SteyrAUG
03-04-11, 00:45
So all this last week I've been helping out a buddy who is a private investigator. He calls on me for assistance from time to time because A. I'm pretty good at the sneaking around in the bushes stuff and B. I'm willing to do it for free because I'm not normal and think it's fun.
Long story short, his client is a guy trying to get custody of his 6 year old kid from his ex wife who is practicing to become a crack head and doesn't realize her "boyfriend" is an actual honest to goodness pimp with a stable of crack hos. But because she hasn't been arrested for anything yet, he has to prove it. And that is what we are attempting to document when she visits "the house" from time to time to buy drugs, have sex, etc.
The house, where the boyfriend works (doesn't live there) is a actual crack house with an iron grill door on a otherwise ****ed over house, a yard full of fenced in dogs, and a steady stream of crack addicts, prostitutes (crack ho variety) and mobile drug dealers on bicycles coming to and from the property at all hours of the night. The boyfriends job seems to be operations manager for the various enterprises and the ex wife in question thinks it is nothing more than a hang out spot for her new boyfriend and his buddies. Thankfully to the best of our knowledge, she has never brought her kid to "the house."
As you might expect, "the house" is in a pretty ghetto area of downtown Ft. Lauderdale. This of course means that two middle age white guys who don't seem malnourished stand out like a sore thumb in the area. Most assume we are cops or there to buy weed.
The amazing part is you would think a house full of drug addicted losers, street hookers and low life drug dealers / pimps wouldn't be particularly astute or observant. But in the case of this house you would be wrong.
There is an empty lot next to "the house" which was largely overgrown. PERFECT for covert surveillance right? So we start at a convenience store a block away with a 6 pack in hand (to blend in with the locals - drunk white dudes walking down the street - we weren't actually drinking the beers just holding them) and we enter the lot from the property behind it.
We break out the cameras and video recording equipment and do our best ninja creep up to the front of the lot where we could get a clear view of the front porch with the hopes of getting pictures of the ex entering "the house" and if possible pictures of her doing drugs, etc. There are usually a couple folks on the porch smoking crack. We got to within 30 feet and managed enough pictures of the inhabitants to establish that it is indeed a crack house where people buy and sell crack and prostitutes operate from.
But when we tried to move just a little closer a lookout on the porch made us and alerted several people inside that something is going down. I don't see how they saw us, and we weren't making much noise but they got us somehow. We slipped out the back of the lot and back to the car without actually being seen.
For the next couple nights we drove past "the house" and noticed the empty lot was now under watch by lookouts. And the couple times we attempted to black out on the street a couple houses down the local would immediately out us with shouts of "5-0" down the street to the house. This resulted in all but the lookouts taking things inside.
We even attempted to do things long distance from more than a block down the street with a zoom lens, but it never failed and every local kid on the bike knew which house to warn that they were "being watched." Funny how that kind of "snitching" is considered ok in these neighborhoods. It was frustrating because on two occasions the "ex wife" actually showed up and was briefly on the porch before we got dimed out but we didn't get any clear pictures of it.
So we had to figure out another angle. Clearly nothing from ground level was going to be successful with an entire neighborhood of locals actively protecting "the house."
Looking around I noticed a couple small businesses across the street and a little bit down the road from "the house." More importantly, one of them was a two story building. So we went "old school ninja" on them. When we got word "the ex" was leaving her house we assumed her destination and with trusty rope and grappling hook we came up behind the buildings from the alley. Thoughtfully some locals had already knocked out all the lights in the rear and taken care of the street light on the corner to aid in their various enterprises so the alley was completely blacked out.
I climbed on a dumpster and tossed the hook over the edge of the roof a mere 8 feet or so above me and secured it. Within minutes both of us were on the roof and so far nobody seemed to know we were there. The next toss was a little more difficult as there was no dumpster to get me part of the way there. But after about six attempts and some unintended clanging I secured the hook. Thankfully nobody seemed to figure out what it was. And up I went.
My buddy tied the equipment bag to the rope and I pulled it up and then dropped it back down to him. And after a couple minutes he was on the roof with me. We slowly crawled to the front part of the roof and peeked over the edge. "The house" was across the street, two houses over and we had an unobstructed view of the entire front porch. More importantly there were lights on the front of our building which produced a headlight effect that concealed us but illuminated the houses across the street.
We set up all the cameras and pointed them at "the house" and waited. After a little while we spotted "the ex's" car and started recording. Lots of good stuff here. Her smoking a bong on the porch with the "boyfriend" lots of other people on the porch smoking crack. Dealers on bicycles pulling up to drop off cash and pick up more crack. Prostitutes coming and going, and people coming up to the house to buy drugs. And for almost two hours, "the ex" on the front porch making kissey faces with the guy who was running the whole show. Lots of clean and clear close ups of her with a host of people that were later identified by some local cops my buddy works with.
So now it is about 3am, the adrenalin has mostly worn off and we have to climb down off this damn building with 100 lbs. of camera and video gear. You would think getting down would be easier but you always forget the "Damn I'm tired" factor. Thankfully nobody fell off a building and we actually came down a lot quieter than we went up.
So for about a week I got to play "urban special ops" and I'm pretty sure we got everything this guy is gonna need to get custody of his kid from his ex who has decided to be an irresponsible drug using teenager again. Btw, if you are wondering, she has no job and he pays her alimony and child support. And with some of the shared information it sounds like local law enforcement is going to begin their own investigation of the property and people involved.
