INVESTIGATING THE INVESTIGATOR: Producer Eddie Schmidt goes one-on-one with "This Film Is Not Yet Rated"'s PI, Becky Altringer.

How did you become interested in PI work?
Ever since I was a child I just was always snooping on people and always pretending that I was a spy. Then, as I got older - being a rape survivor - I decided I wanted to do something positive with what happened to me, so I decided to become a private investigator and help people who didn't know where to turn.

What's the range of typical cases?
Well the biggest percentage of them would be workers' compensation fraud cases, people who are fraudulently obtaining funds, who are supposed to be injured and they're not, but I've done several domestic cases, had a kidnapping case, a lot of infidelity, a lot of identity theft. It ranges from everything, I never know what kind of case I'm going to get.

What's a typical day like for you?
I would say a typical day when business is going and everything, I would say 80% of it is surveillance working in the van, going out there and finding the evidence that I need, and then the other 20% of it would be a lot of internet searching, data searching and working in the office.

What would you consider your specialty?
I never thought about that. I guess my strong point would be my overall curiosity.

Really? What do you mean?
Well, because I'm so nosy and curious about everything around me, so it makes it easier to find what I want. I'm one that goes for it. I just don't sit there and wait for it to come to me, I go looking for it - the answers, everything I need to solve my case.

I would say another asset you have is that you're gutsy. You respond very well in pressure situations. When are there times when you have felt fear?
I don't feel fear. Wait, that's a lie. One time. One time I was working a case and the other investigation company didn't inform me that this guy was a drug dealer and he has this huge criminal record, and he was on workers' comp. And I went out to do the case. I had only been sitting on the location for maybe 20 minutes. All of a sudden this huge guy - and I'm not kidding, he was huge, he was probably like 6'2", 300 pounds - he came up to my car with a crowbar. He was standing in front, and he just kept taking the crowbar and hitting his hand with it, basically just letting me know that I better get the hell out of there. That was the only time I mean doing PI work where I was scared, I mean I literally dropped to the ground in the van and started praying saying God, if you let me get out of here, I promise I'll never come back, and I didn't.

What's a typical day out in the field, on surveillance?
Let's say I'm going to go out and I'm trying to prove whether or not someone is 100% disabled. And because based on workers' compensation they're paid a percentage of the disability. So the insurance company wants to know that they're really not 100% disabled, maybe they're only 60% disabled, which means they pay less money. I'll just go out there before 6 o'clock in the morning, so that I'm already set up. So I watch everyone coming out of the house, I look for the individual who I'm supposed to find. 99% of the time they come out and they go to work or they conduct all the activities that they're not supposed to be able to do. So I obtain all the video of it, proving, you know, that they're not as disabled as they say they are. Generally will go back a few days after that so the individual can't say - "Oh that was just a good day, I was feeling good that day, but right after that I was really bad off." They'll keep us there a couple days to show consistency.

As far like an infidelity case, I usually...people usually start their affairs from work, this is just by experience, so I usually will go to their work and wait for them to get off work, I'll follow them, and they go straight to the person they're having the affair with. They go to the hotel or the house or to wherever that they're going. And I just get the evidence that's needed and give it to my client, and it's up to them what they want to do with that. You can't use it for divorce in the state of California, but you can you use it - 'cause most people will deny that they're having an affair, you can say, deny it all you want, I have the proof right here. That's always the hardest one, because I have to be the one to hand over something that's going to really upset them. That's the one part of my job that's hard.

Do you have any tips? Like, how do you follow somebody in traffic? How do you blend in?
I can only give tips based on what I do. I know that all investigators do this differently, but one of the things that I've learned is to always stay to the right side of the individual and as close to them as I can. Then they can't see you out of the rear mirror or the passenger mirror and so they don't really pay attention to you. The other thing is I don't sit directly behind them or get too close. I usually like to let a few cars in between. And then while I'm still in the pursuit I'll switch lanes. If they go up to a stop sign and I think maybe I've been behind them too much, I'll generally pull over to the curb, or to somewhere. I'll even pull into a driveway, just to get out of their view, long enough for them to not go "Oh, I just saw that car." So I try to do everything I can to not let them see me that much. But there are some cases where you really have to stay on top of them because well they drive like fools. I mean, every case is going to be different. But I've learned. I've been doing this for ten years now and I've "been made" a couple times, and that's pretty good odds for ten years.

Explain that term "getting made."
"Getting made" it's a private investigation term for saying that the person saw us. They know we're behind them and basically we're just busted and our case is over. Sometimes you'll get them where they're suspicious, and the best thing to do is just pull off and maybe wait a week or two to let them cool back down and think "Oh well, maybe they're weren't following me after all." Every case is going to be different because everybody drives differently. There was one person driving so slow on the freeway that I literally had to pull over to the emergency lane and wait for him. And then he'd start going again and I just couldn't stand driving that slow. I was like, "Oh my God!" You know, everybody's different.

You don't use disguises; however you do make an effort to dress sometimes in non-threatening way, right?
Yes, I always where my Disney clothes, usually, except when we were making the film because I look innocent. People don't look at me and see me as a threat. Here is - you've got this woman, 42-year-old woman - walking around with Disney clothes on, Disney watch, and it's not threatening to them. They don't ever look at me in the way of thinking that I'm a private investigator. I think people feel safe, and you need to let them feel safe in order to get information from them.

