It is a general belief that in a contest involving force vectors, big will overwhelm small and emerge victorious. And while this is often true, one should not bet the rent money on that outcome.

Our subject for this surveillance was big. Not fat. Big…as in big and strong. Perhaps this was the red flag raised when the subject went out on disability due to knee, shoulder, neck and extremities injuries preventing him from working.

There are times when an investigator really, really does not want to get “made” (recognized as an investigator by the subject). This was one such instance.

Our initial surveillance picked him up leaving the house and going to…aha – the gym. How else would he be able to maintain that size and slightly threatening aura?We picked him up departing from the gym, sweat stained and returning to his house. No activity thereafter so we broke off. But the breakthrough had been made – we had a likely time for visits to the gym and thus the ability to prepare for his next workout.

I visited the gym, got a temporary membership (they had a free trial offer good for a week), and got the lay of the land. I dusted off my new MP3 Player look-alike camera. And the next day I was at the gym ready for his arrival (providing he was following a regular schedule as I thought was likely).

Our subject arrived and proceeded to demonstrate to one and all the very definition of “strenuous workout.” Thank goodness there was no necessity for me to keep up with the presses, the squats, the pull ups and the crunches. I could work much less vigorous sets nearby, adjust my “MP3 player” to ensure the best video, and not even break a sweat. It is in just such a time and place that “small” can really excel and overcome the advantages of “big.” The size of the device had no adverse effect on video quality, focus or any other aspect of quality. Within 90 seconds of our subject’s departure, I knew this case was not going to pay off for our subject and might even be prosecuted. The film was excellent, our subject entirely recognizable.

Over the ensuing days we obtained more video of our very active subject – motorcycling, lifting things and generally performing the activities of the able bodied. But the visits to the gym were the best. Of course the MP3 player device does not require a gymnasium in order to operate. It will do just fine in beauty parlors, auto repair shops, malls and anywhere else that the fraudulently inclined may forget about the disabilities they have claimed or the work they have sworn they cannot do/are not doing. If the demonstration of falsity materializes, the MP3 player camera will record it, and a “big” claim will be vanquished by this small device.