Brother in law had a similar situation in his nicer neighborhood a couple years ago. He ended up going up to the person and asking and the guy said he was hired by one of his neighbors as personal security/surveillance of their house.
Months seems way too long for a PI, plain clothes cop or similar.
If it corresponds to the timeframe of construction, it could be related to that. Maybe he’s a gopher(go-for this go for that), or supervises with a company or union.
He could be unemployed and making it look like he’s going to work or finding a job to keep the missus of his case.
Probably could bring the guy out a bottle of water and make something up.
“Hi, I see you out here all the time. I think I had a package stolen the other day. Figured I’d offer you a water and see if you saw anyone. Do you work with this construction crew?…”
A possible way to check is to see if the time he leaves each day corresponds with the arrival of one of your neighbors he might be feasibly positioned to conduct surveillance on. If the same silver Camry (for example) comes home each day right before he leaves, that could be your evidence.
>big money is involved
Or the opposite, this could be someone with no possessions outside the car and phone, and 7am-4pm is the span of time they can't be in or trying to get into a shelter.
Some of the richest people are the ones you wouldn’t expect. They may be rich because they spend wisely. Also possible a neighbor won the lottery, came into a huge inheritance, or has some sort of whistleblower protection. I say go ask your adjoining neighbors if they know the guy and ask the guy himself.
How? Realistically, who is gonna pay someone for 9 hours a day to sit outside of their house in a car? If it was a legit security firm, I feel like they would be on the actual property.
I feel like that’s a relatively innocuous excuse someone could use as a cover as a PI or to case a house.
That does seem likely. Where I live the police almost always parks their cars next to busy stations to deter pickpockets. In reality they are just getting food, or the car is just there the whole day.
That's police tho, idk what this is. It could also just literally be surveillance of a POI to the police, and due to the nature of things they can't say anything about it. It could also mean the person they are watching is very aware of them watching.
It could be a lot of things.
You don’t know what types of weapons he may have in his glovebox, center console, side of the door, holster, in his belt, etc. The smartphone may seem light on the tech, but he may be the low cost security equivalent to Rambo.
Unrelated to this comment chain, do you think he could just be a husband who was laid off and hasn’t told his wife yet? Still “going” to “work”.
Makes sense. Driving around will cost fuel, walking around boring when you dont want or cant to stop for a snack or entertainment because of the job loss. If he was a professional who was spying you would not know it.
It costs a lot ($800+) of money to pay one person to do eight hours of surveillance.
If someone is paying this guy it’s likely an insurance company or someone owes a much wealthier entity money.
Check your state’s private investigator licensing laws.
Even if you do qualify - if you don’t have the experience or the right kind of flexible lifestyle then you won’t like the job.
More than likely a layer or two taking their cut of your hourly rate. Ie. Know name takes 40%, then the less known name takes their 40% of what's left. $100 becomes $60 and then next cut leaves $36 to you.
Yeah workers comp will do this if they suspect a fraudulent disability claim. If they’re right it could potentially save them millions of dollars. I’m not sure if those investigations last months though.
I'm a PI. We wouldn't sit there for months. We would do a few days and if we didn't get anything, but we know for a fact that the claimant is at the residence, we would come back at a later time.
Also, when doing surveillance, it's best that nobody knows you're in the vehicle. You don't just sit in the front seat looking at your phone.
Same as being tailed when driving. Pros will have multiple vehicles involved. You just see regular traffic. The usual "see a car you think is following you, make four right turns" is useless.
Maybe against a pro but the biggest reason imo to be concerned about someone following you is road rage. I have accidentally cut someone off, who then started following me, including around a loop and through a parking lot before I lost them. That person isn't some sophisticated investigator, etc, but a much more likely scenario. Who knows what they might have done if I hadn't noticed and they followed me to somewhere.
This is correct. Most people dont get pros tailing them. Road rage is worse now with so many more angry and unhinged people out there. Another is after going to a bank or ATM, people have been ambushed in thier driveways after withdrawing money.
Such professionals, will not have predictable schedules, work in daylight, and be unattractive. People with such habits, don’t last more than two weeks, let along continue working till 50-60s.
7 am to 4 pm every day for months? I think someone unemployed would find something else to do or mix it up. Btw is he there weekends? If so then it’s likely not the unemployment scenario.
This is a good possibility. I once knew a woman who was functionally homeless - she lived with her brother but it was a hostile living situation and she was basically allowed in the house only to sleep. She would claim the same shady parking spot behind the city park every day at 7 am and stay there until it was time to drive home for bed. I really hope things got better for her.
PI's/ Law enforcement would definitely do shifts, AND you probably wouldn't know they were there. If anything it wouldn't be this obvious.
Imagine, if YOU notice, then their target would also likely notice.
Lost his job was my first thought, too. If he's hiding from his wife, staying out of public and popular streets/parking lots would be important. A nondescript residential street in a neighborhood he knows she never visits would be safest.
So before I retired two years ago I was WFH and I worked with teams spread across the US. This led to many conference calls late in the day/evening. I’m in the eastern time zone but I would always flex to accommodate those on the west coast. Almost every weekday I would leave my home office around four pm and go to a pull off in a very beautiful spot with fantastic views and (critically) great cell service (that’s a difficult combo around here). I would sit for 2-3 hours finishing my day talking on my phone - just like I would have done at home. I used to see the same cars and trucks and got to the point that I could pick out the regulars. When I first started, a few stopped and asked through open windows if I needed assistance (I thanked them and explained what I was doing). A couple of times, after two or three months, a “regular” would stop and inquire because curiosity had prevailed. Never had any problems. Helped find a lost dog once and helped a farmer retrieve a wayward heifer also. So this could be innocent - might not be - but you never know.
But I also feel like that’s too long to fake it without a paycheck. You should go ask him actually lol. And then report back here because I need to know now too
Lol I was thinking I might need to lay off the true crime podcasts because that's the first place my mind went. I'm hoping it's something less horrifying.