Surveillance can be long and grueling. What are the do's and don't's?
Don't take your computers and play on them. Because it will take one second for you to lose sight of someone. You have to continually focus on the house or the individual because it takes one split second for them to leave. It's happened to me. I've bent down to pick up something and looked up and their car was gone. I was like, "Oh my god, how did that happen?" And the other thing I would say is: don't keep driving in and out of the location. Once you get there, just stay there, because people will notice once you start leaving and coming back.

What are some of the funny, crazy things you've seen while out on a case?
I've seen everything from homeless people walking up to me while I'm on a phone booth and urinating on the wall to seeing homeless people having sex. I've seen a lot of people having sex in this job. A lot of affairs, they have sex in their cars, they meet, they go to hotels, they have sex out on the park. Unfortunately I've seen a lot of sex. And I've seen a lot of perverts.

Anything else?
I had a little girl, when I was working this case one day, and she was eating a bologna sandwich. And I don't know why she did this but she walked over to my van and just started licking my window. And there were these mayonnaise streaks just up my window. I was so mad I was like, "Stop doing that!" And of course there was nothing I could do, I just had to let her do it. I've had people standing next to my car and talking about their sex life and doing drugs and I've even had people claim to own my car. These teenage boys that were like, "Oh yeah that's my car!" And I'm like, "What?!" It never fails because my windows are tinted. People always walk by and they stop to fix their hair or their clothes. And I watch them and it's a riot. Because you'd be surprised what people do, because they don't know I'm in the car! So it's really funny to see - especially all the kids walking to school, and they'll stop to make sure their hair's okay and their clothes are okay. A lot of guys stop and look in. Girls, and then - it's quite interesting, it's definitely not boring. I mean there are some cases that are boring if you're out in Tulleyville. I didn't make it up, is that a white trash part - out in the boonies.

What are some of the extraordinary things that you've had to do in the line of duty?
Well, I've helped the police a couple times. See, I always get involved in stuff that's really none of my business. I can't just sit there and let a crime occur and not do anything about it. I've helped the police quite a few times. Just the other day I had two guys arrested. I was following them and watching them as they were stealing stuff. But now I have to go testify, so it's like "Okay, Becky, you get yourself involved. Now you have to go testify and you don't get paid for doing this." But you know - there's two more guys off the street. I've helped women who were being abused by husbands. There was one woman - I don't know if it was her husband or boyfriend - who was standing there with a firearm in his hand. I didn't know what was going on. All's I knew was this woman was bleeding and she was crying and she needed help. And I just stopped and said "Get in the car!" and we took off. It was a lady - it was out in Hawthorne and she was just standing on the side of the road with him and he was just beating her up. I was like, "No way, I'm not going to let this happen." Then when she gets in she says "Well, he has a gun," and I'm like, "Well, let's get out of here."

And then what happened?
I don't know. I dropped her off at a shelter and I never heard from her again. I mean I've been...I've put people in hotels at night, 'cause when it's raining, and I'm not saying all this because I want to brag about myself. It's because I'm out there and I see it all. It's like...how can I go into my hotel when it's pouring outside and I see this one woman, just sitting there with bruises all over her, and you know she's just been beat. But yet I don't want to put them in the room with me. So I'll generally, I'll get a hotel, and I'll put them in it. It's like Cheryl (Becky's partner) says, I'll never be a rich PI because I'm always too busy helping everybody else.

Has all of this work changed the way you feel about the human race?
Yeah, I see a lot of really bad things. But I've seen some good things too. I've seen people helping animals or other people. Yeah...it definitely gives me a bad taste. I think that's why I do my work so much though, because it's like- if I can just help one person or I can just stop one crime, or I can just help...you know. To me, I feel like I'm doing something to change things. That's important to me.

What are some of the ways in which people's perceptions of movie or TV PIs differ from the real thing?
They think it's a glamorous, they think we really do drive around convertibles and we break into places or we do illegal activities. Everybody that I talk to says "Oh my God, you're a PI! I always wanted to be a PI, you get into all these glamorous situations." So I go, "Excuse me, we have to sit in our cars when it's 100 degrees outside and sweat." So you can't just say, "Oh, I'm thirsty, I'm going to go get something to drink." Or "I've got to go to the bathroom." It's not as glamorous as people think it is, and many times, we go into really bad areas. But we don't do all those illegal activities that Hollywood portrays us as doing.

What advice would you give to the aspiring P.I.?
First of all, they should be someone who's very aware of everything around them. And as much as they think they'd like it, they'd need to find out about the bad parts about it as well. They need to be willing to - should be ready to - see a lot of bad things. I have a young lady right now and she's a friend of Lindsey's and she's going into the LAPD. Actually I'm trying to keep her from doing it, because she's such a sweet innocent young lady I know what she's going to see when she gets into the LAPD, and I keep saying it's going to change you as a person. The innocence that you have and everything you have and everything you think is so great in this world is going to be gone. For me though, Eddie, it's like - I've seen a lot of stuff as I was growing up, and a lot of bad things happened so I was prepared for it.