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Since our last blog post “When Things Go Wrong”, I thought it would only be right to follow up with “When Things Go Right”. For the most part things do actually go right with a day’s surveillance usually running like clockwork from beginning to end. There will always be little issues to contend with on all operations such as sighting an OP which isn’t overlooked by neighbours, or obtaining vehicle details from a vehicle that is out of view etc. For seasoned operatives, issues like these are quickly overcome and they do not impede on the outcome of investigations.
A perfect example of when things go right is a task very fresh in my mind as it was the last task I did just a few days ago. It was an insurance job where the subject was claiming a large sum of money for an alleged serious right wrist injury he sustained from a vehicle collision in late 2019. Two previous days of surveillance had already been completed on the subject but the results were unfruitful due to the subject not leaving his house. Day three would be different...
On the the first two days we saw a black Volkswagen Golf on the driveway which didn’t move for the duration. On day three the Golf wasn’t there at all. We thought the subject was likely to be away but we stuck with it anyway to see what would happened. For the most part, the day was very quiet until approximately 3pm. The subject was seen and filmed arriving at the home address in a blue Seat Leon And carrying a backpack inside. He probably was away but luckily we caught him coming home. Roughly 15 minutes later the subject departed again in the Seat and the follow was on!
Between my self and the second operative, we practiced some textbook follow procedures and the subject soon arrived at a local pet shop. I quickly dumped my vehicle and got up behind the subject (socially distanced of course) and followed him into the pet shop. Whilst covertly filming, the subject was seen purchasing a large bag of dog food which he carried in his right hand (that will be the most expensive bag of dog food he ever buys).
With a fast turnaround in the shop, we were quickly back to mobile vehicle follow procedures. The subject was followed a short distance away to a private address which we later confirmed to be the parental address.
The subject entered the property with the bag of dog food a departed again no more than 5 minutes later, but this time on a bicycle. We stuck with him and filmed him riding his bike and popping some very impressive/expensive wheelies up the curbs as he made his way back home. It was pretty clear by this point there was absolutely nothing wrong with the subjects wrist.
Once the subject was home, it was time to call it a day. Although most of the day was spent waiting around and observing an empty house, the 20 or so minutes of video footage we obtained was more than enough to put his dodgy claim to bed.
No operative wants to update a paying client with three days of no sightings, so this result at the 11th hour really did make up for the first two days. We busted a fraudulent claimant, and we saved the client from a big payout. Things went right!