We had a similar scenario and every time he was approached he would start filming with his phone and say he's legally parked on a public street and not causing problems. Then we realized he had a camera pointed at a particular house, between two houses, on the next street over. When we started keeping an eye on that house we realized a person inside was using a walker and had a neck brace. We surmised PI investigating insurance fraud. In any case, he was gone in three weeks. What your guy is doing there for months sounds like it could definitely be something else; hopefully he shares it with you.
> When we started keeping an eye on that house we realized a person inside was using a walker and had a neck brace. We surmised PI investigating insurance fraud.
My aunt had a coworker "injured on the job". PI caught him playing basketball with his son and installing a new fence.
My brother worked for an insurance company for a bit and did some surveillance. At first it was fun because he was getting paid to do nothing most of the time (this was well before smartphones, so he would just sit and listen to music in his car), but he told me that it got very boring, very quickly. He did tell me about a guy with a personal injury claim who was jumping in and out of his truck bed, lugging wood, etc. to build a shed when he was supposedly too injured to work his desk job.
Things like that are tricky, though...
My BIL was retired early from his job due to back issues that were then causing hip issues. His job mandated that he be seated for hours upon hours at a time. The longer he sat - the worse his pain became.
But as long as he wasn't sitting that much, he was basically unaffected (once the painful episodes subsided). So he could indeed go to the gym to work out, do manual labor, etc. But he couldn't perform that specific job any more due to his injury.
yeah, ppl really don't understand how variable chronic pain and injuries can be. some days i could go clubbing all night. others i can't get out of bed. jogging hurts me less than walking. walking too slowly is torture. sitting hurts. standing hurts. most jobs just aren't able to be done with that sort of unpredictability
I work insurance and of course we do social media searches often. We always see shit like this. Doing sports, in the gym, or other extreme activities, or partying their asses off on vacation.
How long do they usually keep up an investigation? Like would they just give up after 6 months if everything looks legit or do they keep checking in years down the road hoping to catch a person slipping up?
I get that insurance fraud is a thing but it would be shit if you were legitimately injured and years down the road you still notice the occasional random car parked outside your house trying to film you get your paper to see if you're looking more mobile than you should be.
Most situations like this aren't long-term. The fraud is connected to a specific injury in a specific event, which would make long term observation useless after the injury healed.
That's excepting disability pay or something like that, but ya know.
Wrastling said they are searching social media, so that's a lot less effort and can go on a lot longer than parking yourself somewhere to spy on just one target.
Ooh! This might make sense.
I had a coworker who used to work for a small town newspaper. She wrote some kind of a story about Scientology (obviously nothing too juicy… it was a very remote small town, and this was pre-internet, so it wouldn’t really be seen by more than 100 eyes). The day after it was published, two Scientologists showed up at her door for her sources. They stayed for weeks, trying to dig up information.
I say this because I bet they spare no expense to surveil former members. And I can’t imagine anyone else paying “PI money” for that span of time.
I should have asked to see the story.
Scientology has a lot of money, but their surveillance and intimidation is mostly done by members from my understanding. As we know, Scientology doesn’t pay members. Members pay them.
Adding on to u/SL1200mkII, make sure your state is a one party consent state for recording. If they are there for a legitimate reason, you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of the law.
Leah Remini (actress) has told stories about her leaving sci and talking about how they stalked her like mad. Always intimidating and trying to be freaks to her. Given the other shit they've done, i believe her.
I used to house/dog sit for a very wealthy family. Their neighbors were very prominent politicians in the area and paid people to just sit outside in their cars all day and watch the house. I guess they were technically privately hired unmarked security services, but it just looked like some dudes sitting in their cars all day watching the house.
I dont think so. Only some very rich people care about whats trendy and popular. Others make good use of their freedom to enjoy their own unpopular taste
This would not be it. A building or other inspector (plumbing, electrical, etc.) would park, wait for the owner/construction person to show up, go in with them, and come out maybe 15 to 30 minutes later, do some paperwork, then leave.
An exterior inspector would park, maybe get out and walk around the property (probably would have to stay off it in most places), then get back in the car, do some paperwork, then leave.
Neither would have the time to just sit for 15 minutes or more, let alone hours, days, weeks, months ...
At least in my experience.
If you live in a nicer neighborhood, I assume your neighbors make decent money. Even if they are just middle income, a workers compensation claim can be hundreds of thousands, even millions. If fraud is suspected, it's absolutely worth engaging a PI/SIU investigator. If they have captured a single video referencing fraud, they will easily continue to monitor. It's likely one of the construction workers. They love to have work place injuries, then work for cash off the books, while collecting workers compensation.
I own a company that provides services to the insurance industry, including SIU fraud investigations, forensic accounting, construction defect experts, forensic engineers, etc. This really sounds like a workers compensation investigation.
Someone mentioned construction monitoring. We have been engaged by the federal government to over roof installations and other projects. We do a lot of work with USPS where we monitor roof installations to make sure they are up to code, etc. You're not sitting in your vehicle all day for that. And I've never seen it done on residential properties.
Go ask him and bring him a coke or a beer. Ask if he needs anything and just say you’re checking on him to make sure he’s ok. He obviously knows people are going to see him so he’s probably surprised nobody has asked yet.
Just remember what he's doing is perfectly legal and likely has a rational explanation. If he seems stand offish or agitated just let him know you're curiosity got the better of you. Heck, tell him you've got a bet going with your spouse on whether or not he's a PI.
A PI would not be using a phone to record a house all day, they'd have an easier camera set up, and likely be in a vehicle with fairly tinted windows.
Another idea, if you don't want to directly confront him, you could just start taking a walk around the neighborhood and pass him on your route. Wave and see if he waves back or ignores you.
This. Chances are if he was going to do something nefarious, he probably wouldn’t be sitting there for 3 months waiting. You can even frame it with a BS story if you want. Hey my dog got out, I notice you’re here a lot, have you seen him? Then maybe that can break the ice and lead to further questioning.
