Divorced Mom Investigates Mates

April 26, 2006 — -- Sandra Hope is a twice-divorced mom who makes a living in an unusual and some say unethical way.

She is a private investigator who uses hidden microphones, cameras and disguises to help answer questions about fidelity.

Hope's personal story and her company, Mate Check, are profiled in this month's Marie Claire magazine. She has spied on suspected cheaters for more than a decade and recently allowed "Good Morning America" to observe her at work in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In what appears to be an ordinary first date, Hope is actually hard at work, spying on unsuspecting hairstylist Bruce Alan.

Caught on Tape

"I can't believe you called me. I thought that was really sweet," he says to Hope, unaware of why she really has invited him to lunch.

"By the way, I absolutely adore you," he says.

"You do?" she says.

"Yeah, I think you're beautiful," he says. "I think you're a very beautiful woman."

Alan has no idea that his 22-year-old girlfriend has hired Hope to test his faithfulness.

"You shouldn't be single, at all," he says.

"Well, I am," she responds.

"Well, we'll have to fix that." Alan says. "I'll take care of that."

With a tiny microphone hidden on her blouse and a tape recorder in her skirt to secretly record their lunch conversation, Hope continues the date while a "GMA" crew, inside a sport utility vehicle parked 100 feet away, videotapes them.

"I wonder if we could fly off to Vegas. Hang out in Vegas for about three hours and be back here by 10, 11 o'clock?" Alan says. "That'd be kind of fun."

"Yeah, that would be fun," Hope replies.

Helping or Hurting?

Some critics of Hope's approach say it is entrapment or at least unethical. It depends on which private eye you ask, or hire. Hope insists she is not entrapping anyone. She says she is helping someone in a potentially troubled relationship.

"I'm helping them get out so they can find someone that they will be happy with for long term," she said.

Hope says a warning sign of potential cheating is when a loved one owns several personal cell phones -- that aren't related to work. She also said to notice changes in your mate's sexual behavior and appearance.

Hope's daughter, Kashmir Smith, thought nothing of her live-in boyfriend with two cell phones -- and really did not want her mother investigating him. Hope found out that her daughter's boyfriend owned different phones for different girls' numbers. The boyfriend says he has since dropped one girlfriend, and still lives with Hope's somewhat skeptical daughter, who now asks him a lot more questions.

Hope provided "GMA" with a tape of what she said was a married man meeting his girlfriend in a parking lot. She then followed them to the girlfriend's home.

There, Hope said they were confronted by his wife who had learned from Hope where the other woman lived.

Hope's arsenal of gadgets includes satellite devices to track suspected cheaters in their cars.

"Yeah, the [global positioning system] tracker -- you can put that in their vehicle and that will give you the duration of time where they stayed, the travel time, and then the address of where they are," she said.

Not all of her clients are disgruntled women. Hope said the gender breakdown was about 50/50. She said that she had been hired by everyone from teenagers to professional athletes, and that no one had ever suspected her.

Exposing the Truth

She said her investigations pointed clients' suspicions in the right direction. Some clients have good hunches, but wrong details -- like the wife, with kids, who thought her husband was having an affair with another woman. When Hope approached him, she learned what was really going on.

"And, he said, 'I am married. … But even if I was married, I'd still take you out, but I'm gay,'" Hope said. "His wife had no idea why the sex had stopped. She thought it was another woman."

Hope first invited Alan to dinner but when he said he was too busy, they agreed to lunch.

Hope got all she needed from her conversation with Alan, the hairstylist, on tape, made an excuse to get something from her car, and never returned. Alan was abandoned and confused, but then he began chatting with another customer, touched her hair, and persuaded this stranger to leave with him -- something Hope had never seen happen before.

Alan's girlfriend, who asked not to be named, had paid Hope $1,700 to meet her boyfriend first at the gym, then at a restaurant. She was stunned by their lunch conversation, and his leaving with an apparent stranger.

"I don't know what to think," she said. "I don't know what's going on -- just very confused."

Alan later told "GMA" that he and the woman had gone to another restaurant.

He won't comment on whether he considers any of this cheating, but he complained that he felt violated by the detective's tactics.

Alan said that he and his girlfriend were going to work on their nine-month relationship.

"I think everybody -- when they get attached to someone -- has some sort of feeling and some sort of closeness, and know when things are changing," Hope said.

Over the years, Hope has been hired by thousands of suspicious clients. Ironically, she said most of her clients stayed with their mates even after he or she had been caught cheating.

"They stay together if they have children," she said. "They stay together if it's a financial situation -- good or bad -- but you can never, ever say that no one's ever going to cheat again."

ABC News's JuJu Chang originally reported this story for "Good Morning America."