26 Unexpected Things People Discovered When They Hired A Private Investigator, As Shared By People Online

Bored Panda compiled a selection of the most popular, unexpected and interesting answers and stories from those who responded to this thread. So feel free to scroll to the very end, read all the tales, and be sure to comment - after all, it's elementary!

There is a popular thread in the AskReddit community whose starter asked just one simple question: "Redditors who have hired a private investigator... what did you find out?" Usually, as we have said, the answers are related to marital or insurance investigations - but even here, there are incredibly thrilling plots.

In fact, the greater part of the cases that private investigators have to deal with is insurance fraud and allegations of adultery. Yes, and their work for the most part consists of the usual surveillance and sitting in the archives. And yet, sometimes things worthy of the pen of Agatha Christie or Rex Stout slip through this routine.

What associations do you have with the words "private detective"? Probably big guns, fast cars, dashing chases with some crazy gunfights, brilliant brainstorming - in general, everything shown in TV shows and detective films. In real life, as often happens, everything is much less intense.

Detective Took Pictures Of The Suspect's Brother Instead Of Himself

I have a story about private investigators doing a hilariously s**t job. So, years ago, my brother injured his back at work because of his employer's unsafe work practices. During the ensuing suit, my brother's lawyer was given a folder full of documents from the employer's team. Turns out, they had hired a PI to investigate my brother to prove that his injury was faked. Well, unfortunately, the PI had been taking pictures of ME, operating an ATV mounted leaf hopper. My brother walked into the court hearing and watched the color drain from the opposing lawyers' faces when he introduced himself, looking nothing like me.

Woman Tries To Find Her Daughter Kidnapped By Her Ex, Later Becomes The Detective

My mom's best friend. She divorced her husband and was awarded full custody of their daughter. His family was a s**t-show. He kidnapped his daughter, and he and his parents just disappeared. (This was easier in 1977 than it is now.) She tried hiring a PI, but couldn't afford one. So she started learning how to trace people on her own. In the days before the Internet. She spent years doing this whenever she wasn't waitressing. She did find her daughter in ''81, but by this time her daughter was poisoned against her. Mom's friend went on to get her PI license, and was a PI specializing in woman's issues for the next two decades. I dont know what happened to her after that. If she's alive, she would be in her '80s I think. Edit: Thank you for the upvotes everyone. There's a couple of common questions that people are asking about this. 1. Did mom and daughter reconcile? I asked my mother about that. She lost contact with her friend when mom left Texas over 20 years ago. The last she knew, no. They never reconciled. They communicated. That's it. 2. What about the police? As I explained to another comment, it was different in the 70's. Unlike now, it was easy to assume a new identity, and easy to "get lost". It was hard to find people who didn't want to be found. The most popular method of assuming a new identity became a plot point in the 1986 movie "Highlander". - Police usually considered kidnapping by a spouse to be a "civil manner" to be handled by the courts. It was low priority for the police. - Amber alerts weren't a thing until 1996. Before that were just milk cartons with pictures of kids on them. Edit: Amber alerts started in 1996. Before that, there were several other ways to highlight missing kids. Adam Walsh was famous. Kids appeared on television - often after the show "America's Most Wanted".

Detective Helps To Find A Stolen Car But The Owner Can't Get It Back

Back in the 90s my dad had a friend who owned a Renault clio williams and one day someone stole his car (the car was located in Athens). So after reporting the event to the police he really wanted to get his car back (because it was expensive) and he hired a private investigator to find his car. After like a week he received a call from the investigator telling him that his car was located at a junkyard outside of Thessaloniki. So he went at Thessaloniki and found his car, so he rushed inside a police station to inform them that his car is located at X location. Believe it or not the officer told him not to mess with the owner of the junkyard (this junkyard was known for stealing cars etc) and hope he will get his money back from insurance. Edit: sorry for any mistakes I am not a native speaker

According To A Private Detective, Many Suspicions Of Infidelity Are Actually Justified

I'm a private investigator and I'll tell you that a lot of people are right. Your spouse is cheating on you

Private Detective Finds Out That The Businessman's Brother Was Stealing From Him

My dad hired a PI in the mid 90s in Eastern Europe to find out if one of his business partners was stealing from him. Instead he found out his own brother was stealing from him. He refused to believ the PI and his brother robbed him blind. Took a huuuuuge amount of money and left him with gigantic debt. He still forgave him.