travelling time was about 7 seconds - this has now become our shortest case ever...)

Have you got what it takes?

As I'm sure you can imagine, we are frequently approached by people looking to start a career as a private investigator and thus thought I would take a moment to detail what qualities I think the role demands.

By far the most common aspect of our job is watching people. Many people think that surveillance is something that anyone can do, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Leave behind your perception of the traditional private investigator, standing in the shadows with his hat pulled down over his eyes hiding behind a newspaper and instead replace that with a perfectly normal looking person sitting in a car on the side of the road for hours and hours on end.

Surveillance is all about patience - watching the same spot hour after hour for the 20 seconds of action that you need to gather your intel. You can't abandon your position through fear of losing this intel which means the only refreshments you have are those that you bought with you and toilet breaks are non-existent.

Imagine sitting in that same spot for hour after hour only to walk away with nothing (your target often won't perform as you would wish) Only to come back the following day and repeat the same exercise all over again - at what point would you lose your patience?

Most people that contact us don't get interviewed as we can see from their CV for the job just isn't for them, but for those that do, a practical interview awaits them. They will receive a briefing document via email with a fictitious case for them to work. The target will be one of our existing agents and the brief will be simple - follow the agent from point A to point B and record their movements.

Around one in 10 people that attempt this fail for the simple reason that they don't have the patience to do the job. They fail by blowing their cover by getting too close, by losing the target altogether or even in one case following entirely the wrong target for a whole day before contacting us to see if he got the job! (This chap, by the way, wholeheartedly argued that he was in fact brilliant at surveillance. When we bought up the small point that he had actually followed the wrong person for the day, he insisted that this was just a minor detail and argued that the surveillance that he had done had been spot on, wrong person or not!)

Contrary to popular belief, being a good Private investigator isn't all about incredible gadgets, high-speed pursuits through the streets or clandestine meetings at abandoned train stations. It is about being able to remain in the same place for a long period of time yet remaining invisible. It is about blending in to your surroundings and making yourself just another passer-by and it is about being able to pre-empt what a target might do to ensure you don't miss that vital bit of Intel.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put you off coming into the field but before you do, why not test yourself... Go and park in your nearest Sainsburys car park and covertly note every fourth person to leave the store. Do this for five hours and let us know how you got on.

You never know, if you have a good list you might just end up working with us...

The great moral question...

In all the years that I have been doing what i do, there have been very few occasions when i have questioned the morality of my role. I believe that i provide a service that helps people to open up to their partners and discuss their relationships free of the lies that affairs create. Most people, after the initial shock of discovery, relish the chance to rid themselves of the guilt that has burdened them and seize the opportunity to make right the things they perceived were wrong in their relationships.

However, there is one case (also famous for being the shortest case in our history at just 24 minutes start to finish!) that stands out in my mind as being the closest i have come to questioning whether what i do is right.

The client call came through at around 1130hrs. The job was a simple one; follow his wife during her lunch break to ease his suspicions about her relationship with her boss. He was insistent that his suspicions would be unfounded and laughed at the idea of even proceeding, but still, he had a nagging doubt that he couldn't put aside and thus we took the details and agreed to feedback following the operation.

Leaving the office, we all believed that this would simply be another hour or two of fruitless surveillance whereupon we could put the clients fears to rest, but this wasn't to be the case. Shortly after arriving at the targets workplace, she appeared alone and was observed walking across the car park. She paused by a 4x4 vehicle and was soon joined by a man who had left the office a minute or two after her. They both climbed into the vehicle, her in the passenger seat and set off, soon blending into the lunchtime traffic. After a few minutes of mobile surveillance, the targets pulled into an area of woodland and shut off the engine. We parked 100 yards or so further down the road and doubled back to scope out an observation point from which we could gather photos.

From our position, we could clearly see and document that target and her associate (who was later confirmed to be her boss) had climbed into the rear of the vehicle and were engaged in sexual activity. At this point, we contacted the client to confirm whether or not he wanted us to break cover to get more a detailed image from inside the car - the target and her associate had dropped down below the window line and thus more detailed pictures would mean standing immediately next to the car shooting in and down. He confirmed that yes, he wanted close up faces and actions documented and thus the order was given to break cover.