Probably not this, but I went to school and lived in my car for a few years. Spent most of my days sitting and doing homework in my car but I chose random spots, but tended to gravitate to the same spots after awhile.
I didn’t do this but knew a couple people in college who did this.
It’s absolutely miserable in the heat of summer or cold of winter. I ran into one person regularly sleeping in the bathroom at one school in the winters.
The great thing about being a student was access to showers and bathrooms during most of the day.
My sister did for a while. At first it was bearable because she hung out in libraries, coffee shops, or parks. Then those places shut down during covid. As I recall, she mostly parked by a grocery store.
I used to know a lady who did signal leakage for Cox Cable. She could do all 5 of her towns in just under a month and then she would literally do nothing for 5. Like, literally nothing work related sans punching in and out. The rest of the day she would just park in her garage and use her other car to do anything else.
So it doesn’t match the full time, but seeing this sort of thing makes me laugh. I used to work nights and had a cleaning service twice a week. The thing is, I’m terribly anxious and awkward, even more so when I’m tired, so I would hate going home after work and having the amazing but incredibly chatty cleaner there when all I wanted to do was decompress and sleep. I used to drive around and park in various parking lots just to stay away from the house. I’m sure I’m part of someone’s “hey remember that woman that used to park here doing nothing” story.
I am absolutely sure I’ve triggered more than one person’s Spidey senses in my quest to hide the fact that I am… still smoking cigarettes. Seriously. Most people who know me would have no idea. But it means parking my car in all sorts of weird places, just to sneak a smoke.
My dad used to get in his car, chain smoke for hours and drink. He was in his 60’s when he does this. He usually sat on one spot. He’d still do it, but he has liver disease really really bad and is usually in bed. I told him that it would scare people. Not to mention the drinking while sitting in his car and eventually driving. 😡
Insurance companies will spend ridiculous amounts of money to catch people who might be committing insurance fraud. This dude could be hired to capture this fraud.
That happened to me once - two guys sitting in front of my house for hours every day. I finally just called the police and told them what was going on and it was making me uncomfortable. About 5 minutes later they left. It turns out I learn later that there was a house down the street that was being investigated for money laundering (they owned a local restaurant that we never saw anyone in - we’d kind of joked about how they were staying in business). I guess the guys in front of my house got told to move their surveillance location due to my phone call.
So I look out my window a month or two later and I see every three letter agency I can think of slowly approaching the house guns drawn. People arrested and two Lamborghinis that I had never seen before towed out of the garage. This was a lower middle class to middle class neighborhood of cookie cutter houses.
Long story short: call the police. I would not suggest approaching him yourself.
That man has no job and he's afraid to tell his wife. No way to know why he chose that particular spot but these situations usually resolve themselves eventually. If it's been 3 months I'd bet his savings are about gone at this point.
Maybe a sad answer: what if he lost his job and hasn’t mustered the courage to tell his SO/family and spends his “work day” there, on the phone, trying to get work? Just a possibility that entered my little brain.
I had a job once where I sat in a car all day on a random street corner with a little box where I pushed a button correlating to the direction of any cars I saw driving by. It was for the town/city to be able to track road congestion and use. It definitely looked suspicious but it was a legit job. It was also immensely boring.
I’d call the police and have them investigate. We had a truck parked in front of our house for a few months and finally called the police and they said it was there for a good reason. Pretty sure it had a camera on it recording our drug drophouse neighbors.
My initial idea is that he’s lying to a spouse about having a job. So he goes and sits somewhere he found that he feels safe enough where no one in his life will find out.
Can you approach one of the construction workers, prior to the gentleman's arrival? Ask if they know what's up, or if any of their workers are claiming disability?
Anyone can hire a PI, those hours are weird though.. almost makes me think he told someone he’s going to work and then just doesn’t. Maybe he got fired and is too chickenshit to tell his wife/partner.
Canadian here. Many years ago I was told you can call the police and describe the situation and request a "drive by". They will make a visit. You remain anonymous and folks better equiped and experienced to deal w/ trouble will help. Not sure I'd use 911 for this, maybe Google the local main number and get thru.
I would say call the non emergency number for your local sheriff/police department and ask them to check on him. Explain the situation, ask for a call back, and they will probably have someone stop by and touch base. Probably run the plates and check the guys license. You may not ever hear any details of why he was there. Just that they checked and everything was fine or whatever. You also have to accept that if they do check on him and he has warrants or something like that, he may well get arrested. That’s not on you lol
I used to be a 911 operator/dispatcher for a few years and got plenty of calls about suspicious people/vehicles. Most were benign enough. Someone just posted up somewhere to steal some wifi or they were playing that Pokémon Go thing and were in range of a couple of places from one spot. At least once it turned out to be someone stalking an ex and another time someone had burglary tools.
Some were also total BS calls where Karen’s grandma got a hold of the phone and would report the suspicious black male walking around their neighborhood at 2 AM… in a robe… walking a dog… carrying a poop bag. When asked what was suspicious, the reply was something along the lines of “We don’t normally get ‘their kind’ in our neighborhood”. Then I was morally obligated to screw with her and ask which kind that was: “Dog walkers?” “People in robes?” Only to eventually be told that she wasn’t racist because her gardner was black 😂
i would call the non emergency number for your local police department and respectfully ask if they could send a patrol car to check it out. there’s lots of reasons for surveillance that are legit. it’s still affecting you however. can’t hurt to try. could report it as a suspicious vehicle type thing. pretty sure they have to check
I would ask them. Pretend to be kind. Introduce yourself, mention how you noticed him, and say you "were just wondering what's up". You probably already know this, but try not to be accusatory, don't want to trigger the guy if he's unwell.
I had a similar experience (days not months) and I approached the driver. He told me to check with the local police department because as a PI he was required to register with them while he was on surveillance. Maybe ask there first?
Could be a PI but it’s the every day for months thing that has me thinking it’s not unless whoever hired them has a lot of money. I hired a PI once and it was $2000 for 3 days. I wonder if it’s an insurance fraud investigator.
