In March 2018, the renowned Klett-Cotta publishing house released the psychology non-fiction book “Seitensprünge: Warum Untreue nicht zur Trennung führen muss” (Affairs: Why Infidelity Does Not Have to Lead to Separation) by the Paderborn couples counsellor and author Stephanie Katerle. Section 9, “On Guilt, Morality and Integrity”, contains a chapter (pp. 122–126) consisting of an interview conducted by the author with private detective Patrick Kurtz on the subject of infidelity in partnerships. Below you will find a transcript; the links and subheadings were added by us and are not included in the book.

“Legitimate Interests”: Interview with Patrick Kurtz

“Patrick Kurtz is the head of a detective agency operating nationwide, with offices in all federal states. In addition to economic crime, one of the main focuses of his work is tracing unfaithful or allegedly unfaithful spouses. His work attracts the interest of reality documentary producers from private television broadcasters as well as serious daily newspapers. His list of interviews is long. We conduct the conversation by telephone; he is currently travelling in Leipzig.

Who is more likely to be unfaithful – men or women?

Stephanie Katerle: ‘Are there gender differences in the degree of mistrust? Or, put differently: who engages your services more often – men or women?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘I would say it is almost exactly balanced, fifty–fifty. Generally, it is said that men are more likely to be unfaithful, so women would have to commission us more frequently for infidelity surveillance, but in practice we have found that this is not the case. There are no real differences in the success rates either.’

 

Stephanie Katerle: ‘I have also increasingly had the impression that the myth that men are more unfaithful than women is not entirely true.’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘That could not really work anyway. If you look at the proportion of men and women, you see that infidelity always involves two people. In the overall calculation, that does not quite add up.’

What prompts people to hire detectives to investigate their partners?

Stephanie Katerle: ‘How long have clients usually suspected that the other person is being unfaithful before they turn to your services?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘That varies greatly. It also depends on whether there is a concrete suspicion on the basis of which we are commissioned. For example: if the husband comes home and has conspicuous lipstick on his clothing or “smells of another woman”, that can be a very specific reason to commission us spontaneously. In other cases, however, there has been a longer process, something developing, a feeling that people are drifting apart. There are various things that seem odd: changes in behaviour, perhaps dressing differently, suddenly placing more emphasis on appearance, maybe doing more sport. Secretly using the mobile phone without the partner noticing is another example. Such small observations can then come together to form an overall picture that leads someone to engage a detective.’

How often is suspicion of infidelity confirmed during detective assignments?

Stephanie Katerle: ‘What is your hit rate?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘If we are given an adequate budget so that we can observe for at least a few days, then in about 75 per cent of cases. Our problem is that people often say: “We will look just once and pay for a single deployment”, and if nothing happens during that period, often only a few hours, then the matter is not pursued further. In that case, it is difficult for me to say: “The suspicion has not been confirmed” or “The person was not unfaithful”, because you have simply observed over far too short a period.’

 

Stephanie Katerle: ‘Then the person having the affair has simply been lucky if they were not caught at that time.’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘You could put it that way.’

Typical Findings in Infidelity Surveillance

Stephanie Katerle: ‘Where do people having affairs most often meet? Where do you gather evidence? Is it really mainly hotels?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘What happens in hotel rooms belongs to the most highly protected private sphere of life. We have no access to that at all. From a data protection perspective alone, we have no authority there. Accordingly, we can only observe when people enter a hotel together, which can already be a strong indication. In some cases, both individuals are even known to the client, not only the partner but also the person with whom the affair is being conducted; then the matter is already quite clear. In many cases, however, we observe the target person on the street, for example seeing how the man picks up the woman or how they say goodbye after visiting a restaurant, how they have been sitting together; such things are much more common, and of course one can also observe whether affection is exchanged. Greetings and farewells are always important, because they show how people relate to one another, although some individuals are more discreet in public when cheating on their partners.’

 

Stephanie Katerle: ‘You must certainly have a keen sense for which gestures are telling, which others might not even notice, right?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘That may be so, but: we must never interpret. We observe; we do not interpret. Ultimately, we only document: “There was a kiss on the mouth”, “There was an embrace”, etc. We would not say: “It seemed as if the two were extremely close to each other.” That has to be substantiated much more concretely.’

On What Legal Basis Do Private Detectives Work in Cases of Infidelity?

