Brandy Undercover: While the Wife is Away

Summary

The Dating Detectives Podcast Summary: "Brandy Undercover: While the Wife is Away"

Release Date: July 28, 2025

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Introduction to the Episode

In this episode of The Dating Detectives, hosts Mackenzie Fultz and Hannah Anderson welcome a special guest, Brandy, a seasoned Private Investigator (PI). Brandy brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to the show, having transitioned from the repossession industry to private investigations. The hosts express their excitement about Brandy's insights and her engaging storytelling style.

Notable Quote:

Hannah [01:52]: "Our guest today, her name is Brandy, and I have been friends with her for several years."

Brandy's Journey to Becoming a Private Investigator

Brandy recounts how she embarked on her PI career. An impromptu surveillance ride-along with Mackenzie ignited her passion for investigation work. This hands-on experience solidified her decision to pursue a career as a PI.

Notable Quote:

Brandy [06:07]: "Funny enough, Mackenzie is the reason I'm a PI. I was over at her house one day... and I was like, sign me up. Like, I am down. This is awesome. And I've been a PI Ever since."

The Surveillance Case: Unveiling the Affair

Brandy delves into a particularly intriguing case involving an insured client suspected of faking injuries to claim insurance money. What began as a straightforward insurance investigation transformed into a complex affair surveillance.

Case Overview:

• Initial Surveillance: Brandy and Mackenzie conducted a desktop investigation on the subject, discovering he appeared to be a family man with a stable home life.
• Unexpected Developments: The man began frequenting local cafes and clothing stores with younger women, deviating from his usual routine.
• Key Observations: Over six days of surveillance, Brandy observed multiple interactions between the man and various women, including a notable beach date where his demeanor changed post-interaction.

Notable Quotes:

Brandy [08:42]: "He was married. The wife was out of town. So he's married."

Brandy [16:15]: "The guy was 43. The woman, I would say she was probably mid-20s. She had shoulder-length blonde hair... he just looks so plain and basic."

Insights from the Case

Brandy provides a detailed analysis of the man's behavior, highlighting discrepancies between his claimed injuries and his active lifestyle. She explains the meticulous nature of PI work, emphasizing the importance of observation and documentation without making assumptions.

Notable Quotes:

Brandy [17:52]: "When you do cases, you know nothing. And then in some cases, when you go in, the client tells you, we're looking for this specific injury... So we're prepared for whatever the outcome is."

Brandy [42:59]: "Nothing super obvious or whatever."

Identifying Fake Profiles and Internet Sleuthing

Brandy shares her expertise in uncovering fake profiles online, offering valuable tips for listeners on how to verify the authenticity of potential partners met through dating apps.

Key Tips:

• Photo Analysis: Genuine profiles often contain a mix of candid and posed photos, whereas fake profiles may lack variety or personal touches.
• Friend Lists: Cross-referencing mutual friends can help identify inconsistencies in profile information.
• Gut Instinct: Trusting one's intuition can be crucial in spotting red flags.

Notable Quotes:

Brandy [48:35]: "I found out what her real name was because she gave her a fake last name."

Brandy [56:15]: "Sometimes you just got to start clicking... look through every comment, every like."

Legal and Ethical Considerations in PI Work

The discussion shifts to the legal boundaries and ethical responsibilities PIs must navigate, especially when handling sensitive information discovered during investigations. Brandy emphasizes the importance of confidentiality and adhering to legal protocols.

Notable Quotes:

Brandy [38:19]: "Legally, she's not our client."

Brandy [42:13]: "Unfortunately, we are bound by confidentiality."

Challenges and Rewards of Being a Female PI

Brandy touches upon her experiences as a woman in the predominantly male field of private investigation. She highlights both the challenges and the strength that diversity brings to the profession.

Notable Quotes:

Brandy [59:23]: "I'm the type of person who, if you want to puff up and try to make yourself seem like a man to me... I'm going to demean you and make you seem like just a little man."

Brandy [54:01]: "I have a lot of experience driving through crazy situations from my time in repossessions, so these PI stories are just another day for me."

Inspiring Future PIs

Brandy shares a heartwarming story about inspiring a friend to become a PI, demonstrating the impact of mentorship within the investigative community.

Notable Quotes:

Brandy [65:25]: "She got signed on in my company. We were talking one day, and I asked her... she saw this woman on social media talking about the joys of being a PI."

Mackenzie [66:05]: "That's so special. Funny."

Conclusion and Call to Action

The hosts conclude the episode by encouraging listeners to stay vigilant in the dating world, leveraging the insights shared by Brandy. They invite PIs and individuals with relevant experiences to share their stories, fostering a community of support and awareness.

Notable Quotes:

Hannah [68:05]: "If you have a story you want to share with us, you know, about a dogfish situation that you've been in, please email us."

Mackenzie [68:49]: "Thank you, everybody, and I hope everybody's doing well. This was a fun, fun story."

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Key Takeaways

• Thorough Investigation: Effective PI work requires meticulous planning and observation, often revealing unexpected truths.
• Online Safety: Vigilance in verifying online profiles can prevent falling victim to deceitful individuals.
• Legal Boundaries: PIs must navigate confidentiality and legal constraints to maintain ethical standards.
• Diversity in PI: Women in the PI field bring unique strengths and perspectives, enriching the profession.

Final Thoughts

"Brandy Undercover: While the Wife is Away" offers listeners an in-depth look into the life of a Private Investigator, shedding light on the complexities of surveillance work and the critical role of intuition and ethical conduct. Brandy's compelling narrative serves as both a cautionary tale and a beacon of inspiration for those navigating the intricate landscape of modern dating.

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For more stories and insights from The Dating Detectives, subscribe to their Patreon or follow them on social media. Share your own experiences and stay informed about the latest in dating safety and investigation.

Transcript

[Mackenzie]

The following program contains names, places and events that have been anonymized or fictionalized for the purposes of protection and safety. The following program is provided for entertainment purposes only, and any commentary from the hosts are strictly conjecture and should not be held as making any definitive statements about the truth or identity of any particular individuals or circumstances. If you or a loved one are involved in an abusive relationship, please call the National Domestic violence hotline at 1-800-799-7-7-7233 for support.

[Hannah]

Happy dating Detectives Monday. It's like a national holiday.

[Mackenzie]

Woohoo. We're back. We're back with another one. And this one isn't as tough of a Monday case. Thank you guys so much for everything you shared about the latest episode with Rob and Laura and their dad. I'm still thinking about it, and the theories that people send in were very good, and we'll keep you updated like we said, especially on our Patreon.

[Hannah]

I just want to thank you guys so much for, number one, for listening. Number two, to our Patreon, for subscribing either to the $5 tier or the new $9 ad free listening experience tier. We really appreciate your patronage and your support. Also sharing on your social media. And that's how a lot of our guests are found. They're like, my friend shared on their social. And I followed you guys, and I was like, holy crap.

[Mackenzie]

I didn't realize that anyone else had been through this.

[Hannah]

Yeah. And so it kind of creates that sense of community where, you know, you feel less alone. So we're really grateful for that. Thank you so much, you guys.

[Mackenzie]

Speaking of community, I'm very excited about our guest today because not only is it another PI Undercover story, but it's someone who's been in your community longer than dating detectives, somebody that can give us an insight on what it's like to be your PI Friend. One of your besties.

[Hannah]

Yeah. So I think this is really cool because our guest today, her name is Brandy, and I have been friends with her for several years. And where I'm kind of Detective Barbie, she's kind of detective, I'll kick your ass. And so she's like, she is a take no crap kind of girl, and she is batty vibes, and I really think you're gonna love her. She's just.

[Mackenzie]

I love.

[Hannah]

She's so cool.

[Mackenzie]

She's very funny, very dry.

[Hannah]

Yes.

[Mackenzie]

And I'll give everybody a heads up. So Brandi is a PI she's been on or. No, she hasn't been on Our show before, but one of her cases has, because mackenzie tell people how she became a PI really quick.

[Hannah]

So several years ago, Brandy was just at my house. We were actually doing makeovers with her nieces, and I got a call from a client asking me if I could go do a surveillance, literally right now, like, tonight on this case. And I was like, yeah. And I had him on. I happen to have him on speakerphone because I was busy doing something with makeup or something.

[Mackenzie]

And she was, like, starting the process of thinking about training to be a P.I.