We moved quickly back to our vehicle and repositioned it immediately adjacent to the target car. The target and her associate obviously spotted us jumping out but were unable to respond fast enough to our cameras at the windows and thus, our job was done. We got into our car and sped off back to the office leaving them in little doubt that they had just been caught red handed.

The preparation of the report and the download of the images took around 30 minutes and after a quick lunch, we were on our way to the client house to present our findings. He was devastated and told us that he would confront and then leave his wife upon her return. As we left, we met a lady coming in with two happy children in tow. As i passed them on the drive, i thought back to the report i had just handed their father, the report that presented their mothers betrayal, the report that heralded the breakdown of their family unit.

At that point, i wondered whether or not we had done the right thing. Would the affair have just fizzled out in time with no harm done, would it have just been a passing phase that left no-one any the wiser?

On the way back to the office, i called the client and told him that he should give himself time to digest the information before confronting his wife. We talked for around 20 minutes and concluded with him agreeing to stay with his father for a day or two to think things through.

As it transpired, after this period of reflection the client agreed to attend counselling sessions with his wife. As a result, they stayed together, worked through their problems and i am told that they are now as strong as ever. The family stayed together.

Most couples dont separate on the mere suspicion of an affair, most need irrefutable proof and irrefutable proof is what we provided during that day in the woods. So the question that i find myself asking is this: Had the couple of split up based on our evidence for an affair that, like most, may have died out in time without anyone ever knowing about it, would we have been partly to blame for the breakdown of that family...?

Your marriage is a masterpiece

It's a lot easier to create a picture from a blank canvas than to restore an existing piece of art. All pictures will, in time, need restoration to bring them back to their former glory but the restoration process is both expensive and time consuming and thus one could ask 'What's the point in restoring it, why not just paint a new one?' The answer of course, in this context, is obvious - nothing beats an original, and the same philosophy can be applied to marriage.

Your marriage, in the beginning, was a masterpiece created by you and your partner. It painted a picture of your hopes and dreams, your ambitions and goals. It created a path for you to travel together as the years ticked by. In time as with all masterpieces, the colours will fade, the edges will lose definition and the finer details will become harder to see. The canvas might be scarred and your path may be hard to see under the damage. But does that mean the path is no longer there?

As the years go by and we face the trials and tribulations life throws at us, it is easy to lose sight of why you got married in the first place, to lose the feelings that you once had for the person you started your path with. But often, these feelings aren't gone - they are simply faded by time or lost under damage. With careful restoration, time and commitment, your original masterpiece can shine through again.

Marriages are originals. They cant be replaced when they perish. They needs to be cared for, protected and occasionally restored. People will come into your life and offer replacements - reproductions - but they will never be as valuable as your original or fill the void in your life if you choose to trade your original in.

Remember why you painted your masterpiece in the first place and who you painted it with. Keep a brush in your back pocket and touch up the faded areas from time to time. As life evens out and the troubles you face now are long gone, you'll be glad you did...

Time to put away the swimsuits

So, it looks like the summer may be finally over - The kids are back at school, margaritas sipped over ice on white sandy beaches are but a distant memory and the dark seems to fall ever sooner as we prepare for Autumn. Family life across the country is finally back to normal. 

But normal is a subjective term. For some, normal means back the daily grind of a work/life balance. But for others, normal means that family time is over and the delicate balance between maintaining their homelife and their mistress  can be resumed once again. Cynical? possibly, but nearly all of our clients tell us that the signs of a cheating partner become even more pronounced during the holidays when families spend so much more time together and if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

Take yourself back to the early days of a relationship. It is something we have all experienced: The excitement of being with your new beau and the longing you feel when you are not with them, the all important contact you share when you can't be together like texts, emails and letters and the happiness that comes from planning new adventures together. 

Now imagine what it would be like if something stood in your way of that planning, something that dictated that you couldn't live your life the way you wanted to. In this case, that something is a partner and family.

Day to day you can make excuses for your absence like meetings, trips to the Gym, being stuck in traffic, meeting your friends after work. During the holidays, those excuses aren't available to you and your frustration bubbles under the surface until it can no longer be contained. It manifests itself as the arguments that our clients tell us come out of the blue. The storming out of the house or more passively, a general reluctance to get involved in anything orientated towards the family.

