Ninety-seven skip traces were easy. The ninety-eighth seemed impossible. Then a piano tuner unknowingly helped solve a case that had been stalled for months.
Finding people is often part detective work, part persistence, and part luck.
When an attorney handed Alan ninety-nine skip traces, most were resolved without much difficulty. But one subject refused to be found. Months of searching, dead ends, and incomplete leads produced nothing useful.
Then an unusual clue appeared.
While digging through information connected to the case, Alan discovered a piano tuning business. On a hunch, he picked up the phone and created a simple story about inheriting a piano and needing service.
The piano tuner was friendly, helpful, and happy to provide an address.
The only problem for him was that the address belonged to the very person Alan had been trying to locate.
Unlike the movies, the breakthrough wasn't enough on its own. The information still had to be verified through records and independent sources before it could be trusted.
In the end, the lead checked out.
One more subject located.
One fewer mystery left unsolved.
The Constable Files – Episode 19: The Piano Tuner is a true story about creative skip tracing, unexpected sources of information, and the importance of verifying every lead before acting on it.
Because a good investigator knows that finding information is only half the job.
The other half is proving it's right.
