Drinking and Driving with Children.....

Here's a great case story.
I was hired by a hard working man with two beautiful daughters. He had tried many times to provide them with a loving family home but every time was denied custody by family court. Main reason, his ex-wife had a great job and painted a beautiful picture of a doting mother who provided well for her daughters and wanted full control. Here is what happened.
Surveillance of this wonderful mother revealed she had a serious drinking problem. She was so bad that when she did drink she always covered it up. This included while she was working, driving and caring for her children. A big break in the case came when the father received a call from a friend. The friend stated that she believed the mother to be drinking heavily. She smelled of alcohol many times but still had her daughters and put them in her car and drove away. The friend, being a mother herself could no longer take a chance being silent.
She made a call to the children's father with this news, deeply concerned that the mother could have an accident and hurt, possibly even kill his daughters. The father not knowing what to do next called me with the news. I asked the father if he was sure he could trust this person who gave him the information. He said he was sure. The new plan would be to try and plan a traffic check when the mother was seen leaving a local bar she liked to hang out at.
I left my office and headed the bar to set and watch for her to show up. Just as she did every evening after work, she showed up and went inside. As luck would have it, I just happened to see a Highway Patrol Officer sitting at a vehicle inspection station just a block from where I had set up surveillance for the vehicle.
I took a big chance, traveled to the officer and plead my case about the mother. Explained that this had been going on for a while but circumstances prevented her from being checked.
To my advantage the officer agreed to look for the vehicle. Hopefully she was going to go home. In just a few minutes, I saw the vehicle approaching. I watched as the officer pulled out behind her. It didn't take long for him to have probable cause to pull her over as she was all over the road.
As both vehicles passed my video camera, the officer lit her up with his lights and pulled her over right in front of me! What a great video. She was pulled over, asked to do a sobriety test at roadside and was arrested and taken to jail. Her vehicle was towed and all was captured on video for the judge.
As soon as I could, I reported to the father. I advised him to contact his attorney and ask for an emergency hearing for temporary custody until things could be settled. He did as instructed. I made a few calls and found out that the mother was booked and spent the night in jail due to her blood alcohol level.
Today I am happy to report, girls live with their father, happy and healthy. They see their mother for visitation. Good ending! Safety for ANY CHILD is always priority in any investigation I do. Always taking time to discover just who is the better parent. I have found that their are a lot of deserving fathers out there, just some never get the chance to prove it. Good luck to all that are in this situation.
http://www.mcconnellinvestigations.com/

Child Custody

With cases rolling in and a great instructor, I felt I had finally found my calling. My first big case was custody of a child for a father. I got to work first of all to determine if the father was telling me the truth about his case and if he was the right parent to raise this child, if I wanted to get involved and if I felt there was a chance for him. His child, a beautiful 8 year old girl, how could I say no. In the end, I took the case and went to work.
As this case came together, it didn't take long to figure out the mother in this case had no business with a child to care for or be responsible for. She was too busy partying and doing drugs, exposing her child to this lifestyle. Most of her partying was done at her home where the child was playing, sleeping and seeing things an eight year old should not see.
For the child, there was no proper meals, no bedtime, strangers sleeping over and a mother who was too wrapped up in her own life to notice.
Night surveillance revealed Mom's "new boyfriend" is a local cop and a member of the local drug task force. How convenient!
However when things got tough, I remembered that beautiful little girl inside the home and the commitment I made to save her and see to it that she was placed in a home where someone loved and cared for her and saw to her needs.
With parties going on around the clock on the weekends made it very convenient for a successful trash pull from the front lawn. Jackpot! There was all the evidence a good investigator wants to have. Photos and evidence secured, it had been a good weekend.
With many more successful surveillance days of the mother there was enough evidence for an emergency hearing.
Judge heard the case, witnessed all the evidence and photos of the mother's behavior. At the end of the day, the father went home with his little girl! Mother with supervised visitation.
As an investigator you can't ask for a better ending for a case. Such a sense of accomplishment and ready to tackle a new case.
Until next time.....

McConnell Investigations