Francois McKinnon: Welcome to the Miami PI Chronicles podcast. I’m your host Francois McKinnon from McKinnon Investigative Group. And I’m Oscar Santamaria of Optimum Investigations. We created this podcast with the goal to educate, inform, and entertain aspiring, beginner, and seasoned professionals in the investigative field. With over 60 years of combined experience, we offer invaluable insights and lessons learned. While we may not have all the answers, our knowledge can certainly benefit anyone interested in this dynamic profession. So sit back, listen, and enjoy these episodes. Please do not forget to like, share, and follow.
So Oscar, can you run us through your steps when you receive a new case? Today we want to cover how you work a case from start to finish and how you write your investigative report.
Oscar Santamaria: Sure. For the purposes of this explanation, we are going to assume it is a surveillance case. So I get a case and then I work it up. I do a little pre-surveillance investigation. I run a database. I want to confirm addresses, confirm current vehicles, check for professional licenses, corporations, things like that. Once I confirm that, I go out and I work the surveillance. Let us assume that everything checks out. Their cars are in the driveway. I establish a surveillance position and I wait for them to depart the area. Once they do, I follow them to whatever location they go to. I get as much video of their physical activities as possible. You want to make sure you get addresses of all locations visited. If they meet with anybody, get a good description and a tag. If they go to residences, you want to get those addresses as well. To be a successful surveillance, you want to get someone from point A to point B to point C and back to point A.
Once that is done, it is time to compile a report. This is really a vital part of your brand. You want to make sure your report is very professional. Take your time and either create a template or ask a mentor or colleague if you can use theirs or if they can help you design one. I have seen many reports that look like eighth grade book reports. You want to stay away from that. You want to have your logo, your company name, your address, everything. Then you want to include things like the client file number, your file number, the claimant’s name, date of birth, address, and a physical description. Then you go into the different topics. If you have a pre-surveillance investigation section, that goes first. Something like: prior to conducting surveillance, we conducted a brief preliminary investigation and developed current vehicles and a current address for the subject.
Francois McKinnon: Oscar, what about social media? Do you investigate and search that as part of the pre-surveillance?
Oscar Santamaria: Yes, that is part of the pre-surveillance investigation. You want to make sure you check all of that. If you cannot find vehicles for this person, check for traffic tickets in whatever county they live in. You can see copies of traffic tickets in most clerk of court jurisdictions. Just the other day I found one. The subject was supposed to have a registered vehicle. I could not find it after surveillance and spot checks. So I went to one county, did not find it, went to the next county and found one immediately, quite current from June 21st. Now I had a vehicle to go on. The vehicle was not registered to her but to a leasing company, so now I had something to work with.
We also ran what is called a vehicle sighting search using LPR data, which stands for license plate readers. They compile data on vehicles and you can search a specific tag to see where it has been picked up. Sometimes you find nothing, but sometimes it turns out to be very valuable. In this particular case I am going out tomorrow to try to locate the vehicle at her provided address and at a location where we had several hits on the plate reader.
If you do not do the extra steps, you are not going to find anything. You can turn a three-day case into a four-hour result if you keep digging. You cannot give up. My clients expect a certain level of results and nothing keeps me up at night more than turning in a case with no results or very poor results. I try to make sure every stone is unturned before I throw in the towel.
Francois McKinnon: So before you submit the report to your client, whether it is an adjuster or a law firm, what are the final touches?
Oscar Santamaria: You want to have certain sections in your report. There are no ten commandments of report writing — everybody can do it a little differently. What I do is I have an investigative summary, which is a paragraph covering what each day of surveillance consisted of. Then I have a detail section, which is like a surveillance log. For example: the investigator arrived at the claimant’s provided address located at such and such. I observed the following vehicle. Then whatever activity followed. When the subject departs I get video of them getting into the car, driving off, and arriving at their location.
I put pictures throughout. If they go to a grocery store, I put a couple of pictures of the claimant getting out of the car and going into the store. These pictures come from screen grabs taken directly from your video footage. I crop them and make sure they are all the same dimensions. You also want to make sure your windshields are clean because you want clean, crisp pictures. Remember, this is your final product. This is what you want the client to see. A well-presented report makes a strong impression.
Francois McKinnon: What about video? How do you submit that to the client these days?
Oscar Santamaria: It has come a long way. When I first started it was VHS tapes and then mini tapes that had to be mailed in. Now within the last 10 to 15 years you can send video links. I use a system called Hytail, which allows me to send large video files. The client opens a link and downloads everything. It is much more convenient than going to the post office. Sometimes technology is a good thing.
Francois McKinnon: In previous episodes we discussed the exciting and rewarding parts of this profession. But we both know there is also a not so rewarding part of the job. Can you tell us about that?
Oscar Santamaria: A couple of things come to mind. Both are infidelity related. Early in our careers when we were partners, we got a case involving a wife who would go to internet chat room meetups — this was before social media, when the internet was brand new. She would go every couple of weeks and meet people from these chat rooms at hotels, and she would bring her ten-year-old daughter with her.
