It can be hard to prove that your spouse is having an affair, which is where private investigators come in. They keep an eye on your spouse – so you don’t have to. Here, Rick Roy of Phoenix, Arizona-based Rix Investigations talks about spousal surveillance, the art of catching an adulterer in the act.
Ninety percent of my clients who come to me for spousal infidelity are women. In the case where a woman suspects her husband of having an affair, I usually have her hire me for three to five days of surveillance at a cost of $4,000, and then I take care of everything.
I know that is a general statement, but what I mean by taking care of everything is that I do everything I can to collect concrete evidence that her spouse is cheating. She may want to use the evidence in court against him, or she may just want to know for her own peace of mind. We do whatever we can to help her meet her precise needs.
Flat-Fee Price
There are many ways this can be accomplished. I may need to put a tracking device on his vehicle, to put cameras in certain situations, I may need to put decoys in, to do some travel. All that is my problem when I quote a client the flat-fee price.
When I sit down with a client for an hour interview, that’s how I determine what we need. He needs to keep in mind, however, that just because we have no evidence one week doesn’t mean his spouse is definitely in the clear. Someone who spends time going to and from work and visiting a relative one week may visit his girlfriend the following week.
Female Decoys
Often in the case of spousal infidelity, we use decoys who are women. On one occasion I used a male decoy, but that’s because the man suspected of having the affair was gay.
The decoys would meet the individual, then we would set up a circumstance in a bar or somewhere else where he’d meet the decoy. Then we let the meeting progress naturally until there is any body contact, and then we stop.
Methods of Surveillance
A woman has hired us to conduct surveillance on her husband. As private investigators, that includes staking out a residence, pursuing vehicles, tracking him where he goes, conducting photo and video surveillance as well as running background checks on any contacts that he may have.
It is legal to put a tracking device on his car under certain circumstances, if the vehicle is in the name of the client who has hired us. In most cases, that is the case. If this does not comply with our requirements, we have other remedies we take. Rather than using a tracking device, we can pursue the surveillance from other angles, such as following him.
Gender Differences
The big difference between following a man and following a woman in a spousal infidelity case is that women are much more careful in covering their tracks than men. I have to wonder sometimes myself if some men want to be caught.
Keep in mind if we do find concrete evidence of a cheating spouse that every state has different rules concerning distribution of assets following divorce when one spouse has been accused of infidelity. Most are not eager to move from an equal distribution, even if there is proof of fault.
