Blog of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart

Complicated Web of Relationships Causes Significant Operational Problems

Many business owners believe that personal relationships with employees are ultimately detrimental to a professional workflow within a company. Mr. Huber, owner of a landscaping business and client of our detective agency in Ulm*, held a different philosophy in this regard, but it was one that would eventually catch up with him in a negative way. At the center of the matter was a complicated five-person constellation consisting of the managing director in question, two male and two female employees. Mr. Huber was in a relationship with one of the two female employees (M1), who had previously been involved with one of the two men (M2). The second male employee (M3), in turn, had by then started dating the other woman (M4), who was the managing director’s still-married wife.

 

This led to an internal turf war that harmed above all Mr. Huber and his company in Ulm. Specifically, he suspected Mr. Bach (= M3), the new partner of his wife, of deliberately carrying out manipulations out of frustration and personal dislike for his boss in order to ruin jobs and drive deserving colleagues out of the company. Since we are not speaking here of harmless damage but rather of substantial losses, and because there was even concern that Mr. Bach might attempt to murder Mr. Huber (motive: insurance payout), Mr. Huber commissioned our detectives in Ulm (+49 711 7153 011-0) to produce court-admissible evidence against his employee Bach.

Undercover Deployment to Obtain Evidence

During the case meeting, Mr. Huber and our corporate detective agency in Ulm quickly agreed that, in this case, undercover deployment within the company would be the most promising approach. In such an operation, a detective is hired by the client company in order to build social relationships with the workforce as an employee and thereby obtain useful information through both observation and questioning. A female detective was chosen because the main target person, Mr. Bach, was likely to confide sensitive matters more readily in a woman, whereas he was very suspicious of men.

 

On her first day at work in the company, our investigator was assigned directly to Mr. Bach, in order to accompany him to a client as an intern and support him there under the pretense of being a trained florist. The florist cover story could be used successfully in this case, since the detective in fact possessed sufficient knowledge in this field and the profession matched the business purpose of the undercover company. Even on the way to the work location, Mr. Bach talked incessantly and disparagingly about his employer and his employer’s partner. His statements were at times well below the belt and clearly defamatory in nature. As her first task, he assigned his supposed intern the trimming of hedges at the client’s property. However, he provided the detective with completely unsuitable tools with which the work could not be carried out. Before she could ask the target person whether there might be better tools available, Mr. Bach had already driven off with the client without saying a word.

Provoking Customer Complaints

Only after more than an hour and a half did the target person return with the client. Mr. Bach apparently did not consider it necessary to explain his absence. Instead, he told the investigator from our private detective agency in Ulm that she did not need to take care of the hedges after all, but should instead dig over a flower bed in the greenhouse. For this purpose, he handed her a rake that was about as useful on the rock-hard, dried-out ground as a teaspoon. He then assigned his intern various other tasks, all of which failed because of the unsuitable work materials. The client eventually became so annoyed because the two-person team was of course making no progress that the managing director and client, Mr. Huber, personally came by to discuss the problem with her. He later told our corporate detectives in Ulm that he had to handle such meetings constantly lately in order to put out fires.

 

Mr. Bach was not bothered in the slightest by his boss’s presence. He instructed the investigator to help him load the cut greenery that had accumulated, and then drove with her to the disposal site, while he left the work materials scattered all over the client’s garden, despite the fact that the client had a tool shed especially for that purpose. When the client apparently noticed after some time that the workers were gone and the area had been left in disarray, she called the target person several times without getting an answer. “The office should take care of that kind of thing,” Mr. Bach told our detective. An hour later, he finally relented and returned one of the repeated calls. The client sounded visibly irritated and apparently complained emphatically about the poor work performed by the detective. Mr. Bach then acted completely outraged and claimed that his intern had acted on her own; he would have a serious word with her. After ending the call, however, he only mocked the client. In the past, there had repeatedly been customer complaints about employees under the target person’s supervision. Apparently, Mr. Bach intended to let his own colleagues fail in order to further undermine the owner’s trust in his workforce and destabilize the company.

Difficult Standing Within the Workforce

The next day, our female private detective in Ulm first met M1, the colleague with whom our client, Mr. Huber, was in a relationship. According to his own statement, he trusted his partner almost one hundred percent, but he wanted her to be checked as well at some point, which is why the investigator lightly questioned M1. The overall impression was very positive: committed work and creative ideas. However, the lady had absolutely no fondness for the target person Bach; he constantly insulted her and treated her as if she were stupid, while not even doing his own work properly.

 

Shortly afterward, Mr. Huber gathered the entire working workforce to address them. In his speech, he announced that the dissatisfied client from the previous day had canceled the contract due to poor performance, resulting in a five-figure loss in revenue. In addition, M1, with whom the detective had just spoken, was appointed the new deputy managing director and received sarcastic remarks from Mr. Bach for it.

Hourly Billing Fraud

A few days later, the investigator worked together with Mr. Bach in the warehouse. By that point, a comparison of the investigation results with the target person’s timesheets had already revealed that he had committed working time billing fraud and was probably continuing to do so regularly. During the conversation between the supposed intern and Mr. Bach, he also remarked that his former employer had now received the contract from the dissatisfied client. The dishonest employee seemed anything but unhappy about this.

 

Later in the workday, Mr. Bach let his intern handle dangerous acid without protective gear, made aggressive negative comments about the new deputy managing director (M1), and drove around for hours to obtain simple work materials that allegedly could not be found anywhere in the required version. The total seven working hours on that day – which were billed as eight hours – produced no meaningful benefit for the company. A similar pattern emerged the following day, when Mr. Bach visited a construction site with the undercover operative from our detective agency for Ulm and had forgotten large parts of the necessary materials, so he once again searched the surrounding hardware stores for them, only to later say that he could not buy anything anyway because he only had ten euros with him.

Various Breaches of Employment Contract Proven

As a result of the investigations conducted by our corporate detective agency in Ulm, the following were established: defamatory statements against superiors and against employees in general, deliberate poor performance, irresponsible treatment of subordinates, hourly billing fraud, and a high probability of targeted customer poaching or improper contacts between the target person and his former employer in the same industry.

 

Because the offenses of hourly billing fraud and poor performance had been documented beyond doubt and in a court-admissible manner, the termination was issued afterward. He has since returned to working, also officially, for his former employer.

