Private Eye (Very Interesting)

by Lorine Parks

“If the client suspects the spouse is cheating, then it’s been my experience that 99% of the time, the client is right.”

Private Investigator David Kale, a long-time Downey resident, told us about life of a P. I. “Not like you see on TV,” he said. It’s boring. Ten hours sitting in a car in one hundred degrees heat, is not glamorous. Still, it’s a job and somebody has got to do it. The club listened, spellbound.

Most of David’s work involves investigations about long-ago adoptions, collections, and background checks for new hires. In adoption investigations many times the biological parent does not want to be found, and in that case, David says he has to abide by those wishes. But most adoption searches have happy endings.

Understandably, a history of adoption may upset people’s lives, if it comes as a surprise. Dave told the story of a man in the reverse situation, who suspected a young woman was his biological daughter. If she were, he wanted to provide for her in his will, but he didn’t plan to inform her beforehand. So he hired Dave to get some DNA for evidence. Talk about surprises. That’s one bequest that might be hard to explain.

In the case of stake-outs for surveillance, David began in the business before cell phones, pagers or even computers were available. Often he would be stuck in a place for hours and could not leave. If the client wished to cancel they could not reach him till after the day’s work.

And when something happens, David said, it happens. “Right away.” You have to be there paying attention, not texting a message. You may have waited ten hours for that one minute of action.

“What about privacy issues,” one of the members asked. “When you are inside your house, I can’t touch you,” Dave replied. “If you are outside the four walls of your house, you are in public.” Outside the home, privacy rights cease. Anything you do is legally admissible as evidence.

With today’s computers, David said he now can quickly and easily compile a fifty page dossier just by using public records. He can access information including financial statements, telling how much you owe, how often you pay your bills, what is in your bank account.

Dan says he works closely with local police, especially investigating burglaries, which he does for insurance companies. “I am very cautious in what I do,” he added.

How much does it cost to have Dave investigate for you? $700-$800 an hour.

Dave’s big brush with history came in 1969. He was waiting for a prisoner in jail to come in to be interviewed by him. In those days there was only a low glass partition separating the prisoner from the visitor, which sometimes prisoners would jump over and attack the visitor.

“In came the ugliest man I had ever seen,” Dave said, “and when I began to ask questions he yelled at me, ‘Get out of here, kid.’ It was Charlie Manson.”

Dave concluded by leaving us to ponder these words. “If the shortest complete sentence in the English language is, “I am,’ then the longest sentence must be “I do.”

We have Shirley Johnson to thank for a year’s worth of interesting programs, about unusual people and their professions. Shirley began her introduction today by thanking all those who have helped her this year. But our appreciation, for carrying out her assignment as Program Chair, consistently and without fail, even when the promised speaker did not come and she had to find another at the last minute, our kudos for a job well done, go right to Shirley.