El Scott Harrell

Infidelity and the Milkman - Could the Stereotype be True?

One Monday morning a milkman is walking the neighborhood on his usual route. As he approaches one of the homes he noticed that both cars were in the driveway.

His wonder was cut short by Bob, the homeowner, coming out with a load of empty beer and liquor bottles.

"Wow Bob, looks like you guys had one hell of a party last night." the milkman comments.

Bob in obvious pain replies, "Actually we had it Saturday night. This is the first I have felt like moving since 4:00 am Sunday morning.

We had about fifteen couples from around the neighborhood over for Christmas Cheer and it got a bit wild. Hell, we got so drunk around midnight that we started playing WHO AM I."

The milkman thinks a moment and says, "How do you play that?"

Well all the guys go in the bedroom and we come out one at a time with a sheet covering us and only our "privates" showing through a hole in the sheet. Then the women try to guess who it is."

The milkman laughs and says, "Damn, I'm sorry I missed that."

Probably a good thing you did," Bob responds. "Your name came up four or five times."

Is your spouse cheating on you?

Voodoo Hex on you, David C. Price of Boynton Beach, FL!

I had an interesting visit from an investigator with the Division of Licensing of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DOL-DOACS) today. He was on a mission... to root out evil companies who do not follow the rules and fail to post their DOACS-bequeathed agency license number on anything that can be remotely construed as company advertising and string them up by their "short and curlies" for failing to obey FL F.S. 493, heretofore simply known as...

The Law.

Apparently, this all started with an email sent from Dprice3844444@aol.com to the DOACS-DOL's Bureau of Regulation and Enforcement copying a Spy Shop website that had listed approximately a dozen or so Florida private investigation agency's names, websites and company profiles; my agency was one of them. The problem, however, was that in doing so the webmaster did not post the agencies' DOACS license numbers, too, thus the reason for the visit. Undoubtedly my fellow advertisers-in-crime will be receiving visits as well.

Herr Harrell, Yer papuz puleez...

Then I had the wonderful experience of getting cozy with the (VERY POLITE) investigator for 45 minutes while we went through all of my agency documentation, advertising pieces, my complete online presence (and if you know anything about CompassPoint Investigations you know that we have a MASSIVE presence on the Internet through the various divisions of my company) and various state and county required documents, notices and posters.  I did find it a bit disconcerting that the investigator was working from old documentation and that the DOACS was sending investigators out on the basis of an unsigned complaint.

I feel like I've had my first colonoscopy and I'm not yet even 40 years old.

Needless to say, all of my documentation is in order. ZERO discrepancies. None.  The investigator agreed that I cannot be held accountable for the actions of others who I do not know, did not ask for the listing or even authorize the use of my company name in connection with this website.  Where the website owner scraped my company information from I have no earthly idea, but I suppose that I do appreciate the link-love. I harbor no ill-will to the spy shop.

So now I am sitting here getting worked up over the pettiness of this whole exercise and I just had to determine on whom I am going to cast this next Voodoo Hex; after all, I cannot in good faith send a hex via email and hope for it to have its intended consequences.

Surprisingly, it really wasn't all that hard to find out who the lucky recipient should be... here's how I did it:

First, I obtained a copy of the original complaint through an FOIA request. Here is the top page of the copy I was provided (click on image to make picture larger);

Noting that the complaint was sent via email by a "Dprice3844444@aol.com" I conducted a search on Google of Dprice3844444@aol.com which immediately led me to an interesting and gratifying find with almost no effort (click on image to make picture larger):

This is a screenshot of the first result in my Google search for Dprice3844444@aol.com. If you click on the link it just takes me to a page that lists Staples' corporate office address and a long list of customer reviews for Staples. It was easy to cobble together the address from the original search results:

706 SW 27th Ter, Boynton Beach, FL 33435

Looking at the source code of the web page I did a quick search <Ctrl+F> on "706 SW" and the following source code came up:

In a message dated 11/10/2010 10:18:21 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, dividends@staples.com writes:<br />
Hi David, <br />
<br />
Staples Rewards, like coupons, are time sensitive and must be used before the expiration date. Since your December 2009, January 2010 and July 2010 Ink Recycling Rewards have expired, we are unable to reissue these Rewards to you. <br />
<br />
If you have any additional questions, please contact us at StaplesRewards@Staples.com or by calling 1-800-793-3320 Monday through Friday, 8:30AM-8:00PM EST.<br />
<br />
Thank you, <br />