*Notice*

Note: For reasons of discretion and data protection, the locations and certain personal details have been altered without changing the substance of the actual events.

 

*Note: All assignments of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart are processed by our operations management in Stuttgart. We have a network of qualified, vetted investigators who can be active on site for you within a short time.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

Drugs are increasingly finding their way back into everyday life and thus into professional environments

Although educational efforts about drugs and their dangers in our society are becoming more and more extensive – partly due to media coverage as well – we are nevertheless faced with the problem of increasing acceptance, especially among adolescents and young adults, of even harder drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, various amphetamines, opioids, and so on. Parties are not infrequently places where entire pharmacy shelves of natural and chemical narcotics are exchanged; those who do not take them are often either the scapegoat (peer pressure) or bored as the only sober person among friends in a trance. It is not uncommon for pure party and weekend use to become an addiction in the medium term, one that finds its way into the daily work routine of employed people.

 

Our detective agency from Stuttgart has in the past been commissioned several times by employers to monitor individual employees who were suspected of coming to work under the influence of drugs – we would also be happy to work for your company: +49 711 7153 011-0.

Brief Case Example from the Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

In 2016, our investigators were commissioned by a company from Reutlingen to examine an office employee who had for some time been noticed for exhaustion, declining communication skills and willingness to compromise, and generally weak work performance. Although management tried to reason with her, the talks did not lead to any satisfactory result. Since the employee in question had important tasks to perform in accounting, the problem was acute. We then acted both with an undercover female detective from Baden-Württemberg and with off-site surveillance, during which the employee was observed not only at night-long parties before or on workdays, but also as she snorted two “lines” of a white powder in the company restroom, which a subsequent test of the residue left behind identified as cocaine.

 

Drugs in the workplace not only have negative effects on the productivity, motivation, and performance of employees, but in areas such as healthcare or social work they can even threaten the lives of third parties. One can hardly imagine what a surgeon under the influence of drugs might do to a patient during an operation.

Immediate Dismissal for Use in Road Traffic

Even if one might think that employees can do more or less what they want in their free time without the employer having any interest in it, there are of course exceptions in which the use of our Stuttgart corporate detectives is also justified. Recently, the Federal Labor Court (AZ: 6 AZR 471/15) recognized as legally valid an immediate dismissal issued to a truck driver as a result of his recreational use of the party drug crystal meth. Although he showed no signs of impairment during a police check conducted three days later, the drug could still be detected in his body. Since the truck driver’s drug use at least endangered other road users, the cargo, and the reputation of the contracting company, the dismissal was unavoidable for his employer. Despite the absence of visible impairment, the court found the truck driver guilty in the third instance, since professional drivers are generally not allowed to endanger their cargo by using drugs.

 

Now, the case described above concerned a particularly safety-sensitive occupational group; however, there are still no rulings regarding office employees who consume illegal narcotics in their free time (as of March 2017). It is therefore necessary to weigh what a company manager can do in the event of such an employee.

Behavioral Signs of Drug Use

Is there not just a small hand-rolled cigarette during the smoking break, but does the smell of marijuana drift through the courtyard? Does the department head have a red nose, glassy eyes, and a sugar-like powder on the collar after a trip to the restroom? Is the intern suddenly unusually emotional and needy for affection (“Can I hug you?”) or sweating excessively despite moderate temperatures in the office? Any of these behaviors may indicate drug use: marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy/MDMA, and so on.

 

Even if the job in question has no safety relevance, that by no means means employees are free to happily use drugs at work or come into the office under the aftereffects of a wild weekend. After all, every boss has a legitimate interest in ensuring that employees handle their tasks responsibly, purposefully, and with discipline. In most cases, addicted employees do not admit their use in a private conversation. To nevertheless prove the drug problem and bring the employee back to reason, an assignment of our corporate detective agency from Stuttgart can help: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de.

Drug-Addicted Employees in the Workplace as a Threat to Colleagues’ Health and to Company Property

In particular, business managers of companies responsible for human life and safety cannot tolerate drug addiction among their employees. But even in other industries, tolerant bosses should be aware of the damage a drug-dependent employee can cause in the company. Although some chemical drugs enjoy a reputation for increasing motivation and concentration, such performance boosts are never permanent. In the medium or even short term, absences and withdrawal symptoms occur, and for most addicted individuals, mental and motor skills deteriorate sooner or later. Numbers are altered, entered incorrectly, deleted, or forgotten in drug-induced haste and excitement, customer appointments are “missed,” sensitive data are accidentally forwarded to unauthorized persons, or accidents occur when operating heavy machinery.

 

Also not uncommon: if the addiction becomes so severe that tasks are neglected and acquisition crime is used as a means to finance the addiction, company property is no longer safe from the employee in question. In such cases, and much earlier as well, the use of our professional private detectives from Stuttgart is recommended so that the problem can be solved early and the company suffers as little damage as possible. For the sooner a drug addiction is recognized, the sooner action can be taken against it. In some cases, the employee concerned is even given a second chance – a shot that may backfire, but does not necessarily have to (see counterexample).

My employee is showing signs of drug use – what can I do?

If, as a department head, you notice that an employee occasionally seems distracted at work, has red and/or glassy eyes, behaves manically and hectically or lethargically, and does not seem like themselves, these or similar behaviors may be indicators of drug use. Whether they are aftereffects of the previous night or symptoms of drugs recently taken (at work), it is important to find evidence of such uncollegial, company- and revenue-damaging, and illegal behavior. This is where the use of our detectives from Stuttgart is appropriate, as they have a wide range of options available for gathering evidence. Depending on the evidence, the case, and the client’s wishes, our investigators can be deployed undercover as employees, observe employees privately, and use many other methods.

 

Our experienced and qualified private investigators personally and case-specifically address your needs as a client. All photo and video evidence obtained, the written investigative report, and any witness statements from our detectives that may be added are admissible in court. If you have first suspicions regarding individual employees, contact our Stuttgart detective agency at any time during our business hours (Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 19:00) at the following phone number: +49 711 7153 011-0.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

Economic and Reputational Damage

In an economically strong region such as the Stuttgart area, the value of intellectual property and the importance of complying with licenses and patents cannot be overstated. Any invention can only remain profitable and of great importance to the original company as long as it is not illegally copied and introduced to the market at a lower price. However, due in particular to the global networking of all business levels and companies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep innovations confidential until the product is ready for production and distribution.