[Hannah]

Yeah, like, she. It's something she had thought about because of her background, which you'll learn more about. But I was on speakerphone, and I remember I looked at her, and she looked at me, and her eyes got big as saucers, and she's like. Like, I could read her mind. She was like, I want to go. And so I looked at her, and she looked at me, and then I was like, yes. Like, I just said, yes, I'll do it. And so we were able to take the kids back home to her nieces, and we ended up doing the surveillance together. And it's the ride along episode. So the Mackenzie undercover ride along episode. And that was her first experience as a PI and it was a doozy. So I wasn't sure if she'd want to do it after that. But then she was like, hell, yes.

[Mackenzie]

She was sold. Oh, yeah, you have. You have to go listen, because it's so funny. So Brandy tells her story. Story, and then we don't really get into too many questions until after the fact, which I love talking to her more because we were asking her about, like, dating safety, and she told us a story about one of her friends that ended up getting into how to Internet sleuth a little bit with some tips that I had never heard of. So stick around after the story if you want some tips on how to, you know, catch a dogfish on the social media.

[Hannah]

Yes.

[Mackenzie]

And also, she's just great. Like, she's just such a good friend. I can tell.

[Hannah]

She really is. And she is. I was telling Hannah before we started recording how I just. Brandi, because she will literally give you the shirt off of her back. She has a really big heart, but she will also, like, f you up.

[Brandy]

Do you know what I mean?

[Mackenzie]

No. I want her on my team for sure.

[Hannah]

So, yeah, I really think that you'll really like her and like her story.

[Mackenzie]

Well, I can't wait to hear what people think, and I think we should get her on.

[Hannah]

Okay, let's get into it. You guys, let's meet Brandy. You guys, I want to introduce you to my friend Brandy. She's a private investigator who I've been working with for several. Several years now. We've become really good friends, and she was the investigator on the case with me where I got followed. And so I wanted her to come here and share one of her fun little PI stories with you. And Hannah's really excited too, I think. I don't know where he.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, I'm really excited. I'm sorry, guys. I just realized I had a noise machine on, and I was like, that's the worst possible thing to have on while recording a podcast.

[Hannah]

It disappeared when I said that.

[Brandy]

It was so funny.

[Mackenzie]

Actually hates Brandy and wanted to leave, so I'm so excited. I just. I'm excited because that episode was so fun, and it was fun to hear about other PIs, and we just had Austin, who's another PI tell us stories, and I just learn a lot. I was saying before we got on that sometimes I asked stupid questions because I don't know anything about being a PI but they're not stupid at all.

[Hannah]

Because I know that our audience probably has the same question. So they're like, thank you, Hannah, for asking that, because I'm dying to know.

[Mackenzie]

I hope so. Well, tell us about how you became a PI and then we'll get into your story.

[Hannah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brandy]

Funny enough, Mackenzie is the reason I'm a PI. I was over at her house one day, and she got a call for a case, and she. She's like, you wanna ride along? And I'm the person who. I was like, guys on motorcycles. Yeah, I'll be there. So I went with her, and it was so much fun. We ended up in a car chase. Everything else, and she's like, can you do this? And I was like, sign me up. Like, I am down. This is awesome. And I've been a PI Ever since.

[Mackenzie]

Wait, okay, so you met before you were even interested in becoming a PI?

[Brandy]

Yes.

[Mackenzie]

And she dragged you along? Basically.

[Brandy]

Basically.

[Mackenzie]

And we heard that story on that episode.

[Brandy]

Yeah.

[Hannah]

I got a call right at that moment when she was at my house. And you're like, can you do a case, like, literally right now? And I looked at Brandi, and I'm like, you want to go? And she's, like, held to the. Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

So that's allowed. You can, like, bring friends along. Could I help?

[Hannah]

Well, so it. It's called training.

[Mackenzie]

Got it. So if I was. I was trying to become a private investigator, it would Be a. Okay.

[Hannah]

Yes.

[Mackenzie]

And that worked out, because you eventually did.

[Brandy]

Yeah, well, it has. It was something that we had talked about before. Training. Yeah, it was something we had talked about beforehand, and I was just kind of like, I don't know, because I don't really know anything about the industry, you know? And so when that happened, it was like that perfect opportunity. Come check it out, see what it's all about. And I was sold from day one.

[Hannah]

Tell us how you got into PI.

[Brandy]

A little.

[Hannah]

Like, what made you even interested in.

[Brandy]

Being a PI So I had grew up in the repossession industry. It's myself and.

[Mackenzie]

Wait, repossession? So, like, you worked repossessing cars? That was your job before? Dang.

[Brandy]

Yes.

[Hannah]

Like, legal grand theft, tow truck.

[Brandy]

Everything's. Yeah. Legally stealing cars, yes.

[Mackenzie]

Are you the same kind of PI as MacKenzie? What do you specialize in?

[Brandy]

So I mainly specialize in insurance. I don't do as much domestic cases as she does. I like the insurance because it's a stable schedule. I like to be home at night.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah, I know. She sometimes is like, I'm staked out and at their door at 4 in the morning.

[Hannah]

That's a good point. And I want to talk more about that maybe at the end. I want to talk about how different areas of PI. Some of them are more like. But you have a schedule, and some. Most of, like, cheating cases are nights and weekends, stuff like that. So I'd love to get more into that. There you go.

[Brandy]

Exactly.

[Mackenzie]

Okay, we'll talk. We'll do our Q and A at the end, because I know everybody wants to hear your story. Unless there's anything else. You want to introduce Mackenzie?

[Hannah]

No, I. I want Brandy to take away her story. I'm so. I. I don't even know if I've heard this story, but I'm not sure.

[Brandy]

You haven't.

[Hannah]

I haven't. Okay, good. Then we're all learning this together. Let's go. Take girl. Tell us. Tell us.

[Brandy]

Okay.

[Mackenzie]

I'm so excited, you guys.

[Brandy]

So it happened about a year ago. I had gotten a case for the company that I worked for. It was a simple insurance case. Guy had gotten to an accident. You know, go out, sit, see if he does anything. So of course we did our desktop investigation first checked who he was, you know, what kind of stuff he does.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, that. Okay. See, I'm already like, wait, what's the lingo? Sorry, what's the lingo mean?

[Hannah]

Yeah. So what's a. What's a desktop investigation?

[Brandy]

So desktop investigation is Basically, where we run all the social medias to see what social medias they're on. What that tells us, like, we'll run an address search to see what vehicles are registered to that address so we know what it looks like when we get there, things like that. So we know what kind of background they have before we get there. So we're prepared for whatever the outcome is. Sure. So we do all of our research beforehand. And I see on Facebook, he's married, he's got two little kids. He lives in a big beach house. Seems like a family man. So I know where he lives and everything. I'm like, all right, well, this should be easy. I get there, all the cars are in the driveway. So I get in position and I'm just sitting there. And I was sitting there for probably about three hours and so bored out of my mind. And he comes out of the house with the two kids, and I'm thinking, okay, great, we're going to do something today. So we get in the car and we go. He doesn't even go a block down the road. It's like three to four houses down. And he stops and he pulls into the driveway. So I was like, well, so much for that. So I get comfortable in my car again, think I'm. Be there a while.

[Hannah]

Hold on. So him and the kids get into the car together and they drive three to four houses down and go into the driveway. Yeah, they drove to another person. Okay, I'll let you. I'm gonna let you finish.

[Brandy]

I'm exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking, you know? And so I'm like, all right, whatever. Maybe it's like a family thing, right? You don't want to walk down the street with kids, whatever. So they get out and they go inside. He's not even in there five minutes, and he comes out alone. So I was like, okay, so you're dropping the kids off. Maybe we're going to go do something fun. So he gets in the car and we take off. He goes about 15 minutes from his house, and he pulls into another driveway. So I was like, okay, this is starting to get interesting. He goes in. He's in there for 20 minutes or so, comes out with a female that is not the wife.

[Hannah]

Wait, does he have. Okay, so he. Okay, so he's got a wife at home.

[Brandy]

Well, the wife was out of town. The wife wasn't even home. She was out of town.

[Hannah]

But he is married.

[Brandy]

So he's married.

[Hannah]

He got a wife at home. And now. Okay, I'll let you finish.

[Mackenzie]

Can I ask what, what went through your, like, what were you thinking when you saw that?

[Brandy]

The One thing that MacKenzie has always taught me when it comes to being a PI is never make assumptions because they always manage to kick you in the butt. So I was just like, okay.

[Mackenzie]

All of our listeners will be like, oh, we're in School of MacKenzie's family.

[Hannah]

I've said that before because it could be the sister. And everybody's like, ooh, what's happening?

[Brandy]

Let's not make assumptions. But this is gonna be interesting. Let's see how it plays out, right? Maybe he dropped the kids off because he had an errand to run with his sister or something, right? So, okay, let's see how this plays out.