Stephanie Katerle: ‘What do you think motivates clients? Is it about proving: “He or she wants to cheat me materially”, or are it really intense emotions such as jealousy that lead to commissioning you?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘We generally do not question that. I do not see it as our task. It is only about demonstrating a legitimate interest before investigations may commence. We are interfering with the personal rights of the target person, and that interference must be justified. The legislator refers to this as legitimate interest. The interest is legitimate in so far as one lives in a community of property, in a partnership with another person, in which at some point one must know: “How will my life continue? What will happen to my assets, what will happen to my living circumstances?” That justifies the interest. Even in a partnership – and certainly in a marriage.’

The Proof Has Been Established – What Happens Next?

Stephanie Katerle: ‘How do those caught typically react?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘We usually do not know. We complete the investigations and then the client receives the report. That gives our clients the opportunity either to show the report to their partner or to do something else. Not everyone wants to confront their partner with it. Some decide to do nothing at first, even if the infidelity has been proven, and to continue observing and “keep a low profile”. I do not know whether that is a kind of intimidation or fear that one’s own life could change drastically; in any case, not everyone does it. We are always pleased when clients contact us afterwards and tell us how things have continued, but we do not actively ask.’

Are There Typical Cheaters?

Stephanie Katerle: ‘Would you say that there are typical cheaters? And if so, what characteristics do they have?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘There is a tendency, but it is distorted because we naturally incur costs that are not insignificant. Accordingly, only relatively affluent people can commission us anyway. One needs a regular income to be able to pay us, and therefore it is more likely to be found among the “older generations”, because one is more likely to have accumulated a certain level of wealth. By “older generations” I already mean ages 35 plus; that is our main clientele. However, this is not meaningful, because it says nothing about whether students also cheat, how they cheat and how important that is in student relationships. Among younger people, it is probably more common to forgive a slip-up or to handle things more loosely anyway than in a more established relationship when one is older.’

 

Stephanie Katerle: ‘Does material wealth play a greater role among the older generations, because one has already accumulated a certain level of prosperity and says: “I simply want certainty about this”?’

 

Patrick Kurtz: ‘Spontaneously, I would say that it is generally more about the emotional aspect. If it has already reached the point where one is primarily thinking about material matters, then the decision in one’s mind may already be fixed to bring about the separation and merely collect evidence. That then serves to provide arguments that could help in a maintenance dispute.’

 

Stephanie Katerle: ‘Mr Kurtz, thank you very much for the conversation.’

Kurtz Detective Agency Saarbrücken and Saarland

St. Johanner Straße 41–43

66111 Saarbrücken

Tel.: +49 681 6029 0010

Fax: +49 681 6029 0019

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken

 

Further information about the book can be found here on the Klett-Cotta website.

Pregnancy Fraud – a Devious Form of “Calling in Sick”

In the struggle for a few additional hours and days off, the imagination of many employees knows no bounds: deception, lies and forgeries are employed to unlawfully obtain time off work from the employer. While feigned illness is the most common practice used to fraudulently gain leisure time, abuse of maternity protection is a rather unusual and particularly immoral way of being granted leave from work while continuing to receive pay. Female employees maliciously pretend to be pregnant, forge medical certificates and blood tests, and have themselves sent home on full pay for the legally prescribed six weeks before and eight weeks after the birth. Our private detectives from Saarbrücken can report on employees who attempted to convince colleagues and superiors that they were pregnant by wearing loose clothing, feigning nausea and placing cushions under their clothes.

 

If such a sham pregnancy exists, it can be strongly assumed that the fraudster generally has little or no inhibition about lying to employers and colleagues. Anyone who resorts to such perfidious means has certainly not violated their contractual obligations for the first time. Greater consideration from colleagues, small favours here and there, a blind eye turned by the boss when the woman wants to go home early due to nausea and discomfort – all of this is merely the tip of the iceberg. A basis of trust can no longer exist under these conditions, which is why summary dismissal by the employer is justified. But how do the supposedly pregnant women deal with the absence of a real baby? Pretexts such as adoption, miscarriage and similar explanations often allow the perpetrators to return to work after a long period of sick leave with continued payment of wages, without a single person in the company becoming aware of the committed act of maternity fraud. Our commercial detectives from Saarbrücken are able to verify, in cases of dubious pregnancies, whether they are feigned to the detriment of the employer: +49 681 6029 0010.

