Hello, this is a private investigator experience podcast where we talk about the life and cases of a private investigator. And I'm your host, Phil Little. If this is your first time joining me, I own West Coast Detectives International, 102 year old global security firm. And I work my cases through the lens of my military law enforcement intelligence service and global security background. Then I add just a touch of my biblical worldview to come up with solutions for our clients. The case that I'm summarizing today, you might title it, what it takes to solve the case of the missing bikini design. Hmm, sounds interesting, huh? Well, how about one attractive female agent going undercover? The Bible says that there's nothing new under the sun, and I think that with all the tens of thousands of cases our agency has worked over the past 102 years, we're on pretty safe ground to say we've probably seen every variation of crime problems that people can find themselves in. I'm constantly asked, what kind of training is necessary to become a PI? What skill do you need? When I'm talking to women who asked me about my career and after hearing some of my stories, they usually say, you know, I would make a good investigator. I know that I have the skills. In reality, women are much better than men in many cases because of the intuition they have and then their ability to disarm a suspect by not thinking that, oh, this attractive woman would be an investigator working on a case against me. If women have an interest in action and intrigue, with the cases that involve pretext interviews, making connections with a male or female target of an investigation. And also on surveillance or a tail on a male target, a female agent can easily disarm, and, throw the, target off. course of thinking that someone might be following him, even though if he might see this attractive, female pop up, occasionally in his view. We've had some cases where professional streetwise con men have been caught up by our undercover female agents due to the men's ego and fallen prey to the charms of a talented and female agent. On any case, where our female agents are working in the field, they are protected by a tactical team ready to go to their aid. Because of the role playing, planning, and controlling the environment we put into an operation with female agents in the field, we rarely ever have to intercede to keep them safe. The key to any successful undercover operation is in the planning. The role playing. Yes, rehearsing every detail of the plan over and over until all negatives that can be thought of that might come up are planned for. You leave nothing to chance. Yes. I learned early on in my career the way to take down a professional con man was a bigger con in reverse. We've had some very elaborate cons that scooped up the bad guys, but more on that later on another report. One of the effective activities of our female division is when they assume the role as a freelance reporter working on the story about an event or a product. One such case, and we've worked many similar, was a, a client who came to us to find out if a manager who had left their employment had taken a patent design of a new bathing suit that eliminated the creepy bikini line. This former employee had joined a competitor who was coming out with a new line. Our mission was to infiltrate and prove or disprove The theft. After we did a team brainstorming on an action plan and learned that the target considered himself a ladies man, we decided the appropriate investigator was an attractive female armed with the knowledge of the product. We selected one of our top agents who was an actress and set up some training sessions with the clients, designers. So the agents could get a good working knowledge of the product line and general information about the bathing suit, products. After three sessions with the designers and having seen the patent design sample that they thought might have been stolen, she was ready to approach the target. We decided the best agent approach was to set the agent up as a freelance writer doing a story on the bathing suit industry. And what the future looked like. We developed a cover as a journalism college student with a business card, a phone number going to a covert lines that would be answered by our operations center, if it would ever be called with something like a beachwear productions, answered the phone. We had found in the past that the targets had not asked about past articles when our agent, had gone undercover in one of these assignments, and they hadn't really checked on their background when the agent uses freelance cover story. We had done a complete workup on the company that the target had gone to work for. We developed a target package on the subject. We had followed him to work on several occasions. We knew his routine. We knew where he went after work. We knew when he went to bed and when he got up. And we had a really good profile on him. Since he was working in the design area, the agent approach would be writing the story around upcoming designs and changes in the bedding and suit area. So our initial approach to the front desk would help guarantee that his department would be contacted about the story. We had gathered enough intelligence on the target to know that he was going to be in the office the day we set forth the first approach. We had selected the location for the cover team to set up. And, the agent would be wearing the wire. So we would know what was going on in a meeting with the target, even though it was in a business. We knew from past experiences that being in a business didn't give 100 percent security for the agent. We set up to approach to the company by the agent about 