Monday, February 13, 2006

Cheating On Valentine's Day? - Better Be Careful

There was quite an interesting article in of all places the Wall Street Journal last week regarding the undeniable spike in cheating that happens on Valentine's Day. According to the article, V-Day is the one day out of the year when it is pretty much expected that anyone involved in a relationship will do something romantic for a spouse or lover. Here's where the cheating part comes in: Let's say your husband or boyfriend has another lover on the side. On V- Day, the great likelihood is that he will try and find some way to either spend time with this other person or, at the very least, buy her a gift (choclates, flowers, etc.), expressive of his love.

A number of private detective agencies cited in the article say that on a typical V-Day they will handle as many as five "infidelity investigations." Irene Smith of Discreet Investigations in Goldon, Colo., claims that business at her agency sometimes doubles--to nearly 12 cases--on V-Day, adding, "If anything is going to happen (cheating wise), it will happen on that day." On average, the cost for an investigation of an unfaithful lover is about $95.00 an hour.

One agency detective describes an investigation requested by doctor whose suspicions were aroused when his wife--also a doctor--told him she would be changing her regularly scheduled daytime shift this V-Day and would instead be working until 8 p.m. Yet another detective from a different agency says he will be following an attorney this V-Day after he was hired by the attorney's wife, who doesn't believe his story about having to cancel their annual V-Day lunch together because he'll have to be in court instead. (The wife, also an attorney, apparently knows that her husband always gets a lunch break in court, regardless of his case load.)

The lesson, then, to all you potential V-Day cheaters is be careful, this year someone just may be watching you.