The Dating Detectives - Mackenzie Undercover: PI's Gone Wild

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

This week on Dating Detectives, Mackenzie and Hanna begin by having an open discussing about last weeks episode and the controversy that surrounded it. As a team we felt that where we failed was in our response to Lena in the moment, and in failing to lead a more nuanced discussion in the dogfish debrief about how and why victims sometimes become perpetrators. Then it’s time for a chaotic, can’t-make-this-up Mackenzie Undercover: Mackenzie is hired to surveil a private investigator suspected of faking his hours, and what she finds is an inside-job Dogfish in broad daylight.Click here to join our Patreon! For only $5 a month you will get 2 extra episodes a month, monthly virtual live events, and access to our community page. And now for $9 a month you can get all of that, plus ad free episodes!If you've been dogfished and want to share your story on the show, email [e-mail] or contact us through our website using this linkThis episode of The Dating Detectives is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/tdd today to get 10% off your first monthMake this spring your most delicious yet with Green Chef. Head to greenchef.com/50datingdetectives and use code 50datingdetectives to get 50% off your first month, then 20% off for two months with free shipping.This episode is sponsored by IQ Bar. TextTDD to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products, plus FREE shipping. Message and data rates may apply.This episode is sponsored by Daily Look. For 50% off your order, head to DailyLook.com and use code DATINGDETECTIVES.***The following Program contains names, places and events that have been anonymized or fictionalized for the purposes of protection and safety. The following Program is provided for entertainment purposes only and any commentary from the hosts are strictly conjecture and should not be held as making any definitive statements about the truth or identity of any particular individuals or circumstances.If you or a loved one are involved in an abusive relationship, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for support.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The following program contains names, places, and events that have been anonymized or fictionalized for the purposes of protection and safety. The following program is provided for entertainment purposes only, and any commentary from the hosts are strictly conjecture and should not be held as making any definitive statements about the truth or identity of any particular individuals or circumstances. If you or a loved one are involved in an abusive relationship, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-723 for support. Happy dating detectives Monday. Hello everybody. We have a McKenzie undercover today, which I'm very excited about. A lot of you really like the McKenzie Undercovers. Thank you.

Oh my God. Of course they do. It can be a mess. So yes, we're going to do McKenzie undercover. We're going to start the episode because there was a lot of discussion around last week as well. And we want to have an extended dogfish debrief kind of based on that and what we should have talked about and also just some of what you guys have said. So if you're not interested in that.

you can fast forward. You can go to McKenzie Undercover, but if you listened last week, let's get into it. So it was a little controversial for a lot of people, which first of all, I would like to,

as always, I like to show our gratitude for your support of our show, but also we got a lot of really good support and understanding from a lot of our listeners for Lena. And we really appreciate that

because let's just face it, like people go through some stuff and to have support and people say, listen, we understand. And it's just, you know, that's really nice. So thank you for the positive support that we got.

But we also got some people that, you know, had a hard time with it. Yeah. And I understand that. So we definitely want to talk to you and just level with you because this is kind of what I do love about our community as hard as it can be. Is that I want this to be a safe space for you to share mistakes you've made, horrible things that have happened in your life, lessons you've learned along the way. And also you can share that with us. you can share when we can learn from things too. And I've definitely thought a lot about it.

So I'm just going to jump in because I feel like there's a lot to discuss and a lot of nuance here. We do want to just start out and say, sorry. I'm so sorry. Our reactions to parts of that episode were careless and insensitive. And I feel like our empathy in the room didn't extend beyond Lena, our guest, to some of the innocent people affected by her. reaction. And I mean, I know we made some of you feel less safe here. And we are so genuinely sorry for that because I know how valuable the safety of this community is. So we did go back and

add an additional message to the intro of that episode so that future listeners hear how clear our position is. We just wanted to make it so clear. And I do want to thank those of you who who care enough, you know, to bravely share your thoughts and your feedback and call us in. I heard that once instead of saying call somebody out, you call somebody in. I think it's so much more positive because you're not like pushing them out. You're bringing them in. So I think that's a gift. And it's uncomfortable, but it's okay to be uncomfortable.

So truly, thank you. And yeah, we want to have this dogfish debrief, the one we should have had last week. We want to do it after hearing a lot of what you've said because you're part of this discussion. And to be transparent, we're not only reflecting on why Lena did what she did, but also why we reacted how we did. And why no one on her team and in our circle thought that our disclaimer wasn't enough, et cetera. Before you do that, can I please preface this by saying, you guys, we're three years into this podcast. And if you've listened to any other episode, you know that we want to show support for everybody. we think that everybody deserves a platform, everybody deserves a safe place.

We are advocates for anyone, no matter what you've experienced. We want to allow our guests to tell their story ethically. And that means for us sharing every part of their story as they recall it. And that includes some things that some of us don't like or uncomfortable with. And that's why we have trigger warnings and things like that. And so I just want to remind you that when people need a platform, sometimes that includes everything, even they're not so good action. So just keep that in mind. That's our way of letting them share their story. And to that point, we are always going to approach our guests with

empathy and understanding. Our first thing to, like we think to do, is to put ourselves in their shoes. And we do that because we want people to feel like they can share the good, the bad, and the ugly. McKenzie and I are often hearing these stories for the first time, for the most part. and our responses is like with them. You know, we're on the ride with them. And like we said in our conversation last week that we don't condone some of the action she took, the grinder thing.

We know that was wrong. She knows that was wrong. We've had conversations with her this weekend beforehand. And it was clear that that was, you know, she was in a crazy period of her life. And we're going to get into why that happened. That's a nice way of saying, And if you, until y'all ain't got to send, y'all ain't cast and no stones, period.

So, Hannah, will you please, this is something Hannah research, but we wanted to talk about how. I did a, yeah. And Molly, too. We did a, we wanted to break down some of the psychology behind what happened to Lena, why she did what she did. And some of the psychology behind the way we interpreted her story and reacted to her story. I was like, I want to understand what was going on in my queer brain. Like, why was I? So.

oh, okay, cool. Like this is something she did and it got her money back. Okay. So the first thing, we think this is important to talk about because if you hear the story and initially decide that Lena's a bad person and just write it off, you're taking a lot of nuance out of the situation and that can make other people remain silent. So we're going to try to contextualize without glorifying,

just so that we can understand why Lena did what she did. and hopefully it keeps this place, a safe space for other people to come forward, even if there are morally gray parts of their story. So the first thing that I found with the science behind trauma and what it does to our brains is how it affects our ability to make ethical decisions, our decision making changes. It fully adjusts.

It forgets all the values you've had up until this point and it prioritizes totally different things. So there have been a lot of studies done when someone goes through a traumatizing experience, the stress affects their ability to make decisions. And your brain truly just shifts into survival mode. Your amygdala, which is where you process threats and your emotional responses, becomes very active, more active than normal. And the prefrontal cortex, which is your reasoning and your impulse control and your ethical judgment,

it becomes less active. And that's just science, ladies. And under a lot of stress, people become a lot more impulsive. I think we can all relate to that. There's reduced flexibility in your cognition, and they make decisions that ignore the consequences, especially long-term ones. And it's a survival thing. Like when you are trying to survive, you're not prioritizing your morality.

You are prioritizing survival over your morality. And that is something that our brains have adapted to do to help us keep going. So when she talked about that week, when she got home and realized she had, had been scammed. All of her anger towards Lily, who I will say, she's very good friends with Lily. And I understand that in the moment she was very angry and used the C word. And that was uncomfortable for some people. That was her sense of humor. And also she was angry in that moment. She was being honest about the way she felt. She and Lily are great and on good terms. And I think, I'm glad she took us into the headspace where she was. She was like not in her right mind.

