Case of the "severed arm in a industrial machine"

Victim:
30 year old female factory worker
Employee for 10 years, 2nd shift
Family: husband, 3 small children

Equipment:





I was called in to investigate an industrial accident. The accident happened three days before I opened the case. I was briefed by the company attorney as to what happened. I was there for damage control. If it was the companies fault, they needed to know. Regardless they would work with her though her healing and grieving process.

Summary
Apparently, a female worker reached into a narrow opening with her right arm to pull off a sticker that was on a can. The cans were on a pallet with 100 cans on each row, 10 rows high. They were on a hydraulic lift, which was on its way up to a platform 10 feet off the ground. She squatted down to the floor, with her right arm reached down below her feet, though railing to grab the sticker to save time. She misjudged how fast the pallets were rising and didn't pull her arm out fast enough. The hydraulic lift severed off her right arm above her elbow as it caught between the lift and the frame of the machine. She fell to the ground and yelled for help. A co-worked picked up the severed arm and placed it on ice. Havoc was the scene as the floor supervisors didn't know how to handle this emergency. Paramedics were called, and all machines were shut down. This took place at 11:00 pm as the shifts were changing. The 3rd shift was shut down until a complete internal investigation took place as to how this happened.

There are three shifts that run seven days a week, with no shut down time. Each shift has thirty five employee's including management. I need to interview each employee on the second and third shift's as to what they saw the night of the accident. Management is being questioned as to why a break down happen during an emergency. I also need to find out what safety course's are being held and how often

Day 1
I arrived at 6:00 pm unannounced as to catch everyone off guard. No one knew I was coming to investigate the accident on line number 1.

Line number 1 has four stations.
Station number 1 was the injured employee's platform. It is ten feet off the ground. There is a latter that you must climb up in order to reach the platform. The duties of station 1 is very simple. Off to the left on the ground, a fork lift places a pallet with 100 cans on each row, 10 rows high on a hydraulic lift, which rises to the level of the platform ten feet up. Once the hydraulic stops, the operator then reaches in to the very first can on the corner closest to the operator and removes a sticker. This sticker tells station 2 what labels are placed on the cans. The operator with her hand, moves the cans down a conveyor belt, they move single file on metal rollers until they reach station 2. That's the job for station 1.

Station number 2


This is the label machine that places labels on cans. In one motion, glue and the label are placed and pressed onto the can, then continues down the conveyor belt to station 3



Station number 3


This station place cans into a box and continues it down the conveyor belt to station 4

Station number 4


This is the final station in the line. With cans labeled in a box, this machine, tapes the boxes up, and places a shipping label on the outside. Then boxes and placed on a pallet and the fork lift operator moves the platted into the warehouse for delivery.

There are 4 lines in this warehouse. I need to compare station 1, Line 1 with the other machines. Find out if there different in any way.

This is what I think happen, after looking at the machines. Standing where the employee was and reenacting what she may have did. The employee didn't wait for the hydraulic to come level to the platform and a complete stop. She squatted down to the floor, with her right arm reached down below her feet, though railing to grab the sticker to save time. She misjudged the speed of the hydraulic, couldn't pull her arm back fast enough, with the result of her arm being severed above her right elbow. There are safety rails in place so no body part can come into contact with the hydraulics. There is a four by four inch gap where she squeezed her arm though.

Rail


I started with the second shift, this was the shift the employee worked. I immediately interviewed the manager down to middle management to the line leads. No one was very happy to see me. I was a threat to there job. They thought that if I found problems in there leadership, they would be fired, they were right in thinking that. Each interview took 45 minutes. I laid down my digital voice recorder on the desk in the room I was interviewing in. You should have seen there faces when they discovered that everything they say would be used in court, priceless. There are 10 in management down to the line leads in each shift, and 25 workers. I only interviewed the general manager, warehouse manager, assistant manager, line manager and the shipping manager, I ran out of time and will continue tomorrow. It looks like I will be here for several days, maybe even a week. There are many workers that do not speak English and will have to have an interpreter, these interviews may take up to an hour and a half each.

Called it a night and stayed at a local Hotel.

Day 2
3:00 pm, the beginning of the second shift. The managers were still pissed at me and word spread very fast about the recordings. I finished the interviews with the managers, the safety programs that are supposed to be held monthly aren't. They are supposed to have a safety support person and they don't, along with other issues. I was assured that by the end of my interviews, they will have the safety support staff in place.

I asked for a list of names for the twenty five workers and had them lined up to interview back to back. Several of them didn't show up to work in fear of being deported.


More to follow soon........

Case of the "Bad back at the driving range"

Subject is a male, age 40, 5'10, 170lbs, brown hair, green eyes.
Injury: injured neck and lower back
Claiming: he can't work because of the pain in his back. He stays home with ice on his back.

Somewhere in the Monterey Area

6:00 am I arrived at the subjects residence, single family ranch style dwelling, tan with brown trim. Yard is nest, in a middle class neighborhood. Subject's vehicle is parked in the driveway. Curtains are closed, no lights are on, no sign of any activity.

