IAmA(n) Insurance Fraud Investigator and I'm about to ruin a man's life in 4 hours for commiting insurance fraud for the past 10 years AMA

Verified with the mods.

Thank you kindly, sir

Correction: The man who committed insurance fraud ruined his own life.

Have you seen The Big White? I just watched it on Netflix.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402850/

No I have not, but it looks interesting.

Has he corresponded about this via post/USPS? Does that also qualify as mail fraud?

Edit: He ruins his own life by being a cheat. Makes rates higher for the rest of us. No pity for that fool.

No, for large claims like this one, he usually meets with people face to face or via telephone/e-mail.

They do send information via the mail, but not on the regular basis because it contains to much personal information. (to much of a risk if it get's lost or stolen)

How do you document your evidence? Have you ever gotten "caught" doing so? And finally, whats your best PI-related story?

We take video of our subjects, pictures are NOT worth 1000 words, sure a picture shows him bending over, but a good lawyer can say he was falling and the wheelchair is out of view etc.

I have many of them, it all depends on what kind of "best" you are looking for. This is one of of the best ones as in "successful" but one of the best ones that I've ever gone on was following a motorcycle rider who participated in the Rolling Thunder (the Harley Davidson riders who ride across the US) Here I am, a college student "documenting" the rolling thunder across the US and focusing on One Man's life etc. It was very intersting and I Met a lot of people, and saw dozens of senic places.

Then I've had fishing trips, airplane trips to other states, beach parties, been at strip clubs "for work"... been at Gay Clubs as well and had men hit on me while I'm watching a "dancer" with a lower back injury flap his junk around stage... - I must say, I've never had to turn people down before. So it feels empowering when a guy comes to you and hits on you and you can say ' Uh hu baby, youre not good enough for my a$$"

I do medical records reviewing and sometimes there will be surveillance video I have to watch. Most are pretty boring but I have had a couple where the people in question are obviously lying or at least exaggerating their injuries.

In an earlier job there was a case where an employee claimed a back injury where he could "barely move" but was then videotaped at another employee's wedding reception boogieing the night away. Yeah, he was not so bright.

Yup, that's what we do.

What do you do for evidence if you are in a place where you can't use cameras?

A LOT of note taking, you need to have a solid story when You go on trial. OR you can also sound record the conversation. Some states allow you to record people even when the other person doesn't know abuot it.

Damn you live an exciting life. Are you a big fan of the show Leverage?

I watch it when I have the time, but yes i kind of am.

Are you Jim Lahey?

I have not heard of this name... Am I in trouble for not knowing him?

Jim Lahey is a character on the show Trailer Park Boys. In the show, he turns in someone who was faking disability for benefits. It's a great show, and fairly popular with the reddit crowd.

haha I'll have to look it up sometime.

I love you. Fuck this guy hard.

Well.... that escalated quickly...

How much prison time will he be looking at?

It's going to depend on how the insurance company is going to deal with this. As of right now, he's facing 10 yearsi n Prison and a fine that's going to exceed $100,000 very easily. They could push for more, especially since he's been getting paid thousands of dollars a year for his "dissability"

I'm guessing by your username you may have personally followed and spied on this guy? What exactly did he do? I'm guessing strip clubs.

Yes, I have followed this man several times in the past to no avail. He would eitehr be at home or stick to his restrictions. Then we found out his mother came to the US and was staying with family members 4 states away from him, but most importantly this weekend is her birthday. We took a gamble and requested work since we wanted to see what he was going to be doing.

He and his family left early in the day and started heading West... I followed them to a small town in the middle of nowhere and had to do a double take as I see him walk out of the passenger side of the truck at a gas station, and pump air into a tire. Then walk into the store and come out with grocery bags... while his wheelchair is still in the back of the truck...

Does he have a twin brother?

No, we ran multple checks on this to make sure of this - that was our first thought.

Identical twin was your first thought, not that he was faking it?

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

What do you use as proof?

Proof that they are lying? - The video that we collect. Proof that I'm a PI? - Licenses

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because it's the interstate, you can keep with them forever from cars away. Plus, we had an address of a family member in teh state he was going to visit so I didn't have to stay 2 cars behind.

Bring the bastard down -jaded claims adjuster

Your a claim's adjuster? If so I'll do it just for you - and would love to see you do an AMA

Is it the amount of a claim that triggers an investigation, or do you usually only investigate things you get a tip on? How does an investigation originate?

