09th October 2014
A False Suspicion: Mantrailing Operation in Stuttgart Ends Without Results
Mr D. approached the detectives of the Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart with a rather unusual case. He himself works in Switzerland but grew up in Stuttgart, where his parents (both over 75) still live in their terraced house. The parents believe themselves to be victims of thefts and stalking incidents. According to them, objects repeatedly disappear from the house, furniture is moved, and cupboards are found open. There are also rumours circulating behind their backs in the neighbourhood. Among the missing items are stamp collections and large parts of Mr D. Jr.’s model railway collection. The detectives of the Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart are now to identify the culprit and hand them over to the authorities, as the police had taken no further action despite the family’s criminal complaint.
An initial inspection of the property gives a rather untidy, chaotic impression — not least because renovation works have been ongoing for years and a recent burst water pipe has caused additional disorder. The attic, from which most of the missing items supposedly disappeared, resembles a jumble of objects accumulated over a long lifetime. Little of it has any real material value that might motivate a thief. Most is stored haphazardly in unlabelled boxes. It is quite possible that the “missing” objects are merely lost in this clutter. Nevertheless, the Stuttgart detectives do not close the case prematurely and begin searching for signs of a break-in.
The possible access points to the house are first examined. There is a front and a back door. Years ago, before a holiday, the keys were given to the neighbour — the main suspect, according to Mr D. and his parents. The locks have since been replaced, yet more objects disappeared afterwards. As these are high-quality security locks, it is highly unlikely that the neighbour, a retired postal worker, could have opened them. This would have required significant technical skill. A third access point is a roof window. A private investigator from the Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart checks this possibility in the simplest way: using a ladder, he climbs into the attic and examines whether any footprints, fingerprints or rope marks interrupt the thick layer of dust. The dust is completely undisturbed — no sign of movement for years.
This leaves only the doors as possible access points — but even then, only an expert burglar could have entered unnoticed. Our Stuttgart detectives inspect the locks for traces of tampering, which would appear with any break-in method, even gentle lock-picking. The result is clearly negative. The clients argue that one of the doors had once been left open, allowing a possible intruder to take the keys lying on the sideboard and have copies made. However, the locks’ manufacturer requires a special authorisation card to issue duplicates. “But one could simply go to a locksmith,” the family argues. No, the private investigators from Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart explain, any reputable locksmith would strictly refuse such a job. And even among disreputable ones, 99% lack the necessary tools to duplicate this particular key. Despite this, the family remains unconvinced, and further measures are requested.
Since the two entrance doors are already monitored by Mr D. Jr. with infrared cameras, our security technicians install an additional surveillance camera in the attic. Furthermore, in the absence of the suspected neighbour, a trench is discreetly dug in the backyard — the only possible passage between the two properties — camouflaged and surrounded by raked soil to detect shoeprints.
The installation remained in place for seven days. Afterwards, the detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart met with the family to discuss recent events. Mrs D. claimed to have clearly heard human noises in the house at several times. The video recordings from the relevant periods were checked by our Stuttgart private detectives, but none of them showed any human movement that did not originate from the D. family themselves. The dug-out pit also remained untouched. Although there were footprints in the raked flower bed, they did not lead from the neighbour’s property. Moreover, the detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart determined upon comparison that they belonged to Mrs D.’s own shoes, although she swore she had not entered the bed.
Mr D. Jr. nevertheless urgently requested our private detectives from Stuttgart to continue investigating this supposed stalking case, even though the investigators advised him against it. Mrs D. now claimed that every time she left the jointly used garage area in her car, someone deliberately closed the exit gate to annoy her. This person would always have to know where her vehicle was because even when she entered the premises from the street, the same thing would happen. She suspected a former admirer from her school days who lived within sight of the gate and had, a year earlier, published a clearly addressed greeting to her in the newspaper: “For my rose for eternity.” Our Stuttgart detectives suggested that such a greeting could have been meant for anyone, but neither the elderly couple nor Mr D. Jr. accepted this. Thus, our Stuttgart private detectives examined the family’s vehicle for possible hidden GPS trackers. The result was again unequivocally negative.
The investigators from Stuttgart subsequently observed Mrs D.’s departures and arrivals several times. Only once did the gate actually close again as she approached. However, it was unmistakably evident that this was due to a misoperation of the transponder by Mrs D. The detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart again advised Mr D. Jr., the official client, to terminate the investigation, but he insisted on continuing.
Consequently, different investigators from our Stuttgart detective agency occupied the building on three separate weekends, staying there overnight to catch any intruders red-handed and to make a temporary arrest under §127 of the German Code of Criminal Procedure while the D. family was away. Mrs D. had claimed that every time both residents left the house, an intrusion took place afterward. However, during these three weekends, no foreign movements in the house occurred whatsoever.
As a final investigative measure, our Stuttgart private investigators suggested involving a mantrailing handler, since there was a box in the attic that, according to Mrs D., had been moved without any doubt and then not touched by anyone other than the alleged perpetrator. This box was used as the scent source for the person search by the mantrailing dogs. Our handler provided the dogs with the scent sample from the box, then let them familiarise themselves with the D. family members to exclude them as targets to be tracked, and began the trail search. All three dogs went directly through the back door to the garage of the D. family, then around the terraced house complex, and back into the D. house through the front door. This was precisely the route that Mrs D. took every time she drove her car: out through the back door and, upon her return, in through the front door to check the mailbox. Thus, any outside interference with the box could be ruled out.
The detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart had reached the limits of what was possible and informed the not particularly delighted Mr D. Jr. of this. When all was said and done, despite numerous investigative approaches, there was not the slightest indication of any outside interference. It was, with the highest probability, age-related imagination on the part of Mrs D. rather than an actual stalking case. Unfortunately, Mr D. refused to accept this and parted ways with our private investigators on poor terms.
Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart nevertheless wishes the D. family all the best for the future!
All names and places have, of course, been completely altered to protect the identities of clients and subjects.
Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart | Germany
Königstraße 80
D-70173 Stuttgart
Tel.: +49 711 7153 0028
E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-stuttgart.de
Tags: Detective, private investigator, investigator, surveillance, Stuttgart, detective agency, Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart, mantrailer, stalking, missing property
Kommentare: 3
#1
(Freitag, 10 Oktober 2014 01:26)
Der Originalartikel erschien unter https://detekteikurtz.wordpress.com.
#2
Detektei Branchenbuch
(Freitag, 10 Oktober 2014 23:44)
Ein sehr spannender Bericht
Kurtz Investigations Stuttgart
Königstraße 80
70173 Stuttgart
Tel.: +49 711 7153 0028
kontakt@kurtz-detektei-stuttgart.de
Monday–Friday: 08:00–20:00
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