It's not paranoia if someone *is* out to get you

After a noticeable absence, I get hit by not one but two members of the Tinfoil Helmet Brigade at once. Perhaps, not by coincidence either, the recent full moon had a part to play?

First there was Mrs Dumont* who is the victim of a conspiracy that incorporates her brother and a number of individuals in positions of authority.

And then there is Mrs Milfoy* who is being targeted by Mossad or the FSB or someone with the resources to follow her around the country over the past 8 years.

Riiiiight.

Mrs Dumont  first contacted me some 6 months or more ago with a query regarding investigating a lawyer and accountant who are the trustees of a family trust of which she (along with her brother) is a beneficiary. She believed there was some connivance by the trustees where monies rightfully belonging to her were being diverted to her brother - a 'well known' figure in her home city.

I requested that she send me an email with further details as well as specific allegations and her reply took 6 months to get to me.

Not downplaying the very real possibility that Mrs Dumont is being cheated out of money or assets rightfully hers - her emails paint a picture of a high-functioning schizophrenic. Rambling, emotive, short of any real facts or specific details (even after being asked repeatedly for them), Mrs Dumont's emails are difficult to decipher. From what little I have been able to deduce, however, I do feel that there may be something in this.

Unlike in Mrs Milfoy's case.

Mrs Milfoy believes that Persons Unknown have, for an unfathomable reason, been subtly harassing her for the past 8-10 years, even having moved around various parts of the country several times. There have been no direct confrontations - all she has to go on are things like hearing someone's voice outside her house that sounded very much like a voice she heard 4 years ago, a similar cough or other noises.

She doesn't know why someone would be doing this to her except for the possibility that she hadn't done something she ought to have. What that something was, she didn't elaborate.

She brought with her a box that she set down 10 feet from our table. She explained that it was her clock/radio that she thought might be bugged or have a camera installed.

I explained that it was highly unlikely that anyone would go to the lengths she had described, for the past 8 or so years, without escalating the harassment into something more direct. Not to mention having followed her around the country and mounting a technical surveillance operation against her - a mild-mannered middle-aged woman.

She didn't work for MI5 or the CIA, I asked?

No, she laughed.

Of course, if she *did* work for either (or similar) she *would* say that - but she wouldn't need to hire a PI like me either.

To placate her, I took the box and said I'd open it up and have a look inside. I haven't done so yet but what do you think I'll find?

Poll open on top right.


* Obviously not their real names