Case of the "follow that boat"

Monday
This case started in Livermore, CA. Subject is a 40 year old male adult who was injured on the job. He injured his back, neck, left arm and pelvis and claims he is 100% disabled and can't hold a job. The insurance company is ready to settle this case in court. The insurance company hired me to observe his activities before they settle, settlement is $750,000.00, they have to be sure he is as he claims, 100% disabled.

I arrived at the subject's residence at 5:00 am. The residence is described as a ranch style single family dwelling, tan with brown trim, the garage is off to the left and the front door is in the center of the residence, curtains are closed and no lights are on. This being the first day on this case, not knowing his patterns yet, I drove the area to see where his possible routes of travel would be. Subject's residence is directly on a corner leading into a court, I picked the best position for surveillance possible, I can see the entire residence, garage and side gate. There were no vehicles parked at the residence, which means he doesn't own a vehicle or it's parked in the garage. I needed to know if there was a vehicle parked in the garage. I approached the residence on foot and found the garage door was slightly open. I bent and got on my knees and observed a yellow older model Ford Bronco, CAL lic. plate ###### parked inside the garage. I arrived back to my surveillance vehicle and set up my interior blinds so I wouldn't be detected.

If no activity is observed after the four hour mark which would be 9:00 am, I need to knock on his door to make sure the subject is home, don't want to be sitting on a empty house. Four hours had passed, the subject hasn't moved, I need to find out if the subject is home. As I was arriving this morning I saw a shopping plaza not to far a way, I observed a pizza restaurant as one of the businesses. I made a call into the pizza place and arranged for a delivery around 10:00 am to the subjects residence. Pizza dude arrived and knocked on the subjects door. The door opened and I observed a white male adult, 5'10, 170lbs, short blonde hair standing in the door way. It worked out well, I didn't have to show myself to confirm that the subject was home. The subject turned the pizza dude a way, as he drove off and started to pass me I flagged him down and bought the pizza, lunch. The subject didn't leave his residence and at 5:oo pm I discontinued surveillance due to the fact of lack of activity.

Wednesday
I arrived at the subject's residence at 6:00 am. Upon arrival I observed a boat on a trailer parked curbside directly in front of the subjects residence. It was an open inboard/outboard vessel, there was a ski pole on the back of the boat. This type of boat can be used as a ski boat or can be used to fish out of. I copied down the CAL lic. plate and the vessel I.D. number on the side of the boat.I needed to know if this boat belonged to the subject or not. After no movement for four hours, I needed to knock on the subjects door and have a conversation with the subject regarding the boat. I put on a removable beard, hat, sunglasses, Hawaiian shirt, short pants and sandals. When ever you knock on the subject door, you MUST put on a disguise to hide your normal appearance, you never know when you actually will come into contact with the subject and you don't want the subject to connect you with there residence, that's how you will burn a case. I walk up to the front door and I knock, the subject opens the door. Now all at the same time I must, take a mental picture of the subjects facial markings, age, height, weight, hair color, eye color. How he stands at the door, is he using any artificial devices (body worn devices), cane, walker, anything like that. I am looking beyond the subject observing the interior layout of the living room, other people, is the T.V. on or is he a reader. Any information you gather will help in the investigation further down the road, I only have one shot at this so I need to get it right. I said, hi, I was walking by and saw your boat, I have been looking for a boat like this myself. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your boat, ask any guy about his guns, cars, or boat, they will spill there guts to you. I said, where is there a good fishing hole around here, he said well I am going up to Bass Lake this weekend for some fishing and water skiing. We talked for a few more minutes about his boat, but I with drew the information I needed, I said thanks and walked a way. Now once you leave the subjects front door, you can't walk back to your vehicle, they will be watching you to see where you are going. You must walk around the block to your vehicle and reposition yourself, you can't have any of the neighbors connecting you to the subject. The information I discovered was solid, I found out where Bass Lake was, It is between Fresno and Yosemite up in the mountains. This coming weekend is the 4th of July weekend, today was Wednesday, June 29th, I had a few days to prepare for a nice day of fishing and relaxation.

Friday
July 1st, I arrived very early 5:00 am at the subjects residence, I had to be there to follow him to Bass Lake. To my surprise the boat was gone, I looked in the garage and it was empty, he had already left. This was before GPS and the internet was available to everyone. I had to pull out my maps and started off to Bass Lake. On the way I imagined a nice small lake, camping next to the water, relaxing for the weekend, and taking lots of video. At 1:00 pm I arrived at Bass Lake and it wasn't as I expected it to be like. Instead of a few boats on the lake, It was a huge resort, on one side of the lake was Hotels, Restaurants, private docks, private camping resort parks, and on the other side was National Forest camping. You could hardly see the other end of the lake it was so huge. My game plan just changed, this was going to be a very challenging surveillance. The first thing I had to do was set up my camp, since I came prepared with a tent, sleeping bag, stove, ice chest, food, It took me about an hour.