<br />
Kristina Rowden<br />
Staples Online Rewards Team<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Original Message Follows:<br />
------------------------<br />
<br />
firstName_req: david<br />
lastName_req: price<br />

emailAddress_req: dprice3844444@aol.com<br />
streetAddress1: 706 sw 27th terrace<br />
streetAddress2: <br />
cityTown: boynton beach<br />
stateProvince: FL<br />
zipPostalCode: 33435<br />
phoneNumber_req: 561-732-6947<br />
customerNumber: 2176162325<br />
orderNumber: <br />

comments: have #1959 3217 6162 3254,9921 5217 6162 3257, and 6116 2217 6162 3255 value rewards coupons the stoore in boynton wouldn't over ride for me to redeem.how can i redeem these?<br />

Seeing that the entry was dated 11/10/2010 it was much easier to find the entry in the very long list of comments. Here is a screenshot of the entry in question (click on image to make picture larger):

 

Wow! That is A LOT of very personal information to release into the wild; I certainly wouldn't want all of this out there if I was concerned about my anonymity:

Name: David C. Price
Email: dprice3844444@aol.com
Address: 706 SW 27th Terrace, Boynton Beach, FL 33435
Phone: 561-732-6947

So I wondered out loud why David C. Price would even care about The Law and I suppose for a few minutes I considered that this guy was another private investigator wallowing in his own failure as an agency owner and took solace in the warm comforting knowledge that he was causing grief for others, when clearly the agencies listed on this spy shop website probably had no fucking idea they were listed on this site to begin with and a simple fucking search of the DOACS-DOL license verification web page would have confirmed that everyone listed was properly licensed.

How about a courtesy call instead, Mr. Price???!?!?!!?

So I decided to dig a little deeper, hoping against hope that I would find some sort of satisfaction in the fact that, PERHAPS, David C. Price was not a miserable ASS-HAT and was just doing his duty as a private investigator attempting to maintain the good name of all Florida Private Investigators by weeding out the unlicensed scum masquerading around as real professionals thereby maintaining the chastity of our good and most honorable professional names...

David Charles Price is a security guard.

The uncomfortable sound of silence....

Now rage:

WTF???? I mean, W....T....F....??!?!!!?

Breathing. Deep breaths.

Maybe he owns a security guard company??? No record online of that either... just a fictitious business registration for "P & P Machine Co" back in 2007, otherwise I could not find a business belonging to him or of which he is a corporate officer via SunBiz.org.

http://www.sunbiz.org/pdf/3495004E.pdf

Oh no... Please tell me that this wasn't your post, too:

"everybody needs to start filing complAINTS WITH THE FEEDERAL TRAE COMMISSION ON CRAIGSLIST.FOLKS WHO HAVE CREDIT CARD SCREWUPS,GO TO THE SECTION ON FRAUD AND FILE IT WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMANT ONLINE.RIGHT NOW FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON,MY ACCOUNT IS ON HOLD,AND I CANNOT GET ANY ANSWERS FROM THESE FATHEADS.FILE COMPLAINTS WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU OF SAN FRANCISCO.FILE COMPLAINS WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO NEWSPAPERS,LET THEM CHECK IT OUT AND RUN COPY ON THE FATHEADS - DPRICE3844444@AOL.COM 1/5/11 8:24AM"[sic]

Alright, I get the point now. You just like to complain. Whining because your Craigslist account was put on hold? Calling them Fatheads... and urging others to file complaints with the FTC and the BBB? Oh my God. I guess we just have an aging bow hunter who calls himself "stringboy" relegated to a security post who fancies himself in another life to be machine-gunning Super Cop. Good job, Ace, you really rid the world of investigative evil-doers with that last switch-flip of the Bat Signal. If I lived in that house of yours (there is a picture of that place online) and made as many spelling and grammatical errors as you, I'd be pretty pissed off as well. (You see, I REALLY get frustrated when I cannot effectively communicate or remain coherent as well.)

I really could go much much further and really dig into your publicly available records but I've wasted an entirely good day today because of you and your petty little bitch-boy antics already, so let's just get down to the Voodoo Hex you have so rightly earned:

voodoo.  vooDOO.  VOODOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Voodoo on you David C Price of Boynton Beach, Florida for being a complaining tattle-tale, sending the law after a handful of hard-working small business owners like me and for otherwise causing the needless plunder of our Florida DOACS coffers. Voodoo on your Craigslist account also, just because it obviously really pisses you off and causes great consternation. Now you know how I feel having been through my day today.

I can't wait to see what you're going to do when you finally find and read this post! You'll probably totally flip your lid and do really crazy stuff... or not... because I'm sending an extra large sized helping of Voodoo your way and to quote you quoting others, "well,to quote robert duval,"i love the smell of napalm in the morning.""[sic]

voodoo.  vooDOO.  VOODOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW... Thank you, David, for recycling your used ink cartridges and setting a good hexample for others.