Long story short, his client is a guy trying to get custody of his 6 year old kid from his ex wife who is practicing to become a crack head and doesn't realize her "boyfriend" is an actual honest to goodness pimp with a stable of crack hos. But because she hasn't been arrested for anything yet, he has to prove it. And that is what we are attempting to document when she visits "the house" from time to time to buy drugs, have sex, etc.
The house, where the boyfriend works (doesn't live there) is a actual crack house with an iron grill door on a otherwise ****ed over house, a yard full of fenced in dogs, and a steady stream of crack addicts, prostitutes (crack ho variety) and mobile drug dealers on bicycles coming to and from the property at all hours of the night. The boyfriends job seems to be operations manager for the various enterprises and the ex wife in question thinks it is nothing more than a hang out spot for her new boyfriend and his buddies. Thankfully to the best of our knowledge, she has never brought her kid to "the house."
As you might expect, "the house" is in a pretty ghetto area of downtown Ft. Lauderdale. This of course means that two middle age white guys who don't seem malnourished stand out like a sore thumb in the area. Most assume we are cops or there to buy weed.
The amazing part is you would think a house full of drug addicted losers, street hookers and low life drug dealers / pimps wouldn't be particularly astute or observant. But in the case of this house you would be wrong.
There is an empty lot next to "the house" which was largely overgrown. PERFECT for covert surveillance right? So we start at a convenience store a block away with a 6 pack in hand (to blend in with the locals - drunk white dudes walking down the street - we weren't actually drinking the beers just holding them) and we enter the lot from the property behind it.
We break out the cameras and video recording equipment and do our best ninja creep up to the front of the lot where we could get a clear view of the front porch with the hopes of getting pictures of the ex entering "the house" and if possible pictures of her doing drugs, etc. There are usually a couple folks on the porch smoking crack. We got to within 30 feet and managed enough pictures of the inhabitants to establish that it is indeed a crack house where people buy and sell crack and prostitutes operate from.
But when we tried to move just a little closer a lookout on the porch made us and alerted several people inside that something is going down. I don't see how they saw us, and we weren't making much noise but they got us somehow. We slipped out the back of the lot and back to the car without actually being seen.
For the next couple nights we drove past "the house" and noticed the empty lot was now under watch by lookouts. And the couple times we attempted to black out on the street a couple houses down the local would immediately out us with shouts of "5-0" down the street to the house. This resulted in all but the lookouts taking things inside.
We even attempted to do things long distance from more than a block down the street with a zoom lens, but it never failed and every local kid on the bike knew which house to warn that they were "being watched." Funny how that kind of "snitching" is considered ok in these neighborhoods. It was frustrating because on two occasions the "ex wife" actually showed up and was briefly on the porch before we got dimed out but we didn't get any clear pictures of it.
So we had to figure out another angle. Clearly nothing from ground level was going to be successful with an entire neighborhood of locals actively protecting "the house."
Looking around I noticed a couple small businesses across the street and a little bit down the road from "the house." More importantly, one of them was a two story building. So we went "old school ninja" on them. When we got word "the ex" was leaving her house we assumed her destination and with trusty rope and grappling hook we came up behind the buildings from the alley. Thoughtfully some locals had already knocked out all the lights in the rear and taken care of the street light on the corner to aid in their various enterprises so the alley was completely blacked out.
I climbed on a dumpster and tossed the hook over the edge of the roof a mere 8 feet or so above me and secured it. Within minutes both of us were on the roof and so far nobody seemed to know we were there. The next toss was a little more difficult as there was no dumpster to get me part of the way there. But after about six attempts and some unintended clanging I secured the hook. Thankfully nobody seemed to figure out what it was. And up I went.
My buddy tied the equipment bag to the rope and I pulled it up and then dropped it back down to him. And after a couple minutes he was on the roof with me. We slowly crawled to the front part of the roof and peeked over the edge. "The house" was across the street, two houses over and we had an unobstructed view of the entire front porch. More importantly there were lights on the front of our building which produced a headlight effect that concealed us but illuminated the houses across the street.
We set up all the cameras and pointed them at "the house" and waited. After a little while we spotted "the ex's" car and started recording. Lots of good stuff here. Her smoking a bong on the porch with the "boyfriend" lots of other people on the porch smoking crack. Dealers on bicycles pulling up to drop off cash and pick up more crack. Prostitutes coming and going, and people coming up to the house to buy drugs. And for almost two hours, "the ex" on the front porch making kissey faces with the guy who was running the whole show. Lots of clean and clear close ups of her with a host of people that were later identified by some local cops my buddy works with.
So now it is about 3am, the adrenalin has mostly worn off and we have to climb down off this damn building with 100 lbs. of camera and video gear. You would think getting down would be easier but you always forget the "Damn I'm tired" factor. Thankfully nobody fell off a building and we actually came down a lot quieter than we went up.
So for about a week I got to play "urban special ops" and I'm pretty sure we got everything this guy is gonna need to get custody of his kid from his ex who has decided to be an irresponsible drug using teenager again. Btw, if you are wondering, she has no job and he pays her alimony and child support. And with some of the shared information it sounds like local law enforcement is going to begin their own investigation of the property and people involved.