THere are several things that trigger an investigation. They are called "red flags" - when thigns are not adding up in a claim. There are literally hundreds of different flags that cuold trigger an investigation.

In this case, the medical offices that he was visiting were not sending out full details over this man's injury (they too may be part of this fraud which is not unheard of) other flags were the fact that when the Claim Adjustor called his home, he would sometimes sound out of breath, or he wouldn't be home at all - which is strange since he needs to be at home and not on the street especially since his wife is supposed to be working as well.

The Investigation originates when red flags start to go off, or when a friend/co-worker gets jealous about the fact that his budy is making almost as much as them by sitting at home faking an injury.

How does one report this sort of thing?

Every state has a Fraud Department, a search online for the state you live in can get you in touch of the department in charge of the fraud division. They in turn get in touch with the insurance companies etc. - Sometimes there are rewards.

Here's something I've wondered about. Someone I know is deaf, and collects disability for this. This person received a cochlear processor a year ago, and now can obviously hear (better than myself actually), but still collects the disability. Is this illegal?

If you actually see this, thanks for answering!

Yes this is legal, they have a disability. They can hear very well but it's through the assistance of a device. Without it, they can't hear anything at all.

Also worth noting, if your friend was also Deaf from birth, then having that implant may still not mean they are able to process things 100% like we can. Their brains wired a bit differently when they were younger due to a lack of having one of their five senses, in order to help make up for the lack of a sense. My ASL teacher in high school was Deaf from birth and he had a cochlear implant. He still talked in that very rounded way that some Deaf people may talk in, and had trouble sorting through what one person would say if the entire class was talking. This can change from person to person though.

I have a friend who is deaf, and he can't pronounce a lot of the words either.

Is that similar to saying that someone in a wheelchair can still get from A to B using said wheelchair, but cannot walk from A to B?

Yes, a better example would be.

A man can't walk because he's paralysed so he gets benefits, BUT he bought a set of robotic legs (I forgot what they are called) and now he can walk to places.

He's still paralysed but is disabled... makes sense?

Is there any liability or fault on the part of other people that knew about it? For example, if he had a wife or friend that knew he could freely walk and that he was pretending to be paralyzed, could they get in trouble?

Yes they can, it's estimated that 1 in 4 Americans know of a person who has commited some sort of fraud. We see it all the time, and I'm sure you know of a friend who has done it. But we don't say anything because they are our friends/family members. BUT that doesn't mean that they or we can't get in trouble.

I once heard a quote a long time ago that said: "Society prepares the crime, the criminal commits it. If you share your friend's crime, you make it your own. Fear often follows that crime, and is its punishment. Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever, it implies a discovery of weakness, which we are more careful to conceal than a crime."

I have friends who get injured at work and over "milk" the system for an extra couple of days of vacation... nothing to serious... but fraud none of the less.

"Society prepares the crime, the criminal commits it." --Henry Thomas Buckle

Thank you sir! - I knew I heard it somewhere but Didn't know who said it.

In this case how are you going to approach the man whose committing fraud?

And is it relatively the same approach for each case?

Do you actually approach them, or do the company's you work for contact the individual?

In this case the company I'm working for wants us to approach him and conduct a recorded statement once he comes back home. Were going to ask him typical questions like, how are you feeling, were checking up on you, are you getting better etc. (he's going to say no) - we'll ask him what he did over the weekend etc.

Then we give him a warning (which really doesn't mean anything since regardless of what he says he's goign to be in court) but we'll say something along the lines of - you are aware that laying to an insuance company is going to result in XXX years of jail time and XXX amount in fine" etc.

Every approach is different.

When saying this to him, do you put a lot of emphasis on it or just casually say it in passing? Also does it feel pretty bad-ass when saying it directly to someone who is committing fraud?

Once we know he's lying for sure and we have it on video, we can say: are you sure you didn't visit your mother on XX day and stoped along the way to put air in your tires at about 12:00 pm?

It does feel alittle empowering when you see their reaction, but I don't let it get to my head.

So has someone punched you in the face before, for doing your job?

Once, but they thought I was doing something else.

What did the person think you were doing?

Following his wife around, which I was, but not for the reasons he thought I was. I ended up saying I was looking for a babysitter and as I was driving up to the house I saw her leaving, so I followed her but she came back home and then I got punched out of no where... he said hew as sorry.

Have you ever proved someone was actually injured as badly as they said? Like, you were following them around and they fell down, couldn't get up, something to that effect?

