I ever worked as a P.I (Private Investigator) in a Private Investigation company! That was years ago! And today I would like to share one or two of my experience while I was working as a Private Investigator…
To join a private investigation company as a P.I; you will need to possess a bike and licence. Well, maybe a video camera too… It depends on different P.I companies; most of them expect you to own a video camera before joining them; some might buy a video camera for you first, then deduct the money from your salary; or a few may even borrow you their company’s video camera for a period for time! But whatever it is, to be a P.I, a video camera is a BIG MUST!!
The above are the basic criteria for getting a job as a P.I. I think it should be quite easy to join a P.I company because they are always hiring people; just flip open the classified newspaper and look under the ‘Other Position’ section. But be warned, most P.I companies’ sucks; they do not train or teach you anything much at all. Some could even just ‘leave you to die’ on your first day of work! But of course, there are still a few which is good.
The job of a P.I has irregular work timing, and also, it may be a little dangerous at times. For example; chasing a car in a rain, and frequently beating the red lights. Oh yah, you’ll also need to have lots of patience too.
There was once where I waited for this man in the middle of the night, from 12.30AM to 6.30AM, 6 hours straight!! Then there was another time where I waited for this lady for 5 hours under the sun! There totally wasn’t any shelter nearby at all, we were at Tuas!
My supervisor, his name is Jeremy; he is a nice big fat chubby cheeky man in his late twenties (should be in his 30s by now), and he was a ex-police officer.
When I first joined the P.I company, where Jeremy was also working in as a senior P.I, he immediately became my direct supervisor. He trained & taught me the skills of being a P.I. It was a learning-on-the-job thing; In fact, he even trained up my bike riding skills! Initially, I underestimated him - I thought that with his seriously over sized body and an ordinary bike, he could never outrun me. I’m riding a sports bike; it’s faster and lighter, and what’s more, I am light weighted – But I was wrong…
Jeremy has a very good riding skill; he weaves in and out of heavy traffic with much experience, like a snake slithering between rocks and broken branches! Considering his size and bike, he is probably one of the best among the people I know! I always couldn’t catch up with him, he rides really fast but wise, but he always expect me to catch up with him. Sometimes he even make bets with me to see if I am skilful enough to follow him throughout the journey and not lose sight of him. If I could do it, he will treat me to a meal. If not, I’ll have to treat him back. This was how he trained me.
Jeremy also seems to know the locations of all the best foods you can find in Singapore! He is always eating. Based upon his size, it obviously tells you that eating is a big pleasure to him!
Eventually, Jeremy left the company and starts his own Private Investigation Company instead! Then he asked me to join him which I did. And after working for awhile, I introduced my friend, Kevin, to join Jeremy’s company and work together.
Kevin
Kevin & Me
Most of the time it gets really boring when I work alone on a case, but on some cases I get to team up with Kevin, and it isn’t that boring anymore when you are working together with a friend…
Let me just share one of my most memorable experience that I had while working together as a P.I with Kevin...
Once, both of us were assigned to an unusual case of a mother who hired P.I to spy on his son – the mother actually wants to find out what her 15 yrs old son is doing outside, who does he mixes with, why is he often coming home late, etc…
So far, what we usually encountered are extramarital affair cases. In fact, 85% of all the cases are regarding extramarital affairs! Therefore, we did felt a little surprised when we received this unusual case from an interesting mother.
We spied on that kid for a few days. Other than under-age smoking, there is nothing serious like thefts or fights. He is just like any other young teenagers that frequently hang out with friends at arcades or shopping malls.
On the last night that we were required to spy on this kid, Kevin and I patiently waited for him under the void deck. It was around midnight when the kid’s mother called and told us that her son is about to leave the house soon. We immediately sprang into alert mode and prepare for our task.
5 minutes later, the kid appeared and we begin following him tactically.
We followed him across several blocks until he finally came to a block where his friends were waiting for him there. There were 3 of his guy friends, and seemingly, they are around the same age as the kid.
The kid joined them around the stone table and they begin chatting and smoking. One of the kids even bought drinks from a near-by convenient store.
A couple of hours passed, the kids are still sitting there. Kevin and I were getting really bored and impatient because there is nothing special; they were just slacking under a void deck in the middle of the night… Nonetheless, Kevin and I continued to spy.
Thankfully, I think it was between 2 to 3 AM when there was a sudden change in those kids activity. Oh yeah, they were leaving for someplace else.
Once again, we tactically followed those kids, until we arrived outside a stadium 5 minutes walk away from where we just left.
The exterior design of the stadium tells me that this is a very old stadium. In fact, there wasn’t even any ‘exterior design’, only fences and low walls surrounding the stadium. It was Queenstown Stadium.
Picture of Queenstown Stadium
Anyway, those kids went into the stadium through a widely opened side gate,
The red arrow shows where we entered from (Picture is from Google Earth)
If you have noticed the above picture, there are swimming pools just behind the track and field. It is actually a swimming complex, also part of the stadium. Anyway we’ll get to this later.
Continuing on after entering the stadium, it was very dark, all the lights have been switched off. In front of us is the track and field, and I can see silhouettes of people jogging around the track which surprises me! Don’t forget it is in the middle of the night!
The kids begin racing each other around the track while Kevin and I kept an eye on them.