9:50 am Subject exits the front door and walks over to his vehicle. Subject appears to walk in a normal manner without any visible difficulty. Then he walks over to his garage door, bending at the waist, with one shift motion he opens the garage door lifting the garage door above his head with both arms high above his head. He walks into the garage and picks up what looks like golf clubs. He carries the golf clubs in his right hand as he walks in back of his vehicle. Subject opens the trunk and places the golf clubs inside, closing the trunk, then walks over to the drivers side door, he enters the vehicle and drives off out of the area.

10:15 am Subject drove to a golf driving range located somewhere in the Monterey Bay Area. Subject exits and walks to the rear of his vehicle. He unlocks the trunk, opens the lid and bends at the waist as he reaches inside to pick up what I believe to be the golf clubs, the same clubs he placed in his trunk at his residence. Subject walked inside the office area of the driving range with his golf clubs in his right hand. I exit my vehicle and take my video camera and a large duffel bag. I pursue on foot and observe the subject at the desk and over hear the subject purchasing a bucket of golf balls. Subject exits the office and walks upstairs where there are open stalls. This coarse has a upper and lower deck for driving. I walk into the office and purchase a bucket of balls myself and a driver and walk upstairs with camera in my hand, then placing the camera in my bag. I position myself right next to the subject. I put my bucket of balls on the ground, then open my bag and turn on the camera to record, aiming the lens at the subject. Everything the subject does will be recorded. As I start to drive my balls, the subject started talking to me, now I have to be very careful here and not to bait the subject in any way, as long as I keep the conversation to nice day, how long have you been golfing, NOT, hey let me see you hit the 350 mark out there or I dropped may ball can you throw it to me, that's baiting.

Over the next hour, video was taken of the subject, bending to the ground, extreme motions of twisting right to left, using his neck and twisting it. Subject did everything he said he couldn't do.

11:30 am Subject exited the driving range and drove off out of the area.

11:45 am Subject drove back to his residence.

12:00 pm I discontinued surveillance due to the fact that I had gathered enough evidence to disprove his case.


CASE CLOSED

Case of the "cheating wife that received a second chance"

Client is the husband
Subject is the wife, age 30 years old, 5'5, 135lbs, blonde hair, blue eyes.
They have three children:
Baby girl, 6 months old
Son, age 2
Girl, age 3

This case has three parts to it,
Client (husband) point of view
Me the private investigator
Subject (wife) point of view

If there was ever a case that needed my help it was this one. The client told me his story and it tugged on my heart strings, I had to take this case, I'll start from the beginning.

Husbands point of view:
One day his wife who worked for a large company somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, who had worked for this company for five years was one of many female clerical office support personnel. The dynamics of the office, there were three groups of people; the in crowd (twenty somethings), Nerds, and the wallflowers. The wallflowers were the people who work day in and day out, do their job, and go home, unnoticed. She was a wallflower, she didn't care because she had her family to go home to every day and they needed her.

One day the subject didn't have anything to where because she didn't do the laundry. She went to her closet and couldn't find anything to where. The clothes she wore are normal office wear, plain skirt and top, the usual clothes that she has worn for the past five years. On this day she found a piece of clothing she forgot about and had worn to a special occasion years ago. She thought it's not really the clothing I should wear to the office, but that's all she had to wear. She felt uncomfortable driving to work with this on and wondered how she would be received as wearing something like this. This is something you would see on one of the in crowd ladies, not me. She arrived at work as usual, but she noticed something was different, people were staring at her. She knew that would happen and didn't think twice about it again. A few hours later, several of the in crowd people approached her and introduced themselves to her. They invited her to go drinking with them after work, she said thank you but I have a family and I don't go anywhere but home. The rest of the day went very fast for her, wearing her new clothing and a new outlook on her job. On her way home, she really enjoyed the new found attention she received by wearing new clothing, this really boosted her self esteem. When she arrived home she told her husband all about the events of the day, she said it was a great day today.

The next morning, she wanted that feeling again at work so she found more of the same type of clothing she wore yesterday. She received the same response at work and again she was approached by the in crowd to join them for drinks at a nearby bar. She turned them down, on her way home she really liked the new me and decided this was the way she was going to dress from this day forward.

Over the next ten days, everyday she was asked to join the in crowd for some drinks and she always said no, until today. Toward the end of the day she was asked again to join the in crowd at a local bar for some drinks and she told them, only for an hour, then I must go home. This was the beginning of her downward spin into destruction. Over the next month she was now coming home 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. Her husband the client was now raising there small children by himself. She changed and it wasn't for the good.

He had a feeling something was going to happen, I think she is having an affair with another man. On this one Friday, she told him on her way to work that she was going to spend the night with a girl friend in the city and not to waite up for her, he knew. He asked me to help him and follow her. I agreed to take the case and to follow her into San Francisco after she gets off work.

