Excellent story on a yong private investigator presented by The Post standard
Monday, January 16, 2006
By Emily Kulkus
Staff writer

Liz Calver makes a living as a camera-toting, cultural chameleon.

The 24-year-old private investigator has used many disguises on the job, posing as a construction worker and even a wildlife surveyor looking for exotic birds.

Last month, Calver became co-owner of Northeast Investigations, the Manlius private investigation firm her father Robert Calver started in 1992. Robert, Elizabeth and her sister Laura Calver, 30, now own equal shares in the business.

While “extensive, under-cover surveillance experience” isn’t what you’d expect to find on a visual arts student’s resume, the 2004 St. Bonaventure University graduate wouldn’t have it any other way. Elizabeth Calver’s been helping her father at Northeast since the seventh grade and has worked there full-time for 1 1/2 years.

The company specializes in worker’s compensation and domestic cases, which means they spend most of their time watching and documenting people out of work on disability or who might be cheating on their spouses. They also handle missing persons, arson investigations and accident reconstruction.

But it’s those who cheat be it worker’s compensation or marriage that keep Northeast in business. The firm has an office in Manlius and employs three full-time local investigators and a handful throughout the state. The majority of Northeast’s investigators are women, which Calver said, is a great business tool.

Calver and Christine Ricci, another Northeast investigator, answer a few questions about their not-so-average occupation.

How does being a woman help what you do?

“This is no male with a bad polyester suit in a smoke-filled office,” Ricci said. “We’re females, so we’re sympathetic to their cause and it helps us a lot.

“Women blend. Most of the time they’re much more comfortable talking to a woman.”

What do you use for surveillance?

“It’s all video,” Calver said. “We video in public places or use hidden body cameras. We have cameras that fit into purses, pagers and ball caps.”

How much surveillance do you capture per case?

“For a domestic it’s usually about four to eight hours,” Calver said. “Usually (clients) don’t take it home. They watch it here with us or alone.”

What’s the most difficult part?

“It’s hard not to get that attached to the clients,” Ricci said. “They’re coming to us at a low point in their life and 99.9 percent of the time their hunch is correct. You become the investigator/therapist.”

Do you take the job home with you?

“I’m extra paranoid now,” Calver said. “My boyfriend will come home late and I’m like, ‘what are you doing? Where have you been?’ “

What’s your most valuable tool?

“Our feet,” Ricci said. “Sometimes the technology will only take you so far. Sometimes you have to go out and physically look for the truth.

“A lot of it is common sense. It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle and our job is to put it back together.”

How long do your cases last?

“A week to 10 days,” Calver said. “Our turnover is quick. Some cases drag out for a month.”

You must see some interesting things on camera.

“There are some things you don’t want to see,” Ricci said. “People being people.”

“They do interesting things when they think no one’s watching,” Calver said.

Do you ever get caught?

“Never,” Ricci said. “We could be anyone. We’re ghosts.”

But don’t you get called to court?

“Sometimes in a worker’s compensation case they’re sitting across the table from you and they’re trying to figure out when they talked to you,” Ricci said.

Do things ever not go quite as planned?

“It’s not fun when you are following someone and you lose them and then you look in your rearview mirror and they’re behind you,” Ricci said of one particular case.

Do you ever catch people committing other crimes?

“We’ve never seen anything illegal,” Calver said. “But usually people who are committing insurance fraud are up to much more. Like dodging creditors.

“Many people may suspect they’re being watched, but they don’t know why.”

What do you charge?

“It’s $50 to $65 an hour,” Ricci said. “But it depends on the type of case, what they need and for how long.”

What’s your case load?

“Usually about 20 at a time,” Calver said. “We had at least 1,000 cases this year.”

How do people react to your services?

“They’re thankful,” Calver said. “There’s a sense of comfort with us, especially when it’s a woman.”

What do you like most about what you do?

“I like to think that we’re making a difference, that we’re helping people,” Ricci said.

How do people perceive what you do?

“A lot of this job is patience,” Ricci said. “The hours can be long and it’s frustrating. A lot of people think it’s glamorous. But it’s long, cold days in the winter and long, hot days in the summer.”

Liz, are clients surprised by your age?

“They don’t really say anything but you can just see it on their faces,” Calver said. “When they see a young woman in a job that requires a lot of trust and confidentiality, it freaks some people out.”

Good to know

Private investigators in New York are licensed by the Department of State. To obtain a license, individuals must have three years experience working as an investigator for a police agency or for a private firm.

Robert Calver worked in the special investigations unit for the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, with the Onondaga County Department of Corrections and for a private investigations firm, before obtaining his license in 1992, under which Northeast operates.

Northeast Investigations is one of 54 licensed private investigators or agencies in Onondaga County. There are an additional 25 licensed private investigators in Cayuga, Madison, Oswego and Cortland counties combined.