by admin_lauth | Feb 7, 2017 | Tips & Facts
This was a big week for news in America. It seemed like a new story broke before you could finish reading about the first one. All of the major networks and newspapers were scrambling to report on everything taking place, but one story in the private investigation world stood out me more than the others.
The headline “Stranger enters Arizona woman’s home, eats food, uses shower, sleeps in her bed, police say” was attention grabbing and hard to forget. Most people would read this headline and quickly move on under the assumption that surely this was an outlier. This is a case of one dumb criminal who got far too cozy during a break, but if you do the slightest bit of googling, you’ll quickly find it’s really not that uncommon for home intruders to do these kinds of things. Here’s a rundown of some similar incidences and what you can do to protect your home and property.
Denver Police Warn Home Owners String of Break-ins, Burglars Eating their Food
In 2015 there were a series of break-ins across Denver. Each of the burglaries had something in common; the thieves weren’t stealing anything, but were breaking in and eating food at the houses. Wile nothing was stolen, it was happening so often that Denver police issued a warning to people in the area.
Denver police didn’t think the break-ins were related, but that almost makes it stranger. What are the odd all of these people were breaking into houses just to steal food? One of the burglaries was perpetrated by a kid. The homeowner walked into to find the kid watching anime on her tv while eating food. He ran from the scene when they cam home.
Arizona Man Enters Home, Sleeps in Woman’s bed, has Standoff with Police
The case referenced in the introduction took place in Mesa, Arizona last October. Joshua Forsgren broke into a home and took a nap inside the homeowners bed. Forsgren must have been pretty tired from all that burglarizing, because he was still asleep when the homeowner came arrived home with her children and found him in her bed.
She quickly exited the house and called police. When the police arrived they tried to get Forsgren to exit the home of his own volition, but he had other ideas. As police waited outside they observed Forsgen going through the house and eating food. After 90 minutes the police entered the home and took Forsgren down with a stun gun. He’s now in jail awaiting trial.
Man breaks into house, takes shower, eats pizza, but steals nothing
The Florida Man stories never cease to amaze us. If you’re unfamiliar with Florida Man, do a quick search and you’re mind will be blown. Whether it’s Florida Man setting his underwear on fire at a Starbucks or when Florida Man got body slammed by a pro wrestler after threatening him with a bb gun while trying to make him buy him a beer, Florida Man is always up to something.
While this story is surprising, Florida Man being the perpetrator sure isn’t. In September, 36-year-old Timothy Tomlinson broke into a home, showered, ate pizza and downed two bottles of water. Tomlinson didn’t steal anything, but he was charged with burglary for unlawfully entering the home. Luckily the homeowner didn’t lose any valuables to theft, but Tomlinson broke multiple kitchen windows to get in.
What does this mean to you?
It’s alarming to think someone could just enter your home while you’re gone. The fear of coming home while someone is still in your house is a scary proposition. One of the easiest things to do is make sure all of your doors and windows are locked whenever you head out. Porch lights are a great deterrent and they can help ward of would-be burglars by making it difficult for them to approach the home undetected.
Security cameras are excellent to catch in perpetrator in the act, but they’re also good at scaring burglars off. Some burglars are dumb enough to see cameras on a house and try to break in anyways, but most won’t. It’ll also give you excellent evidence to help the police catch any intruders.
Another great tip is is catalogue your property. By keeping an active inventory of all of your valuables, you’ll be able to immediately identify any property that’s stolen and provide pictures to police. This is as easy as snapping a picture with your phone and saving them to the cloud with a brief description you can write in your notes app.
If family heirlooms are stolen, consider contacting a private investigation firm like Lauth Investigations International. While the police would like to catch every single burglar and return property to their owners, their resources are limited and if it’s not a violent crime their motivation to catch the crook is low. Private investigators on the other hand work exclusively for you and know where to look for stolen goods. Armed with pictures and descriptions of the items, private investigators like Thomas Lauth can make short work of finding your belongings.
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
by admin_lauth | Oct 8, 2016 | Tips & Facts
1. Keep your employees safe
Keeping employees safe is the humber one priority for most businesses. According to the United Stated Department of Labor Occupational Health and Safety Administration, 2 million workers report being the victim of workplace violence every year. 4,679 fatal workplace injuries happened in 2014 with 749 of those deaths being ruled homicides.