And then, the holidays end and everything returns to a twisted version of normality. So, cynical? possibly. But this cynicism is only based on the lives that our clients lead.

If this sounds like you, maybe we should talk.

Money Cant Buy You Love

Its been a long time since we last updated this, so apologies to those who were following our exploits eagerly awaiting the instalments that never came!

In fact, almost a year has past since we last updated these pages and thus it is with our tail between our legs that we return with promises to be more vigilant in our updates going forward...

This year has seen some interesting cases for us, and in our search for explanations as to why people choose infidelity over marital bliss one case in particular comes to mind.

Money, they say, is the root of all evil. Many a time have financial difficulties been blamed for a marriage breakdown. Couples argue of finances, these arguments create rifts that over time widen to what seems like a cavernous void and sooner or later, one party will find peace and tranquility with someone who doesnt moan about the £15 you spent on a Chinese takeaway when the kids needed new shoes for Gym.

Last summer, a new client approached us to uncover the reason behind his wifes sudden departure from the matrimonial home, or rather, one of the matrimonial homes. You see, this particular client had many properties around the UK and the world. He truly epitomised the saying that money was no object.

After many weeks of surveillance, employing GPS tracking devices, audio bugging equipment and all manner of other techniques, we established that the subject of the investigation was in fact involved with another man. Looking into his background, we then established that the man was none other than her first ever boyfriend. Now, in relevative terms, the chap earnt a decent enough living, but was certainly not one who could be classed as rich.

Presenting this evidence to the client who then presented it to his wife, all parties assumed that she would return to her husband and the incredible lifestyle he provided. But no, she chose to leave the marriage and return to her first boyfriend. This, i suppose proves that old addage that Money cant buy you love...But still...they had a POOL....One wonders if, as the credit crunch continues to bite, she wont want to dust off her swim suit and return home?

Irrefutable proof

People come to us from all walks of life - Rich, poor, young and old, from every corner of the country and they all seek the same the thing: Truth. Black Cat Investigations prides itself on having the skills and the technology to be able to offer our clients irrefutable proof of wrong doing in every form.

Occasionally though, even we have to bow our heads in admiration and acknowledge the power of Karma to deliver the goods on someone that epitomises the word ‘cheater’ on every possible level.

With your permission I will save your blushes and offer only an overview of something that happened recently that offers a lesson to everyone tempted to cheat on their partner...

The rush and the thrill of a ‘liaison’ in a public place has the power to stoke the flames of even the weakest fire. A sun dappled park, the enveloping shadows of a nightclub corner, even the alley of an urban residential estate illuminated by the moon. Or, in this case, the toilet of a major London Railway Station.

Risky? Of course. Romantic? not really. Safe? in a cubicle, to an extent...unless of course, midway during the act you happen to hit the redial button on the cellphone in your back pocket and proceed to broadcast the whole event to your wife.

Like i say, sometimes Karma delivers before we even have a chance to leave the office...

I know I shouldnt say this, but.....

The more I see the Private Investigation industry being dissected on television, the more I despair of the way so called industry professionals portray the business. Demonstrating eqiupment that in 1983 would have been outdated, airing viewpoints and industry tips from people who are generally accepted within the circles of professional PI’s to be just about the worst example of our business and tales of women who, once cheated on, decide to set up their own Agency all add to the argument that our industry needs to be regulated, and quickly.

Black Cat Investigations pride ourselves on offering a service that is second to none and make endless investments in both the training of our field staff and the equipment they use. This in mind, to see someone touting what is arguably the worst GPS tracking device on the market (£150 from eBay) as the lastest in investigative technology and broadcasting to the nation that by simply tying her hair in a ponytail she is able to become a different person (?!) infuriates us beyond all belief.

In reality, you can have an office full of cheap tat - glasses with hidden cameras in them, GPS tracking devices that only last three days at the most, watches that record sound (albeit only about an hour of sound) and clocks that monitor rooms - but none of this equates to what we believe to be the foundation of a good Private Investigation Agency: The Team.

(And for the record, our GPS Tracking devices cost us around £2500 and will track a vehicle for about 6 weeks!)

Merry Christmas Mr Jones

One cannot walk the streets of any urban neighbourhood at this time of year without sunglasses to block out the glare emanating from houses wishing to shout their approval of the festive period.

