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(Continued from part 1 of 2) The staff members based out of Trustify’s opulent Arlington, Virginia Headquarters unfortunately learned the hard way that they would end up working without pay. They must now join the ranks of Trustify’s former landlord, public relations firm and attorneys whose paychecks were backburnered while Boice and Mellon indulged in lavish spending. Boice also owes over 10K in child support backpay. As though the FBI investigating now investigating him for embezzlement wasn't enough.  Of course, Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region are built upon a rich history of boom/bust stories, most of which do not end well. There's the Baby Doe Tabor story and all the prospector's gold sites that eventually worked their way to profitability by building ski resorts and turning caved in mine shafts into high end tourist resorts. The intrigue of the venture capitalist "uberizing" the private investigator industry with an app was astutely expressed by PursutMag Editor-in-Chief, Hal Humphreys [Disclosure: PursuitMag and the Denver Private Investigator Blog are content partners] who is a fan of disruptors and of startups. “Most of them fail. Most of them fail miserably" he also pointed out but, "every once in a while, one hits and changes everything." Pursuit published several articles about Trustify and some of the other authors were not as forgiving as it's Editor but it's coverage over time provide a great sense of the former dumpster fire's rise and fall.  Despite it's Western history, the Rocky Mountain region didn't pull many punches when it came to Trustify. Wyoming, Private Investigator, Dean Beers, in fact, posted about the efforts he and the Professional Private Investigator Association of Colorado (PPIAC) made to report the fact Trustify was operating without a license to the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. According to Beers, the National Council of Investigation & Security Services (NCISS) was also involved in researching the history of the company and pointing out the problematic nature of an intermediary operating without licensure as well as the history of Boice's original company, Flim Flam. Their apprehensive commentary on the business goes back as far as the Denver Private Investigator Blog's does.   The DrivenForward blog maintained by Glen Hellman wins for most consistent, persistent and comprehensive coverage of the Trustify fiasco. It contains primary documents as well as a running chart of statuses of lawsuits against Trustify. Hellman was actually pursued by one of Boice's attorneys and posted the notice on his blog. My final effort to verify the derelict status of the site’ was to call the 888 number. I dialed and got a busy signal. When was the last time I heard one of those? Will the consumer driven demand for a standard hourly with no retainer fee be met by yet another disruptor rendering the private investigator industry as we know it as obsolete as a busy signal? Only time will tell. Hopefully savvy investigators as well as savvy tech entrepreneurs will continue learning from the mistakes of their predecessors. Bibliography: Washington Biz Journal - https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2019/08/22/heres-whats-left-of-trustifys-private-eye-inspired.html Driven Forward - https://drivenforward.com/former-trustify-employees-awarded-260-thousand-judgement/ Washingtonian - https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/12/09/is-the-blogger-mr-cranky-glen-hellman-out-to-save-dc-tech-industry-or-destroy-it/ PursuitMag - http://pursuitmag.com/a-trustify-postmortem/ 
By Susanna Speier Denver Private Investigator Blogger Thanks to a conscientious ranger, a spotted llama's harrowing sojourn, which began the summer of 2017 when she presumably wandered off a local llama farm and into Bobcat Ridge Natural Areas Open Space, is over. Dottie was recently relocated to a New Mexico animal sanctuary where she can live out the rest of her llama life, drama-free. See also: The lost llama of Loveland: an update and Lost llama running around Loveland area After surviving six months of solitude on the 2,607 acre natural area ---llamas are herd animals and very social, by nature-- Dottie entered the corral adjacent to the ranger's home on her own initiative. This was not an arbitrary turn of events. "We were trying to get her to get used to coming to a specific location, with the intent to try and capture her there," explains Fort Collins Natural Areas & Trails Ranger, Karl Manderbach. Although the parking lot area has a webcam for visitors to monitor parking conditions, he set up a separate wildlife camera overlooking hay bales that he placed, hoping she would start feeding off of them. 