[Hannah]

Y'.

[Brandy]

All.

[Hannah]

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[Brandy]

So we leave from there. We go downtown and they go to this little like hole in the wall cafe. And my first thought is, this is going to be a pain to get covert surveillance in because there's like six tables in this place. So I managed to get a spot by the window where I could actually see them. And I'm sitting there and they're eating their noses.

[Hannah]

That means that you go inside. Like covert surveillance. Explain what covert surveillance means.

[Brandy]

So covert surveillance is when you follow somebody into a store or a restaurant or any kind of establishment where you get video of them inside without them knowing about it. So there's a lot of different cameras. You can get like little spy cams, stuff like that. I prefer my cell phone because I don't trust spy camps. But that's just me. I'm kind of old school in that aspect, but yeah. So I go in and I sit down at the table and it was like catty corner to them, so it was perfect. And I set my phone up to record and I just sit there and eat my lunch and I look over and their hands are touching from across the table and I'm like, wait.

[Hannah]

Oh, day on a date.

[Mackenzie]

I hope they're not siblings.

[Brandy]

And they're laughing and joking and then they're like leaning in really close to each other across the table. And I was like, that's definitely not a sister. Yeah, so now I'm actually actively watching instead of just videotaping. I'm like, wait, now, now you've got my interest. I'm actually watching what's happening now. And that's when you see her blushing and like kind of covering her face and him leaning in really close the table. And I'm like, o, oh, it's gonna get interesting. So this goes on. We're in there for like an hour. They done ate, drank coffee, all kinds of stuff. So then we, we leave from there. When they left the cafe, they're walking down the street and they were holding hands and stuff. And she pulls them into one of the little clothing stores. And so they go in there and I'm like, I've already followed them into the restaurant. I've fallen them into the clothing store. So I hang out outside and they were in there for a few minutes. They come back out. We did that like two or three different stores. And then finally they get in the car and they leave. So I was like, okay, he takes her right back to her house and leaves. Like, he takes her in.

[Hannah]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. So the most they did was like, flirt and hold hands in there?

[Brandy]

Yeah. Like, it wasn't even that interesting.

[Mackenzie]

First thing I want to know is what they look like because I like to paint a picture.

[Hannah]

Oh, yeah. And like how old are they and stuff.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah.

[Brandy]

The guy was 43. The woman, I would say she was probably mid-20s. She had shoulder length blonde hair. It was like a dirty blonde. He had short brown hair. He wasn't really muscular, but he was kind of just. I don't know. Like, I honestly, he was.

[Hannah]

He. Sup. Was he like, handsome? Like, would you describe him as handsome? Like, did she.

[Brandy]

Me personally? No, I. I don't honestly see what she saw on it. Probably the wife's money.

[Mackenzie]

You're like, okay, to each their own.

[Hannah]

So this is like a cute younger girl with an older man who's kind of mid, basically.

[Brandy]

Ye. I mean, he was basic. Honestly, like, I couldn't really. I couldn't really see what. What they saw because it was. I mean, he had on expensive clothes, but that was about the. The best thing about him. He just looks so plain and basic.

[Hannah]

Okay, so this is normal looking, folks. Okay. She's younger, He's a little bit older.

[Mackenzie]

And then the other question I had was like, Mackenzie goes into these cases not knowing what she's looking for. She doesn't know if she's looking for, like their leg is supposed to be broken or whatever.

[Brandy]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

So you are the same. You don't know what you're looking for.

[Brandy]

So cases, when you go in, you know nothing. And then in some cases, when you go in, the client tells you, you know, we're looking for this specific injury or this specific issue. He has certain restrictions. We need to see if he's staying within those restrictions, things like that. In this situation, we knew that he was claiming to have back injury and he was claiming to have a left arm injury. He did not show any issues with either one of those body parts.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah. At this point, you're like, he hasn't gone and run a marathon, but he certainly isn't like holding a casted arm or anything like that.

[Hannah]

Yeah, exactly.

[Mackenzie]

Okay, got it. But you're still just observing and reporting.

[Brandy]

Yep. So they went to two, three different stores. Then they go back to the car. They get in the car. He takes her home. He's there maybe five minutes. I mean, he had to have walked in there, said, it was great seeing you. Have a nice day, and then turn around and walk back out because he was not in there but a few minutes. So I was like, okay, well.

[Hannah]

Well. So it was just a minute or two. Sometimes that's all people need. I'm sorry. That's a family show. Not really. I'm sorry. I'll stop. Go ahead.

[Mackenzie]

It is not a family show. Oh, my God.

[Brandy]

Sorry.

[Hannah]

Okay, so he's in there. He walks her inside and then leaves right away.

[Brandy]

Yeah. He doesn't stay. So I was like, okay, well, whatever. So I'm thinking we're done for the day.

[Mackenzie]

Nope.

[Brandy]

We end up going on this long drive. It's like 30 minutes. And he pulls into a gated subdivision, and I couldn't follow him into the subdivision, so I was like, all right, well, let's wait and see what happens. So I park and wait for him to come out. He's in there. I want to say, like, 10, 15 minutes. He wasn't in there long. And he comes out, and he's got another female in the car.

[Hannah]

What?

[Mackenzie]

I knew you're. I was like, she's not going to another girl's house, is he?

[Brandy]

He comes.

[Hannah]

How old was this one? Was she a young bu.

[Brandy]

I didn't actually get a good look at her. I only saw her twice throughout the surveillance, and I couldn't really say what her age was, But I can't tell you. He preferred blondes.

[Hannah]

Oh, gentlemen prefer blonde. Marilyn Monroe.

[Mackenzie]

I'm not assuming anything. Maybe this is the sister.

[Brandy]

Well, the wife. And both of those girls were blonde, so he definitely preferred blondes.

[Mackenzie]

Okay.

[Hannah]

All right, we're picking up a trend here.

[Brandy]

His car comes out of the subdivision. We're Windows are down. I see a blonde female in the front seat. I'm like, oh, really, dude? Like, really? This is happening. So I follow him, and I think it was a red light. Something happened. I ended up losing them going through traffic, and I was like, crap, I really want to know where they went now. So I'm searching everywhere for them and can't find them anywhere. I'm getting ready to call it, because I can't find them. And I had gotten a phone call, and so I pulled over to talk on the phone, and I just happened to pull into the parking lot of this Hotel. And I go down, and I come to turn around, and as I'm turning around, I spot his car. And I was like, no, there. There's just lucky.

[Hannah]

I love getting lucky like that.

[Brandy]

There's just no way that he picks this chick up in the first place they go to is a hotel. Like, what are the chances of that?

[Mackenzie]

He's gotta pack in as many girlfriends as he can while his wife's out of town.

[Hannah]

And you guys don't understand. You guys don't understand how lucky that is. When you lose somebody, you usually lose it, but to find them, oh, my God, that is so lucky.

[Brandy]

No, it was pure dumb luck is what it was. Because I had searched all over for them, and they were nowhere to be found. It was pure dumb luck. And so I checked the tag. It's definitely him. It's his car. So I was like, wow. All right. So I park back and where I can see the car, and they were in there for a while, probably about an hour. And then they come out, and you can tell they weren't in there playing chess. Like, neither one of them looked the way they did when they went in.

[Hannah]

So they look a little disheveled.

[Brandy]

Yeah. So they come out, and they get in the car, and it was actually weird because they come out, they get in the car, and then they're just sitting there in the car. They roll the windows up, tinted windows and everything, so you can't see in the car. And then they're just sitting in the car for a few minutes, and I'm like, well, this is really weird. So he was sitting there, and then finally the windows go back down in the car, and then he backs out, and they start driving, and then they go on this weird, like, lap around town. Like, they're just cruising. And then he takes her back home.

[Mackenzie]

Maybe they're listening to Dating Detectives.

[Hannah]

So they're just. Wait, are they. Were they, like, smoking or anything like that? Or could you tell? Like. Or were they just driving just to hang out together?

[Brandy]

Yeah, guess. Like, they just. They took this weird route around town, and it was the. The route that they took almost made me think that maybe he noticed me or something. Or he was trying to see if he. I was following him or something.

[Mackenzie]

That's what I was thinking.

[Brandy]

So I, like, backed off a little bit. But, no, they were literally just going for a drive. Like, you could see her hand come out the window every now and then to, like, play in the wind, things like that. They were just going for a drive.

[Hannah]

And then he took her right back home.

[Brandy]

And then he takes her right back home.

[Mackenzie]

What time is it now?