Disclaimer: On the date of this post, 3/3/2011, CompassPoint Investigations is/was a private investigation agency licensed by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. FL PI #A 2500251

Georgia Private Investigator Continuing Education

First, I admit that the El Scott Harrell blog needs a lot more care and attention, but to my defense I have been extremely busy doing many other things like running a great private investigation agency, developing new courses, going through the arduous process of getting certified as a continuing education instructor in states that require CE for private investigators, building the various social networks that support the seperate divisions of CompassPoint Investigations and keeping our FREE online PI magazine, Pursuit Magazine, interesting and informative as well.

Breathe. (Just a mental reminder for myself, Dear Reader, not meant for you necessarily though I highly recommend the practice of breathing regularly.)

Here is a sneak peek behind the scenes of what I go through on a regular basis:

Perhaps the greatest success I've had lately, besides transitioning my oldest daughter to her "big girl bed" that allows her to get up and wander around the house at any givent time while the rest of us are asleep, as that we endured and overcame the eight month ordeal of obtaining my Georgia Private Investigator Classroom Intructor license from the GA Board of Private Detectives and Security Agencies:

Georgia Private Investigator Continuing Education

(I say "we endured" because I am not sure that I would have had the fortitude to endure the entire process without my Office Ninja, Stephanie.)

Why would I call it an ordeal?

Because the process has actually been 1 year and 8 months in the making... We lost the first year (and a couple hundred dollars) entirely because the Board somehow lost responses they required in reference to my application until my application statutorily expired, which required a new application and more fingerprints that have to be taken somewhere within the state of Georgia (5 hours away).

During the re-application process they, of course, required the same responses again and then we would not hear back from anyone at the GA Board at all. We watched the minutes being posted after every Board meeting.

Nothing.

Everyone we called could not give us a direct answer as to where we were in the process but everyone promised a call back with information. No return calls. We made calls and sent emails to individual Board members; they also went unreturned.

Isn't that peachy?

Eventually, through dogged determination and ol' fashioned investigative techniques, Stephanie reached the director in person. He couldn't explain why the process was dragging out so long except to say that they were trying to process hundreds of applications and that he would look into it.

HAHAHAHA! Yeah, right.

Three or four weeks later I called him back and that's where it got difficult (for Stephanie - LOL).

It seemed that in order to teach continuing education to PI's in Georgia we had to now submit an entire course curriculum for the 80 hour entry-level private detective course required bofe anyone can get a PI license in the state. Writing a course syllabus of this nature and complexity and following GA law is not an easy task; that meant an additional 3 weeks of research and development and more weeks or months of waiting to see what additional hoops through which we would be required to jump.

Did I mention that we (Stephanie) had to write an entire course on Private Investigators working with the Department of Homeland Security, too? There went another 2 months while we (Stephanie) feverishly banged out another college textbook quality course manual.

Here we are today and I am proud to say, "Mission Accomplished!"

This shouldn't have been a tough process. I more than meet the state's statutory requirements for licensure and we followed the letter of the law when it came to the application process. Truth be told, I smelled a rat 2 years ago when I initially started the application process and conveniently paperwork started getting held up or lost in the shuffle. I certainly cannot confirm that someone was actively working against me, but I do know that several people who had access to my application also provide continuing education to Georgia Private Investigators. I can certainly understand that having PIeducation.com come into a marketspace is probably going to be disruptive to the established players.

We pride ourselves in providing great education at a very low price through the most convenient method possible; if our competitors do not or can not, then they have reason to worry. While equally disturbing, I did find some comfort and solace in knowing that other private investigators were going through the same ordeal in getting their professional licensing in place with the GA Board of Private Detectives and Security Agencies. I'm sorry that I kind of rejoiced in hearing their not too unfamiliar stories. Misery really does love company.

BTW- GA Board of Private Detectives and Security Agencies, you all narrowly dodged a Voodoo Hex. Consider yourselves lucky.

Breathe.

It's good to be back.

What is a Process Server?

I seem to get this question all of the time, so hopefully this will help.

From a Pensacola Process Server:

Service of Process is defined as “Notifying a person that he or she has been named as a party to a lawsuit or has been accused of some offense. Process consists of a summons, citation or warrant, to which a copy of the complaint is attached. Subpoenas are court orders which, if properly served, compel the attendance of the witness in court. The act of providing an opposing party with notice of a pleading or action to assure that the opposing party is aware of the action and is given an opportunity to appear.”

"Providing a formal notice to the defendant that orders him or her to appear in court to answer plaintiff's allegations."