She was drinking when she hadn't drunken for a long time. Drunken? I don't know. Drink? drank for a long time and obviously her brain was in this survival mode that just took away the usual processing that she had. So I do have empathy for that. It is very, very common for people to be traumatized and then to go on and do something that doesn't align with their morals. That's actually very, very common. And if we're not understanding that, then that's where we get into the problem with the perfect victim mentality, where if somebody makes one mistake, all of a sudden it throws away all of the abuse they've experienced. And that's not something I think we can do. That's not helpful. And also, whenever we talk about like, oh, so what she did was she used

these people on this dating app to get back at this guy, right? If that is something that has ever happened to someone, we want to share those stories and create a conversation around it to raise awareness. And so if that's something that's ever happened to you, we would love to be platform for you. And we would love for you to share your story, raise awareness about it and talk about all the ways that you can try to avoid that, different safety tips, whatever we need to do. But we're not going to tell a guest, come share your story, but leave out the part where you did the mess up. Like, leave out the part where you made a mistake. That's not going to happen. We wouldn't do it to you. We're not going to do it to any of our guests. And we absolutely have a, I have an expectation

personally that our audience will respond with more kindness and understanding. And if you if you're not kind in understanding, then shut up. And I like that you said that because I do want to acknowledge that in the moment our reactions didn't reflect that we feel that way. Like I understand that we were excited that she got her money back and I want to talk about why that is because that's what I was like, I hear you guys. It did sound like I was like, woohoo, like go scan the grinder boys. And I was not intending to respond that way.

We were excited that she got revenge. We weren't excited in the way that it happened. but she was the first one who ever actually took action and got revenge. So there's a lot that happens to people's brains when there's not a path to justice. And what you just mentioned is that she got in her way justice. She got the money back. And we are not used to that. I think this is something that explains not only Lena's behavior,

but also our reactions to her behavior because something changes when you start to lose faith in the legal system. We've been taught that the legal system will protect us. and that we can turn to it. And when we realize that that's not actually the case, which I think you often know from your experience as a PI, we both know as women. I know as a host of the show after 137 episodes, like how often are we left with a guest

who has no path to justice? The legal system basically shrugs at them and says, oh, sorry, I'm sorry. We can't do anything about that. And we're left so often with no hope and despair, kind of. And this is not justifying anything. Like, I'm not saying that this is an excuse,

but I did want to understand. Like, we live with these stories all the time. We are friends with these guests. We're developing relationships with them. We are working behind the scenes sometimes to help them legally, financially, whatever it is we can do. We're reading books about this stuff. We're doing the book club about this stuff.

Like, we're constantly thinking about these stories. And I think that's affected my brain. Like, I was so excited. to hear that she got her money back. It was like, I don't know, a whiplash feeling of like vindication. And yes, I knew that this was not a good thing that she was doing, but I also was just prioritizing survival, prioritizing justice. I heard that this was an international scam.

I was like, there's nothing she can do. There's no way she's getting any money back. So to hear that she did was crazy. But these men on Grindr, who did not ask to be part of this, innocent bystanders, of course I am. sad for them and sorry for them and worried about them and thrilled that they are okay. And that doesn't make it okay that, I don't know. I just say, I hear, I hear what people are saying.

I want people to know that I get it. And this was important for me to understand the nuance of our own reactions as well as hers. And regardless if it was a gay man, a straight woman, it doesn't matter who. These are humans that were affected by this, right? Innocent humans. And to that point, 100% it was wrong. Also, just to be clear, if anybody has any questions, about if there was, oh, like, we responded a different way because of homophobia or whatever.

Our producer, Molly, she's a lesbian woman. She's getting married to women. Actually, this year, they're getting married. Hannah has mentioned on the show, I think you even said on the show. Yeah, I'm a little gay guys. I'm by. Okay. So she's that.

My mom is a lesbian for my whole life. And she's made to my stepmom for 20 years. My husband's mom is gay. She's been with her wife for 25 years. So there's no homophil. Like we're all, we all gay y'all. And in fact, I think it was interesting. I mean, Molly and I have talked about this a little bit as to little gay girls.

Like, why was it not on our radar as much to clock that? For me, I was like, is it because I've lived in West Hollywood, which if you don't know, is like one of the gayest parts of Los Angeles. And like my privilege was shown a little bit where it's like, of course I know homophobia is bad, but like I'm in a bubble. I'm very fortunate and like our your family is fortunate. Like homophobia has not been something that we actually had to deal with as much, which is so lucky.

And like, I don't know, maybe there's a part of me that just prioritized this woman's justice and survival and was so excited about that that I, I, yeah, I wasn't thinking that way. And also like you mentioned during the episode, if this is something you're considering doing or if this is something you have the thought to do, please don't. And because, heck, who would, I mean, nobody, I hope nobody is listening to our show getting ideas, because that's ridiculous. And also I was like, oh my God, these scammers are so homophobic. That's what made it work. That's what's crazy to me. Like, she, she used the one thing against them that she knew that would be the worst. I mean, and that's awful that they would be susceptible to that. You know what I mean? So I think that's why we did the disclaimer. That's why we do our debrief after the fact. So we have time to process those things. And the disclaimer. wasn't enough and we'll have this conversation now and we want to continue the conversation. Like we are so open to you guys respectfully continuing this conversation and we're grateful that you guys care so much about the queer community. Are you kidding? I mean, I want a group of people

that are passionate. I want our listeners to be as passionate as we are. We are not perfect. We make mistakes. You guys make mistakes. We can be there for each other and understand that growth is possible. That's the whole, that's the whole thing here. That's what we want for you. That's what we want. That's what we want for all of our guests. And also until y'all are perfect, stop throwing stones, period. That's all I got to say about that, I reckon. I actually have a little more to say about that, actually. Good.

And this is where Mama Hannah comes out a little bit. I do want to talk about how the scammers are still the most responsible and that I do think there's a bit of a disproportionate response in terms of who's getting more hate, Wina, or the scammers. I want to be so clear here. Lena is responsible for her actions. She knows that. Naming this context doesn't excuse that.

And it doesn't mean that those risks don't matter. But at the same time, yeah, we're not evenly distributing responsibility. And the scammers are the ones who engineered this entire situation. They used deception, time pressure. They manipulated her emotionally. And they isolated her. And they pushed her into panic and shame and desperation, fog. fear, obligation, and guilt came up as well. And then they removed any real path to justice.

They made it seemingly impossible for her to get not only her money back, but also she was sexually manipulated. Like the feeling that she must have had, realizing not only that she was duped by them, but also that they kind of made her feel like she was complicit as well. She signed over this agreement. She said she would do these things, even though all of these manipulative tactics were used to get her to that yes, which is coercion. So psychology tell us that when people are pushed to that brink, judgment fractures and behavior spirals. She spiraled in a way that it didn't reflect who she normally is. And that doesn't make her reaction okay, but it does mean the moral weight starts with the people who created the condition. And these scammers,

they didn't just steal money. They destabilized her. And they did that probably to all the women in Facebook group that she found and the people that are not in the Facebook group. They're doing this over and over and over and over again. And when you knowingly destabilize someone for a scam, you don't get to claim innocence over what happens next. So we can hold both truths. Like Lena is accountable and the scammers remain the primary perpetrators. And I just was sad to see a lot.

And I know there's like an element of control where we can, we have Lena, we know Lena, we can talk to Lena, we can share with Lena. We're holding her to a higher standard than we're holding these asshole scammers. I just want to remind everyone that they are the main problem here. We can all grow. We all make mistakes. She made a big mistake. She knows that.

And we've talked to her this week, guys, she's wonderful. We have an ongoing relationship with her. We empathize with her and we stand with sharing her story. Because I mean, she's, a lot of you were like, she's my new best friend. Like she's the, she's, her sense of humor is very clear and it's not for everybody.

