Arantxa and Raquel (I do not put their last names by express request) are private detectives. They are 32 and 31 years old, respectively, but their mental maturity suggests a significantly older psychological age.
Five years ago they created the private investigation agency ADCHASE, based in Madrid, and things are not going badly for them, they confess. They work from Monday to Sunday, but they are happy because they have made their passion come true.
The one that led them to meet at the University, studying criminology.
When they finished the race, their paths took different directions.
They learned the trade in private detective agencies and when the fruit was ripe, they met again to face, as entrepreneurs, this project, turned into a reality in a world, that of detectives -there are 6,000 graduates-, where the agencies have men in front of him.
"Let no one think that we are Charlie's Angels," warns Arantxa laughing.
«We are, rather, the 'Charlies' themselves. We are our own bosses and we are the detectives, the ones who do the field work”, adds Raquel.
What do you contribute with respect to men in the world of private investigation?
Arantxa. We are more daring, more daring. If you have to go upstairs and ask a neighbor to let you record from one of their windows, then we do it. Men have a harder time doing this kind of thing.
Raquel. Also when lying, assuming a role. Men find it more difficult. We are better actresses. We have represented most of the roles. We have even passed for members of a sect. We still have to act as nuns, but if it has to be done, it is done (laughs).
Do people lower their guard more towards women than towards men?
Raquel. Yes, of course. And yes, besides, you are young, like us, much more so. Because they underestimate us.
Women too?
Arantxa. If you also put on a silly face, it works best.
What kind of research do you carry out in ADCHASE?
Raquel. Matters of infidelity, also ill-treatment, fraudulent dismissals, company fraud, civil liability and false theft, mainly. What they ask us, if they are within the law. We cannot investigate murders or homicides, to give two examples.
How long can the investigation of a case of infidelity take?
Arantxa. It depends. It can take a day or a week.
Raquel. We recently had a case, which we baptized as "the sexual one" (we give each case a name), of a guy who had been diagnosed with sex addiction. He was the typical perfect father, with two girls ages 3 and 4.
He dated unknown women through social media, but since he was a jerk, and didn't want to spend money on hotels, he had sex in his car every day with unknown women. Or in the official car of the organization for which he worked, that he had tinted windows and you couldn't see inside.
Arantxa. The women were not prostitutes but normal ladies. The man spent very little time each time. Eight, ten minutes. He was seen and not seen.
Raquel. In this case, in addition, he mistreated the woman, with whom he had been married for 16 years. He was over 40 years old. In this case we invest seven days. The lawyer argued, on behalf of her client, that she could hit him with a sexually transmitted disease. The official center where he worked also later discovered his use of official vehicles and fired him.
Who do you hire?
Arantxa. Lawyers, national and multinational companies, insurance companies… Clients come to us through word of mouth or the Internet. We are very professional.
Our goal is to become one of the best detective agencies in Spain. We have grown. We are already 5 people and we subcontract a good part of our work, but we control it one hundred percent.
One aspect of fraud against companies, or against insurers themselves, is false casualties, right?
Arantxa. In our experience, when it comes to employee casualties, between 70 and 80 percent are faked.
Arantxa and Raquel are completely different and, therefore, complementary; in the photo, observing the statue of Quevedo. They do not show their faces to preserve their effectiveness as investigators. Photo: Carlos Berbell/Confilegal.
What have been the most scandalous cases you have investigated?
Raquel. For example, a freelancer who claimed to have broken a knee. We find him working on a roof, equipped with a harness. Or a farmer, who claimed to have suffered a stroke and had half his body paralyzed.
In this second case, we posed as biology students who were doing a final project. After looking for the farm, which we had a hard time finding, when we found it, it was perfectly fine. We became friends with him.
Arantxa. We recorded him talking to us and then driving the tractor. We even went to collect straw in the bush. He invited us to eat. He was with his children and the workers.
He did not go to trial. The evidence we presented was so clear that he gave up.
And what happens when you have to go to trial and meet the person under investigation face to face?
Arantxa. Any. We are professionals. We explain our investigation before the judge.
Raquel. A case like that of which he speaks to us has been that of «the youtuber». A woman who worked in an office and was discharged due to headaches. We discovered that she had set up a channel on «Youtube», in which she appeared and from which she had income. She told us that she had no intention of going back.
Her main work tool is the recordings they make. Is there no problem to record inside the houses, during the investigation?
Arantxa. The law regulates it very well. As long as the person under investigation voluntarily gives us access, the interior can be recorded. That on private property.
Raquel. We could not use a drone to record the interior of a house. Just like the conversations. You cannot record them unless you are participating in them.
Is the information obtained in this way lawful? Can it be used in court?
Arantxa. Yes. In fact, it is those testimonies that the judges like the most. Because they know that's where the "chicha" is.
Raquel. An investigator told us – and we recorded her – that she was not going to work again, and that if she got into trouble she would go to court and claim depression. She was great for us at the trial, because she had already confessed what her tactic was going to be. From our perception, there is a very clear lack of ethics in our days.
Are there also union delegates among the defrauders?
Raquel. Yes of course. We have had four cases in which those investigated were members of works councils. It should be clarified that companies are very reluctant to hire private detectives to investigate what their union representatives are doing. For the protection they enjoy.
But they do. Because it is true that these delegates have some rights, but also some obligations that they have to fulfill. And if they do not comply, they are like any other worker.
What did they do to those you investigated?
Arantxa. One had set up his own private company. Another used union time to go to the hairdresser, shopping or traveling. To give two examples.