Protecting your business from the threat of violence must be a top priority in order to create a safe and productive space for your employees. Employees shouldn’t be anxious about their safety and neither should you.
Increased emphasis on pre-employment background checks can keep potentially violent people off of a company’s payroll. Annual background checks of current employees will help detect changes or rising threat levels before anything bad can take place. Private investigators can screen employees for red flags and let you know about them before it’s too late.
2. Save money through employee retention
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Some form of that question is asked in every single interview across America. Businesses don’t want to hire people for the short term. They want people that will stick around and be part of their company for years to come. Long term employees bolster company culture and cohesion. They also save businesses money on training costs.
The Center for American Progress reported in 2012 that the average cost to replace an employee fell between 10% and 30% of that employee’s annual salary. Searching for new employees sucks time and money from other activities managers could be working on. Improved background checks will protect any company’s investments by helping them make the right choice the first time they fill a position.
3. Protect your assets
Employee theft is a major problem for businesses. Costing up to $18 billion annually, everything that can be done to prevent employee theft must be done. Companies won’t always know before hiring someone if they’re more likely to commit theft, but expansive background checks can help detect early warning signs.
Credit checks are an excellent indicator of an increased risk of theft. For years the government and military have run credit checks on all personnel seeking security clearances. The higher someone’s debt and lower the credit, the higher their chances of being compromised by financial gain.
Has the employee stolen before? Do their former coworkers consider them honest? Beyond credit checks, a deep look at past employment can help indicate if someone might steal. Private investigators can find all this information and more.
4. Investigate social media history to prevent going viral for the wrong reasons
Going viral is all the rage for companies in 2016. Everyone wants to be the talk of social media and to trend on FaceBook and Twitter. Companies spend a lot of money on marketing and promotion aimed at creating the next online sensation. But what happens when you go viral for all the wrong reasons?
in 2012, Jessica Harr was a bartender for Proof Nightclub in Chicago when her Facebook page regrettably caused the club to become the talk of the internet. In an extremely racist FaceBook post Harr described African Americans as “ignorant” “stupid,” and “apes.” Harr even swore she’d never hire an African American for those reasons.
The post quickly went viral and numerous people threaten to boycott the club. Other club owners came out and said they’d had issues dealing with Proof Nightclub as well. Harr was quickly fired, but Proof’s brand was damaged and they had to commit serious time and money to repairing their identity.
In the age of social media, companies cannot afford to ignore their employee’s social media pages. One post is all it takes to stoke outrage and retaliation against a business for those they employ. If your background checks don’t include extensive online research then you need to make a change fast. Protect your brand and go viral for the right reasons.
5. Trouble with past employers
When companies interview job candidates it’s important they not only verify their work history, but investigate it as much as possible. Verifying the dates of employment is a good start, but finding out how the candidate interacted with coworkers and management is vital to thorough vetting.
Private investigators are perfect for building a profile of any candidate to better evaluate their chances of success if hired. Was the candidate considered a team player at their last job? Did they show up early and leave late or cut corners to get out as quick as possible? Don’t waste your time on employees who won’t give your company 100%. Find out who they are before you pay them for who you think they might be.
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
by admin_lauth | Sep 19, 2016 | Corporate Investigations, Personal Investigations, Private Investigations News
1. We Locate People
The individual could be a witness, heir, a missing child, or a criminal. Maybe the individual is a former disgruntled employee who could whistle-blow about corporate misconduct or fraud. You might needing locate a subject in possession of the proverbial “smoking gun”—as in the case of stolen assets. Whether it’s an interview, serving papers, or investigate individuals, a Lauth PI can help you to identify and locate the subject.
2. We Locate Assets
Lauth Investigators are skilled at locating assets such as real estate, unclaimed property, and other valuable property like: artwork, antiques, collectibles, motor vehicles, aircraft, vessels, etc. A Lauth investigator can also help attorneys to identify the location both domestic and offshore bank accounts.
3. We Can Leverage for Negotiations
A Lauth Investigator can pull together key sources and intelligence to inform your side during litigation, in an M&A deal, during an internal investigation, or any other adversarial situation. It can make the difference between a favorable settlement and an unfavorable one.
4. We Can Help Attorneys Enforce Judgments
Obviously, a judgment is only useful if you are able to enforce it. A Lauth Investigator can help attorneys to identify current assets and uncover efforts to hide or misrepresent them through the transfer to family members, friends or other parties.