And neither is mine and neither is Bacenzie's. And that's just life. And that is fine. Like you don't have to love every single thing about every single story. But I mean, I get where she was coming from. I do not apologize for sharing, for giving her platform to share her story.

All of it. Period. Don't apologize. We love her. We really love her. I'm just going to, I'm just going to leave this here. Also,

so I don't know if y'all have ever seen my clapback videos. on a social media machine, but the last couple people who talked a bunch of smack about me that I looked up, turned out their skeletons were a lot worse than mine. So again, if you got something to say, go ahead and say it because I will, I will find the skeletons. So consider the source. So if you got something to say, just remember, your skeletons are no better than anybody else's. And to those of you who engaged in respectful debate and were very kind in the way that you We appreciate your concerns. We actually do really appreciate that. So there's a difference. That's a good point, too. There's a good point too that I forgot to.

say yes that's a very good point if you disagree there's a respectful tactful responsible way to disagree and be like oh man like she that was really bad whatever we your opinion is just as valuable as anyone else's but the hateful the hatefulness ain't that's not going to work out not going to work out like people in the comments calling lena vile and telling her she should die and saying these scammers should have stolen more money from her and that she deserves it like those are the comments we're talking about here. If you are respectful, we love you. If you are that, this is not the show for you. And while we apologize for the way we responded, we also so strongly stand with Lena and a victim who became a protrator because that happens, as we've been talking about. And we do not stand for that

kind of talk. I know we say it all the time, but we really do not know what we would do until we're in a situation. And I think it's important to reflect on the fact that like we're all flawed and it helps us. I mean, maybe having this whole conversation when, God forbid, knock on wood, if somebody listening has an experience like this, maybe they think through their actions differently because of what she shared. And that's valuable. We'll wrap this up. Yeah. We'll wrap this up. But it's an ongoing conversation because not only because there's so much to talk about, but because we actually have an update from Lena. this morning, we've talked to her a lot this week. And I know you guys, I totally, oh, she didn't want to tell Lily's story.

Let me just say, like the reason we cut out some of the stuff about her relationship with Lily, who was the woman that created the Facebook group, is because it wasn't her story. So yes, in the moment she was very upset. She called her the C word. But she and Lily talked this morning because there is an update to their legal pursuing of these Turkish scammers. if you recall they have a lawyer on the case, they didn't think there was much that they could do. But we're not going to share too much

because there's not a ton verified to share, but maybe there's a world in which future victims of these Turkish rug scammers might be able to share their story and hopefully with a legal path to justice, which I would freak out about again because I don't expect that. I really don't expect that, but I would love to be wrong. So that's kind of exciting. And if you have any more support or ideas, anybody that wants to share their support or feelings around this story, respectfully, let us know and let us know if you would be interested in an update if we get one.

Because I sure would. How do you feel? I feel okay. And just to be clear, there was a lot of support for Lena. And sometimes it's easier to focus on the negative comments. And people are like, oh, that's great. That's fine. then they move on, but when there's something bad or negative or someone feels especially passionate

about something, that's when the comments come out. So a lot of times we'll see the negativity without realizing that it's counteracted 10-fold by the positivity. So again, I started this by saying, and I'm going to end this by saying, thank you so much to everyone who does support our show, number one. And supports Lena. And supports Lena, who supports our show, who supports our guests, who supports Lena, even though, and there were a ton of people who said, like, oh, man, I don't think what she did was right, but I, you know, I support her. And there's a way to show support, but also not agree with what they did. So anyways, thank you for the outpouring of support. We really appreciate you. And I think if you don't have nothing nice to say, shut your damn mouth,

period. Every time we do an episode that generates conversation, I assure you that we are talking about it with each other, with our communities, with our friends, our families, and with our therapists and our journals. Like, I really take this show and this platform seriously. And I don't want to be complacent about the impact it can have. Please know that this is something that we are taking seriously and that we are very passionate about and we, we care and we're not always right. We will always, try to do the best. Yeah, you're always right. I'm not always right, but I will always try to be better and I know McKenzie does too. And we will always, always, always try to do the best for you guys and based on our ethics and values and the love that we have for our guests and our listeners. And

And we're not afraid to learn and grow with you and from you. So thank you. What do I say? Every day is a school day. It really is. Every day is a school day. And so, but it's funny enough, I would like to transition to the McKenzie undercover because, oh my gosh, okay.

Are you guys ready? Hannah, are you ready for this McKenzie undercover? I'm never ready, but I'm so ready. She's never ready. Someone just said on the video of our last McKenzie undercover, we posted on Instagram, and they were like, Hannah jumped out of her chair like Jason was running into the room. Like I was freaking. now last time. So let's see what happens.

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at greenchev.com slash dating detectives graza. We will put all of the ad information in the show notes. So you guys, this McKenzie undercover is actually me and the PI company that I was doing surveillance for getting dogfish by one of our own private investigators. Oh my. It's inside that dogfish from inside the house and inside dogfish job. It's the dogfish from inside.

Wait, how does that even happen? Let's go. I need to hear. Okay. So typically what happens is I'll get a case from a company, which if you have your own agency, then you have your own client. then you have your own clients and they'll come in. But you could also do subcontract work for other agencies, which means they call you and say,

hey, I have this case. Do you have availability? Can you work it? It's very informal. The more investigators you know, the more connections you have in the last you do work, whatever. So I was asked by the company that I was actually employed by, I was asked by that company if I would investigate another investigator.

And I'm like, right? Okay. So when you go do a surveillance and you do days and days, and days of surveillance. The chances of you not ever seeing this person and just them never doing nothing, that's kind of low. Usually if you do multiple days of surveillance, you're going to see them do something or see some kind of activity. If you don't, then it's- Where there's smoke, there's fire kind of thing. Right. And so if you don't see that there's any activity, either they're out of town, maybe they're on vacation, like maybe they moved and you

don't realize it or nobody's occupying the home, whatever. But usually after the first day, you kind of, everybody thinks private investigation could be like all surveillance, but you got to use your noggin too. Like you got to find out information. So you might be required to maybe do a little get out of your car and go on foot and get some information from the neighbors or from whoever and try to find out information about this person, why you haven't seen them. And usually you'll find someone who talks like, oh, they moved out a month ago.

Now you know the person no longer lives there. We're not going to waste time doing surveillance there for any period of time because now we know they don't live there. So basically this company says, they, had suspicion. This guy wasn't being honest about the times he was doing surveillance for the hours that he was submitting just because there was no video. He was obtaining no information. He couldn't answer why the person wasn't coming out. And there's all like the more surveillance you do, the greater the chances of getting video. They're like either this guy is not working or he's so bad

at this job. Or he's really, really bad at this job. So they weren't getting any video and they're like, this guy has done this before. Like he's not very great at turning over a lot of video. And it's just weird. And we want to know, is he really bad at this or what is he, like, what's going on, right? So he's clocking all these hours, getting no results. So what they did was they had me work a case that he had, quote, unquote, worked before. And what that means is they had him do the surveillance. He got nothing. And they said, hey, we want you to go do the surveillance now. Right. So now they're out of pocket because they only charged a client once. They're not going to tell the client that they think this guy's lying because then the client's never going to hire this company again.

So they gave me the case that they originally gave him and he just basically said, I never saw him, never got any video, whatever. Can you tell us what the case is or no? It was at run-of-the-mill insurance fraud case. This person says neck back and then you have to follow them and just see what they're doing. I get all kinds of video on this lady, right? I follow her. She goes to the Walmart.

She goes to publish. She goes grocery shopping. Like she goes to do all these different things. And this is the lady who says she can never leave her house. So this is the kind of stuff that's going to help the client. And so I get all this documentation. I get the results that are pretty standard. So the client was happy, nothing crazy, just a regular run-of-the-mill insurance fraud case, period.

