Helen Undercover: The Strip Mall Secret

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With EverPure, you're not just in the race, you're built to win it. 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. Happy Dating Detectives Monday! I believe it's the last Dating Detectives Monday of the year. Of the whole year. Can you believe it's been almost three years? In April, right? Wow. We came out in April three years ago. Wow. We're so grateful for you guys. Thank you so much for giving us another amazing year of the Dating Detectives and being part of our community. We love you so much. And we wanted to end the year with a fun episode. We love PI undercover episodes. Obviously, Mackenzie undercover episodes are just have a special place in our heart. And then if you haven't listened, we've had some guest PIs come and share their stories. Ken, Ken is a highlight. You guys love Ken. Oh my God, everybody loves Ken so much. He's so funny, but a lot of his last episode was talking about how it's like so important to be the right PI for a case so that you can do different things if you're a man versus a woman, differences, whatever it is. Yes. You have to fit in. You know. I still think you're the perfect PI because I would truly tell you everything about my life if I met you on the street. Because I'm so nice. You are. You're so bubbly. I'd be like, here's my social security number. Do you want to be my best friend? That's so funny. I love it. But we also love Helen, who's another PI and she's here today and she is Ken's business partner. So they work together. I love her. I love her too. She's very cool. She's so cool. Like she's so chill. Oh my gosh, you guys are just going to love her and you're going to love the story so much. Well, I loved hearing you both talk about being women in the PI world. And this case is fun. It's well, it's not fun. You know, there's a dog-ish, but. It's crazy. It's so fun to hear PI stories, nonetheless. And also, I want to give a special shout out to our Patreoners. Thank you so much for joining us on Patreon. We added the $9 tier this year. The $5 tier, which is like the, you know, you get the two bonus episodes every month. And then you get the book club and all the live chats with me and Hannah and all the things. But then the $9 tier is just like add free listening to all the episodes and the bonus episodes. So that's kind of fun. So please join our Patreon. If you want to start next year with the Patreon, we'll put the link in the show notes. And we're so grateful for you listening and for joining the Patreon. Thank you for joining us on these PI journeys and these PI stories. And also thank you for supporting our guests. And I have one more shout out. The thing I texted you about. Oh yeah. We want to shout out to a listener. Her name is Brittany. And I don't even remember when a couple episodes, but not a couple years ago. It's been years at this point. We were talking about dating apps. And I said that on Bumble, because women have to message first in like with guys. Yeah. I sometimes would just say, you may speak now as my opening line because that was funny. It's dumb. But she used it. A guy thought it was funny too. And guess what happened this past week? They got engaged. They got engaged. She said you may speak now. I love that. And he said, I like this girl. I'm just very happy for them. And it kind of was like a crazy, it's just crazy that this little podcast, it helps you maybe figure out what relationships are not good for you. Yeah. Or maybe what relationships are good for you. You know, my little romantic heart was freaking out. Love is real. I love it. I know Hannah was losing her mind for sure. Because you know, she's, well, we both love love, but Hannah especially loves like the romance and the happy ending. So yay. Thank you for updating us, Brittany. Congratulations. Congratulations. Love it. What a way to end the year. I guess shall we get into it? Because well, I'm really excited to hear from Helen. Let's get into it. I know everybody's gonna try. Shut up. I want to hear the story. Helen. Hi. Hi. I'm so excited to have another female. Another PI. Yeah. It's so exciting. I know. We're so glad that you're here. Tell us how you know Ken and how he became a PI. Give us the intro. So it's kind of hand in hand. I got into the industry by just, I'd always wanted to do it growing up. It was kind of my dream. Like always? How did you even wish to be in a movie? I was like, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. How did you even wish to be a PI? How'd you know it was a job? I don't know. Originally, I got into it. I'm into the true crime. I'm into all that. In sixth grade, I saw 60 Minutes on the Zodiac and that kind of started the obsession, I guess. I thought I'd do forensic psychology, then criminal profiling. And I was like, I thought law enforcement, not really fun as a woman. I'm like five feet tall. So I'm like, I'm not gonna be able to do much. My mom nearly had a heart attack when I was like, I'm gonna go into law enforcement. She was like, please don't do that. Please don't. And I was like, maybe I'll go private sector. So I went to school, I went to college, got my criminal justice degree after that. I did the family business and then COVID hit. And we shut down the business and my partner was like, you should try to do the PI thing now. And I couldn't rip the Band-Aid off. I just didn't know where to start. It's kind of like everyone's like, you don't know where to start. She's like, cold email someone. Yep. Cold email Ken. No one. One and only guy. And then I think we met like a week later. Jesus Google. I literally just Googled LAPI. That's not how normal math works, just letting y'all know. That is not. You have to give your number to a hundred dudes in a bar if you want one to call you. This one's like, I just called him and he just hired me as a man. I thought like a man of all people's not going to hire me. Like, who am I? At the time I was