[Brandy]

It was getting to be around 6 o', clock, and because of the time of year, like, the sun was just starting to set around that time when he took her back home.

[Mackenzie]

Well, it sounds like perfect timing for another date, doesn't it?

[Brandy]

Yeah, that's what I thought. But then he went and picked up his kids and he went home. Guess he figured he better have dinner with the family.

[Mackenzie]

Good for him, remembering he had some kids.

[Hannah]

Wait, so I have so many questions. When they went to the hotel, did they go in together or did, like, he go in and then she went in, like, after, like. Or what happened?

[Brandy]

I don't know, because when I got there, they were both inside.

[Hannah]

Oh, that's right, because you had. Oh, that's right, because you lost him and then you found him.

[Mackenzie]

But it sounds like when they came out, they weren't worried about being caught.

[Brandy]

Yeah, no, they came out together holding hands. Like, he definitely did not worry about getting caught. He was very out in the open, which was weird.

[Mackenzie]

I'm surprised he didn't go to a Coldplay concert nowadays.

[Hannah]

There it is. There it is.

[Mackenzie]

You know, the new. The most famous dogfish right now.

[Hannah]

Wait, so did you get the opportunity to look up the girl from the first address and find out anything about her?

[Brandy]

No, I didn't. I didn't have anything to go off of except what she looked like.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah, and I'm sure if you went on his Instagram and were like, let's find the blonde. He'd be following, like 400 blondes would be hard to narrow it down.

[Brandy]

Probably, yeah.

[Mackenzie]

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[Hannah]

How many days of surveillance did you do on him total?

[Brandy]

We ended up doing six days of surveillance. I wasn't the only investigator who worked it. Two other female investigators worked on it. And so between us, we split the six days and the days in between, we're talking to each other about all these different girls that he's meeting up with. And these days aren't consecutive. So there's about a week and a half that goes by before surveillance day four. And that's when we catch him again with the second women.

[Hannah]

From the first day, did he do the thing where he dropped off the.

[Brandy]

Kids again the second day? No. It's like, I don't know if somebody was watching the kids that day or something, but he just. It was like he didn't have the kids on day four. Like, the kids were never seen.

[Hannah]

We don't care. We just want to know. We just want to know what he did next.

[Mackenzie]

He doesn't care about his kids either, Mackenzie. I know, right?

[Brandy]

He was home for the first part of the day. He didn't leave his house until early afternoon. Like two, three o'. Clock. He leaves his house and he goes back to the gated subdivision, comes out with the same female. So I had told the other investigator, I said, look, the last time he was with her, they went to a hotel. So that's a very good possibility. Again, maybe that's what they do when they see each other. Well, that's not what they did that day. Apparently, there was some kind of carnival in town because he took her to the carnival and.

[Hannah]

Oh, was the wife still gone at this time?

[Brandy]

Yeah, the wife was still not home. I guess she was gone on a business trip or something because we never saw the wife. And the only reason why I think she was gone on a business trip is because around the time we had started surveillance, there have been some posts on Facebook about her taking a trip for work. So I'm assuming she was on a business trip.

[Hannah]

Oh, gotcha, Gotcha. Okay.

[Mackenzie]

Did he post it or did she? Because I could see him being like, oh, no, my wife's gone. Wink, wink, wink. Like, alert the.

[Brandy]

No, actually true. She posted it, I think, like, three days before we had started surveillance, she had done a post on her Facebook saying that she was going to miss her babies while she was working and that she wasn't gonna be seeing them and all this other stuff. It was like this long post about how much she was gonna miss her babies and everything.

[Mackenzie]

I feel bad for her.

[Brandy]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

Unless she's on a business trip doing the same thing, we'll never know.

[Brandy]

Wouldn't be the first couple to do that. So he picks this chick up, and they go to a carnival, and they're riding rides together. He's playing games.

[Hannah]

I bet they were.

[Brandy]

He won her a teddy bear. They were there for, like, two to three hours, and they were one of the last people to leave. They left as they were closing down. And if you remember, this is an insurance case, though it doesn't really seem like it at this point. And for insurance purposes, like, that was prime video, him getting on these rides, getting off these rides in perfect condition. You could tell he wasn't hurting his back. He was constantly walking around. This and everything else. So from the insurance perspective, you could tell he was perfectly fine.

[Hannah]

To be clear, you guys, these are just assumptions we make as PIs. Like, oh, yeah, we're not doctors.

[Brandy]

Yeah.

[Hannah]

So we can't say, like, oh, he was fine or he wasn't. But we're just saying it. Don't take a rocket surgeon based on what we see. And that's what that. Yeah.

[Brandy]

Our job is to document what they look like when they're doing the things.

[Hannah]

Observe and report.

[Brandy]

There you go.

[Hannah]

So he was with two girls on one day and one girl with another girl on another day. Oh, bless it.

[Brandy]

Well, he. So day four, he was with. With the same girl that he went to the hotel with on day two.

[Hannah]

And was that the only other day that he was with another girl or the other day he was just not with.

[Brandy]

There was another day. Day five, he was with a completely different girl in the first. Yeah, he. He hit lucky numbers in the morning.

[Mackenzie]

I have to make.

[Hannah]

Brandy is the quiet type. I'm gonna let y' all know. So she be flying through these stories. Like me, like I always say, oh, these stories aren't interesting. And then it's like, whoa, whoa. What did you just say? And so we kind of have a tendency to think as PIs that, like this. These stories aren't interesting. So she's trying to escape past these details, but we're going to slow her down and back up the train.

[Mackenzie]

Tell us everything about this woman number three. This is like a game show. And now behind this door, woman number three.

[Brandy]

Yeah, behind this door on day five, we had lucky number three. They spent the whole day together. They actually. He. That was the longest date was day number five with this third woman. They started out early in the morning. He had drove across town to drop his kids off I'm assuming it was with the grandparents, because it was an older woman that answered the door. And he just kind of like, here's the kids, shoved them in there, you know, gave her a kiss on the cheek and then took off. It was really weird, but, yeah. And then he went and picked her up, and they went to the beach. They hung out at the beach for a large portion of the day. Actually, that was the day she got video of them playing volleyball at the beach. They were playing volleyball together.

[Hannah]

Oh, so he's playing volleyball with this new girl. Was this a young girl, too, or did you get. Did you get a chance to see that video?

[Brandy]

This was a young girl. Honestly, she barely looked like she was 21.

[Hannah]

Oh, my God.

[Brandy]

Like, she was the youngest one by far. Yeah, no, like, if she hadn't been drinking, I'd think she wasn't 21.

[Mackenzie]

Is this guy wealthy?

[Brandy]

Yeah, they. They have a huge beach house. But honestly, from the way I'm looking at, like, the cars in the driveway, big beach house, the things that he's doing, I'm thinking the money's probably coming from the wife.

[Mackenzie]

I'm sure that could very well be.

[Brandy]

And so whenever the wife's out of town, he's out spending the money.

[Mackenzie]

He certainly doesn't sound like he has a job to go to.

[Hannah]

Oh, yeah, that's a good question. Did he have a job? Do we know about a job?

[Brandy]

He did not work the entire time unless he was working from home at night. Like, he did not go to a job the entire time.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, and he didn't watch his own children, so he's. Well, I wonder what he's telling the babysitters.

[Brandy]

I have no idea. Yeah, maybe he's selling them. He's got doctor's appointments and stuff.

[Hannah]

Like, they're like, oh, where are you going? And he's like, mind your business.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, yeah, he's got a doctor appointment for his back. Yes, yes, of course.

[Brandy]

That's my assumption. I mean, that's the kind of excuse I would come up with, so I can just assume they had something good like that.

[Mackenzie]

Okay, I got a doctor's appointment.

[Hannah]

I'll see you in nine hours.

[Mackenzie]

Geez Louise.

[Brandy]

Well, maybe that was just the grandparents day to have kids.

[Mackenzie]

So he's at the beach.

[Brandy]

They spent a large portion of the day at the beach. They played volleyball. They ate at this little food truck thing. Afterwards, they went to a restaurant, one of the restaurants that were down there by the beach. And then after that, he took her home, but they were there they were there all day.

[Hannah]

So they just had a beach date.

[Brandy]

Yeah, they had a beach date.

[Hannah]

Wow. Did. Was he at least when you observed him, was he on his phone a lot? Like maybe he was texting his wife or did he not. Was he not on the phone at all?

[Brandy]

I did not see him on the phone at all. But I can understand, like, if she's working, if she was at a work conference or something, she may not only be reaching out at night, and that could be the reason why he's doing all this stuff during the day, but he's home by dinner.

