From imagined to real cases

Most clients of our detective agency in Oberhausen* contact us because they have a concrete, real, and verifiable problem. Occasionally, however, we investigate for clients who later turn out to suffer from a mental condition such as unfounded fears of persecution, compulsive behaviours, or simple senility. The following case illustrates both the investigative possibilities of our corporate detectives in Oberhausen and an example of somewhat confused clients.

Missing and moved items

The Marl couple were in their late seventies. Their only son had long been concerned about his parents’ safety, as they repeatedly reported burglaries and constant changes to their belongings—as if someone deliberately wanted to drive them mad. The son had already installed several infrared cameras in and around the house but never found any evidence of intruders—until all cameras suddenly stopped working. Living and working in Switzerland, he could not regularly check on his parents’ home and therefore commissioned our private detectives in Oberhausen. Since not only the parents’ possessions but also the son’s items stored in the attic were affected, he had a dual interest in resolving the case.

Detective on the trail of burglary traces

The first measure taken by our commercial detectives in Oberhausen was to secure traces. The neighbour was said to have recently entered the house via a flowerbed, opened the door with a copied key and forced open a documents and jewellery cabinet with burglary tools. Although nothing was missing from the cabinet, the internal order had allegedly been completely disturbed and there had been thefts in the past. Although the preceding days had been rather rainy, there were no foot or shoe prints in the flowerbed, nor did the cabinet show any signs on the wood or on or inside the lock of having been opened without the appropriate key. It should be noted that even sophisticated and outwardly inconspicuous lock-opening methods such as lockpicking leave scratch marks on lock cylinders and are therefore detectable.

 

Next, our detective from Oberhausen searched the house for possible entry routes for burglars. The lock on the back door had been replaced; the front door had recently been fitted by the son with a new security lock and met private requirements for high burglary resistance. In the cellar there were several smaller tilt windows through which a small, slender person might have gained entry, but not without completely smashing the glass or forcibly removing the frame. As all the windows were intact, this was not an option. The upper floor of the house would at best have been accessible via ladders through tilted windows, yet here too there were no signs of forced entry. Finally, the couple suspected that the burglar or burglars had entered via the attic. Accordingly, the private investigator inspected the attic window on the pitched roof, which could only be reached with the help of a ladder and by walking a short distance along the roof beams. Months-old dust lay on these beams; any passage would inevitably have left impressions in this dust, yet the layer showed no irregularities whatsoever. The window itself also displayed no signs of forced entry. Subsequently, the investigator from our private detective agency in Oberhausen thoroughly turned the entire attic upside down, pulled out every cupboard to look for connections to neighbouring houses and examined every object for traces — nothing.

Sabotaged Camera Surveillance and Futile Observation

Despite the lack of results from the trace search, the Marl couple insisted they regularly heard movements in the attic and subsequently noticed changes. For this reason, our commercial investigator installed covert infrared cameras in the attic and connected them to the mains to ensure continuous operation. After a week, during which several incidents had allegedly occurred again according to the Marls, he dismantled the cameras and reviewed the recordings. On the very first evening Mrs Marl appeared on camera, moved a few items, dusted something off, then — apparently surprised — examined the power strip to which the cameras were connected, pulled the plug and the recording ended. Naturally, she had previously been informed by our detective in Oberhausen about the purpose of the power strip and that she must not under any circumstances unplug it.

 

At the next meeting with the operations management of our commercial detective agency in Oberhausen, the Marls stated that every time they left the house someone tampered with their possessions. There was not one occasion, they claimed, on which everything was as they had left it upon their return. To verify this assertion, our investigator agreed with the couple to enter the house secretly at night and wait inside for the burglar after the Marls had left. The security specialist repeated this procedure on four nights, without a single person ever appearing in the house.

Bug-Sweeping Specialists and Mantrailing Dogs

The next idea put forward by the couple, backed by their son, was that of listening devices and miniature cameras placed in the flat. How else could it be explained that the burglar or burglars only failed to enter the house on those days when the detective was waiting inside?, the Marls asked. The perpetrators must have been able to obtain a visual insight into the living space. Consequently, our bug-sweeping specialists in Oberhausen were deployed promptly and examined all floors and rooms for listening devices such as bugs and cameras hidden in camouflaged containers. The methods used by these nationally recognised counter-surveillance experts ensure an almost one hundred per cent level of accuracy. Nothing was found and, of course, our detective agency in Oberhausen had long suspected that the burglaries were most likely age-related delusions. A cautious attempt to confront the son with this possibility failed due to resistance and accusations such as, “You are not capable of catching the burglars and now you want to blame my parents’ mental state! They are perfectly fit! Do your job, please!”

 

Very well, we thought, there was one last possibility and, if we were being compelled in this way to continue an essentially hopeless activity, we would not additionally engage in a dispute about why we might terminate the Auftrag from our side, after all it was not the Marls but the demanding and argumentative son who was paying us — and given his age (early forties) one could hardly ascribe senility to him. We therefore resorted to a final straw: mantrailer dogs. These highly specialised scent-tracking dogs, trained from an early age, are capable of detecting and following human scent trails even weeks and months later. In the past they have repeatedly assisted us with great effectiveness in solving missing persons cases or identifying anonymous letter-writers. If these true instruments of detective casework found nothing, then there was nothing to be found. A box in the attic served as the scent carrier; Mrs Marl swore blind that it did not belong to the family, had never been touched by any family member and must definitely have been brought there by the burglar. Using this box, the dogs picked up the trail, followed it through the front door to the Marls’ garage, then further along the driveway to the pharmacy where Mrs Marl had shopped that same morning. The tracking of the last person who had touched the box therefore led directly to Mrs Marl. Further attempts with other scent carriers produced the same results — the dogs either trailed Mrs Marl or her husband. Nothing among the items supposedly last touched by the burglar bore fresh scent traces of persons not living in the household.

Extensive Portfolio of Investigation Methods

At this point our detective agency in Oberhausen finally terminated the investigation, to the annoyance of the unyielding son. Of course, we could have continued to sit in the empty house for days, weeks or months, listening to nothing, but that would have been pure profiteering, as the detective costs had already exceeded the €5,000 mark at that stage. So we preferred, with a clear conscience, to hear the son’s reproaches and let him keep his bank balance. In the event of a burglary, it is unlikely that any other private or public provider could have carried out a more comprehensive catalogue of measures than our security specialists and detectives in Oberhausen did in this case. Below again is a summary of the investigative tactics applied here:

 

• Search for traces
• Installation of a burglary-resistant new lock
• Video surveillance of the living space
• Observation of the living space
• Analysis of the living space for optical and visual espionage/listening devices
• Perpetrator search using mantrailing dogs

In order to safeguard discretion and the personal rights of clients and target persons, all names and locations in this case report have been altered beyond recognition.

 

Kurtz Investigations Duisburg

Auf dem Damm 112

47137 Duisburg

Tel.: +49 203 3196 0052

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-duisburg.de

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