The Night Owls and our licensed private investigators come from all walks of life, harboring a multitude of skills and strengths. 30+ years of experience behind us to accumulate a record trail of exceptional investigation services.
Our staff is committed to discretion, detail, and knowledge – assuring that your expectations are not only met, but go beyond measure in order to deliver the results you deserve. Each case is sheltered in 100% confidentiality with daily updates as each crevice of your case unfolds.
A background check is an inquiry into a person’s — or a business’s — past. It can be a smart and cost-effective way to learn more about an individual or a company you’re considering granting access to your professional or personal life. If someone’s past is going to become part of your future, you owe it to yourself to learn as much as you can about them.
A person’s past doesn’t necessarily predict how they’ll act going forward, and most people don’t have skeletons in their closets. But the wise course of action is to do what you can to avoid unpleasant surprises — and to keep yourself, your family, and your associates safe from the unscrupulous and worse. Our watchword applies here better than anywhere: it’s better to know.
There’s no shortage of websites promising instant background reports for a few dollars, and it’s fair to ask why you’d hire a licensed investigator instead. The answer comes down to depth, accuracy, and interpretation.
Those instant-report sites pull from automated databases that are frequently outdated, riddled with errors, and full of mismatched records — the wrong John Smith, a charge that was actually dismissed, an address from a decade ago. They return raw data with no verification and no context, and acting on bad data can be worse than having no data at all.
As licensed private investigators, we employ current techniques and professional resources to perform thorough, discreet background checks — and, crucially, we verify what we find. Our team has 30+ years of experience in this work, and as professionals we’re able to obtain and confirm information well beyond an amateur’s reach. Our clients receive a thorough, complete, and accurate report on a subject’s background, not a pile of unverified database hits to sort through themselves.
Some clients hesitate at first. Running a background check can feel indiscreet — like looking into things that aren’t your business, or plain snooping. That really isn’t the case.
People seeking access to any part of your life — your home, your children, your business, your finances — by definition open themselves to honest scrutiny. A background check is nothing more than honest scrutiny. Every check we run is conducted entirely according to established legal and ethical principles, including the requirements of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) where it applies, such as many employment and tenant screening situations. Checking before you trust isn’t paranoia. It’s prudence.
A background check can benefit you in many situations. Some of the most frequently requested investigations we perform include:
Business background checks — before a partnership, investment, or major contract
Criminal history background checks
Dating and pre-marital background checks — increasingly common in the age of online dating
Employee background checks
Nanny and caregiver background checks — for the people you trust with your children or parents
Pre-employment background checks
Tenant and landlord checks
Our background investigations routinely look into the following aspects of a subject’s life:
Current identification and residential information
Aliases and name variations
Address history
Employment history and verification
Professional license verification — State of Florida
Real estate and personal property records — county of residence
Motor vehicle records — State of Florida
Corporate and business records — State of Florida
County official records — county of residence
Civil records — county of residence and federal
Criminal records — county of residence and federal
Sex offender registry check — State of Florida
Judgments and tax liens — county of residence
Bankruptcy records
Internet and open-source search
Additional county and state searches are available at an additional charge, and international searches can be arranged as well.
Gathering records is only half the job. The other half — the part that actually protects you — is interpreting them correctly.
A criminal record isn’t always what it looks like at first glance: charges get dismissed, cases get expunged, and an arrest is not a conviction. A common name can pull up records belonging to an entirely different person. A single old incident may mean something very different from a repeated pattern. Part of what you’re paying a professional for is the judgment to tell a genuine red flag from a database artifact — so you can make your decision on facts, not on a scary-looking printout that falls apart on inspection.
Not every background check needs to go equally deep. A routine pre-employment check has a different scope than the investigation you’d want before, say, going into business with someone you met a few months ago, or before a family member marries someone no one in the family really knows.
During your consultation, we’ll talk through what you’re actually trying to learn and why, and recommend a level of investigation that matches the stakes — thorough enough to give you real confidence, without paying for depth the situation doesn’t call for.
Is a background check legal?
Yes, when conducted properly and within the applicable rules. Certain uses — employment and tenant screening in particular — are governed by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, and we conduct our checks in compliance with established legal and ethical standards.
Why not just use a cheap online report?
Those sites return unverified, frequently outdated or mismatched data with no context. We verify what we find and interpret it, which is exactly where the value is.
How much information do you need to start?
Often we can begin with as little as a name, phone number, or last known address. More detail helps, but a little goes a long way.
Can you check someone in another state or country?
Yes. Additional county, state, and international searches are available.
Will the person know I checked on them?
Our work is discreet and confidential. (Note that certain formal uses, like FCRA-governed employment screening, carry their own notice and consent requirements — we’ll advise you if your situation is one of them.)
We are here to assist you in answering questions you may have regarding individuals in your life. We can begin the search with as little as a name, phone number or last known address. To begin please call, email or submit a request form below.
Serving the entire state of Florida.
Our agents are on standby 24/7 to provide you with a detailed, comprehensive strategy for all your investigative needs.
Once retained, our investigators will be thoroughly briefed on all the details related to your case.
Our highly skilled agents will handle your matter from start to finish with the utmost professionalism while remaining 100% discreet.
At the conclusion of your case and after thorough review, our team will steer you in the right direction whether it be legal or non-legal.