Well, then what they did was they gave the same case back to the other investigator. And they said, hey, go back out on this case, try again. They didn't tell him that I had worked it. They said, try it again. Just see if you can get any video, like see what happens. Okay. And when they send him back out, our case. Are they just saying go back out and you use your own deduction to decide when to track her?

Or are they able to be like, we think she's going to publics on this? Like now they have more information about her. So are they waiting to see if he can figure it out? Or it's like, are they setting him up for success? And he's still going to be like, I didn't find anything. When you get a case, it is best to not have any information. I don't want to know. Because I don't want to know what to expect.

I don't want to have a bias. I don't want to get excited for a certain time that ever comes. Like I just want to. I guess I, yeah, I just didn't know if they were like trapping. him in a way, being like, we know she's going to be here. So if he says he doesn't see her, he's obviously lying. They just say, hey, go work this case again and see what you can get this time. Just try it again, right? So they gave the same case back to him, see if you can catch this person. And meanwhile, they want me to do surveillance on him while he's doing this pretend

surveillance. Okay. So he doesn't know that they know that you are, knowing him. Yeah. He don't, He don't know. So I follow him from his house to this case. He said that he was going to work it on this particular day. And just like a typical surveillance, this guy parks on the side of the road. And just like you would, like, you know, tires to the curb, just like all the other cars, parks on the side of the road. And he posts up for surveillance. It's typical. It's standard. It's a place I would have probably parked. I mean, you know, whatever. So I find a driveway to sit in. So just like on my previous surveillance of her, I see her come out of the house. She gets into her car.

She leaves. She pulls out the garage, whatever. But the other investigator, he didn't leave behind her. And so I'm like, stop. Why? Like, go get her. What is he doing? Playing candy crash?

Right? So I'm biting my nails. Like, oh, my God, go follow her. But they were not paying us to do any additional surveillance. So the surveillance went on her is done. No matter what she does, we would not videotape it because unless we call the client and say, hey, we happen to be in the area. And we see your client that we know was your client

because we have to surveillance on her. We see her moving around. Do you want to pay us? And then we've been hired by them again. And then we can. Why was he? Was he, he wasn't planning a video if he saw her?

He was, but he didn't know that it was just pretend. Yes. Yes. Okay. So he's going to just do the job as normal. But we weren't going to tell the client, like we weren't going to submit that to the client

because they didn't pay us to do the case. Well, apparently he's not going to just do this. Right. That remains to be seen. So she leaves and he does not leave behind. He doesn't follow her. And typically, we follow these people. We drive behind them in traffic.

We see where they're going. They go to Walmart. We go to Walmart. They go inside. We go inside. We get covert video of them inside. They don't know that we're there either on foot or in the car, mobile surveillance and person surveillance, whatever.

So the goal, like I said, it wasn't to do surveillance on her that day. It was just to pretend. So it wasn't our objective. So I let her go. But I did document her activity. So whenever she was in view, I videotaped what she was doing. I could videotaped her pulling out of the driveway and leaving. And then in the same clip, I panned over to his car so you could see that his car does not follow her.

You're like, he is asleep. Right? So he is the guy that I, he is my target. Like he is my subject for this case. I do have a question. And be honest. Have you ever accidentally fallen asleep? 100%.

And anybody who tells you they haven't is full of baloney. Okay. Let me tell you, the best sleep you will ever get is at 5.30 a.m. on surveillance. It's dark and it's not too cold. It's not too hot. The car is off. The sun is not out yet scorching you and it's nice and chill and you just fall asleep and the person leaves and you wake up four hours later and they're gone. It has happened. I believe it. And I wouldn't blame you. I mean, I don't know how you guys stay so alert the whole time. It's impressive. We do five hour energies and Red Bulls or whatever. But listen, sometimes you just fall asleep. I can't. I've never told a client. Of course. of course, of course, and I won't either. But I think it's fair to say that if anybody says they haven't missed a subject, then it's like a target. Or you're just looking at the middle. I've been peeing in a cup in my car and someone has left and I just haven't been able to get things wrapped up in time to put it in go mode and hit the gap. I just haven't. Get things wrapped up.

And in that case, I always do the right thing. Like I'll go out on my own time and make it right and make sure that when I'm billing them, it's for actual surveillance. Like I'll take a hit on the hours, whatever. Yeah. You're not billing them for the nap time. Yeah. Exactly. I think that's the right thing to do. Okay. So there's a world in which this guy, innocent mistake, misses it, unfortunately. A hundred percent. Yep. It happens. Absolutely. All the time. It's more common than we want to admit, but it's happened dozens of times in my 20 years. It is not just once. It happens. I've lost people. I have followed them for 400 miles and then lost them. I have crossed over the Georgia line and then lost them. You're a human. It's just part of what happens.

The world is exhausting. It's disappointing, but it's still part of the job. Okay, so I document that he does not leave behind her. And I'm like, okay, so they were right in that, like, their gut instinct, their fimp tuition was right. She knew that he wasn't doing what he was supposed to. So I decide I'm going to pull out of the driveway that I'm sitting on. And I'm going to drive by just to see if I can see what's going on, see any activity. He doesn't know you.

Like, you guys don't know each other at all. We do not know each other. We've never worked together. We usually know each other's by name, but we don't know what each other drives. We don't know each other's faces. So I drive by and in Florida, our windows are very dark. So I have like double limo tent. Like I keep the state statute in my glove box because I get pulled over and they're like,

you can't do this. And I'm like, yes, I can. I have to show them the wall. It's fine, whatever. But our windows are dark. So you typically, when you see dark windows like that, usually that's a PI. So I didn't expect to see anything, but whatever. So I drive by.

I can't see anything. I couldn't see anything through the windshield. I could tell that someone was in the car because I was looking really hard, but whatever. I wasn't able to see what he was doing, didn't see much movement. So I decide that I'm going to pull around the block out of view. So my car's out of view. And I decide that I'm going to, on foot, I'm just going to walk by the car. So I was just going to say, okay, so tell me if this is, I mean, you don't have to say what you, if you, I don't want to spoil anything.

But I'm like, putting myself in your shoes. I'm like, he doesn't know you. Could you do what people do to you and just be like, hey, I don't. I live here. What are you doing outside my house? Yes. That's what I do. I've learned a little bit. Okay, well, tell me what you do. And the more you act like you belong there, the more people think you belong there. It's when you get all nervous that people are nervous of you, right?

So anyways, I decide I'm going to go on foot. I'm wearing leggings and a T-shirt. So I'm walking, pretending to just get my exercise, whatever. So I walk by his car and I decide I'm going to do what people do to me. And that is knock on the window. Excuse me. How dare you stay outside my house all day? Yeah, like this is weird.

What are you doing? Now, I'm a little nervous because as a private investigator, you would think that other private investigators look out for stuff like that. I do because I think everyone's scamming me. So I would think that this guy would like know and he'd be like, get out of here. I know what you're doing. Honey. Oh, God.

And again, I want to hear the whole combo. This is where. character. This is where investigators are different than cops. We can do the pretext, you know, which means in not so many words, we can lie or fib to present ourselves as something else in order to get information.

And I'm good at social engineering. I know how to present myself in a way that I can get information. I'm just good at it, okay? So this guy rolls down his window. And first of all, this big puff of smoke comes out. And I'm like immediately

high. I'm high. I'm high. I am like, contact high. I was like, I'm like, whoa, bro. That's wild. Okay. We, I don't know why I didn't think that way. I have a pure mind.

Well, I didn't either because he's hot boxing his car. Yeah. And so this smoke just comes out. Listen, I've smoked like one day. I was like 13 and I smoked weed one time and that was it. And then I had a whole box of apple jacks. But I'm not someone who gets into the drugs and the drinking. Like, I don't drink.

