This is a question that we get many calls on – trying to find someone for multiple reasons. When you are trying to locate someone that you have lost touch with, it’s never easy. But if you’ve lost touch with them in New York City, it’s almost impossible to do on your own. New York City has over 8,804,190 people living there. That does not include the people visiting, just those that live there. So it truly is like trying to find a needle in a haystack – or in this case, the entire field of hay with multiple stacks. That is why you should always begin with a Private Investigator when searching for someone’s whereabouts. You should also find a Private Investigator who is local and has experience working in this area as well as specifically locating people. Not every PI out there has strong experience in this specific area. We all have our “specialties,” but not everyone has such a high success rate in finding people.
We always warn people to be wary of those “online” businesses that offer you the world for $30, etc. They are simply looking up some general information that many times is outdated or incorrect. Just remember the old saying, “you get what you pay for.” We begin our searches with private databases and/or deep web searches to find a verified answer for you. Then we continue on to in-person visits to the location where the person is believed to be when needed. So when you receive the information from us, we have done everything at our end to verify the results as much as possible.
There are many different reasons why you would need to locate someone. Here are some examples of just a few:
- The One That Got Away – You remember that girl you dated in high school? The one that checked off all the boxes in your heart? But you were young and stupid, and when you moved with your family to Hewlett, you lost touch. At first, you wrote or called, but those became further apart, and eventually, you just stopped. You were all caught up in what you were doing and lost touch altogether. Then many years later, you met up with an old friend from the neighborhood and got to talking about high school. It brought back a flood of memories, and now you want to reach out to see how she is doing. You aren’t sure how to begin. She doesn’t live at the same address anymore, and you can’t remember her old phone number.
- The Deadbeat – You rented the second floor of your home to what appeared to be a dependable guy with a family back in May. On paper, he appeared to be a good tenant. He had a small auto repair business in Westbury and gave you the first month’s rent and full security without a problem. But that was the last time he paid you. They have put you off for months, and now it’s been six months of excuses until one night, they all moved out, and you haven’t seen or heard from them since. You need the new address to serve them legal papers to sue for the back rent.
- The Client Who’s Case Just Settled – In many legal firms, it can take years before a case settles. Sometimes, when a client moves, they neglect to give their new contact information to their lawyer so that they can be reached in the future. They may have been in Roslyn, but now you don’t know where they are. You’ve tried sending letters, which are returned because the forwarding has expired. You’ve tried calling, but the phone has been disconnected.
- The Heir To The Throne – Another time that legal firms may need to locate someone is when a client passes away, and you need to track down the heirs to their estate. They usually have only an old address and name to go on and cannot get very far. We once had a case where the address was listed in East Meadow in the Mitchell Homes development. The relative that needed to be reached was in the Navy, which was the address listed in the deceased’s will. Now they need to find her actual address in order to tell her that her “ship has just come in” financially.
- Bye-Bye Love – You are trying to find your ex to serve them divorce papers or to revisit their child support arrangements since you have not received payments from him in years and want to bring him back to court to get them. However, they have disappeared, and you cannot find them to serve them with the papers. The last you heard, they were working off the books at a diner in Levittown, but don’t know much else.
These are just a few examples of actual cases we have handled. I am proud to say that all of the above had successful outcomes. However, they all came at a different cost base. Cases like these are referred to as “Missing Persons Searches,” and the cost depends on a few factors, the most important being the amount of information you have and the age of the information. This will have a direct impact on the cost. Here are some examples of the costs of locating someone:
- Your information is from 40 years ago in high school. You have her name, last known address, and birthday. You remember her parents’ names and that she had two siblings. This would be an hourly rate with a cap of (no more than) $1,000.
- You have all the information from their rental application – the last known address (within a year) and you have their driver’s license information and place of work as well as a cell number. Depending upon the “age” of the information, this would be a flat rate of approximately $500-$700.
- You have all their information – social security number, date of birth, recent last known address and phone number, email, recent photo, etc. This would be a flat rate of approximately $400.
- You have their full name, last known address, and last known house phone number. However, the information is about 5 years old. This would be a flat rate of approximately $600-$900.
So the best answer is to call us to discuss what information you have, how old it is, and also why you need the information. A big factor is if it is “commercial or non-commercial.” This is very important. If the information is for legal purposes (serving divorce papers or suing for back rent, for example) then we are legally able to provide the information to you without the subject’s permission. We go into several restricted databases (that we are cleared to access and the general public is not) for such information, as well as deep web searches. However, if it is not for a legal reason, such as contacting an old friend to get back in touch, then it is considered “non-commercial,” and we would use the deep web and deep OSINT searching to locate them. In non-commercial situations, once we locate the subject, we would need to obtain permission from them to provide you with their contact information. If this is the case, and they say “no,” then as a courtesy we can deliver a letter from you to the person so that you will still be able to convey your reasons for wanting to get in touch. This will often at least open the door to getting back in touch with the person.
But as far as the cost, the best piece of advice is to call us to discuss the situation. Every situation is a little different. We can give you a more definitive price in most cases once we know what information you have. We have had many, many successes in this area – it is one of our specialties – and we enjoy helping people find who they are searching for. We hope to hear from you soon, and we look forward to helping you.
Investigreat, LLC is a recognized full service Private Investigation Agency that is fully licensed, insured and bonded, handling cases all over Connecticut as well as Queens NY, Brooklyn NY, Bronx NY, New York City, Staten Island and Long Island NY. Terri, along with her husband Adam, have been working cases for Legal Teams, Insurance Companies, Private Businesses, Municipalities, School Systems and general investigation services for the public since 1992.
Investigreat, LLC | Private Investigators serving Connecticut, Long Island City, Jamaica NY, Brooklyn NY and Queens NY | Office Numbers: 860-899-1710 or 718-412-1845 | Text: 718-309-1269