I know two important pieces of information, his vehicle and plate number and his vessel ID number that's on the side of the bow, and what the boat looks like. I decided I needed to find the subjects boat, that's the most important part of this surveillance is the boat, without it, I have nothing. I drove around the lake to get a feel of the layout of the Lake, I needed to know where all the roads lead to, all the possible exits, the public docks what time are they open and close, the restaurants and there hours of operation, I needed to know everything there was about this resort Lake. The lake was really quite with maybe 4 boats on the water. It was now 6:00 pm, I headed back to my camp for some dinner, after dinner I decided to drive the roads to see where they all went to, after 3 hours of driving, I have a good feel of the Resort. There are 12 private camping resorts up in the hills, 3 Hotels, 4 private docks and 2 public docks, one grocery store and one gas station. I am tried and it was time to turn in for the evening. I arrived back at my camp, it was so beautiful with the moon high in the sky and the reflection of the moon shinning off the water. I can hear crickets and frogs croaking, bats flying in the air, the night life of the lake was very cool. As I reflected of the events of the day, I decided to rent a small 12" boat with a outboard motor and try to find the subject's boat first thing in the morning. I need to get an early start around 6:00 am.

Saturday
I was woken up by jet engine sounds on the lake. I looked at my watch and it was 8:00 am, I over slept. I got dressed and exited my tent, looked toward the lake and froze in my tracks. I couldn't believe my eyes, the lake had around fifty boats on the water, I turned and looked at the road leading toward the lake. There were cars, trucks, vans, backed up for miles heading toward the lake. I had a panic attack, I didn't know how I was going to resolve this investigation by myself, this was a job for three to four investigators, I felt an overwhelming feeling that I should ask for help, I knelled down in my tent and offered up a prayer to my heavenly father for help, as soon as I said those words an overwhelming feeling overcame me, telling me, everything will be alright. My peaceful weekend suddenly changed. I quickly fixed breakfast and headed toward the rental shack, where I could rent a small boat. Yesterday this was a good idea with a few boats on the lake, now I couldn't cut across the lake fear of being run over by power boats, so I cruised the shoreline around the lake until I reached the private docks. It was now 12:15 pm, I reached my first private dock out of four. The next three hours I searched for the subjects boat without success, his boat wasn't berthed at any of the private docks. I headed back to the rental shack to return the boat, it was now 5:00 pm. Haven't had a chance to eat so I headed back to my camp and prepared dinner. There was only a few hours of light left so I decided to drive up toward the private resorts in the hills. There were twelve resorts to search though, one by one I gained access to the resorts by taking a free tour of the resort by a salesman, the whole time he's trying to sell me a time share while I am scanning the trailers and cabins for the subjects vehicle and boat. Nine o'clock and I have gone though ten resorts, I am exhausted and ready to call it a day, when I had this feeling deep down inside of me that I had to do one more resort, ever had that feeling that someone is guiding you in a direction, that's the feeling I had, so I went though the sales presentation and got into a golf cart and as he was telling everything about the resort, I had another feeling, something told me to turn my head and I looked and there was the subjects vehicle and boat. I felt relief, now the surveillance can begin. I exited the resort and positioned myself with full view of the exit gate. It was now 9:45 pm, 10:00 pm the subject exited the the resort and drove down the hill toward the lake. The subject drove to a restaurant at the lake. Subject exited his vehicle with 4 young females, they entered the restaurant and out of my view. I enter on foot and find a booth close enough to hear the subject. The subject moved without any restrictions, braces or canes. 11:30 pm the subject exits the restaurant and drives up the hill toward the private resort and out of my view, I am calling it a day. Time to go to sleep.

