Wife spends $500,000 on private investigator to catch cheating husband

A woman spent a staggering $500,000 to have her husband investigated for cheating. Her private investigator reveals what he found. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

A woman who believed her husband was cheating spent a staggering $500,000 to have him followed by a private investigator.

Although she had the evidence needed to prove her suspicions within months, the wife kept pressing investigator David King for more information about her husband’s secret life.

“It was a cheating case. We got fairly good evidence fairly quickly … within a few months,” Mr King said.

“I think she just got addicted to the information side of it and she’s paying the bill.”

Mr King said most people get what they need and that’s the end of it, but in this case, Mr King followed the husband for four years, on the wife’s instructions, until she finally called off the investigation.

Mr King reveals his colourful life chasing cheaters in the new podcast Eye Spy which focuses on the intriguing and mysterious world of private investigators.

Private eye David King has built a career catching cheaters. Picture: Brad Fleet.

The eight-part series gives a glimpse into the mysterious and often dangerous world of private investigators. It includes interviews with some of Australia’s best guns for hire and covers everything from murder plots to catfishing, sweeping for bugs, and chasing conmen.

So do you catch a cheater in the act?

Laying a trap on Valentines Day, according to the experts.

Mr King who has made catching cheats his business, says it is the busiest and most productive work day of the year.

“It is a targeted day. You know what is going to happen … “

“He has said he is busy on Valentine’s Day! Well what is he doing … that he can’t do with me?” Mr King said suspicious partners want to know.

Mr King said if your spouse is cheating, it is the one day of the year you can almost be guaranteed to find out the truth if you have a plan and an investigator on their tail.

Many a cheating spouse has been busted buying flowers, keeping dinner dates, disappearing into a hotel with someone else, or snatching a kiss while they are driving and Mr King has caught it on camera.

Listen to the new Eye Spy podcast below:

And sometimes the consequences of catching a cheater can be very dramatic.

“I did have a client ring me and say can you hear that banging in the background? …. That is a hatchet going into my husband’s Monaro.”

There have been numerous incidents reported of wives attacking their cheating husband’s car, or even running down an errant lover and his mistress. None of which Mr King approves of.

But he admits he did have a chuckle about his hatchet-wielding client he had.

“He was really taking advantage … normally I would not condone that sort of activity, but it was one of those jobs were he probably deserved it.”

Mr King has been in the private investigation business for almost three decades. His work stretches across two states from Queensland to New South Wales and he has investigated everything from workplace fraud and family law investigations to tracking missing persons and finding long-lost family members.

Often, surveillance is the only method of investigation that gets answers.

But the bulk of his work is related to suspected infidelities.

Studies have shown one in five spouses cheat and Mr King has found that in about 80 per cent of cases he takes on, his clients were right to be suspicious and he has confirmed the infidelity.

He also believes in it about the timing. He can spend days following at target and finding nothing. Or he can strike it lucky and find evidence within hours.

Often, surveillance is the only method of investigation that gets answers, said Mr King.

Investigators will follow and observe a subject using modern techniques and advanced technology. This type of private investigations the most common and does solve most problems. As Mr King said “Seeing is believing”.

He has had to hide behind trees, set-up secret cameras in his car, and sit around in bars and restaurants to get photos of the cheaters together.

He said surveillance has become harder since 9/11 because people have become more aware of their surroundings making it harder for private investigators without being busted.

But cheaters always make mistakes and that is what often triggers the suspicions in a spouse or partner.

Mr King has had to hide behind trees, set-up secret cameras in his car, and sit around in bars and restaurants to get photos of the cheaters together.. Picture: Brad Fleet

Mr King said by the time people call in an investigator to catch a cheating spouse they have usually gathered some of their own evidence.

“They don’t just call us for no reason. They have already been checking emails and phones s and …. put a tape recorder behind the couch,” said Mr King

But in one case he had the wife had no idea her husband was being unfaithful. It was her sister who suspected him.

Within three days of taking on the mission, Mr King had evidence of the errant husband kissing his female boss on the lips.

“The wife, she couldn’t believe it … she didn’t see it coming.”

Originally published as Wife spends $500,000 on private investigator to catch cheating husband