Jewelry holds sentimental value and often represents a significant financial investment. Unfortunately, it is also a common target for theft. Understanding the insurance limitations for jewelry theft is crucial in safeguarding your prized possessions. While many people believe that their homeowners or renters insurance covers all their valuable items, there are often restrictions that can leave you under-protected. Here are three important things you should know about insurance limitations and how Lauth Investigations International can assist with jewelry theft investigation and stolen jewelry recovery.
1. Insurance Caps on Jewelry Theft
Most standard homeowners and renters insurance policies have a cap on what they will cover for property theft, especially for high-value items like jewelry. For example, many policies only cover up to $1,500 for jewelry theft, regardless of the item’s value. This can be a major problem if your jewelry collection is worth much more.
Adding specific jewelry insurance or scheduled personal property coverage can help bridge this gap, but it’s important to understand that this comes at an extra cost. Even with added coverage, not all incidents of jewelry theft or jewelry robbery may be covered. For instance, many policies exclude coverage for jewelry theft that occurs while traveling internationally or for accidental loss.
2. Homeowners Insurance vs. Stand-Alone Jewelry Insurance
While homeowners or renters insurance offers some protection for jewelry theft, it is often limited to specific circumstances, such as property theft during a burglary. Stand-alone jewelry insurance policies can offer more comprehensive coverage, including for lost or misplaced jewelry, mysterious disappearances, and accidental damage. However, these policies also come with limitations that consumers need to be aware of.
For example, most policies do not cover jewelry robbery that involves intentional damage or loss, nor do they compensate for wear and tear or manufacturer defects. This makes it essential to read the fine print of your policy to ensure that you are fully protected.
3. The Role of Professional Investigations in Jewelry Theft Cases
If you experience jewelry theft, navigating the claims process with your insurance provider can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. Even worse, many insurance claims are denied if the jewelry theft investigation doesn’t meet the insurer’s standards. This is where professional investigation services like those provided by Lauth Investigations International can be invaluable.
Lauth Investigations International specializes in stolen jewelry recovery and jewelry theft investigation. Their team of experts has a proven track record in successfully recovering stolen items, especially in cases where police efforts may fall short. With extensive experience in tracking down stolen art and valuable items, Lauth Investigations International is equipped to handle even the most complex cases of property theft.
Their expertise is not just limited to domestic jewelry theft; they also handle international cases where stolen jewelry has been moved across borders. They employ various advanced techniques, including surveillance, asset tracking, and working with global networks to retrieve stolen items. Whether it’s a case of jewelry robbery or a more subtle disappearance, Lauth Investigations International provides comprehensive support from start to finish.
Protecting Your Jewelry: What You Can Do?
While insurance can provide some peace of mind, the best way to protect your jewelry is by being proactive. Here are a few simple tips to minimize the risk of jewelry theft:
Store valuable pieces in a secure location, such as a home safe or a safe deposit box.
Avoid wearing expensive jewelry in public places where thefts are more likely.
Regularly update your insurance to reflect the current value of your items.
In the unfortunate event of a jewelry theft, remember that insurance claims are only part of the solution. Recovering stolen items requires a dedicated team of investigators who know how to track down valuable assets and work with authorities to ensure they are returned to their rightful owners. Lauth Investigations International offers the expertise you need to navigate this challenging process.
Why Choose Lauth Investigations International?
With decades of experience in jewelry theft investigation, Lauth Investigations International is a leader in the field of stolen jewelry recovery. Their team of professional investigators works tirelessly to locate stolen jewelry, whether it has been taken in a jewelry robbery or lost in other circumstances. What sets them apart is their commitment to thorough investigations and their ability to work seamlessly with law enforcement agencies.
Choosing Lauth Investigations International means you are partnering with a company that has the experience, resources, and network to solve complex cases of property theft. When dealing with the heartbreak of losing a valuable piece of jewelry, having the right team by your side can make all the difference in recovering your treasured items.
