WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Kimberly Bain has no problems with the single life. When she isn’t hosting a dating dinner party, she’s pursuing one of many hobbies that makes it easy to meet someone new.
“Particularly in this town,” said Bain of West Palm Beach, “everybody knows somebody. So you can meet someone and ask around or, ’Do you know this person and what’s their story?’ And that helps.”
Still she has had her share of bad dates.
“He put down his knife and fork and looked at me and was like, You’re messed up,” said Bain. “And he just went off on this diatribe about how I’m the first woman that didn’t burn for him and want him. So that was that,” she laughed.
Then there was her pungent partner. “It wasn’t like he didn’t shower. I just think he didn’t choose to wear deodorant. So as we spent the day together and as the date progressed he got stinkier and stinkier,” said Bain.
So how does one find out more before the first date?
West Palm Beach private investigator Brad Robinson knows. His Millennium Group is often hired to check out spouses. But sometimes they do some digging before the “I dos.”
A Robinson favorite is Spokeo.com. Here he found a fiance on his way to a not so nuptial-friendly night out.
“Here’s an example of something he probably wouldn’t want his girlfriend to see,” said Robinson of a video he found on the Web site.
For a small monthly fee, Spokeo.com searches dozens of social websites for blogs, pictures and video.
“The primary interest tends to be whether there’s another significant other in the picture,” said Robinson, who said investigating a date isn’t too tricky. “People have access to information on the internet that they wouldn’t have had just a few years ago and people are making use of that.”
Investigating, whether it be of dates, elderly caregivers or nannies, Is something Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock actually recommends.
“One can get a pretty good gauge of whether or not they’re being told the truth by the person they’re dating,” Bock said. She points out that a free and easy way to get information is by searching the public records.
At MyPalmBeachClerk.com, the court’s official, civil, traffic and criminal records can be searched. There you can find out if someone is married, pays child support, is in foreclosure, has traffic tickets, misdemeanors and even felonies.
“I ended up finding out that this girl was wanted,” said Michael Curran of a girlfriend who got him fired.
Bock said MyFloridaClerks.com can help someone check all 67 Florida counties.
“By doing this extra step, I think, that for both sexes,” said Bock, “I think that you’re really just not only protecting yourself but maybe even building a more trusting relationship. If they tell you that they own a house in Palm Beach County and you see that they own the house that they’re living in, keep dating them.”
This intense digging is not for everybody. Kimberly Bain has given up those internet matchmaking sites. And while she’s not a cyber sleuth, she will do a little checking.
“I hate to admit it. Boy, this is embarrassing,” Bain said. “But you’ll check up and make sure you’re not seeing a wife’s name associated with his name.”
Yet, she still finds some intrigue in letting Cupid’s fickle arrow fall where it may.
“Here we are inundated with all this technology and all this opportunity but quite frankly, nothing beats that face to face, immediate chemistry and just reaction with the person,” said Bain.