How to travel?
Raquel. The woman went with her husband, her son and the dog on a trip to the beach. She accumulated the union hours on Thursday and Friday and joined on Saturday and Sunday and went on vacation.
I suppose that when they were discovered, they resisted.
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Raquel. No, the one who had set up his private company studied the report we made, he reached an agreement with the company and left.
Arantxa. The travel company also reached an agreement. She had little time left to retire. She did not leak.
The CNI says that 95 percent of her information about her investigation is taken from social networks. Do they share it?
Arantxa. Yes of course. Cyber information is very important, vital. Before doing any field research, or follow-up. This information allows us to get an idea of who the person is and who makes up their environment. Also, what do you like, what don't you like... What do you do, what hours do you have.
Sometimes the client gives you a name and no image. How do you follow someone you don't know what he is like? That is why cyber information is important.
To be a detective you have to be a gossip, have a lot of snout and little shame.
Raquel. This job takes away your shame. I, who am naturally rather shy, have done things that I have surprised myself. It is the nature of our work.
Arantxa, you had a baby a few months ago. How do you combine motherhood with detective investigation?
Well, it matches.
Has your baby been taken to any research?
Arantxa. A baby or the fact of being pregnant are two keys that open all doors for you. Because they underestimate you in an incredible way. It is one of the best toppings. In addition, everyone helps you to enter any site.
There are surveillances that last more than seven hours; For this, they are loaded with patience. Photo: Carlos Berbell/Confilegal.
Have they ever been scared?
Raquel. Yes, in the Cañada and in the Línea de la Concepción, in a very murky area. We saw a download.
Another type of investigation that they carry out a lot is civil liability, commissioned by insurers...
Arantxa. There is a lot of that. For example, a man said that he had fallen down some stairs in his house and that as a result he had become disabled. He claimed 200,000 euros. And it was not so. Because, as he had a bad hip, he broke it and fell. That is no longer covered by insurance.
Raquel. When you sign up for insurance, you have to read the clauses very well. Because it is not the same if something happens before or after. In that case we had to make friends with him, enter the house...
They also have to investigate the false thefts of mobile phones or even homes. Cell phones are the most common, right?
Raquel. People believe their own lies so much that they don't know how to get out and continue lying. For example, in mobile phone thefts, which are nonsense – we've done a million – people believe what has happened to them so much that in the end they don't realize that what they say doesn't add up.
What is the case that most caught your attention?
Raquel. They are all very similar.
For example, this phone of mine. A Huawei. It cost, say, 1,000 euros.
Raquel. Yes, the insurance will give you 300 euros.
And for 200 or 300 euros people file false complaints?
Arantxa. People lie a lot. And that we solve it by phone, with two calls, at most. 'I was in a nightclub, they pushed me, they attacked me, they stole my bag...'.
Raquel: People give you a version. And with that version you make a reconstruction of the facts. And you write down what they tell you. About what doesn't fit you, you ask him.
'Ah, yes- And if he was in a disco, where was he? There was a witness. Did you ask the security staff for help?'
And you realize that the story they are telling you is a lie. Then you make arrangements, with the discotheque, with the telephone company….
How long does an investigation like this take?
Arantxa. It depends. We recently solved one in an hour. Or a couple of days. While they send you documentation, invoices...
In other words, insurers do not swallow everything that is put before them.
Raquel. No. In fact, the first filter is the experts, who detect the fraud, and pass the investigation on to us. The law says that an expert has the facts first, for example, the damage in a robbery or a fire, what has happened in that home, if it really is in turmoil, as the insured says.
Arantxa. All of this is verified. And it depends a lot on the amount that the insured person reports that they have been robbed, which is sometimes exorbitant.
Who lies better, men or women?
Raquel. Women lie better. They stay better with the version they have given the first time. Men can vary a lot. You ask them why this happened. They affirm it to you when before they had denied it to you.
It's the old police system. I ask you several times about the same thing in a different way and if you vary your answer, if it is not the same, then you are lying to me.
Arantxa. And we look for several versions. If there are two or three people involved, we talk to them at the same time. One calls one person and the other calls a second person. Then we compare the versions and, most of the time, they have nothing to do with each other. That's where the thread to pull comes from.
Where do the objects that have been 'self-stolen' usually end up?
Raquel. They sell it on second-hand websites, like Wallapop, for example. We meet with the sellers, we take photos, we solve the cases.
His is a vocation.
Arantxa. Yes, this is a vocational job from Monday to Sunday. I am lucky that my partner supports me a lot. If you have to work on the weekend, he stays with the baby.
But there is something that worries me a lot: the new generations. They leave the race without having a clue. They start to try. You give them the opportunity. And they get tired very quickly. They can't keep up with a 7-hour watch.
Raquel. They are very lazy. They are not interested. They don't go further. They do not contribute They believe that after the degree they will enter a company, earning 2,000 euros a month. And life doesn't work like that.
That is not reality. A girl told me I didn't want to get up early to work. That's where the story ends with us.
What does ADCHASE mean?
Arantxa. They are the first letters of our respective surnames. The word "chase" means to pursue, in English.
Didn't they want to be something else?
Raquel. I did the opposition to the National Police, but as soon as they hired me, I left it. This is my passion.
Arantxa. I didn't want to do anything else in life. I worked as a shop assistant and when I finished my degree, I dedicated myself to what I wanted to be. Which is what I am. I couldn't wish for a better profession. For me, there isn't.
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