Multitudes of blue, red, green and white lights seem to adorn every house, and the Jones'* tree is so big this year that the fairy adored by all (but yet strangely thrown into a box at the back of the loft for the other 11 months) is now horizontal as the top branch bends at a 90 degree angle to accommodate the stippled artexing of the lounge ceiling.

Through a window a father sits with his sons to watch the latest instalment of James Bond, while mothers and daughters curse that fact that their turkey this year is 26.3% bigger than their Aga. (Worked out on Fathers new calculator)

Suddenly, father jumps up from his chair as his mobile vibrates on the table among the discarded wrapping paper still creating a fire hazard from that morning. Grabbing the device, he moves with practised silence into the downstairs loo, phone in hand to wish his other family a merry Christmas.

You see, this festive picture has two very distinct layers - Layer one is what we have just shared, but layer two is situated 45 miles away in another town. Not dissimilar in make-up, layer two contains a tree, a turkey, a son and a mother and all the festivity one could hope for. The only difference? When layer one contains a father, layer two doesn't, and vice versa.

One man living two lives, and, as they say, never the twain shall meet. Unless of course, the wife from layer one phones us the week previous to this to find out why her husband is away six months of the year and can only share every other Christmas with her and their family.

This case was closed almost a year ago, but as i walk the streets again and see the same familiar lights super-glued to houses i do wonder where Mr Jones* is spending Christmas this year and cant help but ask myself "Will that 8 foot tree fit in a bedsit?"

The Black Cat Investigations Team would like to wish all of our clients, past, present and future, a merry and peaceful Christmas...

*As usual, this is as assumed name!

RIP Claudia

A strong member of a team can be defined by the way they work with others, the way they go beyond the call of duty for a client and the way they push the bounderies to see through a smokescreen to the actual flames shrouded beneath.

Not always the most outspoken, the most noticed nor the most involved, they are never the less a vital link in the chain without whom the entire machine would eventually seize and grind to a halt.

Thus, to lose a member of the team, one who has been with us from the start and one who has immortalised our philosophy of Honesty, Integrity and Quality is a blow that leaves one questioning the higher powers as to why she should be taken from us during the prime of her life.

I speak of Claudia, who at just a few years old was recently lost, falling foul of the heat given by the exhaust of a Jaguar XJ6. A finer GPS tracking device we couldnt have asked for and thus this blog entry is dedicated to her and the bush she now lies in, somewhere off the A1 in London.
RIP CLAUDIA

(And Sophie, Beryl and Crystal - The other bugs we have lost to battery failure, mechanical faults and speed humps respectively!)

We are the good guys!

It goes without saying that we would prefer that you choose appoint us as your Agency but we also know that 6% of people that call us decide not to. If you do decide to appoint another Agency, use this list to identify tell-tale signs that all is not what it seems...!

No-one is ever available to answer the phone. This normally indicates that the owner of the business works full time doing something else and uses your money to fill his evenings!

They answer the phone 'hullo?!'. You are dealing with a business and should expect as a minimum to hear the business name upon connection. If you don't, where has your call been diverted to?

Be wary of anyone quoting very low prices! If someone is only charging £60 for hours of surveillance, what does that tell you about the job they will do, the equipment they use and the manpower they have? It is better to pay more and get the job done in a shorter time.

What equipment do they have? Are all of the tracking devices conveniently out on 'jobs' at the moment? This normally means that the haven't spent the £8350 on tracking devices that we have to make sure they are always here if you need them!

Do they bother to find out about your situation or just give you figures? If its just prices they are interested in, what does this tell you about their commitment to your case?

When the phone goes through to an answering machine, does it simply say "...This is an answering machine, leave your message..." Be wary!!

There are many companies doing what we do. In fact some of them have even complimented us by trying to copy our website but there is only one Black Cat Investigations Ltd and luckily for our clients, we will always be here 24/7 to offer advice, guidance and support when you really need it.

Trust

Trust is an important part of any client - supplier relatioship, perhaps more so in our industry than any other due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence we handle.

We pride ourselves on completing our client objectives quickly and effectively, exceeding their expectations and delivering a service that we feel truly represents our ethos of Honesty, Integrity and Quality.