Case begins:
4:00 pm I arrived at the subjects work and sat on her vehicle. She gets off work at 5:00 pm, he said she is a slow driver. The subject exited her office building and walked over to her vehicle. She entered and drove off out of the area alone. She drove onto HWY880 north toward Oakland. She crossed the Bay Bridge and into San Francisco. San Francisco is the worst city to tail someone in because of all the short blocks and one way streets.
6:30 pm the subject drove to a intersection off Geary Blvd, parked her vehicle. I had to ditch my vehicle, I needed to find out where she was going to. The subject walked to a restaurant/bar type of restaurant. The subject walked in and I followed on foot. The subject was seen at the podium and confirmed her reservation. The subject then exited the restaurant and stood outside as if she was waiting for someone. I stayed inside, I needed to know the layout of the restaurant. The exit doors, the kitchen area, the table setting, pictures on the wall if they had glass or plastic. If you sit in the right position you can use the reflection off the glass to see the subject. 7:15 pm a male approached her, they embraced and walked into the restaurant and sat down on the chairs in the waiting area.
8:00 pm, the subjects name was called and they were seated next to a window, which is good for me, I can observe from the outside if I needed to. Once I saw where the subject was seated, I seated myself several tables away. First rule in a surveillance, NEVER MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH THE SUBJECT. Use reflections off pictures, the glass on your table, even silverware, anything that will give you a reflection you can use to watch the subject. I positioned myself at a table at the bar and had line of sight on the subject. The covert device I used was a video camera inside of a cell phone. Tiny hole on the edge of the phone, so you can lay it flat on the table and capture video without holding it up like most cell phone cameras. Subject is observed sitting very close to her friend, at times very intimate.

9:00 pm I was watching the subject in my glass on my table when for what ever reason I didn't know, I looked at the subject and at that exact moment, she looked directly at me. We made eye contact, breaking the number one rule of surveillance. I knew at that time I had compromised the surveillance, so I got up and exited the restaurant. I could not believe I did what I did, I NEVER do that. I didn't know what got into me. I went to my vehicle which I ditched and was lucky it wasn't towed. I positioned my vehicle across the street, but something told me to position myself on the opposite corner and I have direct eye sight of the front door, The only bad thing is that I am directly under a street light which is lighting me up, like I am glowing, but it was the best position to have at that time. I can't see the subject but that's okay, it's where they go after dinner is more important than watching them eat.

1:00 am, the lights go off inside the restaurant and the subject and male friend exited and stand on the corner just outside the front door. I was looking down at my floor trying to grab my video camera, as I brought my camera up, I looked at the subject, and again we made direct eye contract. I couldn't believe it, two times in one night. What happen next I can't explain, I observed the subject flipping out, waving her hands in the air and yelling at her male friend. She then runs to her vehicle and lays rubber as she speeds away. I turn my car on and pursue the subject, she is running red lights and stop signs with speed up to 60 MPH in the city of San Francisco at 1:00 am. Shes running red lights, I am right behind her running red lights. The next thing I know the male friend is on my tail chasing me. The three of us are now all running red lights and stop signs. At Van Ness and Market, the subject and myself run a red light but the male friend was stopped by other vehicles so we lost him. I followed the subject onto HWY101 south bound and she was traveling close to 90 MPH. I pulled back and decided not to peruse at that speed. I didn't want to be responsible if she would have crashed her vehicle. She was heading in the direction of her home anyway. On the drive home I reflected on the events of the evening. I needed to call the client in the morning, but really didn't know what to tell him.

Next morning I woke up at 6:00 am and started to write my report of last night when my phone rang. It was the client, I didn't know what to tell him when I heard crying on the phone, I didn't say a word. He said subbing as he spoke, I don't know what happen last night, but thank you. I didn't say anything, sometimes the best thing to say is nothing. The wife got on the phone and she began to cry.

Wife's point of view:
She said, let me tell you my story. We heard the first part about work and the in crowd and the bars. What she said next I didn't expect. She said, she had no intention of going home last night. She saw me at the bar last night and thought it was weird that someone was staring at me. At 1:00 am I exited the restaurant with my new boy friend and stood on the corner. As I stood on that corner I looked across the street and saw you sitting in your car and you were all light up. At that time my life flashed before my eyes, why it happen I can't explain it. I saw the birth of my children, my wedding, my home, and I thought you were an angel sent from heaven. I saw all the wrong choices I've made in the past few months and I felt I was getting a second chance. At that time I started waving my arms yelling at my male friend and said goodbye, I told him I can't do this. I love my babies. I love my husband and I am going home. At that time she said she couldn't remember much of anything past that point, all she wanted to do is get home as fast as she could. Red lights, stop signs, nothing was going to get in my way of coming home. She said all she wanted to do was to kiss her babies and hold them tightly in her arms and asked for there forgiveness. The hardest was asking forgiveness of my husband. Thank you for being the angel I needed at that time.

I said your welcome, I'll send you my bill. It was the first time I helped bring back together a broken family, It felt really good.

Case Closed.

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