Lady Gumshoes Track Down Cheating Lovers

May 12, 2006 — -- Denise Rhodes weaves through Atlanta's nighttime streets in her shiny black car with tinted windows, tailing a middle-age chiropractor whose wife is certain he is cheating on her.

Rhodes, a divorced mom raising a daughter, is a private detective who works 18 hours a day for about $65 an hour. Tonight's job: catch the suspected cheater with his girlfriend -- on tape.

"The money shot would be to get them physically kissing or physically touching somehow," Rhodes said. "Holding hands, brushing her hair back, or a little slap on the butt."

Rhodes is one of the hired hands of Busted, an all-female private eye agency based in Atlanta. Busted caters to both men and women, and the detectives make their living on the cheating side of town.

Sometimes the women of Busted go undercover, changing their hair, makeup, clothing and glasses to trap a cheater. The old trenchcoat and fedora cover are yesterday's news for these women.

Carol Martin was an actress and successful businesswoman, but she says she's always had the private-eye bug.

"I kinda started doing it while I was a kid watching my neighbor cheat on his wife," she said.

Martin says that she'll use her feminine wiles to get information on a cheating man. "I've been doing it my whole life," she said with a laugh. "Why would I stop now?"

Revenge a Motivator

So, why do these women do it?

For one thing, there's a lot at stake in divorce settlements, and people are willing to pay for any evidence that will help them.

Though most states have no-fault divorce laws, video proof of adultery can have a major impact on alimony and child custody settlements.

So, as one woman private eye, Stacy Fandos, put it, "If there is a lot of money involved. … They will spend their last dime on us, to find out the information, rather than give her anything in a court settlement. … So the sky is the limit."

Then there is the potential excitement and glamour factor of the job. Fandos, a mother of three, says her suburban routine was feeling a little desperate before she joined Busted.

"My biggest worry in life was who my tennis partner was for that weekend. I was a little bored," she said.

Now Fandos' daughter says to her, "My friend Emily thinks you're a secret spy."

For Fandos, that's a far cry from being a boring soccer mom.

Lia Kaplan is a school psychologist who's found moonlighting as a detective can pay dividends in dating. She uses her investigative skills to find out about potential suitors.

"I'll research somebody in a second," Kaplan said. "There's no need not to. As long as they check out, and everything they say is the truth, then they might be a second date."

Is there some element of revenge in these women's career choice?

All of these private eyes say they have had a brush with infidelity in their pasts.

"It's not the revenge," said Busted detective Jeanene Weiner. "I think it's more that, um, we feel bad for the person who is being cheated on and we want to help."

Thrill of the Chase

Back at Rhodes' stakeout, she has spent hours waiting for and trailing the chiropractor who is suspected of cheating.

When her subject finally turns into a parking lot, Rhodes pulls out her camera, hoping for that "money shot."

But this particular cloak-and-dagger story ends sweetly, not sinfully. Rhodes' target is meeting with a teenage boy -- his son -- for dinner.

Even so, for Rhodes, those nerve-wracking chases are the heart of the job and the thrill of her day.

Lia Kaplan said the job was just plain fun. "It's fun to catch somebody and to just expose the truth," she said.

It doesn't seem like business will dry up anytime soon. According to an ABC News poll, 16 percent of couples have cheated on a partner -- and nearly twice as many of the cheaters are men as women.

The private eyes at Busted say their clientele is increasingly men who are checking up on their wives, though.

The question is, doesn't the job make them jaded about human nature? Perhaps, or maybe they're just realistic.

"No one is ever, ever what they appear to be. Ever," Rhodes said.

Despite their steady diet of deceit and duplicity, the women of Busted admit to being addicted to their profession.

"It's like your heart just starts pounding and it's yes, yes, it's like you've won a game," Martin said.