like in my mid-20s, you know, I'm like, they're not going to even look at me. Well, what's the like intro process, the interview process of being a PI or was he just like, What did you say? Were you like, I just emailed him. And I was like, Hey, I'm trying to get into the industry. Are you hiring? Yep. And so cool. I think he responded with didn't answer my question. He's just like, what do you think a PI is? Oh, and I was like, I know it's not TV. I know I'm going to sit in the car. I know I'm going to piss in the car. I know I'm going to have to do all this hot heat, all this stuff. And he's like, let's meet. And we met, I think, a week later and here we are five years later. Wow. So you have to do, I know from Mackenzie, you guys have to do a certain amount of hours or something. Yeah. What's by state? What do you have to do here in California? You have to, depending on your degree, I think it's like 3000 hours, which is equivalent to two years or so. If you have a degree and then if you don't have a degree, it's 6000 hours, which I think is four years. But degree. Or that's similar to Florida. Anything like my film degree? Can I do that? No, it's got to be criminal justice, police science. These guys, something in the criminal justice. Yeah, it's either AA or where your BS. Like it depends. But I'm sure it's similar across states. You have to get a certain amount of hours. You got to get signed off by a mentor or somebody that's like an internship. Essentially. Yeah. You got to take the test. Yeah. Yeah. And then that's it. And you're off and going. And there you go. Yeah. Okay. My story is not fun. I literally just emailed. Oh, I thought you meant the story you were about to tell us. Oh, no, my story getting into the industry is not fun though. And there's a lot of people that don't realize what the job is. And obviously some of them romanticize it and then hear about your stories and are like, Oh, I don't want to pee in the car. But a lot of people write you and us that they want to try. Well, a lot of people that ask me, To pee in the car. How do I be a PI? You tell me how to be a PI and that will tell me if you're going to be a good PI. Exactly. Yeah, that makes sense. Because you can't figure it out. It's like, how do you be a PI? Well, PIs aren't just like, Hey, here's a PI location on the Google Maps. Go here. Like, no, you got to do some research. You got to look up associations. You got to, it's a network. Like there's a whole big thing. Like you actually got to do the work and investigate and research to learn how to be a PI. Exactly. I'm like, if you can't do that. If you don't, like, I mean, you can ask me how to be a PI. But I'm like, that's your first job. Find out how to be a PI. Exactly. And if you can figure it out, then you should at least. Exactly. Well, a lot of it seems like you guys having to do, it's very self starter type job. Like you're alone making decisions, deciding how much energy to put in, how much. Yeah, some people like that. Some people want to be on a team. I personally, I like to be independent. And I think that's one of the best parts of the industry is you don't have to deal with anybody. An OPD, which we call other people drama is the best. There's nothing free TV. Other people drama is the best. Gossip when it's not your involvement. That's why people love the PI story. And that's why it was funny. We were just talking before we started recording and the hell it's like, I don't know if my story is interesting and we're like, you have no idea. That's what I say every time I tell a PI story, I'm like, this one's stupid. And everybody's like, what? And so I thought that was funny because we both. Yeah, I was like, everyone says that, especially being a PI in Los Angeles. I imagine is wild. We heard from Ken a little bit that it's wild. Challenge, that's for sure. So that alone will make it exciting, but I don't know if we have any other questions or if we just want to get into the story. I'm excited to get into this not interesting story. Yeah, for us to tears, Helen. I haven't told this one before. So this is so COVID was like five years ago. So you've been a PI for about five years? Yeah. Okay. Good amount of time. Yeah, that's a couple of stories I bet you've racked up. Definitely. Yeah. So this one was fun. We got a call from this chick. She's like, I live out of state. I'm dating this girl in LA. I see her every weekend and we've been dating for maybe a year, but something's off. She couldn't say what. So she knows that this person's real because they've met. She's obviously the chick in the pictures and this subject is very LA. So I can see why this client was into her. Fake boobs, BBL, lips, nose, like the whole shebang. She's got it all. So the first red flag for our client was she met this chick's family and the subject told our client, I work for my uncle. He owns this company and I kind of handle his whole thing. Successful company. He's got multiple locations of this company he's got running. Just to just real quick to interrupt when Helen says subject, she means the person who is the subject of the investigation. Correct. This is your target, the person that you're doing the actual surveillance. So the client is obviously the one that hired us. The subject is the one we're watching. So clients at dinner with the subject and her family and they're chit chatting and the client says to her family member, I'm so happy for you that you're so successful that you've have all these locations of business and the uncle looks at her and he's like, what the hell are you talking about? I only have one. So the client's like, weird, like what a weird lie. And that's when the fem tuition comes in. You're like, why are you lying about this? And if this, then what else? Exactly. So I think that kind of started it in her head and maybe she started thinking, maybe I need a PI. And the subject, her girlfriend to her says, oh, it's this, it's that, makes up bullshit, essentially. And denial