Indicators of a Feigned Pregnancy

When an employee announces that she is expecting a child, this is usually followed by a wave of congratulations and offers of help from colleagues and superiors, even though a pregnancy entails absences from work, the organisation of replacement staff and the redistribution of tasks. No one would expect a colleague to feign a pregnancy in order to obtain financial advantages or more leisure time. As sad and to a certain extent absurd as such a feigned pregnancy may be, such cases do occur time and again. Accordingly, employers must unfortunately pay attention to irregularities with regard to their staffing capacities and finances in order not to be taken advantage of. If the pregnant woman behaves atypically, for example continues to smoke, lifts heavy objects and generally shows hardly any changes in behaviour, this may indicate deception, but does not necessarily have to. While some pregnant women are overcautious and avoid any risk, there are others who continue to smoke, drink alcohol and lift heavy weights at the gym. Whether a pregnant woman is merely being imprudent or whether an employee is feigning her pregnancy is clarified by our detectives from Saarbrücken in a court-admissible manner.

 

At the request of the client, we observe suspected pregnancy fraudsters at the workplace, during field service assignments and in their leisure time. In doing so, our investigators document, for example, whether the suspect regularly visits a gynaecologist and behaves in a manner consistent with pregnancy, or whether she, for instance, goes on holiday during sick leave or maternity protection, parties at night in nightclubs or rides roller coasters at amusement parks. By infiltrating a detective into the company, it can also be checked during working hours whether the pregnant woman is taking it easy, relaxing excessively and failing to perform her duties adequately. A pregnancy does involve many strains; however, a pregnant woman who is not on sick leave must nevertheless complete her tasks within the prescribed timeframes. In the event of a justified initial suspicion, the employer can therefore have our detective agency in Saarland determine whether the employee is actually pregnant or feigning her condition for her own supposed benefit.

Abuse of the Law: Protection Against Dismissal for Pregnant Women

Pursuant to Section 9 of the Maternity Protection Act (MuSchG), special protection against dismissal applies to pregnant women:

 

“The dismissal of a woman during pregnancy and until the expiry of four months after childbirth is inadmissible if the employer was aware of the pregnancy or childbirth at the time of dismissal or if this is communicated within two weeks after receipt of the dismissal.”

 

As a result, pregnancy status may appear attractive to some women not for emotional reasons, but for calculated employment-related motives. Perhaps the boss has already announced that staff will have to be made redundant, or has issued a warning, causing the woman concerned to fear imminent dismissal. Defiant reactions to warnings or even to ordinary dismissals are certainly well known to most employers; the classic phrase in this context is “then I will simply go on sick leave”. In this way, notice periods are unscrupulously sat out at home or impending dismissals circumvented, because anyone who is on sick leave and does not attend work cannot, of course, repeat misconduct for which he or she has already been warned. Perhaps the perpetrators commit these fraudulent acts in order to escape the situation quickly and already find a new job, so that they do not slip into unemployment at all.

 

Either way, the employer has an interest in finding out whether his employee is actually pregnant or whether an attempt at deception exists. This is carried out by our commercial detective agency from Saarbrücken by documenting all observed and researched indications in the form of a court-admissible investigation report: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de.

Detective Surveillance in Cases of Feigned Pregnancy

Do you experience your allegedly pregnant employee as continuing to be an excessive smoker? Does she have a history of conspicuously frequent and suspicious sick notes? Or was she due to be dismissed, whereupon she promptly announced a sudden pregnancy? If you recognise yourself in one of the examples described here or find yourself in a similar situation that requires discreet clarification, then contact Kurtz Investigations Saarbrücken free of charge. We will advise you on our verification and evidential options and develop a plan of action with you; whether the suspect should be observed, a detective should be infiltrated into your company or other enquiries should be carried out, we decide together after weighing all circumstances: +49 681 6029 0010.

Author: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

 

Kurtz Detective Agency Saarbrücken and Saarland

St. Johanner Straße 41–43

66111 Saarbrücken

Tel.: +49 681 6029 0010

Fax: +49 681 6029 0019

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken

Once again, readers have to wait three long years

In the final instalment of our series “The Private Detective in Literature”, we were able to breathe a sigh of relief: Sherlock Holmes is back, and not merely in “prequels” with stories set before his death, such as The Hound of the Baskervilles, but this time truly and very much alive – at least in the 13 short stories brought together in 1905 as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. There is little time left for anything else, however, because exactly twenty years after the master detective first appeared in 1887 in A Study in Scarlet, he is still at the height of his popularity – and with him Arthur Conan Doyle himself!