Eventually Dottie was not only feeding off the bales but she was eating hay out of Manderbach's hand. Still skittish, she would run off before he had a chance to coax her into the nearby corral. Undeterred, he continued to monitor her activities and build trust by feeding her. Then one morning he entered his office and saw she was down in the parking lot. "I shook the grains so she could hear me and she walked right into the corral," explains Manderbach. The corral was part of the working cattle ranch before the area became open space but the history of the land's inhabitants go further back. There is evidence that the Ute and Arapahoe wintered on the land and lived off Bison. Then the pioneers and homesteaders came and farmed cattle. The natural area opened to the public in fall of 2006, however, as far as anyone knows, this is the first llama it has hosted. Native to the South American Andes, llamas are relative newcomers to North America, after the presumed migration of the original camelid to Asia across the Bering Strait. In the 1900s William Randolph Hearst imported Llamas to populate San Simeon in California because they were "exotic." According to the New York Times "Ambassador llamas" are sometimes used as therapy animals to visit sick, elderly and disabled. In Colorado they are used as trail animals and sometimes their fleeces are sheared and used as wool for clothing. 
The original owner never came forward, however neighboring llama owners recognized and confirmed that her name was Dottie and that prior to her Bobcat Ridge Open Space sojourn she had been the property of a person that no one was willing to identify. This leaves one to infer that, most likely, Dottie had been deliberately abandoned by that person. After securing Dottie in the corral, local llama farmers and animal sanctuary owners who initially expressed interest in adopting her had lost interest in the prospect. Buckhorn Llama Company owner, Stan Eble, however, "graciously took her for a couple days. State Parks and Wildlife then took her until she ultimately found her new home" explained Manderbach. That is how she finally ended up at an animal sanctuary in New Mexico. When The Denver Private Investigator Blog initially covered the story, we offered to feature any Colorado private investigator who could figure out who Dottie belonged to. This never occurred, however, thanks to the dedicated Bobcat Ridge Natural Area team Dottie was rescued, regardless. Private investigators are frequently called upon to solve missing person cases or help adoptees reunite with their birth parents. PIs can also provide surveillance services that involve placing stationary cameras in locations that a person of interest is likely to go. Although Karl Manderbach is not a private investigator and Dottie is not a "person" we feel it is appropriate to feature the City of Fort Collins' Bobcat Ridge Natural Area, regardless. You can learn more about Bobcat Ridge on the video we've embedded at the end of the article along with driving directions so you can plan your visit! Bobcat Ridge's address is 10184 West County Road 32C, Loveland. From Fort Collins, take Harmony Road west, it turns into CR 38 E. Follow CR 38 E to Masonville. Go left (south) at the Masonville Mercantile onto CR 27. Follow CR 27 about 1 mile to CR 32 C, head west about 1 mile to the Bobcat Ridge parking lot. From Loveland, go west on Highway 34 about 4.5 miles west of Wilson Avenue. Turn north on CR 27 by Big Thompson Elementary and drive 4.5 miles. Turn left on CR 32C and go 1 mile west to the Bobcat Ridge parking lot. Note: The parking lot often fills to capacity on weekends and holidays. If the lot is full, please come back another time (no parking on the road). Horse trailer parking is limited to 8 spots. Check the camera below before you go! Additional Bobcat Ridge references used: www.fcgov.com/naturalareas/pdf/bobcat-historical-record.pdf?1229709981 https://www.fcgov.com/naturalareas/pdf/bobcat-history-booklet.pdf?1244573528 