is not just a river in Egypt. She's like, really just doesn't want to believe it, does believe it, but it's like this cognitive dissonance where you're like, you're telling me this, but I'm seeing this. You know, so she's like, I need a PI essentially, not to mention she's out of state. So she's only down here for weekends. So she calls us and we want to, did she want to hire a PI to get information like a background check or did she want to PI for surveillance? Or did she just want help figuring out all of it? Just everything. She just wants to see if she's getting dogfish. She's like, is this bullshit? Is everything a lie? She's obviously a real person. But what's the story? You know, so we get started. She tells us where she lives, what she drives or so what she drives. And we, all we know is she's in a high rise in downtown LA and doing surveillance in downtown LA is a nightmare. She's on a high ride. The high-rises are hard. How would you find them? You got to sit up and find your part of the best. Have a garage usually. I think we only had the type of car. We didn't have a plate. We didn't have a color. We just had like BMW, SUV or whatever. And then you have to like, have you ever had to walk into a garage in a high rise and try to find this vehicle and find all the cars and match descriptions? This was one of the ones that you couldn't even do that. You couldn't even get in. Oh man. So we're kind of just like hoping for the best. So we get there really early because her work hours are whatever, nine to five. We're like, let's get there at six. Let's scope out the area. Let's get comfortable. You and Ken? It was just me at the moment. Yeah. We worked at a couple of days and Ken joined a little while after, but day one, we're kind of just getting a feel for it. You've said you kind of come the first day, you get a feel for it. See what you can do, what you can find, if you even get anything. And I'm thinking like high rise, good luck. So we got super lucky that I get there. And as I'm pulling up, the BMW is pulling out. It was like, no fucking way. That never happens. That is so luck. No way. Of course, windows are tinted. You can't tell. Wow. People who drive BMWs are assholes always. They always speed, especially in LA. They're known for it. They use the horsepower for sure. So we get on it immediately. I'm just like, I need to know if it's her. I can't not go. We drive for an hour from here to another county. Are you running the plate while you're driving? Yeah. So we run the plate. We find out it's her. Or it was under a family member's name or something. So we're already, things are kind of weird. And are you in contact with your client at all? No. Not at all. Yeah. Not at the moment. Because we've had some incidents where we are in contact and the client will come blow it. Sure. We have told a couple of old stories. I actually have a really funny one about that at the end. OK. That one's a quick one. I'll make a note. So we're going. We're driving. She goes to Walmart. She goes to 7-Eleven. She gets a Starbucks. I'm like looking at the way she's dressed. And she's dressed like Shlubby, just regular house clothes. So I'm like, is she going to work? Where is she going? You know, you can just tell what the way someone's dressed, what they're taking, what they're carrying, what they're doing. So after some driving, we go to this random huge plaza. And there's like an ITT tech or whatever. So I'm like community college nursing thing. There's something here. There's something here. And I'm like, I don't know what's around here. I don't know where she's working. It's definitely not her uncle's company. So she gets out of the car. She's got a bag full of crap, clothes, shoes, whatever. And you can see it's like a big bag. And she goes into this hole in the wall. And after a little while I walk past and I see on the door, it says whatever massage parlor. Oh no, I've done those. And I was like, no way. You're the blessed Redeemer, Lord. No way. I'm like, this is not a masseuse. So a little while goes by. And after some online sleuthing and everything, we find out it is a massage parlor, but it's also on another site that's called Rub Maps. I'm sorry, Rub. Rub Maps. Map, correct. Like the map to find. Like rubbing a map, yeah. So we're like, what's about to happen? You know, it's like. I have a guess. 9 a.m. mind you. Wow. So. So it's 9 a.m. It's 9 a.m. We're like, you know, these kids are going to nursing school and then this chick is like going into sweet A over here. Do you see anybody else coming in and out of this parlor? So we're there. Nursing school, she's going to sweet A. So the plumber's truck pulls up. And I was like, is someone's pipe like broken? What's going on here? I can't. We're going to start this one over. This dude comes out of the car in his full uniform. He's in his work truck. And before he gets to the suite, you see him pull out to 20s. And I was like, okay. You know, yeah, he's getting a massage. It's 9 o'clock. It's stressful. He walks in. I want to say 15 minutes later, 20 minutes later. Get his map rub. Yeah, he comes down. He's got a smile on his face. His shirt's untucked. And the best part is he goes back to his work truck and I'm set up in a way that I can kind of see everything. It's like a big parking lot. He goes back to his work truck. He opens the side door. He pulls out baby wipes. He pulls out his swung and then he starts cleaning it. You've seen so many things in parking lots between now. He's out here to park a lot all day. I'm like, it's 9 o'clock in the morning. I've already seen penis. I've already seen like, you know, just. Days done. Time for lunch. Let's go home. Right. Real quick, 2026. It's time to start thinking about our goals for the year. And I have a financial goal because I am moving into a new city and managing my money. You know, it's important and it doesn't have to be as much of a struggle as it has been in the past because now I use Monarch. It's an all in one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier. And it brings everything. Your entire financial life, budgeting, accounts, investments, your net worth, future planning. It's all in one dashboard. You can do it on your laptop or your phone. Unlike most other personal finance apps, Monarch is built to make you proactive, not just reactive. It has a new AI tool called Monarch Intelligence. Monarch helped users save over $200 per month on average after they joined and eight out of 10 members feel more in control of their finances with Monarch. 