So, service of process refers to the manner in which the opposing party receives notice that a case is being filed against him/her. This must be completed in accordance with law in order for the case to be heard and be binding against the opposing party.  This is done by a sheriff or process server, generally. This is generally done routinely, but sometimes it is difficult. The authorized agent 'serves' (hand delivers) the complaint and summons, or other court orders and writes to each defendant. If someone cannot be served in person, then under certain circumstances service can be made by mail or publication.

No, process servers are rarely, if ever, like Seth Rogen's character, Dale Denton, from Pineapple Express.

 

Online Private Investigator Magazine is Now on Your Smartphone

With a single click, mobile smartphone users will now see a fast-loading, cell phone friendly view of Pursuit Magazine when viewed from an iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Nexus One, Opera Mini mobile, Palm Pre or BlackBerry touch mobile device.  You need not do anything except to visit our website, http://pursuitmag.com, from your touch enabled smart-phone.

Smartphone users can easily switch between the mobile view and the regular computer-based browser format with the touch of a button.  This version of Pursuit is lite on graphics but has the same great articles you've come to expect from the #1 online investigation portal and e-zine on the Internet.

Give it a try and stay current with Pursuit Magazine while on the go!

It is important to note that We are still trying to find a way to bring a more mobile friendly version of our online private investigator magazine to internet capable mobile phone users not using touch-enabled web browsers listed above.  A .mobi version of the site is not too far away.

El Scott Harrell's State of the Union Address

"American patriotism must not recognize political affiliation... The restoration and maintenance of our Constitution, an unwavering dedication to our Bill of Rights and, above all, the zealous defense of the freedom afforded its [legal] Citizens is all that matters now." - L. Scott Harrell

Online Private Investigator Magazine Develops Huge Reach

There are many exciting things developing at Pursuit Magazine these days and many things yet to come!

We launched our Private Investigator Jobs board several weeks ago and have attracted both Job Seekers and Employers in equal numbers.  The investigation career part of our portal is proving to be an extremely valuable addition to the community and we are getting really incredible reviews as new jobs are being added every day.

Our Pursuit Magazine Facebook Fan Page continues to grow by 10 or 12 people every day without a great deal of effort and we are appreciative of everyone who is becoming actively involved in contributing to the community.  The fan page initially served as one of the ways we let our subscribers know when we posted new articles, but it has grown into a great deal more than that at this point; ideas are being discussed more fully, people are offering suggestions on how to continually improve and best of all, the support encouragement we receive makes it a worthwhile project for me.

If you are on Facebook and have a professional interest in private investigation, bail enforcement, process serving, repossession, security and skip tracing, then check out the fan page...

We are getting traffic from all over the world now as our online PI magazine is now available in 7 languages including Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish, German, English and  Russian- making us the only TRUE international PI Magazine.  We are welcoming, on average, well over 4,500 unique visitors everyday now and have in excess of 6,200 subscribers to our RSS feed through FeedBurner.

And as promised, we have several new features coming to Pursuit Magazine very shortly... I'd tell you, but I'd hate to ruin the surprise.

Just stay tuned!

Arizona Process Server Continuing Education is Online

PIEducation.com today announced the formal acceptance by the Supreme Court of Arizona of its online Arizona process server continuing education course.

PIEducation.com’s online course titled, Advanced Skip Tracing Techniques for Professional Process Servers, written by veteran private investigator and skip tracing expert L. Scott Harrell, has been approved for ten hours of CE credit.

Process servers certified by the Arizona Supreme Court must obtain 10 hours of continuing education every year in order to maintain their certification and can meet their total education requirement for the year with this one course.

In business since July 1, 2002, PIEducation.com is the undisputed market leader in state-approved online continuing education for private investigators and adding course content for process servers was a natural fit.  All courses have been designed "by working Investigators... for working Investigators" and no other online continuing education provider can honestly make that claim.  We understand that there are other education service providers to choose from. However, you will find that there is no other continuing education service provider that can match our level of professionalism, experience and consistency. 

As of January 2010, PIEducation.com has conferred over 52,000 CE hours to over 4,400 licensees in twelve (12) states including Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Oregon, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, New Mexico, Georgia, Louisiana, Iowa and now, Arizona.

For more information, please visit PIEducation.com's Continuing education for Arizona Process Servers FAQ page.

L. Scott Harrell Joins Leading Private Investigator Database Provider IRBsearch

TALLAHASSEE, Fl., August 17 --

Effective 8/1/2009 L. Scott Harrell joined IRBsearch as Director of Brand Management and eMedia. Harrell was hired by IRBsearch to spearhead the company’s expansion in the fields of online continuing education, e-commerce, and e-magazine communications. Scott Harrell’s background hails from nearly twenty years of professional investigation and security service. He worked undercover operations while in the United States Navy, as a corporate investigations manager with a fortune 500 company, and more recently as the owner of two successful investigative companies along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida.

