Has this happened to anyone else?

[jgm219]

Sorry if something like this is posted some where else but I couldn't locate anything. Two weeks ago I was putting my dog out on his runner when I noticed a slow moving car passing by my house. I didn't think much of it because I live in Madison and people seem to get lost a lot. It was five minutes later when my dog wanted to come in that I noticed the car was stopped by my next door neighbors house and someone was taking pictures of her home and mine.

I walked into the house, grabbed my Canon camera and proceeded to sit down calm as could be and take pictures of the driver and his vehicle. As soon as he noticed me doing that, he sped off. My wife thought that was freaky and got nervous and I called Metro PD who said they would try to get a car out to us. Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot at the plate but I got the first two characters and the weird fact that it had handicap plates.

Fast forward to this evening and my wife returns from her friends house (who lives off Brick Church Pike near OHB) and she says that as she was getting ready to leave her friend's husband had just pulled up in their driveway to find a male across the street taking pictures same as what happened to us.

The husband had just gotten off from work and wasn't in the mood for any quirkiness so he asks the guy why he was taking pictures of their home. The guy then proceeds to say..."I can't tell you." That's all he said. The Husband then proceeded to call MPD and let them know what had happened.

I all but blew it off when it was just me but twice is not a coincidence as far as I'm concerned. Has anyone else had an experience like this recently?

[Rightwinger]

The timing doesn't match nor does the non responsive answers for them to be grabbing pics of similar homes for appraising companies.

Could be a Private Investigator noting the home, vehicles and other property in view for a suit. I have done that before and no, they can't tell you why.

I see no reason for the thugs to want to take pictures pre-strike.

Anyone in your area going through any legal actions that you know of?

Could Google mapping now be down to snagging pictures of individual addresses rather than just 360's of the area?

[lowbud]

The timing doesn't match nor does the non responsive answers for them to be grabbing pics of similar homes for appraising companies.

Could be a Private Investigator noting the home, vehicles and other property in view for a suit. I have done that before and no, they can't tell you why.

I see no reason for the thugs to want to take pictures pre-strike.

Anyone in your area going through any legal actions that you know of?

Could Google mapping now be down to snagging pictures of individual addresses rather than just 360's of the area?

could be anything from a PI to Google to local tax assessor (contractor)

[strickj]

It could just be some nerd that like to take pictures ...

Now granted I just don't go around shooting folks houses willy nilly, but in this case, I live just on the other side of that hill...

[Rightwinger]

other or under??

[TripleDigitRide]

The common denominator appears to be your wife. The body snatchers are after her.

That is weird, though. Was your friend able to give a tag number to the police?

[TripleDigitRide]

It could just be some nerd that like to take pictures ...

Now granted I just don't go around shooting folks houses willy nilly, but in this case, I live just on the other side of that hill...

Damn! That's a crib.

[jgm219]

The timing doesn't match nor does the non responsive answers for them to be grabbing pics of similar homes for appraising companies.

Could be a Private Investigator noting the home, vehicles and other property in view for a suit. I have done that before and no, they can't tell you why.

I see no reason for the thugs to want to take pictures pre-strike.

Anyone in your area going through any legal actions that you know of?

Could Google mapping now be down to snagging pictures of individual addresses rather than just 360's of the area?

Never crossed my mind it could have been a PI. Normally I'd say it was nothing we'd be involved in but... My wife provided cared for a lady 6 months ago who has all kinds of health problems and her on again/off again estranged husband is sue happy for anything. He's got his issues and her former client used to find it funny that he'd made a living with frivilous lawsuits against anyone he thought he could make some coin off of. When the client's husband wanted to take over everything and she entered a nursing home the wife obviously called it quits turning over everything she had been given by her client. That alone gives me food for thought.

No one in the neighborhood going through legal stuff that we've been told of. We did have a drug bust four houses down a year ago so maybe that could be something.

Google maps is something I never thought of and can't say I appreciate it considering they're using satellites. The whole thing is just weird.

Thanks for the info, rightwinger.

[jgm219]

The common denominator appears to be your wife. The body snatchers are after her.

That is weird, though. Was your friend able to give a tag number to the police?

If the body snatchers come for her they better take me too or I'm going to be pizzed off!

Yeah, he got a tag number and I'm going to call him tomorrow and see what came of it.

My wife and her friend, a psychiatric professional, both have had close contact with a former client (client for both) with a deranged and estranged husband. Long story on him but Tab (my wife) even wondered if it could be connected to the estranged hubby. He's a smarmy bugger and I wouldn't put anything past him. After thinking on her remark and rightwingers comments I'm beginning to put a possible scenario together that leaves me unsettled even though we are in the right.

[jgm219]

It could just be some nerd that like to take pictures ...

Now granted I just don't go around shooting folks houses willy nilly, but in this case, I live just on the other side of that hill...

Sweet pad! You have some expensive neighbors!

[jgm219]

Also, thanks for the tips and ideas, guys. I really do appreciate it!

[Tempest455]

Similar thing happened to me 7-8 years ago. Long story but it got ugly and we both paid a visit to the police dept. No charges filed, all good.

Turned out he was an investigator for an insurance company taking pics and spying on a doctor that lived behind me. Could have saved us both grief if he would have just told us that up front.