By Susanna Speier Denver Private Investigator Blogger Last month, in Switzerland, a couple was found seventy-five years after they disappeared. They were headed up the mountain to milk the cows and ended up staying there until the Tsanfleuron glacier near a ski lift above Les Diablerets resort at an altitude of 8,600 ft began receding seventy-five years after the search parties had given up. Because their 1942 clothing and backpacks were so well preserved it was clear to local Swiss police that something was unusual. Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin were 37 and 40 at the time they went missing. According to Time Magazine, Udry-Dumoulin, who is now 79, and became an orphan when she was four, said she and her six siblings spent their "whole lives" looking for their parents, "without stopping." She told Le Matin that they hoped to give them "the funeral they deserved one day" thereby finally achieving closure, once the DNA results verified the identities. The Independent ran a story about the funeral that enabled to two surviving children of the couple to finally get closure. Marcelene who was four the day her parents went missing said she had climbed that glacier three times after her parents had vanished and the nieces said they were "now happy they were finally able to mourn." Sometimes closure never occurs, despite DNA results and other forms of objective evidence. Bay Area private investigator, Michael Spencer just published a book about his own private investigator experiences and the animated book trailer (which includes a voice over intro by Pursuit Mag, Editor-in-Chief, Hal Humphreys) tells the story of a blind and wealthy guy who meets with a private investigator to pursue the answers to unresolved questions he has about his wife's fidelity however none of the evidence Spencer provides can appease the man and finally Spencer has to tell him that it's time to close the case. It is an unexpected and refreshing twist on the 1st person detective genre and registers as something like a mashup of Sam Spade and of NPR's StoryCorps. Hopefully more animated shorts from Spencer will follow. Meanwhile you can preorder the book the story comes from on Amazon and it will be available in September. By Susanna Speier Denver Private Investigator Blogger Over the last week three local and national stories have found themselves on private investigator radars and heat maps. We've taken you to the International Spy Museum before but this week. The New York Times' Shivani Vora, however, just wrote about the museum's now flourishing golden age age of tourism due to the increased concerns over Russian intervention in United States politics. You can't not love Duncan Strauss' widely shared Washington Post story about full-time lost pet investigator, Jamie Katz enough. In the two-years since founding her business Katz has reunited 150 animals with their owners. You'll also find out about pioneer of pet investigation, Kat Albrecht who has trained hundred of pet investigator proteges. Last week's biggest hit new story may have actually been in our homegrown Denver Post. Chris Osher's story "Colorado's Pricey Polygraph Test discusses Colorado's use of the problematic polygraph test with sex offenders. Is this a fair game for law enforcement to play? Finally, with summer surveillance assignments round the corner, what could be more worth a trip to the hardware store than a cooler than a cooler tricked up to actually stay cool for a long period of time? This gem was brought to our attention by Joe LaSorsa of LaSorsa & Associates security group. No word yet on how long it'll actually keep your bottled water cool but we'd welcome your feedback. What we do know, for certain is that in 2017, Colorado had it's warmest March on record, according to the National Centers for Environment Information but ultimately it'll depend on where your surveillance assignment is. Summer days in Sedgwick and Las Animas will be exceptionally excruciating according to Colorado State's Colorado Extremes map so if surveillance is your specialty you may want to consider preparing multiple coolers for the regions' extreme heat. 
