Goldwich, P.I. A Miami Private Eye-  December 1988

Lee Goldwich, private eye, discounts the Magnum and Bond investigators stereotypes. But Goldwich, 27, a Miami-born and raised PI, may indeed be following you, snapping pictures surreptitiously or poring over court records. Still: “Clients don’t walk into your office with a bag of money and say ‘Find my daughter and my wife.’ You don’t get in shoot-outs everyday, and you don’t have car chases everyday. You don’t get thrown into jail or get beat up.”

At least that hasn’t been the case since Goldwich, a ’79 Killian High graduate, opened Colt Investigations and Adjustment in 1984. He also claims he is no “agitator,” and doesn’t use illegal tactics such as wire-tapping.

Once determined to be a police officer, Goldwich opted for private practice instead soon after his honorable discharged from the United States Air Force, during which time he attended the Air Force Law Enforcement Academy. He graduated in the top of his class from the Wichita Falls, Texas Police Academy. His professional decision hinged on a distaste for “police department politics” and government bureaucracy.

The information Goldwich collects is strictly confidential, with access limited to clients – mostly law firms and insurance companies – unless the information is subpoenaed for court. But he was willing to speak in general terms about some of the 300 to 400 cases he handles each year. And yes, he concedes, his work is more than picking through police reports. His job includes surveillance.

He soon discovered that it is easier being a private eye in a metropolitan area such as Greater Miami, than in the small town outside of Tampa, for example, where he staked out a subject’s home. The case involved a woman who claimed injuries after a fire door on a cruise ship slammed and hit her. The problem, Goldwich says, is the woman lived in an area where any outsider would be spotted quickly. Burrowing in a field across from the woman’s home, Goldwich crept from bush to bush until he was able to get close enough to shoot video of the woman digging holes and pushing a wheelbarrow while gardening.

“I’m not an agitator,” he insists. “All I’m doing is monitoring their activities. If they don’t do anything that they’re not supposed to be able to do, then I won’t have anything to talk about.” Then there are cases when I’ve watched people and not found them doing anything that they claimed they couldn’t do. Some people really are injured. “And that’s what insurance is for.”

Goldwich chose a career unprecedented in his family, although his mother, Barbara, is an assistant U.S. Attorney, now based in Tallahassee. His father, Ken, is president of a Miami Finance Company. Each day is different, a challenge that the PI enjoys. His cases vary from personal injury work, divorce, insurance, fraud, the shipping industry, collection on behalf of insurance companies, and products’ liability. Then there are the sexier aspects of his work.

Recently Goldwich followed a woman whose husband – suspicious of infidelity – had retained him. On stake-out, Goldwich spotted a woman watching the same couple from another car: The wife of the other man was also suspicious!

Despite the routine secrecy, there are some cases that are made public. One such example is the recent group of Metro commission candidates, two of whom were being investigated after claims were made by a third that the first two did not live in their respective districts. Armed only with a camera, Goldwich captured on film one candidate leaving a house in the morning – a home the candidate claimed he didn’t live in.