I don't do drugs. I don't do any of that stuff. So it's immediately affected. but this guy's cloud of smoke. I don't know what's the Florida marijuana situation? There, you get a ticket for a certain amount. But he opens his window, which is what I would do about like two or three inches just enough where you can talk to the person.

And so you could tell that he like panicked because he jumped a little and then immediately went to roll the window down. And so the smoke comes out this little small like two or three inches. And we do that because, well, I do that because the one time I did make the mistake of rolling my window all the way down. And the guy that was trying to find out what I was doing reached his arm into the window, grabbed me by my throat, pushed me against the seat. Absolutely not. And was strangling me with his hand. Absolutely not. And I was on the surveillance. So I had my seat all the way back trying to get comfortable, waiting for the person to come out. So I, my feet were too far from the

pedals. My feet were so far from the pedals, I couldn't push the button to start the car. And so I had to scooch down in the seat while this guy is strangling me so I could press the brake so I could press the brake. I could hit the start button, put the car in drive mode and drive away without being able to see through the windshield because he's strangling me. That was the only way I could get away from his grit. I'm, that's awful. I'm so, like, sorry. It's crazy.

He assaulted you. That's awful. Yeah, it's happened more than once. And so that's why now I don't trust it. Like, I don't, I won't roll my window down. So the fact that he rolled his window down that much was like, I don't know if he just thought no smoke would escape. Maybe he felt terrified.

I don't know. I don't think he was. processing at full speed, McKenzie. That's what I'm saying is that like this guy was, he was like a little bit paranoid. He wasn't, listen, all the clicks weren't clicking. Okay? They were not clicking. No, no, no. The dots were not connecting. So the smoke comes out and I'm like, oh my God. Like, I'm like, I'm like, okay. Okay. Yeah. Hi. And I'm like, have you seen my dog run by? I just, I was running with my dog.

Did you see him run by? And like, I'm just like twirling my. hair and everybody cares so much about a missing animal. Let me just tell you. If you want to get someone's attention, tell them there's a missing animal, they would lose their mind. Yeah, but that's what I feel like as a kid, people are like, if someone asked you to help them find their dog, because they are so quick to defend an animal. Like we've had people comment on our different podcast episodes. I can't believe they hurt the dog regardless of what the victim. I mean, isn't there like studies around this where it's like we are more affected by watching animals get hurt in movies than humans like we're so desensitized to that.

Yes. And it's wild, right? Because they're so innocent. They can't help themselves. Anyways, so this guy, he's looking at me and he's worried about me. He's looking at me like he's trying to be sympathetic, but he is high as a kite. He's got the red bloodshot eyes. He needs some eyedrops anyways. He needs eye drops and he needs to get away from that wheel. I don't want him behind the wheel.

Exactly, right? Like now I'm worried. If this guy's going to leave, I don't want him to. Like, this is dangerous at this point, whatever. once I start talking to me, he rolls his window down a little bit more. I guess he can see I'm not going to like threaten his life or whatever. So he rolls his window down more. The smoke has escaped.

And he's got like one of those, I think it was an Audi or an infinity, like one of those fancy like sedans or whatever. He's got this thing decked out inside. Like he's got a TV screen on every surface. His center console is like a big giant TV like the Tesla kind. Like you can tell this is aftermarket stuff. This is legit, right? Oh, wow. And so I'm like, dang, okay.

And good for him, because when you're on surveillance, you get bored. So I'm like, he's got things to do. That's great. I look over in his passenger seat and he's got paraphernalia for days. I'm talking pipes. I'm talking baggies. Like, he didn't hide nothing. Just right on the seat.

Oh, willy-nilly in front of God and everybody. He ain't got the wherewithal to hide nothing. I'm imagining like a bong with a seatbelt strapped on it. He's like, I need to protect my baby. Just in case. It's glass. And he's got other drugs in there. And it's sitting right next to his surveillance camera.

He's got this little handicams sitting right there on the seat next to it. And I'm like, how do you get any footage if there's all the smoke? It's probably so foggy. Right? Like this guy's just hotboxing. Like he had no intent at all to do any kind of following of anybody, it seems. And I'm talking to him.

And I'm like, have you seen my, I'm just kind of carrying on a conversation describing a dog that doesn't exist or whatever. And I actually, by the way, I use the description of my dog. because the closer it is to the truth, the better of a lie. The better of a lie it is. And then at some point, I pulled out my phone

and I'm finding pictures of my dog just to show him, be like, have you seen her? And at no point was he like, like he wanted to help me. He didn't seem like he was suspicious or whatever. Like me, I'd be like, nope, sorry, and roll the window right back up.

I don't want to get any further in this conversation. Well, he's got this big screen TV in this decked out car. And he's got this picture and picture situation like this. I don't know how much money he spent on this, but it was a lot of dollars. Okay, like he's got it decked out, pent my ride style. What's he watching, though? So he's got a girl-on-girl porn. I was thinking that.

I was like, there's no way he's watching. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. No matter where you are on your journey, therapy can help you find your way. It can help you determine what you want, what feels heavy, how you can take some pressure off yourself. I love BetterHelp because I feel like they really. give you the tools and resources to navigate some of those feelings that you might not otherwise know how to deal with. The Better Help Therapist work according to a strict code of conduct.

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text TDD to 64,000, text TDD to 64,000. That's TDD to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. So he's got two cords attached to it. One is going to his phone and one is charging his camera. So he's got his camera plugged in and charging and the other cord's going to his phone. So the, the picture's clearly coming from, like, his phone, right? So he's watching porn on his phone, a girl on girl porn. And it's projecting. Yeah, it's like on this big, think, think of like, I think the new Ford Explorers have them and the Tesla's having their giant TV screens, this big vertical TV screen. And on the bottom left corner of this giant TV screen, he's got a sports ball game going. Okay. We, we.

So he's watching porn and sports ball. And so I say something about it. And he didn't turn it off. He didn't make any move to like hide or turn off that this is like. I don't think he real like he was so high. Like I do not think I do not think he even realized what was happening. And it was on the brightest of bright settings too. This is so bad.

But it's so funny. It's so bad. So this guy's out here. He's a licensed. The state of Florida gave this. fella a license to be a private investigator. And by the way, just to throw this randomly in there, a lot of private investigators are like ex-law enforcement, ex-FBI or their, you know, whatever.

This guy was a cop before. Like he was in law enforcement. I don't know why he ever switched careers. And he was young, like in his late 20s. Like, I don't know what happened, but he wasn't a cop no more because then he went to I can guess. I can guess there was a drug test. I'm sure.

I'm certain. Like if my. 100%. my gut tuition. So anyways, so I say something about the video and I'm like, man, this is a cool car. Like you got this all decked out. I was like, man, that's a big screen. You're really getting into whatever you're watching. I'm sorry to interrupt. Like flirting and being silly and twirling my hair and be like, oh, girl on girl, huh? And so now I want to have a conversation with him because now I want him to tell me more about what he's doing and what's going on. Maybe give me some kind of insight, right?

Dude, he's going to invite you in the car. Watch out. I know, right? So he's got this and he's like, oh, man, oh, that ain't nothing. So he pulls the cord out of his phone and the screen disappears. It goes back to regular FM radio, whatever. So he was a little embarrassed. He's like, oh, man, yeah. Now he's shy because I've shown interest. Now he's flirting with me doing this flirty little smile and laughing, right?

So I'm looking at this guy. And in the passenger seat on the floorboard, you just see one of those little crates, like those little square like milk crates, snacks for days. I mean, I'm talking Cheetos, a two-liter of Pepsi. Like, fella was ready. He was hungry. So far, I can get behind that. All the other stuff. What the actual, excuse my French, fuck.