 By Susanna Speier Denver Private Investigator Blogger Do detectives frequent luxury liners outside of Agatha Christie mystery novels? Not usually. That’s about to change, however, thanks to California and Arizona licensed Private Investigator, owner of Allen Investigations, LLC and now P.I. Cruises creator, Debra Allen. Although the retired law enforcement officer’s new initiative isn’t launching without pushback –--a few naysayers have actually expressed concern regarding the potential impact on the field’s credibility--- that isn’t stopping private investigators from working Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day cruises to The Bahamas, Alaska and Mexico into their schedules. The concept of training vacations is “new to PIs but not new to mortgage lenders, Bankers and Realtors.” Allen points out that it's a great way to mix and mingle more with classmates and instructors and that people will also absorb more information when they're relaxed and in vacation mode. Hop on board and you'll have the opportunity to earn up to 12 continuing education credits and get up to twelve hours of training. Ship fees (including room and food) are only $85 a night and there will be additional charges for course fees. Land a spot on one of the three maiden cruises of 2017 and those course fees will be waived! Because training takes place over a four or five day period --a break from the traditional and more condensed hotel weekend retreats Allen finds tiring--- the protracted schedule will encourage class discussion to spill out onto the poolside sun deck and later into the piano lounge. If you find yourself missing Colorado's verticals there's even a climbing wall. Tropical attire is encouraged and one of the nights includes a formal dinner. Accident investigator, ACTAR (Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction), certified re constructionist and Monument, Colorado based private investigator, Michael Miranda (who is also giving workshops in Denver and Ft Collins in June and July) will be an instructor on the Mexico trip. So if you want to learn more about accident investigation, according to Allen, “you’ve got four days to see him and buy him a cocktail.” By Susanna Speier, Denver Private Investigator Blogger If you're looking for an excuse to invest in a Series 2 Apple Watch (which run as high as $399) and do surveillance work, Emmy Award winner investigator, Brian Bates of Bates Investigates has just scripted your justification -I mean- tax write-off for you. “The primary reason I justified the price is the fact it works very well as a covert audio recorder. You can easily pay $200+ for a quality audio-only watch audio recorder. I'd rather spend the money on an Apple Watch that does much more and is superior in quality. Sure, cell phones record audio - but they are widely recognized as audio recorders and people are on alert for them. To me, in my work, a covert audio record is indispensable.” Bates had also purchased the version 1 iteration when that came out however he returned it after two weeks. Generation 2, by contrast is something he wears everyday and finds useful in his work. See also: What real detectives think about the Dick Tracy inspired Apple Watch. "The watch is also great when I'm in the courtroom." He adds. "Most in our area do not allow cell phones to even be visible to the bailiff. This makes checking emails and text messages impossible - unless you're wearing a smart watch. So far, no judges have banned these watches." Colorado Apple Store retail locations include Boulder (29th street) Broomfield (Flatiron), Denver (Cherry Creek), Littleton (Aspen Grove) and Lone Tree (Park Meadows).  By Susanna Speier Denver Private Investigator Blogger The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. is one-third theme park, one-third History Channel documentary and one third behemoth shrine to every imaginable type of gadgetry that you may or may not have imagined. On the outside It's a corner building near to the Shakespeare Theater and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery where you enter through the gift shop. Did I mention a lot of gadgetry? Interactive elements make the museum exceptionally kid-friendly. And they seem to have all kinds of educational outreach initiatives going on. But back to the gadgetry, which isn't only hard to take in but difficult to focus on due to the shifting polyphonic soundtracks as you walk through the exhibits. And the video screens and the blinking lights. Wait...where was I? Okay, the blurbs on the plaques are robust with meticulously researched anecdotes. As the experience itself makes it difficult to focus for a long period of time it is also recommended that you plan to spend half a day there and take breaks when you need them because the collection is as extensive and comprehensive as the history of the profession, itself. It will also take you back farther than you expected it to go.  The Cold War era segment --a sizable part of the museum-- provides artifacts from Cold War history and gives detailed insights into how government operatives conceal devices to enable them to pick almost every kind of lock imaginable. Granted, KGB lock picking devices have no relevance to a private investigator who is restricted by the same laws that would restrict any other citizen from picking a lock that doesn't belong to them. But, hey, in the world of international espionage, sky's the limit. More or less...  By Susanna Speier Denver Private Investigator Blogger The series finale of PBS Nature's Spy in the Wild series: meet the spies just concluded on Rocky Mountain PBS and it wasn't really a spy show. For any Colorado private investigator interested in the present and future of the surveillance, however, this will be a fascinating watch. If you're an under cover operative, even better. There is, in fact, so much to be gained from observing the dynamics of the animal world you would probably have a difficult time persuading yourself not to binge watch now that the series itself has aired and is available online in its entirety. See also: Spies in Nature After spending the last few weeks watching and making observations we compiled a list of the top spy skills the show taught us for the Denver private investigator community . We assume no responsibility for you using or misusing the skills and/or strategies you are about to read.