In the interest of due-diligence with an internal investigation, thousands of documents must be reviewed, processed, and itemized. Internal processes must be reviewed and evaluated by an internal investigator. It may be necessary to interview employees regarding their knowledge of the matter—those accounts must be cataloged, transcribed, and placed in context within the investigation. In addition to the tangible resources that are expended during the investigation, there’s hundreds of hours of labor hours that must be invoiced and paid out. The Fulbright Litigation Trends Survey presented data that indicated internal investigation costs were already on the rise back in 2011. Excluding the cost of settlements and judgements, they reported a median spend with American corporations of $1.4 million. Almost a quarter of those businesses reporting spent an excess of $5 million or more regarding internal complaints. For large companies with a wealth of resources, $5 million may seem like a drop in the bucket, but there are many smaller businesses who could easily be bankrupted by such a price tag. Those same companies also do not have the budget to maintain a specialized internal investigations team to address internal complaints when they arise.
There is a wide variety of events that could trigger a corporate investigation. Perhaps an employee files a sexual harassment complaint against another. Perhaps a whistleblower brings attention to a pervasive internal problem. Whatever the cause, it’s up to leadership within the corporation or organization to ensure that the problem is addressed. While some entities have the budget for an internal investigation team, the investigation itself still places a strain on a business and its resources.
Private investigators are the perfect professionals to conduct your corporation’s culture audit for a number of reasons. Just to name a few, private investigators have similar skill sets to investigators who work in risk assessment, can conduct internal investigations without disruption, and can offer you a more customizable program that will fit your business.
Private investigators build successful practices because
they have a detailed eye for human behavior. When it comes to private
investigation, it’s not always just about what a subject is doing, but also why
they’re doing it. Because they have a wealth of experience in rationalizing and
predicting human behavior, private investigators might have an edge over
traditional corporate culture audits performed by risk assessment investigators.
What we know about the cycle of corporate culture indicates that there is a
cause/effect relationship between an employee’s level of engagement and how
successful the company or organization is in their internal operations. We also
know that an organization’s structure can directly affect how engaged employees
are. This is why private investigators are so invaluable. They can look at
characteristics of the workforce on paper and in real life to assess how
employees feed into the current cycle of corporate culture.
Risk assessment firms specialize in internal investigation,
but too often, leadership will neglect undergoing an audit because they believe
that it will be too much a daily disruption to internal operations. By virtue
of their profession, private investigators excel at blending in to their
environment, whether it’s in a busy street, or a quiet library. Whatever the
nature of their investigation, private investigators know how to conduct their
due-diligence without drawing attention to themselves or others. This skillset
is especially valuable if leadership wishes to conduct a covert internal
investigation. After all, people behave the most naturally when they believe they
aren’t being watched. In this way, private investigators can infiltrate businesses
and obtain necessary information without piquing the curiosity or suspicion of
current employees.
Another hallmark of a private investigation’s profession is their flexibility and autonomy. Sometimes private investigators can very quickly pick up leads that other investigators cannot because they have autonomy other types of investigators do not. This flexibility gives private investigators the ability to customize any corporate culture audit program to fit your business’s needs. Some companies may be small, but do not have the traditional structure of a brick-and-mortar business. Other companies might be large, but have a workforce where millennials dominate the majority. This is where a private investigator’s diverse experience can allow them to identify the problems and prioritize the most prevalent problems to right the ship of corporate culture.
If your business or organization needs a corporate culture
audit, call Lauth Investigations International today for a free quote on our
corporate culture audit program. We have an A+ rating with the Better Business
Bureau, 5-star ratings with Google, and we are staffed by former military and
law enforcement personnel. Call 317-951-1100, or find us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com
In stories where people retain private investigators, you can expect a basic level of intrigue. Subjects in a private investigator’s sights are typically unaware that they are being followed, and everyone knows that individuals behave most naturally when they don’t know they are being watched. However, sometimes private investigators uncover incredible, life-changing information for their clients. There are many threads on the internet detailing the craziest private investigator stories ever told. Here is just a sampling of private investigator stories that took an unexpected left turn.
Stepping Out?
