3 Truthful Reasons a Private Investigator Would Call or Contact Your Neighbors or Family Members

Yes, private investigator’s will contact neighbors or family members about you and there are reasons why this happens.  There are also different ways that this will happen. Now I don’t know every single reason a private investigator might contact these people but I some of the reasons I have and that I might.  Here are 3 reasons a private investigator might reach out to your neighbor or family members.  There may be more reasons but these are the three reasons I would contact your neighbors or relatives.

1.) A private investigator might call your neighbors or your family members to find you.

Whenever I can’t find someone that I need to interview for whatever investigation I am conducting I begin to turn to neighbors and family members.  I don’t need to be sneaky or to trick someone.  I just need to get the address or phone number that reaches the person I am trying to contact.

Most of my work is related to insurance so I try not to spook anyone by telling them I am a private investigator.  I typically say my name is Andrew and I work on behalf of  (Fill in the blank) insurance company and I am trying to contact (Fill in the blank) in regards to an insurance matter.  I will go to any residence the person has ever claimed to live at and talk to the current resident and surrounding neighbors to determine where the person lives.  I have many ways of identifying family members and I am very direct in the reason providing the reason I am looking for someone.

I will keep trying to contact the person until they (the person I am looking for) personally tells me that they are not willing to participate in what I need them for.   The clients I work for don’t want to hear that I didn’t get an answer from the person I am looking for.   So please know that if you don’t return my call I will come to your home because I need an answer.

2.) A private investigator might call your neighbors or family members with a pretext to find you 

Yes we are still trying to find a person but we don’t want them to know we are trying to find them.  For my purposes this usually relates to someone I am to conduct surveillance on and I don’t want them to know I am looking for them.  If they know I am looking for them they will try even harder not to be found.

There have been times where the person I was looking for had moved but a neighbor had a good relationship with the person and knew where they had moved to.   A vague pretext was enough to find the person I was looking for.

3.) An investigator might be conducting a background check on you

A background investigation might be conducted with or without your knowledge.  You may have provided names of neighbors, friends or family members as references of contact for a position with company you are trying to work for.  A private investigator may be hired to contact those references and ask questions about you regarding your experience, character and anything else they believe is important.

A private investigator might be conducting a background investigation on you without you knowing and this will not be direct.  You may be dating someone and they want to see what kind of person you really are.  With online dating growing in popularity more than ever people need to do their due diligence in making sure the person they are dating is someone safe to have a relationship with.

Final Thoughts

So in my experience I either want to find you or learn more about you.  I am either obvious or I try to be covert about it.  I am using my resources and skills to collect information because that is what private investigators are hired to do.  

Please don’t assume that someone that is calling asking questions about you is a private investigator.  Just like I mentioned in previous articles related to being followed there are no guarantees that the person calling about you is a private investigator.  Be safe and follow up with the individuals identifying themselves as private investigators if you feel it is safe to do so.  If you feel as though you are not safe report what is happening to the police.