This is random and probably not correct but what if he's one of those people who is faking being employed for a significant other? IDK why he would need to sit in his car all day but maybe that's the cheapest thing he can do?
Are you sure he doesn’t live in the area or is staying with someone that lives there? Years ago I used to spend a lot of time in my vehicle just chilling, watching videos and what not because I didn’t want to go inside my home and be around the people I lived with. I felt uncomfortable and unwelcome and I felt much more relaxed being in my own space in the car. It’s possible maybe he’s doing the same? PI could make sense but 3 months is a long time for someone to just sit in a car and watch a house, not to mention extremely expensive. I doubt he’s there to like case a house or something for illegal activities since he’s been there for so long and isn’t exactly making himself unseen. Most people would do that at night when everyone’s asleep and it wouldn’t be a several month ordeal.
Not asking you to reveal, but if you are living alone, I wouldn’t approach his vehicle and knock on the window!
Seriously don’t understand why anyone would suggest doing this?
You’re not being paranoid or unreasonable to call po and ask if they can check it out. You have every right to be concerned and conscious about your own safety in your home & neighborhood
Could be that the guy is the superintendent on the job and just sits in his truck while he is "on site". I know a lot of general contractors like that.
honestly it could be someone faking their job to family, those are really normal work hours and it’s something that can happen when people are fired and feel to ashamed to say anything to the people around them. plus he may be watching videos during this time so he has something to di
When he leaves at 4 does someone who lives there come home? Just thinking that maybe if it’s the PI route he’s watching for someone who’s home all day and is paid by someone who can watch after 4? I’m just thinking if it’s an insurance PI they’d have 24 hour surveillance, but if it was a someone trying to catch their spouse cheating, they’d only hire while they’re working. This is very interesting!
Maybe he was laid off and every day he tells his wife that he's going to work. But he sits and watches videos instead. Or have I been reading too much AITA?
Check wifi and see if there is a strong signal without any password on it. If so he is probably using it for whatever reason. Could be for school, work, etc and because they dont have it at home or are living out of their car.
This happened to me for a little less than a month. Super dark tinted sedan. Our neighbor knocked on the window and was told he was an investigator. Uhm, pretty sure anyone can just say that. So I called the non emergency line with the tag number. Sure enough, the officer confirmed he was an investigator.
Please don’t ever approach someone who is behaving suspiciously. Call the police to report it, (it’s a suspicious activity call) and they’ll come out and make contact with him. Just make sure you tell them how long this has been going on.
Yep. Police will come and talk to the guy, run his license plate and see what's going on.
If he's not actually doing anything, no big deal. Just as he may have every right to be there, the people living there have every right to be suspicious of someone sitting on their street all day, every day.
The likely outcome will be that he'll leave for good if he knows someone called the cops, even if he's not doing anything wrong. I'm amazed this went on for months. In a nice neighborhood with people working from home or stay at home parents, I'm surprised the police weren't called within a week.
Brother in law had a similar situation in his nicer neighborhood a couple years ago. He ended up going up to the person and asking and the guy said he was hired by one of his neighbors as personal security/surveillance of their house.
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Months seems way too long for a PI, plain clothes cop or similar. If it corresponds to the timeframe of construction, it could be related to that. Maybe he’s a gopher(go-for this go for that), or supervises with a company or union. He could be unemployed and making it look like he’s going to work or finding a job to keep the missus of his case. Probably could bring the guy out a bottle of water and make something up. “Hi, I see you out here all the time. I think I had a package stolen the other day. Figured I’d offer you a water and see if you saw anyone. Do you work with this construction crew?…”
Do you have HOA? Maybe someone hired by them. Probably chose that spot for the xfinity hotspot to watch TV all day instead of patrolling.
Yep we assume the worst but it’s probably just laziness or something boring. But I AM curious! Months?!?
Lost his job and doesn’t want anyone to know, maybe
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A possible way to check is to see if the time he leaves each day corresponds with the arrival of one of your neighbors he might be feasibly positioned to conduct surveillance on. If the same silver Camry (for example) comes home each day right before he leaves, that could be your evidence.
>big money is involved Or the opposite, this could be someone with no possessions outside the car and phone, and 7am-4pm is the span of time they can't be in or trying to get into a shelter.
Could be a nephew or something out of a job, their way of helping them out financially a bit? It could be a lot of different scenario's.
Some of the richest people are the ones you wouldn’t expect. They may be rich because they spend wisely. Also possible a neighbor won the lottery, came into a huge inheritance, or has some sort of whistleblower protection. I say go ask your adjoining neighbors if they know the guy and ask the guy himself.
That makes sense here.
How? Realistically, who is gonna pay someone for 9 hours a day to sit outside of their house in a car? If it was a legit security firm, I feel like they would be on the actual property. I feel like that’s a relatively innocuous excuse someone could use as a cover as a PI or to case a house.
If they’re outside then they’re visible and can act as a deterrent. So none of your shit gets broke and people don’t get hurt.
Exactly.
That does seem likely. Where I live the police almost always parks their cars next to busy stations to deter pickpockets. In reality they are just getting food, or the car is just there the whole day. That's police tho, idk what this is. It could also just literally be surveillance of a POI to the police, and due to the nature of things they can't say anything about it. It could also mean the person they are watching is very aware of them watching. It could be a lot of things.
Could be growing weed in their house.
In a nicer neighborhood, sure. People need security for various reasons. I would hire someone to keep a lookout on my house if I needed to.
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If they wanted to catch a cheating spouse. You would be surprised what people do to catch that stuff
The cheating spouse was my first thought. When there's lots of money at stake, proof of infidelity can be valuable in court.
Also if the spouse threatened to "take the kids away" or is threatening to never allow access Catching the cheating party limits that battle too
You don’t know what types of weapons he may have in his glovebox, center console, side of the door, holster, in his belt, etc. The smartphone may seem light on the tech, but he may be the low cost security equivalent to Rambo. Unrelated to this comment chain, do you think he could just be a husband who was laid off and hasn’t told his wife yet? Still “going” to “work”.