In this case, the client was a son who believed his stepdad was committing infidelity against his mother. He got in contact with a private investigator who engaged in typical surveillance methods for mapping a subject’s movements. A GPS tracker was placed on his vehicle and the private investigator tracked the stepfather to the site of a house that he had recently purchased for himself and the mother. He had been restoring it for them to live in and planned to give it to her as a 5-year anniversary present.
Seeing Double
In an example of poor due-diligence, one private investigator managed to undo his client’s entire defense when he followed the wrong subject for the course of an investigation. In this case, the client was an employer who had a reasonable suspicion that one of his employees was committing worker’s compensation fraud. The private investigator conducted a background investigation on the subject and began following him in his day to day life to document his injuries. The private investigator had concluded the employee was faking his injuries, and had photographs of him operating heavy equipment to prove it. When the employer handed the case over to the lawyers, the lawyers were horrified to find out that the private investigator had been following the defendant’s brother instead. The employee’s injuries were real, and the client was left with egg on his face.
All in the Family
Sometimes private investigators can uncover wild family secrets that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. In this case, the client wanted an explanation for her father’s numerous extended absences throughout their childhoods. He claimed that his job required him to follow FedEx trucks around the country in order to prevent drug and human trafficking. The client, his daughter, retained a private investigator to follow her father on his alleged work trips and report back. It turned out that the father had not one, but three different wives around the state, some of whom also had other children from previous marriages. When the private investigator presented his final report to his client, she broke the news to her mother, who immediately cut the father off completely from the family. The report was then forwarded to his other wives.
From Worker’s Comp to Extramarital Romp
Retaining private investigators for worker compensation investigations is a great way to exercise independent due-diligence when trying to make a case. It’s hyper common for employers to hire them to ensure that their employees’ worker compensation claims are in fact truthful. Sometimes a private investigator will uncover an extra piece of information that will make the case all the better for their client. In this case, the client was an employee who had a believed a worker’s compensation claim to be in bad faith. He hired a private investigator to follow the employee who was allegedly hurt to document the difficulty he claimed his injuries brought him. While conducting field surveillance, the private investigator discovered that not only did the subject fake his injuries, but he also managed to capture photographs of him with a woman who was not his wife. The private investigator presented his final report to the client and the employee dropped the claim.
Finding Roots
Hiring a private investigators to find someone, or perform a “skip-trace,” is hyper-common. Private investigators have access to verified databases as part of their licensure. They can look up people who have fallen out of connection with their client for years and help facilitate some form of reunification. In this case, a private investigator was retained by the client to find his estranged mother. The client had not seen his mother in some years due to her struggles with drugs and alcohol. He was not sure if she were dead or alive, but if she were living, the client wanted to tell his mother that he was happy, healthy, and that he forgave her for leaving him. The private investigator ran an extra report on the subjects in question for free, which led to the discovery of a lead. The client and his mother were reunited in only a few short weeks, and he discovered that she had been clean and sober for seven years and was leading a very happy life.
If you have need of a private investigator, call Lauth Investigations International today for a free quote on your investigative needs. Call 317-951-1100 or visit us online.
Private investigators may have found a new niche in field operations. Civil unrest from both sides of the political aisle has inspired a great deal of public protests. Violence that broke out during protests across the country, including the recent siege on the nation’s Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Employers across the United States are becoming more concerned that their employees might be connected to radical groups, and could therefore pose a risk to their companies. That’s where a private investigator comes in. Employers everywhere are hiring private investigators to confirm whether or not their employees will pose either a security threat or a public relations threat to their company.
It’s impossible to have escaped coverage of protests across the nation in 2020. Protests about racial injustice and interference in the democratic process have already set everyone on edge. As tensions continue to rise it’s becoming more difficult to separate personal politics from the workplace. With the ubiquity of social media, people’s political rhetoric is on display for all to see. As the phrase goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. When employers see alarming posts on their employees’ Facebook pages, depending on the post, there might be reason to believe they could be involved in riskier activities that would pose an embarrassment, or compromise the corporation. Luckily, private investigators have the tools and experience necessary to provide crucial context in murky situations.
