For most of us Facebook is a way to keep in touch and have fun.

What’s not to like about Facebook’s “SuperPoke” or “Texas Hold’em,” where it’s all in all the time? I like to keep up with the nieces and nephews, boyhood chums and friends as much as the next bloke. I have yet to discover Twitter but enjoy Yelp, Linked In, some blogs, etc. (I still have a Myspace page to keep in touch with some high school rugby players I coach.)

As an investigator Facebook has saved my bacon at least twice. If you are Luddite P.I. who hates newfangled social networking and computers, you need to adapt. Become Cyber Dick! The “internets” is just another tool, like your buddy in the detective bureau before you were asked to leave the force.

The first great Facebook locate occurred when an attorney in Hawaii asked me to locate a young woman, a paid girlfriend some might say, who was friends with a certain wealthy octogenerian. All the traditional locate searches and databases had failed. Facebook to the rescue. She had an unusual name and was on Facebook. She responded to my email and got in touch with the attorney.

The second FB breakthrough happened when I had to locate a woman with a very common name who had worked for a cement company. There were 30 Mary Jones in the geographic area, but this one had listed in her Facebook profile that she worked for Acme Cement Company. Like the other case, I dropped her a message and she responded.

People might not change their addresses on their Driver’s License. Or maybe they are couch-surfing, but the younger generation likes its online presence. And, as a paid private dick, you better adjust to these realities.

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