 

Once a patent has been filed, the innovation belongs to the applicant for a certain period of time (in Germany up to a maximum of 20 years), during which any company or private individual wishing to benefit from the invention must pay licensing fees to the patent holder for its use. All too often, however, illegal product imitations appear on the market which, due to their often much lower production costs, can be offered more cheaply, but which endanger users due to poor functionality, inadequate workmanship, and inferior materials, thereby potentially casting an undeserved negative light on the original developer. Our detective agency in Stuttgart operates year-round to prevent the spread of counterfeits and to apprehend patent fraudsters: +49 711 7153 011-0.

Patent Fraudsters | "Patent Trolls"

The term patent trolls refers to individuals who had no involvement whatsoever in the development of innovations but register these inventions as patents before the actual developers in order to collect licensing fees for any third-party use. This is particularly frustrating when this type of patent theft occurs in open-source developments, meaning innovations that the inventors originally made freely available for public use: apps or other forms of software that were intended to be free for everyone are thereby converted into paid services by a third party, from which only the patent applicant benefits, not the original developers.

 

However, not only IT developments are affected by this type of patent fraud; espionage activities are also a serious issue in many other innovation-driven industries: employees are planted in competing companies in order to pass on plans or formulas of innovations to third parties before they are finalized and patented, enabling those third parties to file a patent without having been involved in the development. Especially in the corporate sector, this can involve several million euros obtained through espionage and can severely harm the original company. In such cases, our detectives in Stuttgart are frequently engaged to prove industrial or corporate espionage, whether through the infiltration of employees or by monitoring individual work processes and user accounts in the workplace.

Bayer Espionage Scandal: Illegal Methods Quickly Backfire on Investigators and Clients

When investigating suspected patent fraud and/or industrial espionage, it is essential to focus exclusively on legal methods available to our detective agency in Stuttgart under German law. A negative example: in 1999, the Bayer Group was suspected of having spied on competing pharmaceutical companies over several months using illegal means, which Bayer denied. However, documents belonging to two British detectives included lists of targeted companies – including 24 German firms – as well as sworn statements, activity reports, invoices, and other materials suggesting they had been commissioned by the pharmaceutical group. The two investigators committed burglary and were apprehended, bringing the affair to light.

 

Professional detective agencies such as our detective office in Stuttgart place the utmost importance on conducting investigations in full compliance with the law, not least because illegally obtained evidence is inadmissible in court and therefore useless for legal proceedings. If you suspect patent fraud, contact our investigators in the greater Stuttgart area directly and receive a no-obligation consultation on the legally permissible investigative options.

A Different Kind of Patent Fraud: Fake Payment Requests in Circulation

In addition to the patent fraud cases described above, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) warns of fraudulent letters that have been circulated for some time by private companies offering recipients fee-based registrations in unofficial registers or patent renewals at the DPMA. These companies often use names that suggest a close connection to the DPMA (for example DEPMA, Deutsche Patentverwaltung, DMP-Agentur, DMVG Deutsche Markenverwaltung GmbH, etc.) in order to create an appearance of legitimacy. If you receive such a letter, you should not only carefully check the listed data for plausibility but also confirm with the DPMA whether the payment request actually originates from them.

 

While the patent office is responsible for protecting not only the many tens of thousands of patents held by major companies such as Bosch, Siemens, Daimler, but also those of medium-sized businesses, individual inventors, and small start-up companies, fraudulent third-party companies – often based in Eastern Europe – exploit this system as a lucrative way to extract money from unsuspecting patent holders. These letters are often so professionally designed and formatted that only an expert can detect the deception; in particular, the frequent threats that a trademark or patent will expire if payment is not received create panic among recipients. If payments have already been made, our private detectives in Stuttgart will assist you in recovering the funds or in identifying the locations of the companies or commercial fraudsters, taking action against them on site, and collecting court-admissible evidence.

Detective Team Stuttgart: Fast and Discreet Assistance

If you are on the trail of patent fraud affecting one or more licenses of your company, or if you merely suspect it and require professional assistance in obtaining court-admissible evidence, our corporate investigators in Stuttgart are available around the clock. In addition to investigations concerning individual employees, it is also possible to deploy undercover investigators within your company, conduct surveillance, and, if necessary, examine external email communications or other forms of improper PC use in the workplace. Even if you have fallen victim to a fraudulent patent company, our detective agency in Stuttgart will handle the further course of action in your specific case to help you recover transferred funds. You can reach us by phone during our business hours Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 19:00 or at any time via email at info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

Burglary at the Most (In)Opportune Moment – Insider Knowledge?

Reutlingen resident Sonja Scholz worked internationally as a luxury escort. Through her work, she traveled across Europe and the world: Basel, Paris, Barcelona, Dubai, Miami—the list of destinations where she accompanied her clients could go on almost endlessly. Her travel and related services were very well paid, and accordingly, the woman in her mid-twenties led a luxurious life in the Reutlingen city area (Georgenberg): a stylish apartment, high-end furnishings, expensive cars. Ms. Scholz contacted our detective agency in Reutlingen* after her apartment was burglarized during one of her trips. She lived on the raised ground floor, and a friend and colleague who occasionally stayed with her had left the apartment with a tilted window. The perpetrators forced it open and stole over €50,000 in cash as well as valuables—primarily jewelry—worth approximately €65,000. When asked by our detectives in Reutlingen* why she kept so much cash in the apartment, she explained that she had sold one of her cars—a Porsche Cayenne—just days before the burglary and now deeply regretted not taking the money directly to the bank. The fact that the break-in occurred precisely after this sale, at a time when an unusually large amount of cash was stored in her apartment, seemed suspicious to Ms. Scholz: “I don’t think that’s a coincidence!”

 

While the police unsuccessfully attempted to secure evidence at the crime scene and Ms. Scholz already feared her chances were slipping away, she compiled a list of individuals she believed could be responsible. Every name on this list—later presented to Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Baden-Württemberg—was associated with the red-light and/or drug scene: in part notorious pimps, nightclub bouncers, drug dealers, as well as one client.

A Letter from the Perpetrator?