I mean, my father has had major back surgeries, requires morphine and other drugs just to get out of bed, and is in major pain throughout the day. But he doesn't complain and HATES sitting still...so most people just go "Uh huh" and think he's lying.

Yes, we prove them to be honest a lot of the times. Or when we go to an accident scene and the adjust says "make sure he can't walk, his first report of injury just says - will not be able to walk again" and we show up to a man without legs... that pretty mcuh confirms that statement.

But on a serious note, yes we prove them a lot. And people like your father are hard to believe but at the same time when they tell the truth, we can see right through it and help them out.

Is it unheard of for people in your business to "photoshop" a client in order to prove guilt?

In MY side of the business, yes, because the evidence that we get is usually taken to court. If you ever take Fradulent evidence to court, you can rest assure you'll be in WAY more trouble than the subject of the investigation would be in his life.

Now, on the OTHER side of the business (cheating spouses) a lot of GumChewPi's (investigators who don't care about what they do as long as they make the money) have done this. I've only heard of One case, but really, that's enough to make you wonder WTF... The guy faked a picture of the Subject standing next to a man, when in reality the woman was standing 5 feet away from the guy.

One more question, do you ever carry a firearm for protection? Are PI's granted more rights in that regard than a non-PI civilian?

Not me, It's to much of a liability. If someone is shooting at me and I don't have a gun, my first instinct is "flight" get out of there as fast as possible. If I had a gun with me, my instinct might sway to the "fire back and hope they stop shooting at me"

Pi's are granded more raights than a civilan, for starters I can follow people arround and not go to jail for stalking. But other "rights" are accesing clubs, getting through security a little faster, not beign bothered by law enforcement as much, and having access to database information that normally you wouldn't get...

Those $30 background services on line have nothing on my $1.00 database background purchase.

other "rights" are accesing clubs . . .

Do you mean nightclubs? Is this a matter of policy/professional courtesy, or can you actually demand entrance?

Yea, nighclubs, country clubs, private clubs, its' a matter of professional courtesy. We explain what we are doing, give them fake names for the subjects and give them a different case type etc ( in case the door man is better friends with the subject than with us) and we walk in.

Excellent... you've just given us all a great technique to get into nightclubs, private clubs, and country clubs. Even the details don't matter, since you're making them up!

How often does it work?

A lot actually, lol

You don't actually pay per search though do you? I would assume you would subscribe to the service that allows the searches.

There are two types of Database Searches: one you pay per search (hit or no hit you are charged) other ones you pay a montly charge and you can run as many as you like.

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It's Gumshoe, but I call them GumChews (thats why I capitalised the C) mainly because people use them, and spit them back out because of horrible or unethical/unprofessional they were.

what did you do before becoming an investigator? i think somewhere you were talking about a case you had while you were in college -- did you get into the job during school? what skills did you have that compelled you to do this kind of work?

I was working as a Teller at a Bank... a PI Company owner came to my bank, heard me talking spanish and he needed a person to translate for him and offered me a job he said - I'l pay you more than you are making now and offer you a career in the Private Sector as an insurance fraud investigator if you take off your name tag and come work with me right now - ... and here I am.

That job where I said I was in college was a pretext I gave to the people around me. I told them I was a college student as a way to get their permission and to lower their "who the hell is this guy videotaping me" walls.

My skills... I could peak spanish... I learnd the rest of the skilles from my boss

You don't think he might see this and try to flee?

You mean stroll away? - in all honesty, even if he flee's he's supposed to be paralyzed, not bending over and airing up the tires. The evidence I've collected in the last 48 hours is more than enough to close this case. Now were getting as much video as we can just for the added assurance that this man is lying.

I think the questioner meant, aren't you worried that if the man sees this post, he'll try to flee the country to avoid prosecution?

Also, it creeps me out that you've been following some dude around for years to make sure he's not lying. I'm sure there are many people who aren't frauds who wind up being subjected to semi-regular surveillance. What weird and embarrassing things have you caught people doing?

I was working an Insurance fraud case, and the subject came home one time, entered the front door, and a man was jumping out the window at the same time. Basically I caught the wife cheating on him with some personal trainer guy while he was away... Instant Karma

Wow, you answer really fast, thanks. As long as I'm at it, I have another question, though I think it's probably not something you'd deal with. Does anyone look into mental disability claims? How would that even be investigated?

And, what's the stupidest injury you've ever seen someone getting paid for? Really bad carpal tunnel?