[Rightwinger]

Having been in the biz, he is constrained by law from discussing what or who they are watching. Having said that, I was usually able to state that I was conducting an investigation, and they were free to have me checked out (I always presented my State issued ID and a business card). In a close neighborhood it was usually pretty obvious why I was there and on many occasions I was allowed to park in their driveways. Didn't always work out as a few times they were friends or family of the party I was there to check on but more times than naught, a smile, statement of fact that I couldn't and wouldn't embarrass any parties but was there to just document what went on generally got me more assistance than I ever needed.

I asked one fellow if I could sit on his dock as my "subject" was fishing down the lake from this fellow. He looked around and it was easy to determine who I was looking at. He offered to ride me around in his boat so we could get a lot closer. I was thankful as the fellow was in a covered boat dock and not very visible. I never said where to go, he never asked what to do. We just got in his boat and took a ride. Amazing what not trying to look like your a fugitive will get ya.

[jgm219]

Having been in the biz, he is constrained by law from discussing what or who they are watching. Having said that, I was usually able to state that I was conducting an investigation, and they were free to have me checked out (I always presented my State issued ID and a business card). In a close neighborhood it was usually pretty obvious why I was there and on many occasions I was allowed to park in their driveways. Didn't always work out as a few times they were friends or family of the party I was there to check on but more times than naught, a smile, statement of fact that I couldn't and wouldn't embarrass any parties but was there to just document what went on generally got me more assistance than I ever needed.

I asked one fellow if I could sit on his dock as my "subject" was fishing down the lake from this fellow. He looked around and it was easy to determine who I was looking at. He offered to ride me around in his boat so we could get a lot closer. I was thankful as the fellow was in a covered boat dock and not very visible. I never said where to go, he never asked what to do. We just got in his boat and took a ride. Amazing what not trying to look like your a fugitive will get ya.

I wish the guy at my wife's friend's home would have done that with the ID and business card. It would have saved a lot of paranoid questions about who and what. You're right, rightwinger, if you don't make it a point to look or act like a crook, no one gets stuck with hard feelings. My wife thanks you all and I thank you. It's helped alleviate her mind quite a bit.

[jgm219]

Similar thing happened to me 7-8 years ago. Long story but it got ugly and we both paid a visit to the police dept. No charges filed, all good.

Turned out he was an investigator for an insurance company taking pics and spying on a doctor that lived behind me. Could have saved us both grief if he would have just told us that up front.

I can understand the PI's position but what with the state of the world you really can't be too careful. Sounds like you handled it pretty well and like you said, Tempest, all good. Thanks for your input; it makes us feel not as out there or alone.

[Tempest455]

Having been in the biz

You need to elaborate on that a bit next time we go shooting!

[Rightwinger]

I was a private investigator for 8 years from 92 to 2000 and then a little over a year in 06 to mid 07. No biggie. It was a job. I did it. The market dried up with insurance companies and lawyers playing the odds that they could settle more often than not and still make a profit. The laws and judges/jurys that felt insurance companies had endless deep pockets made it so that even if you could proof fraud, it didn't matter.

Judges are elected. Plaintiffs live in that town/city. Insurance companies are just a name with numbers behind it. Who do you think they would side with? Market dried up for investigators and I hated doing muck work. Never did do many domestics as there weren't many paying our rates.

Back to Logistics for me.

[jgm219]

Well, it happened again yesterday afternoon and my wife was sufficently freaked. I called Metro this time and I got a tag number. They couldn't tell me much except that the vehicle was liscenced in Lewisburg. The officer suggested the next time just call right away and act like we don't notice the vehicle so they can get behind him and say hey what's the deal here. He suggested it could be a Google mapper or Census but understood my concern.

[nightrunner]

surely there is a LEO on here that would be willing to run the tag for a fellow TGO friend

I agree, I would be very paranoid

[R1100R]

Would this not be a form of stalking. I know in GA even if you catch the police doing

surveillance you can file a formal protest in and it will removed. It is a form of harrasment and I know of several fellow night club owners that did this when I was in the business.

[Guest db99wj]

I could be several things, like others have mentioned. I'm an appraiser, but I do commercial stuff, and we make contact with the owner, whether or not they are being foreclosed on, the value of their collateral checked, or other. Don't do residential so I can't say for sure. But, many banks, including mortgage lending companies have staff appraisers, that look, at internal valuations all the time. It might have been one of those guys, could have been a tax collector. I, when asked who I am, always will tell them and pull out a card. It could also be a tax assessor appraiser. Sometimes these guys are use to dealing with people and might have got nervous, might have been a newbie. When I first started out, I would get nervous when taking pictures of comparable sales. These are the sales we use in our reports to determine the value of the subject property. We have to get pictures of these sales. So, it could have been an appraiser getting a picture of one of the sales he is using in his report. We typically don't get permission nor give notice we are taking those pictures, we go out and take them.

OR, it could be a stalker.

[Tempest455]

How many times total did this happen?

[rentalguy1]

Could be something legit, or could be somebody casing houses. I'd be in their face! If I got a answer like our PI gave, I'd prolly help out. I'm not a jerk, but I do look out for my own property and that of my neighbors...

[Guest db99wj]

Had a guy sitting at the end of my street back at the end of last year and I called the cops, non-emergency line. Car with dark tinted windows, it appeared he either had a lap top or dvd player, something with a large screen that you could see through the tint. Cops called back a little while later, and said he was fine, it was ok he was there. That's all they said. Figured it is something like a tax assessor, PI. or something.

[Guest Plainsman]

Makes it a little more fishy to me that once you began taking some pictures of him and his vehicle that he would leave the area. Most people that know they are doing no wrong and have a legit reason to be somewhere taking pictures wouldn't leave acting like they had been had.