Child Custody Investigations in Coral Gables, FL
You know something changed at the other house. We document what happens on those days, from our own office in the Gables, so a Miami-Dade judge sees it too.
A Judge Needs Facts, and Facts Are Hard to Get on a Street Where Everyone Knows Your Car
Miami-Dade family judges build parenting plans on the child's best interests under Chapter 61 of the Florida Statutes. The judge hears two parents describe the same weekend and has to decide which account to trust. Your description of the other household is testimony. Time-stamped video of a car pulling into the driveway at midnight and leaving at 7 a.m. is evidence.
Wasser Investigations has been headquartered at 2525 Ponce de Leon Boulevard since 1985, and Coral Gables custody cases are the ones we can reach fastest. Travis Wasser runs each case himself. We document exchanges, overnight guests, drinking on Miracle Mile or Giralda Avenue during parenting time, children left with household staff nobody checked, and school pickups that did not happen. The report follows your timesharing calendar day by day, written for a courtroom.
The Gables is a small city with long memories. Streets around the Biltmore and the canal estates off Old Cutler are quiet enough that a parked car gets a second look, and the same families see each other at church, at school and at the Country Club. We have worked these streets for forty years, and we know which ones to avoid sitting on.
Coral Gables Parents With Doubts, and Attorneys Who Need Evidence
For Parents: You Have Doubts About What Happens at the Other Home
Your child mentioned someone new who "lives there now." The exchange smelled of alcohol. The new nanny came with no references, or the other parent has started talking about a job in another state. Tell us what you have seen. We will explain what Florida law lets us document and what it does not, and if the other parent turns out to be doing fine, we will say so. That is a useful answer, and cheaper than a motion you cannot support.
For Attorneys: Footage That Holds Up in a Miami-Dade Courtroom
You get time-stamped video, photographs, a documented chain of custody and an investigator who has testified in South Florida family courts since the 1980s. We plan surveillance around the timesharing calendar and the filing you are drafting: modification, contempt, relocation objection or supervised timesharing. Our office is a few blocks from most Gables family-law practices, so a case conference does not require a phone tree.
Six Things That Change Parenting Plans
Overnight guests during timesharing
We log who arrives, when, and when they leave, and we run a background check on them. The court should know who is sleeping under the same roof as your child.
Alcohol and drug use
Drinking at a Miracle Mile restaurant or a Giralda Plaza bar during parenting time, then driving the kids home. Associates with drug histories. We record it from public property at a lawful distance.
Supervision
Children left alone in the house, handed to a housekeeper or sitter nobody vetted, or left with someone the court has already barred from contact.
Living conditions and residence
Whether the other parent actually lives at the address in the parenting plan or at a partner's place across the city, who else lives there, and who comes and goes.
Schedule compliance
Late pickups at Coral Gables Elementary, Sunset Elementary or Ponce de Leon Middle, skipped exchanges, school absences, and work claims that do not match where the car was parked.
Relocation and violation of orders
Moving boxes, a listing on the house, a lease in another county, or contact with a prohibited person. We document the early signs so your attorney can object before the move, when the court can still stop it.
Custody Surveillance on Streets Where a Parked Car Gets Noticed
Coral Gables neighborhoods are built on winding streets, dead ends and canal lots with one way in. A strange car does not blend in on Granada Boulevard at 11 p.m. So we work the route instead of the house: the school line, the drive up Ponce or down US-1, the parking garage on Miracle Mile, the restaurant on a Friday night. We rotate vehicles and positions, and we never sit on the same block twice in a row.
We never make contact with the children or the other parent, and we do not trespass. If a session becomes risky, we end it and come back another day. In a city this small, a burned surveillance becomes a story the other side tells the judge.
Your Coral Gables Custody File
- Time-stamped video and photographs from every session
- A written report organized around the timesharing calendar
- Background reports on any adult seen with your children
- Documented chain of custody for every piece of evidence
- Investigator testimony at a Miami-Dade hearing or trial, at the Children's Courthouse downtown or the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center
Questions Coral Gables Parents Ask Before Hiring Us
Is it legal to follow someone through Coral Gables?
Yes, on public roads, in parking garages and at businesses open to the public. We do not trespass on private lots, enter homes, record audio, or approach children. Private property is observed from outside it, which is why we plan around where the parent drives rather than where they live.
Will my ex know I hired an investigator?
Only you and your attorney know. We stay off the home street, rotate vehicles, and keep enough distance that neighbors and staff do not register us. In the Gables, where the same families cross paths every week, that restraint matters more than anywhere.
Do you follow my child to school?
We follow the parent. If the parent does the drop-off, we document it from a distance and stay with the parent afterward. We never approach, question or photograph children up close.
How quickly can you reach a Coral Gables address?
Minutes. Our office is on Ponce de Leon Boulevard, so a Gables exchange is usually a ten-minute drive. We are in position before the session starts, which is often the difference between footage and nothing.
What should I expect to pay?
Surveillance is billed hourly against a written estimate you approve first. Most Gables cases take two to four sessions over a few weeks, and with no travel time to speak of, the hours go to watching rather than driving. The first call costs nothing.
Find Out What Happens When the Kids Are Not With You
Call Travis Wasser at (305) 278-8700. Tell him what you have seen, and he will tell you what can be documented, how long it should take, and what it will cost.
Request a Free Consultation