A private investigator has revealed that men who cheat almost always do the same thing that gives them away immediately.
If you've ever had a gut feeling that your partner might be stepping out on you but didn’t have the funds to hire a private investigator, one seasoned PI named Ray Ranno says there’s a surprisingly consistent sign to watch for - and it has nothing to do with snooping through phones.
The Connecticut-based private investigator has been tailing suspected cheaters for decades.
According to his website, he has worked with "hundreds of attorneys, insurance companies, self-insured companies, universities, police departments, and the private sector," and has caught "thousands of spouses cheating" in his three decades of experience.
"My job is to uncover the evidence of your spouse cheating so you can make a sound decision about your future," he penned. "We perform discreet surveillance on your spouse and determine if they are lying to you about their whereabouts or if they’re involved with other persons."
In an interview with Ian Bick on the Locked In podcast, Ranno shared one surprisingly common red flag he sees among male cheaters.
“If a guy's going to pick up his sweetie on the side, he wants a clean car,” he said. “As soon as somebody goes to the car wash I think ‘Ha ha, what's next?’ It’s amazing how they do that.”
Watch the interview below:The PI shared that this car-washing ritual is a near-universal behavior among male clients under surveillance.
“Women not so much,” he added. “Women don't do it so much because they usually jump in the guy's car, men always want to drive. It's very rare that I see a guy jump into a female's car.”
He disclosed that he's even seen cheaters picking up people "on the same street" as their own homes.
While Ranno admitted that stakeouts can be “pretty boring,” he said things quickly get interesting when familiar patterns begin to emerge. Once the target meets up with the suspected “sweetie,” that’s when he gets to work.
But forget the classic image of a trench coat-wearing PI with a massive camera lens hiding in a car. Ranno’s toolkit is far more discreet and high-tech - involving a coffee cup with a hidden HD camera.
“If I go into a coffee place or a supermarket wherever I need to be, I just take the lid off, turn it on, put the cap on, and it looks like I'm walking around with a coffee,” he explained. “Meantime, I'm videotaping everything.”
Once all the evidence is collected, including video and photos, it’s turned over to the person who hired him - usually the one who suspected the cheating in the first place.
So, if your partner suddenly starts hitting the car wash before unexplained outings, it might not just be about keeping things tidy...