[Hannah]

Oh, that makes sense. Because if you're at a conference, you're like, during the day, it's like eight to five. It's like a. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandy]

But he. Every time he made it home by dinner.

[Hannah]

Oh, so he was. Oh, okay. So, yeah, six o', clock, seven o'. Clock. Like, he's home.

[Brandy]

Yeah, he was always home by like 6, 7 o'. Clock.

[Mackenzie]

Was there any evidence of the women also knowing that they were having an affair? I would imagine the one who's going to a hotel with him would like, like, you don't do that unless you're sneaking.

[Brandy]

Yeah, exactly. You don't do that unless you can't have it at your house either. Yeah, see, I think the third woman, they went back to her house and they were in there for a minute. Personally, I don't think there was enough time, but as Mackenzie pointed out, sometimes you don't need that long, girl.

[Hannah]

You be giving these folks too much credit, apparently.

[Brandy]

But yeah, he was in there for a minute, but he didn't look anything like he did when he came from the hotel, I'll put it that way. When he came out of that woman's house.

[Mackenzie]

Wow. All right, so, I mean, maybe he's taking his time and courting that 21 year old. Ugh. I'm so disgusted by people that make it their full time job to, like, womanize. Mackenzie, we are living in the future to tell you about this robot, guys.

[Hannah]

Oh, it's like the Jetsons. Okay, go ahead. Sorry.

[Mackenzie]

Literally, this is the Suvi kitchen robot. And we're very excited about it because it's very, very cool. So I can't.

[Hannah]

Oh, my God. Love this thing, you guys.

[Mackenzie]

So the Suvi combines a revolutionary smart countertop oven with a very flexible gourmet meal delivery service. So it's very cool. This is how it works, this countertop oven where you load ingredients very easily, like whatever you want. I. You. I've. You can do salmon veggies. Like that's what I did. But there's more. You know, you can do anything. You toss it in and then you tap a recipe card that it sends you when it sends you the meals. You can also use your own ingredients and recipes, whatever you want, but you scan the recipe card so it knows what you're trying to make and then you can make it right then. Or it has built in refrigeration so your ingredients can sit there, you can put, pop them in in the morning and then if you know you're going to be home at 7pm and you can tell it, you can tell it what time you want the food to be ready and then it will only cook it right when it times it correctly. Is that crazy?

[Hannah]

Hannah? I am so lazy and this is so convenient and I, this is, I do not cook you guys. But hello. Hello.

[Mackenzie]

The fact that it has built in refrigeration in an oven is just mind blowingly genius. So yeah, you don't even have to be at home to start it. Tap to cook technology. You can prep your dinner in a couple of minutes.

[Brandy]

Just.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah, you load the meals on the cooking pans and then you scan it and it knows exactly.

[Hannah]

Thirty years ago my mom, we waited for my mom to get home to cook dinner. Where was this 30 years ago?

[Mackenzie]

Oh, so many parents are hearing this being like, what? Why didn't I have this before? Also the meals that they have are like chef crafted meals delivered right to your door. You can choose over 50 meals with new options added each week. You get to pick your meals, how many you get, how often they arrive. It's very flexible and it's not too big either. It fits on your counter very easily. It has 15 cook modes, air fry, slow cook. Truly you can use it for anything. So if you're like us, you don't want to spend hours in the kitchen. And this is one of those ways to eliminate time and prep. Also like if you're spending a ton of money on takeout, it adds up. This is going to make your life a lot easier and I'm, I'm very excited that it exists. Suvi also offers a 100 day risk free trial. So you can just give it a try. Go to suvi.comdatingdetives to get 16 free meals when you order. That's s u v I e.com dating detectives to get 16 free meals with your risk free trial. Save time, eat better with Suvi.

[Brandy]

So at the end of it on day six, he didn't see any women or Anything. It was like he was just out running errands and stuff. So I don't know if maybe that was right before the wife came back, and he wanted to make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be when she came back. Because this was about a three week period over the six days.

[Hannah]

Wow.

[Brandy]

So I'm thinking maybe it was almost time for the wife to come back. And so that's why there was no three woman on the sixth day. But I really, I would. I had been sitting, hoping, waiting and seeing if the client would give us more time on that because I really wanted to see what panned out once the wife came home.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, does the client choose the days or do y' all get to choose the days that you think will be best?

[Brandy]

So sometimes the client will say, I want surveillance on specific days. But as a general rule, they're like, we just want two days or three days or four days. But in this situation, we hope that.

[Mackenzie]

You catch them doing something.

[Brandy]

Exactly. It's like, you know, we're Gonna give you three days, 24 hours. Get what you can, work it as you think is best. And then we kind of like play it loose the first day, start really early, see how it plays out, and kind of tailor the remaining time according to that.

[Hannah]

It's usually based on their budget. Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, it makes sense.

[Brandy]

Yeah. It depends on their budget. It has started with a three day case, but after everything that we had gotten on day two, they were like, let's. Let's go ahead and throw three more days on there and see what happens. And I'm sure by the end of it, the client was really happy with the six full days of surveillance.

[Hannah]

I bet they were. I bet they were entertained.

[Mackenzie]

I was gonna say, do you think they added days because they were like, you know, I. We've got a little bit of extra money to spend. I want to see what this guy's doing. Like, there is an element of everyone being like, we didn't set out to find an affair, but damn.

[Brandy]

Yeah, right. Like two. Two girls in one day. And he spent all this time in this hotel. Let's see what else he's doing.

[Hannah]

Were you. I always get asked like, can you tell the wife? Did you do. Ever. Did you get any questions about, like, oh. Or did you.

[Mackenzie]

Did you?

[Hannah]

Yeah. Did you tell the wife, like, no.

[Brandy]

We didn't tell the wife. One of the investigators that worked with me on that case, she was a cc, she was new to the industry, and we actually sat down and talked about.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, sorry, what does that mean?

[Hannah]

What's Explain what a CC Investigator is?

[Brandy]

A CC Investigator is an intern. It is somebody who is new to the industry and is still in training to become a private investigator. So she was new to the industry, and she hadn't done that many cases. I was the one training her. So after she had worked the case, she was freaking out about what she had seen because she was the one who worked the beach today. And so she was on this huge freak out, I bet, about the whole thing. And we sat down, we had lunch one day, and we were going over everything, and she was so ready to, like, burn a copy of the video, take it to the wife, and just hand it to her. And I was like, yeah, as much as I love that idea, we legally cannot do that. And she's like, but she has a right to know. And I was like, I agree with you, but unfortunately, this is not a domestic case. Like, we cannot tell the wife what we saw.

[Hannah]

Legally, she's not our client.

[Brandy]

Exactly. If the wife had hired us, that's different.

[Mackenzie]

So what if the client wants to tell the wife?

[Brandy]

Well, that's up to the point. Yeah, that's up to the point. But, you know, I mean, if it goes to court and this video gets played in the courtroom, everybody finds out what happened. And that. That's basically what I told the other investigator. I told her, I said, if it goes to court, they play these videos in the courtroom, and the wife's going to see the videos of him playing volleyball and making out with a chick on the beach.

[Hannah]

Sure.

[Brandy]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

No, that will be hard to hide. But if this didn't go to court, because I know, Mackenzie, you talk about, like, expectation of something about litigation.

[Hannah]

Something about, like, anticipation. Anticipation of litigation.

[Mackenzie]

Ooh, I got to remember that, because it rhymes. So if somebody hires you with anticipation of litigation, but it doesn't go to litigation, are they then allowed to use what they found and the footage for whatever they want, or did they have to only use it for the court case? Like, what?

[Hannah]

What, the client. Yeah, the client can do whatever they want.

[Mackenzie]

They can do whatever they want. They can post it all day.

[Hannah]

If the client is an attorney or like an insurance company, usually they're going to be professional and they're not going to do that. But if the client is the wife and then you give her this video, like, that's on her.

[Mackenzie]

That's true. Yeah. I guess I'm just thinking, like, if they used it for something they didn't initially hire you to for, does that make Sense. Wait, let me say that sentence again. If they use the footage for something they didn't originally pay for, are they going to get in trouble for, say, stalking or whatever?

[Brandy]

Well, that's like saying, I bought a car to drive back and forth to work, but I'm still going to use that car. Or I can still use that car to take drives on the weekends. They pay for the footage totally regardless of what the intent is. When they pay for it, they pay for a private investigator to gain that footage. So the footage belongs to them, and what they choose to do with it after that is up to them. So, yeah, if they wanted to be that type of person, they happen to.

