Be Proactive With Your Visitation Rights
Private investigators often get calls from parents who want to have their ex-spouse watched while they have custody or visitation of their children. Call it prudent parenting or paranoia, but sometimes you cannot trust one of the parents of your children. It is always better to be safe than sorry as many of North American Investigations cases have proved. Most concerns are warranted according to the chief detective at NAI.
You never want to put your child in an unsafe situation and parents should be preemptive and proactive when it comes to ANY issues involving their children and their wellbeing. Many concerns revolve around unsafe behavior such as drinking especially if there is a chance of driving, drug use, verbal or physical abuse, neglect, brainwashing, turning a child against the other parent, leaving the child in the custody of someone else while you are suppose to be watching the child (babysitter, relative girlfriend/boyfriend). These are all legitimate concerns parents have and why they hire private investigators for child custody investigations.
Use Surveillance for Unsupervised Visits
Case in point: We often uncover why some parents cannot be trusted first hand on many of our stakeouts. A particular case involved a concerned mother who had called the agency after her recent separation from her husband. She wanted to have him followed while he had weekend visitation of their two young children. We watched him for two weekends straight.The father in question spent no time with his kids. Instead, he dropped them off at his mother’s house on the Friday night. He then proceeded to go to meet up with another man and pass off what we could only presume was drugs in exchange for cash. He made a more stops and repeated the same behavior all weekend. After further investigation it was determined that the father was in fact involved in dealing drugs. The kids were too young to explain to their mother how they spent their weekend (locked in apartment with an elderly lady as opposed to hanging out with their father). The evidence proved very helpful for our client’s case and protected the children from being put in harms way.
Another mother phoned to have her ex-boyfriend watched with their young son. The father and mother had joint custody. We trailed him for 3 days and caught him doing a number of unsavory activities on video tape. We watched him at attend a party almost immediately after picking up his son, at which the toddler was running around unsupervised. We saw him hanging out with someone who he was forbidden from associating with pursuant to the conditions of his probation. A former alcoholic, we saw this father stop at a liquor store and leave with a case of beer. Finally, we saw him swearing and cussing at his 3-year-old son in public when his son started crying.
Some factors that parents like to keep an eye on with respect to custodial rights are:
• The ability of the parent to hold down a job
• The bond between parent and child(ren)
• Mental instability, mental illness or substance abuse
• The ability of the parent to provide for the social, educational, medical and safety needs of the child(ren)
• Criminal activity of the parent in question
So what does this mean for the innocent parent? If you are in a custody battle with your ex-spouse such evidence of poor parenting can be presented to the judge to support your claim for sole custody. Courts will consider any evidence in determining who will be the best primary caregiver for the child. If you can present proof that your ex-spouse is a completely unfit parent and poses a threat to your child’s safety, visitation rights may even be revoked. A private investigator can be key in obtaining evidence that can be utilized in custody cases.
If you have suspicions that your ex is incapable of providing the proper care and supervision of your child or children, having him or her watched is not only helpful if you are hoping to win custody, it ensures that your children are properly cared for. If you have any of theses concerns you should speak to a private detective at North American Investigations for advice.