But let's be realistic: we are as human as you and are not immune to delays. It is at this stage that we rely on the trust of our clients: trust in us as Agents and trust in Black Cat as an agency. If this trust begins to slip, one can soon begin to feel isolated as a client and 'left out in the cold' with regard to what we have offered.

Recently, a case came in to the office that was almost entirely intelligence based. What this effectively means is that the huge majority of the work involved was to take place behind a desk rather than in the field behind the lens of a camera.

In cases of this nature, one cannot always rely on the information required by the client coming forth on a specific date as the information we can obtain is from sources outside of our control, who, as do we, have their own deadlines to meet away from the work they do for us.

It is at this time that the groundwork we put in to all of our cases, the total commitment we have to all of our clients and the reputation we have worked hard to build in our industry comes into play. If you can trust us to do what we say we will do, we will always deliver. If you cant, we are not the agency for you.

Sent from my BlackBerry 8800 ® wireless device.

A note from Agent A's wife

When I met my husband, who I think you all know as Agent A I had no idea what he did for a living. To be honest, I thought he was in sales and this guise continued for about nine months into our relationship before I discovered the truth. In a way, I suppose I knew subconciously that he wasn’t being entirely truthfull with me about his life but ironically, there were more occasions where I suspected him of cheating rather than spying!

Because of this, I have no problem with what he currently does with Black Cat Investigations, In a way, I feel prouder of him now than I ever did before as I honestly believe that what the Agency does is incredibly noble. Having been cheated on before in a previous relationship, I know that if I had had the means to employ him or one of the team to find out the truth for me, I would have done. As a prospective ‘cheatee’ (!) the worst part for me was the not knowing. The going to work and not being able to concentrate, the watching of TV shows with my partner that touched on infidelity and both sitting there in silence with an atmosphere like blamanch! If, at the time, someone had offered to take all of that away and replace it with answers I would have jumped at the chance.

What of the late nights and periods away from home? To be honest, it doesn’t make that much difference to the quality of our relationship. Agent A is here more often during the day now than he ever was before and whilst we have no concept of a weekend as he works many of them, we simply have our two day break at some other point midweek (which is great for shopping as everyone else is at work!)

Anyway, the real rewards come after he has worked a night Operation as I can wake him up in the morning and present my pitch to him for those new birkenstocks I simply must have…normally, he is too tired to argue and by the time he realises what I have bought, the receipt has magically vanished….

What can we say?!

Black Cat Investigations deal with facts. We let the evidence we collect speak for itself rather than giving a personal opinion of what we think of a situation. This way, our clients are never misled by what they could misconstrue from us and we can remain distant enough from an Operation so as not to offer what could be a biased result (everyone is innocent until proven guilty remember?!)

That said, sometimes we encounter a situation whereupon our client is being so abused by his or her spouse that it is simply impossible not to take a view on what he or she really ought to do. Changing the names, places and specific details of the case, I would like to share on such Operation with you….

Over two years ago, a client came to us fearing that her husband may be cheating on her. Working over 14 hours per day, the onus was on her to cover the bills for the marital home as her husband claimed he was unable to work and thus, unable to contribute. Coming home each day, she would find that all four beds in their property appeared to have been used although it was just her and her husband residing there. After leaving this anomaly unaswered for over six months, she finally contacted us to shed some light on her suspicions.

The Black Cat team went into the property with her while her husband was out for the day and set up some covert audio visual recording devices in prime locations around the home: Lightswitches, plug sockets, clocks, lampshades even the old television in the master bedroom with the intention of finding out what was happening in her home while she worked.

All of the devices installed worked on a wireless frequency meaning that provided we were within 300 feet of the property, we would be able to monitor actvity from a van we had parked up around the corner. So, the following day, the surveillance begun. Two of us sat in the back of the van out of sight of the property, monitoring all sound and video coming from the installed devices.

It wasn’t long before the first of four visitors that day entered the house, only as we watched the scene unfold before us it became apparent that these people werent visiting him, they were working from the house.

Unbelievably, it transpired as we compiled a dosier of movements over the next three days that the husband was in fact ‘renting’ rooms out to local prostitutes while his wife worked during the day and early evening. They in turn were allowing clients to visit them throughout the day. The husbands payment for this arrangement? Lets just say he was paid ‘in kind’ and not in cash.