[Mackenzie]

DM it to the wife.

[Brandy]

There you go.

[Mackenzie]

That's okay.

[Hannah]

But also, in this case, it sounds like Brandi said that she was working for another company. So basically it wasn't her client. She's just doing the surveillance. The company she was working for was the client. So for Brandy's sake, it's kind of better because it's like, don't ask me, like, this ain't my. Not my circus, not my monkey.

[Brandy]

There you go. I just point the camera exactly.

[Hannah]

So there's. It's kind of depends, but usually, I think like Brandy said, you want to err on the side of caution and be. Do it legally and do the right thing. And, like, you're bound by the. By confidentiality.

[Brandy]

Yeah, unfortunately, we are bound by confidentiality. So regardless of what we see them do when we are filming them, we are not allowed to tell anybody, which.

[Mackenzie]

Currently sucks sometimes because I guess as far as we know, maybe they're in an open relationship and it's totally fine, and we don't have anything to do with that.

[Brandy]

I mean, he wasn't trying to hide anything.

[Mackenzie]

It doesn't sound like. It does not sound like it. Did you feel any temptation to look at social media after the words to see if the relationship with his wife was still a thing?

[Brandy]

Yeah, actually, I did. I. After about.

[Mackenzie]

Hell, yeah.

[Brandy]

After about a month of not hearing back about whether or not they were gonna reopen the case, I did search on social media to see if there was any change, and there was no change. Like, the wife came home and they were posting family pictures online. They had a family beach day.

[Hannah]

I mean, nothing super obvious or whatever.

[Brandy]

Nothing.

[Hannah]

I love when people post up on social media that you actually, like, can see what happened. Like, oh, I know, especially for the PI stories. But, like, like, yeah, Yep, totally.

[Mackenzie]

Well, I wish this wasn't what she posted. Like, I'm so bummed that she.

[Brandy]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

Doesn't know, but I know. I know. It's not. It's not our responsibility.

[Brandy]

Well, the way I look at it, karma's real. Yeah, Karma is definitely real. And he will get his.

[Mackenzie]

How often does a case that didn't start out as a cheating case reveal an affair, would you say?

[Hannah]

I mean, go ahead. I'll let you answer first.

[Mackenzie]

Brand, what's your just in yalls experience, like, in your individual experience?

[Brandy]

So in my situation, in my experience, it doesn't happen very often with surveillance cases when you're dealing with insurance, because there is a good percentage of them where the people are actually injured. So you'll have cases where there's just nothing because they don't leave their house. It is rare for me personally, in my experience, for the years that I've been doing it, I haven't been come across too many cheating cases where it was just an insurance claim that turned into like this wild ride. Like that one.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah.

[Brandy]

Okay.

[Mackenzie]

But that's good because all of us listen to dating detectives, and we're all like, nobody is telling the truth. So that's a reminder that some people are telling the truth.

[Brandy]

Yes, some people are telling the truth. They're. They're rare. But there are people out there.

[Hannah]

You know, that's a good question, Brandi, that you posed, because I get a lot of people ask me, are there any cases you work where people actually are telling the truth? And here's the thing. When it comes to insurance fraud, because that's specifically your specialty. When someone is. When someone is being fraudulent, we can't tell even if they. If they move, they could always say, oh, I had a good day. So we could say, well, he wasn't wearing a cast. And he could say, oh, I didn't need it. I was having a good day. Yeah, but if they never leave their house, it also doesn't mean that they're not. Not injured. Do you know what I mean? Like, if they just don't leave their house, they can still. That doesn't mean that they are injured, so we can never really show. If they really are injured, they could come out limping. Does that mean that they're injured? No, but if they say, I can't walk without my crutches, and we see them without the crutches, then that's a blatant lie.

[Brandy]

So you.

[Hannah]

But if they're walking with crutches, that doesn't necessarily mean they're injured. So we can't ever prove if they are.

[Brandy]

It's funny that you say that. I literally just had that conversation with another investigator a couple hours ago. I worked a case. The guy showed up at his doctor's appointment. His right foot is injured. He can't put any pressure on it. He's walking with crutches. Now, keep this in mind. When he gets out of the car, he's utilizing his crutches, right? He walks all the way across the parking lot. There's no cast, no boot, no nothing on this foot or leg. Goes into pt, does his pt, comes out of pt, uses the crutches to get back to the car. Mind you, he's wearing $200 J's on his feet, gets into his Cadillac and leaves. He's driving. Tell me how he's driving with his right foot. And he is at least 45 minutes in rainy weather from his house. How you getting back and forth?

[Hannah]

He.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, that's hilarious. People forget the sprain they've got. They just forget it.

[Hannah]

That's so funny. That's. I told a story recently where the guy had. He used the wrong. He put a cast on the wrong arm or whatever. Like, and. And sitting in court, and we're like, that's literally the wrong arm, buddy.

[Mackenzie]

That's amazing.

[Brandy]

Like, give them.

[Mackenzie]

Cut them some slack. They've got a lot of lies to keep straight.

[Brandy]

Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

We asked the last PI Guest, Austin, this question, so I wanted to ask you. Do you have any dating safety advice based on what you know as a private investigator, other than don't do it? Because we've heard that before.

[Brandy]

I. I don't think I'm the right person to answer that particular question.

[Hannah]

I'm gonna answer this for Brandi. Brandy's one of those folks. Thank you. You say she's one of them friends where she says, you want some dating advice? Slip their neck. Like, she say. She'll say something crazy. Hire. Hire hitman or something like that.

[Brandy]

Stick a knife in your pocket if he gets too close. Just.

[Hannah]

Brandi, listen, Brandy, I'm not saying that's bad advice. No, she'll. Brandi be like, I got a guy. And she'll call up some mercenary or something. Like, listen, this girl messed around. She'll be like, you want me to take care of it? Just say the word. And then you don't say nothing else, don't you. You lie, testify. That's it. That's how Brandon.

[Mackenzie]

Okay, so I'm gonna rephrase my question. Your best friend was like, here's this guy that I just match an app. I'M gonna go in his car and spend the night at his place tonight. Is that cool? What would you say to them?

[Brandy]

You're an idiot. Why would you meet up with a guy you just met online? As a matter of fact, that would.

[Mackenzie]

You like, I got.

[Brandy]

I got a story for you on that one. A friend of mine, Brandy, be like.

[Hannah]

Here, take this knife.

[Brandy]

A friend of mine calls me one time. She's like, I met this girl online, and she's like, too good to be true. I know there's something up. Can you do some digging and tell me? She was married with two kids. And I was like, how'd you find it online? Facebook. So the woman. I will. I will give it to her. She was good. She blocked her from all of her profiles so that she couldn't access them, so she didn't know they existed. I found out what her real name was because she gave her a fake last name. So I found out what her real last name was.

[Mackenzie]

Okay, wait, go back. How'd you find out her real last name?

[Brandy]

This is good.

[Mackenzie]

This is good stuff because we need to learn how to do this, okay?

[Brandy]

So, I mean, honestly, it's. It's investigative work. So she sends me the Facebook profile that she has on this chick, right? With her full name, and she goes, can you see what you can find about her? And I was like, okay. So I do some digging, I go on to the profile, and I look at the friends on this profile. Anybody who's ever had a fake profile knows that there's at least one or two friends on that fake profile that are on your real profile. You just have to figure out who those people are. So she didn't have that many friends, which made it easier. So I found the best friend that was on that profile, and I went to her friends list and went down her friends list until I found somebody who had the exact same first name but a different last name. So I was like, okay, let's check it out.

[Mackenzie]

You're a genius.

[Brandy]

It opens up, and the. The profile picture is a picture of her holding a baby. An infant, her husband, another child. And they're standing in front of a Christmas tree Christmas morning with the matching family pajama.

[Mackenzie]

Seth, if that's not evidence, a matching pajama set is, like, the worst.

[Brandy]

And she's got a massive rock on her hand. I took a screenshot of that.

[Hannah]

Oh, wow.

[Brandy]

Sent it to my friend, and I said, she is married with a newborn baby. She is not single. She is married.

[Mackenzie]

Oh, did your friend confront her? Or block her.

[Brandy]

She confronted her. And I. I would. I would just like to say. And my friend's very aware of this, so I'm not at all talking behind her back when I say this. She's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. She hung up. She hung on to this woman for two years knowing she was married.

[Mackenzie]

No, wait, wait, wait.

[Hannah]

Wow.

[Mackenzie]

Did she say that she was gonna leave her family?