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We're laughing because she's a cheater and a dogfish. And I also think we would be talking about the story differently if this was survival sex work, but she's living the high life. Like this is just lying to her partner about this. And I like, why? A couple of guys walked in, they had wedding rings. So I'm like, who's that? Man, that's a whole other ball game. One dude walked in was so pissed that he didn't have cash because it came out huffing and puffing. He looked through his car. I could hear him like, pissed off. He left. He came back and then he had cash. I'm like, this dude went to an ATM or to somebody to get cash to come back for 15 minutes. We couldn't have just been mode. Venmo would have been nice. Well, no, because she would get caught. I think in the span of three hours, there were over eight guys. All men, which I thought was hilarious given our subject is gay. So that was day one. So day two is in a gay relationship. Correct. And but also on rub maps. Correct. Rubbing out not, not, not gay bodies. I mean, her wrists had to be sore. Something that was a lot of guys in the span of a short. Well, at this point though, you don't know what's going on in sweet. A or a little bit. It don't take a rocket. Right. But as a PI, where are you now in terms of like, what you know, what you assume, what you tell your client, what you do next. I mean, I'm assuming the worst. I mean, eight in two hours. The best for the plumber. Yeah. At the worst for you. Exactly. I mean, everybody's pulling out cash before they go in. I'm like, maybe it's a cashless or cardless massage spot. But shockingly on rub maps, they give you a lot of detail. Names, reviews, pricing, if it's cash. They got Yelps. Yeah. Is she? As a first I saw it. By her name. So yes and no. She was, she had a pseudonym, I guess, which reminds me the way that we kind of had an idea that maybe something was up was the number that she gave the client. The client, I guess, number, Google that number, which is like step one. Google who you're dating. Yes. Especially if you're online dating. Google them. Google their name, Google their number, Google their address. And go to page 10, 15. Don't start at page two or one. Go on their Facebook, check it, profiles with the same names, do it all. So that's the first thing we did is we Googled her number and it came up to an escort page. Well, there you go. Like literally the first post escort page. So we already had it in our mind, you know, like something escort page and then now massage parlor. So we worked the two days and both days. She did the same thing like Walmart, 7-Eleven, Starbucks. And this is only on the time because the partner lives far away and would only come on the weekend. So this was during the week. This was during the week. 9 a.m. on a schmooze day and we're okay. She left her spot at 6 in the morning. She had to get there, get all her stuff. And I personally have a couple of burner Instagram accounts and they're well established. So it's not like the fake. It doesn't look like a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So I was following her during, I've been following her after, I've been following. Because I'm just, I need the tea. I need to know. I was gonna say, I can't wait. Don't tell us yet. But when we get to the end, I can't wait that you have that. Yeah. But what does the partner think that this person does for a living? She just works for her uncle's company. And that's all. That's the only that she does. And she does well. She has money. She lives in a high rise with, you know, she's got a boob job, BBL, crazy long hair. She's very typical like, LA. Plastic LA. And I can see why the client not being from LA would be so intrigued by, you know, Big Boob Betty's like, you know. So we told the client and the client was kind of like, whoa. How did you tell the client? Just over the over email or over the phone. I don't remember. That's different to me. I'm like, I think it was over email. Yeah. I mean, here are your receipts. This is how many men and kind of like get tested, you know, get tested and be careful. I have a question with that type of case, like when obviously when you do, at least for me in my experience, when every single surveillance that I do, every single case, every single person that comes across, I am writing this, I have a template. And this is what my report looks like. And it says, this is what I was asked to do. These are the dates and times that I did it. This is what happened during those dates and times. Did you do the same type of thing? Similar, but not as official. We didn't like type up a report. We kind of like have a summary in a sense. If they want to report, absolutely. Then you, okay. Absolutely. We do the objective, the summary, the time stands. So in your summary, do you say, just to kind of help our audience understand like how you say that, because for me, at least in my experience, that's why I love hearing from other PIs, you don't want to say, oh, they were going in and getting their willy-nilly stuff all willy-nilly. So when I would write a report, I would say this person arrived at this place and during that time, eight different males entered. And this, a male at this time arrived and he pulled out cash and he came outside. And when he came out, he, he, he, he grabbed what appeared to be a wet wipe and cleaned his genitals. And it's very, very like