Through their licensure by the state, private investigators have access to secure, verified databases that allow them to view an employee’s extended background. This includes their detailed criminal history. If an employer feels there is a risk to the company, an employee’s detailed criminal history can shed some light on what they might be capable of. Private investigators can bring crucial context that might prevent liability to the company, or even threat of bodily harm to the rest of the workforce, like an active shooter event.
Private investigators can run surveillance on employees and determine if they are involved in extra-curricular activities that pose a risk to the organization. They can document their movements and determine if they are associating with radical or militarized groups. With their diverse experience, private investigators are good with risk assessment, and can determine whether or not these extracurriculars are a threat to the company.
Terminating an employee who has been deemed to be a risk can be a tricky business, particularly if they’ve not violated their terms of employment. Many companies have some form of morals clause that they are free to enforce at their discretion, but it doesn’t mean a wrongful termination lawsuit isn’t in the future. Should the company be threatened with a lawsuit, a private investigator is one of the best multi-tools to have at your disposal. A comprehensive report from a private investigator detailing the employee’s actions will be necessary evidence. A private investigator is also an independent contractor with no ties to either the organization or the employee, and their evidence will be scrutinized less in court. If necessary, they can also serve as expert witnesses during any legal proceedings that take place.
A private investigator can determine if your employee is a risk to your company and help you mitigate any losses that might occur. When the situation is murky, you’ll depend on that crucial context to prevent further losses and make informed decisions.
Surveillance capitalism has multiplied the number of eyes on us at all times. Ubiquity of security cameras, traffic cameras, and cell phones with cameras have made it possible for law enforcement to track a suspect’s movements for entire city blocks. And that’s not counting the omnipresent eye of social media, where photo and geo tags can assist law enforcement and private investigators with locating suspects, witnesses, and collect information about a location without having to leave the comfort of their offices in what is now called a “geosocial investigation.”
Before the age of geo-data on social media, employees who called off work on Friday to enjoy a three-day weekend in Atlantic City had no fears of being discovered on Monday by a nosy employer who checked their social media. When social media was in its formative years, a private investigator would be lucky to be scraping the social media of a subject who was indiscriminate about what they chose to post on their Myspace page. Nowadays, employees have to be more cautious regarding posts about their out-of-work activities than ever, with many employees maintaining two Facebook pages—a work Facebook populated by posts that would not offend the most fastidious human resource employee, and a personal Facebook where employees reveal themselves, warts and all, with no regard for who might see the pages. Now, the new reality of surveillance capitalism has changed the world of third-party investigations forever with the assistance of geosocial investigations.
Geosocial investigations are a subset of social media investigations, where the focus of the research centers around a place, rather than a single individual. After all, if you fraudulently submit an FMLA claim that prevents you from working, you’d be very careful not to post any pictures of yourself enjoying vigorous activities, like yard work or hiking. However, if you’re in a group of individuals—all with smartphones and social media profiles of their own—it’s nearly impossible to prevent all pictures of yourself from seeing the light of the internet. This newfound culture of hypervigilance and surveillance may sound like it’s harder for law enforcement and private investigators to squeeze blood from the stone of social media, but where individuals might be protective of their own information online, their friends and relatives may not.
Deriving information on a subject from the social media profiles of their friends and family is a major tenant of geosocial investigations. Exposure online is not limited to pictures. Social media widgets that allow users to check in at specific locations, or add geotags to the photos they post, are also exposing malingering employees during internal investigations. Law enforcement can use this technology to search for social media posts geotagged at the time of an auto-accident in order to locate witnesses. By the same token, they can use it to identify people who are posting in restricted areas where civilians are not allowed. The effect of this technology allows a private investigator to “crowdsource” the information, saving themselves hours of tracking down witnesses and interviewing them.
Geo-social investigations are just one consequence of the world’s newfound surveillance capitalism. As the technology continues to mature and become more sophisticated, social media will continue to expose criminals and malingerers. Employers will see a rise in the exposure of employees abusing FMLA claims. Former employees violating non-compete agreements will be exposed before they have a chance to get a new business venture off the ground. Law enforcement and private investigators will be able to crowdsource investigations with the use of geo-social data.
Carie McMichael is the Media and Communications Specialist for Lauth Investigations International. For more information please visit our website.