Since Ms. Scholz’s list contained more than twenty names, narrowing down the circle of suspects proved difficult for about two weeks; systematic investigations would have required considerable personnel effort. Fortunately, an important clue was delivered directly: one of the suspects—clearly not the most cunning individual—sent a letter addressed to the aforementioned friend of our client… to Ms. Scholz’s apartment. The two friends had agreed to send each other photos of incoming mail via WhatsApp during absences. Accordingly, Ms. Scholz opened the suspect’s letter and was surprised to find extortionate payment demands inside. Apparently, her friend owed the suspect significant debts; according to the letter, she had already repaid most of it, but the full amount “could not be recovered from that job.” Had the friend deliberately left the window open to facilitate the burglary and settle her debts this way? A plausible assumption, given that she was among the few who knew about the car sale.

 

At this point, Ms. Scholz contacted our private detectives in Reutlingen* (+49 711 7153 011-0) to uncover possible debtor relationships between the suspects, gather evidence identifying the burglar(s), and determine the extortionist’s place of residence.

Under Pretext: Meeting Between Target and Detective

An initial address check of the target by Aaden detectives in Swabia revealed an official registered address. However, although a mailbox existed, there was no doorbell. Credible neighbors stated they did not know the person. Only occasionally did a stocky man with tattoos, a short haircut, and silver jewelry come by to collect mail.

 

To locate the suspect despite the fake address, our corporate detectives in Reutlingen* arranged a meeting by phone. This was made possible through a venue where the suspect was listed online as the owner. Using a pretext, the investigators claimed they wanted to book the entire bar for a class reunion and requested a meeting to discuss details. The suspect took the bait and met with one of our detectives. During the conversation, the undercover investigator gathered details: the man lived in Reutlingen, had been driving a brand-new Audi TTS since the previous week (a topic he eagerly discussed), was unmarried, and earned his money in the nightclub business. He appeared approachable and far more worldly than his appearance and the incriminating letter suggested.

Highly Suspicious Driving Behavior During Surveillance by Our Reutlingen Detectives*

After the meeting with the target person, the undercover investigator said goodbye, and a detective team from Reutlingen, consisting of two observers, took over the pursuit of the suspected burglar. The surveillance would prove extremely difficult, because the target person was “shaking us off,” as one of the two observers told the operations center by phone – an observer who had worked in the SEK for over 20 years and had seen quite a lot during that time.

 

“Shaking off” is detective jargon for conspicuous behavior by a subject under surveillance intended to lose or expose any followers. As a rule, this does not happen because one of the observers has been noticed, but purely as a precaution, since there is a theoretical possibility of being followed. Anyone who behaves this way usually has something to hide. In our target person’s case, the shaking off consisted of frequent changes in speed, stopping for minutes in the most improbable places (for example highway shoulders and no-parking zones after turning at intersections), deliberately taking detours through side streets (sometimes in circles), making several rounds in roundabouts, and carefully visually inspecting every passing vehicle. Only with the greatest effort, routine, and a bit of luck were our detectives from Reutlingen able to continue the pursuit without losing sight of the target person or being exposed.

Clear Links to the Prostitution Scene

According to Ms. Scholz, the suspicious man had connections to the Swabian red-light scene, especially in Reutlingen, and to the drug scene in Stuttgart, and was primarily believed to earn his money through pimping. The surveillance initially led our detective agency in Reutlingen to the city center, where the target person met a young woman of African descent and received an envelope from her. The suspected burglar then parked in front of a home improvement store whose closing time had just passed, causing the parking lot to gradually empty until the target person was left alone and did not leave the location for a full seven hours. During this time, various other vehicles appeared one by one next to the target vehicle, with their drivers getting out and entering the subject’s car. These were increasingly women and, in some cases, men; based on clothing, hair, and jewelry style, all of them were presumably associated with the red-light scene. What was discussed or done in the target vehicle, our private detectives in Reutlingen could only speculate, as the tinted windows prevented any view inside.

 

After two o’clock in the morning, all appointments finally seemed to be completed, and the target person drove toward Stuttgart-Mitte, where he met several male individuals of southern European origin near the main station and handed them a sports bag. These men are known to be associated with the drug scene. Around five in the morning, the suspect finally arrived in a residential area of Reutlingen, where he parked his vehicle and then walked another half kilometer to a residential building, even though parking spaces would have been available right in front of it. He disappeared into an apartment and did not leave it again for the next six hours. On the doorbell plate, our client recognized one of the target person’s aliases – the residential address had been found.

Out-of-Court Settlement Through Evidence Gathered by Our Detective Agency in Reutlingen

To obtain meaningful indications of the obvious pimp’s involvement, our detectives in Reutlingen had to continue surveillance for several more days. The resulting detective costs were justified given the very high amount of damages. In addition to further drug transactions and meetings with shady individuals as well as apparent transfers of money from prostitutes to the suspect, our investigators documented two meetings between Ms. Scholz’s friend and the target person. In addition, the man gradually sold off jewelry from the stolen property of our client, partly through jewelers and pawnshops, partly to private buyers via an eBay classifieds account, which our detective agency in Reutlingen discovered during its internet research. In this way, we compiled extensive evidentiary documentation, with which Ms. Scholz, assisted by a security guard, was able to confront the burglar and reach an agreement with him regarding the return of the remaining assets and repayment of the missing amounts. In return, she promised not to submit the collected evidence to the police.

*Notice*

Note: For reasons of discretion and data protection, the locations and certain personal details have been altered without changing the substance of the actual events.

 

*Note: All assignments of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart are processed by our operations management in Stuttgart. We have a network of qualified, vetted investigators who can be active on site for you within a short time.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

Commercial Scrap Metal Theft by Employees

The managing director of a GmbH from Heilbronn, whom we will call Mr. Mainhardt, had a substantiated suspicion based on an anonymous tip from the workforce that a specific employee, together with at least one external accomplice, was systematically stealing metal scrap from company inventory and reselling it. Mr. Mainhardt therefore commissioned our corporate detectives for Heilbronn* to investigate his suspicion.

 

Scrap metal theft may seem trivial to some, as the term "scrap" is often associated with worthlessness and waste, but trading in scrap metal is quite lucrative. On the company premises in Heilbronn, scrap in the form of stainless steel, copper, and various hard metals was stored. Average prices per kilogram can reach up to 6.50 €; one kilogram of metal generally does not take up much space, meaning that a pile of scrap metal that appears small in volume can have a significant mass and therefore a considerable value. Accordingly, companies engaged in scrap trading or processing have a strong interest in safeguarding their inventory and production materials and not falling victim to theft. By engaging our detective agency in Heilbronn*, Mr. Mainhardt acted correctly and consistently with the intention of preventing further damage to his business.