 

The time since the last short story featuring the hero already feels far too long to readers, so in 1908 Doyle, after a few excursions into other genres, returns to the safe option and launches a new series of short stories with The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. This time, however, there are only three, published at short intervals between September and October of the same year – perhaps to briefly replenish the bank account? Who knows …

Holmes between mysticism, fantasy and science fiction

The following years see Doyle overflowing with creativity and productivity, and this period also gives rise to another iconic figure whom he creates in 1912 with The Lost World, a character who in many respects represents the exact opposite of Sherlock Holmes: Professor Challenger, half scientist, half adventurer, researcher and explorer.

 

By this point at the latest, Doyle is fully aware of his “power”; with Sherlock Holmes he can always play it safe if necessary, because when things get tight, there is simply something new from the old Sherlock. At the same time, this naturally also pays tribute to his yearning readership. Fortunately, however, never at the expense of quality, because everything Doyle writes remains true to itself, has substance and a distinctive style. He lets himself go, his imagination knows no bounds: while Sherlock Holmes always remains firmly grounded in reality and seemingly mystical events are invariably explained rationally, Doyle’s other stories are increasingly shaped by mysticism and tend more towards fantasy and science fiction in terms of genre. Readers love him, and Doyle rewards them: alongside many other adventure and fantasy stories, they repeatedly receive new material about their favourite Sherlock Holmes at irregular intervals. In addition, a fourth and final novel follows in 1915 (The Valley of Fear).

Personal losses, spiritualist confusions and their consequences

With His Last Bow, Doyle publishes one more short story featuring Sherlock Holmes in 1917; otherwise, the following years are quiet for the master detective. This in turn has personal reasons, because the horrors of the First World War overshadow Doyle’s private life: he loses his son, his brother, his two brothers-in-law and his two nephews on the battlefields. As a result, he increasingly turns towards the spiritual and the occult, writing about fairies and the paranormal – however, as non-fiction, which partly meets with incomprehension from his otherwise loyal readership. He travels extensively to investigate the occult and paranormal, takes the séances and conjuring tricks popular at the time at face value, and regards obviously forged photographs of fairies as genuine. Legendary is his dispute with his erstwhile good friend Harry Houdini, who, unlike Doyle, insists that all magic (including his own) should be understood as trickery and illusion.

 

Doyle has long been one of the best-paid writers in the world, but the travels and research into the occult take their toll on his fortune. Ultimately, and probably above all for this reason, Doyle returns to the one who has always stood faithfully by his side and filled the coffers: the greatest literary detective of all time. In October 1921, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone is published, forming the opening to a further eleven short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes – unfortunately the last about the literary forefather of our private detectives in Saarbrücken. They are published at irregular intervals until April 1927 (naturally once again in The Strand Magazine) and are brought together in June of the same year as The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle’s most famous figure thus totals 56 short stories and four novels – and those are only the ones written by Doyle himself, that is, the canon.

Conan Doyle: contentious at the end, yet a life’s work that remains inexhaustibly inspiring

Arthur Conan Doyle dies in 1930 at the age of 71 after a successful and fulfilled life, of a heart attack. Not only as an author, but also as a doctor, politician, researcher, sportsman and adventurer, he had made a name for himself. Unforgotten and revered, however, he will probably always be remembered above all for the figure that has shaped the image of the detective to this day and is the ultimate icon of deduction. The world’s first “consulting detective” even had a lasting influence on police methodology and thus ultimately also on that of Kurtz Detective Agency Saarbrücken and Saarland.

 

Sherlock Holmes made Arthur Conan Doyle rich, but he brought a far greater enrichment to the imagination of generations of readers, television viewers, cinema-goers and audio drama enthusiasts around the world. Countless private investigators cite Sherlock Holmes as an early inspiration that sparked their enthusiasm for their profession. Our detectives from Saarbrücken bow to a great man who lived his dreams and in doing so gave us so many of our own.

Author: Gerrit Koehler

 

Kurtz Detective Agency Saarbrücken and Saarland

St. Johanner Straße 41–43

66111 Saarbrücken

Tel.: +49 681 6029 0010

Fax: +49 681 6029 0019

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken

When Someone Sabotages: Company Insolvency

Mr Combecher, a client of Kurtz Investigations Saarbrücken and Saarland, and Mr Merzig had jointly built up a craft business over the course of three years, employing a large workforce and operating an entire fleet of company vehicles. For a long time, the cooperation was fruitful and for both partners a lifelong dream seemed to have come true – apparently. For it soon became clear that Mr Merzig was pursuing different objectives from his partner. Just as the company had reached a point at which the founders could have said, “Now the structure is in place, now we can finally take things a little easier, perhaps even go on holiday,” Mr Merzig undertook a number of absurd actions that drove the business into insolvency within a few weeks. The partners had trusted each other so completely that each was authorised to sign independently. In this case, Mr Merzig failed to inform the client of our detectives in Saarbrücken of his planned actions.