Sunday
I woke up at 6:00 am, felt really good now that I know where the subject is located. Prepared breakfast and got ready for the day. I have my video camera, 600mm lens, 35mm camera, digital recorder, hat sunglasses, fishing pole and tackle, swim suit, towel, and I am ready for anything the subject does. I drive over to the public docks, there are two of them, I picked the public dock closest to the road the subject drove down last night, the other dock can't be seen from the first dock, just hope the subject drives to the dock I am at. This is all about the subject and the boat, nothing else. I set up surveillance at the end of a pier next to the public dock. I can see all boats coming and going, there are benches and tables to sit, great cover. There is a parking lot off to the right of the dock where the trucks with trailers can park. Left of the public dock is a gas island where the boats can get gas, it has street access so people can walk onto the gas island. After two hours, there is no sign of the subject. At 10:30 am, I have to make a land line phone call in and give an update to the client. To do this I have to break off my surveillance and walk over to the restaurant to use a pay phone. The phone call took longer than I thought, forty five minutes went by. I arrived back at the pier and set up surveillance. At 11:32 am, I noticed a boat coming into the public dock from the lake, it looked familiar. It was the subject, he was wearing a wet suit and was dripping wet. He was with four females in the boat. The subject backed the boat to the waters edge of the dock, at which time the subject jumped out of the boat and ran toward the parking lot where other trucks and trailers were parked. He entered his vehicle and backed the trailer into the water. He then jumped out of his bronco and entered the boat, he backed it onto the trailer, latched the boat onto the trailer, secured the boat to the trailer, jump out of the boat and entered his vehicle and drove off up the hill and out of view. The entire time the subject was doing this, I was filming the subject, driving the boat, jumping, running and driving a vehicle. This alone can disprove his claim of being 100% disabled. I was happy with the video, but I needed proof that he was in fact water skiing, this would disprove his claim of being 100% disabled. I let the subject go and set up a surveillance at the intersection that he must take in order to come down to the lake. It was lunch time, there was a fast food type of cafe close where I could watch the intersection from the cafe. 2:00 pm there is no sign of the subject from the dinner, I exited and set up surveillance from my vehicle. After sitting in my vehicle for five hours, there was no sign of the subject. 9:00 pm I discontinued surveillance and drove back to my camp. Reviewing the events that took place today, it was a good day, twenty five minutes of video was taken. The noise from the lake has stopped of jet engines and were replaced by the frogs and crickets singing. The moon is really bright and the reflection of it in the water was breath taking. I am calling it a night.

Monday, July 4th
Today is the day I must disprove the subjects claim. I broke camp very early, packed up my vehicle and drove over to the cafe so I could watch the intersection that the subject must pass to get to the lake. I ordered breakfast which was a nice change from eating cold cereal, it was 6:15 am. After watching the intersection from the cafe, it was now 8:00 am, I exited the cafe and set up surveillance from my vehicle. 10:00 am, no sign of the subject, I was beginning to worry that he had already left for home and I missed my one and only shot to get the subject on video water skiing. Most people leave around noon and return home before the traffic gets to heavy. 11:00 am I exited my vehicle and walked on foot to the end of the pier where I observed the subject coming in from the water yesterday. I reflected on Saturday morning when I felt the warm feeling that everything would be alright, at that very moment, I felt impressed to turn to my head to the right and look, I did and I observed the subject backing his boat and trailer into the water. I quickly picked up my video camera and started to roll the video. Subject jumped out of his vehicle and unlatched the boat from the trailer. He then started up the boat and backed it out of the trailer. He jumped into the water and walked up to his vehicle and drove it to the parking area. Subject is seen running with four females toward the boat. Subject starts up the boat and drives off toward the middle of the lake. There is one thing I didn't count on, the subject driving off and his image and size was starting to get smaller and smaller. Any video I take, he could disprove, saying that's not me, prove it, and he is right. As I watched the subject drive off toward the middle of the lake, I had that feeling again, like someone was in my head giving me step by step directions on what to do. I was prompted to run over to the gas station island dock, I listened to the instructions and ran over to the dock, now what. I felt another impression, but this time I paused and I said no, as if I was talking with someone, I felt the impression again, this time more forceful. So far these prompting have lead me in the right direction. I was prompted to run down to the end of the gas station island where there were six boats docked getting gas, and jump into the first boat on the left, so I did it. I ran and jumped into this guys boat and the surprise look on his face. His eyes were as big as silver dollars, he said, "you jumped in my boat", you know that dead air uncomfortable feeling when you meet new people and have nothing to say, well that was the feeling in that boat. I yelled "follow that boat", now I had a video camera in my hand and he looked at it and me and said, "hot dang, get in and hold on, I've waited my whole life for someone to say that to me", off we went speeding away toward the middle of the lake and I mean speeding. Now I've questioned the prompting as to why I was lead to this boat, it was a flat bottom speed boat, not a nice gliding V boat that cuts though the water. The boat I had entered into bounced so hard on the water I almost was thrown out of the boat several times. Finally we were close enough that the boat slowed down I could start shooting video. The guy had some fishing poles in the boat, so we put the lines in the water for cover. We were around twenty feet from the subject, he was stopped in the water, we were stopped and I turned on the video camera and placed it on the seat next to me. Just as I turned on the camera to record, the subject put on a wet suit and jumped into the water. One of the females threw him a ski, he put his foot inside of the ski, then I heard him say HIT IT, the boat took off the subject was up on water ski's. We followed him around the lake and video taped him for about thirty minutes. I pulled off the surveillance as to save the case from being burned, we did get very close a few time. I thanked the dude and told him that I couldn't have solved this case without his help. He said, no thank you, no one will ever believe me when I tell them that a private investigator jumped in my boat and I got to follow a boat on a high speed chase.

My job was completed, I did what the attorney's wanted me to do. I saved the Insurance Company $750,000.00.

What happen to the subject, he received no money, the District Attorney wanted to talk to him of possible criminal charges.

CASE CLOSED