If you’re wondering if scheduling surveillance during the spring and summer months is worth the effort this time of year, the answer is ABSOLUTELY YES…more than ever! The spring and summer months bring endless activity and the ability of claimants to perform physical acts that their doctors, and certainly their attorneys, never thought would be possible according to their claims. We refer back to an article by Jonathan Tilove reported in Claims Journal a few years back about a New Orleans private investigator, Mark Avery, who coined the term “Mardi Gras Syndrome.” According to Avery, “Mardi Gras Syndrome” is characterized by “an excessive urge to drink heavily, a desire to attend numerous outdoor events such as parades, carrying people on their shoulders, running, jumping, twisting and lunging for beads, standing for extended periods of time, etc.” In the tri-state area, “Mardi Gras Syndrome” builds up during the spring when the weather breaks. There is spring cleaning to be done, landscaping to tend to, and much preparation for the upcoming summer. “Mardi Gras Syndrome” reaches its peak in the during the hot, summer months. The string of holidays packed into this four month span, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day weekends, among countless, random weekends that people decide to vacation, are prime stomping grounds for our surveillance investigators to catch fraudulent claims. Utilizing our Internet Profile Reports to monitor social media accounts also provides us with countless leads. Parades, celebrations, and the amount of drinking festivities that surround these holidays and scorching, summer weekends will without a doubt produce the results you desire. Some examples of these imperative slip-ups include:
Preparations for vacations, camping trips, etc.
Putting children on shoulders
Heavy packing
Carrying heavy coolers
Walking/biking/jogging miles of boardwalk
Towing excessive beach equipment (umbrellas, toys, chairs, overstuffed beach bags) down crowded beaches
Lifting, carrying, and loading hefty luggage in/out of a vehicle and to/from home
Excessive preparations for barbecues (grilling, cooking, loading ice/alcoholic beverages/coolers/etc.)
Drinking to excess, causing slips, falls and “injuries,” doing drugs (which may help in proving the character of the individual).
The spring and summer months also bring activity that has nothing to do with celebrating, but with spring and summer preparation or renovations to claimants’ homes. Examples:
Spring cleaning
Landscaping to include weeding, mowing, planting, gardening, etc.
Lawn/shrub/tree trimming and care
Opening and maintaining pools and spas
Fixing fences
Painting
Power washing
Maintaining recreational vehicles such as boats, wave runners, jet skis, ATVs
Furthermore, we know that claimants are not the only people taking time to go on vacation. So are you! Schedule surveillance before your vacation, relax, and we’ll have your results by the time you get back! There is no better time to witness and document insurance fraud at its worst. Let’s also not forget that there will be plenty of cover for investigators. With the amount of tourists and people trying to document the activities going on around them, taking video/pictures is a common occurrence, and in turn will not raise suspicion.