specific. Like these are the actual words that we're using. Like is that, yeah. I don't make assumptions. I don't say he went in there and got his dick sucked. You know, I don't say anything like that. I was wondering like, and because you can't like, how do you prove it? I can't, I didn't go inside. So I can't prove that that happened, but one could assume. They don't take a rocket. Dude is on the clock. He's obviously on his lunch. He's here. He's happy now. And then he moves on. What was her response to that? I mean, she was obviously bummed. Yeah. You know, like, well, I guess I'm going to end it. Like, thank you. Because the whole thing for her was she was going to move to LA. So she wanted to find out if this is a move. She's got businesses, houses, property. She was going to change her whole life for this person. So for her, what's a couple of, you know, thousand dollars on surveillance to prove or not prove. Because even if she got what she wanted to know, great. Now, you know, you can trust this person, you know, they met online. So I thought was the whole thing. You don't know. You don't know who you meet even in a gay relationship. You don't know. Yeah. So she was obviously bummed, you know. Okay. Thank you guys. Thank you. And kind of that was the end of it. But she doesn't know is I also follow her on Instagram. You're because I'm, I just need to know, you know, if I can have a conclusion, I will. But I'm not going to go out of my way. I'm not going to ask them. I'm not going to, if they don't know, they don't know what does it matter. Sure. So when did this happen? When was this case? It was earlier this year. It's actually very recent. So I've been following the subject for since we started. And you know, online, it's funny because you'll see her posting stuff online. And I'm like, I know where you are. Like, I know what you're doing to the world. It seems like I'm at my office job. Like, no, you're not. Like you banked that photo. Yeah. Change your shirt a few times in that location and just always going. Yeah. So obviously she's still doing her massaging. And so a couple months after we worked it, I see on her Instagram that the client's with her. And I was like, get the out of here. They're in LA. They're at like a Bad Bunny concert. And I'm like, what story did she tell her? How did you, you had the picture? We sent her all the video, you know, we sent her all the pictures, counted one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, like, but they were still together and that's what the hell are you doing? No. Literally like a couple months later. That's so common. More times than not in my 20 years of experience, more times than not they will stay together. That's why knowing more is frustrating as much as like not knowing more. Yeah. Because then it's like you want to be like, hey, wake up. Like I got, why did you spend the money to do this? But some people just want to know and. Well, maybe it opens up that conversation and the girl could be like, this is what I do for a living. Yep. And. But I would be but her like how, I mean, at least you're not cheating on me with girls, I guess. Like maybe there's boundaries and it's, I guess, I don't know, but I still check every once. Well, they're not together anymore. No, okay. They're not together anymore. So I told myself that they went to that bad bunny concert because the client probably bought the tickets ahead of time. They already got the tickets. Yeah. And they're like, I told myself. So they're still friends. I was like, they're, they're going to be friends forever. There you go. Okay. So maybe that's all. So there was no you haul involved after all. No, thank God. You helped her out. Wait. So and then her Instagram, just she never, she never posted any, the client's Instagram never posted anything with her. No, not, not, not anymore with her. Like, so it sounds like they've broken up. They did because the subject has like another girlfriend. Of course. Because I still watch because it's so entertaining. It's free TV. I love that. Do you, I mean, I don't, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Do you, I mean, like we're all public. Public information. And if it's private and they've accepted my request, that's on them. Yeah. Totally. I'm not using it. I'm not using their videos just for my own. You're not sharing their information. Yeah. Using it against them, calling. It would be unethical at that point to be continuing to follow this person and then call the client and say, guess what they're doing now. I just wanted to let you know that would be highly unethical. Yeah. That's just, if not illegal, but probably just unethical. But still that's not, that's, oh boy. I don't know what I would, I don't know what sucks more, like not knowing or continuing to know and not being able to say shit about it. Both seem so, both are so frustrating. That's what I'm wondering. I'm like, did she confront her or did she just not tell her and just know like as long as I get tested every week? I don't even know how often. I wouldn't, first base or something and. Or maybe she's like, well, she is making good money. So it's fine. Yeah, right? She's like, charge them in more. I don't know. I don't know. Like I'll be your, I'll be your manager, I guess. You mean set up your schedule for us? What do you do? I'm still just thinking about how like all of the village people were walking in the parlor it sounds like. Like you just had the plumber and the. They were just walking in, all will and nilly. Brand on people. I love how the very first thing was like this plumber walks up. He's getting into his pipe. He was the first guy. So funny. It's like dude, it's his lunch. It's literally his lunch. What are the craziest things you all have seen in parking lots on cases? I know you've seen someone poop outside of Bards of Noble or something. And then brush his teeth and then leave his mansion poop, brush his teeth in the parking lot and then go off to his nine