[Brandy]

This girl had her convinced that her husband was this horrible person and she wanted to divorce him, but she was a stay at home mom, and she didn't have the money to get away from him. And she wanted my friend to basically support her and her children. And pay for her divorce.

[Hannah]

What? And pay for her divorce.

[Brandy]

And pay for the lawyer for her divorce.

[Mackenzie]

Does your friend want to chat?

[Hannah]

I know, right?

[Mackenzie]

This is awful. I mean, that's so sad. Also, using, like, I feel like she played into dynamics.

[Brandy]

This happened around the time that y' all started the Dating Detective. And when I found out about it, I told my friend, I said, you should call her. You should go on that show, because you have the perfect story for that show. And at the time, they were still together, and this was when we were finding everything out. I was like, you should call her. Like, here's her number. Call. Call McKenzie. Tell her. Tell her your story. Like, you should go on the show.

[Hannah]

Wow. We need to hear from her.

[Mackenzie]

Get out there. She doesn't have to reveal any information, but I think that's an interesting story, especially if she was dating a woman and married to a band and using, I'm sure, playing into those dynamics to be like, oh, feel so. My husband's so bad. But then she's still taking advantage of your friend. Like, there's a lot there. There's a lot there.

[Brandy]

And then I said. I said, she's. She's taking advantage of you, and you just don't see it because you're blinded because you think you her. And she's taking advantage of you. And she's like, no, she's not. No, she's not. Like, this chick had access to her bank account, full access to her bank account, and she was transferring money out of her bank account and, like, spending her money. And I said, what. What are you doing? Why does this chick have access to your bank account? What is wrong with you?

[Hannah]

Wow.

[Brandy]

And this was all within six months of meeting some girl online. Yeah.

[Mackenzie]

We're both. Mackenzie and I are both, like, our faces are dropped.

[Hannah]

Money is a really big motivator for so many people. And it just.

[Mackenzie]

And this woman was probably a master manipulator who picked a perfect target. So you. But you're the one that found out.

[Brandy]

Yeah. And she. Like, one time she called her, and she's like, he's being so mean, and he's screaming and yelling, and. And he says that we don't have the money to buy food because his family was in town and spent all this money on liquor and.

[Mackenzie]

Da, da, da, da.

[Brandy]

So I don't know what I'm gonna do about grocery shopping and feeding the kids and all this stuff. Got her to send her all this money to go grocery shopping for the kids.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah, of course. Because what is your. Like, if you're. If you believe it and you're not a monster, of course you want to help the kids. Oh, but we all need a brandy in our life. I mean, I'm sure you were like. Like, shaking her shoulder by the shoulders.

[Brandy]

Like, I. I told her I was. Oh, man. I was screaming at her the whole time. And she would call me, and she's like, I need somebody to tell me the truth. And I'm like, I mean, I could slap you with the truth all day long, but you just don't want to hear it. You don't want to believe it, which is.

[Mackenzie]

A lot of people have been in that situation.

[Brandy]

Yeah. And like, it. I get it. You don't want to believe it because.

[Hannah]

You'Re so caught up because you've been manipulated so much. Yeah. You've been manipulated so much that you don't want to believe. You can't believe it.

[Brandy]

Yeah. You just. You can't believe that. That somebody could be that cruel or. Or use you in that way. And she kept saying she loves me. She loves me. And I'm like, she does not love you. She's done nothing but lie to you since the day that you had her. And I've proved to you, and you can't. She's.

[Hannah]

You can't. And you can't prove that to anyone. Like, if they feel like someone, they're like, oh, he loves me. It's like, how do you prove that? No, they don't. Like, this is.

[Mackenzie]

They're different with me.

[Hannah]

Yeah.

[Brandy]

Yeah, that was. She's different with me. She loves me.

[Hannah]

But it's always easier.

[Brandy]

Every story she tells you, every excuse that she gives, I'm literally handing you on a silver platter. The different ways that she's lying to you. And I bring proof. I bring backup. I bring papers, screenshots, everything. Yeah. I bring receipts. And she Just, she didn't want to hear it. So it went on for like two years.

[Mackenzie]

How did it end? How did she finally break it off?

[Brandy]

So it was right at their two year anniversary and as the two years was coming up, I, I basically just sat her down one day and I told her, I said, look, look, it's never going to happen. She's never going to leave him. If she wanted to be with you, if she wanted to be single, if she wanted to be away from him, she could be, she's choosing not to be. And so she went to her and she's like, we're at the two year mark. You still haven't left him. You've made no move to leave him. If you haven't at least started the process of filing for divorce by our two year mark, then I'm done. And so the two year mark came and she walked and that was the end of it.

[Mackenzie]

Wow. Okay. But also drawing that bit of your sleuthing out of that, finding the person, if they have a fake profile, finding the friend who looks real, then going to their list of friends and finding the profile that has the same name but a different last name or the same picture, whatever.

[Hannah]

Sometimes you just got to start clickety click, click. You got to get click happy and just start clicking on things and little by little.

[Mackenzie]

Good tip.

[Brandy]

Yeah, yeah. Sometimes you just got to start clicking. You're looking for any little thing that could associate them, whether it's a last name, because sometimes you can have this person and then they have the same last name as another person on their friends list. So then you go to that person and then you start looking through their friends to find a connection back. And sometimes you'll go full circle and like, like three different people later, you're back to where you were. And it's just, it's all time consuming and a lot of digging, but you just got to look through every comment, every. Like.

[Mackenzie]

I also think that somebody is listening to this saying that we are crazy. And let us be the ones to remind you that you're not crazy. Obviously there's a limit to everything, everything in moderation. But you're a good friend who is doing research. That's what's happening here. There's no crazy going on at all.

[Brandy]

It's what you do with that research that determines whether or not you're crazy.

[Mackenzie]

Yes, that's a good point.

[Brandy]

What you do on your own time in front of your computer is one thing. Sure.

[Mackenzie]

And we keep it legal. We keep it legal. Wow. Okay. That Was a good tip. See, you did have a good dating safety tip. Another question about that. What tipped you off to the this girl being a fake profile in the first place? Because your friend sent the profile and was like, can you see if anything is weird here? Like, well, how did you know it was fake?

[Brandy]

You. You can pick a fake profile up immediately because there's nothing really personal on it. They only have a couple of photos of themselves, and they're like specific types of photos that are generic photos. Like, you know, it's a real profile when you find the crappy photo. Every. Every social media has at least one crappy photo. If you look at a profile and there is not a single crappy photo on there, you know it ain't real. They pick and chose specific photos they wanted on there. So.

[Hannah]

Yeah, that's a good point.

[Mackenzie]

What if they're like, private and they just. If you're not friends with them, you can't see much of their profile.

[Brandy]

Sometimes you just. You look at things and your gut just tells you that's not right. Like something's off about.

[Hannah]

We look at social media so much. Like all of us, all one of us. We look at social media so much that when you see a profile that is fake, oftentimes you can be like, okay, like, kind of, you know, like.

[Mackenzie]

I love how you just said that because. And the science behind intuition put our nerd caps on. People are like, oh, I don't know if I can trust my intuition, My femtuition, if you want to call it that, because that's what we do. Intuition is literally just your body processing patterns that you've picked up over a long period of time, but it processes it so fast that your brain doesn't catch up. So your body is basing it on information that you already have.

[Hannah]

It's not just out of the blue.

[Mackenzie]

So that's why it's something you can trust unless people talk you out of trusting it. But that is why you just kind of. When you know, you know, because you're exactly what you said. Mackenzie, we've all been on social media.

[Hannah]

A long time, so you can kind of. You'd be like, that looks a little different. That looks a little interesting or a little weird, or if you have to stop and go, is that fake? Yeah, it's fake, period.

[Mackenzie]

You might as well keep digging if you think that. You might as well.

[Hannah]

And sometimes, sometimes it's a rabbit hole and you're just being, like, obnoxious. But most of the time, that's your femtuition telling you something is absolutely.

[Brandy]

Yeah, I. I will always follow my gut instinct before anything else.

[Hannah]

A hundred percent.

[Mackenzie]

Have you faced any, like, sexism being a woman in the PI field? I know Mackenzie has initially, but we've seen that it's a strength, too.

[Hannah]

Brandy's different than me. Brandi, go ahead.

[Brandy]

I haven't experienced any sexism, but then again, I'm not the type of person who would deal with that kind of.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah, you're like, I'm a no tolerance.