3 PM in case that she was able to make contact and it might work out that he would ask her to go for a drink or something after the first meeting kind of been a pattern in these kind of cases, but what we had learned about the target. We felt sure he would make a play to the agent. We had rented a Mustang convertible to get the agent some flair. She had long blonde hair and was a 10, you might say, and a workout body. And, we didn't want her driving her own car, which if somebody decided to run the license plate, they might, find out her address. Since, this was a new client, I decided to be at the location and listening to the conversation just to see how things went. The agent went in and talked to the receptionist and told him this cover story. She was very persuasive to letting the reception know how important this was for her degree and so on. After about 15 minutes, the, reception told the agent that Mr. Mitchell, who happened to be our target. assume name here who was by chance, in and would talk to her to see if he could help, listen to her walk into his office and hearing his sudden availability. Once he saw her to talk and be available, told us, we'd gotten across the first hurdle. For the next hour, he was asking her about the article and was hitting on her and letting her know all the knowledge he had about the industry and that he had something big coming out and a new design that would revolutionize the bikini industry. Just what we wanted to hear. As the agent answered his questions, the preparation paid off. She sounded like she had done her homework, knew what she was talking about. And as, about 5 PM approach, he said, Oh, let's arrange this for another day. When we got all day. See ya. And he, offered to, take her, for a drink he said he had a place nearby and that we could talk some more and get acquainted. The lounge was about five minutes away and the agent following in her car with a long blonde hair blowing in the wind with a convertible top down. And it was an easy follow for our team and for us to get, to the location and monitor what was going on in the lounge. Then the next hour, hour and a half, he was making his play. Men are so predictable. At about 6 30, we had let it go long enough. And we did a prearranged phone call, letting her know, cut it off with a prearranged commitment. He arranged for her to come in the next morning at 10 to spend the day. When we got back to the headquarters and debriefed the agent, she told us on his conference table there were numerous drawings and designs of new products. And one she had noticed with only a casual look, not wanting to appear too interested, appeared to be similar to one the client had showed her of their patented design. Hopefully the next day we would hit pay dirt. The next morning we set up the agent with the wire, had some last minute discussions about what ifs, and those are things that might come up. She showed up at 10am, I was taken to the target's office, and almost immediately he started hitting on her again. As the morning went on with a break for lunch, we had too much to drink and tried to get the agent to drink more. She was a pro though. She handled him like a fish with a hook in deep and kept wriggling him in. As he spent time telling her about how great a designer he was, she navigated around to the conference table to have him show her what he meant and what his designs look like. She asked if she could take some photos for notes on writing up of her story. And believe it or not, he readily agreed. when he came to his new bikini creation, he held it up for her to take a photo. And on the edge, you could see the faint outline of our client's name, which he had tried to cover. Oh, this was too easy. He talked at great length about the time and research that had taken him to perfect this new design that would revolutionize the industry. As the late afternoon was rolling around, the agent got our phone call for an emergency meeting and she let him think that she'd be in touch with him the next day, to set up the dinner that he had asked her to do. The agent wanted to make sure that she had gotten enough of the client's attorneys, so she didn't want to burn the bridge at this point. Back at the office and reviewing the documents and with a call to the clients attorney, they said what we had was enough, was a full writeup, by the agent. We also had all the conversations on tape, from the wire. Why did this very involved case where the target should have been more cautious conclude so quickly? We spent many, many more hours than the agent actually did on the assignment in the preparation. It was due to that detailed preparation we did with all the role playing using the attractive female which disarmed to target and the agent getting knowledge of the product. We rehearsed whatever, everything that we could think of. I just wished every case worked out like this so easily. Thank you for helping me by liking, sharing, and subscribing. And you know the drill, hit that notification bell to let you know when the next post will go out. also leave any comments or questions about any of the, cases or anything that you might have around our field, on any of the platforms. You could also email me directly at p little pi777@gmail.com. If you have an issue in your family or business and would like to see if a PI could help you, please let me know. And again, the email is p little pi777@gmail.com. Help keep your community safe by investigating what is going on around you and be aware of security issues. If you would like ideas on how to make your home or business more secure, please let me know. Until next time, be safe. May God bless you. May God bless your family and may God bless America.