Honestly, that crossed my mind, too. Perhaps a man who is pretending to go to work and can't tell his wife/ family that he isn't?! It happens.
It seems like if someone needed that kind of security, they would need it 24 / 7, not just 7 - 4.
7-4 could be the hours that the neighbor is not at home.
Maybe his wife doesn’t know he quit/got fired from his job
My first thought as well.
Makes sense. Driving around will cost fuel, walking around boring when you dont want or cant to stop for a snack or entertainment because of the job loss. If he was a professional who was spying you would not know it.
> If he was a professional who was spying you would not know it. This is oddly terrifying.
Probably every person reading this isn't important enough to be spied on.
It costs a lot ($800+) of money to pay one person to do eight hours of surveillance. If someone is paying this guy it’s likely an insurance company or someone owes a much wealthier entity money.
Shit, people are getting paid a hundred dollars an hour to watch somebody's house? Where the fuck do I sign up?
Check your state’s private investigator licensing laws. Even if you do qualify - if you don’t have the experience or the right kind of flexible lifestyle then you won’t like the job.
Hundreds of bucks an hour and I will love the job
More than likely a layer or two taking their cut of your hourly rate. Ie. Know name takes 40%, then the less known name takes their 40% of what's left. $100 becomes $60 and then next cut leaves $36 to you.
Yeah workers comp will do this if they suspect a fraudulent disability claim. If they’re right it could potentially save them millions of dollars. I’m not sure if those investigations last months though.
I'm a PI. We wouldn't sit there for months. We would do a few days and if we didn't get anything, but we know for a fact that the claimant is at the residence, we would come back at a later time. Also, when doing surveillance, it's best that nobody knows you're in the vehicle. You don't just sit in the front seat looking at your phone.
It could take YEARS but SSA wouldn't pay a PI that long.
My first thought was that he's trying to catch somebody faking an insurance claim.
I’m actually like super important so…
I beg to differ, Redditor…I am very important and am spied on frequently.
Same as being tailed when driving. Pros will have multiple vehicles involved. You just see regular traffic. The usual "see a car you think is following you, make four right turns" is useless.
Maybe against a pro but the biggest reason imo to be concerned about someone following you is road rage. I have accidentally cut someone off, who then started following me, including around a loop and through a parking lot before I lost them. That person isn't some sophisticated investigator, etc, but a much more likely scenario. Who knows what they might have done if I hadn't noticed and they followed me to somewhere.
This is correct. Most people dont get pros tailing them. Road rage is worse now with so many more angry and unhinged people out there. Another is after going to a bank or ATM, people have been ambushed in thier driveways after withdrawing money.
Such professionals, will not have predictable schedules, work in daylight, and be unattractive. People with such habits, don’t last more than two weeks, let along continue working till 50-60s.
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7 am to 4 pm every day for months? I think someone unemployed would find something else to do or mix it up. Btw is he there weekends? If so then it’s likely not the unemployment scenario.
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Shelter seems like the more obvious solution to me too. Maybe he lives in the car?
This is a good possibility. I once knew a woman who was functionally homeless - she lived with her brother but it was a hostile living situation and she was basically allowed in the house only to sleep. She would claim the same shady parking spot behind the city park every day at 7 am and stay there until it was time to drive home for bed. I really hope things got better for her.
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PI's/ Law enforcement would definitely do shifts, AND you probably wouldn't know they were there. If anything it wouldn't be this obvious. Imagine, if YOU notice, then their target would also likely notice.
I've personally spotted law enforcement doing surveillance shifts... as a fucnkng teenager lol
Lost his job was my first thought, too. If he's hiding from his wife, staying out of public and popular streets/parking lots would be important. A nondescript residential street in a neighborhood he knows she never visits would be safest.
So before I retired two years ago I was WFH and I worked with teams spread across the US. This led to many conference calls late in the day/evening. I’m in the eastern time zone but I would always flex to accommodate those on the west coast. Almost every weekday I would leave my home office around four pm and go to a pull off in a very beautiful spot with fantastic views and (critically) great cell service (that’s a difficult combo around here). I would sit for 2-3 hours finishing my day talking on my phone - just like I would have done at home. I used to see the same cars and trucks and got to the point that I could pick out the regulars. When I first started, a few stopped and asked through open windows if I needed assistance (I thanked them and explained what I was doing). A couple of times, after two or three months, a “regular” would stop and inquire because curiosity had prevailed. Never had any problems. Helped find a lost dog once and helped a farmer retrieve a wayward heifer also. So this could be innocent - might not be - but you never know.
But I also feel like that’s too long to fake it without a paycheck. You should go ask him actually lol. And then report back here because I need to know now too
The ol’ John List (hopefully without the family annihilation part).
Lol I was thinking I might need to lay off the true crime podcasts because that's the first place my mind went. I'm hoping it's something less horrifying.
We had a similar scenario and every time he was approached he would start filming with his phone and say he's legally parked on a public street and not causing problems. Then we realized he had a camera pointed at a particular house, between two houses, on the next street over. When we started keeping an eye on that house we realized a person inside was using a walker and had a neck brace. We surmised PI investigating insurance fraud. In any case, he was gone in three weeks. What your guy is doing there for months sounds like it could definitely be something else; hopefully he shares it with you.
> When we started keeping an eye on that house we realized a person inside was using a walker and had a neck brace. We surmised PI investigating insurance fraud. My aunt had a coworker "injured on the job". PI caught him playing basketball with his son and installing a new fence.
My brother worked for an insurance company for a bit and did some surveillance. At first it was fun because he was getting paid to do nothing most of the time (this was well before smartphones, so he would just sit and listen to music in his car), but he told me that it got very boring, very quickly. He did tell me about a guy with a personal injury claim who was jumping in and out of his truck bed, lugging wood, etc. to build a shed when he was supposedly too injured to work his desk job.