Did we miss anything? Keep in mind you may not have the opportunity to put these things to use if you're a Denver private investigator. Even a Colorado private investigator may question how to put it all to use.
You may have trouble finding a local wolf pack, however, there are myriad prairie dogs to be found along the I25 in Aurora, Centennial, Parker, Castle Pines Castle Rock and Monument as you shuttle between the Denver zoo in Denver and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs to see more of the animals featured in this series. Speaking of which, a giraffe at the Denver zoo just gave birth!! See the Spy in the Wild series in its entirety, now archived, for yourself onPBS Nature.  By Susanna Speier Denver Private Investigator Blogger Looking to head to DC late March to try to check out the cherry blossoms? There's a The National Council of Investigation and Security Services (NCISS) annual meeting at the Key Bridge Marriott in Rosslyn to justify the trip. Workshop opportunities range from cybersecurity to small businesses and how to run forensic audits using financial software and don't wait too long. Registration deadline is March 1st. Can't make that one? April kicks off with the World Association of Detectives (WAD) mid-term conference happens April 2nd through April 4th in Miami Beach, Florida. Click here to register. If you feel inclined to stay down south, the Florida Association of Licensed Investigators annual conference in Cocoa Beach runs May 4th through the 6th and even includes a pre conference event at no additional cost. If you can clone yourself an mosey up to South Carolina you can also attend the South Carolina Association of Licensed Investigators annual conference, that just so happens to be taking place simultaneously from May 4th to May 6th. Conflict check next time? Finally, while there are no drone training programs for PIs that we know of, the Poynter Institute's drone journalism may be a way to access your missing primer this spring. An interesting thing that the news media and private investigator worlds now share is the fact that both require commercial drone licenses. Sky is still the limit on the ways they can be utilized, once licensed, though.  Private Investigators can bring their stories to the Buntport Theater stage in Denver this month2/2/2017
By Susanna Speier Denver Private Investigator Blogger I've been wanting to figure out to help private investigators bring their stories to the stage for a long time but never had the resources to curate an actual event for the Mile Hi PI community. Just recently, however, my buddy Ron Doyle who runs The Narrators, a monthly storytelling event at Buntport Theater, approached me with an idea. Why not send a private investigator his way this month to tell a story at The Narrators "Red-Handed show"? If you are a Colorado private investigator and would like to be considered for the one remaining slot at The Narrators "Red Handed" show on Wednesday, February 15th at 8:00 p.m. at Buntport Theater, email thenarrators3000@gmail.com to find out more.  “It’s a black box theater that seats about 125-150 so it’s a sizable crowd. The audience is very welcoming. Folks are there to listen and we’ve built up this community to help built empathy and hear experiences from a wide range of voices," Doyle says. "It’s almost all 1st person narrative, memoir style.” There will be a lot of eyes on you which could feel unsettling for a private eye accustomed to hiding in the shadows, however Doyle likens the experience of telling a story on The Buntport stage to the experience of telling a story around a campfire or sharing a story at a dinner party with "not a lot of pretense" involved. "The spotlight and microphone may be intimidating but the audience will be very encouraging." Are you a woman or a minority? If so, you may be given preference. This is because, according to Ron, they get a lot of white males who approach them and would love to come tell stories. "We want a variety of voices and are looking for a variety of folks not visible in the public eye." To find out more about The Narrators you can check out the FAQ section of their website, an article bout them in Confluence Denver or their Facebook page. The show is always free for audience members and participants as the creators consider it a community service. "Facebook is wonderful for what it is. Human interaction is wonderful for what it is," Ron explains. "I think it's important people meet one another face to face as a tool for getting life experience you wouldn't get in your social circle." |
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