AN ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESSMAN AND AN ESCORT THIEF

This week’s case of note involved a high-end businessman here in Orange County who hired us to find a high-priced Las Vegas escort that stole his Rolex, his ID, his credit cards and around $16K in cash.

The man called and told me that he was lonely while on a trip in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the remedy he chose was to call an escort service. After a while he passed out and woke up to find he’d been robbed.

He hired me with the hopes of getting back his Rolex and the ID.

Having worked similar cases, it was my obligation to advise the client outright that this case wasn’t going to have a successful outcome. “There’s a better chance of me becoming the pope than getting your stuff back,” is exactly what I said. I told him that the Rolex had certainly already been sold or melted down for pennies on the dollar. His ID was trashed. The good news was that there was no activity on his credit cards, and he was able to cancel them. We all know where the cash went. That’s just how it works.

However, the client insisted that I take the case and give it a shot. He had the number of the escort service in his pocket, and he knew the name of the girl.

My first call was to a former federal agent friend of mine who has been a private investigator in Las Vegas for twenty years. He would assist me directly upon my arrival and help coordinate issues on this very sensitive matter.

Upon my arrival in Las Vegas, the first thing we did was go to the local police. My goal was to advise them that I wanted to contact the escort service solely for the purpose of making contact with the owner of the agency, not the high-priced call girl. They advised there was no problem. The call actually was made from just outside the police headquarters.

Upon calling the escort service, I introduced myself and advised that I needed to speak with the owner.

When I spoke with the owner of the escort service and explained the situation, of course, he claimed that his girl didn’t take anything. No surprise there. We had previously verified with hotel security that no one left or entered the room after the young woman had left until my client departed at 8:50 a.m. the next day.

Again the owner said the escort didn’t take anything.

At that point, there wasn’t much more I could actually do.

I called my client and said, “You might want to start dating regular girls.”

Can’t say it was a successful case, but at least there’s a punchline.

Next week:
Locating a 24-year-old daughter with a drug problem in Colorado, flying her to Orange County, and getting her into rehab.