Private investigators overcome pandemic-era obstacles

Pro tip: If you find a potato chip under your car tire, it might have been put there on purpose.

Mark Steel, a private investigator and the owner of Sarasota Discreet Investigations, says the potato chip trick is just one tool in the private investigators’ toolbox. Methods like that have always been useful — even more so in the pandemic. 

In recent months, investigators statewide have faced some unique challenges. People have left home less frequently, which means surveillance assignments can take a lot longer. Steel might have to watch a house for eight hours before someone comes out, for instance. One way to get around waiting that long, he says, is to tape a thread to both sides of a gate or door or put a potato chip under a car tire. If the thread or potato chip breaks, someone has left.