We have in the past, people who were robbed at gun point claim mental dissability and claim "phobias" of a race, gender, or look.

They are VERY hard to disprove. And basically we just sit and wait until they break their restriction. For example, if a woman says: I can't talk to men with black hair because I break out in panics etc. and you get video of her socialising in a normal environment with a man like that, it can be used against them. etc.

A woman who injured her tow and claimed that the pain was to immense that somehow it caused her leg to shut down - she was blaming it on some acupuncture terminology - she ended up getting like 25k for it.

How much money do you get out of it? Do you enjoy the fact that you'll get to fuck over someone thats fucked over a company for the past 10 years?

We always make the same amount of money, we don't charge for results. Sometimes we get great breaks like this one, other times we sit outside of a home and charge the client and get no results. We do, however, get more work from the client since we did a great job on our prior case. In this business, you are only as good as your last case. If you did great, you get more work, if you screwed it up, you may not get anymore.

I don't enjoy at all, even after 4 years of doing this, I still like to give people the benefit of the doubt. But at the same time, insurance fraud costs the Insurance companies (combined) over $150 Billion per year... for which WE have to pay for.

Fuck this guy up. I work for State Farm and every time I hear about someone trying to take money not owed to them it pisses me off. One lady called in, and we sometimes hear a conversation going on in the background before we greet the caller. This one lady is yelling at her sister "I know I didn't just see that branch fly through my fucking car window!" then the rep greeted her and she calmly said "hi I'd like to add comprehensive and collision insurance on my vehicle."

Basically she was trying to get us to pay for damage she wasn't covered under

That's exactly how it goes, and then you wonder why people have their claims denied... when you hear the same story over and over and over, it makes you doubt even the truest of intentions.

Is there an insurance company you prefer to work with (because they give you lots of cases), or one that you don't like working with, for any reason?

Most insurance companies are great to work with, I can't really give out names but there are a few NATIONAL Insurance companies who can be a pain to work with... extremely high micromanaging of their investigations... calling every 10 minutes etc.

So far I have enjoyed this AMA and respect the work that YOU do. My question is, what's the other side like in your view. Corruption is in everything, that I know. But this one hits home. A buddy of mine was probably tracked by a number of you (4 by my count, I'm his next door neighbor) He had a 6 figure lawsuit against them on a number of accounts from lack of proper medical care related to work injury. The reason why it was delicate, was because it was all internal injury. He seemed fine for the most part on the outside (besides the 90 min. poops and coming off pain pill addicition all the time) His life though was shit for the 2 years he had to fight this. (recently settled and he won, for a lot less than he should have, he just wanted it over) Every time he had a depostion, it would be postponed; he'd have to go see more doctors, more everything, again and again. his doctors, their doctors. Over and over again. He couldn't drive due to the pain pills; the doctors they chose where a 3 hour bus ride away (Los Angeles: one side of the city to the other can take 3 hours on a bus). He couldn't handle that (pain pills). Everything that was done to him to postpone and make him fold for less was done for about 2 years. He still needs one more surgery, due to the fact that on the first (of I guess over all 4 surgeries needed) decided to only take care of part of the problem, instead of the whole problem, because the insurance company felt like they only had to take one hernia, let it heal, then take out the other) He did have people following him all the time for 2 years. He asked for a ride to the 99 cent store (40 ft from my house) because he couldn't be caught carrying over 20lbs. (he could do it easily, especially at 40 ft, but not for long periods of time, and the doctor told him not to push it). His whole life turned upside down, due to the watchful eye of people trying to make his lawsuit null and void. Now I know you're on the fraud side, I respect that: but

TL/DR How often do you find the fraud. I mean, that is your job, so you're looking for it. But have you ever felt that you didn't want to do one. (on the idea that the "evidence" you found of his health was actually anti-health for him, but too proud to follow)

*sorry for the rambling, never wrote the story of this down before.

Zurich was the company (owns Farmers)

You know, things like these happen, they are not unheard of. Again, I collect the evidence and the insurance companies deal it out with their attorneys.

Earlier I was talking about Restrictions and Limitations, basically the doctor says "he can't lift this much weight" but his limitations are proabbly higher. For example, my dad had an injury once, the doctor gave him a 20 pound restriction, but my dad told him that was to low and he cuold lift more than that. Even after we explained it to the insurance company, they said to stick to his restricitons. so he did, but I don't doubt that PI's were probably out there looking at him too.

