American Idol's Adam Lambert Hires a Private Investigator

Last season’s American Idol runner-up, Adam Lambert, has reportedly hired a team of private investigators to track an obsessed fan who hacked into his voicemail and several email accounts—gaining access to Lambert’s private information and contacts list.

Sources said “The stalker, who calls himself ‘Jose,’ acts like he is totally obsessed with Adam,” according to an upcoming issue of ‘The National Enquirer,’ due to hit newsstands on Sept. 7.

Read more here.

This PI Is "Nosey By Nature"

Like all jobs, Timothy Burchell's business as a private investigator has its ups and downs.

Rooting out a wanted murderer from his hideout in the south of France for extradition to the States was "quite scary at times, because I had heard he was a very hard man", admitted Mr Burchell, who runs UK Private Investigators from his home in Culverden Avenue.

"I was holed up in long grass doing surveillance from the bottom of his garden for two weeks. The sound of the lawn mower moving towards me wasn't a good moment, but I was pleased when it all worked out and he was arrested."

On the other hand, "sitting in the back of a van at two in the morning with a camera, munching mini chocolate bars because I've forgotten to bring anything else, waiting for someone to come out, can be dire.

Read more here.

PI Discovers Major Town Council Gaffe

Bungling town hall officials were condemned today after the locations of domestic violence safe houses were made publicly available on an official council website - for eight years.

Full addresses, complete with street numbers and postcodes were listed under the helpful heading 'safe houses'.

Safe house locations are supposed to be a kept a strict secret to protect victims from their abusive partners, as well as to safeguard police witnesses from reprisals during trials.

But today it emerged that the whereabouts of five shelters were accidentally published on the website of Northamptonshire's Corby Borough Council, alongside the addresses of sports venues, lock-ups and community centres.

The bungle meant the list of addresses has been easily accessible for eight years - and even came out top of a simple search using Google.

They were discovered within seconds by private investigators who were tracking a single mother and her children. Investigators also found proposed safe house locations in council minutes posted online - marked 'not for publication'.

Recent PI Raids on Counterfeiters Raise Concerns About Fakes

In bright orange letters, the sign in the window says "Yes We're Open."

But take a look at the black gate and lock that stretches across the front of Shoes N More at 2903 W. Western Ave., and you'll see a different story.

Recovery Service Agents See More Business

Brian Turley pulled a tow truck into a Reno supermarket parking lot, leaped out of his cab, hooked a silver SUV to the tow arm and lifted its wheels off the asphalt.

"Seven seconds and it's mine," said Turley, who then went into the store to tell a woman her car had been repossessed.

A PI and Web Designers Help Find Missing Persons

Carl A. Bartol, a licensed private investigator and founder of the Prevent Delinquency Project recently teamed up with two of the Internet's top blog designers in the quest to find missing children and adults.

Each year more than 800,000 children and countless adults are reported missing in the United States. Technorati, an Internet-based search engine estimates that approximately 125,000 new bloggers come online each day. This amounts to millions of blogs and posts every year. In thinking outside the box of ways to aid in the search for missing children and adults, Bartol and his Prevent Delinquency Project (http://www.preventdelinquency.org) teamed up with two of the web's top designers, Ophelia Nicholson (http://www.ophelianicholson.com), and Linda Jackson (http://www.wpskins.org), to develop WordPress blog themes specifically designed to help locate lost loved ones. To their credit, they have completed two such themes to date and more are on the horizon.

Accused Loveland Man Hires PI

Stephen Accomando, a Loveland man accused of plotting to murder his wife, has hired a private investigator to look into the background of the state's primary witness in the case.

Police arrested Accomando, 42, late last month after his stepbrother, James Henderson, contacted police and claimed the two had conspired to kill Accomando's wife while Accomando was in California, according to Loveland police.

'Sizzle' lost from Old Settlers

Delphi Chamber of Commerce lost a valuable item after last year's Carroll County Old Settler's celebration. Members need to find the item because it provides one of the most needed services to vendors and exhibitors at the event.

The missing item is the electric wire used to supply power from the downtown junction boxes to the rides and booths. One local private investigator, a Carroll County native, has offered to find the missing item free of charge.

Hollywood Investigator to Be His Own Lawyer

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Anthony Pellicano, the Hollywood private investigator facing trial on wiretapping and conspiracy charges, can represent himself at trial next month. Judge Dale S. Fischer of United States District Court said she was bound by Supreme Court case law to let Mr. Pellicano do so, but urged him to reconsider. The ruling raises the prospect that Mr. Pellicano, who often grabbed the limelight in his career as an investigator to the stars, would again take center stage at his trial, set to begin Feb. 27.

PI Life No TV Show

Life as a private investigator is like a slice out of TV’s Magnum PI but without the car chases, prowling dogs, sprawling mansions and loud shirts on sunbaked beaches.

"Okay," says Clinton Bowerman, "being a private investigator isn’t at all like it is portrayed by Hollywood. There’s a lot more paperwork.

Exclusive: Private Investigator Speaks Out About Szostak Case

"We strongly believe that somebody out there knows something, saw something, heard something or was told something about what happened to Josh," said Private Investigator Patrick Anastasi.