Lack of Security Concept: An Invitation for Metal Thieves

Since the managing director was unable to narrow down the timeframes of the suspected thefts (whether during or outside working hours), he agreed with our detective team in Heilbronn* to conduct continuous 24-hour surveillance until the perpetrator or perpetrators were identified. Such measures require patience and budget, as the likelihood of achieving an immediate success without a specific assumption regarding the time of the offense is generally low. This factor should never be overlooked when calculating expected investigative success and detective fees.

 

During the preliminary reconnaissance (site inspection) at the company premises, it quickly became clear to our detectives in Heilbronn* that the area was essentially an open invitation for metal thieves. Adjacent to the unmonitored employee parking lot was an unlocked and rarely frequented area without access controls where metals were stored. Any dishonest employee could load inventory into their vehicle without attracting attention. To verify this observation, our specialist in surveillance area reconnaissance simulated and documented a theft: first, he walked across the premises at a normal pace to determine whether he attracted attention; then he drove his vehicle directly to the open storage area and calmly loaded several pieces of metal into the trunk. Even a forklift was readily available to facilitate loading larger quantities into a truck. The investigator then returned the metal to its rightful storage location and prepared an analysis of the (virtually nonexistent) security measures. In consultation with the operations management of Aaden Corporate Detective Agency, Mr. Mainhardt was strongly advised to implement a security concept by our security specialists after completion of the surveillance operations.

Working Time Fraud, Drug Dealing, and Theft by Third Parties? Numerous Irregularities Emerge

Even during the initial surveillance operations conducted by the detectives of our corporate detective agency in Heilbronn*, several irregularities were observed:

 

• Without the involvement of a company employee, an empty truck ignored a prohibition sign, entered the premises, and later returned with scrap metal in its container, only to drive less than one kilometer further to another company site and unload the material there.
• Two unknown male individuals entered the premises on foot and left again carrying two metal chairs, which they loaded into a nearby parked vehicle before driving away – the incident was, of course, documented and the license plate recorded. Apparently, the self-service nature of the site had become known.
• The target person of our Heilbronn detectives* was not observed on the first day of surveillance, even though they were theoretically scheduled to work. This raised an additional suspicion of working time fraud alongside the suspected commercial theft.
• Some workers relieved themselves not in the designated restrooms but at fences or building walls, which certainly did not contribute positively to the maintenance of the property.
• A frequent exchange of suspicious, opaque plastic bags was observed, leading to concerns that the premises were also being used for drug-related activities.
• On multiple occasions, a room in the administrative building was illuminated in the middle of the night, with at least two individuals present. According to Mr. Mainhardt, this was not permitted, as all employees were required to leave the premises after working hours.

 

As there was now a very concrete suspicion of working time fraud, an additional observer was deployed to intercept the target person at their residence and verify whether they were fulfilling their work obligations properly.

Detectives Observe Nighttime Warehouse Theft

On the fourth night after the start of surveillance, the decisive criminal acts occurred: a small truck with an open loading area approached the entrance gate of the company premises at around two o’clock in the morning. The passenger, clearly identifiable in the headlights as the target person of our investigators, got out and unlocked the gate with a key. The driver then reversed toward a warehouse, which was also opened by the target person. Both individuals then used a small crane attachment to load scrap metal onto the truck while our corporate detectives in Heilbronn* documented the process and captured images of the accomplice. Once the loading area was sufficiently filled, the thieves left the scene and carefully locked everything again.

 

They transported their stolen goods directly to a scrap dealer near Aschaffenburg. The dealer appeared to be expecting them, as he willingly accepted the stolen goods and paid them in cash. Our detectives from Baden-Württemberg informed Mr. Mainhardt of the observations, and it was agreed to temporarily suspend the investigation.

Identification of the Accomplice | Development of a Security Concept by Security Specialists

Through a vehicle ownership investigation and based on the images from the incident, the accomplice was later identified, as the small truck was registered in his name. It was also determined that the target person had definitely not appeared for work on one of the surveillance days, yet someone had clocked in on their behalf; on another day, the target person was likewise not observed on the premises despite being scheduled to work. However, since our private detectives in Heilbronn* were not able to monitor the entire premises at all times, and as the target person had not yet been observed at their residence on that day, no definitive conclusion could be drawn in this regard. Ultimately, the issue of working time fraud became largely irrelevant, as the employee was conclusively proven to have stolen company property.

 

After the completion and evaluation of the surveillance, Mr. Mainhardt met with our security specialists from Stuttgart to discuss preventive measures against future theft. Together, Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart and the managing director developed a security concept whose implementation did not incur excessive costs but significantly improved theft prevention.

*Notice*

Note: For reasons of discretion and data protection, the locations and certain personal details have been altered without changing the substance of the actual events.

 

*Note: All assignments of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart are processed by our operations management in Stuttgart. We have a network of qualified, vetted investigators who can be active on site for you within a short time.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

Three Wills – Which One Is Correct?

The two brothers Dobel had long agreed with their uncle Helmut from Pforzheim that, in the event of his death, they would be equal primary heirs. As children, the brothers had become orphans and were therefore raised by their uncle. In the last two years, contact between the two clients of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart and their foster father had become somewhat less frequent, as they had both found work and family abroad and came to Swabia only rarely. Uncle Helmut died, and the Dobel brothers were quite astonished when, in addition to the will they already knew from the 1990s, two more suddenly appeared. One, from 2014, added Uncle Helmut’s last partner as an equal third primary heir. The most recent one, from 2015, removed all three previous heirs and favored a person whose name was unknown both to the clients of our detectives in Pforzheim* and to the deceased’s last partner. The brothers could not imagine that things had been done properly here and suspected dementia in their foster father. They ruled out the possibility that he might have taken offense at their limited contact during the last two years of his life: “That was not his nature at all.”

 

Our detective agency for Pforzheim* was now tasked, first, with determining whether Uncle Helmut had suffered from a mental illness when he changed the wills, and second, with finding out what relationship the newly favored person had to the deceased.

