Do you need help locating stolen property?
You’re not alone! Unfortunately, many people across Canada, especially in large cities like Toronto, Ottawa, and Calgary lose property, goods, and assets all the time.
The good news is, not all is lost!
Hiring a private investigator will help you recoup your losses. An expert private investigator can provide locate services to find both personal and business property.
Private Investigator Service: Locates
If you don’t have experience or the right training, performing locates on your own is difficult.
Working with law enforcement can also lead to dead ends and extreme frustration. After all, your local police force works long hours and often carries very heavy caseloads.
This is why it’s highly recommended that you hire and work with a private investigator.
Skip Tracers offer locate services. A skip tracer, also known as a private investigator, is a highly trained individual. They will track down whatever it is you’re looking for and provide any evidence you need to bring charges to the guilty party (when applicable).
The best part about working with a private investigator or private investigation agency is that you have people dedicated to working on your case. Licensed private investigators will focus on solving your problem.
You can rest easy knowing a good private investigator will do everything they can to locate your missing item or person.
A private investigator performs locates for several reasons. These reasons include, locates for personal and business property, as well as locates for stolen assets.
Locate: Personal Property
Have you recently lost personal property? Maybe your car was stolen from your garage or storage space. Maybe you’ve also experienced theft from a porch pirate.
Whatever it is you’ve lost, a private investigator can provide a skip trace service.
Locates: Stolen Assets
Assets can include anything from jewelry to art to vehicles to cash. If you believe someone has stolen some of your assets and local law enforcement has not aided or acted in a sufficient manner to assist you, contact us at the Smith Investigation Agency.
We’ll assign a skip tracer who can dedicate the time and resources needed to locate your missing property through various tactical methods, including interviewing with witnesses and searching in pawn shops, tracking the sale of stolen goods online, running surveillance operations, and installing GPS tracking devices.
Our private investigators have a 98% success rate. Since our agents have a much smaller caseload than local law enforcement teams, they can focus their time and energy directly on your case. Our PIs also work inconspicuously to avoid tipping off the perpetrator, increasing the chance of your assets being found.
Locates: Business Property
Good private investigators also work with businesses to locate stolen property.
Again, this property could include physical assets like product or stock or monetary assets like unpaid invoices.
For example, let’s say that a business makes an agreement with a client that purchases a large amount of product. The business accepts a partial payment but sends the entire amount of product purchased.
Then, the client disappears.
This is a perfect example of when a skip tracer can help. A skip tracer will track down the client to help the business recoup what was lost.
Additional Locate: Find a Missing Person
Locates don’t just apply to things or assets.
Locates also apply to finding a missing person.
So if you have a long-lost relative, or want to find your birth mother, a private investigator can help.
Private investigators use the same tactics and techniques to find missing people. The best part of working with a private investigator is that they will dedicate the time to finding your missing person.
Good private investigators don’t stop when the trail goes cold. They keep digging and searching until they uncover something that can help to locate the person you’re looking for.
This is another reason why working with a private investigator is well worth the time.
How to Locate Stolen Property
Licensed private investigators receive training in all sorts of different investigative techniques, including locates.
To run a successful skiptrace case, a private investigator will draw on these techniques to get you results.
Some of the techniques or additional services a private investigator will use during a locate case include background checks, surveillance and Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM).
Background Check
Quite often a private investigator will already have a list of suspects based on the information you provide.
A private investigator will run a background check on the suspect to gather a lot of information including,
- Financial information
- Driving records
- Criminal records
- Education
- Current employment
- Previous employment
Based on the results of a background check, a private investigator can begin to piece together their locate case. For example, the information uncovered can reveal the location of the suspect or where they likely took the stolen goods.
Surveillance
Before a private investigator approaches a suspect, they need to gather information and evidence. Basically, a private investigator will gather proof that a suspect is guilty of stealing your assets. Information gathered legally can be used as evidence in court and is extremely helpful in filing charges.
Surveillance is the act of observing someone without their notice. This private investigation service is tricky to get right, which is why you should always leave surveillance work to a professional private investigator.
The reason for this is because when people suspect or realize they’re being watched or followed, they change their behaviour. When it comes to locate cases, this could also mean that the individual gets rid of the product or evidence. Your property or assets become more difficult to find.
When done right, a good private investigator can track down your goods and capture evidence. Both help you to get your missing property back.
Undercover Work
If you suspect that an employee has been stealing from you or conducting fraudulent activity, we can find out by conducting undercover work in your company. We have helped hundreds of businesses, from Fortune 500 companies to SMBs, uncover white collar crime, embezzlement, employee theft, and other forms of misconduct in the workplace. Our monitoring services can help return stolen corporate funds to the rightful owner and prevent company losses in the future.
Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM)
Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) is a private investigation service. If you suspect that your home or office has been bugged with audio or video surveillance equipment, a PI can conduct a bug sweep.
The bug sweep will expose any recording devices. The private investigator will remove these devices and help you to prevent the situation from happening again. A private investigator will also help you to find the person responsible.
When it comes to skip trace services, a private investigator will provide a bug sweep if they believe your missing assets are related. For example, if a trust fund’s gone missing, let’s say that it’s because someone set up a bug in your home to uncover your password information. Alternatively, someone who hacked into your computer or tablet could have uncovered the information too.
TSCM services can truly help to provide a private investigator with more insight into particular locate cases.
More Information on Locates
Do you need more information on locates? Maybe you have some questions, and that’s great!
To learn more about locates and the other types of services private investigators offer, reach out to The Smith Investigation Agency. Our team of knowledgeable staff can answer all your questions and help you get your missing assets back.
Don’t wait. Get someone on the case today!
About the Author
Whitney Joy Smith
Founder of The Smith Investigation Agency in 2014, Whitney Joy Smith’s extensive background as a private investigator is matched only by her passion for the role. A graduate of several respected institutions, including Northwest Florida State College and George Brown College, her early years in life were spent between Canada and the United States. This education, along with her formative years as a private investigator in various agencies, informed much of her knowledge of private investigative laws, regulations, and operating standards in both countries.
The recipient of numerous industry awards and accolades, including the Consumers Choice Award, Best in Ottawa, and many others, Whitney takes pride in working closely with her ever-growing agency to raise the bar, maintain compliance, and meet the investigative needs of clients. Whitney is active in various membership and supporting roles, including the CPIRC, CBN, CAPI, Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and many others. Her experience-driven, thought-provoking articles have been featured in everything from Readers Digest to Business News Daily, and she strives to continually redefine standards for those in the private investigative and security fields. Learn more about Whitney and the team at The Smith Investigation Agency today.