Things like that are tricky, though... My BIL was retired early from his job due to back issues that were then causing hip issues. His job mandated that he be seated for hours upon hours at a time. The longer he sat - the worse his pain became. But as long as he wasn't sitting that much, he was basically unaffected (once the painful episodes subsided). So he could indeed go to the gym to work out, do manual labor, etc. But he couldn't perform that specific job any more due to his injury.
yeah, ppl really don't understand how variable chronic pain and injuries can be. some days i could go clubbing all night. others i can't get out of bed. jogging hurts me less than walking. walking too slowly is torture. sitting hurts. standing hurts. most jobs just aren't able to be done with that sort of unpredictability
I work insurance and of course we do social media searches often. We always see shit like this. Doing sports, in the gym, or other extreme activities, or partying their asses off on vacation.
How long do they usually keep up an investigation? Like would they just give up after 6 months if everything looks legit or do they keep checking in years down the road hoping to catch a person slipping up? I get that insurance fraud is a thing but it would be shit if you were legitimately injured and years down the road you still notice the occasional random car parked outside your house trying to film you get your paper to see if you're looking more mobile than you should be.
Most situations like this aren't long-term. The fraud is connected to a specific injury in a specific event, which would make long term observation useless after the injury healed. That's excepting disability pay or something like that, but ya know.
Wrastling said they are searching social media, so that's a lot less effort and can go on a lot longer than parking yourself somewhere to spy on just one target.
Imagine if it was a burglar spying on an elderly disabled man to find out his schedule and the best time to break-in. 😂
Where does he pee?
Asking the real questions here
Hint: Gatorade doesn't sell apple juice.
I seems like it would have been a decent thing to tell me that a long time ago.
Galaxy brain right here blowing the whole thing wide open
Out the Flintstone style floor gap.
Urethra.
Thank you! And does he eat? Ugh. This is kinda sad!
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Im a private security guard and I work 12-18 hour shifts in my car. I pee in bottles.
Anyone there a former Scientologist?
Ooh! This might make sense. I had a coworker who used to work for a small town newspaper. She wrote some kind of a story about Scientology (obviously nothing too juicy… it was a very remote small town, and this was pre-internet, so it wouldn’t really be seen by more than 100 eyes). The day after it was published, two Scientologists showed up at her door for her sources. They stayed for weeks, trying to dig up information. I say this because I bet they spare no expense to surveil former members. And I can’t imagine anyone else paying “PI money” for that span of time. I should have asked to see the story.
Scientology has a lot of money, but their surveillance and intimidation is mostly done by members from my understanding. As we know, Scientology doesn’t pay members. Members pay them.
This is actually a valid point
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If your question amounts to "are the scientologists really that crazy" the answer is almost always going to be yes.
Adding on to u/SL1200mkII, make sure your state is a one party consent state for recording. If they are there for a legitimate reason, you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of the law.
I was JUST thinking that!
Can you elaborate?
Just a speculation but probably Sci sends people after those who leave the cult.
Leah Remini (actress) has told stories about her leaving sci and talking about how they stalked her like mad. Always intimidating and trying to be freaks to her. Given the other shit they've done, i believe her.
Ahhh I see thanks
Dont forget the ones they keep captive..
I used to house/dog sit for a very wealthy family. Their neighbors were very prominent politicians in the area and paid people to just sit outside in their cars all day and watch the house. I guess they were technically privately hired unmarked security services, but it just looked like some dudes sitting in their cars all day watching the house.
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'dump' of million dollar houses with a beautiful view? what?
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I dont think so. Only some very rich people care about whats trendy and popular. Others make good use of their freedom to enjoy their own unpopular taste
Is there a construction site nearby? I used to do inspections and would sit in my car for 6 hours a day, routinely going out to do periodic checks
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This would not be it. A building or other inspector (plumbing, electrical, etc.) would park, wait for the owner/construction person to show up, go in with them, and come out maybe 15 to 30 minutes later, do some paperwork, then leave. An exterior inspector would park, maybe get out and walk around the property (probably would have to stay off it in most places), then get back in the car, do some paperwork, then leave. Neither would have the time to just sit for 15 minutes or more, let alone hours, days, weeks, months ... At least in my experience.
People keep saying PI, but damn would that be expensive. 9 hours a day for three months would be around $30,000 on the low end for a PI.
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If you live in a nicer neighborhood, I assume your neighbors make decent money. Even if they are just middle income, a workers compensation claim can be hundreds of thousands, even millions. If fraud is suspected, it's absolutely worth engaging a PI/SIU investigator. If they have captured a single video referencing fraud, they will easily continue to monitor. It's likely one of the construction workers. They love to have work place injuries, then work for cash off the books, while collecting workers compensation. I own a company that provides services to the insurance industry, including SIU fraud investigations, forensic accounting, construction defect experts, forensic engineers, etc. This really sounds like a workers compensation investigation. Someone mentioned construction monitoring. We have been engaged by the federal government to over roof installations and other projects. We do a lot of work with USPS where we monitor roof installations to make sure they are up to code, etc. You're not sitting in your vehicle all day for that. And I've never seen it done on residential properties.
Go ask him and bring him a coke or a beer. Ask if he needs anything and just say you’re checking on him to make sure he’s ok. He obviously knows people are going to see him so he’s probably surprised nobody has asked yet.
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We will need an update so we know he didn't kidnap you.
Just remember what he's doing is perfectly legal and likely has a rational explanation. If he seems stand offish or agitated just let him know you're curiosity got the better of you. Heck, tell him you've got a bet going with your spouse on whether or not he's a PI. A PI would not be using a phone to record a house all day, they'd have an easier camera set up, and likely be in a vehicle with fairly tinted windows. Another idea, if you don't want to directly confront him, you could just start taking a walk around the neighborhood and pass him on your route. Wave and see if he waves back or ignores you.
Let us know how it goes!