As founder of CompassPoint Investigations in 2000, Scott Harrell created an investigative agency that originated in Austin, Texas and moved to Pensacola, Florida with branch offices in Gulfport, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama. Harrell continued to initiate new product launches and services during his tenure as a professional private investigator.

In June of 2002, Harrell premiered PIeducation.com as an industry specific curriculum for delivering online continuing education classes to private investigators. Scott Harrell is distinguished as one of the leading United States private investigators to develop training programs recognized and approved by 14 different state licensing and regulating agencies. His courses are accepted in almost a dozen states and professional associations, making PIeducation the market leader in state-mandated continuing education for private investigators.

In addition to PIeducation.com, Harrell has constantly been in demand as an accomplished industry trainer, speaker, and author. Harrell has written eight books on investigative subjects and regularly speaks on the topics of skip tracing, sources of digital evidence, several real-world marketing subjects, and bail forfeiture. He has been well received by audiences at events hosted by organizations such as the American Society of Industrial Security, the National Sheriff’s Association, Professional Bail Agents of the United States, the Texas State Bar, and numerous other national and state associations. Harrell most recently launched the online magazine entitled, Pursuit Magazine in 2008. With the advent of Pursuit Magazine, private investigators, legal professionals, and security experts have access to free subscriptions and online content at http://pursuitmag.com. Harrell passed his successful CompassPoint Investigations to top investigator-employees in July of 2009 to accept a senior management position with IRBsearch.

IRBsearch CEO Tony Del Vecchio applauds the new venture. “We’re thrilled to have the history of experience and depth of knowledge available to our customers with Scott Harrell. His contributions can foster even more personal relationships with our customers and continue to develop value-added services and benefits for our customer’s success.” IRBsearch is the national premiere provider of online risk management services for private investigators, process servers, recovery agents, and bail bondsmen in the United States. IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets.

####

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rebecca Roberts
(850) 942-2500 x 104
www.irbsearch.com

In Relentless Pursuit of... Social Networking

Has it REALLY been almost 2 months since my last post!? 

Oh. My. God. 

I am so sorry Dear Reader but I have let time slip away from me in the last couple of months as I have been through a period of upheaval, fast paced changes and of course, the stagnation of playing the waiting game while my whole professional life shakes out.  As cryptic as that might sound, those who are intimately involved in the multiple deals I am making right now know what I'm talking about.

The best news to report in the last month has been the return of the Office Ninja; her Kung Fu is strong and she is the engine that drives this lumbering locomotive along most days.  It is really good to have Stephanie Mitchell back. Because of her, in large part, we continue to push forward and blaze trails, despite an uncertain future as bright as it might be:

Since it has been a little while since my last update I wanted to check in and let you know what we’ve been up to and let you in on some of our recent online private investigator magazine (Pursuit Magazine) projects in the past couple of weeks.

If you have not discovered the power of social networking and viral marketing yet, then it is seriously time to start…

TWITTER: 
Pursuit Magazine has joined Twitter. Some of you may know, Twitter is a FREE social networking site allowing you to micro-blog to users, send and read other users’ updates (better known as tweets) and network with many, many people with the same interests. It has been a fantastic tool for us to send out updates on news, articles and industry related information.

Join us on Twitter Pursuit Magazine on Twitter

NING:
I cannot rave enough about NING and all the amazingly cool things you can do. IRBsearch has created an online forum using the Ning platform. It is here that you will find support, discussion and interaction with other professionals in the investigative and security industries. We encourage you to participate in the forum discussions or start a topic of your own!

Join the IRBexchange on Ning

FACEBOOK:
If you are a Facebook visit and join our Pursuit Magazine group. You may find some familiar faces or new friends!

Join our Facebook group at: Pursuit Magazine on Facebook

MYSPACE:
If you still love and cling to the world of MySpace… then join us there! We have given our profile page a new look and our list of friends and supporters continues to grow.

Add us as your friend today: Pursuit Magazine on MySpace

Today, we are linked with hundreds of investigators, bail enforcement agents, attorneys, customers and friends. Establishing these important online connections has become an extremely rewarding experience with valuable gains for our business. 

I want to give a special thanks to everyone who has already joined us (without you, there would be no network) and to those of you who continue to support us!

Remember we are always looking for new authors, ideas and news! Don't hesitate to contact us through our website if you would like to contribute!

I won't take nearly as long to post here again... I promise!