 

Suddenly, Mr Combecher was faced with a pile of ruins that had previously seemed like a fairy tale and now resembled a tragedy. At first, his partner could not explain why Mr Merzig had acted in this way. But when the dubious partner could not be reached for a discussion for weeks on end, it gradually dawned on the injured party that this might have been a deliberate intent to commit fraud. He subsequently engages Kurtz Investigations Saarland to carry out investigations in the environment of his former business partner.

Operating Assets Sold at Forced Auction at the Target Person’s Premises

After providing the client with detailed advice on the possibilities of personal surveillance and carrying out preliminary research, our private detectives in Saarland commence surveillance of the target person, Merzig. The preliminary investigations provided no indication as to the reason for the ruination of the business: Mr Merzig had neither recently come into wealth nor founded a new company. The latter, however, cannot be completely ruled out, as several weeks can sometimes pass between notifying the trade office, commercial register etc. of a company formation and the actual entry being made.

 

Mr Merzig lives in Völklingen, where the business had also gone insolvent. Kurtz Commercial Investigations Saarbrücken and Saarland can summarise the description of the personal surveillance at this point quite briefly: the target person hardly moves for days on end. That the entrepreneur takes the dog out once a day for ten minutes is already the height of activity. Thus, nothing can be determined by this route – or can it? While the behaviour of the target person gives us no direct indication of the events surrounding the company of our detectives’ client in Saarland, transport vehicles bearing the lettering of the insolvent company are parked in front of Mr Combecher’s house on two different days. These vehicles had been sold at forced auction to an unknown company from Baden-Württemberg. Why are they still in Saarland and why do they still carry the advertising livery of the former owner?

 

Our investigators want to find out, which is why two of them follow the first vehicle. Unfortunately, the surveillance has to be aborted because the inconspicuousness of the observers is jeopardised by repeated traffic violations and strange detours by the transport driver into small side streets and cul-de-sacs. In consultation with Mr Combecher, Kurtz Investigations Saarland then decides to deploy two additional observers who can alternate during the vehicle tracking and thus drastically minimise the risk of detection.

Former Employees Working for a New Company

With the correspondingly increased deployment, the surveillance succeeds on the second attempt all the way to the transport driver’s destination. It is a shell construction site in Völklingen, in front of which various other vans of the no longer existing company are parked. Inside, craft work is visibly being carried out. Our private detectives from Saarbrücken photograph the individual workers in order to attempt identification with Mr Combecher afterwards. As it turns out, he knows every single one of the craftsmen, as all of them had worked for his company until recently. Apparently, a plot had been devised by the target person to buy up Mr Combecher’s shares for little money and then continue operating the same company – with only one shareholder and thus without sharing profits.

 

On the next day of surveillance, the focus shifts away from Mr Combecher and towards the construction site. The detectives from Saarland discover not only the company vehicles and former employees there, but also deliveries on pallets which, according to the labelling, had originally been intended for the old company. Using a suitable legend, one of our commercial detectives enters the shell building. The craftsmen working there are wearing overalls bearing the lettering of the insolvent company.

The Icing on the Cake: Client Takeover

Further surveillance of the former employees leads to the discovery of the physical headquarters of the new company in Völklingen. The entire vehicle fleet is parked here, which the same craftsmen had previously used for their journeys. Furthermore, our detectives from Saarbrücken document various machines and tools from the company assets that had been sold at forced auction.

 

After evaluating the facts established up to this point, Mr Combecher names several of his former employees whose commuting routes are subsequently to be monitored. On the one hand, this is intended to prove the regularity of their employment for the new company; on the other hand, the client of Kurtz Investigations Saarbrücken strongly suspects that, in addition to the workers and the economic assets, customers were also part of this unlawful restructuring and takeover of his company. At the final case discussion a few days later, this suspicion is fully confirmed, and he is now able to take legal action against Mr Merzig and his newly founded company by means of the court-admissible investigation report prepared by our commercial detectives from Saarland.

To preserve discretion and the personal rights of clients and subjects, all names and locations in this case report have been altered beyond recognition.

 

Kurtz Detective Agency Saarbrücken and Saarland

St. Johanner Straße 41–43

66111 Saarbrücken

Tel.: +49 681 6029 0010

Fax: +49 681 6029 0019

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-saarbruecken