to five job where he's making like six figures. And you gotta go. You gotta go. I don't know. Apparently the guy wiping his junk off in the parking lot was a new one for me. That. Yeah, that one's that one might take the cake. Don't you think it's interesting? You do not realize what people will do when they think no one is watching. That's the biggest thing for me is I love the human nature of it where they don't. When they don't know you're watching, you see the ugliest parts of people. When people don't think anybody's watching, y'all, these folks don't got no shame. Y'all think everybody's better than you. Ain't nobody better than you because you do not know what goes on behind closed doors. Sometimes out in the public, all willy nilly in the parking lots, wiping with the baby wipe. Wait, what's the story with the client that you told? Oh, so that one's a funny one. So this client thinks her husband's cheating, right? Typical cheating. He's cheating with the coworker. He's been caught four times and I want to catch him for the fifth, whatever. Oh, okay. You're like, you're paying. Yeah, whatever. Hand out. So we get him holding hands and whatever with his. Girl. Co-worker, girlfriend, mistress, right? We get him at work. So they're cute. They're like giggling and obviously there's something going on. And then our client thought that they were having sex in their car in a parking structure. So we like set up hidden cameras in the parking structure in like McDonald's cups, like super TV where you like put it in the corner in this corner and whatever. Sorry, not to interrupt. Really quick. As she interrupts. Yeah. What are the recording laws in California? So there's like privacy laws. Obviously audio. It's a two-party stay. You have to have the other person agree to the audio. So none of our hidden cameras have audio. Okay. But what we say is like if a mailman can go there, if it's kind of open to the public. No, I expect. Reasonable. Yeah, there's no expectation of privacy. Okay. And for this case also, you know, she just wanted to see if her husband was sleeping with this chick in the car. So I'm like, yeah, let's see what we can get. So we were actively texting her that, yeah, he's leaving now. He's going to the parking lot with mistress, right? And I wasn't directly speaking with the client. I was relaying it to Ken who was speaking to the client because I don't like to be out in the field and juggling too much. So I'm sitting there. I don't know what the client looks like either, right? So I'm sitting there. It's like midnight. Mackenzie's face right now. It's like midnight. And you know, there's a homeless dude here. There's a homeless dude here. And I'm a hunkered down in my car and here pulls up this like really nice Mercedes and this beautiful blonde woman comes out. I was like, what the hell is this woman doing here at this hour? And then she walks up to them and I was like, is he sleeping with two women? Like what's going on? It's the fucking client. Yeah. Holy man. And then I was like, holy shit. And they're all like smiles at each other. And then when the client's not looking, dude and the girlfriend are smiling at each other. And I'm just like, what's happening? So nobody's screaming? No, everyone's just chill. She was smiling at the girlfriend. Yeah, like everyone's smiling at each other. She walks up to the car and she's like, hey guys, you're so friendly. They weren't in the car yet. They weren't in the car yet. They were just in the structure and I could see them through like the crack of the structure. And so she sees them and she's like, hey. And they're like, hey. Hey. Hey, how y'all doing? Yeah, what's up? You know, yeah, exactly. And nothing happened. They didn't all get in the car together. They just like walk off or whatever. And then we find out a little while later, they have a threesome. Oh, okay. Dude couldn't get it up. Okay. So the wife and the mistress then go off and have her own thing. She had this guy called just to join. She wanted to find a girlfriend, I guess. Yeah, good for her. That's wild. That's crazy. I don't know why she called you so many times if she was like just trying to join. We're not used specifically. She probably didn't want to join at first. And she's like, wow, you're cute. This guy's an ogre. Like they're still together. Of course they are. Yeah. And so maybe the other girl is too. What is your like, are you surprised as someone who is not a PI? Are you surprised that people stay together as often as they do? Like hearing all these stories, you're like, whoa, they stay together. Yes or no. I think it, I mean, obviously it depends on the scenario. I think I'm still wrapping my head around why this is don't take offense to this. Why people call PI's in the first place. Like at what point in your relationship are you like, I don't want to leave, but I do want to call a professional to tell the person I'm supposed to trust more than anyone else. Like, yeah, obviously I get it with intention to litigation or if you really don't know for sure. Like I think there are valid reasons to call, but like someone like this who's caught the guy cheating a lot ends up just joining in. And why would you call me? She spent that money. Yeah. Why would you call me to do a surveillance, spend the money just to come blow my cover? Blow it. Exactly. Just like the restaurant. No ma'am, what are the red flags of clients calling you that you're like, I'm not taking that case? Oh yeah. Have you ever had one? You're like, I'm not working that. I mean, you could tell when they're nuts, I feel like. You could just tell right off the bat. Tell us specifically because this feels like this doubles as dating advice too. How are they done? It's a gut feeling, right? Yeah, I think so. And a lot of times they start with the hacking and this and trackers. Everybody thinks they're getting hacked. That's a big red flag. If anybody talks about getting hacked, if they think their husband's hacking their phone or anything like that, it's an automatic red flag. Interesting. But as far as like, I don't know, we don't know. We don't really know. You can kind of tell just based off the way they talk, the details they give. Sometimes it's interesting that you can tell that the client's the cheater and they're projecting. That is so true. Yes. We have had a lot of those where we know the client's the cheater. That is so common. Just by your gutter, you'd like find out that they are. Both. They'll say something that you're like, wait a minute. That's not what you said before or something just won't align with something that was said before or something that you will trigger in your head that you didn't think of. And then they'll say something and you'll be like, wait. And it's like it triggers something that connects something else. