The Criminal Files-(Greg Berin)................The Diary of a Private Investigator

09-03-2013 at 11:00 AM

The man who perpetrated me and many others is out on the streets of St. Louis. His release that occurred on August 16th happened to be the same day I was getting on an airplane and leaving St. Louis behind. Coincidence, I don’t believe in coincidences and it was not planned that way but was the weekend that was most feasible for all parties involved. It was symbolic when all was said and done. As he was rejoining society after being locked up for 14 years realizing how valuable his freedom is, we can only hope, I was traveling to British Columbia for an extended weekend of martinis, beach, and relaxation while documenting “Mom on the Run” a “scheduled” run away for a busy mom who needed some R&R.

I began telling my story in my last posting and there were many questions that came my way that I will try to answer in this posting. In a nutshell I will tell my story in the hopes that others’ will learn from it. My story is mild if you compare it to the kidnappings and murders and the significance of my story is that #I, a Private Eye, was duped by an acquaintance who turned out to be a career criminal and in the end the Private Eye beat him at his own game. Yes, he put a knife to my neck but he was not the violent type where he left his victims physical injured that we know of. He played mind games by, among a few, manipulation, dishonesty, and in hindsight his bizarre behavior hence putting a knife to my neck just to get a reaction. What was my reaction? “Put the knife down before someone gets hurt and it won’t be me!” For some strange reason I was not afraid of him. By this time I was already investigating him and knew that he was a wanted man for a felony charge against someone he perpetrated shortly before I met him and was determined to get enough evidence and facts about the crimes he committed in order to put him behind bars for a very long time. What were the crimes he committed against people? He stole often giving what he stole to others trying to win their heart over and pawning items for cash in order to pay his bills. He broke into homes of those he knew and stole from them. He impersonated a police officer once assisting in an arrest in downtown St. Louis in a mall. He stole firearm probably to sell or to use as a form of manipulation with his victims. His bizarre behavior I believe was solely for the reaction giving him the feeling of power he felt he had over people. He played jokes on people including my family members that may have been innocent and funny at the time but until I realized who he really was I didn't realize the jokes were at our expense and for his entertainment.

It was over a month into the relationship that my sixth sense of intuition kicked in telling me something wasn’t right. The event that triggered this feeling was the fact that my grandparents were missing some jewelry from their home. Love is blind but this was enough to give me that feeling in my gut that something wasn’t right. I started to grasp at straws trying to find a reasonable explanation. I ran background checks on all the nurses and cleaning crew that worked in my grandparent’s home. It turned out that one of the nurses had a criminal history of stealing which to some degree put my mind at ease but I still had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. My assumption is that Greg got comfortable with the relationship and me and took the smoke screen down which resulted in what was the beginning of his bizarre behavior. It wasn’t until more jewelry went missing that confirmed my hunch that something wasn’t right. By this time we were planning our wedding. This is the point where I started to feel sad because I knew my dream had come to an end. My emotions were doing back flips because this is when I started to investigate my fiancé with full intentions of getting justice if this is where justice needed to be served. I thought the worst.

Two lessons to learn from this part of the story:

1. Your intuition speaks volumes and should NEVER be ignored. It may not always be right but it usually is. (Had I not listened to my instincts more damage would have been done. He would not have stopped until he was stopped.)

2. If something seems too good to be true it usually is. (I was 32 years old looking for Mr. Right. All of the elements were there for a successful relationship and my search was over. I was looking forward to marriage and starting a family. Everything was perfect.) (HINT: There is no such thing as perfect. That was the part that was too good that ended up not being true)

COMING UP: The investigation

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