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Every week, it seems, we are visited with another example of famous infidelity. Off the top of my head, I summon from the tabloid depths the names of Jesse James, Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Mark Sanford, David Letterman, Eliot Spitzer, Larry King and Larry King’s wife (allegedly).
Needless to say, it’s not just the rich and famous who stray from the path of righteousness. Our televisions are filled with the foibles of lesser lights. You can watch “Cheaters” as semi-human host Joey Greco catches the unfaithful with his crew of hidden cameramen. Then there’s Dr. Phil, who never met a cheating spouse he didn’t want to take to the woodshed.
All of this got me thinking about the real, un-televised world of cheaters, which is how I ended up in the office of Tim Wilcox. Wilcox has been the owner of International Investigators since 1970.
It’s a firm that handles a wide variety of investigations, ranging from uncovering fraud in corporations to examining suspicious deaths. It can also discover if your significant other has found someone other than you.
The business of catching cheaters is all about surveillance, and technological advances have created a stunning array of tools.
Wilcox shows a table filled with cameras, although you wouldn’t know that any of them were cameras at first glance. They are disguised as shoes, DVD players, clock radios, a package of gum and other seemingly harmless objects. You know that bouquet of roses your husband gave you? Well, you may want to look again.
Along with cameras, there are GPS devices that are used to keep tabs on the movement of cars. It’s a great leap forward in detection technology.
“When I started,” Wilcox said, “we had these receiving devices with a limited range and battery life. You’d attach one to the target car and then place a receiver in your car. It had an antenna that stuck out the window about 10 inches, so it was kind of obvious. With GPS, the range is unlimited and there are no 10-inch antennas. It’s connected to Google Earth. We can tell how fast a car is driving, where it’s turning, where it’s stopping and then pull up that address on the Internet.”
It may surprise (and delight) some !to learn that adultery isn’t grounds for divorce in Indiana. “Indiana was one of the first states to institute no-fault divorce. I think it happened in 1973,” Wilcox said. “From a legal point of view, adultery doesn’t exist in Indiana. For a while after that law was passed, that aspect of our business declined, but eventually it picked back up again. People just have to know.”
There can also be a practical application to nosing out the dirty business. If a cheating spouse is interested in booking a one-way trip to Splitsville by filing for divorce, he or she may decide to start squirreling away assets. International Investigators can track that sort of thing and present evidence in court as to the reality of the financial situation.
And while wandering husbands tend to grab the headlines, they aren’t having all the fun. “Forty years ago, it was mostly women who hired us, but now I’d say it’s an even split between men and women,” Wilcox said.
Do the suspicions of his clients ever turn out to be baseless? “Almost never. If someone gets to the point of coming to us, they really already know. They just want proof.”
As we were discussing how suspicious partners approach him, Wilcox got a call. A woman was phoning from another city and suspected that her husband was messing around. She had spied an odd text on his phone and heard rumors from friends.
I listened as Wilcox asked for the basic information: location of suspected liaison, time of day, reasons for suspicion. He scribbled notes on unlined paper and then began to suggest options. By the time the conversation was over, it sounded like the suspected philanderer had GPS tracking devices and hidden cameras in his future.
“Well, there you have it,” he said. “It usually goes something like that.”
How to never get caught cheating:
- Don’t establish a pattern. That daily trip to the hotel that charges by the hour is an excellent way to get nabbed.
- Don’t use your own car. Avoid the snooping of GPS by taking a taxi to your tryst.
- Don’t do it in your own house. It’s entirely legal for your spouse to set up hidden cameras in your home without your knowledge. Unless you want to end up on “Candid Camera,” take your action elsewhere.
- Only do it once. This is obviously the best way to avoid establishing a pattern.
- Don’t do it at all.