[Brandy]

So. Okay, let me put it to you this way. I went. I went to work for a company one time, and the owners of the company were ex military. The guy tells me all of my investigators are ex military and ex officers, like, police officers. So we're a law enforcement, military background company. The only people we don't require that from are the females that we hire, because females are so hard to come by because it is a lot of men in the industry. So I ended up having to drive to Orlando to meet with these people and do a huge, like, training thing and meet everybody. And let me tell you something about being in a room full of ex military, ex police officers. The testosterone will strangle you because everybody wants to prove they got the bigger stick. Okay. Yep. I'm the type of person who, if you want to puff up and try to make yourself seem like a man to me and, like, you're bigger than me, I'm going to demean you and make you seem like you just a little man, man. Like, I will bring you right back down.

[Mackenzie]

Like, do you have any examples?

[Brandy]

That's just the kind of personality that I have. Yeah.

[Hannah]

Brandy will put a man in his. Like, she has no problems. What industry did you start in? What were you doing before doing PI work?

[Brandy]

I was doing repossessions. I grew up in the repossession industry.

[Hannah]

So tell us a little bit about that. Like, how did that play into being.

[Brandy]

A PI So it's under the same Florida state statue and the same licensing restrictions in a lot of different ways. They have state laws that vary per industry, but there are a lot of things that are similar and a lot of things that are different. You're still searching for people. You're still searching for certain things. The main differences between repo and PI work is, in repo, you're just stealing the car and leaving. In PI work, you are sitting there watching them and their vehicle.

[Hannah]

So legally. Legally in the car and leaving everything.

[Mackenzie]

You've got a whole other batch of stories.

[Brandy]

I. Oh, yeah. Like, so Many crazy things. And I think that's part of the reason why some of the things that happen in PI, I'm just kind of like, oh, that's just another day. Because I've had so many crazy things happen doing repos, and I grew up in that industry, so, I mean, you're talking 16 years worth of experience doing that versus PI work. I'm just like, yeah, that's just another day. You know? Car chase, pull gun on you. Yeah, just another day.

[Hannah]

You gotta be. You gotta be a little bit of a baddie to do repo. And then PI also, you gotta have, like. You gotta have some kind of ego. You gotta have moxie.

[Brandy]

Yeah, you do. You do. Because, like, I. I know females who've come into the industry thinking it wasn't that big of a deal, and their first case where something happens, and they're just absolutely terrified. Calls me crying, and I'm like, why are you crying? Well, he pulled a gun out. Okay. And did he shoot you with it? Because he needs to, apparently. Like, that's just the kind of personality I have, so.

[Mackenzie]

Well, it's good to hear, because you do need that personality to do this. You have to have. I mean, I hear Mackenzie talking about things where I'm just, like. I would clam up, not even thinking about somebody pulling a gun on me. Somebody telling me that they thought I was, you know, like, lying about who I am. Like, Mackenzie had to flirt her way out of a waiter being like, why are you filming someone in my restaurant? I would have been like, I am so sorry. In fact, take all my money. Take the camera. I will never come back here. Like, I would have fallen apart. You guys are just such good actors. And also, I don't know, like, there's a law enforcement element. There's a supportive friendship element. When you have a client that you have to be a therapist to, it's.

[Hannah]

Learning to get information about people and, like, learning what people respond to. Like, you. If you're like, hi. Hi. Yes, I would like to know, when is your neighbor home? They're gonna be like, I'm sorry, what? Who are you? But if I start making up some story about I lost my dog, and oh, my gosh, I love your shutter, and, oh, my gosh, I think it ran in your neighbor's yard. Hey, what kind of car is that? Do you like it? I was thinking about getting one. Hey, winner. Your neighbors home? Maybe I can. And before you know it, they've given you all this information because you're just.

[Brandy]

Talking friendly and like, she talks so fast, too, that they're just giving her the information before they even realize they're giving it to her. And it just blows my mind.

[Mackenzie]

Like, what did we even just say? Yeah.

[Brandy]

She's like, you don't let them stop and think. That's the problem. You can't let them stop and think. You just got to keep. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

[Hannah]

Because if you ask a benign question like, oh, oh, I love your car. How do you like it? And they're like, oh, it's great. And you're like, I think I was thinking about getting one. Hey, by the way, what time do your neighbors get home? Oh, like, 6p. Like, they're disarmed. It's. It's crazy. And you just learn how to make people feel comfortable. And that sucks to say that. Like, you have to do that, but sometimes you got to learn how to get information from people.

[Mackenzie]

Hey, like you said, with looking up information, it's what you're doing with it. You guys are doing something the greater good. And also, it's your job, and you're licensed to do it.

[Hannah]

Yes, we are licensed. We do it legally. But there's. But also, don't trust strangers. You guys, stop it.

[Mackenzie]

Yeah, look, cross reference Google everybody you go on a date with. Google, your friends. Dates.

[Hannah]

Exactly.

[Mackenzie]

You know?

[Brandy]

Yeah. Strangers on the Internet are still strangers. Yeah.

[Hannah]

Don't judge strangers on the Internet.

[Mackenzie]

Yep. Oh, I love coming along on the drives with you. It's a little ride along via podcast. So thank you for sharing all of this. And also, you were.

[Brandy]

You.

[Mackenzie]

You said there's not a lot of women in PI work. So hearing stories from both of you, I hope it inspires other people to look into it if they're interested.

[Brandy]

Yeah. I already have one person I'm training that was actually inspired by McKenzie to join the field.

[Hannah]

Mackenzie, I love this so much, I'm gonna cry.

[Mackenzie]

Did you know that?

[Hannah]

No.

[Brandy]

Yeah, she got signed on in my company. We were talking one day, and I asked her, you know, what inspired you to be a PI? What's your background? Like, like? And she was telling me about how she saw this woman on social media that was talking about all of the joys of being a PI and things like that, and it kind of got her interested. So she started looking into it and researching, and I was telling me all these faults, and she was like, I think so. And I pulled up her picture, and she's like, oh, my God, that's her. And I was like, that's so funny. Because she's literally the person that trained me.

[Mackenzie]

That's so special. Funny.

[Hannah]

I love that so much.

[Mackenzie]

I love. Oh, my gosh. I hope she listens. Shout out and let us know how it's going.

[Hannah]

That's so cool. Don't you love her?

[Mackenzie]

I love her.

[Hannah]

She's so cool.

[Mackenzie]

So cool. I cannot imagine just driving around following somebody, you know, just girl number one, girl number two, girl number three. Who knows how many other ones are out there?

[Hannah]

There's a lot of. There's a lot of people who say, I want to be a PI and then you're like, well, you got to do this and talk to people. And they're like, oh, it's not just, like, sitting there watching people. No, you got to use. You got to use your. Your noggin. Like, you got to actually talk to people.

[Mackenzie]

But I just.

[Hannah]

That first day when she showed her cleavage to get the information, I was like, this girl, you're. Yeah, I. I knew I was love.

[Mackenzie]

I love that you have different styles of doing it, though. And I think that if anybody else is a PI listening and wants to come on and share their stories, if they're unique, if they're different than what we do, we want to talk to somebody in, like, the tech world, like, computer, financial sleuthing, that kind of stuff. I would love to ask them questions. You've got to submit your story.

[Hannah]

Yeah. If you're a PI, if you've ever hired a PI, I would like to kind of know what your. If you've ever hired a PI for anything, what has your experience been like? What was the case, and do you want to share about it? What did you find? Was it what you expected? I'd also like to know if. If you were a P.I. or if someone hired a P.I. to follow you. I want to know those stories, too. Like, that would be really interesting just to kind of expand on these dogfish cases out there. I'd love to know more. But also, as always, if you have a story you want to share with us, you know, about a dogfish situation that you've been in, please email us. And, Hannah, do you want to give the email address?

[Mackenzie]

Investigate the Dating Detectives podcast.com?

[Hannah]

Follow us on the socials. We really appreciate your following and sharing, and keep the conversation going there.

[Mackenzie]

Thank you, everybody, and I hope everybody's doing well. This was a fun, fun story. Maybe it'll inspire some future PIs to explore getting into the biz. And, hey, send your questions. Mackenzie and Brandy are there to support you. You guys are the best. Seriously. I think it was fun when she said that she met a PI who started because she saw your videos.

[Brandy]

I know.

[Mackenzie]

Inspired. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that. That feel the same way, so. Yay.

[Hannah]

Thank you.

[Mackenzie]

Thank you, Mackenzie. Thank you, Brandy. Thank you, Molly, our producer behind the scenes.

[Hannah]

I'm feeling.

[Mackenzie]

Feeling grateful today. Feeling grateful for everybody.

[Hannah]

Yeah, we. We really love you guys. Thank you so much. And as always, trust your femtuition. Sam.