Like, how is he getting through this world? I don't know how people function who live like this, who are just so high and just don't care. Yeah, but I was really impressed by the snacks. Like, he didn't have a care in the world, right? Of course you are. I love that. Yeah. So I, anyways, I ask him if he seen my dog and he says no because, well, apparently

he's not looking out for anything, much less my dog. No, certainly not. No, he's just like, he's like, it's third down. Right. It's all he can focus on. But I would like to say that most of the time when I say, hey, have you seen my dog? Most people will be like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I did see that dog. I'm like, this dog doesn't exist. But it's fine. Like most people want to help and they'll be like, yeah, this guy was like, this guy was like, nah. Anyways, I was like, well, you're definitely having fun out here. Just flirting. I said, what are you doing here anyways?

I said, I walked from back there and you were just sitting here for a good little while. Yeah. And so he looks at me and he tries to put on this flirty little smile and he's like, oh, I was waiting for you to walk into my life. And I'm like, did he just throw me a line? Oh, my God. This guy. And I was like, oh, stop it. You silly.

You silly. I was like, do you live here? Would we like maybe be able to connect something? Like, where do you live? And I'm trying to see what story he's going to come up with. And he's like, oh, no, I don't live here. My friend, my friend, he lives right there. And I'm waiting for him to come home.

He's supposed to, you know, his flight was late, was delayed, whatever. Okay. So he's got some story. Yeah, he's got some kind of story to share. And I'm like, that's a pretty decent story. Actually, I can use that one. Like, it was fine. He had the wherewithal to like tell me his story.

And so after talking with him for just a little bit, just kind of like shooting the shit. And I was, I was treading real lightly with my social engineering because he's a PI. So I didn't want to blow it right away. I didn't want to make him suspicious. So I just kind of let it go. And I was like, okay, well, now we know he didn't follow this lady. And mind you, I have covert video going. So I have the video on my phone going, except for the time when I was showing him the pictures of my dog. So you're videoing this whole conversation. Viling the whole thing. So I have everything documented. So it's good to go. So I say, okay. well, I'm going to run.

So I decide that I'm going to go back around the block and just continue walking. Like I'm looking for my dog and doing my exercise, just like a regular wisteria lane mama walking for exercise. So I go around the block. I get back in my car. I go pull my car back into the same driveway from because I came up behind and parked in the driveway. And it was far away. Like I could still see the subject house. I could see him.

But it was so far away that he wouldn't have paid attention. So that's fine. And so first he sees me on foot. and then he sees my car doesn't make the correlate, whatever. Sure. So he's not making any correlation. Yeah, no correlation whatsoever. So then I'm sitting there and just continually watching him and he's still sitting in his car doing nothing.

Just mind in everybody's business or mind of nobody's business. He's not doing surveillance. He's like pledging a frat literally is what this is. He's doing something. I'm dying. Hands of some stuff. So anyways, this lady who he thinks he's doing an actual surveillance on,

she comes home and she goes into the house and then she comes back out. She's bringing no groceries inside or doing whatever or whatever she bought from the store. And now she's got the baby running around and they're playing in the front yard. Now she's got the sprinkler on. Like they're doing all this stuff, right? And I'm documenting this just to show that and then I would pan over to his car. So document her, pan out over his car to show that he's still there. This is what's going on.

Okay. So we do a whole day of pretend surveillance, right? I'm doing surveillance on him. Oh, my God. Well, he's not doing surveillance. on her, anything she is, right? So end of the day comes and he calls the employer that we work for. And he says, hey, I just want to let you know, there's been no activity today. I haven't seen the girl again. I've seen a few other girls, but not that girl. Right. He's like, I see nothing. So I get,

they're like, all right, well, it's been eight hours. That's a full day of surveillance. So I guess leave. Like you do when a client asks for surveillance, we usually do four hour increments and kind of see what's happening and gauge if we should come back another time or if we stay the whole. day, whatever. And so if someone doesn't come out in the morning, usually we'll stay through the afternoon just to see what happens or we'll try and figure out what else they're doing with their life. Anyways, so he says, ain't nothing happened. I don't know what to tell you. I'm going to say, like, all right, break off. So we ended up doing another two days of surveillance on him because they told him they ordered another three days of surveillance. I did this for two more days. And nothing.

He did nothing. No activity, no nothing. Were you concerned about this high man driving around? Like, What do you do about that? I couldn't. How could I say anything? And so after that, like, it had been several hours. Like, he sat there for hours after I approached him. So what do I do? Like, is he still high?

Could you call the police, I guess? Is that like a, I mean, I'm, I don't know. Because you don't want to interfere with this case and get him, get the, you want to get the information you need. But I'm like, you could call a police officer and be like, there's a guy outside that's like you can make an anonymous call and be like this. But by the time he left, it was like, like four or five hours later.

Right. Is he still high? I don't know. Like what do you? And then if he gets pulled over and he's not high and they let him go. Now he's suspicious at the very least. So then it's like we've blown our cut. So it's like what do you do?

I don't know. Also not my job. Like I don't like it's obviously if someone's an report. Yeah. Observe and report. If someone's in imminent danger, I see something happening that I know is happening fine. But to follow the statute that I'm bound by chapter 14,

16, 6,1, 9 of the four state statutes, I'm not allowed to just insert. myself all will-in-nilly. Like I can just do, you know. So I think that's important to understand just because I know it's easy to be like, wait. You should have said something. But it's yeah, you're operating under a code and a license that has trained you for this. Yes. And so I kind of like, I don't know. Is this guy still high? I don't know. It's been enough time. Is he not high anymore? Did he have enough snacks? I don't know. So we do surveillance a couple more days. And he just sits there. He says nothing happen. Meanwhile, I see her do all kinds of stuff. Okay. So this guy, this guy turns in an entire

three-day surveillance report. He turned in a couple of time shots where he is like not hourly, like is really kind of standard. An hour or two hours just to kind of show you're still there as kind of standard. He turned in random time shots throughout the day. I think one time he videotaped the garbage man coming and like he was showing that he was there and like things were happening. But my documentation at least showed my employer, like, this is what she was doing. And he's saying nothing happened. Right. So he billed.

He built. Now, mind you, surveillance is usually $100 to $150 an hour. He's doing eight hour days. Eight hour days, three days. And not to mention the first one where we can't prove nothing because nobody was doing surveillance on him, but we can only assume. So that's like what, that's like $2,400 that he just billed the client, if not more. to do nothing, sit there,

to hang out, have a circle jerk with himself, eat snacks and get high, and watch barn and sports. I'm like, yes, he should be fired. He should also be grounded. Like, this is a teenage boy. Yes, this is a child. So, yes, 100%. So anyways, he turns it in as if he's worked this whole case

and he bills for the whole time. So not only are you committing employment fraud, now you're committing fraud yourself because I proved that she did do stuff. I proved that I was there. And he was like, well, she's lying. The days that whenever they confronted him about it, they said, she's an investigator of ours.

You're busted, you know, whatever. So how did that go? Do you know how that went down, how they confronted him? So because they wouldn't pay him. And he said, you got to, because they were waiting to see if come payday, if he would be like, y'all didn't pay me for this surveillance. And they wanted to see if he would say something. He did not get paid for that three days.