So, if we go back to the idea of not taking a view on a situtation, you can see how and why we broke the golden rule on this occasion as every now and then, we come across people who are going so far beyond simple infidelity that it becomes a joy to hand over the evidence to a client and know that she is going to finally kick him into touch.

If only we had left one camera in the house to watch the look on his face as she played the DVD that evening…..

In the words of a cheater....

Black Cat Investigations do not seek to destroy relationships and nor do we consider what we do a contributory facture to the breakdown of such. On the contrary, we believe that if used correctly, our services can help couples to look into what has caused one party to commit infidelity and start to repair the damage that such actions cause, after all, if we can force the truth out on the table people know what they are dealing with and can take steps accordingly.

Being in this business as long as we have, we have come to realise that infidelity isnt the cause of a bad marriage or relationship, but is just another symptom of such and thus, if it is just another symptom, isnt this something that can be treated?

In order to look into this further, we need to look at it from the point of view of someone who has cheated and try to identify what led them to do it in the first place. Tania* came to us after we have captured her husband Tony* on film having an affair with a co-worked. Tania knew that her marriage was at crisis point when she phoned us, though wanted to know why Tony chose to cheat on her rather than trying to talk to her about it so that they could get things back on track. Offering to mediate this discussion, both parties came into the Black Cat offices. This is what Tony had to say:

“Tania and I had been having problems for the last couple of years. When we met in 2001, we were both in great jobs earning good money and could pretty much do whatever we wanted to do. We had two holidays a year, ate out two or three evenings a week and had a great circle of friends around us that we socialised with on a regular basis. In 2005, our first child arrived, and while on the surface things looked great, it was hard as we had to put the holidays on hold and eating out or getting drunk together became a thing of the past.

James* was great, don’t get me wrong. He slept through the night after the first couple of months and compared to some of our friends who also had kids, we were having it reasonbaly easy. But in terms of spending time alone with Tania…zero. There wasn’t a set day that I can put my finger on when things changed, but over time, we became more like brother and sister than husband and wife and everyday could be broken down into a list of chores that needed to be done. Washing, cooking, cleaning, ironing. Me and Tania were effectivley put on the back burners while life continued around us.

I met Angela* for the first time about a year or so after James was born when she came to work at the office. She wasn’t working for me when she first arrived but we immediately hit it off and started to time our visits to the Kitchen so that we could meet for a chat throughout the day.

Early in 2006, we had a work conference in Stratford-upon-avon* which meant that I would be staying away from home for two nights. I felt guilty leaving Tania to look after james on her own but was also really excited about the prospect of spending more time with Angela. Don’t get me wrong, nothing had happened by this point but the connection between us in the office was obvious. Our little kitchen meetings had become a 6 times a day occurance and we fired emails back and forth to each other pretty much all day long, each time getting more and more flirty until it became apparent that she was as interested in me as I had become in her. I packed my nicest clothes (clothes that I hadnt worn for maybe six months or so!) and I guess that by this time, I had already decided that something was going to happen while we were away.

Its worth mentioning that at this point, while I was planning what I was going to do, or at least try and do, I still loved Tania as much as when we first met and I still do. But something was different with Angela: The fire was there, that old spark that Tania and I used to have that had somehow become covered up by nappies and bath time. Anyway, I went on the course and low and behold, something did happen. The affair lasted for a year and a half until the Black Cat agents found us and there isnt now a day that goes by that I don’t regret what happened. After we were caught, I realised that Angela wasn’t something new and exciting at all, but was simply everything that Tania was when we first met. They even look a little alike. She reminded me of Tania in the days before James and before our life became a routine. Don’t get me worng, I am not trying to make excuses for what happened as there are none, I guess I just saw a chance to go back in time for a while and took it.

Getting caught and almost losing everything that I truly love has forced home how good I have got it with my family. Tania is my best friend and this affair has taught me that no matter how hard things get, I have my best friend right here with me that I can talk it over with”

Tony is typical of the people that we meet in our business. A lack of communication between him and his partner, toghether with a dramatic change in lifestyle, led him to seek the excitement he used to have with someone else, so it would appear that the key driving factor in what went wrong in this case was communication.

Tony and Tania apparently never talked about how they felt about their changing lifestyles and the risk here is that if you don’t talk to you partner, someone else will.

