The following story let me know that once a Paralegal, always one and Private Investigator should be a next step licensure path. This incident followed by a call to my consulting firm asking me to find out about someone had me check what it takes to get licensed in my state. I went through the steps but an undisclosed entity refused to answer Homeland Security at all… however, once I’m able to certify my time in practice, I’m applying again, because I’m good.
Enjoy the story.
My husband received a call from an ambulance chaser.
“Hi, we’re calling to check on Margaret Ellen after her accident on February 26th.
Husband: “She wasn’t in any accident. Who are you?”
“We’re a nonprofit organization to help her get the support she needs after the accident.”
Husband: “Take my number out of the system, she was not in any accident.”
He comes upstairs and asks me if I had been in an accident, I told him no. He tells me the story above and I ask him for the phone number.
I call the number.
“Hi, Margaret. We were calling to assist you with the accident you were in on the 26th”
Me: “What car was I in, in this accident?”
“We aren’t able to see that.”
Me: “What County did the accident take place?”
“F*akeName*”
Me: “F*akeName* is not a county. Which police department submitted the accident report?”
“I see F*akeName* Police, Cincinnati. We just pull public records”
Me: “Is there a report number that goes with the record pulled?”
She gives me the number, her name and all of the phone numbers associated with the accident which is only the number I called from.
I look up the report. I find out the layout of the information to determine what’s being alleged. My name is on a list as being in Unit #2 with another individual. Their name has all of the information complete, license number, insurance, and address.
I look up the address in the county auditor site. I see the name from the report and a woman’s name.
I look up the woman’s name on LinkedIn, I find her job. I look it up on Facebook and get 2 potential pictures. I look it up on a Google and find her realtor and the church she joined shortly after she moved into the house they purchased in 2022.
I take all of my evidence up to the police department.
I give the clerk the report print out and tell her a summary. She is able to pull the body cam photo from the scene. The lady looks like she could be my cousin, but we don’t look alike.
She then tells me that the reporting officer isn’t back on duty until 10pm tomorrow. I ask if there was another officer on the scene and I’m told that there was a day shift officer that is at work today. I ask to speak to him.
We meet, he gathers all of my information and he also has a phone number collected from the woman. He calls “Hey, I’m Officer X from the accident. It seems we have a mix-up with the report. What’s your name?”
Her: “Ellen B”
Officer: “Ahh, thank you so much”.
He gets her license number and double checks the system.
Apparently when they query any name it pulls every possible placement of that name… so since my middle name is Ellen, the officer on duty just clicked along and finished his report.
The officer let me know that he knows the woman didn’t give my name at the scene because he went and visited her at the hospital and asked for the B name, not mine.
I had him give me an audio-recorded summary of the events and he also followed up with an email to the reporting officer with me in copy.
Next, I get a subpoena from the prosecutor to appear in court about a week later. I call the number for the prosecutor and give him everything I gathered at the police station.
“I want to make sure that your case isn’t ruined” I explain to him while giving him copies of the email thread.
“You’re dismissed from the case. Do you want to come see it though?” the prosecutor asks. I decline and he offers his respect for what I was able to collect.
The End.
Black Maggie 