On December 22nd, Josh Szostak went out to hit the Albany bars with some friends. He parked outside the Elbo Room on Delaware and Morton. The group later went to the Bayou café downtown. After midnight, he separated from his friends - and vanished.

Stamford Private Eye Reveals Case Secrets

Vito Colucci likes to call the days leading up to Feb. 14 Valenslyne Day. Those are the days this Stamford private eye's phone rings incessantly.

On the other end of the phone, usually, is a suspicious spouse looking for someone to spy on their cheating mate.

So when Colucci saw the Mercedes pull into his driveway and a well-dressed, good-looking man of 38 step out, he expected much of the same.

"He comes in, sits down and tells me he wants me to follow his wife," Colucci recalls. "He shows me a photograph of a beautiful blonde woman. So I start asking him the usual hundred questions — her name, the type of car she drives, where he thinks she's going. Then he tells me he wants me to start following her at 2 p.m. and asks if I can go past midnight to 2 a.m. I say sure. Then he says he wants me to call in a report every 15 to 20 minutes."

Drew Peterson Asks Public to Help With his Legal Defense

Drew Peterson says a Web site established to raise money for his legal defense will be a test of the American people’s generosity.

“I’m not asking them to decide guilt or innocence,” Peterson said today of defenddrew.com. “Everyone has the right for a legal defense.”

Peterson said his attorney, Joel Brodsky, is the brainchild behind the Web site, which accepts donations via PayPal.

The site says “for the cost of a few cups of your morning coffee” donors can help fund the legal defense so a private investigator can be hired to help find Peterson’s missing wife Stacy. Any remaining funds will be diverted into a trust fund for Peterson’s four dependent children, who range in age from 14 to 2 years old.

Pretexting Indictment Names Belfair Private Investigator

The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle says ten people across the country have been indicted for illegally obtaining confidential information by "pretexting."

That's the practice of pretending to be someone else to obtain confidential information.

Officials say the hub of the pretexting activity was at a private investigation firm owned by Emilio and Brandy Torrello in Belfair. The couple and their office manager are scheduled to make their first court appearance Thursday (at 2:30) in federal court in Tacoma.

If You Suspect Your Lover of Infidelity, Tank Rolls into Action

The instant you lay eyes on the guy, you know exactly how Sherman "Tank" Jones got the nickname. The resemblance is remarkable.

With the body of a bulldozer and head like a wrecking ball -- let's just say you'd be ill advised to diss his mama.

Yet a big part of his job requires being invisible. Him and his size-15 alligator shoes.

As a private investigator, Tank Jones sees what isn't meant to be seen, hears what isn't meant to be heard, knows what is supposed to be secret. He's pretty sure, for example, that a client's boyfriend who ducked out the door at 5:30 for an early-morning run didn't mean to be videotaped indulging in a little side-dish activity on top of a picnic table in Elderberry Park.

Coin Company Hires Investigator to Prove Consumer Fraud

Austin-based U.S Money Reserve, Inc. is pursuing a permanent injunction against a band of former employees, who formed their own coin company by allegedly stealing the company's consumer accounts.

U.S Money Reserve, doing business as United States Rare Coin & Bullion Reserve (USRCB), filed its suit, USRCB vs. United States Money Exchange et al, earlier this month.

PI Who Broke Fay Case Publishes Book

He’s been on Larry King and many other news programs. He’s covered major national crime cases. He’s handled murders and vicious divorces.

But no case dumbfounded private investigator Vito Colucci like his investigation of former St. John Roman Catholic Parish pastor, the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, in the spring of 2006.

Fay, who pled guilty to stealing millions from parishioners in September, was initially investigated by Colucci, who was hired by former priest Michael Madden and former parish bookkeeper Bethany D’Erario.

“It was so amazing, so off the charts. It made my jaw drop,” he said.

Fake “PIs” Are Actually Scammers Passing on Malware

It looks like Veronica Mars and Magnum, PI are getting into the malware business.

Commtouch, an Israeli security firm that specializes in protecting e-mail integrity, says that it has detected a new malware outbreak that is spread through e-mails claiming to be from private investigators. According to Commtouch, the e-mails tell recipients that a private investigator has been recording the recipients’ phone calls and that an audio file of one of the calls is attached to the message. When unwitting recipients download the “call” to their hard drives, their computers become infected with malware.

PIs Search For Missing Man Gone For Seven Years

Luther Boyt loved life.

Luther Boyt loved his family and friends.

Luther Boyt loved his money.

So when the midtown Kansas City man went missing the morning of Nov. 26, 2000, his friends knew the party-throwing, piano-playing, antique-collecting man hadn’t just skipped town.

They knew something bad must have happened.

But they have never found his body.

So the mystery of what happened to Boyt still swirls today, seven years after the 59-year-old failed to show up one morning to help his friends finish moving his stuff from his Janssen Place mansion into an apartment.

Charge Girlfriend Spied on Private Eye

Former Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano is seeking dismissal of charges against him in a wiretapping case on grounds of government misconduct.

Defense attorneys charge an FBI agent and federal prosecutors repeatedly violated Pellicano's rights by using his girlfriend to secretly gather evidence against him, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.