5. We Can Connect the Dots
Lauth Investigators can help you to know who is actually sitting on the other side of the table during litigation or a potential business deal. You can gain immeasurable negotiation power by identifying who is actually behind a faceless corporation or tying together undisclosed connections.
6. We Can Generate A Historical Reconstruction/Timeline
A historical reconstruction may be helpful in a number of different areas. Perhaps you need to review the history of a family to locate heirs. It could be a corporate history or a chain of title issue in a real estate matter. Whatever the issue, a Lauth Investigator can help to identify and piece together long lost documents, facts and witnesses.
Aaron Snyder — Research Investigator and Blog Writer — Lauth Investigations International
by admin_lauth | Mar 7, 2016 | Tips & Facts
There’s nothing inherently wrong with meeting someone online; more and more people are meeting that way each year. However, it’s important to know how to vet someone you have met online—it’s not as easy as with people you meet in person. Read these quick tips about how to know who you meet online.
1. Authenticate Their Social Media Profiles
The first-step when you meet someone online should be to authenticate their social media profiles. Essentially, you should be looking to confirm that the person you have met is the person depicted in the profile, and that the person depicted in the profile is a real person.
Start by combing over the social media profile where you met the individual. For instance, if you met them on Facebook, check to see how many friends they have. Someone with very few friends may just be new to Facebook, but often times its a red-flag that the owner of the profile could be suspicious. See how many photos they have posted to the account. Users with only one photo, a graphic instead of a photo, or no photo at all may have something to hide. If they do have photos of themselves, compare the photos to make sure that they are the same person from photo to photo. Check to see if they post to their timeline often, but more importantly, check to see if other people are posting on their timeline. Signs of a two-way conversation or other engagement with users can be an indication that the person is, in fact, real.
Try to find other social media platforms that the individual is using. Compare the profiles and come to a conclusion about whether or not the person is a fake. Once you have determined the user is a real person, use information gleaned from their social media profiles about the safest way to proceed.
When it comes to social media profiles, you are looking for substance. If there is a lack of substance or the profile seems otherwise shady—stay away.
Remember, successfully authenticating their social media accounts is only the first-step. You may have confirmed that they are who they say they are, but, like with any other stranger, it is still important to get the know them before giving them your trust.
2. Ask The Right Questions
Getting to know someone is hard, right? Knowing what to ask is important when meeting people in general, but especially so when meeting people online.
The traditional 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, and why) go a long way towards vetting someone you meet online:
Who are they? Not just their name, but ask them who are they as a person. What drives them? What to do they do? For a living, for fun, on Sunday afternoons, anything—personal questions are a good way to find out if a person is genuine. Where are they from? Do they live far away from their family and friends, or are they well integrated into their community? When did they move to the area? Why?
Asking smart questions, and paying close attention to their answers, can be extremely helpful when trying to understand if a given individual is genuine. Be intensely aware of any inconsistencies in their answers. Find clever ways to ask the same question with different phrasing—see if they are consistent and confident when talking about themselves during your conversations.
3. Choose the Safer Apps
One of the best ways to ensure safety while using social media online is to make sure that you are using the safer social media platforms. There are no social media outlets that are inherently unsafe, but there are certain features on some platforms that make them more attractive to wrongdoers.
Be aware of the privacy and security features of each social media platform you use. Anonymous messaging apps like Kik, among others, are a popular social media platform for predators. A good rule of thumb to follow: if the level of user anonymity is high on a particular social platform, it is more likely that individuals interested in remaining anonymous will use the platform.
Ever thought of talking to someone using FaceTime instead of messengers or phone calls? FaceTime allows you to see who you are talking to, confirm that they match their online profiles, and gives you the ability to read their facial expressions during your conversations. FaceTime, as a conversational app, lets the user interact with others more like they do in the real world. Try asking the person you have met online if they would like to use FaceTime, Skype, or another video streaming app instead of using messengers or phone calls.
4. Try Meeting People Who Live Locally
In an increasingly global society, physical geography plays a smaller and smaller role in the people we meet and interact with. There is nothing wrong with that, but it does make it harder to know if the people we are talking to are who they say they are. It is much easier when the person you’ve met online lives locally. Check to see if they like community gathering places, restaurants, and events in your area. See if they have photos taken locally—if they do, it’s more likely that they are real, and didn’t just pull the photos off of the internet.