I have felt like I didn't want to do something int eh past, but that's beyond my control. If I lie, I could be held responsible for what happens.

do you tolerate them because they pay better, or because a job's a job?

It's my profession, I love every day of it, plus the pay is great and I get to travel a lot.

How did this guy claim to have become paralyzed?

He was in a car accident, lower back problems, and then one day at home he slipped and he was unable to walk ever since.

I'm curious as to how he was able to pull this off with the medical reports. You said somewhere else that it isn't unheard of for the medical facility to be involved in aiding the fraud. i.e. intentionally being vague with data. Can you elaborate a little on how such a thing can happen? What exactly would be the motivation for any facility to intentionally assist someone in making a fraudulent claim?

Let's say that you are the owner of a Chriropractor clinic. Your friend Bob comes into your office and is hurt. YOU know that bob is not really hurt, but want to help him.

Bob makes 3k a month from injury benefits. and he has to come to your clinic every other day for the next 2 years. Your friend (clinic owner) gets to charge the insurance company every time you come for a visit (which is more than likely a chit chat about how things are going) and that's why they do it.

But then otu of the blue, the insurance company says ... you need to visit one of OUR doctors, and the subject starts to act sketchy, he doesnt show up, re-schedules etc. BUT when he actually does go, thats where the fraud comes to light and the doctor can't find problems with the patient etc.

The main motivator is Money... lots and lots of money...

Is it mostly the case that the patient is friends in some way with the clinic owner or do some of these practices participate in this without being personal friends with the patient? Does the clinic ever get busted, so to speak? Thanks for answering.

A lot of the times they know each other, No doctor is going to put risk his license for a man who could be a 'secret shopper" kind of investigator. Someone who goes around trying to bust these practioners.

Yes, clinics get busted, so do lawyers who also arrange the fraud at times.

I guess I'm not too surprised someone would do that, but still it seems like such a waste. Having to pretend you're in a wheel chair just to avoid work. For ten effing years. I'm glad I enjoy my job.

Please give an update with his reaction.

Hey, you enjoy your job, but you could make 75% of what you are making now to just sit at home and not do anything.... most people like that better than working like the rest of us.

Could talking about this on a public forum such as Reddit potentially be damaging to your case?

I'm not giving any information on the company, the state, or the name of person.

Do you ever try to set up a situation in which someone you suspect may be a fraud so that you can obtain proof?

Like I seen one response you made that said "Yes, I have followed this man several times in the past to no avail. He would eitehr be at home or stick to his restrictions." Do you have any certain ways of tricking them into revealing their ruse, like win free airline tickets to Hawaii or something like that? Perhaps hoping that while in that different setting they would drop the act.

Never, a while back there were two PI's on here a guy and a girl talking about setting up people to cheat on their husbands/wifes. I was going to call them out but got busy with one surveillances and never had the chance.

As a Private Investigator your job is to Observe and Listen, at NO POINT of the investigation should you influence the investigation in any way to obtain a result. This is not only Unethical, but it's also entrapment. Putting someone in a possition where they have to do something that they normally wouldn't do.

In certain TV shows (well, at least one in particular), one gets the impression that some insurance investigators have almost superhuman powers of deduction, advanced multi-step thinking, the ability to read people, etc. Obviously these shows are fiction, but is there any basis for this in reality? In other words, do the best and brightest investigators - people who could excel at being detectives, journalists, or intelligence agents - tend to gravitate toward insurance investigation rather than government or "generic" PI work?

There is some sort of truth behind this. And I can use my self as a good example. When I started working I couldn't find a watermelon in an apple basket... not literally but you get my point.

Now, because of all the cases I've handled, I've learned to pick up on smal cues. I can find people's addresses directly from google, I know what to look for etc. When it comes to reading people I can tell when they are lying, (To tell you the truth = The very next word is probably a lie) or read body languages to know when I need to change my stance to calm them down or change my story etc.

I can go and talk to you, and as Soon as I see you I need to come up with a pretext (a fake personality, story, and idea to feed you so you can give me what I'm looking for) Let say I knock in your door and I see you have a cat, - Hi I'm sorry to bother you, I'm looking for Bob - This is bob - Oh hey Bob, I'm here because my wife said that you know of a friend who breeds cats etc and were trying to find a persian cat blah bla blah. So you have to think quick on your feet and figure out what each person needs to know in order for them to give you the information that you need.