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we had a guy calling us who when he would go out of town, he wanted to check on his mistress. But like his mistress was his therapist. That was supposed to help with his marriage. And then start sleeping with the mistress. I was going to say, unfortunately, even I've heard that before. And he's like, should I leave my wife? I need to know that my mistress is faithful before I leave my wife. Who is in the mistresses? Oh my God. Yeah. And she was faithful. He probably suddenly the wife. I doubt it. No, they doubt it. That one. I don't know. She was a really good therapist. Obviously. He wanted to make sure his mistress is faithful before he decides he's going to leave the wife that he's cheating on to be with her. That has happened so many times. Yeah. All right. If it may, I think in their minds, it makes total sense. I like to ask this of PIs. And I mentioned dating advice. You also mentioned some red flags early on dating advice as a PI apps or states. What would you tell people? Do your due diligence. If you're a woman, I mean men too, but woman, what does it take to get a background check? A couple hundred bucks. You know, if you're going to meet someone online, what's a big deal? Spend a couple hundred bucks, see if they're a sex offender. See if they're... Before you waste months of your time. Exactly. The way you put it earlier, I guess going back, I'm like, why someone hires a PI? It's like, yes, it seems expensive, but it's a lot cheaper than moving to LA. Exactly. More of a person. Yeah. That's true. You're going to go on dates. It's going to cost you money. It's going to add up quickly. Why waste that when you can just know for certain this person's legitimate or not, or they're married? I would like to point out that when someone hires someone for a job, they want to know, is this person worth the salary? I'm about to pay them to do this job that they may or may not be lying about having experience with. And what do they do? They say submit your application and we're going to do a background check. Yeah. And what is a more important job than the love of your life? Exactly. It should be their number one priority. If you're going to kiss them, you need to know their background. No, but I do feel like if you're someone who says, I want to normalize people saying, hey, I really like this person, let me hire a PI to find out. That being said, and it's normal. Like if you're like, I'm doing this legally, I want to find out. There is a stigma behind that because if they ever found out, then they'd be like, I can't believe you hired a PI on me. But what? Yeah, that's where I'm like, oh my gosh, it just feels like something you're not trusting. It feels yucky, but also in today's world, back in the day, I'm 41 years old. Like we used to go outside and play until the street lights came on. My mom never knew where we were. Now my son is not leaving my front yard because he going to get snatched up by the ice cream band, whatever. I'm not trying it. You know what I mean? Like it's a different day. Times are different. Yeah, times are different. But we also have so many more resources. And we also, if we have the resources, use them. And if someone is not okay with you hiring a PI to look into them, I would commend you, but I'm also in the industry. So it just depends on what kind of person. But if you say, hey, I just want to let you know, you know, I would like to hire a PI to do a background check on you. People would, a lot of people are going to take offense to that. But if they don't, they get it. Exactly. Because they have something to hide. That's what I'm saying. Like if you got nothing to hide, what's the big deal? And if you explain where your fears come from, and if you have specific traumas or insecurities that you want reassurance about the right person, get it. If you would let an employer do a background check on you because you're like, well, that's the only way I'm going to get a job. They need to verify me. I feel like people should be able to do that in personal relationships too. But then you're the asshole who, you know, says I'm going to hire a PI. So Helen, as a female PI, I imagine there have been, there's always a stigma behind that because even today, as we've grown as a society in general, I think some of us are still stuck in the past. Like my professor was like, you'll never make it as a PI because you're a girl. So as a woman, I feel like sometimes there is that stigma, but have there ever been times in working with Ken or whatever, and he's like, hey, I need a female on this because a female's going to fit in. Ken's told us, he's like, hey, I'm a white guy. If I go into this cultural market or an area where there's all African American people and I'm a white guy that walks in, I'm going to stand out. And so sometimes you need a female PI and there have there been cases where he's like, hey, you're a girl. Like you could do this better than me. I feel like that on every single case. You're like, yeah, in fact, I am objectively better 100% of the time. I mean, Ken's a draft, right? So anywhere you go, he's above everyone. You