Not only can it make vetting their social media easier, but it also gives you the option to meet-up in person at some point. This should be done safely, as we will discuss in tip number 5, but it is certainly one of the best tools to use when determining a given individual’s motives and whether their intentions are genuine or not.
5. Meet Somewhere Public and Bring a Friend
Most people already know that it is best to meet someone for the first time in a public place. Meeting up in a dark ally is bad—for obvious reasons. A public coffee house, restaurant, or otherwise busy establishment is a much better option. But still, there are a few things that you can do to make your meet even safer.
Consider bringing along a friend when you first meet someone. Ask them if they would be willing to bring a friend along as well—as a double date of sorts. If that isn’t an option, ask a friend if they would be willing to go with you early to the coffee shop or restaurant. Having a friend at a nearby table can make you feel more comfortable meeting a stranger. A friend can also monitor your exit from the establishment—as this is perhaps the most dangerous part of meeting someone in a public place. Once you have entered your vehicle and safely left, your friend’s job is done.
This may seem a bit extreme, and is not necessary in all situations, but it’s an easy and effective preventative measure. Bringing a friend along is a great idea—especially if you are meeting someone for the first time.
Aaron Snyder, Writer, Lauth Investigations Blog
![Workplace Fraud: The Three Types of Employees]()
by admin_lauth | Feb 15, 2016 | Corporate Investigations
There are a few generally accepted types of employees when it comes to workplace fraud and embezzlement. Social science has done a great deal of research on who commits workplace fraud and why they decide to offend. The three most common types of employee, when it comes to likelihood of committing fraud, are: honest employees, generally honest employees, and professionally dishonest employees.
Professionally Dishonest Employees
Often referred to as “professional fraudsters”, these individuals are more uncommon than the other types, but are important to understand and make note of. They certainly do exist, and there may be more of them than you might think. These fraudsters seek companies with weak controls and the inability to detect workplace fraud. These employees move from company to company in order to defraud them. These individuals generally had no intention of working for said company; their only intention from their initial interview is to defraud an organization for personal gain. This type of planned, calculated, and premeditated workplace fraud is one of the most serious types of fraud, and often times they involve large dollar amounts.
Companies can combat these fraudsters by creating stronger controls and implementing a plan to discover workplace fraud. The mere existence of such of a plan to deter workplace fraud can be enough to denture these fraudsters from ever infiltrating the company to begin with—they are looking for any easy payday. Organizations with weak controls and highly autonomous workers should be particularly aware of this type of employee, and take steps in order to make sure they are never hired in the first place.
Generally Honest Employees
The second category of employees is generally honest ones. These employees took the job and, originally, never planned on stealing or defrauding the company. There are two main risk factors that are used to determine how likely a particular employee is to engage in fraud.
The first risk factor is opportunity. If a generally honest employee is given a large opportunity, or many smaller opportunities, to steal from the company they are more likely to commit workplace fraud than an employee with limited opportunity. Limiting the opportunity for workplace fraud to occur may be the single best preventative measure that can be taken to avoid the issue altogether.
The other determining factor is the employee’s perceived need for the money. Employees who are dependent on gambling, alcohol, or drugs are certainly at a higher risk to offend, but sometimes, all it takes for fraud to occur is any level of perceived need and a high level of opportunity.
Honest Employees
They certainly exist, but far too often, employers estimate that they have more honest employees than they actually do. Often times, victims of workplace fraud become victims by believing that their employees are all honest. Other times, employers are concerned about low-level workers while the most likely individual to commit fraud is a long-term, trusted, knowledgeable, and important employee.
Employees that have been around for awhile have a working knowledge of the company, and in turn, understand the best ways that they could defraud the company without suspicion. Companies can help insulate themselves from fraud by understanding that their most likely offenders are also the employees they might least suspect.
Regardless of the character of the workers that a given company employs, it is impossible to completely avoid the possibility that workplace fraud could occur in the organization. Understanding these simple categories can help avoid hiring the wrong people, but because workplace fraud can happen anywhere, it is also important to know how hiring a Private Investigator can help you discover fraud, recover losses, and prosecute offending employees.
Aaron Snyder, Writer, Lauth Investigations Blog