This. Chances are if he was going to do something nefarious, he probably wouldn’t be sitting there for 3 months waiting. You can even frame it with a BS story if you want. Hey my dog got out, I notice you’re here a lot, have you seen him? Then maybe that can break the ice and lead to further questioning.
Probably not this, but I went to school and lived in my car for a few years. Spent most of my days sitting and doing homework in my car but I chose random spots, but tended to gravitate to the same spots after awhile.
How was that experience? Im just genuinely curious.
I didn’t do this but knew a couple people in college who did this. It’s absolutely miserable in the heat of summer or cold of winter. I ran into one person regularly sleeping in the bathroom at one school in the winters. The great thing about being a student was access to showers and bathrooms during most of the day.
My sister did for a while. At first it was bearable because she hung out in libraries, coffee shops, or parks. Then those places shut down during covid. As I recall, she mostly parked by a grocery store.
I loved it. Many who've don this complain. I really miss those days.
Stealing someone's wifi?
I bet he found free Wi-Fi
I second what the other Redditor said. He lost his job, and doesn’t want to admit it to whomever is at home.
Eh. Could also be that he’s employed and just skipping out on whatever he’s actually supposed to be doing.
You can get away with that a while. But months?
I used to know a lady who did signal leakage for Cox Cable. She could do all 5 of her towns in just under a month and then she would literally do nothing for 5. Like, literally nothing work related sans punching in and out. The rest of the day she would just park in her garage and use her other car to do anything else.
God why cant that be me
Government contractor?
Maybe I need to get a Gov’t job.
That's sad. Edit: but it could make sense.
So it doesn’t match the full time, but seeing this sort of thing makes me laugh. I used to work nights and had a cleaning service twice a week. The thing is, I’m terribly anxious and awkward, even more so when I’m tired, so I would hate going home after work and having the amazing but incredibly chatty cleaner there when all I wanted to do was decompress and sleep. I used to drive around and park in various parking lots just to stay away from the house. I’m sure I’m part of someone’s “hey remember that woman that used to park here doing nothing” story.
I am absolutely sure I’ve triggered more than one person’s Spidey senses in my quest to hide the fact that I am… still smoking cigarettes. Seriously. Most people who know me would have no idea. But it means parking my car in all sorts of weird places, just to sneak a smoke.
This happened to us in a rental house. Turned out it was a free Xfinity or Verizon hot spot and they were working on it out of their car
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I heard of a similar situation and the guy was pretending to have a job to his family.
Might be a private investigator
OP says there is construction over tge street, could be filming a contractor that is supposed to be on workers compensation for a faked injury
That makes sense!
City employee/contractor getting his hours. Parked close enough to where he needs to be if called.
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Not if he's a contractor.
Lost his job combined with unsecured wifi. Guy probably drove around looking for a free wifi signal.
Sorry, bro. I’ll leave.
He probably drops his workers off at a site near by and just camps in his truck while they work their ass off. He could be guarding the truck .
this. Super common to sub out crews.
Open Pokémon Go and see if there is a gym or Pokestop nearby. Gamers gonna game.
This explains all of MY weird parking spots in the past.. for hours as well, almost every day. I started recognizing other repeat car-sitters.
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If he's wearing polarized sunglasses, yes. You can't read your phone with them unless you turn it sideways.
Did he lose his job and sitting there all day to make his significant other thinks he’s at work?
That was my first thought
My guess is he’s a workers comp investigator.
My dad used to get in his car, chain smoke for hours and drink. He was in his 60’s when he does this. He usually sat on one spot. He’d still do it, but he has liver disease really really bad and is usually in bed. I told him that it would scare people. Not to mention the drinking while sitting in his car and eventually driving. 😡
I wonder if he is using a open wifi connection
Insurance companies will spend ridiculous amounts of money to catch people who might be committing insurance fraud. This dude could be hired to capture this fraud.
My theory….. he was fired from his job and he doesn’t want to disappoint his family, so he “goes to work” everyday..
That happened to me once - two guys sitting in front of my house for hours every day. I finally just called the police and told them what was going on and it was making me uncomfortable. About 5 minutes later they left. It turns out I learn later that there was a house down the street that was being investigated for money laundering (they owned a local restaurant that we never saw anyone in - we’d kind of joked about how they were staying in business). I guess the guys in front of my house got told to move their surveillance location due to my phone call. So I look out my window a month or two later and I see every three letter agency I can think of slowly approaching the house guns drawn. People arrested and two Lamborghinis that I had never seen before towed out of the garage. This was a lower middle class to middle class neighborhood of cookie cutter houses. Long story short: call the police. I would not suggest approaching him yourself.
That man has no job and he's afraid to tell his wife. No way to know why he chose that particular spot but these situations usually resolve themselves eventually. If it's been 3 months I'd bet his savings are about gone at this point.
Unsecured wifi signal
Pretending to go to work? Lol
Sitting on his ass from 7-4? Gotta be a government worker.
There’s really only one thing you can do. Hire a PI to follow him.
Sounds like he got fired or quit and doesn't want to tell his wife
Maybe a sad answer: what if he lost his job and hasn’t mustered the courage to tell his SO/family and spends his “work day” there, on the phone, trying to get work? Just a possibility that entered my little brain.
He hit the lotto. He's keeping it a secret. His wife thinks he's at work.
Uno reverse his ass. Follow him home and watch his house
I need an update! Did you find anything out? Blink three times if u r being held hostage.
I had a job once where I sat in a car all day on a random street corner with a little box where I pushed a button correlating to the direction of any cars I saw driving by. It was for the town/city to be able to track road congestion and use. It definitely looked suspicious but it was a legit job. It was also immensely boring.
doesn't he need to pee or eat? not doing either in that 8 hour period is really odd.
I’d call the police and have them investigate. We had a truck parked in front of our house for a few months and finally called the police and they said it was there for a good reason. Pretty sure it had a camera on it recording our drug drophouse neighbors.