So he said, hey, y'all didn't pay. me for this three days and they said, why should we pay you for that three days? He said, well, because I did surveillance? And they said, did you? And they said, let's your browser history. Exactly. And let me show you the surveillance that happened on this day. So they showed my video without telling him who I was. Right. They showed my video. And they said, how come our other investigator was there on that day? Got the surveillance video, showed him the date and timestamps, the video, what she did, all the things. He said, well, maybe that investigator's lying. And that's not the day they were there. So you have to pay me or I'm going to take you to court. They said, I bet. So then they hired another investigator so that it wasn't

conflict of interest for me to do my own investigation. They hired another investigator to go door to door and get all their ring doorbell cameras. So now we have video documentation from all the neighbors, which we couldn't reveal why, what the investigation we were doing, but they had another investigator on foot, go door to door, get all the rings. Everybody who had a camera. And they gladly provided it. So people were sending like screenshots to this investigator. That would scare me. I mean, I guess it's good to be on guard. But they were sending videos and like screenshots of the times of days.

And you could see in the screenshots his car. And there was one neighbor that had a camera like on the corner of their house where you could see my car and his car just in the frame at the same time. Busted. And it was during a time when the subject's car was also there outside. the garage, but he said he never saw her busted. And so I was like, and they're like, how come she got surveillance and you didn't? So they're like, oh, we didn't pay you for that case because she worked the case, not you. And unless you want us to sue you personally, we are, they did notify the state of Florida. I was going to say, are we getting rid of his

license? Because we need to. Yeah, absolutely. So just on that investigation, like there was a whole investigation done by the state of Florida. So in the state of Florida, your private investigator license is governed by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, who also governs conceal weapons and security and bodyguard and all these other, you know, licenses or whatever. And so they did go to the Department of Agriculture. They did submit a formal complaint and they did end up pulling his license because... Good. Don't be a dogfish.

Honey, just go work in a dispensary. Like, I don't know what to tell you. And see, that's the problem. What are you doing? Yeah, like, that's the problem. And a lot of people say, oh, I want to be a PI because you think it's just eating snacks and getting high and watching porn and football and smoking whatever you're token and just doing nothing. This job, being a surveillance investigator is hard. It is very like anticipatory. Like you're

constantly anxious, wondering what they're going to do next. You could lose them. You could get busted. You could get confronted. Like you have to be on at all times. It's exhausting. Like I think he just, he thought of surveillance and he's like, oh, unsupervised chill time. Yeah, I'm not a cop anymore. They don't have to track my cop car or whatever. And so he thinks he's, He's got this cool race car, which by the way, this guy had stupid rims on his car, noticeable rims that you would notice anywhere. So, like, you know how there's certain cars where, like, maybe it has a, it's a black Jeep with like a pink grill.

Like, just this morning. I picked my son up from school yesterday. I saw a black Jeep with a pink girl. And I was like, ooh, I like, ooh, I like that pink. And I saw it again this morning. And I was like, oh, that's the same car. And that's bad for a PI. And that's bad for a PI.

And so I just thought it was interesting that this idiot has these stupid rims on his car. And it's like, those are noticeable. Like, anybody who saw those twice. would be like, oh my gosh, those are the same REMs. So it was stupid. But anyways, so they look back on this guy's employment history. He's been working for them for two years. And they found 27 cases where there was no video at all whatsoever. And he just said nothing happened. And I guess I don't think they realize that like until you compile it, you don't realize how little results this person's getting maybe. Yeah. And so I think it was like 27 cases over the course of two years.

where he had no video. Now they're like, we don't know if any of this is accurate. So that's awful. I mean, they should have caught him sooner. No. No, totally they should have. But when you're willing to go far away and when you when you say, hey, I have a case two hours away and they're like, hey, I'll take it. You're like, oh, great. This guy's willing to go anywhere. He doesn't have a big family. He doesn't have to get home at night. Whereas like me, I have a son. Like, I have to get home at a certain time. Not all cases allow that, but I would like to. But this guy's like, yeah, I'll do whatever, go wherever. care, go into, you know, he's willing to do all these things. And so personally, I feel like it should have been caught sooner. But what that does is it puts them in a predicament because now all the

cases that he's ever worked for them or for anybody are now under investigation. Yeah. So do they do that? What? Like, do they go back and reinvestigate all those cases? I imagine. But that's something they have to do in office. Like, they have to think, okay, who was this client? So now they have to go to all those, because now they have to tell the client. They have to tell them this because it's their case and it's just the right thing to do. You could not tell them, but if anything came back, it would be really embarrassing for the company, for the industry. So let's say it's like, you know, ABC insurance or whatever insurance company or whatever

attorney, you have to go through every case that that investigator has worked for that particular client. And now you have to let the client know that every single one of those is questioned now. So then the client has to go through all the cases, has this settled? Is this still open? And if it's still open, then they have to relay that to the other side. So that's part of discovery now. Like now they have to share, they have to share all of that.

What is his involvement in that consequence? Like, does he have to, like, do they sue him back for everything he's made over the last two years? Like, is he able to argue some cases he was doing accurately? Like, does he have to go through each case? From what I understand. And if anybody's listening and says that I'm wrong, I would love to hear where it's different.

and this is where I don't really get involved. Like I'll start asking questions and then it's a whole big thing. So I really don't. I really kind of stick to, I kind of stay in my lane. You did your job. But from what I understand, as an employee, you're protected because if you fuck something up, like,

it's gross misconduct, no doubt. And can you get in trouble for that by law? Yeah. And he did steal money from them. So I do know that there was a case, but I don't know if it was because he stole money from them or if he had to go back and like, did they have to re-investigate the people that had still open cases or whatever.

All I know is that after I did the investigation on him, they could no longer call me to do a reinvestigation on any of his cases because now it's a conflict of interest. So I'm not privy to what happened on the re-surveillance if there were any. Do we know where he is now, though? He's not licensed. They took his license. Yeah, his license is gone. I think he had an agency and his agency's wiped.

And I don't know what he's doing now. his Facebook is kind of low, his social media is kind of mar, and he's just living with his mom. Is that confirmed? Or are you assuming that? No, that's confirmed. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. That tracks. That tracks. Hey, I mean, I'd rather him in his mom's basement than out on the road. So if that makes him happy. You failed as a law enforcement officer. You failed as a private investigator. Dude, maybe just like go to the Wendy's and be like, y'all, can I just work here? That's not a lot of liability. People at Wendy's work hard and shouldn't have to deal with his high ass too. No, that's true.

He's going to be awful Wendy's employee. No, but I'm saying like, do something that like doesn't require like a bunch of like Any kind of responsibility or ambition. Yeah, like now people that work at Wendy's going to be mad at me. I'm sorry, y'all. I don't mean that. I'm just saying go get a job that doesn't require you to have as much responsibility. You know what I mean?

Well, I also, oh yeah, I thought of this. as you were talking and I remember this, whenever we as, I mean, men and women, but especially women, are feeling bad about ourselves, feeling like we're not working hard enough. Maybe we're like, I'm not qualified for that job. Apply for the job. This man was like, yeah, I'm totally qualified to be a private investigator, even though all I want to do is jerk off and get high in my car. And that's totally fine. In fact, they should let me do that and they're really annoying for not letting me do that. Like, gosh, we need to have the confidence of this man.

We really, really do. Yeah, like, honestly, like, he was legit. And he rolled down the window and all this smoke come rolling out. And I'm like, he does not give a, like, I've got to have been an undercover. Like, you were a cop. Like, you know, but, come on. Also, the flirting with you, that's another thing, whenever you're like, oh, I don't want to flirt with my crush. I don't want to ask someone out.

I'm too scared. This man got caught watching porn in his car and thought, yeah, she'd hit this. Let me try. Let me just give it a try. I'm just saying, just be back. Say it from your whole check. When does that ever worked? I said, so what are you doing here?

He said, I was just waiting for you to walk into my life. Like, I was waiting for him. I was waiting for him to be like, did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Oh. You're like, no, but it hurt when you crack that window. Excuse me. I need an inhaler. That's crazy.

This is a good one. This was a PI who dogfished. I got dogfished by another PI. Yeah, but you got him. But I got him good. We got him. And I did it legally and responsibly. So listen, if he got caught, this was his own fault.