see him. I'm five two on a good day. So I can hide behind a planter if I need to. And it's not weird because like, if anyone asks me anything, oh, I'm just the idiot girl. I'm so lost or I don't speak English or I whatever. What do you mean? I don't know. Yeah. I use a lot that I was supposed to meet someone here to buy a Mac. That's my like excuse. I'm supposed to buy a Mac. I'm supposed to meet David. It's a good marketplace. Yeah. And everyone feels bad for the idiot girl getting scammed. So that's like always my cover that it's yourself a victim and then everybody wants to be the hero. They want to help you. They'll tell you it. They'll talk to you, you know, you just give them a compliment. Oh my God, your hair is great. What did you get? And then the thing, you know, you change the subject and they don't know what you do. I remember a case we were looking for a missing couple. And I went to a hotel that we knew that they were staying at and Ken gone up and talked to this guy and said, Hey, can you give me some information? He would really get the fuck out of here. Who are you? They're not going to give information. I show up. Super nice. Oh my God. Hair is like whatever, you know, and he gave me all the information and he shouldn't have obviously, but I'm like, thank you. It's that intimidation factor and it's like, I hate to say it, but if you're and in Helen's case, like you're very small and stature, I'm not as small, but I'm still, I'm just a girl. I'm literally just a girl. I don't know. You bat your eyelashes. You bat your eyelashes. You put your chest out there. Are you just kind of like dumb? You, you smize. Tyra Banks taught us to smize on America's Next Top Model. Like we flirt a little bit. Like you can do whatever. How do you maintain the ability to trust people seeing what you see? How do you stay a little bit positive? Yeah, Helen, how do you stay positive? I don't trust anybody. Period. Period. How do you balance that with like not waking up every day and being like, I hate all of you. Like you still have to make connections with people. I just do that every day. I hate all of you. Okay, great. Great, great. Everybody, no. It does not, and it does not get better. It does not because when you start to see, I think, like how do you guys make friends? Like do you just like? No, I don't want friends. I don't. You don't make any friends. I do not. I'd like to believe that since we watch so many people, we see the human nature. So I think if you see genuine characteristics, I guess, in someone, yeah, that'll, you'll feel more comfortable and know you can trust them. I just was like, I'm going to keep pushing this question until I get some evidence that I could believe in humanity. It's true. Just everybody lies. Everybody lies. Yeah, whenever you see people every day, your job, if someone's hiring you to follow or watch somebody or get information on someone, there's a reason. And that reason is because this person has shown some indication that there's deceit. There's something there. And so you automatically have that in your head that this is what you're looking for. And in the beginning for me, I was like, oh, not everybody's a liar. Everyone's nice. It's just, we'll see what happens. But when that becomes your everyday life, you just start to see that like everybody's a liar. But we did have the authors of the book, Big Liars on our show. And they are lying experts. And they say that people in general are not liars. They're not big liars. They're not big liars. They have the, yeah. And but when you're someone who, all the people that are the liars are the people that we see every day. So it's like, we don't trust anybody because in our mind, that is everybody. Yeah. Man, guys, I'm going to make you background check every single date I go on, every single person I meet. And for, and if anybody wants to know how much a background check is before you get a background check, try to find out as much information as you can using your public resources, the social media machine, the Google machine, anything on the WWW, like look it up yourself. There's so many different websites out there that you can look it up. But before you do a background check, try to find out as many counties as possible that this person has. Try to find the counties. Yeah. I also just like at this point, and I, this could be generational, but like everyone my age and younger has a social media trail. I don't really go out with anybody that I can't find a mutual friend of a mutual friend on some social website. Like it's very rare that I can't find any kind of connection. Or I see, oh, they went to Tulane. Let me call my friend Alex who went to Tulane. Do you know this guy? Oh yeah, I know a guy that was in the same fraternity. He's kind of a done. I'm like, shocker. It's a comfort when someone can vouch for this person. But I won't go on the date if I can't find something. And that doesn't mean that they're not still a serial killer. But yeah, but I've seen like a lot of people are trusting of that mutual friend and then they'll still go out. It could be a bot. Yeah, exactly. So I still, I don't trust anybody. Yeah. All right. Well, on that note, no, I do appreciate it because I think having that kind of caution is not a bad thing to have. But we know we love exists and you just have to ask a lot of questions. We're going to need you to share more stories. I love, I love, I love having other, I can't, I love you to death, but it's so cool having another female PI that can share her story. It's just nice to see a different perspective. Movies and TVs, you see the man holding a big wall and camera. That's not for you. Yep. But and so it's kind of cool. So thank you so much for sharing. Thank you. It's so nice to meet you. You too. It was well. Oh, well, I hope that masseuse is, I don't know, finding. I wonder if she's working hard. She's working hard. She's working hard. She's working hard. She's working somebody hard. I know. Something hard.