Hank Foresta, owner of Master PI Detectives in Glendora, says being a private investigator is not as glamorous, or as dangerous, as people might believe. Most of the time, he and his investigators don’t even carry guns. Foresta spoke to Jolie Gorchov about the business of a detective agency and the challenges of working with people who don’t understand the process.
I spent 28 years in the police department. I retired from administrative narcotics late in 1991. I was not quite 50 years old. I decided that sitting around doing nothing wasn’t going to make it, so I opened my first office in my home, which worked for about a year. By 1996, I had two spaces in a little strip mall. Then I found an old one-story building, an old doctor’s office, and rented the entire building.
Most of my cases are services for businesses internal theft, computer fraud, counterfeiting, and workers’ comp business. We mostly do surveillance work. I also get referrals for divorce cases, domestic violence, child custody. I treat every case as if it is truly important. When clients come in, this a big matter to them.
Even though you get an education as a policeman, this is a completely different way of looking at things. You’re dealing with people who are non-professional, who don’t speak your language and don’t understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. It takes a lot of effort to explain. You listen to the person’s problem, and to the possible solution. You figure out what they want and the best way to do it. You have to explain that it’s not the way you see on TV. Like, they think that you can drop a pebble on the ground, and that pebble will transmit voices all over Los Angeles.
A lot of people think of things that won’t be helpful to them. In child custody cases, they’ll bring up issues like their former spouse is drinking and hanging out with undesirables. But you have to prove that the person is not caring for the child, that there is no supervision. You have to prove a lot of things that the court wants.
This business is more nuts and bolts than people think. I just saw that movie “8 Millimeter,” about the private investigator whose life is in constant danger. If I had come to that, I would have left the business.
I hope I’m not in actual danger. When I was a police officer, I lived with the gun I had it on duty and off duty. When you raid places, you’re always in danger. I was a supervisor, and that pressure builds on you. When I retired, it was a huge relief. I said, “I’m not going to get myself in a situation where I have that pressure back.” In most investigations, we don’t carry guns to fill our assignments. I’d rather use my brain.