Alienation from His Partner in Recent Years

In the first step of the investigation, our detectives in Pforzheim interviewed Uncle Helmut’s last partner. The two had not lived together; instead, they met only two to three times a week, accompanied each other to family celebrations, attended concerts and museums, took trips, and so on. Both were widowed and, in old age, simply felt the need to have someone by their side. “At that stage, it is no longer the great love; that is long gone,” the partner told our private detective in Pforzheim. “Helmut and I liked each other very much, but it was more a mix of friendship and partnership. I did not even know I was in the will, and I would not have wanted anything, because we had grown somewhat apart recently.” When asked about the reason for this estrangement, the lady stated that Helmut had increasingly behaved in an unusual and conspicuous manner, had become quick-tempered, and that spending time with him had become less and less enjoyable. Could it have been dementia? “Quite possible,” she replied, “but I do not know for sure.”

 

When our investigator asked whether she knew Helmut’s family doctor or had knowledge of any special treatments, our detective for Pforzheim* received the address of a practice that the deceased had frequently visited. He had been a private patient.

Medical Treatment for Dementia

The researcher from Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Stuttgart went to the practice and was told by the owner that, due to medical confidentiality, he could not provide any information about the deceased. Nevertheless, the investigator managed to get him to suggest trying a clinic where Helmut had been referred in 2013. With the appropriate authorizations from the foster sons, it might be possible to obtain information there.

 

After some bureaucratic effort and, unfortunately, several weeks of processing time, the Aaden detectives for Pforzheim* received, by proxy from this clinic, the information that Helmut had been treated there for ICD code F03 (“Dementia, unspecified”). Dementia could indeed have been the cause of such an unlikely change to a will. Further research showed that Helmut had been hospitalized several times in different clinics between 2013 and 2015. Whether his dementia had been the reason for these hospital stays could not be determined.

Address Tracing for the Unknown Heir

Now that the question of dementia had been clarified, our detective agency for Pforzheim* turned to the beneficiary of the last will. Since the address listed in the will in Hamburg was no longer correct and a registry inquiry by the executor yielded no result, the Aaden detectives Stuttgart had to carry out address tracing for the person sought. The search led them back to Pforzheim, specifically to the immediate neighborhood of Uncle Helmut’s house. At an apartment building, they found a doorbell plate bearing the heir’s name and reached him on the third attempt at the location. As we often experience, this man, in his mid-fifties, was also quite surprised to find private detectives at his door seeking information from him.

“Helmut was my father.”

“How do I stand in relation to Helmut, you ask? Helmut was my father,” the heir told our detectives in Pforzheim. “I grew up with my mother. She told me all her life that my father was a one-night stand and that she did not know his name. On her deathbed – that was in 2008 – she finally told me the truth; apparently she had a guilty conscience after all. Helmut and she had an affair in the late 1950s or early 1960s. But at that time he was already married and did not want to leave his wife even after I was born, which is why my mother and I went to her family in Hamburg. For years I struggled with whether I wanted to track him down and get to know him. In the end, I made up my mind in 2012. It was a very emotional encounter for both of us, and we both cried a lot. Shortly afterward he became ill: first cancer, then a dementia diagnosis was added. I decided to move to Pforzheim and at least care for him for the remaining time we would have together, since we had already gone 52 years without each other. Next month I am going back to Hamburg.”

 

“And the will – do you know anything about it?”, our detective from Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart asks.

 

“I know that he had two foster sons. He did not call them ‘foster’ sons, though; they were his sons. He loved them very much, but unfortunately I never got to know them. He wanted to leave everything to them, but he also talked about including me in the will. That would be fine with me, because I am his son too. However, I absolutely do not want my ... brothers to be left empty-handed. That would be unfair and would also not do justice to their importance for Helmut. If the 2015 will is authentic, it is likely that he was no longer fully in his right mind. The dual illness caused him to decline very quickly. The Helmut I met in 2012 would never have disinherited his foster sons.”

A Reconciliatory Family Reunion

Shortly afterward, the Dobel brothers came to Germany to meet their quasi-brother in Hamburg. Together with the deceased Helmut’s last partner, all parties named in the three wills reached an amicable settlement, and the brothers thanked our detective agency in Pforzheim for its work.

Notice

Note: For reasons of discretion and data protection, the locations and certain personal details have been altered without changing the substance of the actual events.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

*Notice*

*Note: All assignments of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart are processed by our operations management in Stuttgart. We have a network of qualified, vetted investigators who can be active on site for you within a short time.

Defamation – The Web Never Forgets.

Almost everyone has witnessed cyberbullying or the spread of false information about individuals, companies, or governments, and some have even experienced it firsthand. The internet is both a blessing and a curse: on the one hand, information is easier to find and international networking between individuals and companies continues to grow; on the other hand, the internet never forgets. Information that has already been deleted from the original page can often still be found for years via Google or through cached searches of other services. Aaden Detectives Stuttgart provide information on the topic of defamation on the World Wide Web:

Loss of Revenue Due to Online Reputation Damage

Defamatory statements and false information on the internet, which are regularly brought to the attention of the detectives at Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Stuttgart, have become part of everyday life for many private individuals and companies in this age of technology and networking. In addition to numerous other problems, they also lead to criminal complaints and legal disputes. Whether a student posts personally or professionally offensive remarks about a teacher on Facebook or on widely discussed teacher rating platforms, or a former employee publishes statements disguised as facts but filled with false claims about their previous employer on a private blog – both cases and many others can be not only hurtful but also damaging to personal reputations or businesses. They may cause difficulties in recruiting qualified employees or finding a job and can result in revenue losses due to deterred customers.

 

The German Federal Court of Justice (BHG) therefore issued the following ruling in June 2015:

"Operators of a website are not only responsible for removing demonstrably false factual claims on their own site, but also if such claims have been adopted by third parties and remain visible on their websites." (BHG, July 28, 2015, Ref.: VI ZR 340/14)

 

This ruling strengthens the position of affected parties, as not only the originator of a harmful statement but also all individuals who have shared and further disseminated such statements can be held legally accountable.

Reputation Damage Documented in a Court-Admissible Manner by Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart

However, in order for legal proceedings to take place – in which the defendant can be ordered to delete the statements, pay damages, or restore the plaintiff’s reputation – court-admissible evidence of the defamatory statements must be presented. The corporate and private detectives of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart not only research and document such evidence in a legally secure manner, but their IT specialists may also be able to identify the authors of anonymous postings: +49 711 7153 011-0. Many people are unaware that they are not truly anonymous on the internet: their email and IP addresses leave traces that can often be traced by IT experts, allowing conclusions to be drawn about their identity.