We followed her to the Fort Lauderdale strip area. She went to a hotel and during the day was at the bar getting more and more drunk. By that evening she was completely out of control. She was doing things in front of her daughter that I would not describe on this show. We got it all on video.
The next morning the client called me and I had just woken up and did not know what to say. I told him his wife had not behaved well at all. We had to go to his house — back then it was VHS tapes — and sit with him while he watched it. It was not good. He went through a divorce and actually got custody of the kids. Even his wife’s own lawyer was shocked by what was on that video.
It was very sad to watch a man look at someone he loved and absorb what he was seeing. A few years later I found out she went through rehab, turned her life around, and they actually got back together. But in the moment it was one of the hardest things I have had to do in this profession.
Years later, I took on a case involving a very wealthy man whose wife had been having an affair. I got the case through another agency whose director unfortunately passed away during the investigation, so I took it over. He received an anonymous letter saying his wife had been cheating for years and was currently seeing a chef from a restaurant. Sure enough I followed her and called him while she was in the back seat of a car with the chef. It happened to be the chef’s birthday that day.
He just hung up on me. Called back later that evening and said he had broken down, did not ever want to see the video, and asked me to destroy it. He eventually got divorced. It was just sad. These people are heartbroken and there is nothing you can say to make it better. You just have to give them the facts and let them deal with it.
Francois McKinnon: For my part, I recall a case of industrial espionage where I found that a CEO’s nephew had been stealing trade secrets from his uncle’s company and reselling them to a manufacturer in China who was producing the same product at a third of the price. After a week of investigation I had to look my client in the eyes and tell him his nephew was the one doing this to him.
He imploded and started crying. When the nephew’s own father had passed away, this man had raised the nephew since he was 12 years old. Put him through college. Treated him like a son. And then this nephew turned around, cost him money, and eliminated jobs for American workers. It is one of the saddest reactions I have ever seen from a client. Unfortunately we have to be the bearers of bad news sometimes. It is not the most enjoyable part of this profession but it has to be done.
Oscar Santamaria: Those two cases are the ones that really stick out for me too. And at least today you can just send a video link and you do not have to be in the room when the client watches it. That alone is a significant improvement. Having to sit there while someone’s world falls apart in front of you is something I do not miss.
Francois McKinnon: This segment of the show, we are going to read some emails from listeners who sent questions to [email protected]. Oscar, you have one ready?
Oscar Santamaria: I do. This comes from Marlene from Asheville. She writes: in the last episode Francois talked about the shooting he caught on camera. Can you tell us about any other scenarios where you were both in a dangerous situation?
Francois McKinnon: The first one that comes to mind for me was when I ran some background checks on some questionable individuals who were about to testify in a criminal case. The United States Marshal came to my house with his team and had a very serious discussion with me about who I had run those checks for. They had their guns out. That scared the hell out of me. I did not know what was happening. That was one of the more terrifying moments I have had in this profession.
Oscar Santamaria: Mine happened about ten years ago. I was working a surveillance in Boynton Beach. I had actually called the police ahead of time to let them know my location and that I was conducting a surveillance, which I always recommend doing. I was in a blue Dodge minivan at the time. A few hours in, a police officer approached my car. I always like to roll down my windows when this happens because my tint is so dark. Unfortunately the van had a broken window that would not go down. So I opened the door to let him see me and communicate that everything was fine.
When I opened the door, a cup that was wedged between the door fell out. I instinctively reached down to pick it up and the officer drew his weapon and started throwing commands at me. I was completely shocked. I had called in specifically to avoid this exact situation. I tried to explain that I had called the department, that I was a licensed investigator, that everything was above board. He did not want to hear it. He said something along the lines of one of us is going home tonight and it is going to be me. It was a lack of communication on their part — my call had never made it to him.
I want to be very clear that I am a huge supporter of law enforcement and I understand the pressure they are under. In hindsight I can see how that sudden movement reaching for a cup could have been misinterpreted. But in that moment I genuinely thought I was about to be shot. It was one of the most frightening experiences of my career.
Francois McKinnon: I just thought of one you will remember. Early in our careers we went to Cocoa Beach to serve somebody with papers. He was very upset about it. On the drive back to South Florida we got pulled over on the highway. We were going maybe 60 or 70 miles per hour, nothing too crazy. The officer got out of his car with his gun drawn and we looked at each other wondering what was going on.
Turns out he explained that he had almost been hit by a rattlesnake the week before when he stopped someone on that same stretch of highway. That was why he came out with his weapon drawn. We had been staring at him completely confused and the whole time it was about rattlesnakes.
Oscar Santamaria: I definitely remember that. We were both looking at each other going, why does he have his gun out? And then he says rattlesnakes. Only in Florida.
Francois McKinnon: Well I guess we are going to wrap it up for this week. We look forward to everyone listening and want to thank you for your support. Please share and follow. Thank you.
This episode is sponsored by the Law Office of Diana Santamaria, personal injury and medical malpractice attorney. For a free consultation call 1-800-668-2156. For all of your investigative and security needs visit the Spy Shops in Fort Lauderdale or go online at www.spyshops.com. For a true beach paradise experience in South Florida, visit Ocean Manor Beach Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. For more information call 1-800-995-0444.
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