As the saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.

In many cases, trash pickup day every week provides a perfect opportunity to gather valuable information. Although some people use shredders, the majority of people out there do not.  In some cases, our local private investigator in Los Angeles or elsewhere in California will covertly pull a subject’s trash and/or recycle from their cans.

The recovered trash may yield a lot of valuable items, including:

  • Bills and payment stubs
  • Credit card receipts
  • Personal notes
  • Pertinent mail

Digging through trash may not sound like something you’d like to spend your Saturday afternoon doing, but it certainly can be a valuable tool in the course of an investigation.  Thankfully we will take care of the pulling and sorting for you!

Gathering evidence effectively means using any methods as long as they are legal and ethical.  Several court rulings have set a precedent that once trash is set out, it is no longer private property and may be salvaged by anyone.  Police officers also use trash pulls as part of their investigations, often to gather enough evidence to be able to get a search warrant for the inside of the premises.

So you should be aware that if you work with us, we may use a trash pull during the investigation if your case calls for it.  Of course we’ll always discuss our entire strategy with you in full.

And a word to the wise out there…if you think someone may have reason or desire to gather evidence about you, be careful what you put in your trash!