Those Who Share False Information Are Also Responsible

What may come as a surprise to many is ultimately a logical consequence: anyone who spreads false information from any source – whether reliable or not – without verifying the facts or evidence shares responsibility. Under German Civil Code (Section 1004 BGB), a “disturber” is anyone who has caused a disturbance or whose actions may result in impairment, and thus anyone involved in the dissemination and publication of such statements. All individuals who fall under this definition can therefore be subject to claims for injunctive relief and/or removal. Consequently, a thorough investigation of all parties involved by our private detectives in Stuttgart is worthwhile.

Deletion of Statements Is Not Always Possible, Only If Reasonable

In addition to the court-admissible evidence of defamatory statements obtained by Aaden Detectives Stuttgart, the reasonableness of deleting the relevant text passages must also be established. Because the term is somewhat vague and difficult to define objectively, it falls within the court’s discretion to determine reasonableness. There have been several cases in which false and economically damaging statements were made, and although the court recognized their defamatory nature, it did not consider full deletion by the author or perpetrator to be reasonable. As a result, defendants are not required to remove entire articles but must delete the harmful and false statements contained within them and may also be required to pay damages to the plaintiff. These damages are partly justified by the long-term persistence of information on the internet, which can lead to lasting harm to the reputation of those affected.

What Role Do Google and Other Search Engines Play?

According to a ruling by the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg in August 2011 (Ref.: 7 U 51/10), Google is no longer exempt from liability when displaying unlawful pages or defamatory statements in its search results. In a recently concluded case concerning a lawsuit against the auto-complete function of a major search engine provider, the corporation reached an out-of-court settlement with the plaintiff and removed certain defamatory terms that had been automatically suggested when searching for the person. A spokesperson stated that some features of the auto-complete function had been modified so that disputed terms would no longer be suggested. This broadly corresponds to another ruling by the Regional Court of Heidelberg (Ref.: 2 O 162/13) from December 2014, according to which a search engine operator must no longer display content or websites in its search results once they have been contested.

 

Here too, the detectives of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart can assist by researching the relevant harmful pages and establishing contact with search engine operators. If these operators do not comply with requests for deletion, our private and corporate detectives in Stuttgart will also support further steps, for example in obtaining court-admissible evidence for a claim for damages against the search engine operator. Since the Regional Court of Cologne extended this ruling in August 2015 (Ref.: 28 O 75/15) to the effect that even a stated suspicion is sufficient to oblige a search engine operator to review the relevant websites, the use of our Stuttgart private detectives is recommended here as well. In cases of initial suspicion, we conduct research before reporting to the search engine operator, forward the findings to the appropriate parties, and, if necessary, advocate for the prompt deletion of the content: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

In 2015, the Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Stuttgart was contacted by the legal representative of a hospital from northern Germany. One of their doctors had been on sick leave for an extended period, and based on an external tip, the hospital had reasonable grounds to suspect that the doctor in question was working independently in a practice in Stuttgart during his certified incapacity for work, a practice that was known to be run by his former partner. The hospital commissioned the Aaden Detectives Stuttgart to investigate this suspicion.

Undercover Practice Visit by Our Detective

Together with the operations management, one of our Stuttgart private detectives developed a simple cover story appropriate to the situation and went to the partner’s practice, where the target person was suspected to be, without making a prior appointment. The case turned out to be unusually straightforward, as our investigator already discovered the name of the target person on the building façade as a senior physician in a joint practice of two doctors. Thus, it became evident at this point that the target person was engaged in an unauthorized secondary activity. It now only remained to be clarified whether the physician was doing so during the ongoing sick leave certification and was therefore guilty not only of a breach of contract due to the secondary activity but also of abusing sick leave.

Treatment of the Private Detective by the Target Person

Our detective from Stuttgart entered the building and found another sign with the name of the target person on the practice floor. In the reception area, he was asked by an unknown staff member to fill out a series of documents. After a very short waiting time, he was taken to a treatment room, where the target person soon joined him wearing a doctor’s coat—fortunately, it was the target person himself and not the business partner from the same medical field. The actual hospital employee asked several questions and then treated our investigator. Finally, the doctor prepared a medical report regarding the examination of our private detective in Stuttgart.

Watertight Investigation Result from Our Detective Agency

In order to provide not only his witness statement and the obvious practice sign but also written proof, our investigator from the Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Stuttgart requested cash payment with a direct invoice. This invoice was signed by hand by the target person—just like the medical report, which was also handed over to the detective. As a result, our Stuttgart detectives had a perfect investigation result after only a few hours of work—this is by no means a given in the detective business, as investigations can often be very time-consuming and sometimes frustrating.

 

Ultimately, this single operation by the Aaden Detectives Stuttgart provided clear and court-admissible evidence of the following offenses: fraud related to continued wage payment, engagement in an unauthorized secondary activity, and abuse of sick leave. The target person effectively received double payment by collecting continued wages from the commissioning hospital while also generating income from their self-employed activity.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

Missing Laptop Containing Sensitive Data

Recently, the detectives of Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Stuttgart investigated a daring case of economic crime and unauthorized customer poaching. A laptop containing company-internal and protected software had “gone missing” from the client company. Specifically, the absence of this laptop had been noticed by the workforce, after which an employee who was due to leave the company a few days later reported the theft of the device to management. It was well known that this employee intended to register a business of his own on the first day of the month following the end of his employment contract, a business that would be in direct competition with the client of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart. Due to this situation, the employee in question was under urgent suspicion.

The Clients’ Source of Existence Under Threat

For a competing company, the data and programs on the stolen laptop would be enormously valuable, because through specially developed software the company, as the copyright holder, held a market share of 15–20% in its sector, which only it could serve. The matter involved machines and control elements that could only be operated and maintained with this licensed software. If the program were to fall into the hands of another company, a price war would inevitably have broken out, with fatal consequences for the clients of Aaden Detectives Stuttgart.

 

Accordingly, our private detectives from Swabia were to monitor the highly suspicious employee around the clock to ensure that he would in no way sell the laptop or a copy of the data contained on it to third parties. As soon as any situation arose that suggested such a transaction, our corporate investigators from Stuttgart were to inform the police.

