Private investigators are peeking at your hidden life

VIRGINIA BEACH

One day, Sheri Lynn Coffman might be a stunning brunette chatting you up at the bar. The next, a middle-age blonde in a baseball hat delivering flowers to your front door. And the next, an observer snapping photos from the back of her SUV.

Coffman's a private investigator, one of dozens throughout Hampton Roads. She describes their work as part detective, part counselor.

"The main purpose really is to help people," Coffman said. "If you don't help people or want to help people, you're not going to be a good PI."

Private investigators help find missing people, collect evidence in criminal defense cases and assist parents in custody disputes. But they also out cheating spouses, help companies repossess property and prove when employees lie about injuries to collect insurance.

"We'll start looking into these cases and they're hysterical," Coffman said. "These people are bungee jumping and horseback riding and meanwhile they're trying to collect and say they're injured."

After more than 15 years as a private investigator, Coffman, 46, started Stingray Investigations and founded a training school for private detectives. All PIs must complete 60 hours of training, pass a background check and register with the state Department of Criminal Justice Services. There are about 60 licensed businesses in the region.

Coffman charges $400 to train new PIs. Over nights and weekends for 2-1/2 weeks, she teaches them the laws governing PI work, the basics of surveillance and how to interview and detect deception. She lectures on everything from protecting client confidentiality to providing accurate testimony in court and gives students hands-on practice tracking people at the mall.

The business appeals to all sorts of people, from college students to retired police officers to grandmothers, Coffman said. "I get people from all walks of life."

Mark Liner, a 51-year-old retired Miami-Dade detective with a penchant for floral shirts, works private cases with Stingray and several other local agencies. He said he got into the business after he retired in 1997 because it draws on his law enforcement experience and lets him set his own schedule.

Tracy Gibson, a 41-year-old real estate agent with two children, took Coffman's PI course two years ago when the housing market tanked. Now she does PI work four or five times a week to supplement her income.

Gibson said she likes collecting evidence that helps remove children from negligent homes. But her favorite jobs are infidelity cases.

"It's kind of bad, but they tend to be more interesting and fairly easy to catch," she said.

In December, Coffman and an assistant followed a Navy officer and his lover to a ski resort in the northwest part of the state. They came back with videos and photos of the couple holding hands, kissing and hugging, which they turned over to the officer's wife. She can use the evidence during divorce proceedings to bargain for more alimony or custody of children, Coffman said.

Not every investigation ends that way. One client has been paying Coffman to follow his girlfriend on and off for years, convinced she's cheating. But Coffman's never found any evidence.

Still, one night last week Coffman lounged at a bar, sipping white wine while keeping an eye on the woman, who sat with friends a few feet away. Coffman pulled out a camera the size of a Bluetooth headset and recorded the interaction.

"He's just paranoid," she said.

But paranoia pays. Private investigators charge between $65 and $75 an hour for surveillance, plus reimbursement for mileage, travel costs and other expenses.

Sometimes Coffman dons wigs or disguises for her work, but most of the time she's just herself, a 5-foot, 100-pound blonde. Often, that's the best cover.

"Nobody expects that," she said. "A lot of times I can sit right next to somebody that I'm investigating and start up a conversation."

Extensive databases are one of private investigators' best tools. They also employ a wide variety of gadgets, from tiny, button-hole cameras to tracking devices.

But the most important tool is keen observational skills, Gibson said.

In Coffman's office on Bradford Road, photos of James Bond, Charlie's Angels and Sherlock Holmes honor famous fictional PIs. But the real-life profession isn't always that glamorous.

Sometimes being a PI means sitting in a cold car for hours waiting to snap a photo, or digging through trash, or having to tell someone bad news about someone they love.

"A lot of times you'll find multiple marriages, you'll find criminal things like rape, robbery, sometimes murder, spousal abuse," Coffman said. "Those kinds of things people want to know about before they get married."

But the job also has perks, like the chance to travel, a flexible schedule and exciting cases, she said.

PIs have to strike a fine balance between digging up information and respecting people's privacy.

"No matter what you do as a PI you're going to get accused of privacy invasion," Coffman said. "But you're not invading their privacy, you're doing a job, as long as you stay on the legal side of things."

Detective work can also be dangerous. Once a stalker jumped out at Coffman dressed in a ninja outfit. Men sometimes try to intimidate her. She carries a gun on occasion, but usually relies on her pepper spray and judo training for defense.

People don't always like what a PI finds, said private investigator Tom Collins, 58.

"You're never going to make somebody happy. They really don't want to know that their spouse is cheating," he said. "But they need to know."

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com