Your Cheating Heart…Could Get Caught Next Week

“It’s just human nature,” says private investigator Ryan P. McCormack, one-half of the Newport-based two-man team at Coastal Investigation Group, in explaining why there is a greater chance of catching an unfaithful person on surveillance during the three-day period from Feb. 13-15 than at any other time of the year.

“Around Valentine’s Day, people naturally want to spend time with someone they are romantically involved with. They let their guard down a little, or maybe one person in the relationship pressures the other one, because it’s Valentine’s Day,” says McCormack, who notes that it’s a well-known phenomenon in the private investigation industry.

“I’d estimate there is a 75% chance of catching someone during those three days, whereas during the rest of the year your chances are less than 50-50,” he says.

McCormack says less than half of Coastal Investigation’s caseload is related to infidelity, and he also says there is misconception about an infidelity surveillance assignment, which people often assume means a physical act needs to be caught on tape. Infidelity surveillance assignments often come from divorce attorneys rather than individuals, and they are looking for patterns of behavior or spending that can be important in a case. “For example, if [the unfaithful spouse] is going out and spending $200 on dinner with someone once a week, but then in court they claim they have no money, then that’s when the video footage can be important.”

McCormack and his partner, Brian Cartwright, both licensed private investigators, do much of their work on Aquidneck Island. McCormack has master’s and bachelor’s degrees in administration of justice from Salve Regina University. Cartwright has a business degree from the University of Rhode Island and extensive experience with covert surveillance on the national and regional level.

McCormack notes there can also be clients’ frustration when infidelity surveillance produces no results. “What people don’t understand is that there are high times and low times for unfaithful relationships, so if you hire a private investigator for a particular 8-hour window, there’s a high chance nothing will be happening, simply because of bad timing,” says McCormack, who notes that the fee for surveillance ranges from $50 to $100 per hour.

With Valentine’s Day, however, it’s a targeted time frame: “One person may tell the other, ‘I can’t call you or see you on Valentine’s Day because it’s too obvious, but the day before or the day after might work.’”