So this case illustrates that infidelity is just a symtom and not a cause as Tony and Tania are still together, but what can you do to treat the cause of the problem before these ‘symtpoms’ appear? Tony and Tania suggest the following:

• Communicate with each other about how you are feeling. If you feel trapped, tell your partner because chances are they do too and it is always better to be trapped with someone else!
• Remember why you got together with your partner in the first place and focus on that during hard times
• Accept that all relationships hit bad patches. These might last a week, a month or even a year but you will come through it and if you come through it together, you will be stronger than ever
• Make time for each other. If you cant afford to go out like you used to, cook dinner together after the children have gone to bed and eat in the dining room rather than in front of the TV
• Decide at the start of the week what you want to watch on TV and only turn it on for those shows. Spend the other times talking or simply sit together reading books
• Accept that both of you will find other people attractive, and don’t be afriad to notice people. There will always be people who catch your eye, it is simply how you deal with it that makes the difference
• Tell each other one nice thing every day. I.e, you look nice today or I love you
• Text each other during the day or send emails just to say hi
• If you can, get a friend or relative to babysit once a week or once a month and make this night your special going out night
• Look through old photos together of when you first met, it will remind you why you fell in love in the first place!
• Laugh about each others flaws!

Tony and Tania are still together and are trying to work things out after his affair, and we would like to thank them both for allowing us the chance to publish their story. It is their wish that other couples can learn from this.

New equipment

Occasionally, we receive a new piece of equipment that is just so good it begs to be used at every opportunity and just as we were when our new super vehicle tracking devices arrived, we are all very excited this morning about the arrival of our next generation GSM audio bug…

What we basically have are seven small black boxes, about the size of the new iPod shuffle, which will allow us to monitor audio activity in a room or vehicle from anywhere on the planet, providing we have access to a phone. Working on the GSM frequencies (the same as mobile phones) the device has a tiny SIM card inside it and thus a dedicated telephone number. Placed in a room, it will sit there quite happily for three or four weeks (or indefinitely if we plug it into the mains) until it picks up sound. When it does, it will then automatically phone a pre-set number (whatever we choose this number to be) and start broadcasting to us everything that it hears!

Obviously, at this stage we can arrange to have the broadcast recorded or simply listen in and take notes. Either way, the possibilities for the deployment of these new bugs are endless and thus sadly, we don’t anticipate being able to play with them for long before sending them out to work. We are not claiming that the GSM bug is a new technology as people have been rolling these out for a while now, but the audio clarity and sheer size of these devices are worth the excitement!

Having been in the business for so long, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly the technology develops in our field. The last few years alone have seen massive leaps in the areas of GSM bugging and GPS tracking and now we have GPS tracking devices that, no larger than a matchbox, offer up to three weeks of tracking life before the battery dies. It seems like only yesterday that we were using devices for the same purpose that were larger than an old video cassette that would conk out after just four days on a car!

Ho hum, I ought to start naming these new bugs before nostalgia takes hold…

Save your money!

We have received some comments and information about devices that can supposedly ‘block’ the signals sent by GPS Tracking devices, thus allowing cheaters to move around unwatched. These devices are advertised on sites like eBay etc and can look like a steal at just £100 or so….Just for the record, there isnt a device in the world that can block the Black Cat Investigations GPS Tracking units, so if you are sincerely worried about your privacy being invaded, don’t cheat. Then you will never have cause to meet us!

Any questions?

We receive a lot of press for what we do and the way we do it and this invariably leads to a lot of questions that all too often are left unanswered or worse, are answered by someone who doesn’t have a clue what they are talking about. That in mind, we would like to offer you the chance to ask us questions about our gadgets, the Agency itself, our training methods or anything you want to know about the industry and we will do our best to answer them for you.

You can email us at info@blackcatinvestigations.co.uk, or through the website at http://www.blackcatinvestigations.co.uk/

or simply leave a comment here for us to read.

We won’t publish the names or contact details of anyone that contacts us, nor will we keep your details on file for future marketing. We just thought it would be fun!

Not ideal, but not our choice!

Our business, by the very nature of what we do isn’t without its risks. Normally, these risks are calculated and minimised for the both the security of our Agents in the field and the anonymity of our clients but occasionally our clients (being the people in charge of what we do) request that we push aside the risk element to secure a result that they can use against a cheating spouse. I would like to share one such story with you that will stay with us for some time.