Target Person of Aaden Detectives Stuttgart Initially Shows No Irregularities

There were still four calendar days left until the end of the suspicious employee’s employment. The first of these fell on a Sunday, on which the target person, observed by our Stuttgart private detectives, merely took a family outing to a community garden and showed no suspicious activity. During the four observation days that followed, the target person properly carried out fieldwork for the client of Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart. Although a laptop repeatedly appeared that exactly matched the model of the stolen device, it was the company’s standard model, which the target person absolutely needed for work. It was therefore perfectly normal for her to carry this laptop with her.

 

On the last working day, the commissioning company informed us that the employee had properly returned his laptop with the correct identification number and therefore no longer had one in his possession. By the way, the observation team always consisted of at least one of our detective specialists from Stuttgart, and during the day also of an IT forensic expert who accompanied the surveillance in a supporting role.

Attempted Customer Poaching After the End of Employment

Things became interesting on the first day of the target person’s self-employment, because after some apparently private errands in the morning, she went to a company that, according to consultation with the clients of Aaden Detectives Stuttgart, was or is one of her regular customers. Naturally, customer poaching was contractually prohibited for the target person. After a relatively short time on site, the target person drove off again and went directly to another customer of the former employer, where the stay was again only brief. This was followed by a trip to a third customer, and this time the duration of the visit was noticeably longer. Apparently, there was quite a bit to discuss in the office. After almost two hours, the target person returned to her vehicle, took out a briefcase and a laptop, and reentered the customer’s premises. Externally, the laptop could not be distinguished from the usual company laptops of the clients.

Attempt at Deception Fails

The detectives deployed from Stuttgart immediately consulted with the management of the injured company. They were instructed to approach the target person at the next sighting and demand the return of the laptop. This plan could be carried out half an hour later. The target person appeared surprised and claimed that it was her own laptop. The detectives could feel free to look at the hard drive and convince themselves. Only standard programs were installed there.

 

First, our private detective from Stuttgart and the IT forensic expert checked the mechanical device identification number and found that it was identical to the number of the laptop the target person had returned to the client the day before. When confronted with this, the target person insisted despite the provably contradictory facts that she had not returned the laptop at all because no one had asked her to do so. The suspect thought he was extremely clever, because on the hard drive only standard programs such as Microsoft Office, an antivirus scanner, Adobe Reader, and the like were visible. The protectable information and the valuable company software had been hidden with a “beginner’s tool,” as the IT forensic expert later put it to the Aaden Detectives Stuttgart. He was able to extract this information very quickly with his own notebook while the target person paced nervously back and forth. It was also apparently not known to the former employee that the device identification number was not only physically present on the laptop, but could also be read from the motherboard. The result was clear: it was the stolen device.

Fraud Makes You Poor: Claim for Damages

A more in-depth IT forensic analysis of the laptop revealed that no sensitive data and, in particular, no data relating to the licensed software had left the device in the preceding months. The target person probably would not have had the know-how for the latter anyway, but the risk of the entire device being sold to specialists was, of course, still latent. As far as the detectives of Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Stuttgart have learned from the clients, no criminal measures were taken against the target person. An internal settlement was reached, which, according to the managing director, included a “substantial” compensation payment from the target person to the company.

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824

Private detectives such as those of the Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart are, under § 14 of the German Trade Regulation Act (Gewerbeordnung), considered commercial operators in Germany with unfortunately very minimal entry requirements. The regulatory office only checks personal suitability, meaning the certificate of good conduct and the central trade register. Proof of qualifications in the form of formal training, certification, or a relevant professional background in official investigative services is not required for detectives in Stuttgart or elsewhere in Germany, despite decades of efforts by professional associations. As a result, there are many inexperienced operators who are unfamiliar with the rights and duties of detectives and may thereby place themselves and their clients in difficult situations.

The Relevant Rights of Detectives in Detail

Since private investigators and corporate detectives in Stuttgart and throughout Germany are treated much like any other commercial operators and are not subject to special supervision, they are also not granted any special rights. This makes it all the more important for legally knowledgeable detectives to be familiar with the rights available to every citizen, particularly the rights of self-defense and self-help. These rights, which are utilized by the Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart, include:

 

• Self-defense, § 32 German Criminal Code (StGB): “Self-defense is any defense that is necessary to avert a current unlawful attack against oneself or another.”
• Justifying necessity, § 34 StGB: “Whoever, in a present danger to life, limb, freedom, honor, property, or another legal interest that cannot otherwise be averted, commits an act in order to avert the danger from themselves or another does not act unlawfully. However, this applies only if the act is an appropriate means to avert the danger.”
• Self-defense and necessity pursuant to §§ 227 et seq. German Civil Code (BGB).
• Self-help, § 229 BGB: “Anyone who, for the purpose of self-help, removes, destroys, or damages an object, or who, for the purpose of self-help, apprehends an obligor suspected of fleeing, or eliminates the resistance of the obligor against an act which the obligor is obliged to tolerate, does not act unlawfully if official assistance cannot be obtained in time and without immediate intervention there is a risk that the realization of the claim will be prevented or significantly impeded.”
• Self-help of the possessor’s agent, § 860 BGB: “The person who exercises actual control on behalf of the possessor pursuant to § 855 [possessor’s agent] is also entitled to exercise the rights granted to the possessor under § 859 [self-help of the possessor].”
• Provisional arrest, § 127 Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO), para. 1: “If a person is caught in the act or pursued, and if there is a suspicion of flight or if their identity cannot be immediately established, anyone is authorized to provisionally arrest them even without a judicial order.”

Important Duties of Detectives in Germany

The detectives of the Aaden Detective Agency Stuttgart are, of course, fundamentally obliged to comply with criminal and civil law, the Basic Law, and the Trade Regulation Act. Some duties are of particular importance:

 

• Contractual obligations under a service contract, § 611 BGB: “By a service contract, the party promising services is obliged to perform the promised services, and the other party is obliged to grant the agreed remuneration.”
• Duties of witnesses; summons; § 48 StPO: “Witnesses are obliged to appear at the time specified for their examination before the judge. They are obliged to testify unless an exception permitted by law applies.”

Aaden Detectives Stuttgart

Lautenschlagerstraße 23

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 011-0

Fax: +49 711 7153 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-stuttgart.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824