Well by less than popular request a thread to ask question about sweating in a van all day....
I have only been doing this for about a year, but still have seen a few things and know a few. Also have stories from other guys I work with.
So fire away...
Do cops bother me -
Most of the time the cops are the good guys for us. They will give us a heads up if are being watched by neighbors or whatever. If it's a town the size of, let's say Crystal Lake or something similar we will call the cops and let them know we are there so if they get a call about us they will just leave us alone. If the people calling get bitchy they will come out and talk to me to let me know I should either move, or be careful.
Now in super big cities or really small ones we don't call. Big cities give zero fucks about us and small cities usually don't have police or just have a sheriff somewhere that's impossible to talk to. I called in one smaller city because I saw the police station. It was 10am and the call went to a recording. About an hour later the sheriff called me back and sounded either drunk or retarded. On my message I just said I'm an investigator working in the area today, gave him my vehicle info, and then told him when if be leaving. Well when he called me the questions never stopped... What was I there for? Am I FBI? Military? Does he need to be concerned about a bomb? Etc... It was just silly.
I did have one bad experience with a cop in the middle of nowhere Indiana. I was in a parking lot across from the house I was watching. I saw him pull up so I got out my I.D. And company I.D. Waited for him to knock on my window. He knocked so I came up from with both my hands out first. He flipped his shit and pulled his gun... I stopped and waited for his instructions. Finally got to my seat and opened the window to hand him my I.D.s. He said I scared the shit out of him... He then asked me who I worked for, who I was watching, and a bunch of other questions. We don't tell police who we are watching, so he was upset I didn't answer all his questions. Then he asked to search my van, I said no, he called for back up. Back up arrived and he asked me to get out so he could search me. I asked if we do all this crap will he just leave once he finds nothing? He said yes, so I got out, was searched, they searched my van, then he apologized cause he thought I was hiding a felon in the back of my van. Dude was an idiot and by far the worst cop I've ever felt with in my life. He must have known someone in one of the houses close by and thought I was watching their house. That's the only explanation I have for him going full retard.
So there you go, I have stuff like that... Ask away.
I have only been doing this for about a year, but still have seen a few things and know a few. Also have stories from other guys I work with.
So fire away...
Do cops bother me -
Most of the time the cops are the good guys for us. They will give us a heads up if are being watched by neighbors or whatever. If it's a town the size of, let's say Crystal Lake or something similar we will call the cops and let them know we are there so if they get a call about us they will just leave us alone. If the people calling get bitchy they will come out and talk to me to let me know I should either move, or be careful.
Now in super big cities or really small ones we don't call. Big cities give zero fucks about us and small cities usually don't have police or just have a sheriff somewhere that's impossible to talk to. I called in one smaller city because I saw the police station. It was 10am and the call went to a recording. About an hour later the sheriff called me back and sounded either drunk or retarded. On my message I just said I'm an investigator working in the area today, gave him my vehicle info, and then told him when if be leaving. Well when he called me the questions never stopped... What was I there for? Am I FBI? Military? Does he need to be concerned about a bomb? Etc... It was just silly.
I did have one bad experience with a cop in the middle of nowhere Indiana. I was in a parking lot across from the house I was watching. I saw him pull up so I got out my I.D. And company I.D. Waited for him to knock on my window. He knocked so I came up from with both my hands out first. He flipped his shit and pulled his gun... I stopped and waited for his instructions. Finally got to my seat and opened the window to hand him my I.D.s. He said I scared the shit out of him... He then asked me who I worked for, who I was watching, and a bunch of other questions. We don't tell police who we are watching, so he was upset I didn't answer all his questions. Then he asked to search my van, I said no, he called for back up. Back up arrived and he asked me to get out so he could search me. I asked if we do all this crap will he just leave once he finds nothing? He said yes, so I got out, was searched, they searched my van, then he apologized cause he thought I was hiding a felon in the back of my van. Dude was an idiot and by far the worst cop I've ever felt with in my life. He must have known someone in one of the houses close by and thought I was watching their house. That's the only explanation I have for him going full retard.
So there you go, I have stuff like that... Ask away.