The UK (in terms of infidelity) is a reasonably small place and it is not unheard that we find ourselves working in the same village two nights running for two completely unrelated clients. Sitting in my vehicle one evening after planting “Crystal” (a GPS device) on a target vehicle, I switched on my Internet connection to ensure that I was receiving a signal before leaving the area. Strangely, Crystal, who is normally accurate to within around two and a half feet, was giving me a location about 100 yards away in the other direction. Cursing my bad choice of placement on the vehicle (as I assumed the signal was being distorted) I silently left my car and running through the shadows, made my way back across the village green to the vehicle I had been to not 6 minutes ago. Checking the device, I confirmed that the placement was as good as it should be before returning to my vehicle to rule out server error (The devices report their location to a central server which is then fed down to us in the field)

Baffled and sitting alone in my car in the early hours, I started a mental check of everything that could affect the device, before checking the location once more on my PDA. Still over one hundred yards out.

Then I noticed it. Each of our devices (Ruby, Crystal, Kylie, Claudia, Sophie etc) have their own dedicated tracking pages on the web server and staring at me from the screen was the name ‘Sophie’. I was looking at the wrong bug. Tapping the screen of my PDA I located my client files to confirm what Sophie’s position should have been that evening. Surrey. So what was she doing here, some 120 miles to the north of that location in the middle of the night?!

Clicking through to the correct page for Crystal, I confirmed that she was in fact working as she should (accurate to within about 30cms that evening!) and quietly turned my car around to go and take a look at what Sophie was doing here.

I barely had a chance to move off down the road before I spotted the target vehicle I had attached Sophie some nine days before! But what was he doing here? Checking the client file once more, I saw instructions for 24hr updates to the client, and, pulling over onto the verge made a call to our client.

Saving you the expletives, it transpired that the owner of the ‘Sophie car’ should have been at home while our client was at her sisters for the night, but it was obvious that he had other plans…While the cat’s away and all that. Obviously furious, she demanded pictures and if possible, proof that he was in the house. I explained to her that not anticipating this opportunity (this was a completely unrelated bug plant after all and she didn’t even have this time booked!) I didn’t have my digital SLR camera with me, and only had use of my Sony Ericcsson 5 mega pixel mobile phone camera…with auto flash! Even after explaining that as soon as I took a picture, the flash would light up the street like a Christmas tree, she insisted that I get the evidence, consequences aside.

OK then. So, preparing for a quick flash (so to speak!) and then off, I stepped out of my vehicle, phone in hand and walked closer to the Sophie Car. Phone poised, I ran off a couple of shots and bathed the street in lightning flashes! Suddenly, I heard someone behind me.

“What the hell are you doing?” The voice demanded to know. Turning to put a face to the voice, the targets features swam into view under the streetlight. I walked off quickly to my car

“I said what are you doing, that’s my car you are photographing?!” I simply turned to him, and using the stock answer stated “I am here with the knowledge of the relevant authorities, if you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact the local police” We always inform the local police when working in one of their areas, if for nothing more than to prevent them answering calls to investigate strange people parked up in cars around the village!

Fast forwarding about 30 seconds, our target had been joined by about 12 other people in the street, neighbours etc, that had seen the camera flashes, and between them they were examining the car for damage and making obvious gestures towards taking down my number plate and vehicle description.

Now, I simply vanished again in to the night leaving the street with some pub banter that the locals will no doubt dine out on for the next few months, but there was a valuable lesson to be learned that evening. What if the target hadn’t been so passive in his questioning? What if they hadn’t been happy just to let me leave what potentially could be a crime scene? In terms of safety, the answers don’t bear thinking about.

It does however demonstrate the need the need for cover, or covert behaviour if you will. Fine, on this occasion one could argue that the case, complete with a target coming out of the house in sleepwear is well and truly closed (especially as the address turned out to be that of his secretary) and thus the end justifies the means, but still….

I suppose what I am trying to say is that the closure was not ideal, but then again, we have to act as the clients direct and if they want us to break cover to close a case then so be it.

Still, it will be sometime before I frequent that village pub again which is a shame as my wife was particularly fond of their Scampi….