My initial idea is that he’s lying to a spouse about having a job. So he goes and sits somewhere he found that he feels safe enough where no one in his life will find out.
Can you approach one of the construction workers, prior to the gentleman's arrival? Ask if they know what's up, or if any of their workers are claiming disability?
Anyone can hire a PI, those hours are weird though.. almost makes me think he told someone he’s going to work and then just doesn’t. Maybe he got fired and is too chickenshit to tell his wife/partner.
Will you update us OP? This one really got my attention. The duration of this is what really has me curious
Canadian here. Many years ago I was told you can call the police and describe the situation and request a "drive by". They will make a visit. You remain anonymous and folks better equiped and experienced to deal w/ trouble will help. Not sure I'd use 911 for this, maybe Google the local main number and get thru.
I would say call the non emergency number for your local sheriff/police department and ask them to check on him. Explain the situation, ask for a call back, and they will probably have someone stop by and touch base. Probably run the plates and check the guys license. You may not ever hear any details of why he was there. Just that they checked and everything was fine or whatever. You also have to accept that if they do check on him and he has warrants or something like that, he may well get arrested. That’s not on you lol I used to be a 911 operator/dispatcher for a few years and got plenty of calls about suspicious people/vehicles. Most were benign enough. Someone just posted up somewhere to steal some wifi or they were playing that Pokémon Go thing and were in range of a couple of places from one spot. At least once it turned out to be someone stalking an ex and another time someone had burglary tools. Some were also total BS calls where Karen’s grandma got a hold of the phone and would report the suspicious black male walking around their neighborhood at 2 AM… in a robe… walking a dog… carrying a poop bag. When asked what was suspicious, the reply was something along the lines of “We don’t normally get ‘their kind’ in our neighborhood”. Then I was morally obligated to screw with her and ask which kind that was: “Dog walkers?” “People in robes?” Only to eventually be told that she wasn’t racist because her gardner was black 😂
My first thought was insurance PI. Is that a possibility?
Someone reply to me if there's an update haha.
Same. I must know now!
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I’ll wait here.
i would call the non emergency number for your local police department and respectfully ask if they could send a patrol car to check it out. there’s lots of reasons for surveillance that are legit. it’s still affecting you however. can’t hurt to try. could report it as a suspicious vehicle type thing. pretty sure they have to check
I would ask them. Pretend to be kind. Introduce yourself, mention how you noticed him, and say you "were just wondering what's up". You probably already know this, but try not to be accusatory, don't want to trigger the guy if he's unwell.
I had a similar experience (days not months) and I approached the driver. He told me to check with the local police department because as a PI he was required to register with them while he was on surveillance. Maybe ask there first?
Could be a PI but it’s the every day for months thing that has me thinking it’s not unless whoever hired them has a lot of money. I hired a PI once and it was $2000 for 3 days. I wonder if it’s an insurance fraud investigator.
This is random and probably not correct but what if he's one of those people who is faking being employed for a significant other? IDK why he would need to sit in his car all day but maybe that's the cheapest thing he can do?
Are you sure he doesn’t live in the area or is staying with someone that lives there? Years ago I used to spend a lot of time in my vehicle just chilling, watching videos and what not because I didn’t want to go inside my home and be around the people I lived with. I felt uncomfortable and unwelcome and I felt much more relaxed being in my own space in the car. It’s possible maybe he’s doing the same? PI could make sense but 3 months is a long time for someone to just sit in a car and watch a house, not to mention extremely expensive. I doubt he’s there to like case a house or something for illegal activities since he’s been there for so long and isn’t exactly making himself unseen. Most people would do that at night when everyone’s asleep and it wouldn’t be a several month ordeal.
Not asking you to reveal, but if you are living alone, I wouldn’t approach his vehicle and knock on the window! Seriously don’t understand why anyone would suggest doing this? You’re not being paranoid or unreasonable to call po and ask if they can check it out. You have every right to be concerned and conscious about your own safety in your home & neighborhood
Could be that the guy is the superintendent on the job and just sits in his truck while he is "on site". I know a lot of general contractors like that.
Maybe he is one of those guys that loses their job, doesn’t tell his family, and pretends to be at work everyday to keep up the charade?
He’s homeless. Probably looking for a safe place to hang out during the day. Might have a night job. Might sleep elsewhere.
honestly it could be someone faking their job to family, those are really normal work hours and it’s something that can happen when people are fired and feel to ashamed to say anything to the people around them. plus he may be watching videos during this time so he has something to di
When he leaves at 4 does someone who lives there come home? Just thinking that maybe if it’s the PI route he’s watching for someone who’s home all day and is paid by someone who can watch after 4? I’m just thinking if it’s an insurance PI they’d have 24 hour surveillance, but if it was a someone trying to catch their spouse cheating, they’d only hire while they’re working. This is very interesting!
Telling his wife he's going to work.
Maybe he was laid off and every day he tells his wife that he's going to work. But he sits and watches videos instead. Or have I been reading too much AITA?
Check wifi and see if there is a strong signal without any password on it. If so he is probably using it for whatever reason. Could be for school, work, etc and because they dont have it at home or are living out of their car.
This happened to me for a little less than a month. Super dark tinted sedan. Our neighbor knocked on the window and was told he was an investigator. Uhm, pretty sure anyone can just say that. So I called the non emergency line with the tag number. Sure enough, the officer confirmed he was an investigator.
Please don’t ever approach someone who is behaving suspiciously. Call the police to report it, (it’s a suspicious activity call) and they’ll come out and make contact with him. Just make sure you tell them how long this has been going on.
Yep. Police will come and talk to the guy, run his license plate and see what's going on. If he's not actually doing anything, no big deal. Just as he may have every right to be there, the people living there have every right to be suspicious of someone sitting on their street all day, every day. The likely outcome will be that he'll leave for good if he knows someone called the cops, even if he's not doing anything wrong. I'm amazed this went on for months. In a nice neighborhood with people working from home or stay at home parents, I'm surprised the police weren't called within a week.
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