10 minutes later, the kids stopped their race and started walking towards a corner of the stadium, but this time they were behaving suspiciously. The were heading towards another side gate (opposite side from where we came in).
The yellow dot shows the location of the side gate
The kids went into the side gate.
To avoid letting the kids find out that we are tracing them, Kevin and I waited for 5 minutes before entering the side gate.
After entering into the side gate, we arrived onto this area where what it seems like an abandoned construction site about the size of a tennis court.
This place was very dark; I had to use the LCD screen of my handphone as a little beacon. There were debris lying everywhere; some were almost half as huge as a refrigerator!
With a little help from both of our handphone screen, we steadily manoeuvre our way through the dark construction-site-like area.
While I was wondering where the hell those kids are, I can’t help but started to feel a little sense of excitement.
The area of the construction-site-like place
I believe that the place that we were in is an area restricted to the public. Maybe it was really a construction site that was put on hold for a few weeks? Or maybe what I guessed was right; it is an abandoned construction site?
Kevin & I explored around the place trying to find those kids, but they are nowhere in sight! And to make things more complicated, we were shocked to discovered that this area is a dead-end surrounded by low walls!
Confused, we stood still from where we were. Where the hell have those kids gone to? Did they just disappear?
Suddenly, we heard huge splashes of water followed by laughters from a distance. We immediately followed the sounds, towards the direction where it was coming from.
Very soon, we discovered that the water splashing and laughters is coming from behind the low wall; those kids have successfully sneaked into the swimming complex by quietly walking through the side gate, creeping across the construction site, and finally, climbing over the low wall!
This picture shows the kids’ trail
The wall is about 2 metres tall.
While Kevin and I stood closely to the wall wondering what to do next, the kids on the other side of the wall continued their fun with all the water splashing and vulgarities...
Stood in between us and the kids is a wall
By the way, don’t forget that this was in the middle of the night. 
Day - Queenstown Stadium & Swimming Complex
Night - This picture is an idea to roughly show you how dark it was
After observing them (by listening) for 10 minutes, I decided to secretly take a video of them. But then I realised something. How am I going to take a video of them when even my view is blocked by the wall??
Kevin quickly got an idea. He said that I will stand on his shoulders, and in this way, I would be high enough to look over the wall. Upon finishing his sentence, he got into a ready position right away!
I stepped onto Kevin’s shoulder, he lifted me up high enough to look over the wall, and I started observing them first…
A lousy artist impression of how it would probably look like. *LOL*
After observing them for 5 minutes, one of the kids suddenlly turned his head towards my direction and saw me!
The kid had a shocking look on his face.
I instantly bend down to hide myself, and whispered to Kevin that I’ve just been spotted by one of the kids! What should we do now?
All of a sudden, there was silence. No more splashing of water or laughs from the kids.
Kevin and I was still panicking over being spotted by one of the kids that we didn't know what to do. We just froze there.
A few minutes passed, and there is still no sound coming from the kids. By this time (already overcome our panics) we find it strange and decided to take another peek over the wall again...
WTH?! The kids are gone!
We quickly climbed over the wall and searched around the swimming complex for the kids. I even searched the shower rooms which is pitch black! But despite all, we still couldn’t find them. They must have left the stadium.
We looked outside the stadium, but still, we could not find them. Must be after those kids discovered that they were being traced, they immediately went home!
The following day, after Kevin and I arrived to our office, our superior (Jeremy) begin asking us about last night‘s case.
We told him everything.
He replied that next time we shouldn’t follow whoever we are following into restricted areas, just in case we might get caught by the authorities.
Following on, he told us something that we found it very amusing.
He said that the kid’s mother called him this morning - The mother told Jeremy she was surprised that her son, after returning home late last night, admitted and told her where he just went. But her son added that he is telling her this is because the swimming complex that he sneaked in is haunted!
The kid told his mother, that last night he saw A HEAD OF A FEMALE GHOST when he was swimming!
The frightened kid decided to tell his mother where he sneaked out to last night.
LOL! Omg! This is so funny! Now it makes sense as to why those kids suddenly left the swimming complex so quickly after they saw me peeking at them; instead of me, they thought they saw a head of a female ghost and it scared the shit out of them!!
Actually, it isn't too surprising that they mistook me for a female ghost because my hair was quite long then, and also, my skin was fair.
Secondly, there is a Chinese proverb that goes like this:
“平生不做罪心事, 半夜敲门也不惊."
In english it means:
“If one has never done anything guilty/sinful in one's life, you have nothing to be afraid of even if there is someone (presumably a ghost) comes knocking on your door in the middle of the night.”
The kids must be feeling guilty because they have broken the law by wandering into the restricted area and into the swimming complex. Therefore, this explains the easy fright!
Frankly speaking, come to think of it again, which 15 years old teenage would ever guessed that a P.I was following them??
If I were to be the one sneaking into a dark swimming pool in the middle of the night and saw a head popping out from a 2 METERS HIGH WALL, it probably would have scared the shit out of me too!
Alright, I have come to the end of my boring story.
By the way, regarding the moment where the kids saw me peeking at them,
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LOL! Another lousy artist impression of how it might have looked like
- Fin –
Friday, January 28, 2011
Private Investigator
2:16 AM
deli
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