You have to think ahead of your Subject, if he's on the left lane on a highway, he's not going to exit any time soon unless the highway has a left exit, if he's on the far right, he's going to exit so be prepared (thats just an example) at the same time, you have to keep a mental image of the area you are on. Where he worked at when he got injured, department stores, parks, things of that nature so you can have a general idea of where he could be going.

It doesn't work ALL the time, but it works more than enough.

The beauty about being a PI vs being in the Government is that one has a lot of Politics behind it (Gov) while Pi's don't have as many restrictions etc and really... I know it sounds corny but, the sky is the limit when you're a PI.

Has anyone ever noticed you tailing them?

Yes, a lot of the times they have. But really, they don't know why. Usually when I get "made" I drive away and let another PI take over the following day.

But 99.9% of the time, they are to busy to even notice a car behind them... can you remember the color of the car that was behind you right before you came home? what about the cars located on your street?

Do you have to wear a disguise? Do you work with a partner? How do you pass time? Do you ever feel bad about turning a person in? What's te coolest thing that happened as a result of surveling somebody? Is it more men than women who are the frauds? What's your favorite part of the job?

Disguise: No, I look like every other person on the street. I just have to fit the part. If I'm going into a Gym, I go with shorts or windbreakers, lake, shorts and tshirt, formal event, Business attire etc. But I don't wear the trench coat like they do in TV or Inspector gadget.

I get to work with a partner about every other week, it's not often though.

Talk show radio, if you listen to songs on teh radio you fall asleep, talk show radio at least gets you to engage in the conversation.

I feel bad sometimes, but I have to do it, I don't feel as bad now as I did when I first started. After all, they brough this upon them selves.

I won a trip for two to Hawaii once. I was following a guy on a surveillance and he went to a Festival, there they had this "spin the wheel thing" and since the guy was sitting in a bench I didn't have anything to do and I spun the wheel.. it landed in the free trip slot a tiny 1 inch slot. That was pretty awesome and wouldn't of had happened if I wasn't on a surveillance.

It's usually men, they are the ones who work in construction or perform heavy duty things.

The fact that I can roll down the window when it's 90 degrees outside and it feels like I'm walking into an a freezer (my car can get as hot as 114 degrees) We have a termometer inside the car and if it gets to 120, we turn on our vehicle when and if it's possible without attracting to much attention. - other than that, is the fact that I can sit outside a neighborhood and no one even knows i"m there. Sure, they see a car, but they think it's empty - I've been towed away before while I was sittin ginside the car... I'm sure the tow truck guy doesnt believe in aliens, but He believes in transformers now after a car came On and drove out his lot on it's own. lol

Sure, they see a car, but they think it's empty - I've been towed away before while I was sittin ginside the car... I'm sure the tow truck guy doesnt believe in aliens, but He believes in transformers now after a car came On and drove out his lot on it's own. lol

what...

they don't check inside the car?

They did, I was in teh back seat covered with a black blanket. The person who called the tow truck was a security guard who we were investigating, I had no choice but stay in the car and ride the ride.

That sounds like part of an awesome story. Can you give more details?

haha, this was about 3 years ago, I was working a case out in a southern state, I was inside of an abandoned building/parkinglot and was watching a security guy. A tow truck then pulled up to the car and I saw the security guy walking towards the car so I covered my self with a blanket, they were both trying to look inside the car but didn't see anything so I got towed away.

About 25 minutes later the car stops and I look out the window (I'm inside a car towing place) and the guy started to put the car down etc.

As soon as I saw the tow truck move away, I turned on the car and drove out of there, the guy ran after the car for a few yards then that was about it lol

never heard anything about it from anyone.

When you follow someone through 4 states.... I can't imagine I wouldn't notice the same car around me for 4 states. Do you use a van with black windows to be able to even video-record a person?

Well, you're driving down the highway where a car is going to follow you for miles upon miles upon miles. How many times have you looked back on your mirror and noticed - hey, that one 18 wheeler has been following me for 100 miles! WTF!? now, picture that with a gray car? I usually let other cars get in between me and the subject when I'm following them so it's never the same car behind them.

Congrats, working on fraud investigations is long, difficult, and can sometimes go the completely opposite way you were hoping. I am assuming you'll be showing up with police? I would hope someone would get a chance to Wicklander him first to try and obtain some form of written statement which can lock him into a story that can be proven false by your evidence. Good job!

yea, I'm going to talk to him first, then we come back with evidence and a sheriff deputy.