Do they drug test you guys for your license? No. No. Interesting. They, at least in the state of Florida, if you are employed by a company, they might have a, yeah, they could, as your employer, they could have a drug test rule or whatever. But in Florida, to get your PI license, it usually, there's a 40-hour course. you have to take and you have to have a clean record as far as no felonies and I think nonviolent crimes or no violent crimes or whatever I think and you got to do the background check like the FBI

the fingerprints about all the things but other than that like you don't they don't drug test you just background and just a full background check and all that jazz I mean that makes sense because what you do on your own time is allowed yeah and every state governs their own private investigators so whatever state you live in they will have a separate set of rules for what they allow oh man, well, this is a funny one. I mean, I'm glad he's off the case and the, and the registry. Can I, I will say, if y'all, if y'all are on my social media and you go back through my PI stories, there's been a couple of times I've caught PIs watching porn. I want to know. I mean, there, there is a, there's a, it's amazing what PIs do on surveillance. And I know, you're in your car,

like, fine. Nobody can see you. The way. windows are dark. It's more, it's like nothing should interfere with your job. How about that? You're on the clock. You can do your makeup all you want, but you still, you still do your job. My vice is doing makeup and I will admit there have been times when I've been like, well, no, it was one time. You're like, shit, there's subjects coming out, but I didn't finish my lash.

Yeah. Oh, I've done that a hundred times. Like half my face is done. Like if y'all ever see me do my makeup, it looks really stupid before you blend it. And yeah, and there have been times when I have followed somebody just like with my face not even done. And I like blend it as I drive or like I'll get to like Walmart put on some sunglasses and go in with unblended makeup. I do not give a crap. I got a job to do.

We should not do makeup while we're driving. But and I'm not. No, I'm just saying that I'm really good at it. No. But I don't do that. Also we don't do that. Yeah. Only add like a red light or something.

Yeah, exactly. Also not even. Don't do that. Nobody do that. All you can do is listen to your podcast. Right? But no, there has been one time where I was doing my makeup and I was so deep in it that I totally did not pay attention to the person left. Like it has, it just, you're human. And then you feel like shit for it. Because I'm, I'm someone who always tries to do the right thing. And so I felt bad. And so I will. This guy didn't feel like shit for it though. And that's what separates. I missed him coming out. I'm going to go back and do the surveillance. And they're like, please do. And this guy said money, please. Yeah. And I think it was maybe $30,000 in surveillance that, they had calculated that he in time that they think he wasn't actually on surveillance. Wow.

Or something like that. It was a big number. That's a lot. That's like half of your salary. Like that's a lot. Y'all, if you are working hard and trying your best and you're not high watching porn in sports at your workplace, ask for the raise, ask for the promotion, speak up in the meeting.

We are more capable than things than, then, and then we think. Because the audacity of this man, just think about that whenever you're like, oh, my God, I'm not qualified. to do this thing I want to do. You are. Unless you're sitting in your car right now doing what he was doing, which I mean, I guess go off,

but don't drive, please. Call on Uber. Yeah. Like, also, don't be high and drive. And, like, also, if you're in a position where you can, like, we're not mandated reporters, which means, like, if we see something out on a surveillance,

we are not required to, we are not mandated to report that to law enforcement, unless someone's in danger. Then obviously it's common sense. but like we're not mandated to report that shit. And so like if you're out here getting high and like you notice that something's happening, like you're you're literally observing. And so if you see something, like you might be the person that sees something or see someone

getting hurt that like you know what I mean? I'm just saying if you're going to be out there and you're people watching like you could be someone that, you know, help somebody if they're in a position. I don't know. Really? Yeah. Just don't be an asshole. Be safe. Everybody do like do whatever you're going to do safely.

we're never going to, yeah, we're not the people that are going to tell you never leave your house and just be straight and narrow all the time. That's why I also, when I do the self-defense stuff, we have a company overdrive that sends like drink test kits, but they also have like drug test kits. And I'm always like, look, I'm not your mom. Do whatever you're going to do. But I want you to know that this company, overdrive, you can buy things to test if you're going to take something that you maybe are not going to admit to me that you're taking. You know what I mean? I'm like, guys, just do things safely. And that's, yeah, we're saying, we're not saying, you can't smoke your weed.

We just are saying, do it. Not with this guy. I tell people, I don't give a shit what you. Don't bring in my house. Don't bring in my car. Don't bring it near my kid. I don't care. I don't care what the law is.

We're not. Be safe. Be safe. Be safe. Be sweet. We were talking about my, I have a lot of friends in Memphis. I live to Memphis. Shout out to Memphis, but they always say, be sweet.

Whenever the kids are being bad. I say, be sweet. I love your southern side. Man, he is, I, I, I, I, I, I admire his audacity is all. He can't say something nice. Like, he didn't even try. Like, he just said, no, nothing happened. Like, at least one of the days, maybe follow her just to show.

Like, like, you would think, man, I should really pretend like I'm doing something here. Also, it sounds like it wasn't a hard case. Like, she was easy to fall. This was not like a lot of work for him. No, it was very simple. It was dumb. Good luck to whoever dates that man, too. Geez.

Yeah. That's a full-time job. That is it. He is a full-time job. Dude, if you, okay, here's for the audience, if you have a story about somebody

that was maybe dog fishing about their work, they said they were on the clock and then maybe they were hooking up with someone in the office. If they were smoking weed, if they were. I have so many cases of people

saying they're at work and they're not. That's what we have Patreon episodes about sometimes. We'll read your emails and your submissions because they're still... Yeah, send them to us. Dogfishy. If they're even the slightest bit of dogfishy,

if there's a tiny, tiny dogfish about it, send it to us. And if you've ever hired a private investigator or ever wanted to hire a private investigator for something, I want to know the story behind that. And I want to judge your PI. I want to say, hmm, what did they do? And what would I have done?

And I don't know. I just think not to be mean, just to compare notes or whatever, but I would like to hear your stories of that if you ever like, man, I have the story where I thought this and I hired a PI, but it turns out this or whatever.

We'd love to hear that too. And that's also maybe, I mean, we've done this kind of before, like a PI deep dive questions about private investigating. I wonder if it's been a while. Maybe we put out, it would be fun to do a PI episode that's like people can ask you questions about becoming a PI or hiring a PI. Like what questions should they ask the person?

And maybe we do like a PI focus, Patreon episode. I think, yeah, you'll send in your questions and see if you all have questions, like PI questions or just anything related to what would you do with kind of questions. Oh, put her in some crazy situations. That's fun. Be like, okay, here's the situation, McKenzie. What do you do? I think that would be fun and it would really help us to connect with you guys more. So if that's something you want to do, yes, send that over. Investigate at the dating detectives podcast.com.

You can also send your dogfish stories there. Please do. We get back to you as fast as we can, but we do have a lot of submissions. I wish that wasn't the case. I wish there were not that many stories, but there are. So if you haven't gotten back to you, our team is working on it as much as they can. Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to write out your stories because we know it's very brave and it's very hard to tell some of these stories. So thank you. Patreon, like I said, $5 a month.

We've got a Patreon where you get bonus episodes. You get to talk to us more. We do book club. And then $9. You get all of that plus add free listening experience. The girlfriend experience. Haba. Haba.

Y'all, I'm so stupid. Why are we called it? I like it. It's the girlfriend experience. Careful, this guy is going to be like, what? I want that. He's going to be like, I don't know what that means, but it sounds like I like it. It sounds like great.

It sounds like I was here waiting for you to walk into my life. Wow. Little did he know. Little did he know. Mugendezi, I love your undercover stories. Thank you. You're the best. They're always amazing.

They get better and better. We love you so much. And as always, trust your foundation.